Tansey leaned back and looked up into Ravinder’s eyes. “We can’t let Roni know about this!”
As Roni’s knowledge of this event had been the least concern in Ravinder’s mind, Tansey’s demand caught him by surprise. “Why not?” he asked.
Tansey’s eyes widened as if she couldn’t believe how obtuse he was. “Because, she’ll try to do something about it! We’re incredibly lucky she didn’t get hurt tracking the Castanos. There’s no way we want her following another bunch of mobsters around!”
***
Two-a-day practices had been just as horrible as Hax had been told to expect, but now two-a-days were almost over and the team was getting ready to start practicing in full pads and helmets. Hax didn’t like the way the helmet restricted his vision as he trotted out onto the field. And the pads made him feel clumsy. Especially the shoulder pads, which he worried would interfere with his throwing arm. Once he’d gotten over the soreness brought on by the intensive conditioning drills during two-a-days, he’d started to feel like he was getting faster. However, he suspected that any speed he might have gained was going to be destroyed by carrying around all this gear.
Today they were supposed to run some practice plays. Hax’d already spent a great deal of time memorizing all the plays diagrammed in Coach Hayes’ playbook. He’d also watched a lot of videos of football games, paying particular attention to the quarterback, trying to figure out how the good ones did what they did. Most of the videos he’d watched were from college or pro teams and he certainly hoped that high school games weren’t as violent as those seemed to be. His father had spent some time running past Hax to let him practice handing off the ball.
Now, it was time to find out what actually playing football was like.
They were supposed to run the first few plays at “half-speed,” just to demonstrate that their home-study had given them some idea what they were actually supposed to be doing. Hax was supposed to be running the third team. These were kids who the coaches thought would probably be playing junior varsity, but had some potential to move up to the varsity. Apparently the coaches thought all the kids who were likely to be cut were already gone.
Coach Albright was in charge of the JV and was running teams three and four, while Coach Hayes and Coach Dotson ran teams one and two. The fourth team had a bunch of other players who subbed in and out, trying to make a place for themselves.
Albright had Hax call a running play and Hax stepped up behind the center with butterflies in his stomach. He called the play, at first not shouting loud enough to be heard by his team in their helmets so Albright made him start over. Then his first play was underway. Hax felt excited when he managed to take the ball from the center and turn to his left, giving the ball to the running back.
But all hell broke loose. Albright was pissed because several of the offensive linemen had failed to block the correct defensive players. The middle linebacker had failed to adjust to the running play.
And, Hax had handed the ball to the wrong running back!
Hax felt pretty confused because he’d been sure he gave it to the correct back. Even the running back, Johnny Argo, moved up close to Hax after the coach had finished chewing him out. He said, “I thought I was supposed to get it too, sorry.”
It wasn’t until he looked at the charts later that night that Hax realized that he had handed off to the correct running back. Albright had gotten confused about the assignments himself. It really wasn’t surprising considering that Albright was trying to remember all the plays and keep an eye on both the defense and the offense.
But the criticism still stung.
In any case, Albright went around yelling at all of them and demanding that they work harder to memorize their assignments on each of the called plays. He reminded Hax once again that the quarterback had more to remember than any other player on the field and that if he wanted to have any chance to play quarterback he better “get with the program.” Albright said, “You’ve got to know, not just what you’re expected to do, but also what everybody else on the field is supposed to be doing. Especially your receivers.”
Having chastised everyone on both offense and defense, Albright had Hax call another play. Again, Hax felt pretty good about his handoff. He was admiring Brian Mack as the running back loped through the hole in the defensive line opened by the right guard and tackle when he was blasted off his feet. He found himself lying on the ground, unable to breathe, another player on top of him. The guy growled, “You shouldn’t be here Buchry. I’m gonna make that obvious to you.”
The guy was getting up when Albright came over, “What happened here? You guys decide to lie down and take a rest?”
