I saw Kendal come in. She saw me and came over.
“Hey, Boss-man.”
“Hey Kendal, when was the last time you were at a high school dance?”
“I don’t even know.” She looked around lost in her thoughts of dances past and then she turned back to all business. “We don’t have to do a conference call tomorrow. Coach Lambert wants you to come in at ten to let the trainers work on you. There’s no practice with Bo, so once you get done with the trainers you’re free for the day.”
“How did it go with the recruiters?”
“Interest is through the roof. Hey, your dates are coming back.” I could see them entering the gym. “Good game tonight. I talked to several of the scouts after the game. They opened my eyes as to how good you are. I mean, I could tell you were a man among boys today, but they’re thinking you have the potential to be one of the best. That’s why they want to get in early. They know that when you’re a senior, it might be too late to build a relationship.”
I didn’t know what to say. I guess I never thought in those terms. My focus had been on getting better so I wouldn’t let the team down. I had ignored all the praise because I felt it was a distraction, but the jerk reporter’s comments, and now Kendal’s, made me wonder how good I might become. I knew that was the wrong way to look at things. Pride was one of the seven deadly sins. That wasn’t what I was working so hard for.
“Kendal, one of the things you need to know about me is that I’m very competitive, but I’m not doing all this just for me. Tracy and I have worked hard not only to get me a scholarship, but the other guys as well. Of course I want to be the best I can be. I work hard at that, but the reason I have that goal is for the betterment of the team. People lose focus that football’s a team sport.”
“The guy from Alabama was talking about you being too unselfish. They said you shouldn’t have pitched the ball to Luke. They said it hurt your running stats.”
I laughed.
“If they’d argued it was stupid because of ball security, I would understand. I mean, I might’ve blown the pitch and we could’ve turned the ball over. I should’ve pitched him the ball when the defensive end had me in his sights. It was selfish of me to want to put a hit on him. I’m not perfect. I really wanted to take him out of the game, because I was mad about the cheap shot he took. I think I knew that once we broke into the open, and that’s why I pitched the ball.”
Kendal shook her head.
“I forget you’re only fifteen and have the weight of the world on your shoulders. When I was your age I was worried if Danny Ellis liked me or not. You have people pulling at you all the time.”
“I can only do what I can do. That’s why I’ve turned the circus aspect of this over to you. I go to school and play football. Every once in a while I try to be a kid and have fun. Speaking of which, I’m at my Homecoming Dance, talking to you.”
“I hear you. Go have fun.”
I got serious for a moment.
“Kendal, I’m scared to death. If it wasn’t for people like you, I could never do this. I want you to know I appreciate everything. Please let everyone that helped know.”
“You got it, Boss.”
Cindy and Suzanne came up and gave me a kiss. We decided to mingle. We ran in different circles and we wanted to have time to see our friends. I went to find Jeff and Alan. I eventually found them at one of the back tables. I should have known that they would gravitate to the edge of the action. No freshman wanted to draw too much attention to themselves.
Alan was with Gina. They made such a strange pair, but they seemed happy. To my surprise, Jeff had a date that he was currently ignoring. She didn’t look happy. I caught his eye and he got up so we could talk. I lit into him as soon as he got close.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
He got defensive.
“What crawled up your ass? What are you talking about?”
He had a right to be pissed, but he was blowing it with his date.
“Why’re you ignoring your date?
He threw his hands up.
“She’s being a whiny baby.”
I looked out of the corner of my eye and Gina and Alan were joining us. Alan couldn’t help but put his two cents in.
“He’s right, she is being whiny.”
I could see Gina give him a skeptical look.
“Okay, I’m going to explain something to you two. This is something that Greg taught me.” That got their attention. Something coming from me about girls and dating they would probably ignore. If it came from Greg, the legend in their minds, then I was sharing a treasured secret. “This date is not about how you feel about your date. What’s her name, anyways?”
Jeff looked as confused as Alan did. I could see a twinkle in Gina’s eye.
“Her name’s Sally. Why don’t my feelings matter?” Jeff asked.
“Let me ask you a simple question. Do you want your next date to be after you graduate from high school?”
Jeff blew up.
“What are you talking about?”
I allowed myself a little smile. I turned to Gina.
“Gina, I need a woman’s viewpoint. Do freshman girls talk to each other about the guys they date?”
“Yes, they do.”
“If one of your sisterhood has a terrible time on a date, are they likely to go out with the guy that showed that girl a bad time?”
“No, they won’t.”
“Even if the girl in question was... what did you call her? Oh, yeah... whiny... and that was the reason the guy treated her badly?”
“Wouldn’t matter, the guy would look like a jerk.”
I turned to a stunned Jeff.
“This date is not about you. This date is about how all the other girls are going to look at you. This is about you getting dates in the future.” I could see I had his attention. “Greg told me that on my first date with Tina that even if I had a bad time I had to make sure that she had a good time, so you suck it up and go pay attention to your date. She came to a dance with you, she got dressed up, and her friends are all jealous, so get your butt out there and dance.”
He just nodded at me. It took him a moment to gather himself and he went over to the table where Sally was. We could see that she hadn’t bought what he told her. After several minutes, we could see them both smile and he led her out to the dance floor.
I turned to Alan, who looked at me weird, so I made a motion with my chin to the dance floor and his eyes got big. I knew that Alan was terrified of dancing. I also knew he was more scared of messing up the best thing that ever happened to him, i.e. Gina. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the dance floor. She turned back to me and mouthed ‘Thank you.’
I went in search of more of my friends. I found the freshman football players all at a couple of tables. Bert, Mike and Tim were with their dates at one of the tables. They had an empty seat, so I sat down and shot the shit with them. Mike gave me a hard time about slumming it by hanging out with them. Since they gave me a hard time, I started to ask their dates to dance. After the second one, Mike and Tim threatened to tackle me. We all had a good time.
The rest of the night I found myself on the dance floor with a string of girls, many of whom I barely knew, but I think the guys had orchestrated the string of dance partners to keep me away from their dates. To tell you the truth, I didn’t care why they did it. Right before it was time to announce the Homecoming King and Queen, my dates found me and saved me. I could tell that Suzanne was upset, but Cindy gave me a look to let me know we’d talk about it later.
Last year’s King and Queen were on hand to pass their crowns on. Of course, Bryan was the previous King. He kept glancing over at Cindy, I wrapped my arm around her waist, and she gave me a strained smile of thanks. I expected one of my dates would be the Queen, but I was pleasantly surprised when they announced Beth and Gary as this year’s royalty. I felt bad for Beth, because when everyone voted they thought they were a couple.