New chapter! :) Hope you like it!
Beckham O’Neil
I woke up screaming. I hadn’t realized that I had fallen asleep. That particular memory hadn’t haunted me in what seemed like forever. The lights flashed on, blinding me for a second. When my eyes readjusted they saw Paul standing in his boxers holding a baseball bat and Jane wearing a night gown and curlers in her hair. They reminded me of the way parents dressed for bed on old TV shows.
“Beck! What happened?” Jane asked, her expression was of worry and fear.
“Nothing. I just had a bad dream is all.” Paul lowered his bat, grumbled something and left.
“Okay. Maybe it’ll be something you’ll want to talk to Dr. Coleman about.” I just stared at her blankly. Yeah because I tell him everything that happens in my life. “Well, try to go back to sleep, you have school in the morning.”
I nodded and she exited the room, turning the lights off as she left. I glanced over at he racecar alarm clock beside my bed. It was three in the morning. I groaned and fell back. I closed my eyes and tried to forget the memory. Eventually sleep took over.
The next morning was like the others. I ate breakfast, got ready for school, and hoped in the car. However, what was different about this particular morning was when I got the cafeteria before school, Tyler motioned for me to sit next to him. I guess that was the answer to my question, we were still in truce mode.
I took the seat he had saved me. The table consisted mostly of the football team with a few girls. I sat there quietly for a few minutes before I started to join in the conversation. It was a weird feeling, having friends, being apart of a group.
A few weeks had passed by since the Lacey incident. Tyler and I were still on good terms, even though I don’t know how we managed to keep it that way. It was the Monday before the biggest game of our season. On Friday we play Longview, apparently our rivals since forever. Every day the group talked about the up coming game. How good Longview was, and how we had to beat them.
After English, Tyler, Lacey and I, met up with a few other guys who were in our next calss. As we were walking down the hallway, I was looking at Micheals as he told a story about him wrecking his truck the night before. I wasn’t really paying any attention to my surroundings, mostly because people just naturally moved out of our way, when I bumped into someone.
“Oh, sorry.” I said as her books tumbled out of her hand and spread across the floor. The group stopped to wait for me as I helped her pick her stuff up. “Sorry, I guess I just wasn’t paying any attention.” I looked at her and gave her an apologetic smile.
She was cute with her brown hair and jade green eyes. She was a little shorter than Lacey, but not by much, and had and athletic body type. She huffed at me, “Of course you weren’t. None of you ever pay any attention.” I have to admit, the remark stung a little bit. She then pushed past me and stormed down the hallway.
The guys laughed at her remark towards me, “Geez, Beck, Learn to pay attention to where you’re walking.”
I smiled at their comments as we continued on our way to class, but something about what she said bugged me. She acted as if I was some popular arrogant ass that thought he ruled the halls. I looked over my shoulder, but she was already long gone. I wanted to ask her what possessed her to yell at me like that. I mean it was an accident and I apologized for it. I looked around at the group that surrounded me. I guess if I didn’t know any better, I would assume that I was one of them too. I guess I kind of was in a way. I had been accepted by them, but it had taken a lot of work to be accepted, and I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to be friends with them. I remember when I thought about the team like they were arrogant jerks like she does (which I know was a whole two weeks ago), but I found out some of them are nice guys that I’ve become pretty good friends with.
Her comment bothered me all day, after lunch I had Biology. When I entered the room after Tyler and Michaels, I saw her. She was sitting in the corner of the classroom by herself. I had chosen that exact seat on my first day. Michaels nudged me and snickerd. I threw him a death glare before sitting down next to her. “Hey.” I gave her a friendly smile.
Her expression was weird, like a combination of confusion and repulsion. “What do you want?”
I shrugged, “Nothing, just saying ‘hey’.” She turned away from me and faced the front of the class room. I frowned, “Okay then.”
It was hard to focus on what Mr. Smathers was saying because A. It didn’t’ get what we were talking about and B. I was too busy thinking about her. I wanted to know what she thought and why. I wasn’t really sure why I cared what she thougt. I never care what people think. But this time I did.
After class was over, I slowly go up, matching my pace to hers. Tyler and Michaels were waiting by the classroom door. “I’ll catch up with you guys later. “
Tyler shrugged, “Okay, just don’t be late for practice. Not all of us like to run as much as you do.”
She was finishing gathering up her things, “Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot. I’m Beck.”