Hax recognized him now, Darren Elias, one of the linebackers. Hax had virtually never interacted with Elias so he had no idea what the guy might have against him. Elias said, “Sorry Coach, I came through here in pursuit of the ball and Buchry stepped into my way. We got all tangled up and went down.” Elias reached a hand down as if to give Hax a friendly hand up.
Hax didn’t want to have anything to do with Elias, so he rolled the other direction and slowly pushed himself up. Having had the wind partly knocked out of him, he was also stalling to get back enough of his breath to speak if required.
Albright got after them to hustle back into formation for another play. Hax called the huddle. Once they were in it, Johnny Argo said, “I saw what that asshole did. That kind of tackle should never happen in half speed practice. Even in a game, that would’ve been all kinds of unsportsmanlike. He’d have racked us up a 15-yard penalty.”
Hax hadn’t been able to take his angry eyes off Elias. But he limited himself to saying, “Yeah.”
Albright had them run several more running plays. On two of them, the action went towards Elias and he was kept busy trying to stop the play. But then on the third one, the play swept to the right and Elias followed the play around from the left side. This time he didn’t catch Hax watching action that was traveling away from himself. Instead, Hax was trotting after the play—as if he were watching it—while keeping his helmet turned just enough that he could see Elias.
Elias sped up and Hax saw his right arm sweeping out as if he intended to give Hax a straight arm punch or clothesline as he went by. Calling on the martial arts skills he’d learned from Master Akita, Hax spun under the arm, grabbing Elias’s wrist and continuing to rotate, throwing Elias over his own body and slamming him to the turf on the other side. Hax leaned up over him and, staring as calmly as he could into the opening of the stunned young man’s helmet, said “I’m tougher than I look. If you don’t cut this crap out, you’re gonna get hurt.”
Albright approached again, saying, “What’s going on here?”
Elias didn’t look like he felt up to speaking yet, so Hax answered for him, “Sorry Coach, I tripped and Elias seems to have fallen over me.”
Hax hoped that’d be the end of it, but when Elias got up his eyes were filled with murderous rage. As the linebacker trotted by on his way back to the defensive side of the line, he steadily glared at Hax. Hax stepped quickly out of his way to avoid the elbow he thought would’ve been thrown otherwise.
Evidently feeling that they’d rehearsed enough running plays, Coach Albright called a passing play. Then he held them up for a moment to say, “Hey, you guys are supposed to be going half speed. I see some of you ratcheting it up a bit. We like aggressiveness in football players, but we don’t want you getting hurt before you’ve even learned your assignments. Bring it back down a notch.”
The center hiked the ball back and Hax fell back as the pocket collapsed around him. Hax was supposed to hit the primary receiver on a slant about 15 yards downfield, but in the corner of his eye he saw Elias brutally shoving the left tackle out of his way to come after Hax. Hax quickly dumped the ball to the tight end on the left and then Elias was upon him, arms spread wide—evidently to try to keep Hax from throwing him to one side or the other. Hax threw himself backward in front of the onru
shing linebacker, grabbing Elias’s jersey as they came into contact. Hax rolled backwards onto his buttocks, then his spine, kicking up with his legs to send Elias flying out over him for another hard landing on his back.
Albright came over in a fury. Hax thought this time he’d been keeping an eye on the two of them and had seen more of what’d gone on. “What the hell do you two think you’re doing? For God’s sake, Elias, you’re going way more than half speed! And you were so focused on getting to the quarterback you completely missed your assignment to cover the tight end! They had a great shot at a long gain.” He turned back to Hax, “And you. If you want anyone to catch your passes, you’ve got to stop throwin’ ‘em so damned hard!”
Hax threw a guilty glance at the tight end and saw him shaking his fingers as if they’d been jammed trying to catch the short, high-velocity pass. Hax wanted to say something about how he’d had to get rid of the ball before Elias crushed him, but limited himself to saying, “Sorry Coach.”
