by Lexi Ward
“Boy, I catch your grades slipping and we're going to have a problem,” he said.
By the time Brian was done with the test the bell had just started to signal the end of class. He shuffled to the front of the room with this peers and handed in his test.
In the halls everyone started talking about how hard the test was and how they didn't think they were going to pass. Brian didn't think he was going to do well, but the class was weighted so that, as long as the homework was satisfactory, you could manage with weaker test scores.
As Brian walked the concrete path across ISU's beautiful campus to his next class he deftly moved out of the way of someone riding a unicycle.
“That's what I'm talking about,” the cyclist shouted. “We'll need those kind of moves tonight! Go Falcons!”
Brian nodded and then turned to sombrely trudge toward his next class. He'd forgotten about all that, and hadn't really wanted to remember. The people on unicycles were part of the ISU unicycle club, a club that encouraged their members to shout down from their perch atop the antiquated cycles at the rest of the student body. Brian thought it was to raise awareness that the group existed, but some people just found it annoying. As Brian neared his next class he saw Coach standing on the steps that led up and up to the entrance.
“No time for class today,” Coach said. “Don't worry, it's all legit. We have an emergency meeting in the locker room. Need to watch some film ASAP if you know what I mean.”
Brian nodded as Coach turned away to head up the stairs. A bunch of other football players were in his next period class, and he was sure that's where Coach was headed. As Brian turned toward the gym he nearly ran into Jasmine, the girl he'd been seeing for the last couple weeks.
“What is this?” Jasmine said playfully as she grabbed his football jersey and gave it a tug. “You get to skip out of class to watch film for a game where grown ass men through a little ball around?”
Brian answered with a peck on her lips.
“Isn't that something,” Jasmine said. “You don't want to say. Well, all right then. But secrets don't make friends!”
She gave him a firm slap on the ass as she walked by, giggling and sprinting up the stairs quickly enough that Brian would have to really sprint to retaliate. And right now he had other things to do.
By the time Brian got to the locker room more than half the team was already there. From the sounds of the chatter between players, it seemed like Coach had an understanding with the teachers. No one had been given a hard time, and everyone had been let out of class for the rest of the day. It was something that was unheard of, at least to them.
“You have to remember we're new, though,” Brian said. “Coach has been around forever, but we've only been here a few years. Maybe there have been emergencies like this before.”
A few of the linemen agreed with him, but that didn't make Brian feel like he was any more right. The linemen agreed with pretty much anything he said. There were a few advantages to being the quarterback.
“So here's the deal, boys,” Coach said as he walked into the locker room, pushing an old projector with big spools of film, an antiquated piece of equipment Brian was surprised still worked. Coach kept pushing the mini-fridge size machine on squeaky wheels to the middle of the room, and then turned it to face the white wall at the back of the locker room. It was an old routine, but the team was quiet. They had never been pulled from their class before, and they knew it meant something big was happening. As soon as Coach was done positioning the projector he turned to face the team, and said what they had all been waiting to hear.
“They're running trick plays.”
Coach let it linger in the air like some kind of stench, looking from man to man, as if he'd just told them that instead of playing a home game tonight they'd be taking Hamburger Hill.
“I'm going to play some clips, and you'll see what I'm talking about,” Coach continued. “This is the reason that I got the OK to pull you out of class. The school needs this win, and if there has to be a loss, then it sure isn't going to be to some Mickey Mouse, trick play bologna.”
Brian had never seen Coach worked up quite like this. It wasn't that he was mad, it was just that he looked so determined. Usually Coach just looked frumpy and kind of old, his body sagging, but still bearing some of the vestiges of his former athletic self. Coach wasn't one to make too much of football, either. He always reminded everyone it was just a game after practice, even if it was a game that seemed to bear the burden of being able to make the student body's population soar.
The clips were hard to watch. The team they were going to face that tonight was good. But they didn't hesitate to back another team into a corner and run a trick play. The one Coach played a couple times, that really made Brian's eyes widen, was when a trick play called a flea flicker was used to win a game that was already over, the score being as lopsided as it was. The team they were going to play, though, the Alligators, didn't hesitate to twist the blade instead of winning with grace. That really made Brian think about what kind of people he was up against, how they were going to try to win by any means necessary, even if it meant treating football as nothing more than a bar fight where it was acceptable to throw sucker punches.
“So there you have it, gentlemen,” Coach said. “I know it seems like maybe a small thing—I could have sent out a mass text. But at the same time, it isn't a small thing. This team is going to do whatever it takes to beat us tonight. And that includes playing dirty, using trick plays, and mind games. But you know what? We're still going to win, because we're going to do what we do best. And that's play straight up football better than they can ever imagine.”
