We were only there a few minutes when the place suddenly began to fill up. I was surprised I felt nervous about tonight. It was one thing to walk out on a football field with your teammates; I was about to expose myself to everyone I cared about. What if they didn’t like the movie? I didn’t understand why this felt different. After all, I’d modeled and shown my butt to the world. This just felt more personal, in some way. I expect if I hadn’t already seen the movie and gotten positive feedback, I might have become a basket case.
Then I remembered that these really were my friends. They’d support me even if I crashed and burned.
As people arrived, I made it a point to greet them and spend some time talking to each one. It was good I hadn’t dressed up because no one else had.
I took a break to grab some pizza—it was the reason I picked Monical’s, after all—when someone grabbed my butt. I turned around to find the girls from Wesleyan.
“Didn’t your mother teach you to wear underwear?” Tami asked.
“I’m wearing a thong,” I lied.
“Oh, dear God! What have they done to you in LA? Next, you’ll tell us you had your nails done,” Harper teased.
I blushed and stuffed my hands into my pockets. Our makeup girl on set had trimmed and put a clear coat on my nails. I wasn’t about to argue with her because she gave me some of the best head I’d ever had.
“Does he have eyeliner on?” Lisa asked.
“I think I have that lip gloss,” Missy teased.
It was good to see them again, and with their teasing, I began to feel better about tonight. It felt good to have friends around who treated you the same as always. I had counted on that when my uncle warned me how people would treat me differently.
It was soon time for everyone to go to the Field House. When we arrived at the high school, it was a madhouse. I was glad we had the limo and didn’t have to deal with parking. As soon as I climbed out of the limo, I was swarmed by people wishing me well.
I slowly worked my way inside. The Field House was a large building; it was big enough for half a football field for indoor workouts. At one end, they’d set up a large screen and enormous speakers. They’d brought in bleachers for the back, and then there were folding chairs for people up front. Behind the bleachers, the Booster Club had set up a concession stand as a fundraiser.
They’d also roped off a VIP section. I was happy to see the governor and his wife, and was about to go talk to them when Caryn touched my elbow.
“We’re about to get started. You need to say a few words,” she said, surprising me.
“You can’t be serious,” I said.
“Yep, and just so you don’t get too nervous, they estimate that there are only forty-five hundred people here.”
I groaned. Then I spotted Halle. I hadn’t expected her to make the trip, but she was going up on stage with me. I heard the crowd make a noise and turned to see they had projected me in my Stryker garb on the big screen. That was my signal to go on stage. I walked up to Halle and smiled.
“Come on. It’s time for you to take a bow.”
I looked over at Rita, and she winked at me. Halle seemed to be in a daze as I pulled her on stage. The next few minutes were a blur. I remember introducing Halle, and she took the mic from me. She said some nice words, and then we walked off and sat down to watch the movie.
This time I pretended that wasn’t me in it. I really enjoyed the movie when I wasn’t focused on every little thing I did. When the credits began to run, everyone clapped. In a small town, we support our own, and I could tell that people genuinely did enjoy it.
I didn’t get much time to talk to people because Caryn pulled Halle and me away to speak to the press. As we entered the Field House pressroom, we found Tracy there, holding court.
“I realize many of you are new to how we run these. We do this in an orderly fashion, or the press conference ends. If you don’t believe me, ask Jeff Delahey,” Tracy announced.
“Yep, I watched her send a reporter from ESPN packing. If you allow her to do her job, she’ll make sure everyone gets a chance to ask questions,” Jeff said.
Halle and I sat through an hour and a half of questions. I kept reminding myself that this was for my hometown, so I didn’t get irritated when asked how I felt about things. I was happy to see the governor and other dignitaries stick their heads in and take a few questions. Governor Higgins even called me a ‘state treasure.’ I thought that was over the top, but I wasn’t about to disagree with him in front of a roomful of reporters.
The good news was that since I was now a ‘state treasure,’ I mainly got softball questions. I was happy no one brought up the
When we were done, Halle looked at me.
“I’m glad we did this. Tomorrow night had me worried,” she admitted.
I was happy to hear I wasn’t the only one with some jitters. At least I hadn’t thrown up.
