“I heard a rumor that you were going to a dance with Paige tonight,” Mike said, surprising me.
I didn’t get a chance to answer him because it was my turn. This time I threw a hard fast one at Tim’s nuts.
“Asshole,” he told me.
“Get your head out of your rectum and play football,” I shot back.
Coach Diamond had had enough of our goofing off. He made Tim and I run a few laps around the field. Tim gave me a silly grin. He obviously knew about the date also. Paige must have been talking because it wasn’t me.
“Yes,” was all I said.
When we made our way around, Tim gave Mike the thumbs-up. They were worse than girls. I gave Tim an accidental hip-bump that sent him flying. He got up and chased me. I decided to taunt him, and danced around and dodged him. Coach Hope didn’t think we were as funny as I thought we were.
“You two just earned the team sprints. Line them up,” he ordered.
We did this every Wednesday, so we knew we weren’t the cause. What he did next was just pure evil.
“David and Tim think they can waste our time at practice. This is doubly bad because they’re supposed to be your team captains and our leaders. I personally think it’s good to shake things up every now and then. If you want to be a team captain, just challenge them to a race. If you beat both of them, then you get to be captain,” Coach Hope announced.
Several players raised their hands. Coach Hope was going to let them go one at a time against us, which meant we had to race several times. Tim and I put our heads together.
“If we run full out each time, we’re going to eventually lose,” Tim said.
“Okay. If you think you can beat them, let me know and I’ll take it easy. If you’re not sure, I’ll take them.”
First up was Jim, our starting tackle, for cripes sakes. I looked at Coach and he just gave me a smirk. He was saving Bill for last. Bill was the only one I was worried about. Ed and Jake were also in line.
I was planning to take this one easy. We lined up, and Coach said: “Go.” Tim promptly slipped and fell on his face. Jim had a five yard lead by the time I got started. It was good that he wasn’t any faster, or we would have lost the first race.
Tim got his act together and took out the next three guys. He was gassed at that point. Coach Hope had yelled at me to go faster, but I wasn’t taking the bait. Next up were Ed and then Jake. I ran just hard enough to beat them.
As I jogged back, Tim and I talked strategy.
“Why don’t you grab him to slow him down? Coach didn’t say we couldn’t,” Tim suggested.
Bill was lined up, ready to go, and the team was getting into it. They saw blood in the water, and all thought we were going down. I motioned to Tim with my head and we lined up tight with Bill, with Tim on his right and me on his left. Right before the start, we both pinned him between us.
Bill stepped back and gave us both dirty looks just as Coach said: “Go.” Tim took off like a shot, and I turned in front of Bill to force him to go around me. He gave me a shove, and I took off with him stride for stride. He was about to kick it into his next gear when I grabbed his jersey. His hand snapped down, knocking my hand away, and he took off. I picked up my speed and was right there with him. We both passed Tim, and Bill eased up just enough for me to catch him at the finish line. It was close. Had I beaten him?
Tim and I were spread out on the ground, and Coach Hope wasn’t letting anyone know who’d won. Bill helped us get off the ground as Coach brought the team together.
“I have to hand it to Tim and David, they worked as a team. I’m sorry to say they lost the last race,” Coach said to our moans and the team’s cheers.
“Bill has earned a spot as a captain with Tim and David. Congratulations, Bill,” Coach said.
Tim and I looked at each other, realizing we’d been set up. We both hugged Bill.
I’D MADE PLANS TO PICK up Paige at Snyder Residence Hall at seven-thirty. Her sorority was having a dinner-dance at the Hilton near campus. She was in the lobby when I pulled up. Paige wore a short cream-colored dress, which showed off a lot of leg. I had never seen her dressed up as a girl, and I’d say I was interested.
I got out and opened the door for her, and she slid in without a word. I got back in and drove us to the hotel.
“Did you tell Mike we were going out tonight?” I asked.
Paige blushed.
“Sorry about that. It just slipped out,” she confessed.
“No problem. I just don’t know the rules about dating an intern slash student. I don’t want you getting in trouble.”
“I think if we’re discreet, we should be fine dating,” she told me.
Then it hit me. Did she just say we were dating? My first thought was of Peggy. I needed to tell her before she heard it from anyone else. If Tim and Mike knew, it would be all over the school by tomorrow. When we got to the dinner, I excused myself to call Peggy.
“Hey, I neglected to tell you something,” I started.
“Really, what would that be?” she asked.
“I’m taking Paige to a dinner-dance.”
“Is she the trainer?”
“Yeah.”
“She thinks you’re cute,” Peggy said, surprising me.
“What?”
I heard Peggy laugh.
“You’re such a ‘stupid boy.’ She asked me if it was okay to ask you out. I was just waiting to see if you were ever going to tell me,” she told me.
“I guess I failed that one.”
“You took your sweet time, but you told me. Go have fun,” she said, and then hung up.
It felt weird having the girl you’re supposed to be dating be okay with you dating someone else. I guess that’s the difference between dating, and actually being boyfriend and girlfriend. I think Peggy was good for me. I was figuring out the different levels of commitment. This was a nice change from my all-or-nothing mindset. I shook myself mentally to clear my head and went back to my date.
“I want to meet all your friends,” I told her.
I think Paige was shocked when I made her go around the room and meet everyone. Paige was in Kappa Delta. More than half the men were in Alpha Gamma Rho (AGR), the agriculture house. The Midwest is farm country, after all. The rest of them were in a variety of fraternities or were independents. Everyone was very friendly and down to earth. I liked most of Paige’s sisters. I say ‘most,’ because there’s one in every group; and in this group, that one was Lydia.
How do I describe Lydia? On first impression, I would say she was a vapid airhead who was used to getting her way based on her looks and her family’s money. She had a Ken-doll look-alike as her date. He seemed about as smart as the doll, so that was appropriate. When Paige and I came to her table, she looked me up and down. From her expression, you could just tell I was judged to be of inferior stock.
“Lydia, I would like you to meet David, my date for tonight,” Paige said as I offered my hand.
She actually sniffed at me and wrinkled her nose. She never acknowledged my offered hand.
“Congratulations, your standards are improving,” Lydia said.
I felt Paige stiffen as my smile got bigger. I so wanted to verbally spar with this one. My mom can come out in me at the wrong times. I didn’t, because I felt Paige grasp my arm.
“Why, thank you, Lydia. We must be meeting everyone else,” Paige said, and she pulled me to the next table.
“Aww, I wanted to talk to her,” I whined.
“No, you wanted to start something. Trust me, just ignore her.”
“Ignore who?”
We both turned to find that Lydia had followed us. Paige looked like she was having a migraine.
“Why you, of course, Lydia. Paige told me that I was to ignore your droll backhanded compliment.”
She raised an eyebrow and seemed to reassess me. She just turned around and went back to her table. Paige slugged me in the arm.
“You seriously just called her droll?” Paige asked me.
“Hey, she was being a snob. I figured she wouldn’t understand what that meant.”