“Don’t worry, Cadillac, we’ll find something to tease you about before camp is over,” I said.
“I’m not Cadillac,” Tim sputtered.
“I like your new nickname,” Roland said with a big grin.
Poor Tim knew if he complained too much, it would stick. As far as nicknames go, I thought it was a good one.
“How y’all doing?” came a sexy Southern voice.
Roland, Tim, and I all about got whiplash turning to see if the voice fit. Oh, my! She had long curly blond hair and the bluest eyes I had ever seen. I almost chuckled when I saw her in a red polo shirt that was unbuttoned as far as it would go. What made me want to chuckle was she wore a pearl necklace. It was hard not to notice she filled out her polo shirt quite nicely. She was wearing a name tag that said ‘Ashley.’
Roland stepped between Tim and me. I thought the elbow wasn’t necessary.
“Bonjour, Ashley,” he said, slipping back into his French-Cajun accent.
I was impressed when he kissed her hand. I saw Ashley liked it by how much she blushed and giggled. Poor Roland was going to meet with a nasty accident before the day was out.
Then Tim did his whole ‘Aw shucks, ma’am’ cowboy swagger routine, which must work in Dallas. Flee and I were standing back, silently laughing at the two of them. Ashley saw us and gave us the evil eye.
“What’s so funny, boys?” Ashley asked.
“I have a girlfriend,” Flee blurted.
“What’s your story, Handsome?” she asked me.
Hearing her call me ‘Handsome’ gave me goosebumps. There’s just something about a refined Southern woman. Ashley seemed well-bred.
“We were just wondering what a sophisticated woman, such as yourself, would be doing hanging around a bunch of jocks,” I said.
“Well, sir, even sophisticated women like the company of a rough-and-tumble gentleman every now and then,” Ashley said with a smirk.
“I had no idea a woman of your obvious breeding would consider spending time with the likes of us. I offer my protection,” I said as I offered her my arm.
Tim and Roland were both glaring at me. Ashley was charged with showing us to our dorm rooms. At least we didn’t have four to a room this time. Tim and I were assigned to share a room, with Flee and Roland next door. On our walk over to the dorm, I tried to get a date, to the annoyance of the other two single guys.
“I hate to impose, but as I’m not from around here, I was wondering if you might be inclined to show me what the fine town of Tuscaloosa has to offer.”
“Why, sir, you are very forward,” she said, falling into her best Southern belle impersonation. All she needed was a fan to cool her face and a giant hoopskirt.
“I’m afraid I must be. With so many rascals vying for your attention, and us only having a short amount of time, I must be bold or forever be disappointed.”
“What about your friends?” she asked.
I almost said they could go jump in a lake for all I cared, but bit my tongue.
“Do you think you could find suitable companions for my two friends?”
She looked them over.
“I might be able to convince two young ladies to join us. What do you have planned for our entertainment?” she asked.
“When are we done today?” I asked Flee.
“Six.”
“Could I suggest we go to dinner, and then I would need some guidance for the rest of the evening.”
“Shall I make reservations for seven-thirty, then?” she asked.
I looked at the guys, and they all nodded.
“Yes, ma’am, I would appreciate your help with that. How should we work this? Do you want to meet us at the dorm, or should we walk over to your place? I would hate to presume,” I explained.
Since we had just met, I didn’t want her worrying we knew where they lived. The other problem was we had no transportation. She agreed to meet us in the lobby at seven and then went to help other campers find their rooms.
Flee and I were walking to the football field with Tim and Roland lagging behind.
“Nice save, getting them dates,” he said.
“I could see we were going to be fighting over Ashley if I didn’t.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t pull out your ‘I’m a movie star’ shtick. That would have shut them down.”
“What makes you think Ashley didn’t know who we were?” I asked.
“I hadn’t even thought of that.”
“She did go out with me without much trouble. Even with my superpowers, it usually takes more than a few moments to get a girl like her to go on a date with me. You did notice the pearls, right?”
“She certainly was dressed to impress. I thought she looked very nice in her Dockers,” Flee said.
“I didn’t even notice,” I admitted.
“I noticed your eyes never left her chest,” he teased.
I just blushed because he was right. I hadn’t paid attention to anything below her chest.
“She doesn’t have a big butt, does she?” I said in mock horror.
“You’re such a pig. I think that’s why I like you,” Flee admitted.
We traded barbs until we got to camp.
I THINK ALL THESE CAMPS must get their itinerary from Camps-R-Us. We began by doing the same drills designed to find out our abilities. We were also measured and weighed. I guess if the process wasn’t broke, why change it?
I made a point to encourage other campers during our drills. My three compatriots noticed and joined me. I figured the Alabama camp was a good test run for when we went to Elite 11. I just treated the other campers like I would any of my teammates back home. It wasn’t like we’d be going head-to-head on the football field anytime soon.
It became obvious we were being looked at seriously when we were always singled out to demonstrate something. While one of us demonstrated, the other three would be helping the other campers. This didn’t mean we ignored our own performances; we also had to produce in each drill.
Someone else who didn’t go unnoticed was Bo Harrington. He had originally been asked to be a camp counselor but changed his mind when I was selected to Elite 11. He was following me around with a video camera to record everything I was doing. We’d gotten permission for him to video since he was my personal coach. I was really looked at funny when we started doing passing drills and Bo put a GoCam on my head. One of the Alabama coaches pulled us aside between turns.
“Coach Peters, offensive coordinator for Alabama. May I ask what the camera on the head is for?”
“I want to see what he sees when he goes through his progressions,” Bo explained.
“I’m intrigued by what you’re doing. Do you think you could show us?”
“How about we get together before camp starts tomorrow? That’ll give me a chance to break down some plays. I need to review them with David anyway,” Bo said.
“Will it be on a laptop?” Coach Peters asked.
“Yes, we could hook it into your video system, if you want.”
“Perfect. You’re up, David.”
I hurried back for my turn, did my read progression, and made the appropriate throw.
BY THE END OF PRACTICE, I was sweating like crazy. The weather was a little different in Alabama. It felt like I was in a sauna in the afternoon sun. It was 92° and felt like 90% humidity. The good news was I wasn’t going to tighten up in this heat and humidity. The key was keeping hydrated. A few of the campers ended up getting cramps.
During camp, I had one of those ‘aha!’ moments, and felt stupid after I’d had it because I should have figured it out sooner. The reason Tim looked so smooth in his footwork was that it was almost like he was dancing. Once it clicked, I found I was more at ease and my own footwork improved. Sometimes just thinking of something in a different way was all it took to get it.
Bo noticed right away, but we kept quiet about it. Some things were needed for competitive advantage.
THE GIRLS SHOWED UP, and both Flee and Candy were trying not to laugh when they saw me check out Ashley’s butt. She had a very cute butt. I noticed these girls were all wearing Zeta Tau Alpha, or ZTA, polo shirts. We had dates with sorority girls.