The team cheered, and Brian smiled as he listened. He loved the way the Falcons came together to meet a challenge. There was nothing like overcoming something that at first seemed insurmountable; but in order to beat the Alligators the Falcons would really have to be at the top of their game.
The team slowly filed out of the locker room and Coach pulled Brian aside just before he walked out the door.
“I want you to know how important you're going to be for this win,” Coach said. “I know you're a leader, the team does as well. But after tonight there won't be a doubt in anyone's mind. Brian, you’re going to lead the team to greatness tonight. I know that this team aren't seeded very high but I also know that they've scored some major upsets. So tonight, I want you to just be you. Just lead the team to victory like you have every game since you took this position by the horns.”
Coach slapped Brian on the back and they both walked out of the locker room together. Then Coach told the team they didn't have class the rest of the day, and headed off toward his office. Some of the team followed him—especially the defensive positions—but there were those who chose to go home instead, or to class even though they didn't have to.
Brian wasn't sure what he wanted to do. Part of him wanted to have a big meeting with the offense, but then there was part of him that didn't want to blow it all out of proportion. So what if the team they were going to play might run a couple of trick plays. It would take a lot more than that to win the game. The teams they'd watched lose had slipped up early on in the game, or allowed themselves to be played by the Alligators’ offensive coordinator. Brian knew that Coach was going to be on top of things, and he also knew that the rest of the offense was going to be on top of their own positions, so it seemed like needlessly added stress to have an additional meeting.
Brian's phone buzzed. It was Jasmine texting him.
“Meet me in the middle of campus!”
Brian enjoyed the nice day as he walked to the middle of campus. The sky had a bright, orange sun hung off center, and wispy clouds all lined up to form strange cloud formations far up in the sky, taking on a rusty color, as if scorched by the sun. The sky was beyond blue, something opine, closer to the faint hint of blueish green translucence in glass than the dark blue of a child's coloring book. Brian was originally from Chicago, and he lo
ved how the Midwest expressed itself through nature so flawlessly, so effortlessly that it was sublime in a subtle way. It made Brian want to sign up for the art class that was only open to seniors. And maybe he would, after the football season was over.
“You look so deep in thought, baby,” Jasmine said. “What's on your mind?”
Brian had nearly walked past her. She sat on a bench under a tree that faced the intersection of Lincoln Way and Welch Avenue, just off campus. Traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian, was busy passing through the intersection.
“Coach showed us something we'll have to keep an eye out for tonight,” Brian said sitting down by Jasmine. “I think it'll turn out all right, though. We'll just have to be sure that our game is tight, and that don't make stupid mistakes we normally wouldn't if we had our guard up. I think that's why Coach called the meeting, just to make sure everyone is on point tonight.”
“So you got out of class to talk about how the other time is really going to try to beat you tonight,” Jasmine said. “Not that I'm against the preparation, but you've led the team to victory how many times in a row now?”
Brian laughed and nodded.
“I know, right?” he said. “But we do need to be aware of some things and, to be honest, I don't have class the rest of the day. The team is meeting down at the field early tonight so that gives me a few hours to just hang out at my place. Would you like to join me?”
Jasmine smiled and nodded.
“Of course,” she said. “I'm free the rest of the afternoon, like usual on Fridays.”
They sat there for a while, neither being in a hurry. They not only had the rest of the afternoon off, but the morning as well. It really was a luxury to get out of class, and Brian was thankful for it. He'd thought that Jasmine had class today, but maybe it didn't meet today or perhaps she dropped it. Brian was unsure of if he wanted to ask because they were still so new to each other he didn't want it to seem like he was unduly prying into her life. Sometimes that really put off women, and Brian liked Jasmine, even though they weren't that serious—had only kissed a few times.
“What's on your mind?” Jasmine asked, her eyebrow cocked.
“I guess I thought you had class on Friday mornings was all,” Brian said. “I wasn't going to ask because I didn't want to be overbearing or anything. I know that school can be hard, so I try not to talk about it with people sometimes. Maybe that's a habit from the football team not doing so hot GPA wise this semester.”
“I tested out of the class,” Jasmine said. “It was chemistry I was already familiar with, so it wasn't even a big deal. I still have to pay for the credit hours like usual, though, which seems a little unfair, but maybe that's just how things work sometimes.”
Brian was shocked. He'd had no idea how smart Jasmine was. It was a big deal to test out of classes, especially hard classes that would have been a pain in the neck no matter how much of the material she'd known already.
“Congratulations! Jasmine, this is really great news!” Brian said. “We should go celebrate.”
Jasmine laughed.
“Where would you like to celebrate at?” she said.
“My place, of course!” Brian said.
The both stood and walked off the cement path through the grass to the intersection they'd been overlooking. Welch Ave, the north and south street that intersected with Lincoln Ave running east and west ran up a steep hill crowned with a monolith.
