For The Dollars Or The Love

Mr. Athlete

So Ms. Dorothy agreed to watch Symphony while I spent the day learning about Draylon. I'm on my way to meet him at the school's football field, when I pull up he's in the parking lot leant against his cherry red F-150 pickup. I got out, and met him halfway.

"Sup, Mr. Athlete?"

"You do know it's ok to use my real name right?"

"Yeah, I know, but any who what is bringing me to the school's football field got to do with getting to know you? I already know you're a good player." He didn't answer my question, he just gesture for me to follow him to the field, which I did. Standing on the field were at least twenty kids, all of them wearing some kind of football equipment. "Alright guys," he said getting there attention. "I have someone with me today, this is Caramia. She's gonna be with us today." They all greeted me with a "Hi Caramia."

"Hi." I greeted back smiling, I learned that when he wasn't playing football, or working at his dad's cleaning company he was mentoring these kids in a pewee football team. So I guess Mr. Athlete had some good points to him. I watched him coach the kids, but I noticed that he was messing up his quarterback. So of course I had to step in to help him out. "Wait, wait you're telling him all wrong. If he follows what you just told him he's gonna mess up."

"And how would you know this?" he asked scrunching his face up at me.

"The play you have him running is messing all of them up. Instead of having him give it directly to the running back, he needs to fake the pass until they notice that he still has the ball. Watch me, um Brendan sweetie step out, and watch me for a minute." I huddled with the ten players from Brendan's team, and explained the play, when I called it I pretended to toss the ball to Amir, the running back. But in reality I still had the ball when the other team was no longer on Amir they realized I still had the ball, but it was too late because I'd already tossed it to Amir, who caught it midair. He threw it to another player, who made a complete touchdown.

"I see you know a little something." Draylon said as I resumed my spot standing next to him while Brendan went back to play.

"I should I mean I was MVP for my middle school's football team. I alternated between quarterback and linebacker, but today isn't my day I'm supposed to be learning about you."

"True, well you already know that I teach these kids about baseball, what you don't know is one of them used to live with me."

"Really?" I asked being actually fascinated.

"Yeah, Amir was my foster brother for a minute. He was four when he first came to us, and he was a handful. That kid had a lot of fight in him. Seeing how he was when he first came to us made me wonder if all foster kids were like this. So I went to various group homes and orphanages around the neighborhood. Each one of them had a kid with as much anger as Amir used to have. I gave them a place they could use their anger in a positive way."

"I misjudged you, I thought you were just Mr. Athlete, who felt like he could get any girl he wanted, and just thought he was the shit."

"No, alot of people think that way about me until they get to know me." We talked some more until twelve o'clock hit, and it was time for him to take some of the kids home. Then it was time to learn about his home life, since I'd already seen how he was outside of school. I pulled up behind him in the driveway of what looked like a three story house on the outside. I followed him into the house only to be greeted by a man who looked to be in his mid forties, he actually looked kinda good, like Idris Elba.

"Hello, I didn't know Draylon was bringing company over." He spoke with a gruff voice.

"Dad, this is Caramia, she's in my class we're partnered together for a social experiment." Draylon spoke announcing me.

"Well," Mr. Jones offered his hand, which I took to shake. "it's nice meeting you Ms. Caramia, I'm Clarence Jones."

"Nice to meet you too, you have a beautiful home."

"Why thank you." I sat there learning more about Draylon, I found out that he had an older brother, and a younger sister. His brother stays by himself, and his sister went to live her mom's brother. His dad remarried after his mom died. He wasn't a very big fan of his step mom, but he told me his sister was his pride, and joy. I was now looking at pictures, while I talked to him.

"Why don't you like your step mom?"

"It's not that I don't liker her she just, it's like she tries to take my mom's place in my life, and that doesn't fly with me."

"I'm sure she isn't trying to do that, maybe she just wants to bond." Who am I to talk, my mom forgot I existed when she remarried, maybe I shouldn't be giving advice.

"I've tried to think that way, but sometimes it really feels like she wants to eliminate traces of my mother. Like this living room, all of the style, it's all my mom. The day she moved in she tried to change it, my dad and I were alright with her making small changes here and there. But the living room my mom spent her life in here with me. That rocking chair you're sitting in, she used to rock me sleep in that chair up until I was four. We used to fall asleep on that couch every weekend while we waited on my Dad to get home from work. We would sit a this table anytime I had a project for school." His voice cracked a little as he talked, I stood up and went to hug him. I feel so bad for bringing anything up.

"Hey it's okay, your mother will always be in this house no matter how much your stepmother tries to change things. She can never take your mother's spirit out of this house." He hugged my waist with his head in my stomach.

"Thank you, you're right. I'm sorry you had to see that." He let go of my waist so I could sit back down.

"It's ok I'm sorry I asked about your mother. I didn't know it would bring all those emotions out of you."

"You're good, it's not your fault. I've been holding that in for a long time, it was bound to come out." I can't believe he just let go like that in front of me. Now I really feel bad for misjudging him. After he got himself together, he took me on a tour of the house. The last place he showed me was his room, it was actually pretty nice for it to be a guys room. He had a few posters of his favorite rappers, one wall with a stack of shoe boxes against it, about twenty snapbacks hanging on his wall, and a lot of pictures of him and his mom on his dresser. I walked up to the dresser, and picked up one of the pictures, his mom was a beautiful woman. She was caramel skinned woman with tiny freckles over her cheeks, her hair was a dusty, but vibrant brown color, and her eyes were a gorgeous green.

"Your mom was beautiful." I said turning to him with the picture in my hand. He looked up at me in shock, before gently taking the picture out of my hand, and staring at it.

"Yeah she was, my dad always said she was the type of woman that made you stop in your tracks. Kinda like you." He smiled, causing me to blush.

"Boy stop, that's not even me."

"Now you wanna be modest, like you don't see the way all the niggas at school look at you. Trust me the whole football teams talks about you. Something about the way you carry yourself. It grabs attention." He kept getting closer, while my face got hotter. I don't like this, I was getting paranoid, but I calmed down when I realized he was only putting the picture back. Then he looked at me smiling.

"It's getting kind of late I should get home." I said noticing the time on his clock.

"Yeah, don't want you getting in trouble with your mom." He smirked.

"Yeah." I fake smile, even if I stayed with my mom she wouldn't care. To add to the many things about Draylon I found out he was also a gentlemen. He walked me to my care.

"Hey, thanks for back there in the living room."

"It's no problem I think you needed that hug."

"Yeah I did, is it ok to get another one?" I nodded my head, and opened my arms to hug him. He held my waist firm, but not too tight. "Thank you again."

"You're welcome." I hopped in to my car.

"Don't forget next week it's my turn to learn about the mysterious Caramia Andrews."

"It sure is, bye Mr. Athlete." With that I pulled off with the days events in my mind. Maybe getting to know him wouldn't be so bad.