"Welcome to the District Combine." Billy claps his hands together as Asher sneaks into the room. "For those of y'all who do not know me or have not had the pleasure of getting their tails beat down by me or my team, I'm Coach Billy Baker, co-hosting alongside the college sponsors that are here in the building. Let's give it up."
I pat Asher on the back. "Good luck today."
He smiles and nods his head. "Thanks, Sam."
"Excuse me, Sammie-Sam." A familiar voice says from behind me, I didn't have to even turn around to find out who the voice belongs to. There's only one person who calls me that, but I still turn around to find Chris and Cameron standing behind me.
"Hey!" I move away from the door, greeting Chris with a tight embrace because this the last place I thought I see him. "What are you doing here?"
"Coach King said we gotta thanks Spencer." Chris grins. "He put the word out for Crenshaw, he came over and scouted Cameron and me for today."
"That's big!" I smile. "I hope today goes well for the both of you."
Due to me being on leave from football, I'm not able to be apart of the combine. Nobody who wasn't a coach or attending the combine wasn't allowed into the room, but I lingered in the back and stayed out of sight. I wasn't staying long, just long enough to know Spencer knows that even if we're both not competing in the combine — I'm still supporting from the sidelines. Always.
Whatever Cameron had said to Spencer, it was definitely getting under his skin; and if I noticed, somebody else did too. It seems like every time Spencer did something then Cameron would outdo him. Cameron would run a mile longer, jump an inch higher, weigh a pound more, or bench more. I knew Chris was proud of Cameron and Spencer, but he was not going to get between their problems and focused on himself.
The sound of the metal bar slapping together had a familiar sound to it. Like gunshots.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The too started to spin, I manage to slip out the room and press my back against the wall; trying to get myself together. Closing my eyes and taking deep breaths to calm my nerves, I should have left as soon as Chris and Cameron went in. Once I'm calmed down, I sent a text to Spencer informing that I was heading back home so he didn't have to bother looking for me after. Even if I could stay longer, I probably wasn't; my younger self did not work this hard for me to be back on the bench watching, I find it a little embarrassing and kind of insulting.
I caught the bus back home, Olivia offered but I just wanted some time to myself. Yeah, I was proud of everybody for getting the opportunity to compete in the combine, especially, Chris and Cameron because Crenshaw doesn't get those kind of opportunities. But I'll be lying if I said I didn't feel a way about not being able to compete, get the opportunity that many people will be leaving with after tonight. And I'll be home.
When I got home, Mom, Dillon, and I sat in the living room, trying to bypass the time by watching something on TV while we wait for Spencer. I'm sure none of us were actually interested in the movie, the tension in the air was palpable.
Eventually the sound of keys jingling had the three of us jumping to our feet, Spencer walks into the house — looking anything but happy. "Baby." Mom starts, holding out her arms as she walks towards him.
"Don't feel bad, Spence." I tell him as I walk near him. "If you didn't get one then we can just stay home and watch some movies, I'll even let you pick them this time. We'll get more opportunities so don't let this one bum you out."
"I'm bummed out." Spencer mutters before he suddenly whips out an envelope. "I got the ticket!"
"And I thought I was the dramatic twin." I roll my eyes, I smile and pull him into a hug. "Congratulations, I'm so proud of you."
"Thanks, Sam." Spencer says before I break away from the hug, he clears his throat and says, "But, uh, I got big news. You might want to sit down for this."
"I'll stand." Mom tells him, crossing her arms and staring at him with narrow eyes.
"I'm going to Angeles Southern University." Spencer announces. "They about to offer me a full ride. That way I can stay close to home, and we can just—"
"Angeles Southern?" Mom questions, she shakes her head. "You're not making this decision now."
"It's a good school, ma." Spencer tells her. "I did it."
"Not good enough." Mom almost hisses at him. "Not academically. You worked too hard for this."
"Yeah, you right. I did work hard for this. That's why it's my decision." Spencer states, I decided that it was best for me to sit down instead of standing to be apart of this conversation.
"Let me stop you right now. You best believe this is our decision." Mom says, Dillon plops down on the couch, fully interested in the conversation. "Go to your room now, Dillon."
"I never get to see the good stuff." Dillon groans as he stands up and start making his way towards his bedroom.
"Ma, this full scholarship means you can finish your degree right now." Spencer tells her.
