Junior Year Box Set

I was holding him and rubbing his chest, and he rewarded my effort by purring like crazy. For a cat, he was cool. I carried him to the kitchen and smiled.

“Rosy,” I said as I gave her a one-armed hug.

“I just made some pulled pork taquitos if you’re hungry.”

“Yes, please.”

I felt right at home.

◊◊◊

I spent the afternoon with Halle. She’d auditioned for a couple movies. The first was a love story. When she told me it was the next Notebook, I rolled my eyes. The other one was a mystery where a girl goes missing. Halle said she couldn’t tell me more than that, but I could tell she was excited. She said if she got the love story, I had to take her to the premiere.

We were relaxing on the patio when Rita came out and joined us.

“I see your movie wrapped,” Rita told me.

“Really? I didn’t realize that. I’ve been a little busy playing ball.”

“Word on the street is that The Royal Palm might win some awards. I also heard that you were great in it, considering what you had to put up with. Lately, I’ve been getting calls to confirm your work on The Secret Circle. I wouldn’t be surprised if Saul starts sending you scripts from people interested in getting you under contract before The Royal Palm hits theaters.

“I also heard that they signed Ron Howard to direct the Han Solo movie. You’re going to end up being a trivia question on that one. I just hope your James Bond movie is worth it,” Rita said.

“I would have loved to play Han Solo. But it would have been filming the same time the Star Academy sequels were filming.”

I sometimes wondered how my life would’ve changed if I’d taken that job. I wouldn’t be playing baseball or football; instead, I would be doing what Halle was doing, looking for my next movie and cashing in while I was still hot. I knew in my heart I’d made the right decision.

My phone chirped. I had a text from Frank Ingram, my publicist.

‘Check out link’

I clicked on it, and it took me to one of the celeb gossip sites. I read it for Halle and Rita.

“The headline reads, ‘Halle James Gets Wet With Hottie,’” I said, smiling broadly.

Rita snatched my phone out of my hand.

“Halle James was caught reeling in dream guy David A. Dawson. We think love may be in the air as the new couple spent the morning surfing,” Rita read, and then flipped through the pictures.

“Let me see,” Halle said.

As she flipped through the pictures, it became clear her mom wasn’t happy.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s just that I’ve spent eighteen years protecting her from stuff like this. I never wanted her to have to go through what’s coming.”

“Mom, it was my decision. I decided to go into acting. It wasn’t your fault. Besides, I’ve had a lifetime to watch you handle it with grace. I hope I learned a thing or two over the years. I think having David as the guy was a smart move. With him, I don’t have to worry about a sex tape or a tell-all novel,” Halle said.

“I think Fritz would hurt me before he gave up any tapes,” I blurted out.

Both of them looked at me for a moment and then chose to ignore me.

“I know, but I just hate to see you pushed out into the spotlight. At least you have people you can trust helping you. I had to learn that lesson the hard way,” Rita related.

Rita took a deep breath and came to grips with Halle’s career taking off. At least the article didn’t say she was Rita’s daughter. She was starting to be recognized for who she was and not who her mom was.

Rita left us to our own devices.

“You want to go make that tape?” Halle asked me.

She didn’t have to ask me twice.

◊◊◊

Rita’s stylist and her entourage showed up, along with my mom. Halle and Mom were getting their hair and makeup done for tonight. I was made to sit down and get my hair trimmed to get it cleaned up, and then sent to the beach house to get ready. Rosy packed up some food for us guys.

One aspect of LA that sucks is that it’s three hours behind the east coast. That meant that the ESPY awards began at five o’clock in the afternoon, local time, and they asked me to be there by three to do the red-carpet bit. They wanted to prerecord it and then show clips during the awards show.

Mom, Dad, and Greg would drive over separately so they wouldn’t get caught up in the mess of reporters. Gatorade had a room at the hall. They’d asked us to go there before the show so we could meet all the other individual sport winners I would be going up against.

When I got back to the beach house, we ate a quick lunch from the food Rosy had sent with me. Dad told me that my clothes from Dakora had come and were in my room, so I had to go see what they’d sent. I found black skinny-leg dress pants, a white dress shirt, and a black tie. The jacket was pure Dakora, a tuxedo jacket made of dark blue velvet with a black silk collar. I tried on the jacket and confirmed it was fitted for my tall, athletic build.

When I came down, Greg and Dad gave me the once-over to make sure I’d done my tie correctly and hadn’t forgotten to pull up my zipper.