by Bruce Ingram
When I got home from practice, I told Mom and Dad that they needed to call Ms. Hawk, and Mom asked why and I told them about my unfair treatment and that I didn't deserve a 0. Mom then went online to the school's website, hunted down Ms. Hawk's website and said that the assignment was clearly listed as being due on Tuesday, that she was not calling Ms. Hawk, and that I needed to take responsibility for my actions. I said that that one paper had given me an F for the whole week, and that it was unfair. Then all of a sudden Dad, who hadn't said a word the whole time, got really angry and told me to stop arguing with my mother, to stop whining like a kid, that the 0 was fair and to "suck it up," and to go to my room and work on this week's assignments and think about acting like a man instead of a spoiled punk.
They don't get it...they just don't get it.
Joshua drives me home from practice every day, and one day I told him that Coach Dell needs to put in more deep routes for me, that I'm not getting enough plays called for me. Then he ripped into me, just like Dad did on Tuesday. I asked him what was his problem, and he got so mad that he pulled the car over to the side of the road and started getting in my face. He said that the basis of a good game plan was a balanced offensive attack, that everybody knew that (or should know that), that he was sick and tired of my complaining at home and at practice, and that he was embarrassed sometimes to be my brother. That I had probably more ability than anyone on the team, but that my attitude sucked and some of the juniors and seniors had complained to him about my attitude.
I said I didn't believe that anybody had complained, that everybody knew I was their meal ticket to the state playoffs and that him being my brother was probably his ticket to going to a D-I school. That some coach would probably recruit him just to get an edge for possibly getting me to come to the college a couple years later.
Then Joshua said something to me that I couldn't freaking believe my ears. He said he had finally come to the realization that he didn't have the skills to go to a D-I school. That he had asked coach Dell to give him an honest answer about what his upside potentially was, and coach Dell had said that he thought my brother might could get a D-II offer, that he was a step slow and too light to play at the D-I level. That he was a fine high school player and an excellent teammate, but that wasn't enough to make it in D-I. That thousands and thousands of good high school players were making solid contributions all over the country, but that very few of them would go D-I and even fewer go pro.
I can't believe Joshua's attitude, it's like he's given up on pro football. It seems like everybody I was around last week had a negative attitude.
Chapter Twelve: Mia
My first week in high school couldn't have gone better, and I can't wait for this week to start. I babysat Friday night, saturday, and sunday for some families in our neighborhood, and I made really good money. Ever since I started babysitting in the eighth grade, I've saved almost all the money I've earned. I've put close to $500 in the bank. I figure that once I start working part-time in tenth grade and if Mama and Poppa let me work after school and on weekends when I'm a junior and senior, I should be able to save quite a bit of money for college. Then if I can get a full scholarship, or at least part of one, I can go to college somewhere. I'm going to college no matter what; Mama and Poppa both want me to. I won't let them down.
My campaign to get to know Luke better had a real breakthrough. I noticed that the first couple of days, he gulped down either a peanut butter sandwich or a couple of hot dogs, then walked over to the teacher on cafeteria duty and got a pass to leave. We can get a pass to go to guidance, the bathroom, or the library, so I figured the library was where he was going. so Thursday, I got a pass, walked to the library, and found him reading online.
I smiled and sat down next to him, and he gave me a nervous smile back, but that's just Luke. I asked him what he was reading, and he said that he was reading about the Jewish and Palestinian issue. That he usually came to the library to read about sports and the outdoors, but he had gotten interested in the problems of the Jews when he was working on his PowerPoint on the Night of the Broken Glass. I knew there was more to Luke than meets the eye. How many kids are going to give up socializing time in the cafeteria to come read in the library about historical or current events. But maybe he's just so shy that he's miserable in the cafeteria.
Friday, I decided to go to the library to see if I could run into him again, and this time he didn't smile so nervous-like when I sat down next to him. He wasn't at a computer station but was sitting at a table and working on math problems. He's taking remedial math, I could tell by the book cover. I knew Luke wasn't in any of my math classes in middle school or in Algebra I this year, but I didn't know that he was that low.
I asked him how he was doing in his math class and he just groaned and said his grades were awful already and that his mom had told him before school started this year that if his math grades didn't improve, she was going to get him a tutor on saturdays. That he tried harder and worked harder in math than all of his other classes, but he always did worse in math than any other class. And that meant he wouldn't be able to go fishing on saturdays or go hiking up in the mountains. so that's what he does on saturdays. That probably means he doesn't have a girlfriend either.
I said I could help him with his homework if he wanted, and then he really smiled and said that would be great, that it wouldn't be cheating because it wasn't a test or anything like that. I started looking at the problems he had done so far and most of his answers were wrong and the problems were so easy. so I started giving him clues on how to fix them, and he acted so grateful and was like thanking me every couple of minutes.
I've heard that Luke's grades aren't very good, especially in math. Teachers always make this big show about how confidential the grades are, but we already pretty much know what everybody else is making. We finally finished up his math homework and correcting everything, and he was really thanking me. I said I could maybe tutor him during lunch a couple times every week, and he said that would be great and that he would find some way to thank me.
