When dinner was ready, the three in the office came out and joined us. No one seemed upset, so we just had a family dinner. I told everyone about the blog and my being crowned a douche. I would have thought my own family would defend me, but I was sadly mistaken.
After dinner, Yuri and Jan left.
“Is everything okay?” I asked Uncle John.
“Everything’s good. I told Yuri to talk to his family about Jan and to come to you if he needed help. They both have my number.”
I just nodded and went to my apartment with my trusty hound. I noticed Duke had his ball with him. We made a pit stop in the backyard so I could throw it for him. When we got upstairs, he showed me he needed fresh water by stepping on the edge of his bowl and spilling it all over the floor. Duke had graduated to a bowl several months ago, but I considered whether he should go back to his giant gerbil bottle. At least with that, he couldn’t spill it. He then conned me into putting ice cubes in his bowl. Duke had me so well trained, it wasn’t funny.
I was reading for my art class when he decided to be brave and join me on the couch. I tried to push him off, but that had the predictable effect it does on all Labs: if you push them away, they think you don’t love them anymore. You must instantly allow them on your lap for attention. I gave up and let Duke lie down beside me as I rubbed him all over and read my homework. Getting a dog had been one of the best things I’d ever done.
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Chapter 6 – That’s Why We Play These Games Monday November 9
I arrived at school, probably the most rested I’d been in weeks. Not going on a recruiting trip made me realize how much I’d run around this fall. I smiled when Tracy and Pam were waiting for me in the parking lot. I winked at Pam, then wrapped Tracy in my arms and kissed her with some passion. If we hadn’t had the history we had, I would love to be with her. She and I had made a good team, and the sexual side was top notch.
I laughed at Pam when we finally let each other go.
“Me next,” she announced and about knocked Tracy down so I could kiss her.
I wondered if the parking lot was considered school property because I was just about to break every PDA rule they had. While I kissed Pam, I heard Cassidy.
“Is he giving out kisses?”
“Oh, yes, and they’re good ones,” Tracy said.
“Quit hogging him. I want a turn before the bell rings,” Cassidy complained.
Pam pulled her face away from me and stuck her tongue out at Cassidy. I decided that I’d better protect my baby mama and let Pam go and pulled Cassidy in for her turn.
“David!” boomed Coach Hope’s voice.
Cassidy reacted by grabbing my head and holding it in place. I peeked over her shoulder, and Coach was stomping over. When he got close, I picked Cassidy up and held her like a shield between her dad and me. I noticed Pam and Tracy had bailed.
“Morning, Coach,” I said.
“Get to class, Dawson. You, come with me,” Coach told Cassidy.
“He was giving out kisses, and I wanted a turn,” I heard Cassidy say. I decided I might want to jog to class!
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The football team was called to the gym during first period. All the coaches were there, and we sat in the bleachers. I also saw some press in the gym for the announcement. Phil sat next to me, so I assumed he was no longer mad at me. Wolf sat on my other side.
“I see you have your mini-me with you,” he teased.
“Settle down,” Coach Hope called out. “We’ve received the pairings for the first playoff game. They’re making us go on the road to play Nazareth Academy. They’re a Catholic college-preparatory school. We’ll need to be focused to beat them, and we only have two days to prepare. So, I want you all to be ready to go this afternoon.”
We had all heard of Nazareth. They were supposed to be the best team in the northern part of the state. I was surprised we’d get such a good opponent for the first game. I guess I would never understand how they ranked the teams and decided who got the home game. As the top seed, we should have been at home throughout the playoffs, but that wasn’t how they did it.
“I also have the All-Conference Team. We had several players make first team. On offense, Jim Ball, Johan Bauer, Wolf Tams, and Ty Wilson were honored. Bryan and Brock Callahan were second-team winners. Roc Pearson was named offensive freshman of the year. On defense, Yuri Antakov, Johan Bauer, and Brock Callahan made first team. Bryan Callahan made second team. On special teams, Derek Hofmann was named first-team punter and placekicker, and Ty Wilson won for kick returns,” Coach announced.
Everyone’s eyes turned to me because my name hadn’t been called. I was surprised to realize this meant as much as it did to me. Despite my disappointment, I started to clap for the winners, and everyone joined in. I was glad my teammates had been recognized for their efforts. When the clapping had died down, Coach continued.
“The conference decided to do something different this year. They’ve named a Conference MVP, and that person is our very own David Dawson,” Coach said, and everyone began to clap.
I could tell the coaching staff had planned this little deception, and I decided there’d be payback at some point. Then Jim was called up front.
“We have some good news on the recruiting front: Jim Ball has accepted an offer to play for the Alabama Crimson Tide.”
Jeff tried to ambush me for an interview, but I hip-checked Jim in front of him. I wanted Jim to have his big moment.
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That afternoon we watched game film of Nazareth Academy, and I got an uneasy feeling in my stomach. They had two defensive ends who were undersized, but cat-quick. I watched as bigger, stronger offensive tackles were consistently beaten by these two terrors. It’s hard to run your offense if you have one, let alone two, defenders in your backfield and causing chaos. They’d lost three games to much larger schools but had been in all of them.
In a lot of ways, Nazareth reminded me of us last year. They were a tenacious group that never seemed to give up. The difference between last year and this, for us, was we now absolutely knew we would win, and we had a year of experience under our belts. We’d proven that we had the heart of a champion when we’d beaten King. That belief could carry you a long way and help you overcome any obstacle. That was why I knew we could overcome Nazareth Academy.
We only had today and tomorrow to practice, so the coaches took us out to the field. We ran around in shorts and t-shirts to walk through the plays we would focus on against our first opponent. I felt great because I’d had an extra day to recover. I’d needed it because of the pounding Todd had put on me.
When we were done, I felt we would be able to win against Nazareth without too much trouble. It would depend on how well we handled their defensive ends. If we couldn’t block them, it would be a long night for me. While I loved to create and avoid rushes, it wasn’t how you wanted to structure a game plan.
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After practice, Brook, Cassidy, and I drove to the dojo. In the school parking lot, I saw Yuri and Jan. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out that she could chauffeur him around. Cassidy and Brook played rock, paper, scissors to see who’d claim shotgun. I tossed Brook the keys when she won.
“You drive,” I said as I climbed into the back seat.
I had a message from Tyler to call her. She’d received my contract from Saul Gessler to be my acting agent. I’d gone with AT Modeling as my modeling representative in part because Tyler would be my entertainment lawyer and would review all of my modeling and acting contracts. Ms. Dixon was still on retainer for most anything else. If she couldn’t handle something, her firm was large enough to have whomever I might need for any particular facet of law. A good example would have been if the mess with Pam had dragged on and we would have gone to court. Then Ms. Dixon would have stepped aside, and a Family Law specialist would have stepped in. The great thing about it for Ms. Dixon was that her firm knew she was the one who’d brought me in as a client. As a result, she was in charge of my account.