Cherry Bomb

Here for the Party

Homecoming 2011

Andrew sat in the bleachers watching the football players of Crest Hill High School, home of the Patriots. Red and blue dotted the bleachers as he sat near his step-sister Tiffany Pearson. She was leaning on the arms of her newest boyfriend Brian Newsome. He had a small black goatee with his hair neatly combed and gelled into a small point, one of those faux hawks that some girls and boys often wore.

Andrew watched as the football team broke from the huddle, the cheerleaders were chanting and fanning their pom-poms all around, spelling out Patriots. There were people in the metal bleachers that were stomping their feet and following the chant that the cheerleaders were shouting from the track field that encompasses the football field. The football field goals were painted blue with red stars that had the name of the school on either goal end.

The football teams were lined up on opposite sides of the field. Patriots on the left side and a nearby school whose mascot was a Texas Ranger, Austin Lenhart High School. It was near the city limits of Ruskin, but it was near a newly developed Henry Plant Community College branch, and further down the street closer to the library was an Amazon Warehouse.

It was the highlight game of the year for homecoming football fans. Patriots and Rangers. Two schools with a bitter rivalry and student population. Thanks to the jurisdiction ruling, those who lived near State Road 41, had to attend Austin Lenhart, but those who lived closer towards the Interstate 75 junction to go North into Brandon or downtown Tampa, they could go to Crest Hill, that sat just at the bottom of the highway. The loud hustle and bustle of transportation trucks that honk and roll along the asphalt of the road above seemed an ominous warning for those who stayed and never found a way out of the town.

Crest Hill has gone through a major cleaning in both student attendance and administrative. Many students are told several different courses, one on various protection methods and contraceptive, the other for abstinence education that is told through physical education. Average grades for most students was a C passing grade. Several administrative members of the school were fired for corruption or sexual allegations, even when there wasn't any proof. The sound of crunching plastic and loud cheers from the metal bleachers brought Andrew out of his daze.

"Andrew, can you go get us some drinks?" Tiffany shouted in Andrew's ear. He turned towards his step-sister and looked as she leaned against her boyfriend Brian. She reached into her purse and pulled out her wallet, inside was a few dollar bills that she kept as cash tips from being a part-time waitress at her friend's local restaurant, her driver's license, car insurance card, and bank cards. Andrew took the wallet and shoved it into his leather jacket pocket. The small charm that Brian got her in EPCOT dangled on the outside.

It has only been a few months since the sudden move into the new house. It was inside the new development Garden Park, just nearby to the local middle school, Sherman Middle School. They lived near the edge of a roundabout in their neighborhood on Monarch Drive. It was a bright orange house. Andrew took the bedroom in the front of the house, which he fought with his new step-sister Tiffany Pearson, for the rights to the front bedroom. She ended up in a room nearby to the kitchen and master.

Andrew's mother, Anna Rainey, recently divorced his father, Stewart Rainey, after his downward spiral into alcohol losing his construction job in the recession of 2008. Stewart was a grisly man whose size often intimidated Andrew, he stood over six and a half feet tall and broad-shouldered. He sported a small shadow of a beard before he lost his job, which was now as scruffy and long as a homeless man. His hair was curly and often cut short to his face, but his beard was the only thing that was trimmed down when he went for job interviews.

Anna Rainey was his mother, but she was quite small compared to her former husband. A petite frame with the plumpness that came from motherhood, she had a soft smile and a shimmer in her eyes when she often was out with Andrew. He became more of a comfort than a son. But Andrew valued his mother, especially when he was younger and hid behind the door and watched his father's temper destroy his mother.