I do enjoy helping people any way I can, that's why I think I would make a good nurse or doctor. But I want to get to know Luke and for him to get to know me, and maybe our sophomore year, maybe we could date some. I hope that that's not bad for me to think that way. I feel like I would help him out, even if I wasn't interested in him.
I told Luke that he could let me know when he needed help, and then he said he didn't have a cell phone, so he couldn't text me, and then I said my family couldn't afford for me to have one either. We both laughed at that, and he sarcastically said that he and I must be the only two people in the ninth grade that didn't have cell phones. And something else hit me when he said that. I don't feel that my family is poor, we're not lower class, but we don't have any extra money either. I sort of think Luke's family is like that. There are probably a lot of white boys that wouldn't go out with me because of my family's situation, plus the Hispanic thing. But I think Luke is the type of guy who wouldn't care what somebody's social class was. I really believe that. I know a kind person when I see one.
Week Four,
Friday Night
Chapter Thirteen: Luke
Normally, Friday night is like every other night of the week for me: washing one of Dad's cars that he recently bought or doing some other car-related chore like vacuuming the insides, eating dinner with Mom since Dad's at work, doing homework, and then watching some sport on TV. Mom and Dad have never bothered giving me a curfew because I don't have anywhere to go. But Allen invited me to go to the home football game with him because his older brother Russell was taking him. Russell teaches at another district school and has coached all kinds of sports, including the baseball team that Allen and I were on last year. I don't care anything about watching high school football, but the real reason I came was that Allen invited me to spend the night at his house, so that Russell could take us fishing early the next morning. Allen said that Russel
l knew about this farm pond that was just full of big largemouth bass.
When we were walking to the stands to get a seat, we saw Elly, Paige, and Mary heading the same way. Allen has been telling me that he has been sort of hinting around with Paige about asking her out for a date, but he hasn't been able to get a read on how interested she might be. I told him not to expect any help from me on how to go about figuring out how interested Paige is. Who knows what girls mean when they do the things they do. so the five of us stopped to talk while Russell went on up into the stands to find us seats.
Well, I should say four of us stopped to talk. I took one look at Elly, and she smiled at me, said something about something I don't remember what, and then my stomach and nerves started fighting with each other, and the next thing I heard was Allen saying that we had better go find our seat. Did I even say anything to Elly? Allen told me later that he should have invited the girls to sit with us, but who can think of such things when the pressure is on. He's a lot smoother with girls than I am, but he's got a ways to go. Inviting the girls to sit with us would never have occurred to me. But it sure would have been great to have sat next to Elly and gotten to know her better. I don't know what I would have said to her, though. Maybe she would have done all the talking. Girls are good at doing most of the talking, I know that much.
While we were waiting for the game to begin, Russell asked me if I was going to try out in the spring for the high school baseball team. I told him no, that I was done with baseball. To my absolute shock, he told me I could make the team, though I would probably never be a starter all four years. I wouldn't mind riding the pines, just getting to play in practice would be enough for me. Then I asked him why he thought I could make the team, given my .185 batting average last year.
"Why do you think you batted leadoff," he said. "Your on-base percentage was probably close to .500 with all your walks and getting hit by a pitch. After you got on, you almost always stole second right away."
Russell said that I could really help the team as a pinch runner and pinch hitter, though I would very likely not get on base as much from walks or being hit since the pitchers' control would be better at the high school level. Then he said something that surprised me and made me feel really proud...that I was a good teammate and he could tell that I really studied what was going on and tried to get better.
Russell was full of surprises all night. Later, part-way through the third quarter, after Caleb and Marcus had hooked up for two long touchdown bombs, and the school was up 1410, Russell asked Allen if Caleb and Marcus ever talked about playing college football. Allen said all the time, and Russell replied that he thought that they might could play D-I ball, but definitely D-II. Allen then got into an argument with his older brother and said both guys were aiming for the NFL. Russell guffawed (that's a vocabulary word meaning loud laughing) so hard that I thought he was going to have a coughing fit.
Do you realize how many high school football players, said Russell, are out there playing right now? Do you realize how many of them think they are going to be pros, do you realize what the odds are of making the NFL? Thousands and thousands to one. Allen kept arguing and said that both players were way above average, that they were high school superstars.
Russell said right back that both of them have some serious flaws. As a quarterback, Caleb has no touch, no feel for the ball or the game. He's got a very good arm, but all he wants to do is throw the long pass, that when he needs to hit Marcus or somebody else across the middle, he relies on arm strength instead of touch. The result is a ball that often comes in too fast to the receiver, or either too high or too low or behind the player, said Russell.
If all Caleb needs to do to complete the pass is dump it off to a back coming out the backfield, he zips it into too fast even when the guy is wide open or hesitates when he should just throw a touch pass. Russell really lit into Caleb for his attitude toward his offensive linemen. All three times that Caleb was sacked, we could see him yelling like forever at his linesmen when he should have been getting ready for the next play. Just as bad, said Russell, was Caleb later began to get happy feet when he was under pressure...throwing the ball too soon before the receiver had run his complete route.
