Junior Year Box Set

I introduced her to the Mexican place that had burritos as big as your head. Greg and his family would be home with our parents, so I bought a variety of dishes. I had them separate the order for Zoe and me so we could just drop off the food for everyone else.

When we got home, I dropped off the food and produce my grandmother had sent, and the two of us ran up to my apartment. Turned out that Zoe was an evil girl, and her plans didn’t include eating just yet. I did learn something: the burrito was just as good reheated.

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Chapter 29 – Camp David Monday July 25

Peggy wanted to run with me this morning. I offered her cash to take Duke and the boys on a run without me. She made me tell her why, and I explained the mystery woman at the park.

“That just confirms you’re a ‘stupid boy,’” Peggy stated.

“What? Why?” I asked.

“Think about it. One of two possibilities is going on. Either something’s wrong with her because she’s willing to have sex with a complete stranger …”

“Hang on. I’m not bad looking,” I said and flashed her my abs.

“… or she knows it’s you, and she’s setting you up,” Peggy finished.

“That’s why I’m wearing my bodycam,” I said, pointing at my hat.

“Do you have condoms?” she asked.

I showed her I carried one in each sock. It didn’t please me when she made me pay her cash up front. I thought she trusted me more than that.

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To be honest, I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to find the girl I was calling the ‘mystery woman’ waiting for me or not. While I was a bit disappointed, at the same time I was a little relieved when she wasn’t there.

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I’d agreed to hold a camp for the football team this week. The plan was to work with different groups each day. Today I asked everyone to come in, and over ninety of my teammates showed up. When you think about it, that’s a lot of boys, given our high school had somewhere around 750 pupils. That meant about a third of the boys came out for football. Sports were a big part of Lincoln High, so it didn’t surprise me.

When I walked out to the field to talk to my campers, Jeff Delahey and his camera crew were there waiting. I waved and then ignored them.

“Okay! Gather around!” I called to get everyone’s attention.

As I looked around, I noticed several unfamiliar faces in the crowd. Not all of them were freshmen. Mom had told me she’d had a few families want to move here. Part of her showing a home and the community was a tour of the new facilities we had on campus. We’d started to attract people who had kids who played sports. If we continued to have success, I was sure that trend would continue.

“Welcome to Camp David. Coach Hope asked that I work with you this week before I leave to play baseball for Team USA. I’ve spent time at a number of football camps and had quite a bit of one-on-one coaching. He felt I should share some of my knowledge.”

I then told them what the goals were and who should show up each day. Today I would help them to increase their speed by sharing what my speed coach had taught me. Tomorrow was linemen; Wednesday I would work with the linebackers and defensive backs; Thursday was for the skill players on offense.

“People ask me, ‘what’s the secret … how do you become successful?’ I’ll tell you, I think it’s simple and can be summed up in the word ‘focus.’ It’s being able to go through every day, whether it’s a workout in the weight room, a conditioning run, practice, or in the classroom, with focus. Focus on what it is you’re doing on that day, at that moment. It’s not cheating yourself out of a rep, a play, or a practice. Because you’re going to get tired, you’re going to get sore, and you’re going to get bored. But I can tell you there’s something special about us. We’re tough; bulldogs are tough; we always have been. Physically tough and mentally tough. When other people quit, we keep going. When other people give in, we stand back up. Let’s go out and surprise some people this year. The last two years weren’t flukes. We deserved to win State. Let’s go show them what it means to be a Lincoln Bulldog. Today we recommit to winning State. Today we start to dig deep to set ourselves apart.”

My motivational speech had the desired effect. Everyone was pumped up to learn new skills today. I was happy the older guys stepped up and helped the younger and the new teammates. By the end, I could tell they were tired after I ran them. I expect some of them wanted to sneak off when they saw Cassidy show up. I’d talked to her earlier and asked her to up her game today. Boy, was that a mistake. She about killed us.

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I met with Coach Hope in his office to give him my impressions from today. I wasn’t totally on board with Jeff and his film crew sitting in, but Coach Hope told me we needed to get used to it.

“Da-vid,” Cassidy said in a singsong voice to interrupt our conversation.

“He’s busy,” her dad said.

“David’s done enough football for today. He has to take me to Beth Anderson’s to go swimming,” Cassidy said.