“Why didn't they put the monolith in a roundabout at the top of the hill?” Brian wondered out loud. “I mean, the way they have it set up now, it just looks like people weren't really paying attention to what they were doing when the design for Campus Town was laid out.”
Campus Town was the borough just off Welch Ave; the cluster of student residents that still lived in housing from decades prior when the university had been much smaller. Many of the old homes had been inhabited by teachers: they were usually hacked up into three or four different apartments, making the interiors have the common theme of hallways ending in a wall, or doors which couldn't be opened because behind there was nothing but shoddy workmanship, maybe some of the electrical system exposed in a closet too small to properly stand in. Brian didn't have a bad place, but there were some things about it that could have been a lot better.
“So, before we go to my place,” Brian said to Jasmine. “There are a few things I have to tell you.”
Jasmine looked at him and replied with a startled hesitation, revealing her dread that he was about to stick his foot in his mouth and say something sophomoric or creepy.
“My downstairs neighbor is a girl,” Brian said. “And she has a strange way of making money?”
“What, drugs?” Jasmine said, sounding relieved.
“I think she sells her underwear on the Internet,” Brian said. “But there could be other things going on, too. I see her buy a bunch of underwear, or bring it in from her car. You know what I mean. And sometimes I see guys leave with it. And I think she's also selling drugs, but I think its way less drugs than it is anything else.”
Jasmine laughed.
“No way! I want to meet her,” she said as if Brian's downstairs neighbor was some kind of celebrity.
“I knew you were going to say that!” Brian said as he put his arm around Jasmine. “But unfortunately, she's a little crazy. I don't know what the deal is, but there is a lot of sexual tension between her and I. And it's tension that we could have acted on when we were both single, but then she just got more bitchy than usual. And she sort of just stayed that way? I mean, we've both went our separate ways without even so much as connecting, so I don't know what her deal is.”
Jasmine eyed him suspiciously.
“You didn't have sex with her, did you?” she said.
“Whoa! Lady, you've got me all wrong!” Brian said in protest.
Jasmine blushed in embarrassment of the outburst, which showed where her mind was at—in the gutter. Brian had figured as much. There was a lot of sexual tension between them, especially because Jasmine was so good looking. She was basically the Haley Berry of the school, the girl that was so good looking while still looking like the girl next-door people didn't know how to react. When he was with her people looked at him like he somehow figured out a complex math problem that they couldn't even begin to put in their calculators. It was something else, to see that look on peoples' faces, combined with the way people hero-worshiped him from afar. Brian definitely wasn't into it for the reputation, though. He rarely went out, didn't really go to parties, and kept to himself and his little circle of friends. He didn't need anyone else. That was something college had really pounded home for him, again and again. Jasmine knew that she was special to be invited over to his place, too. It was fairly well known around school that Brian wasn't one to invite anyone back to his place who was new in his life. It wasn't that he was an introvert, it was just that he'd seen so many talented athletes, or would be scholars, completely and totally fuck it up with drama they could have avoided. Brian knew that it might make him seem a little weird to the freshmen who went to the ISU, but he just wasn't interested in hanging out with the student masses, even if he was their quarterback.
“Oh, shit,” Brian said as he neared the house. “See that guy walking in? I don't know for sure what they do in there, but he's like, the twentieth fucking guy this week who has walked in there and isn't going to stay long, and will most likely walk out with either panties in hand, or drugs in his pocket.”
“We should go spy on them!” Jasmine said. “They can't call the cops on us if they're doing something illegal. We can just tell the cops that we thought something was wrong and wanted to check it out before we called it in.”
Brian laughed and kissed Jasmine on the cheek.
“Let's go!” he said.
They both took off at a sprint, across the street and over the lawn of the old house where Brian rented the top floor. Jasmine somehow beat him there, and had her eyes glued to the window where there
was a space in the blinds that let her see in. When Brian found a similar spot, a strange scene greeted his eyes.
His downstairs neighbor was in the middle of doing a striptease for what looked to be a townie. She didn't get all the way naked though, which was fine by Brian. She had never really been his type, being more of the Valley girl type of blonde that didn't really attract him beyond a mere glance as he walked by. Now she was down to her bra and panties, doing a little dance on some dudes lap. It ended pretty abruptly, but the guy had the biggest smile on his face. Then, she gave him some panties out of a drawer, and he left.
Both Brian and Jasmine froze as the guy walked out of the front door and past them without seeing that they had just seen. He went on his merry way, walking down the sidewalk whistling. With that, they both ran inside and up the stairs to Brian's apartment.
“Holy shit!” Jasmine said in a whisper. “Holy fucking shit! I've heard of people being cam girls to pay for college, but I've never heard of anything like that. I wonder how much that guy paid for that little bit of attention? She didn't even get naked or anything!”
