“Send all this to Ms. Dixon and have her review it,” I said and then had a thought. “When was this all supposed to be submitted? Freshman year? Am I in trouble for not doing it sooner?”
“I’ll find out,” Kendal said, looking worried.
“Don’t worry. You warned me several times I needed to read this stuff. You and Tracy were thrown in to help and got swamped. This is on me,” I said.
“I should’ve been on top of this,” Kendal said.
“You were an intern. Once you started to work in your field, you were doing entertainment law. I seriously doubt that they talked about amateurism rules in your weekly meetings.”
“You got me there.”
“Ms. Dixon will know someone,” I assured her.
◊◊◊
Chapter 4 – Class Project Friday January 29
On my ride to school, I received a call from Fritz, so I put it through on Bluetooth.
“Hello.”
“They agreed to look into it,” Fritz said and quoted a number that seemed low.
“Why so little?” I asked.
Frank would charge me a fortune for something like this.
“I told them what happened to your friend. They dislike guys like Brandon as much as I do. They agreed to volunteer their time for now. You’re only paying for expenses.”
“Can I pay them a bonus at the end to make this right?” I asked.
“How about you owe them a favor?” Fritz asked.
“I’m not sure I want to do that.”
“They’re not the Mafia. It would be something you would willingly do, I promise.”
“Okay, tell them to go ahead,” I said and hung up.
I hoped I hadn’t just done something terribly wrong.
◊◊◊
At lunch, Wolf was entertaining us all as he explained some sexist remark. If I were his mom, I would’ve killed his dad by now. I just shook my head that Wolf was dumb enough to repeat what his dad said. If he wasn’t so damned funny, I might take issue. I mean, he was setting a bad example for the younger guys. I’d worked hard to get Yuri to back down from some of his ideas. Don’t even get me started about my little dumbass of a half brother.
Cassidy nudged me in the ribs.
“Incoming,” she warned.
I prepared myself for another girl approaching me. I was amazed one of them would face the lunch crowd; typically, they tried to catch me alone. I turned, looked, and smiled. It was Tina, the girl I’d lost my virginity to. I stood up and hugged her. This, of course, stopped Wolf’s story in mid-sentence.
“Can we talk?” she asked.
“Come on, let’s find a table,” I said.
“She can have my seat,” Cassidy offered.
“Yes, join us,” Gina jumped in.
“No, I think we’ll go somewhere more private,” I said.
“Okay, who was that?” I heard Zoe ask as we walked away.
Zoe hadn’t been here freshman year when I asked Tina out. For that matter, neither had Cassidy, Halle, Brook, or the younger guys. I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Alan had taken center stage to explain who she was. Sometimes he just couldn’t help himself.
We found a table off to the side where some freshman football players were goofing off.
“Do you mind if I borrow your table?” I asked.
The freshmen just looked at me, afraid to say or do anything. I debated whether I should tell them to take a hike, but then heard my half brother behind me.
“Come and sit with us,” Phil offered.
The four freshmen scurried to join Phil at our table. I could see the excitement in their eyes. They would be able to tell their friends they sat at the junior and senior table, which was a big deal in high school.
As we sat down, I thought back to my date with Tina. At the time, I’d been disappointed that she couldn’t date until she was sixteen. Later, I’d wished I’d waited for Suzanne to be my first. I remembered promising Tina that I would ask her out once she turned sixteen. That had never happened.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked to get the conversation started.
“I wondered if you would go on a date with me?” she asked.
“When did you want to go out?”
“Tonight.”
I couldn’t keep the smirk off my face.
“You must think I sit around washing my hair Friday nights,” I teased.
“It’s just that there’s a party tonight …” she began.
I held up my hand. I remembered that Tina wasn’t really the leader in her group. When I asked her out, her friends were either jealous or didn’t believe she could get a date. I was sure she wanted to show me off. I sort of owed her for breaking my promise to ask her out. The sad part was I hadn’t made plans for tonight.
“Sure, why not?”
She got up and hugged me, and then took off to tell her friends. I wondered how long it would take her to realize she hadn’t given me any details. I knew where she lived but had no idea when I was supposed to pick her up.
In any case, it appeared our conversation was over, for now, so I returned to my table and ignored everyone staring at me. I resumed eating my lunch.
“I thought we had you trained. Spill it,” Gina demanded.
“I hope you remembered what we offered,” Tim said as he glanced at Wolf.
“What did you offer?” Alan asked.
“They offered to test-drive any girls who hit on me,” I said, and both Tim and Wolf blushed.
“Seriously?! What about the rest of us?” Phil asked.