As if he’d been sufficiently chastised, Elias slowed down on the rest of the plays and confined himself to his actual assignments. The fact that he’d stopped attacking Hax seemed like a good sign. However, when they wound up standing close to one another while Albright discussed a play, Elias stepped closer to Hax and spoke in a low but ugly tone, “This ain’t over, asshole! You need to give serious consideration to quitting.”
As Elias moved away, Johnny Argo stepped close to Hax and said, “I think this got started because you bumped one of his buddies back to fourth string quarterback. He’s trying to get you to step back out of the way.” Johnny turned to eye Elias and said, “It might’ve taken on a life of its own by now though.” He turned back to Hax, “But I’m on your side, I never liked that guy.”
Remembering advice that quarterbacks appear calm and in control—no matter how panicked they might feel inside—Hax kept a placid expression on his face and said, “We’ll figure it out. We’ve got to… for the team.”
***
Roni looked up at a knock on her door. “Yes?” she called out.
The doorknob turned and the door pushed open a little. A frizzy blond head poked in, “Roni Buchry?” The door opened further and the young woman stepped in, “I’m your roommate, Madison Coulter.” She walked across the room, putting her hand out to shake.
Roni rose and excitedly stepped forward, “Hi!” she said, shaking hands. She waved around their small room, “This is our place. Which bed do you want?”
Madison looked around the room, then back to Roni, catching the corner of her lip in her teeth and giving Roni an embarrassed look. “If you don’t care, I’d like the one farthest from the window… would that be okay?”
“Sure,” Roni said, sweeping the room with her eyes again, “what about desks and closets?” Her eyes caught on a man who’d just stepped into the room with a couple of suitcases. He wasn’t looking around at the room, his eyes had caught on Roni and they looked… She wasn’t sure how they looked. Maybe a mixture of angry and disgusted?
It made her feel… unclean, or ugly, or something.
Brightly Madison said, “Dad, set those down over by the closets. I’ll be down to help you get the next load in a minute.”
The man tore his eyes away from Roni and stepped quickly over to set down the two suitcases. With another unhappy glance at Roni, he left the room. Roni turned to look questioningly at her new roommate. Madison gave her an unhappy shrug, “My dad’s… old fashioned… sorry.” She hesitated another moment, then headed for the door, “Let me go help him bring in the next load.”
“Okay,” Roni said, then thought about how she didn’t want anyone to be able to see her and invisibly left the room shortly behind Madison. Roni wasn’t surprised to find Mr. Coulter waiting for his daughter a short distance down the hall.
When Madison approached her father, he began in a low angry tone, “I told the housing office I didn’t want you put in with someone like that!” He’d started speaking quietly, evidently not wanting the students who were carrying belongings in the hall to hear him. Unfortunately, his voice rose as he spoke until “someone like that!” rang out loudly.
Madison took her father’s arm and turned him toward the stairs, “It’ll be okay Dad. Don’t worry about it. Let’s get my stuff.”
The man let himself be led down the hall but said somewhat plaintively, “We should go talk to the housing office first. We’ll get you a different room before we move you in. Then we won’t have to move everything again.”
“No, Dad. I like Roni. I want her to be my roommate.”
Roni watched them go with mixed feelings, assuming the reason the father didn’t like her was because he was a racist, but feeling cheered by the fact that Madison seemed unaffected by his bigotry. After a minute she let herself become visible and started down the stairs behind her new roommate.
Madison’s father kept up a heated argument all the way to the car, most of which Roni couldn’t hear. However, as they stopped and opened the back of the SUV Roni caught up enough to hear Madison say, “Dad, I’m the one that has to live here. Please don’t act this way. I don’t want to have to start my time here with everyone hating…” She broke off as she saw Roni walking up and smiled, “Hi Roni.”
Roni ignored the irritated look on Mr. Coulter’s face, saying brightly, “Can I help you carry up a load?”
Madison gave her a brilliant smile and said, “Wow, Roni! Thanks. Do you think you could carry this laundry basket I’ve overloaded with clothes?”
