Brook gave me a look that said I had nothing to worry about.
“So, what happened?” I asked.
“That’s the thing. I tried calling my counterpart this morning to get a report, and she didn’t answer. I even tried calling a few of the rooms I knew they were staying in. Same deal.”
I felt a flutter in my stomach as I remembered Lily and how she’d almost died before my freshman year. What kept me from going into full panic mode was that Lily had been drugged. It was the combined effect of the date-rape drug and alcohol that caused her problems.
I didn’t have time to worry about it. We had to go to the stadium to practice.
◊◊◊
We arrived at the tail end of Broadview Academy’s practice. They were running wind sprints on one half of the field, so we took the other half and started to stretch. I put Ed and Don in charge of our workout. I liked to change it up. For each workout’s leaders, I tried to pair a senior with either a junior or sophomore who I thought showed some leadership skills. This way, they got the experience of leading the team.
My right side, where I’d been injured, decided that it didn’t want to cooperate this morning, and I moaned.
“You okay?” Tim asked.
“Just feeling it this morning.”
Wolf began to chuckle, so I glared at him. He pointed across the field. Broadview’s coach was about to have an aneurysm, he was so mad. We saw about half of their team bent over. Some collapsed. I figured out their problem when one guy leaned over and barfed all over the field. I felt sorry for him when he began to dry-heave. Some of his teammates must have been sympathetic pukers or at the end of their rope. At first, I was a little worried that they would work this hard before a big game. That was until Tim enlightened me.
“They had to have been drinking last night,” Tim reasoned.
It looked like my girlfriend’s evil plan had worked, and Broadview’s coach was punishing them for their indiscretion. I would bet they’d feel better by game time, but dang, it was fun to watch. Thank goodness it wasn’t us.
◊◊◊
Thank you, Sweet Baby Jesus! Doc Grog showed up and gave me my Vitamin T shot. He’d been held up at State and had run a little late. I was ready to call Governor Higgins to see if we could borrow a state police chopper. I closed my eyes as the analgesic flowed through my system. Now I was ready.
Sandy Range was responsible for the jerseys our parents had worn last night. We found similar jerseys in our lockers for tonight’s game. On the back, instead of our name, was the word ‘Team.’ Coach Hope had told her we were breaking that out for this game and the playoffs.
When we walked out to warm up, I stopped at the end of the tunnel and looked at our side of the field. It was almost full. There had to be nearly thirty thousand people. On the Broadview side, there might have been a couple hundred.
The guys bunched up as I pushed them back before they could see the crowd.
“Hold up!” I barked.
Wolf whistled to get their attention and to shut them up.
“When you see our fans, you’ll know how much they support us. Let’s show them that support means something,” I said, then led them out.
When they spotted us, our side of the field rose as one, and you could hear the clang of those damned cowbells. I led the team in warm-ups. We then did our pregame drills. After that was done, we stayed on the field, and the seniors were all introduced.
I scanned the stands and saw sections with groups in the same football jerseys. It looked like all the teams in our conference had come to the game. I would find out later that our local TV had run my interview. Caryn had made calls to all the local high schools and arranged for buses to bring them to the game.
I smiled when I saw a large contingent of my movie fans from the convention. There were also a lot of college recruiters in the stands. It was telling that they decided to share our side of the field. I spotted a few coaches and waved. I wanted them to know I appreciated them showing up.
When Broadview ran out onto the field, our fans let them know that we had the home-field advantage. You could see them hesitate when the wall of boos came down on them.
The referee called us out to the center of the field for the coin toss. Coach Hope sent all the seniors. I took the lead, and they marched out behind me. We won the toss and deferred to the second half.
One change we’d made on kickoffs was to put our best ‘hands’ people on the field. That meant that I was right in the middle. Derek Hofmann, our kicker, stepped off his run-up, and we were ready. The referee blew the whistle and wound the clock to signal the officials were ready. Derek ran up as if he was going to boom a long kick. He was one of the better high school kickers, so Broadview’s front line took off to get back to set up their blocks.