Next, Russell starting criticizing Marcus as being too soft, that Russell had recognized a definite tendency for Marcus to hesitate when he was called to run his routes across the middle—that he was afraid of getting hit. That Marcus also didn't understand how to use his height and size to get in between a player and the ball and that when Marcus was not the hot receiver on a play that he had a tendency to half run his routes. Marcus is pretty good at catching the long ball and he has very good speed, said Russell, which should make him a lock for II, possibly I. Caleb should be able to make a II squad somewhere, said Russell.
The real test, the real crisis for Caleb and Marcus, said Russell, would be how they reacted when the bitter truth hit them...when they finally realized as juniors or seniors that their NFL dreams were hopeless. Would they be men enough to understand that life goes on after high school, especially if it's a life different from what they thought it was going to be? We won the game 28-21 to make us 4-0 for the season, but Russell said just wait until the team played its last two games on the road...that the team was going to get stomped.
Chapter Fourteen: Elly
"The best thing about going to football games is watching guys with awesome butts running around in tight pants." That's the first thing Mary said after her parents dropped off her, Paige, and me at the football game. Homecoming is next Saturday night, and Mary said the second best thing about coming to the game was that it was the perfect time to scope out guys who showed up without some girl on their arm.
The first thing on Mary's agenda was to linger around near the stands until Allen arrived, so that Paige would maybe have a chance to flirt a little bit. Allen had told Paige, during one of his almost daily stops at our lunch table, that his older brother Russell was taking him to the game on Friday night. So we waited and waited and finally Allen and Russell showed up.
I was surprised to see that Luke was with them. He just doesn't seem to be the type to want to go to a high school football game...he's such a nature boy and all. When Allen walked over to us to say hi, Paige really turned on the charm. She moved in a little closer to him, smiling big-time, then tapped him on the shoulder saying what an awesome looking cobalt blue, long-sleeved shirt he was wearing. Meanwhile, I guess, to make the moment linger so that Paige would have time to work her "magic," Mary struck up a conversation with Russell, asking him where he worked, who did he think would win the game, and wasn't this fall weather fantastic. Paige's act was so obvious, but what else was she going to do. She's been talking to Allen for weeks, but she hasn't gotten through to him.
So I was left in the position of having to talk to Luke. I think Luke is a really good person, but he's not much of a conversationalist. I asked him who he thought was going to win the game tonight, and he just sort of shrugged, and then I told him I was surprised to see him at the football game...that didn't seem to be his thing. Then he mumbled something about spending the night at Allen's house and going fishing the next morning. Well, that makes sense. Luke decided to suffer through going to a football game, so he could go fishing the next day. If any girl ever dated Luke, she'd probably have to go fishing and canoeing and hiking and all kinds of outdoor junk with him. I can't see myself ever wanting to go out on those kinds of dates...bugs, snakes, and no bathrooms...yuck. But still...there's something appealing about Luke's sweetness and shyness. He'd need the right kind of girl to bring him out more, though.
It was getting closer and closer to kick-off. Luke and I had run out of things to say. Well, I had run out of things, Luke didn't have much to say obviously; and Paige and Mary were still yapping with Allen and Russell when Paige played what I thought was a brilliant trump card. She said she had worn a skirt that was too short to the game (sensibly, I had worn a pair of baggy jeans that se
rved the twin purposes of keeping my legs warmer and hiding their chubbiness) and she saw that Allen was carrying a jacket for when the night turned colder and maybe did he have an extra jacket or blanket or something in the car that she could borrow...just for the night?
This turn in the conversation caused Allen to take a quick glance at Paige's legs and mini-skirt (it was very short) and hopefully put some thoughts in his stupid male brain to invite Paige and us to sit with them and let her wear his jacket to keep her arms warm. (She knew, all of us girls knew, that no guy had enough sense to bring along an extra jacket or a blanket period...good grief.) I wish I could think of things like that when talking with guys. But all Allen said was that he was sorry, that that jacket was the only one he had. He should have at least offered his jacket to Paige, then he would have had to meet up with us at the end of the game and that would have given Paige another chance to work her charm. I bet that was her backup part of the plan...seeing him after the game in order to return the jacket...in her scheme to spend time with Allen and convince him to ask her out.
Finally, Allen said they had to go get to their seats, so the guys left. Paige was absolutely beside herself with frustration, and I can understand why. Honestly, I was relieved that Allen didn't invite us to sit with them. It would have been a long, awkward night trying to make conversation with Luke, but, still, maybe I wouldn't mind much getting to know him better...if he would only open up a little.
The whole first half we didn't watch any of the game, I have no idea what was happening and really, I don't care anything about football anyway. We spent all that time analyzing everything Paige did and Allen said, and what did he mean by this or that and was he really that clueless about Paige being interested in him, or maybe he had already asked some other girl out to Homecoming and who would that girl be if he had. And Paige wanted to know over and over if Mary and I had seen Allen talking to any other girls, and we had to keep reassuring her over and over that we hadn't. It was exhausting.