"Absolutely not. I did not send the both of you to Beverly and quit night school so one of my kinds could sell their future short." Mom says. "I made those sacrifices—"
"You think I like living in somebody else's house?!" Spencer yells. "Helping my little brother with his homework over the phone? You not the only one making sacrifices here, all right?"
"Spencer, calm down." I tell him.
"You better listen to your sister." Mom tells him.
"I'm sorry." Spencer says. "But it is my decision. And I decided that ASU is the right place for me. That's it. I'm doing this for you, Sam, Dillon, and me. That's it. And soon, Sam's going to see that this is also the best decision, she'll choose ASU as well. I'm going to start getting ready."
"I know you probably not going to want to hear this, but he's not wrong." I tell Mom, she sighs and turns towards me. "Let's take Spencer out of this situation. Not many colleges are going to take me serious even with my states, but they're going to try to recruit me because I give their school a good look and team as well. Crenshaw and Beverly are the only schools that can say that they had a female football player, and a black one. So, when colleges look at that — what looks better than having a black female football player on your team."
"Then once I sign that contract, they can keep me bench the entire season, and if that happens what was all this for?" I press on. "It means that my entire life has been a total waste, fighting the school and taking them to court, practicing day in and out, everything that I accomplished has been a waste. I didn't fight this long and work this hard just to give up now."
"And I hear you, baby, I really do. But you can never really know the intentions of anybody, and you're right. You didn't fight this long and work too hard just to go to ASU, you deserve better than that and once you get there — you'll regret it." Mom says. "I thought you wanted to go to an HBC college. Don't throw everything away on a school like ASU, because of what you think might happen. At least promise me that when you about to decide you talk to me about it, and whatever your decision is. . . I'll respect it."
"Okay, I promise."
"Thank you, baby. And if you can, please talk some sense into your brother. If anybody can talk that boy down, it's you."
I nod my head before rising off the couch, I head down the hallway to Spencer's room and knock on the door. "Are you dress?" I ask, pressing my ear to the door. "Can I come in?"
"Yeah, come in. Come in and close the door behind you." Spencer instructs, by his tone I quickly do as he says. He extends the envelope and says, "Look inside."
"Why?" I stare at the envelope then back at Spencer with narrow eyes. "This isn't some prank is it?"
"Just look." Spencer insists, taking the envelope I immediately notice that it's a lot heavier than what it's suppose to be. Opening his envelope, I see it's a stack of money inside, taking it out I see that the whole stack consists of $100 bills. "Who gave you this?"
"Brett Hanson." Spencer tells me. "He's trying to bride me."
"What are you going to do?"
Spencer still went to the event, taking the money with him, he said he would talk to Billy about the money and let me know what happens from there. I wonder how many people they gave money to bride them? I doubt anybody from Beverly got that kind of "offer", because they supposedly come from money but people think of Crenshaw and think poor. Think waving around money would make us jump over the moon for it, please.
Would they have tried to bride me if I was able to attend the combine? I wouldn't keep the money but I think it's kind of amusing to see the lengths they would take just to get me to come to their school.
Did you get an invite to the event tonight?
No, they told me next year. — Chris.
I'm sorry, Chrissy. Even though I wasn't able to watch I know you did your thing out there on the field today, and if anybody deserves an invite, it's you.
Don't call me that. — Chris.
Who knows? Maybe next year it'll be the both of us getting an invite. — Chris.
Hopefully.
I can't believe that Chris didn't get an invite, he's better than half the people on the team at Beverly and the QB of Crenshaw. How come he didn't get an invite?
I have to thank you again, Sam. — Asher.
I wouldn't have gotten an invite if you didn't come save me from drinking myself into deeper depression. I'll forever be grateful. — Asher.
And thank you for not telling about me sleeping inside my car. — Asher.
It's no problem. Let me put you in a hotel for a couple days, but if you still choose to sleep in your car at least get it cleaned. I'll pay for it!
Whatever. — Asher.
Congratulations on the invite.
I never thought I be the one to say that Asher truly did deserve an invite, even though I wasn't there to see how he well he did on the field. How we went from me not liking him and not understanding why Spencer would help him after everything he did to him, to me forming an actually friendship with him. That rich boy facade he had finally went away and I got to see the real Asher, and that's who I became friends with.
Spencer names dances on my screen, sliding my thumb across the screen. "Hey." I sit up in bed. "What did he say? About the money?"
