Junior Year Box Set

“I think I saw a black one at Toys “Я” Us,” I said.

That made Pam laugh. Tracy tried to give me her sad eyes, but I wasn’t buying it, neither figuratively nor literally. Her dad made more than enough to buy her a car if he wanted to. I wasn’t suddenly going to start spending money on my friends. It wasn’t like there was a ton of money in my bank account right now anyways. I’d put a big chunk of it into the farm and would get another big payout of my movie money on the release. Then there was all the residual money from ad campaigns and the photo-rights royalties. Dad had arranged that money to go into ‘David’s college fund’ and the ‘buy a big-assed house’ fund. They had that money locked down where I would never see it until I either used it for its intended purpose or turned 25. How they talked me into that, I’ll never know.

“Why don’t you take her out?” Brook suggested.

“I’d like that,” Tracy said.

“Do you want to plan it or should I?” I asked.

“I’ll plan it,” Brook offered.

We all looked at her and Tracy shrugged.

“Okay,” I said as the bell rang.

I put my arm around Tracy, my hand found its way into her back pocket, and hers did the same in mine. It felt familiar and comfortable as I remembered how we used to be when we went out. Several people did a double take when they saw me walk her to her locker. Brook and Pam didn’t help when they acted like teenage girls and squealed when I kissed Tracy goodbye. I shook my head and hoped they weren’t getting any ideas.

◊◊◊

I finally caught up with Tami at lunchtime, and we video chatted.

“How’s Missy?” I asked.

“She’s still shook-up, but she’s fine. You showed up in time before anything really happened. She wants to thank Tony, Cassidy, and you for coming to her rescue.”

“I want to ask you a favor: can you stop coming with me on my recruiting trips?” I asked.

Tami snorted and gave me a weak smile. I held my breath. I would play nice to get my way on this. Having her along had been a nightmare.

“I figured that was coming. You’re having a hard time with what happened on the last two trips. You find Alan and me in bed, and then you have to rescue Missy. Both were alcohol-related with girls you care about.”

I wasn’t surprised Tami was spot on. She knew me better than almost anyone else besides my mom.

“That, and I need to treat these trips like they’re business trips. If I fall in love with a college, I’ll let you know. So far, I’ve taken Northwestern off my list, but I would consider Michigan State. Over the summer I liked Ohio State and Alabama. If I find one that I think you’d like, I’ll let you know that, too.”

“I’d like that.”

“Thanks for understanding,” I said, and then hung up.

Now if I could get rid of the parents, we could have some fun on these trips. A guy can dream, can’t he?

◊◊◊

The film session from the game with Washington was brutal. We’d made mistakes that we hadn’t made since the first of the summer. One of the issues was the two new linemen we had added, Johan and Neil. Johan had replaced Tim at center. While he had a lower center of gravity and was a rock in the middle of the line, Johan wasn’t nearly as mobile as Tim had been. Washington had played a four-man front, which left Johan uncovered. On run plays, he was responsible for getting off the ball and blocking a linebacker if we weren’t double-teaming one of the tackles. Johan was also responsible for helping out anyone that needed it on a pass play. He was the tip of the spear that formed my pocket. What he seemed to be doing was lunging to make blocks instead of moving his feet. When you lunge, you’ve lost your base and leverage. Coach Stevens, our offensive line coach, felt he could fix Johan’s technique.

The other lineman that had problems was Neil Presley, our right tackle. Neil’s issue was one of consistency. He was the only sophomore who was starting, and his inexperience was apparent. Neil showed enough good plays that the coaching staff felt he could do the job.

Then there were a lot of mental errors made by the skill players. Mike and Bert hadn’t really done what was needed as the fullback lined up next to me. On the option, they were the main players to handle the load for inside runs. When they were given the ball, they seemed to run into the pile instead of finding the creases and exploding into the hole. I was disappointed that they weren’t willing to stick their noses in there and pound out yardage. They also weren’t following through and making the defense think they had the football on fakes. Their job was to fake and then find someone to block. I thought Coach Diamond was going to bust a blood vessel in his head when Bert actually fell down instead of making contact with a blitzing linebacker.