I ignored everyone but Darius and looked him in the eyes. Okay, that’s not true, because he was looking at his shoes. His mom had dressed him up like he was going to church, not school. I gave him till the end of the day before someone stuffed him into a locker, or worse.
“What grade are you in?” I asked.
“Darius is a junior. We told him that he can’t go to college until he’s at least sixteen. He had some … uh … social issues at his last school,” Dr. Rossetti said.
“Darius, do you think it would be okay if we let your mom and Mr. Palm leave? I’d like to introduce you to some of your new classmates,” I said.
Everyone was watching us, and I was sure that Darius was mortified that his mom had taken him to lunch with Mr. Palm. I looked around and found Pam. She was probably the best candidate for what I had in mind, so I motioned her over.
“Darius, this is my friend Pam. She’s going to take you through the lunch line and then join us at the table.” She nodded and guided him to get some food.
“What’s his deal?” I asked when he was out of earshot.
“Darius scores off the charts in intelligence. He’s been pushing me to enroll him in college. He’s sure that he would no longer be bullied. I’ve been a professor for a number of years, and I’ve seen other children make the jump. It’s not easy if they have almost zero social skills. It’s my hope that a couple years of high school will help Darius better prepare for college.”
“I hope you’ll make sure Darius survives his first week,” Mr. Palm said to explain his role in all this.
“I’m not sure I want to take this on,” I admitted.
“Please. You won’t even know he’s around,” Dr. Rossetti pleaded.
“I’ve put him in the locker next to yours, and he’s in all your classes,” Mr. Palm said.
“I’m not promising anything, but let’s see how today goes,” I offered.
Pam had gotten him his lunch, and she’d come over to join my table.
“Excuse me, but I need to go play host. I’ll drop him off at the office after school,” I said and then left them.
I could tell that Darius didn’t want to introduce himself to the group, so I did it for him and then began talking about whatever folks wanted to. Once the awkwardness of Mr. Palm and a parent had been removed, everyone started to chatter. I noticed that Darius was taking it all in and becoming more relaxed as lunch went on. He even managed to eat.
◊◊◊
The rest of the day was … unusual. Darius walked a couple of paces behind me and didn’t say a word. I made sure that he had the desk next to mine so I could keep an eye on him. At the end of the day, Darius touched my arm and handed me his phone. On it was a text from his mom saying she couldn’t pick him up after school. I didn’t think he would survive a bus ride home, so I took him to football practice.
I found Coaches Hope, Rector, and Mason in Coach Hope’s office.
“Hey. I need a little help. Darius …” I started, and he touched my arm again, so I looked at him.
“Dare,” he whispered.
“You’d rather be called Dare?” I asked, and he nodded.
Interesting choice.
“Dare and I have been hanging out this afternoon. It’s his first day here. He needs something to do after school, and I figured you could put him to work,” I said.
“Go get dressed. We’ll figure something out,” Coach Hope assured me.
◊◊◊
Coach Mason must have drawn the short straw because Dare was handed a clipboard and followed Coach around during practice. I shook my head at the poor kid as he watched in wide-eyed wonder while he took everything in.
Mondays are film days. We spent a half-hour savoring our victory over our hated rival, Eastside. I finally was able to see ‘The Tip’ as everyone was calling it. I launched myself at least five feet out of bounds to reach the errant pass from Eastside’s quarterback. Then I flipped it back into the field of play, right into Ed’s hands.
“That is what we call football awareness. David has a knack for knowing where everyone is on the field,” Coach Rector praised me.
I kept my mouth shut. I’d just been lucky. At some point, the football gods would decide to tilt the scales, and something bad would happen. I wasn’t going to give it back, so I just smiled.
We then turned our attention to Mt. Vernon, this week’s opponent. They had a solid football team and a second-year coach. I could tell from watching the game film that they were playing much better than they had before he came. Mt. Vernon had managed to win all their games to this point, but just barely. They’d done the same last year. They relied on their defense to keep them in games and then did just enough to win. If it was close at the end, we might have a problem, because they didn’t have any quit in them.