"He said that I deserve something extra special after today and that we take care of our own." Spencer tells me. "Told me that Cameron took the money and brought him a Rolex. I even tried to give the money back but he wouldn't take it. Damon King said that payoffs, booster firsts is how the recruiting game is played. And now I'm not ASU material and they're not letting me play after I earned it!"
"What is Billy going to do?" I question.
"He's not the coach here. I'm supposed to just stand there and if another recruiter asks me why I'm supposed to tell them that I'm injured and that I can't play. Billy said that I did really well and that scouts will remember that, but if I end up suiting up, then people are gonna ask questions, and even though I did nothing wrong, those questions are gonna end up being marks against me."
"How is that fair?"
"Tell me about it."
"You know what? I tell you to suit up and play, even if you don't want to go to ASU, there's other recruiters who will see you. And you can reveal that he tried to bride you then once you wouldn't take his bride tried to get rid and of you. You have to go out there and play. You go out there and let them know that every field a James touches turns gold."
I balance the phone between my ear and shoulder. "I'm sorry they cut you from the showcase."
"I knew honesty had its consequences." Asher says. "But you never believe me about the reward, though."
"Rewards? What happened?"
"I'm back on the team, so, we're teammates again."
"That's great, Asher. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"It just happened. Coach said that me telling that coach the truth, it showed him that I was finally willing to own my crap. You know, take accountability. Samantha, thank you."
"I didn't do anything."
"You did more than you think. And I took your advice and got some help, Olivia convinces Layla to let me stay with her."
"That's great! I'm so happy for you, the good part about hitting rock bottom is it's only up from there."
"Yeah, you're right. Seriously, I indebted to you. Whatever you need, just tell me and I'll try to do it."
"I keep that in mind." I chuckle just as there was a knock on my door. "But I have to go, I'll see you later teammate."
"Sounds good to hear that again." I can hear his smile. "Night, Sam."
Leaving my room, I head to the kitchen to Dillon and Spencer setting the table, I grab four cups and set them on the table so at least I contribute. "So, what's the special occasion?" Spencer asks. "Chicken pot pie's a dead giveaway."
"Wow. Didn't even realize I did that." Mom mutters as she sets the chicken pot pie on the table. "Yes. I wanted to do something special for you."
"What for?" Dillon asks.
"Well, Spencer helped me realize something yesterday." Mom smiles. "Not only am I your mother, I'm also a member of this family. And in this family, we don't let each other settle for anything less than what we deserve. And if I'm gonna ask that of you, I have to ask that of myself, too. So, today I picked up this financial aid package from the college. To be honest, it's not enough. I'm gonna need your help. But if we agree that this is what's best for all of us, for this family, I promise to try to do what you do every day. . . Make something special of every opportunity that you give me."
"We're in." Spencer says as he holds up a piece of paper. "Adult Education Grant application. But that ain't nothing."
"I start looking at the admissions to get into that HBCU, and so far, I meet all the requirements." I tell her. "I won't give up on that school, ma, I said I would be a football player when I was little girl and now look at me. And I said I would go to that school, and I'll do that too."
"I got a hookup with Mrs. G's after-school program. If I help out with the little kids there, you don't have to pick me up till 7:45. Totally free." Dillon adds.
"Hey, don't look at me, even though I am the brains between the three of us." I hold my hands up. "That was all D."
"Dillon, you never had a Ms. G. How do you know her?" Mom asks.
"Well, Spencer isn't the only James brother who got game." Dillon dusts the imaginary dust off his shoulder.
"Shut up!"
"You know what?" Mom laughs, she walks over to us and pull all three of us into a hug. "I love you."
Hundreds of people fill the stands cheering our team as we stand on the platform, with the cheerleaders standing in front of us. I can't tell if they excited for the game that's coming up or to get out of class for a period due to today football assembly. But I'm excited for both, not having to sit through yet another lecture and for the upcoming game, Beverly has been on roll with winning these days. Beverly's actually on a winning streak. So much time has been wasted already having to change out our regular clothes and into our full football gear for this assembly, then the cheerleaders had their own little segment just a couple minutes ago.
I thought I be up on the bleachers as well, seeing how I won't be playing in yet another game since Billy still hadn't taken me off of leave. At this point, I'm just sitting on the bench to look pretty — as if I'm decoration.
