Junior Year Box Set

“I apologize. I shouldn’t have included you in my last statement. I want everyone to know that David took the time to talk to the coaching staff and remind us of a few things. I have a feeling if he hadn’t shown us his continued leadership, what I’m about to say may have been a lot worse. Jim and Tim, please step forward.”

They both came up front with grim expressions on their faces.

“I was reminded that leaders don’t tear their teammates down,” Coach Hope continued. “As of right now, you two are no longer team captains.”

They both nodded and turned to go back to where they had come from, but Coach Hope held them back. He then invited the rest of the line forward: Bryan, Brock, and Neil. Alan came forward with a Costco-size pickle jar with folded pieces of paper in it and ‘Punishment Jar’ written in permanent marker on the front.

“Each of you will pull a piece of paper, and then you’ll do the punishment as a group,” Coach Hope announced.

He held it out, and Jim went to pull the first one, but I stopped him.

“We’re a team. If one of us does it, we all do it,” I said, then reached in and pulled the first one.

I read it: ‘Five one-hundred-yard bear crawls.’

I looked at Coach Zoon and shook my head. I could tell everyone was unhappy that I’d included them in the punishment. I turned to Coach Hope and shook my head again.

“It says, ‘Take Cassidy Hope Out on a Date’!” I said with a straight face while pointing at Coach Zoon.

It took all of half a second for Coach Hope to figure out I was kidding. That half-second was all that saved me, or he would have caught me. It wasn’t fair when Coach ordered the team to help catch me. For some reason, we got an extra pull at the jar, but the somber mood had been broken.

We spent the morning session doing punishments, which turned out to be creative conditioning drills. I was right. Coach Zoon didn’t really try to kill us, but no one would ever get caught hazing anyone anytime soon, either!

◊◊◊ Saturday August 29

The HSAA allowed teams a certain number of practices before the first game. Since we’d skipped one, the coaches decided we would catch up on Saturday morning. The guys grumbled because this was the last Saturday before school started on Monday. Plus, it was an absolutely perfect summer day. Tracy had invited several of us to her lake house for the weekend.

Mom was poaching chicken breasts for me and had a plate of bacon on the table when I came in with Duke. I got a bowl out and started to prepare eggs while Dad made the coffee.

“Hey, I won’t be home tonight. I’m going to Tracy’s lake house.”

“Who all will be there?” Mom asked.

“Tracy invited the varsity cheerleaders and then some of the guys. It should be about twenty people,” I guessed.

“Will Mona be there?” Mom asked.

“She’s the head cheerleader, so I think she’s going. I haven’t talked to her, though.”

“I won’t allow it,” Mom said.

Both Dad and I stopped what we were doing and turned to see what the issue was. Neither one of us said a word, which was the Dawson way, but it pissed my mom off. She just gave me a black look and finished adding the seasoning for the chicken breasts. I looked at Dad, and he just shrugged. He wasn’t going to intervene.

“May I ask why?” I asked.

“Let’s see … I’m your mother, you live under my roof, you’ll abide by my rules,” she counted off on her fingers. “I’m not comfortable with my teenage son spending the night with his girlfriend.”

“Since when?” Dad asked.

God love him, but damn! When Mom got into one of these moods, just let it go. There would be other weekends for me to go play.

“You, to the office!” Mom said as she pointed at my Dad. Then she turned back to me. “You’re grounded until further notice! Give me your keys, phone, tablet, and wallet. You’re not allowed to leave the house this weekend.”

“But I have football practice this morning,” I said.

Mom pulled out her phone and dialed a number.

“Coach Hope, this is Mrs. Dawson. David won’t be coming to practice this morning. He’s grounded … I’ll tell him,” she said and hung up. “You have to pull from the Punishment Jar on Monday.”

Mom then left to deal with my dad. I went to my apartment and got everything she asked for and then made breakfast. I can’t remember the last time nothing was said at a meal in our house. Dad was seriously pissed and left the house as soon as we were done eating. Mom wrote me a list of chores to do around the house. I wasn’t going to ‘sit around moping’—her words.

◊◊◊

I was on my hands and knees pulling weeds when my mom came out and handed me my phone.

“This is David,” I answered.

“Hey, it’s Kendal. We got the contract for the movie. Can you come down with your parents and sign it?”

“Are you and Tom happy with it?” I asked.

“If you mean are we happy that you’ll be making a butt-load of money for six weeks of work, then yeah. For a secondary character, you’re going to make more than you did for Star Academy.”

“Call my dad and tell him I said to sign it. Do you have his cell?” I asked.