AT LUNCH, PAM FOUND me in the lunch line, as I tried to figure out why I wasn’t bringing my own lunch. They had some foul-smelling greens which had been boiled to within an inch of their life. In the next trough was Spam loaf. Their meatloaf was bad enough, but to make it with Spam? The third trough was empty. It must have been better than the first two because it was gone. I guessed it was peanut butter and apples again. I walked down the line and picked up several apples.
I shuddered when Pam got the loaf option. The girl must have a death wish. She guided me to a table where we could have some privacy.
“Are you really going to eat that?” I asked.
“Why, do you want to trade?” she asked as she took a bite.
She made a face and then stole one of my apple slices. There was no use fighting her over it. I just chopped up another apple and gave it to her.
“How’s Tracy doing?” I asked, feeling guilty that I hadn’t been to visit her.
“Much better now that they have her medication fixed. You should go to her house for dinner some evening. She misses you.”
“Maybe once finals are over. I miss her mom’s cooking, and Tracy.”
The conversation slowed down and we ate our apples. Pam finally decided to tell me why we were eating lunch together.
“Are you dating Peggy again?”
“No, we’re just friends.”
“Why did she spend the night with you last night?”
“She has some problems in her personal life and needed someone to talk to.”
“Okay, I guess. What’s going on with you and Harper?”
I had a feeling this was going somewhere I wasn’t going to like.
“She’s no longer my girlfriend, but we’re still friends.”
“What about the girl you took to Prom?”
“Sarah and I are friends. Did you want to ask about Mona?”
She blushed and looked at me for an answer.
“Friends. Is there a point to all this?” I asked.
“Tracy wanted to be absolutely clear you were not in a relationship with anyone,” Pam explained.
“I’m almost scared to ask this, but why?”
“Because Mike is dating Gina, Jeff is with Cassidy, Wolf is seeing April, Jim is going out with Piper. That leaves just you and Tim who are currently acceptable to all the girls and are not dating anyone.”
“Does Tim need to be part of this conversation?” I asked, being a smartass.
“Please,” Pam said.
I sent him a text. He came over and sat down.
“What’s up, slut? I hear you’re poaching girls who have boyfriends now,” Tim teased me.
“Tell Gina I’m coming after her next.”
“I think Jeff’s more worried you’ll be after Cassidy.”
“Do I look like I have a death wish?” I asked Tim.
Pam cleared her throat.
“I think we’re in trouble again,” I informed Tim.
We both looked at Pam.
“You’re both invited to Tracy’s lake house this weekend.”
“This sounds like fun. Tracy has a boat. We could go water skiing,” I told Tim.
“You could bring your new toy,” Tim said.
“Good call. My brother can’t come and hog all the fun, since he has the new baby.”
“So you guys’ll come?” Pam asked.
We both nodded.
“Oh, and you can’t tell anyone about it,” Pam added.
We had visions of water sports all weekend. We even planned to bring our fishing poles. Tim agreed we should keep our trip quiet because it meant more time on the jet water board for each of us.
AFTER SCHOOL, CASSIDY and I rolled out a wrestling mat so we could spar. We had just gotten ready to have a little fun when Mitch came storming in.
“What did you do to Peggy?” he huffed.
“I listened to her.”
“That couldn’t have been all. She broke up with me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said.
I must not have sounded sincere, because he wanted to punch me again.
“Before you get your ass kicked, why don’t you watch Cassidy and me spar for a minute and then decide if you’re man enough,” I warned him.
Cassidy must have been intent on what Mitch and I were saying and wasn’t paying attention because she about shit when I tossed her on her ass. My little ninja recovered and we went at it furiously for a minute. I then turned to see Mitch try to sucker-punch me. I ducked, and Cassidy snatched his fist out of the air and used his momentum to toss him with serious intent. I jumped on him and with my knees pinned his shoulders to the ground. Mitch’s eyes went wide when he figured out I could hold him in place and turn his face into a punching bag.
“Please,” he begged.
“Are you going to do right by her?” I asked.
“You know?”
“I know,” I confirmed.
His face scrunched up and he began to cry. My desire to kick his butt left me. I let Mitch up and he ran from the gym. Cassidy gave me a funny look.
“I can never get them to cry just by talking to them.”
I smiled at her.
“The student becomes the teacher,” I teased her.
I admit it, I had tears in my eyes two seconds later. She concluded her method was easier.
Friday May 15
TODAY WAS A HALF DAY. We would get our test scores and then be free for the summer. I was happy to report I’d gotten straight A’s again. The class rankings showed Jeff had edged Alan out of the top spot. Gina was fourth and I was fifth. Mike was now in the seventh spot. If I didn’t take AP (Advanced Placement) classes, I would slip in the class rankings next year.
Coach Hope had sent me a message to meet him in his office right after school about this summer. When I arrived, I was directed to the conference room. I found the coaching and training staff along with Tim, Jim and Alan.
“I’m sure we’re all on the same page as far as wanting to win our second State Championship,” Coach said to our nodding heads.
“I want to avoid a repeat of last year’s fiasco where we had, in essence, two separate teams. I think in a large part it was due to not working out as a team. I’ve made arrangements to have the facilities here open all summer. The school is going to pay the coaches and trainers to be here to supervise your activities. I asked the training staff to join us to talk to you about strength and conditioning.”
With that, Coach turned the meeting over to Jill.
“I was asked by Coach Hope to come up with strength and conditioning programs for everyone. Coach Stevens and the strength coach at State have helped design a program for each position’s needs. I’ve also talked to Bo Harrington, David’s quarterback coach, and he’s helped me quite a bit.
“My plan is to use Monday and Tuesday to get the varsity started. The rest of the week will be for the JV and the freshmen coming in,” Jill said and then sat down.
Coach Diamond stood up and went to the front.
“We’re going to change the offense. David talked to the coaching staff at Kentucky and they had some interesting ideas. What it boils down to is the triple option, run from the shotgun.”
“How are we supposed to defend against that?” Tim asked.
“Exactly! This offense will take time to learn, but with these new tools I think we can pick it up quickly. Speaking of which, Alan, show them what we have.”
Alan turned on the big-screen TV and it showed what was on his tablet.
“David asked a few of us to either create or find software for football. We ended up finding a product I think you’ll all like. The playbook can be searched by specific play or you can look at it by formation,” Alan told us as he opened the Playbook portion of the software.
Alan opened a basic ‘I’ formation and then selected the play ‘Dive.’ On the screen it showed a typical playbook representation of the blocking assignments and where the runner was supposed to go. On the right there were boxes with different defensive formations. Alan switched from the current display of a four-three defense—four linemen and three linebackers—to a five-two formation. Now it showed how the play should be run against that defensive alignment.