"Winton Mark, Scott Anderson, Jeff Austin." Billy pauses to let the three boys do their little dance move, I don't even know what they were doing, before moving on. "Then we got Spencer James." Spencer smiles and hold up the peace sign. "You can't forget about Shane Butler and Asher Adams." Shane just nod his head while Asher smiles and wave. "And, of course, JJ Parker, Jordan Baker." From where I'm standing, I can only see Jordan and he roll his sleeve up to show his muscle.
"Last but not least our very first female football and your division player of the year, Samantha James." I wipe away the imaginary dust off both my shoulders. "Now, I've been hearing all this stuff about Logan High knocking out the first seed in playoffs two seasons in a row." Billy says when it isn't so loud anymore. "They are calling them the giant killers. Not no more. We are ready for Logan High, y'all. We are ready for Logan High."
Asher starts the pile up by throwing his hand in the middle and pile our hands on top of each other, on the count of three we throw our hands up and yell, "Beverly!"
When the assembly is over all the football players couldn't change out their jersey, so my outfit of the day is ruin my outfit with my football jersey. "Okay, I'll finish grading your papers today, so, everyone, you'll have your grades by this weekend. Good luck." Mr. Vega says after the bell rings, and everybody starts to pack up their belongings. "Spencer and Samantha, stay back for a couple minutes."
If he requested that he wanted the both of us to stay back, it wasn't looking like good news on for either of us. There's not way Spencer wrote about the same person as me, and even if he did there's no way he wrote it to the point that the teacher thought we were cheating. As everybody else leave we walk over to Mr. Vega desk, Spencer nods his head and says, "What's up?"
"I was grading the essay papers this morning, including yours Spencer, and you are aware that this assignment is worth 50% of your grade, right?" Mr. Vega questions, Spencer nods. "And yet you still chose to write that your greatest influence in life is Neon Deion Sanders."
"You did not." I nudge Spencer impress because I didn't even think about the legend himself, well, we're definitely it up here for cheating. "He has 3 receiving touchdowns, 10 defensive touchdowns, 9 return touchdowns, 784 receiving yards, and two super bowl wins. Prime Time is a living icon."
"Prime Time?" Mr. Vega obviously confused.
"That's his nickname. Prime Time." Spencer informs.
"Neon isn't his nickname?"
"He got a lot of nicknames." Spencer and I inform at the same time.
Mr. Vega shakes his head and ask, "So, is that your goal in life, Spencer? I mean, to have a lot of nicknames?"
Spencer darts his eyes over to me for a quick second, his body language changing base and so did the tone of his voice. "I haven't given it much thought."
Mr. Vega taps his pen against the paper as he says, "Yeah, kind of like this paper."
Spencer tilts his head. "Excuse me?"
"I learned nothing new or insightful about you." Mr. Vega says as he holds up a piece of paper and I saw that it has my name on it. "I learned more about you from Samantha paper than in yours and it shouldn't have to be like that, I shouldn't have to seek more information about you from another student. Your sister wrote a phenomenal essay, she has a good balance between football and school but you on the other hand. . . Perhaps football is getting in the way. And this isn't South Crenshaw High anymore."
"And what's that mean?" Spencer quiz.
"You can't coast by here, even if you are good at football."
"So, you think I'm just some dumb player from the hood?"
"What I think is that you should be thanking me for giving you an opportunity to rewrite this essay." Mr. Vega says. "And maybe Samantha should help you this time because if you don't have it in by Friday morning or you're not playing in that playoff game."
Spencer was not happy about Mr. Vega assessment on his paper, I understand both sides. The assignment was to write about write about his greatest influence, and that's what Spencer did; his football influence. But Mr. Vega was hoping for something in depth to learn more about Spencer, maybe writing about Mom, Billy, or Dad even. Regardless, Spencer did the paper and to make him redo it so that he can be apart of the playoff game is crazy.
Spencer was so upset that he wanted to go to Crenshaw to tell Mom what had happened, I thought a text message or phone call would have suffice. But he thought otherwise, he wanted it to be a face-to-face conversation. And I was going to let him go by himself but it's not like I had anything else to do today besides homework, football practice was canceled. Although I wouldn't have been able to participate in practice anyway, and I didn't have work either since I tagged along with him.
Mom stares at Spencer paper then back at Spencer, clearly unimpressed when she says, "Neon Deion? Really?"
