Junior Year Box Set

“When he died, I wanted to meet the rest of my family, but my mom was against it. She was afraid of how you’d treat us. But I watched you play football and the interviews you did. I convinced her you were a good guy, and if you were, I knew everyone else would be. Now that I’ve met you, I hope we can be good friends,” Phil said as he looked down at his shoes.

I saw a nervous kid who yearned for acceptance. He was at that age where he wasn’t yet quite sure of himself. I recognized it because Uncle John had pointed it out in me when I lived with him for the summer. With some guidance, Phil would grow and get past this. Football would be a good start. I wasn’t ready to commit to being his friend just yet; I hardly knew him.

One of my life goals was to be better at saying ‘no.’ In a lot of ways, I was a people pleaser. Most of us are. We want to be accepted by people. If I wanted to be a better man, I needed to be able to be honest with someone and say ‘no’ when I wasn’t willing to do something. I wasn’t willing to accept Phil as a good friend just because we shared DNA. If my word would ever mean anything, I couldn’t make a promise like that, and then if he turned out to be a jerk, walk away. Well, I could, but it was the promise I had the problem with. I put my arm around his shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze.

“Tell you what. Let’s get to know each other and see what develops. I mean, heck, you might find out I’m a jerk,” I said.

◊◊◊

I thought the first meeting had gone well. My mom talked to Peggy and Mona, and they went home because Mom called a family meeting. We hadn’t had one of these in a while. The last two had been because of the stalker, and then we had one because my relationship with Tami had changed. I guess uncovering one of my grandpa’s love children was a sufficient reason to have one.

“I’ve got some concerns,” Uncle John said, shocking us all. “Phil was mirroring David all night.”

My dad was the only one who didn’t have a confused look on his face.

“I thought I saw that too,” Dad said.

“What are you talking about?” Greg asked.

“Mirroring is the behavior in which one person imitates the gestures, speech pattern, and attitude of another. It’s used to build rapport. It’s actually taught as a sales technique. People tend to like someone like them. That’s why you will see cliques form of people who look and act like each other. I’m not sure if it was intentional or not, but Phil is trying to be just like David,” Uncle John said.

“I think he was just worried about being accepted,” I said.

“No, this was more than that. Phil was actively trying to win you over,” Dad said.

“He did say he wanted us to be good friends,” I admitted.

“I’m not trying to imply anything sinister here, but he’s obviously infatuated with you. In fact, this will be good for you. As you have more success, people will be attracted to you. It’ll help you recognize when someone is genuine, and when someone’s currying favor. The easy part is recognizing when someone is doing it. The hard part is figuring out if they have ill intent or not. I think for now we accept the Princes at face value, but you need to be aware in case there’s more to this,” Uncle John said.

◊◊◊

Chapter 3 – The Games That Play Us Wednesday August 26

Practice settled into a familiar rhythm, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The only problem I had was Coach Hope wouldn’t let me play defense or special teams this year. Also, the little jerk, Ty Wilson, turned out to be very good at returning kicks. He and Ed would do a good job, so I was willing to let that one slide. I really wanted to play defense, though. Coach Hope and Coach Diamond were busy working with the freshmen and JV, so I sauntered over to the defense.

Moose was busy working with the secondary. I figured I had my best shot with him, so I joined their drills. It took all of two minutes for Coach Zoon to see me.

“Dawson, get over here!” he ordered.

I wondered if he had been a drill sergeant in the Marines. I jogged over to him, and he got in my face.

“Did I give you permission to disrupt my defensive drills?” he asked.

“I wasn’t being a disruption,” I defended myself.

“Really? We only have a couple of weeks to get ready for our first game. There are only so many reps in practice. You joining a drill takes away the opportunity another player has to get better. If you personally don’t have anything better to do, I think you need to run so you’re in good enough shape to handle the upcoming season,” Coach Zoon said.

Coach Hope found me fifteen minutes later running forty-yard dashes, with Alan holding a stopwatch like a drill sergeant. Of course, everyone noticed but was smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

“Are you about ready to get back to work running the offense? How about we see how good Coach Zoon is and we run a scrimmage against him?” Coach Hope said, which made me smile.

“Yes, sir!” I said and jogged over to where the scrimmage would be played.