Gary stepped off the final step of the stairway from his upstairs room. He was wearing the black football jersey with the gold trim around the neck and sleeves. The gold color matched gold number ‘40’ was placed on the center of his chest and back. He walked into the kitchen and found his mother in her usual spot at the stove. He sat at the table with his back to her and picked a piece of bacon form the platter in front of him.
“Mom,” he bit down on the bacon, “Why does it matter to him that I play football?”
His mother stopped stirring the eggs she was scrambling, removed the pan to the side of the burner, and turned around to look at his back. “I don’t know. Why does it matter, honey?”
“I mean, it only a game, right?” he asked looking up to the window.
Julie stepped to him, bent down, wrapped her arms around her oldest child and whispered in his ear, “Right.”
“What’s going on?” Ron interrupted the moment between mother and son. Julie stood to face her husband on the landing to the basement and leaned toward him to kiss him.
“Nothing is going on,” she said as she returned to the stove and continued working on the eggs. “And good morning, Ronald.”
“Hello,” Ron said as he stepped to the bench seat across from Gary. “How are you today, Gary? I see you are wearing your jersey to school.”
“Yes. There is a pep assembly today. It is the beginning of homecoming weekend.”
“I believe this will be your last one, too. Are you going to the dance?” his father asked as he retrieved a piece of bacon from the platter.
“Yes,” Gary answered as his mother placed plates of scrambled eggs in front of each of them and sat beside him. “We all are kind of required to go.”
“Are you taking a date?” his mother asked as she, too, crunched a piece of bacon in her mouth.
“Well, actually,” he said as he put a forkful of eggs into his mouth and he smiled at his Dad. “I am.”
***
The hallways of the school were decorated in black and gold streamers and plastered with posters that said, “Beat the Comets!” and “Go Hawks”. His locker, and all the senior’s lockers, were covered in black and gold trimmings. Gary spun the combination lock embedded in the door to begin the process of opening it. He placed his gym bag into it and grabbed his English book to include with the two books he was already carrying then slammed the door shut.
“Jacksonski!” Gary heard the familiar voice of Jim O’Brien, a friend from the Congress neighborhood.
“O’Brien!” he yelled his answer. ‘Jacksonski’ is an inside joke between the two of them when they shared their first beers one summer night at the Larimore Swimming Club parking lot. They made up a genealogy story that his father, Ron, and his father’s father came across the ocean as immigrants and changed their family name from Jacksonski to Jackson in order to begin their new lives in the good old USA. Gary gave him a wave and cut across the hallway to the stairwell to head up to the second-floor classrooms.
He had English third hour, the hour before lunch, and it was on the second floor across from Janet’s locker. He was on his way to leave the book in her locker. She was still there when he arrived, and she looked at him.
“Wow,” she smiled at him. “I just saw you on the bus. Is this beginning to be a thing, Gary Jackson?”
“I don’t know,” he told her as he handed her the English book. “Can I leave this book in your locker?”
“You avoided my question,” she took the book from him and placed it on the shelf in her locker and closed it.
They turned back to the stairway Gary had just come from and continued their conversation.
“What do you mean by “Thing”,” Gary asked her.
“Oh, I don’t know, an item,” she said as she readjusted her books from her right arm to her left.
“An item? I thought we didn’t want to risk our relationship,” he paused to let her go slightly ahead of him as they entered the stairwell and start to descend the stairs.
“I am still considering that. How do you feel about being my boyfriend?” she asked him back.
“I’ve never been a boyfriend before. What would I have to do?”
Janet stopped in the middle of the stairs and looked at him. She reached up and placed her hand on his cheek and said to him, “You would be a nice boyfriend.” She turned and continued down the steps.
“What does that mean?” he said as he followed her.
***
The pep assembly occurred during fifth hour as the entire student body filled the bleachers in the gym. A microphone was set up and stood before two rows of seven chairs set up on the basketball court beneath the Hawk painted on the wall. Those chairs were for the seniors that were on the football team. The rest of the team would sit on the first two rows of bleacher seats to the right of those chairs. Another row of chairs was set up to the left for the coaches and administrative staff of the school; the principal and assistant principals representing each school, B, C, and D. Teachers sat with their fifth hour classes as they walked in and filled the bleachers. The Marching Band was already sitting in the bleachers and were playing the school’s fight song over and over. The cheerleaders were hopping and performing in the middle of the court. As the gym was filling up with students and teachers, the football team and their coaches were in the locker room.
“I will introduce our two captains, Dan and Lumberjack,” Coach Stiller continued to tell them. “and you guys will take turns to say how we are going to beat the Comets tomorrow. Then I will introduce the rest of the Seniors and , when called, you stand and wave. After they are introduced, everyone run to the middle of the court and huddle together and start our chant, rocking the huddle and when I count three on my hand, we will have one final Go Hawks and run back to the locker room. Got it?”
The team all nodded in response. Gary couldn’t help but hear the sound in the gym on the other side of the wall. The band was playing, and he heard the murmur of the crowd crescendo its sound to match the band. He heard the muffling of someone talking through the microphone.
“Okay,” Coach Stiller said to them. “Let’s line up, seniors last, and go to the gym. Don’t go in until I say.”
