VA 2 - Blood Jewel (39 page)

“Well, it’s really cool and we’re
glad to have you on our team, even if Henderson is acting like a
jackass.”

“Thanks. I’m glad to be here
instead of Collinsville. My old coach didn’t give a rip about us or
if we ever won a single game. He just showed up because it was the
part of his job he couldn’t dodge.”

“Hey, water boy! Bring me
something to drink,” my new nemesis yelled from across the field. I
flipped him off to let him know how I felt about his order. I
figured it was better for this to go down sooner rather than
later.

“I guess you figured out that’s
Forbes Henderson, but ignore him. He was our first string
quarterback last year and he’s showing off because he knows you
just bumped him from starting.”

This was something we needed to be
clear about from the beginning. “I hope I don’t look like I care,
'cause I don’t.”

The guy laughed and said, “I
somehow gathered that by the bird you just shot him. I can already
tell this is going to get interesting. You aren't like anyone at
this school.”

“Dude, you have no
idea.”

“Wickham, you kicking today or
not?” the coach yelled from across the field.

“That's my only warning. I don’t
feel like running laps, so I guess I’ll catch you
later.”

“Later.”

Practice lasted three hours and
watching Henderson with his mediocre throwing skills made me itch
to get out there with the team. I was ready to show them what I was
made of; I was ready to show Henderson.

When Coach let us go, I went into
the field house to get my jersey and found Henderson waiting for
me. After I entered, he walked to the doorway to block me from
leaving and said, “That’s a snazzy little trick you can pull, but
don’t think you’re gonna just walk into the starting quarterback
position, because I don’t plan on giving it up.”

I grabbed my bag off the bench and
walked toward him without responding.

As I tried to step around him, he
shoved his shoulder into mine and said, “Did you hear me,
boy?”

His words and smirk triggered
something in me, a reminder of the way Wayne would smirk before he
beat me when I was a little kid. I grabbed him by his jersey and
pulled him from the doorway, slamming him against the wall of the
cement block field house. “Never touch me again.
Understood?”

He didn’t respond as he stared me
right in the eyes and I wasn’t sure if it was defiance or fear I
saw.

“Do we have a misunderstanding
already, guys?” I heard Coach ask from the doorway of his office as
he stood with his arms crossed, waiting for an
explanation.

I refused to lose the stare down
and answered, “No Coach, I think there’s a crystal clear
understanding between us. Don’t you agree, Henderson?”

He narrowed his eyes at me and
answered, “Yes, I believe Boone and I understand each other
perfectly.”

“Glad to hear it. Now get out of
here, Henderson. Boone, I need to see you in my office.”

Great. I was the one that was going
to get rimmed out. That shouldn’t come as a surprise; it was only
natural that the rich kid would get away with murder.

I followed Coach to his office. He
shut the door and then told me to have a seat. Shutting the door
was never a good sign and sitting meant he had a lot to say, an
even worse sign. I prayed he wasn’t about to throw me off the team.
I needed this spot desperately, so I inhaled deeply and put on my
best poker face to shield my nearly overwhelming fear of being told
to get out.

“Are you aware of the magnificent
talent you have, Boone?”

I shrugged my shoulders. I wasn’t
use to hearing any kind of praise, but I knew what I could do was
special.

“A lot of colleges
out there that dream of getting their hands on someone like
you.”

I felt like I could breathe again
when I realized I wasn’t being shown the door. I admitted, “I’m
glad to hear you say that. I hope you’re right because I have to
get a full ride if I want to go to college.”

He looked a little torn about what
he wanted to say and I felt a stab of nervousness
return.

“Boone, I’m a straight shooter so
I’m just going to ask you. Have you not gotten the physical because
you didn’t know about it, or can you not afford it?”

Every important time in my life has
always come to this, the part where I’m forced to admit I come from
nothing. I hesitantly said, “I didn’t know about it, but even if I
had I can’t afford it. I plan on talking to my boss this afternoon.
He might let me have an advance on my paycheck.”

Coach began writing on a notepad
and said, “My wife’s brother is a physician. This is his name and
the location of his office. I’ll let him know you’ll be coming to
see him. He'll take care of you at no charge.”

No one had cut me a break in my
life except for my boss, Earl. I stared at the writing on the slip
of paper. “Why would he do that for me?”

“I want you. The sooner I get you
practicing, the sooner I can see exactly what I can do with
you.”

No one had wanted me my entire life
and what I felt inside was foreign. “Thanks, Coach.”

I was glad I wouldn’t have to worry
about how I was going to pay for the doctor visit, but I didn’t
like feeling like a charity case. I hoped the other guys wouldn’t
find out Coach arranged a free physical for me. They’d never finish
ragging me about it.

When I walked out of the field
house, a lot of the guys were hanging out in the parking lot and
more than a dozen girls had joined them. They were all wearing
short athletic shorts and T-shirts that read EFHS, so I decided
they must be the cheerleading squad arriving for
practice.

My new arch rival was holding hands
with the hottest one in the group. She was a petite little thing
with a tiny waist and a tight shirt to show off her perky breasts.
Her long hair was pulled into the classic cheerleader ponytail and
I couldn’t decide if it was brown or red, so I settled on calling
it auburn.

I walked to my truck, totally
expecting a cheap shot, and Henderson didn’t surprise me when he
yelled across the parking lot, “Hey, superstar. Are you still
waiting for the NFL to send your first paycheck so you can buy a
ride that didn’t come from the junkyard?”

