Several of the football players showed up with their dates. Bill came in last. All the guys except Alan, Jeff, Jim and Wolf made their appearance and then left for Bill’s brother’s party. Bill had been getting reports from his brother that said there was a 2 to 1 girl-to-guy ratio. They were all eager to get drunk and get lucky. I thought they were all idiots because you just didn’t do that to your prom date.
I went over to the champagne and started opening bottles. Tracy came in with Lily and her date. Tracy helped me hand out the champagne. She found my shirt and made me put it back on because Wolf’s date, Diane, couldn’t keep her eyes off of me. We had other couples who were staying at the hotel join us for a while. Word had gotten out that we were having a nice time. By one o’clock, the crowd had thinned out.
By one-thirty, it was just Eve, Beth, Cindy, Suzanne and Tracy. It was nice to spend time with them all. I felt bad about Bill and their dates going to a fraternity party.
“Are you okay about your dates?” I asked.
“At least our dates made it to the dance,” Eve teased me.
She had me there. We kicked back, drank the rest of the champagne and talked. Eve told everyone about her music plans. Beth, Suzanne and Cindy gave us an update on college. Tracy just took it all in. They asked me about what all I was doing this summer. I felt a little sad that this might be the last time all of us would be together like this.
Monday May 5
BY THE TIME I MADE it to school on Monday, there was lots of news. The first was Haley’s tirade had blown up on YouTube. My comment about ‘Thank God that date is over’ was receiving the majority of the comments, and Lily told me 90% were in my favor.
The second was my confirmation of Adrienne having my love child. Lily was monitoring my Twitter account, and I had girls offering to show me the ‘natural’ way to do it. Adrienne had called me on Sunday and asked if this was revenge for standing me up. I told her karma was a bitch. I guess she was being hounded by the press. One of the tabloids offered to pay her a fortune for an exclusive baby-bump picture.
I got to my locker and found Cassidy there with a stupid grin on her face. I looked down to make sure my fly was up.
“You’re off the hook for Saturday. Wolf and Diane are going out with us. I really like them.”
I looked crushed. In reality, I was doing a little happy dance inside because I’d forgotten to tell them I was going to Wesleyan this weekend. I grabbed my books and went to class, leaving Cassidy with a confused look on her face.
BY LUNCH, THE RUMOR mill had spit out that Jim and Cassidy were mad at me. I went through the lunch line and got two to-go lunches. They always had a small supply of bag lunches. Mostly teachers grabbed them and ate in the teacher’s lounge. When it got nice out, a lot of kids took advantage.
I was meeting Suzanne in one of the tutoring rooms because I was struggling with my English Composition paper. There were problems with how the story flowed. She said she’d help me organize it so it made more sense.
“Why are you and Jim fighting?” she asked me.
“I swear, this school is a soap opera. Cassidy told me this morning that she and Jim preferred to go out with Wolf and Diane this Saturday. I just acted like my feelings were hurt and went to class. I’d actually like to go on dates without doubling, so it really was no big deal. I just acted like my feelings were hurt to yank Cassidy’s chain.”
“I think I’ll have to give my little brother a piece of my mind. It’s good for him to squirm a little,” she said as she patted my hand. “Then I’ll tell him you’re okay with how everything turned out.”
I would miss Suzanne a lot. She fixed my paper in about five minutes. She pointed out a couple of things that would change it from an A/B paper to a solid A. We talked the rest of the lunch hour. There was only a week until finals, so the study groups were hitting it heavy this week. Workouts had been suspended to make sure everyone had plenty of time to prepare.
AFTER SCHOOL AND WORKING with my study groups, I called Bo Harrington. He had asked me to call him once baseball was over so I could start focusing on football.
“This is Bo.”
“Hey, Bo, it’s David Dawson. I finished baseball. You said to call you when I was done.”
“Good. Now it’s time to get serious about football. I’m going to email you a high-protein diet to make you lean and promote muscle growth. I’m also going to send you a list of supplements I want you taking.”
“I’m already taking some supplements I got from my nutritionist.”
“Good. Send me the list and I’ll check it out with my guy. We’re going to build you up the right way. Too many kids these days think they need to take shortcuts. All they’re doing is messing up their bodies in the end. I also want you to work with a speed coach. He can make you more explosive and teach you how to run the right way. Do you have anyone you can throw to?”
“Yeah, I’m working out with a group of my teammates.”
“Good, share with them the material I’m sending you. We can make them better football players. I want you to start throwing every day. Get out my video on the fundamentals of throwing. Watch the stationary drills. I want you to focus on that this week. This will work best if you have another quarterback and two receivers. Watch it, you’ll see what I mean. Call me if you have any questions.”
We talked about how he saw my workouts progressing and what he wanted me to accomplish at each of the camps. When we were done, I watched the DVD he had left me. What he called ‘stationary throwing’ was just pitch and catch. The focus was on good technique. Repetition builds muscle memory.
I called Mike, Wolf and Bill and told them what we were doing in the morning and the rest of the week. I also called Coach Hope and sent him what Bo was suggesting to get ready for the fall. We talked for nearly an hour about how best to incorporate it into our program for the summer. Our biggest concern was that a high-protein diet and the supplements weren’t cheap. He wanted to talk to the training staff and get some alternative plans to fit this into a family budget.
I was of the belief that if you wanted it bad enough, you’d find a way to get the money. Nothing said a high school kid couldn’t get a summer job. Coach couldn’t be that blunt with them, though.
My next call was to Mary, Tracy’s mom. I talked to her about recipes for the high-protein diet. She had some ideas on how to poach chicken and turkey breasts to keep them moist and give them flavor. Once they were cooked, they could be chopped, shredded, or kept whole. She had a bunch of ideas and promised to send them to me.
I went downstairs and found Mom and Angie in the kitchen. When I explained that I was going on a high-protein, low-carb diet and that it would get rid of body fat. Well, the girls loaded me into the car and we went shopping. I’d forgotten that the women wanted to look their best for an upcoming wedding.
I told Mom to call my gym and get guest passes on my account for her and Angie. They charged me a discounted rate for the guest passes. I suggested that they should do Pilates if they really wanted to get the inches off. I even suggested that Greg and Dad might want to try it. I would just have to be out of the country when they got home. If they could move, they’d kill me.
Chapter 32 – I Hope You Saved Me a Dance
Saturday May 10
GREG AND MOM DROVE me to Wesleyan. They were going to my grandma’s for the weekend to help her clean out some of Granddad’s stuff. He had been a collector. Greg was going to help her put the big stuff on Craig’s List and the stuff that could be shipped on eBay. Mom just wanted to make sure her mother was doing okay.