“Wow, that’s … well, I don’t know what to call it,” I said.
“Give me your tablet.”
This time, I didn’t hesitate. Dare downloaded an app, and suddenly, my tablet showed the video of what the drone was seeing via a Wi-Fi connection.
“Can my security team see this?” I asked.
“Not yet, but I should have that figured out by this weekend.”
“What will it do when we go indoors?” I asked.
“Walk in, and I’ll show you,” Dare said, with a touch too much excitement.
I opened the school door and began to walk in. Doors are ordinarily six-eight in height. I’m six-four. The drone zipped in over my head, and I felt the downdraft from the propellers. Dare looked at me with a sheepish expression.
“You’re taller than I am,” he explained.
He then showed me how it worked. The drone only had a limited flight time before it had to be recharged. Dare suggested that I plug it in while I was in class. One cool feature it had was that even while charging, the camera and microphone would work. That meant I could set it on my desk, and it would record everything that happened around me, so long as I sat near a wall outlet. I envisioned a day when I didn’t have to wear any kind of bodycam, but instead would just have the drone do the job.
He had me go into a classroom and sit down. Dare showed me that the drone was programmed to go to a corner once I stopped moving and hover where it would get the best coverage of the whole room.
He about made my heart stop when he picked up a blackboard eraser and whipped it at it. The drone made a slight move to avoid being hit.
“It has trouble if you throw two or more objects at it at once, but I’m confident I can fix that.”
I had no doubt he could. Dare turned it over to me for the day to try out. I had to promise to give it back tonight so he could do whatever the boy genius did. Of course, I agreed instantly.
◊◊◊
Coach Hope had us all together to watch game film.
“I’m so happy that David decided that my style of offense was the way to go. I’ve been trying for three years to get him to play fullback.”
He showed a few plays of me crushing linebackers, defensive tackles, and defensive backs. I did miss that part of football.
“It made my life easier,” Ty agreed.
“Okay, settle down,” Coach Hope said because we were in high spirits. “Sadly, we will be going back to the old-style offense Coach Mason put in.”
Coach can be funny sometimes. He then filled everyone in on Coach Mason’s condition and that he wouldn’t be back. He then announced that I would run the offense this week with the help of the staff.
We then watched film of Wesleyan. Coach Hope showed all their scores over the last five games. Ninety percent of them were passes to Damion. The kid was a one-man wrecking crew. Coach Rector had his work cut out to try to stop him. The reports said he still was working on his hands, but when he did catch the ball, he was a man among boys. He’d have six to eight inches on all our defensive backs who would be covering him.
When it came time to practice, we focused on how to stop Damion. I played with the second-team offense, and they had me play his position. I was the closest match for Damion we had in terms of size and speed. Nick Rake and Wayne Turk were juniors and our starting cornerbacks. I was having my way with them.
“You have to pop him to slow him down, or he’ll run past you,” Coach Rector repeated for the fifth time.
I’d learned a lot from defending both Roc and Bill before he left for USC. The game film I’d watched on Sunday evening helped me copy some of the moves Damion had. I think what this proved was what Coach Rector suspected: there was no way we could defend him one-on-one.
Coach Rector decided to put Tim on me with either Nick or Wayne five yards back. Tim was a division-one talent at linebacker. When it came to physical play, he was better than anyone I’d faced. Our battle was ferocious, which stopped practice as everyone wanted to watch. I was still making plays, but it was ten times harder. The problem was that I would use Tim and either Nick or Wayne’s inexperience in working as a double team against them. The hope was that by the time we played Wesleyan Saturday, our defense would figure it out. From looking at game film, Damion had never faced someone like Tim.
◊◊◊
After flight school, Brook and I drove to Ashley and Scarlet’s apartment to have dinner. Ashley’s parents, Hiram and Marianne, had flown in, and the girls wanted to try out their cooking skills.
Over dinner, the girls shared their day. Ashley had taken an online course to get her real estate license and had taken her test today. She’d passed, which meant she could now officially work for my mom. Mom had been on me to take the course so I could get my license. I’d begged off for now.
