“Sorry, that includes the cheerleaders.”
Cute pouts turned into cuter happy smiles.
Duke’s election bid was starting to get expensive. It was good that I got a discount since I was one of the owners.
“When David was little, I dropped him on his head,” Dad publicized. “I guess that explains why even with a girlfriend, he offered to take the cheerleader who got the most signatures on a date. The winner is … Destiny Crown!”
I suddenly worried Brook might break some of my fingers, she gripped my hand so hard.
“Did we get enough signatures?” Tim asked.
Dad looked embarrassed that he hadn’t led with that.
“Yes. We have 687. More than enough.”
Destiny must have had a death wish because she came bounding up to set our date. It was my turn to squeeze Brook’s hand. I wanted to make sure I had a good hold in case Brook decided she was willing to take a suspension for fighting. I had a bad feeling I would somehow end up in the middle of the whole mess and get suspended with her.
Even though we were done with our little event, I noticed that no one had left to get ready for practice. Practically the whole school knew these two girls were frenemies, and I guess they were waiting for fireworks. I looked pointedly at everyone, and Tim and Wolf ushered them out. I glared at Dare, who had pulled out his phone to video all the action.
“Congratulations, and thank you for all the work you put into gathering the signatures. Why don’t you think about what you want to do, and we can talk about it later?” I said. Then I cut off Destiny before she could say anything. “Let’s not ruin our date with any comments now.”
She caught herself before she pissed me off by saying something to wind up my girlfriend. Destiny wasn’t stupid. She stood a little straighter to indicate she intended to take the high road and then nodded.
“We’ll talk … when you’re alone,” Destiny offered.
I decided not to tempt fate and pulled Brook with me as I hobbled to go get ready for my daily walk.
“That went well,” I commented.
Brook said something I’m not allowed to repeat.
◊◊◊
Doc Grog was waiting for me when I came into the locker room.
“How’re you feeling?”
“It still hurts, but I can tell I’m getting better,” I qualified.
“Okay, let’s check you out.”
He poked and prodded me until I was almost in tears. I might have fibbed a little about how much better it felt. He gave me a wan smile.
“I’m sorry, but it’ll take more time to heal. As much as I wish there was something I could do to speed it up, there simply isn’t. I’m afraid all I can do is help you with the pain, but right now, that would be a mistake. That pain is warning you that you need to take it easy. I think we need to stop your walking and stretching until next week. It looks like it may be slowing your recovery.”
“I need to play the following week,” I reminded him.
“You don’t
“You’re killing me, Doc.”
“I’ll make you a deal. If you follow my treatment plan, I promise to get you on the field as soon as I judge you can safely do so. You might still be in pain, but I can help you with that if we have to. The main thing we need is to get your ribs healed. Right now, if you were hit just right, they could break again and do serious damage. The ribcage protects body parts that you actually need to live,” he said with a pointed and penetrating look.
He held that look, and I knew it was in my best interest to cave—for now.
“Okay, okay … I get it.”
“I’ll see you again Monday,” he said and left me to contemplate my injuries.
If he was serious about six weeks, then we were so dead. We would have to survive the first two games in the state playoffs without any contribution from me. If we got a bad draw, we could easily be done.
The promise of Doc helping with the pain made me decide that I would follow his plan and take it easy until he saw me again on Monday.
◊◊◊
If I wasn’t able to contribute on the field, I would have to find other ways to support my teammates. While they practiced, I spent time in the film room and broke down Riverside, this week’s opponent. Coach Hope had been smart and had trained Coaches Stevens and Stork on how to load film into our software. It had lessened the impact when Alan had left.
Riverside had been an easy win the last two years. I remembered thinking last year that it felt like we were in a game with our JV team. I was sure our team was confident that we would win easily. That, in and of itself, had me worried, because Riverside was well aware of how we beat them. This year, they would be gunning for us because they could go after Trent, my replacement.