They followed his instructions and exited the doorway that enters into the hallway to the gym. They crowded in the hallway and waited. All the coaches except for their head coach went into the gym and when they did, the crowd exploded with cheers in anticipation of seeing their team. Coach Stiller turned to them and yelled at them one last time, “Remember, follow me and then run to your designated seats after we take a lap around the court when we enter the gym. Let’s start the chant – slow and building. Daniel get it started!”
“Go Hawks,” Dan starts the chant, clapping with each claim. “Go Hawks…Go Hawks…”
The team began to chant with Dan, slowly building momentum. Gary noticed the crowd outside the hallway got quiet. Then he heard them begin to chant with the team. The big bass drum followed the beat of the chant, slowly getting louder and faster. Coach Stiller raised his arm and turned and led them out into the room.
The gym erupts as they ran onto the court. The cheerleaders were in the middle of the room, jumping and cheering, cartwheeling, and spinning as Coach Stiller led them in a quick jog around the edges finally leading them to one end of the court. The Seniors went to their chairs and the others to their places in the bleachers. Everyone was standing and the band was playing but everything suddenly went still, in anticipation, when the coach stepped toward the microphone stand.
“Hello Hawks!”
A cheer rose and the bass drum thumped.
“Are you ready to burn some Comets!”
***
Friday practice was called Special Teams Day and the players wore only shorts, jerseys, and helmets. It was mainly light running and special tram drills. The field goal team set up at one end of the practice field and worked on long snaps as Kenny Mack kicked his field goals. He was a soccer player who was talked into playing on the football team to only kick the football and he was good. In practice, he could kick the ball through the uprights from 60 yards away but in a game, so far, his longest field goal was 43 yards. Kenny was also the team’s punter. Friday really should have been called Kenny Day.
Because Kenny couldn’t practice field goals and punt the ball at the same time, at the other end of the field, Jim Thompson, the fullback and back-up quarterback, was throwing footballs in high arcs simulating punts to the punt receiving team. Kenny would practice punts later. Gary was taking his turn at catching them and running the ball behind the defense practicing blocking patterns to the left and then to the right. There was little talking on Special Teams Day. A whistle blew and the team ran to the sideline except for Kenny, who dragged his sack of footballs and orange tee to the center of the field.
“First team kick-off team!” Coach Stiller yelled and eleven players ran to the center of the field. “D-Backs go catch the kick offs except for Tim and Rick, you two come here!”
Gary ran to the end of the field along with the other three defensive backs and took his place to get ready to catch the kicks. The kick-off team spread out with Kenny in the middle and five players on each side of him. He placed a football upright on the orange tee and walked backward about five yards and one step, two steps, to his right and he raised his right arm.
“Remember, no tackling,” Coach Stiller reminded them and blew his whistle.
Ken began to stride toward the ball, slow at first then a little quicker. He finally placed his left foot beside the tee, swung his right leg and struck the ball. It rose from the tee., spinning head over heel higher and higher until it reached the top of its arc and started down toward Gary. He waited, not taking his eyesight off of the ball, and he heard the stampede of running feet heading his way.
“Go left!’ Smitty yelled at him as he placed his right foot a bit behind his body and raised his arms to form a cradle. The ball settled in his arms and he immediately ran to his left as a body whizzed by him on his right and within three steps, he was surrounded by other members of the kickoff team. The whistle blew again.
“Do it again! Jackson run down with the kickoff team and, Rick you stay there!”
Gary ran down the field with the other members and lined up on the very end to the left of Kenny on the kickoff team. His job on the kickoff team was to run directly to the receiver to be the first one to tackle him. He watched Kenny as he performed his ritual, place the ball on the orange tee, walked back five yards, turned, and raised his arm. The whistle blew and the ball was kicked, and Gary raced to get to the receiver first. He was the second one to the player with the ball who ran away from him and the whistle blew.
“Do it again! Jackson stay and Smitty come back!”
Gary turned where he stood, catching his breath, and waited for the kick-off again. He shook his head. He ran a lot on Special Team Day.
***
They had finished with supper and the entire family waited in their seat because it was Grocery Store night. Every Friday, Julie would ask everyone what they wanted for supper the following week and then she and her husband would go to the grocery store.
“Chris?” Julie asked him as she had already solicited responses from the others.
“Hmmm, how about Shepherd’s Pie?” he volunteered.
“You know better,” his Mom set down the pencil she was using to make the grocery list. “Your sister doesn’t like Shepherd’s Pie.”
“I know and it isn’t fair. You always say we can choose whatever we like, and I like Shepherd’s Pie but because of her, I never get to have it.”
Julie looked at him, waiting, until he conceded.
“All right! I give up, once again! I chose pork chops with scallop potatoes.”
“Okay, Ronald,” Julie said as she finished adding the ingredients to her list. “I will be ready in five minutes.” She rose and went into the kitchen to check her refrigerator and cabinets for additional grocery items to add to the list.
Gary and his siblings rose from their chairs to carry dishes to the kitchen.
“So Gary,” his father slowly said aloud. “Are you starting tomorrow’s game?”
Gary turned back toward him and sat down.
To be continued…
My First Stories 