"It's Prime Time." Spencer tells her as if that cleared up anything.
Mom shakes her head as she sets his paper down, turning her attention over to me. "Who did you write about, Sam?"
"Laura Baker."
"Laura Baker?" Mom repeats as if making sure that's the name I had just said. "That's sweet of you. I wasn't expecting that." She sips from her coffee mug then we sit in this awkward silence for a few moments. "Spencer you could have done better."
"Ma, dude changed the game." Spencer explains. "I can't believe you're siding with Mr. Vega."
"Not taking sides. But at least he cares. My professor doesn't even look up at us." Mom informs. "I could bump into her at the grocery store, she wouldn't know I was in her class."
Spencer raise an eyebrow as he ask, "So why take the class?"
"Because it's important." Mom tells him. "And my assignment now is to take a plot of land right here in Crenshaw and formulate a plan for the community. It can be anything I want it to be a park, house, business. And my job is to weigh all the issues."
Spencer smiles. "You're gonna change the world, ain't you, ma?"
"I can at least try." Mom stands from the table, she starts to walk away but stop to say, "Neon Deion was legit, though."
"Prime Time." Spencer corrects.
"Prime Time." Mom says as she holds her hands up. "Now let me get to my class before I'm late."
Spencer stares down at his phone before he stands to his feet and says, "We're heading out too." He pocket his phone. "I need to rewrite my paper and we both need to do our homework, we should leave while it's still bright outside."
Probably Layla texting him that she wants to hang out, this whole trip here was pointless. We went back and forth between two cities for what amounted to a brief conversation, a text messages would have been longer than the actually conversation. We hadn't stayed in Crenshaw for more than an hour, I just don't understand why he couldn't have simply spoken over the phone.
"Look how late we are coming back." I tell Spencer as he unlocks the front door. "You could have told her that over the phone. Feel like my whole day has been stolen from me."
"As if you had something other than homework to do." Spencer sucks his teeth, he pushes the door open and it's pitch black inside, and he doesn't make an attempt to turn it on as he walks into the house.
"Doesn't matter if I wanted to watch Snowfall all day, and stuff my face full of pizza." I tell him as I walk inside behind him, flicking the lights on. "It's still my—"
"Happy one-year sobriety anniversary!" The words are damned near screamed at me that my heart does a somersault in my chest.
The room is filled with nothing but familiar faces: Olivia, Jordan, Billy, Laura, Chris, Layla, Coop, and Patience. The sight of them almost brings me to tears but I refuse to let them fall, I will not ugly cry in front of everyone — they'll never let me leave it down. My sobriety and the time I spent with Tyrone had been a don't ask, won't tell situation. Apart from Chris and Gabriella, I didn't talk about those time, forgetting myself that it's been a year since those dark days I consider living nightmare.
I punch Spencer in the arm. "This is why you had me traveling back and forth to Crenshaw and Beverly, I knew that trip didn't make no sense."
"Hey!" Spencer laughs. "I had to keep you from coming back here and ruining the surprise."
"You didn't think that you were going to celebrate this alone, did you?" Laura questions, walking towards me with open arms, I kept to myself that I wasn't even going to celebrate today myself since I forgot. "Of course, we know it's not only Liv anniversary but yours as well. Congratulations, sweetheart."
"Thank you." I smile at her when she breaks the hug. "Thank you everybody, you have been doing so much for me since I got here."
"You're family." Billy says as he pulls me into a hug next. "I told you, this family had already chosen you — you're apart of the family. Congratulations, I'm so proud of you. There's no way we would miss celebrating this with you today."
Jordan approaches me next, but he keeps his distance. "Olivia made us realize that just because you don't speak about something doesn't mean that you're not suffering in silent. So, if you ever need somebody to talk to, we're all here for you."
I silently thank him with a smile and head nod, we're not on the best of terms but I do appreciate him being here.
"Samantha." Coop says, it's the first time in a long time since she'd called me by my first name. "I know, we're not on good terms right now but there's no way I was going to miss this. You can be mad at me all you want—"
Coop may have been the one who asked me to get involved but ultimately Tyrone's the one who got Shawn killed, all the black and anger belongs to him and not Coop. She was just trying to help him, probably the first and only person who made an actual attempt at helping him. "I'm glad you're here." I hug her. "I've missed you so much."