It seemed he wasn’t lying low if the list of recruits he’d already gotten commitments from was any indication. Southwest Central State currently had the twenty-fifth-best recruiting class in the nation. That was quite a jump up for a school that had just entered the Division I ranks. To put it into perspective, that would put them in the top half of the Big Ten, as far as recruiting classes went.
Fritz told us he would put together a surveillance setup similar to what we’d used for Mr. Parker. We wanted to record both meetings. Lexi arranged to have the meetings at local restaurants so they’d feel more relaxed and be more forthcoming. Plus, each of them was a public venue, which gave me a loophole around California’s two-party consent rules.
◊◊◊
I found I had a free afternoon.
“Want to go surfing?” I asked my dad.
“That sounds like a good idea.”
I had my board at Rita’s beach house, so I called her to see if we could borrow boards for my dad and Manaia. She gave me the code for the front door and said she’d warn Trip that we were coming over. I asked to borrow a couple of boards for the duration, and she graciously agreed. I wanted to be able to go surfing with my dad when we had free time.
On the way to the beach, we stopped at a surf shop to get Manaia and Dad board shorts and surf vests. Even though we were used to it being freezing this time of year, surfing in the winter in LA could be a little chilly.
Trip wasn’t home, so I showed the guys where they could change and stepped over to the storage area to get the boards out. I met them on the back deck that led down to the beach. We’d missed the morning surf crowd, and school was in session, so the afternoon high schoolers weren’t out yet. We pretty much had the waves to ourselves.
I leaned my head back and felt the sun and wind on my face. The smell of the ocean and the sound of the waves and seabirds completed the perfect day at the beach. The waves didn’t look to be too big, which was perfect for our rusty skills. It seemed like there would be nice, easy runs.
When Manaia and Dad were ready, we paddled out and started taking turns catching waves. Manaia admitted that he hadn’t surfed in a couple of years, so we all had our mishaps as we relearned how to get our feet under us. It didn’t take long, though.
While I waited for my turn, I paused to take it all in. I could understand why people fell in love with surfing. This was what I should have done instead of agreeing to act through Christmas break. The ideal vacation would be Brook and me traveling the world in search of the perfect wave.
We were out doing something physical, the three of us were goofing off, and everyone was having a good time. For that moment, I was happy. Everything else melted away; all my worries, responsibilities, obligations, and expectations. I allowed myself to be in the moment and have fun.
Dad and Manaia started to tire, so we decided to go in as the high school crowd began to arrive. I recognized some of the guys and stopped to talk to them. Dad walked on into the house to shower. That was when the fun went out of the day.
“I thought we ran you off.”
I turned and saw Al ‘Baby Dick’ Faulkenburg. He’d tried to leech onto me to look good with his classmates. I’d invited him to a party against my better judgment. During the party, I’d hooked up with one of his classmates, and Al had tried to join us. That was when he got his nickname. He’d exposed himself, and she’d taken one look at his tiny penis and said, “Get that baby dick away from me!”
In fact, he had the smallest one I’d ever seen on a guy since middle school. It didn’t take long for the high school gossip machine to spread the word about his new nickname. Al decided to get revenge on me, even though I wasn’t the one who labeled him. Okay, I might have laughed when he said, “I thought size didn’t matter,” to which the girl responded, “I at least want to feel it.”
Somehow, he’d focused his upset on me. He’d gotten a couple of his friends to attack me with baseball bats. Thankfully, Cassidy had taught me enough to be able to defend myself, and I was able to turn the tables on them.
Since then, I’d started calling them the ‘Baby Dick Gang.’ There was no love lost between us. To be completely honest, the little rat fart and I despised each other.
“How’s it hanging, Al? Your balls drop yet?”
Everyone roared with laughter as Al’s face turned crimson. It was like waving a red cape at a bull. Baby Dick charged me. I fully intended to allow him the first punch and then would kick his butt up and down the beach—in self-defense. Manaia ruined my fun. He grabbed Baby Dick around the waist and stopped him in his tracks. Al tried to get loose, but Manaia had about a hundred pounds on him.
