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“Hola, tomen sus asientos,” Ms. Cruz said as we entered the room.

I nodded and took my seat. Ms. Cruz was older and had a kind face. I wondered if I’d entered an advanced class because each student answered her in Spanish. When the bell rang, she looked at me.

“¿Quién eres tú?”

I was clueless. Lily was sitting beside me.

“She asked who you are.”

“David, David Dawson,” I said.

“Hola, David Dawson. Welcome to Spanish One. In this class, we will speak Spanish as much as possible. When you came in, I greeted each student, and they greeted me back. Tomorrow, I expect you to say hello. Do you know any Spanish you can share with the class?” Ms. Cruz asked.

“Gracias, la comida era deliciosa and su lindo,” I said.

Lily shook her head at my poor attempt at Spanish.

“So you like my cooking and think I’m cute,” she translated.

“Sí,” I said.

“He’s a bit of a flirt. You should be careful,” Lily said.

I could tell I would like this class.

◊◊◊

Coach Stork taught AP World History, which was followed by the second semester of AP Physics I with Mr. Hicks, our athletic director. Finally, I had Mr. Quiroz and Principles of Business.

I found Alan was in all my afternoon AP classes. The class rankings had come out, and Gina was number one. I was in third place behind Brook, and coming in fourth was Zoe. Alan had dropped to number five because of his ‘B+’ in PE. I felt for him because I’d almost gotten a ‘B’ in PE in swimming my freshman year.

◊◊◊

After school, Cassidy was waiting for me at my locker.

“I thought I might stop by in case you thought you’d sneak out on sixty minutes of hell your first day back.”

That had been my plan.

“I’ll meet you there,” I tried.

She reached into my pants pocket and snagged my keys.

“Hey,” I complained.

“You get these back after you work out,” she said and left me wondering if I should just walk home.

I went and put on my gym clothes to join everyone, but before I made it out of the locker room, Moose, my baseball coach, reached out and snagged me.

“David, I’ve heard Coach Rector wants you to go out for seven-on-seven football this spring,” he said with a watchful expression on his face.

“Coach, it’s a nice offer, but I really want to play baseball this year. I have a chance to make the national Under-18 team as an outfielder, and that’s a dream I just won’t pass up,” I said.

Moose looked relieved.

“You’ll have to tell me about that when you have more time.”

I thought that was it, but he continued.

“I’ve been kind of watching you, and I think you could go far in baseball, with the right coaching. The only problem is you have so many things pulling you in all different directions.

“Now I’m glad to know you’ll be there when formal practice starts in March. But do what you can to keep your skills up and get prepared beforehand if possible. I really want you to be ready to focus on baseball once regular practice starts. Do you think you can do that for me?” Moose asked.

He was already worried about that, and I had to admit he had a good reason to be worried.

“Coach, I’ll do my best, and I’ll try like hell not to let you down.”

He gazed at me for a moment, nodded, and turned to walk down the hall.

Cassidy was frowning at me when I ran to join the group.

“Well, at least you can run fast,” was all she said.

Cassidy must have been feeling extra evil today because she worked us hard. Surely my being late didn’t have anything to do with it!

I was glad to see I wasn’t the only one struggling. I admit to not being as diligent as I should’ve been while in LA, but I was still in good shape. All the work I’d put in the last couple of years didn’t just go away in six weeks.

Cassidy was finally happy when my half brother had to run outside and puke. When we were almost done, Coach Hope, Cassidy’s dad and our head football coach, stuck his head in the gym and motioned for me to join him. Cassidy gave me a dirty look, but I just shrugged as if her dad’s request was out of my control. I happily followed him to his office.

“Welcome back. You ready to get back to it?” he asked.

“I am.”

“That’s good because Coach Mason has sent over the new playbook. From what I see, he plans to minimize you running the ball. You’ll also be under center most of the time.”

Coach Mason had agreed to be our offensive coordinator next year.

“I figured as much, but you can’t argue with his offensive production,” I said.

It was a little disappointing because I felt that my running the ball helped us. But I was aware that I wouldn’t run the ball nearly as much in college, and I’d run it even less in the pros. Everyone wanted a mobile quarterback who could extend plays and pick up first downs with his feet, but the flip side was the danger of his getting hurt. There simply weren’t enough elite quarterbacks, so you had to protect them.

“With that in mind, Coach Rector has suggested that we put together seven-on-seven teams this spring to help learn the new offense,” Coach Hope said.