Somethin' About That Boy

We all stopped where we were standing and stared at her.

“What?” The other Coach Beasley, the man, heard her say it and came to stand beside her.

“I’ve been having contractions all day. And my water broke during half-time.” She paused. “Somebody may want to tell the janitor that the water near the spot where I was sitting isn’t Gatorade.”

We all cheered for a different reason this time and laughed when the coaches left instead of giving us our usual pep talks.

My mother came up to me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders, pulling me in tight.

“You did good, baby,” she said to my head.

I knew I had.

But it was always great hearing it from my mother.

She meant the world to me.

“Thanks, Mom.” I squeezed her just a bit tighter. “That means that we can go get Taco Bell, right?”

“There is no way in hell I’m eating Taco Bell,” Dad said as he joined our huddle, throwing his arms around us and pulling us in tight. “I have to go to work tomorrow at five. If I eat Taco Bell, I won’t even be off the toilet by then.”

I didn’t even care that my hair had somehow gotten caught on his prosthetic hand.

I felt so freakin’ happy right then that it was a miracle.

A month ago, I wouldn’t have thought it was possible.

But when I looked up into Banner’s eyes, I knew that it was.

He blew me a kiss and I caught it with my mouth, bringing my teeth down hard in a resounding clack.

He threw his head back and laughed before turning to talk to Titus, who was busy staring at Blue.

But I noticed that he never quite took his eyes off of me.

Which was good because I never took mine off of him, either.

***

November

“Oh my God,” I said as I stared at all the bikers that were lined up at the fence. “What the hell?”

Trance was walking up from the row of bikes, as was Viddy. Behind them were about thirty other bikers.

I blinked in shock.

“Perry!” I grinned at Viddy and walked to her where she enveloped me in her arms. “Are you ready?”

“I think I’m more nervous than he is,” I admitted as I pulled back.

Before I could get too far away, Trance had me pulled into his arms, too.

“Hey, girl,” Trance said. “And you shouldn’t be nervous. My kid was born to play this game.”

I had a sad little feeling in the pit of my stomach.

“There are about fifty recruiters here,” I said. “How freakin’ funny is that? They’re not even going to make it to playoffs, unlike us, might I add. I get one recruiter, and he gets fifty. Fifty of which know that he’s going into the Navy next month.”

Trance laughed and pulled me into his arms, throwing one arm over my shoulder while throwing the other arm over his wife’s.

“Just the name of the game, unfortunately,” Trance said. “Not that your sport isn’t fun, but you don’t have the crowd pull that football does. And I think that they’re hoping that he’ll change his mind. Not that he can.” He paused. “I heard that you have quite a few schools offering you scholarships.”

I did.

In fact, I had thirty-two of them offering me scholarships.

I had two that I was choosing from, though.

One was a small junior college right outside of Coronado, and another was a university just a little bit further away, which was an hour away from where he would be stationed.

Luckily, I had about six months to choose where I wanted to go. Also luckily, it would give Banner enough time to see where he was being stationed.

“I got the two that I wanted,” I told him. “Now we’re just waiting to see which one I need to choose.”

Trance squeezed my shoulder, and we walked into the stadium.

Today was the last day that Banner would ever play football—at least he said.

Sadly, over the season, the Kilgore Bulldogs football team had suffered more than a few injuries. Those injuries causing the team to kind of collapse.

Sadly, Slone, Titus, and a few other key players had been among those injured. They weren’t ‘out’ forever, but they were definitely out for the season.

Banner just couldn’t do it all on his own.

Not that he didn’t try.

Which was exactly what he did.

And he won.

With a half a roster full of junior varsity players, the Kilgore Bulldogs scraped by with the district championship by the skin of their teeth.

And there were about thirty bikers that roared their approval when they did it.

“That’s…” I said. “Kind of impressive.”

Viddy turned to survey the men.

“They’re the Dixie Wardens MC,” she said. “They are impressive.”

I shook my head as I watched Banner break away from the dog pile—and the Gatorade dunking—to head to his dad.

Trance wrapped his arms around Banner and pulled him in tight, hugging the shit out of him.