“Are you sure? I’m not in the business of acting. It was just luck that I know Lori Winnick and she likes me. I’m not sure that’s true.”
“You might be right, but I’m afraid of what it’ll do to you. This is something completely different from football and modeling,” Uncle John told me.
“I would completely agree if I was living out on the left coast, but I’m living in the Midwest.”
“Look, David, ultimately, you have to decide. I just want to warn you that your life may not be your own after this.”
I thanked my uncle and then got off the phone. I thought about it for all of two seconds. I was doing this. I had a fleeting memory of Tami telling me not to go with my first reaction, but this was too good to pass up.
“Let’s do this,” I told everyone.
Dad gave me a skeptical look.
“My brother and I talked today. I didn’t think you’d be swayed by the loss of privacy argument. I, on the other hand, am your father. It’s my job to look out for you, regardless of what you want. I have some concerns. The major one is that you’ll be missing too much school. We may have to pull you out of school in the spring if you were to do the movie. I don’t think that would be a good idea.
“I was originally under the impression that this would be shooting in the summer. This would be much more acceptable if I knew it was during your free time.”
I thought about what he said, but I still wanted to do it.
“Dad, let me ask you something: when was the last time you just knew something was right?”
He smiled before answering.
“When I asked your mother to marry me.”
“Did you need to think about it, or did you just know?” I asked.
“I knew.”
“I know I can work through any obstacles. I know my grades will not be affected; I won’t let them. I also know that Lincoln High will work with us on this.”
Dad could see my passion and just nodded. He and Kendal signed the contract. Kendal put it into a folder and packed up.
“I need to go scan this and email it to the studio. By the way, your name is David A. Dawson.”
“I was hoping for something like Fox Hunter.”
Mom smacked me in the back of my head.
“You’re not a porn star,” Dad scolded me.
KYLE’S BIRTHDAY WAS a success. He got all sugared-up and was a little monster just before he suddenly ran down and collapsed on the floor, falling asleep. Mac used him as a pillow. I could already see that they were going to be friends for a long time.
Angie caught my eye and motioned me over.
“David, I want you to meet Crystal. She’s this year’s recipient of your scholarship.”
Crystal was very pregnant, and all smiles. I knew that could change at any moment. I had survived Angie being pregnant.
Angie had made a choice this year just to help one girl. She had the money to send either three to school, or one with all their expenses taken care of. She’d decided to help one girl who needed housing, daycare and schooling. I’d read the bio on Crystal. She was seventeen and her parents had disowned her. She was a senior in high school and had decided to take the GED. She was currently in classes to help her pass the test, as well as childcare classes. Next semester she’d be enrolled in a two-year program at the junior college. Crystal wanted to be a hairdresser.
Angie’s goal was to help one new girl a year. She had plans to do some on-campus fundraising to get enough for another girl next year. Kendal was also helping write grant proposals for both state and federal funds. If that happened, Angie could dream bigger.
Mom was also starting small with her cancer foundation. She was working to help families with cancer victims. Her charity did things like give them gas money so they could travel to see their loved ones. Nothing huge, but sometimes a little help went a long way. Kendal was also helping her write grant proposals.
PEGGY AND I WERE READY to go when my phone rang. It was the girl who’d borrowed my car.
“This is David.”
“Hi. I have some bad news. Your car’s been stolen.”
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes. The police want to talk to you,” she said.
I told them about the tracker, and how to log in to find the Jeep’s location. This started a four-hour ordeal that found three college boys joyriding in my Jeep. It turned out that one of them was the roommate’s boyfriend and the roommate had given them the keys.
Greg took Peggy home for me while Mom and Dad took me to the police station. Since the Jeep was in my company’s name, I had to have Dad fill out the complaint, as he was president of my company. This requirement about having to be of age sometimes sucked.
I then had to give a statement as to why the girl had my keys. They were not very hopeful that anyone would be charged with anything. I had voluntarily given the girl my keys. The boyfriend claimed he’d just borrowed the car from his girlfriend. He had no idea she didn’t have permission to loan it out. The girl I’d given it to had called the police before her roommate had confessed who had the car.
The only damning thing that might stick was that they tried to evade the police. It was enough for the police to arrest the three men and the girlfriend and hold them overnight. They suspected the DA would decide not to charge them since the case would fall apart as soon as a good defense attorney got hold of it.
It doubly sucked for me. Besides my mom giving me an earful about being too trusting, they were keeping my Jeep as evidence for now. We didn’t get home till nearly one in the morning.
Thursday October 23
I MET PEGGY BEFORE school. She made fun of me for riding a bike.
“I know I was stupid for giving her keys to the Jeep. I get it back later today.”
“Dad gave me a talk about you not being responsible. I don’t think he’s a fan of yours. Mom just said you were too trusting. I agree with Mom. You’re too nice sometimes,” Peggy shared with me.
I guess nothing had really changed: her dad wasn’t happy she was dating me, and her mom was fine with it. I was sure this wasn’t the last of this, but at least we were still going to Homecoming tomorrow.
Chapter 12 – Homecoming
Friday October 24
I was up extra early today because I had to finish my work with the film crew. They started me out running down a pretty stretch of country road. I was filing away the location as a possible place to go parking. There was a farm pond in the pasture that had steam rising off it into the cool fall air. The sun had just come up, and you could see everything was coming alive. You could hear the birds chirp and a cow bawl as I ran up the road. I knew this would be the intro to the video.
“Cut,” Mr. Lester called. “I think that should do it. All we have left is at the Holliday farm, and then the game tonight.”
We packed up and went to the farm. When we pulled up, I saw Eve for the first time in almost five months, which caused memories to come flooding back. There had never been a question that she would leave to pursue her dreams. I don’t think we would have made it in the long run, but I was still a little sad that we weren’t even friends anymore. When Eve left, she kept in touch for a while, but over time it had stopped. It was as much my fault as it was hers. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. The first time she went to Nashville, no one heard from her until she came back home. I think, in her mind, that she never intended to come back home.
I got out of my Jeep and saw her smile at me. Mr. Lester was in a hurry and had me go to the barn and change into work clothes. They then filmed me doing various chores. I finally had to tell Mr. Lester that I had to go to school. I didn’t get a chance to say ‘hi’ to Eve.
PEGGY SAW ME STROLL up to the school in the outfit I had on for the video: jeans, dirty white t-shirt and boots. When I got close, she wrinkled her nose.