Roni put on a smile and said, “Sure.” She didn’t miss Madison’s nervous glance at her father or the muscle twitching in his jaw.
Roni thought both she and Madison were relieved when he said nothing, just turned back to the car. But then he pulled out a light and a fan. To both Madison and Roni’s surprise, he said, “Here, you take these, they’re lighter. I’ll carry up that big basket full of clothes.”
Roni thought of protesting that she was capable of carry the clothes, but then thought it would be better to accept what might be a peace offering. She told him thanks and set the basket back into the back of the SUV. Taking the light and the fan from Mr. Coulter, she headed back to the dorm.
Two hours later Roni and Madison were moved into their dorm room. They’d divided up the storage space and put away their possessions. Mr. Coulter had left for home, but not before Roni heard him complaining to Madison that he thought the housing committee had put her in the room with “that colored girl” specifically because he’d requested that she have a white roommate.
Once the rush of putting things away had abated, Roni found herself and her new roommate sitting at their desks, looking at one another. They talked excitedly for a while about their hopes and fears for college, what they wanted to major in, and old boyfriends—four for Madison and none for Roni. After a moment of silence, Madison got an unhappy look and said, “We should talk about my dad. He’s a great guy in lots of ways, but he is a… racist. I’d like to think of a nicer word for it, but I can’t. I’m sorry.”
Roni shrugged, “I’m used to it. I’d like to say it doesn’t hurt, but, of course, that wouldn’t be true.”
Madison looked like she was trying to put on a bright smile, but it was kind of weak. “I’m working on him, but he’s not even a work in progress. More like a work just begun.”
“Well, my strategy with people like him is to be unfailingly polite. Hopefully, if I’m nice enough to them, I’ll convert a few over my lifetime.”
“Thanks for your understanding, even though you shouldn’t have to be that way. I’m hungry. Shall we find the cafeteria?”
On their way to dinner, Madison said, “I hope it isn’t too rude of me, but I’d like to know about your blue eyes. As your roommate, I expect I’ll be having to answer questions about them from people who’re too embarrassed to ask you themselves. Are they contacts?”
Roni said, “No, I was born with them. They’re rare with dark skin, but not unheard of. In f
act, DNA analysis from the bones of one of the first Europeans found that he had dark skin and blue eyes. As the theory goes, pale skin evolved later than light colored eyes. The light eyes probably don’t convey much benefit but pale skin helps make more vitamin D for people who live up north where there isn’t much sunshine.”
“Oh man! I’m so disappointed. I thought you’d found a source of really cool looking contacts. I wanted to buy some the next time I needed a set.”
“Nope, sorry,” Roni said with a laugh. “Maybe I should get some brown contacts so I don’t look so weird.”
“No way! I think you have a really cool look. Don’t even dream of messing with it! If anyone needs to change something, it’s my frizzy hair.”
“Hah!” Roni said with a big grin on her face. “What you need to do is turn that into an Afro or some dreadlocks.” She arched an eyebrow, “That’d give your dad a heart attack.”
“Ooh, the brown girl with the blue eyes and her blonde roommate with the Afro? We’d be easy to pick out of a crowd, huh?” Madison looked at Roni for a second, then said, “Why do you have straight hair anyway? Shouldn’t yours be just as curly as mine?”
Roni said, “I’m a Heinz 57 flavors kind of mongrel. My mom says my family’s Indian, African, Latino, and European. Evidently, I got Indian hair, African skin and European eyes. Weird, huh?”
Chapter 2
Roni sat uncomfortably on a couch as people milled around. Madison’d been invited to a party and in her turn, she’d asked Roni to go with her. Roni hadn’t wanted to accept, since the original invitation hadn’t been extended to her, but Madison really wanted her to go, saying, “I don’t know anyone here, so I really want to start meeting people. My older sister says the best part of college is the social life and mine’s been really dull so far.”
The Boy Who Couldn’t Miss (Blind Spot #2) Page 3