As he laughed caustically, his
apparent girlfriend jerked her hand from his and I heard a loud pop
as she slapped him across the chest. I was disappointed it wasn’t
his face, but she had no reason to defend me and I was surprised
she didn’t join him in humiliating me.

I opened the squeaky door to my
truck and said, “Wow, Henderson. That was creative for someone that
just got bumped to second string.”

I got in my truck and shut the door
before he had the opportunity to retaliate and belittle me further
in front of the cheerleaders. I hesitated in starting the engine. I
prayed it wouldn’t stall out on me as it sometimes did. Luck was
with me today and I was incredibly thankful when it started on the
first try. I left the field knowing this thing between me and
Forbes Henderson was only just beginning.

2 Thumbing a Ride

Claire

“Claire! Please, hurry up. Payton
is here and you don’t want to be late on your first day of school,”
I heard my mom yell from downstairs.

“
Great
,” I muttered to
myself as I grabbed my short, ivory floral dress and quickly slung
it over my head. I had the intention of braiding the front of my
hair today, but I didn’t have time, so I twisted the front section,
then pulled it to the side and pinned it securely with a pair of
brown bobby pins in an X.

I looked at the clock. “Ugh!” I
groaned. Payton was going to kill me. Tardiness was the story of my
life. It was never my intention to be late, but I must have been
genetically engineered that way; I couldn’t not be late.

“Payton, give me another minute
and I’ll be right down,” I yelled from my room as I sprayed myself
with a soft peach and jasmine scented body spray, then rubbed my
legs and arms with the same scented body lotion.

As usual, she was on time and it
put me on edge knowing I might make us late on our first day of
school because I knew I would catch hell from her.

I hated thumbing a ride, even if it
was with my best friend and I cursed the ignoramus that backed into
my car at the mall and left a huge dent in the bumper. Hopefully, I
would have my own ride back from the shop before the back to school
bonfire out at Harrison Cleveland’s on Friday night since we
planned on using my sound system for the music.

I quickly put on my new boots, took
a look in the mirror and thought I was missing something. I looked
too plain, so I looked in my closet where I stored my accessories.
I draped my apricot scarf around my neck because it looked like it
was made to go with my dress and the color looked fabulous with the
red in my hair. Once I was satisfied with the way I looked, I
grabbed my backpack and ran down the stairs.

My mom was dressed for work and
standing at the bottom of the staircase to either greet me or scold
me. I decided it was scold when I saw she was clearly agitated. She
watched me scurry down the staircase while standing with her hands
on her hips and I knew she was thinking she didn’t raise her
daughter to always be late.

“Claire, I have group late tonight
and your dad is on call, so you’ll have to fend for yourself on
dinner, but I should be in around nine or so,” she said as she
walked to the kitchen, then returned with my travel mug of
coffee.

I took it from her hand and said,
“No problem, mom, and thanks for the coffee.” I held it up to my
nose, breathed in the aroma, and played our little guessing game of
identifying the flavor. “Chocolate Raspberry?”

“You got it, baby girl.” Even at
seventeen years-old, I still loved to hear my mom call me
that.

“You’re awesome, mom,” I said as I
hugged her. After she told us to have a great first day at school,
Payton and I left my house and headed toward school. She drove
faster than she should because I caused us to run a little late and
I promised myself I would do better the rest of the week since she
would be driving me.

My phone went off and we both
recognized the tone as Forbes’. I grabbed my purse, dug for my
phone and waited to see what Payton would have to say because it
was always something interesting. She reached to turn the music
down, then said, “Let me guess. The guy that thinks only with the
head not located on his shoulders wants you to come and blow his
mind before homeroom.”

“Leave it to you to say something
like that.” I read the text from him asking where I was and told
Payton, “He’s looking for me because he’s afraid I might talk to
another guy. He puts on such a front, but I think he’s scared I’m
going to dump him since he isn’t starting quarterback anymore. But,
don’t you dare say a word about it.”

“Claire, his insecurities are
highly unattractive. How shallow does he think you are? I mean, is
he really thinking you’re going to dump him for the new guy from
Collinsville just because he’s the new starting
quarterback?”

“I don’t know exactly what he’s
thinking, but cut him some slack, Payton. He’s not used to losing,”
I defended.

She
laughed and said, “Yeah, I get that, but failing to see you’re
not
it
anymore is also unattractive. He’s still stuck
in the mentality that he’s the superstar at East Franklin and he
lost that spot when he got bumped by the new
guy.”

None of that was news to me. Forbes
despised the air the guy breathed and I knew firsthand how poorly
the new guy’s position was going over with him because I heard
about it incessantly.

“So, what is New Hot Guy’s name
anyway?” Payton asked.

“I don’t know because I only hear
him referred to as some type of profanity, but please don’t refer
to him as New Hot Guy in front of Forbes. I so don’t want to hear
him go off on you.”

“Screw Forbes Henderson. I’ll tell
him myself that the new guy is a sexy mother scratcher and I dare
him to say anything about it,” she threatened.

Yeah, I knew she was right, but
Forbes was humiliated about losing his spot to a guy from
Collinsville and today he had to face everyone at school. He was so
certain the student body was laughing behind his back, but in
reality, they wouldn’t care who the quarterback was as long as our
football team was winning. I wouldn’t really care either if I
wasn’t dating the former starting quarterback.

The
whole pity party attitude was a complete turn off, but I didn’t
mention it because I was the
perfect girlfriend
,
but I had cut as much slack as I planned to. If he kept it up, I
would be forced to say something about it because he was using it
as a reason to try to get in my pants and I was getting sick of
it.

“How about you try to not jack
around with Forbes today?” I pleaded.