“Uh, huh.” She walked out of the classroom.
I followed her, “What’s ‘uh huh’ supposed to mean?”
”Its supposed to mean that I don’t really care.”
”What do you mean you don’t care?”
She rolled her eyes, “You really ask too many questions. I thought it would be obvious. I’m not interested.” She started to walk in the opposite direction that I needed to go. I looked at the clock. I only had fine minutes to get to the locker room and change and get to the field. I decided I’d talk to her later and turned down the hallway towards the locker room.
Monday practices are supposed to be running practices. So, naturally it was my favorite practice and I had been looking forward to it all day. It would help me get my mind off of her. Sadly, all we did was run a mile and a half, and then watched game film. It felt good to run, but I had wished we had run more.
Paul ended practice early so he could talk to us about the game on Friday. We gathered around him and took a knee.
“This Friday is one of the biggest games of the season. We play Longview, everyone know what that means. Right now, our last two victories have put us in 1st place, tied with Longview. If, no when, we win this game, we will not only break Longview’s five year winning streak, but we will be by ourselves in 1st place. We have to beat them. The past five years we’ve lost by 10 points or less. This year, however, things will change. We’ve got a great team, we’re undefeated, and we are going to keep it that way by beating the hell out of Longview.” Paul paused when some of the guys started hooting and hollering. When they finished he started speaking again. “I expect everyone to go all out, 110%.” He smiled at Larry, the one smart football player. “I know, Larry, there really isn’t anything more than 100%, but that’s what I want this week, because hard work-.”
“Pays off.” The team finished his speech in unison.
Paul smile, “Okay, Mustangs on three. One two three.”
“Mustangs.”
“All right, hit the showers.”
After we had gotten changed, Tyler approached me. “So, Beck. As you probably guessed, Longview is our biggest rival. Every year they play a prank on us, stealing our mascot, TPing the field, stupid stuff. This year we were thinking of doing something, but bigger.”
“So you came to me?” I was confused as to why he would be telling me this.
HE shrugged, “Well, we thought you could help us think of something.”
“So, just because I’m the trouble maker you think I’ve got a good prank cooking?” I said it jokingly, but he looked like he thought I was being serious.
“Well, it’s not just that-.”
I smiled, “Relax. Of course I’ll help. I’ve got the perfect idea.”
Both Tyler and I shared a devious smile.
On Thursday we decided to have a team dinner to boost moral before the big game. However, Tyler, Michaels, Travis, Larry, Jake and I climbed into Michaels’ mom’s minivan and said we were carpooling home. Before our departure I placed black paper on the license plates, we didn’t want anybody knowing this car was linked to Michaels.
The drive to our destination was long, everyone in the minivan was on edge. We all took look out as Michaels drove, making sure there wasn’t any cops or really any sign of life around us. We parked out front, in the drop off area.
I was sitting in the middle row and everyone turned to look at me.
“Okay. Now, before we go out there, nobody has any Kingsland or Heritage shirts, shorts, hats, socks, anything?” Everyone shook their heads no, I rolled my eyes, “Travis, you’re wearing your letterman.”
His brown eyes gave me and innocent look, “But it’s cold.”
I sighed, “Take it off, Travis.” He did as I told and I moved on. “Okay, here are some Longview football shirts, everyone needs to put one on.”
Tyler held up shi as if it was contaminated, “Where the hell did you get these?”
I shrugged nonchalantly, “Longview booster club.” After everyone put on their shirt I started talking again. “Okay, does everyone know the plan? Tyler and Travis are on chalk duty, Larry, Jake, ya’ll are on tape duty, just wrap it around the perimeter. Michaels you are the get away driver, just keep the engine running. I’ve got blood duty.”
”Whoa, whoa, whoa, blood duty?” Jake questioned.
I held up the bottle with the red liquid. “Calm down, it’s Gatorade and extra red food dye, it’s not the real thing, but it’ll get the job done.” I looked around at the group, “Everybody ready?” They all nodded and we quickly got out of the van.
I ran over to where Travis and Tyler were chalking up the sidewalk and sprayed some ‘blood’ on the concrete. I looked around and made sure everybody was doing their jobs. We all finished right on schedule and climbed into the minivan and Michaels floored it. Tyler looked at me, “What happens next?”
I smiled, “We watch the news tomorrow morning.”
Can anybody guess what they did? ;)