Chapter 5: Game Day Pt. 1

"Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!". My feet hit the floor the moment my alarm goes off. Today's Friday, Game Day, the best day of the week. I woke up feeling refreshed and excited for the game this morning. Wednesday passed similarly to Monday and Tuesday, with early morning film study and a long afternoon practice to drill the game plan into our skulls. Thursday was a light practice where we mainly did walkthroughs and were done by 5:00 p.m. Coach Anderson didn't want to gas us before the game after all.

I began putting on my school uniform bottoms, light brown khaki shorts with white crew socks, and hazelnut nut brown sperrys, however instead of putting my school shirt on, I put my gameday football jersey on. After I finished with that, I got to work making my typical breakfast for myself. While making breakfast, Mom and Dad both woke up and to get ready for their day. Twenty minutes later and I'm enjoying my breakfast, while Mom is cooking breakfast for herself and Dad. Mom, Dad, and I talked about the game and school until I finished eating. After finishing my breakfast, I cleaned the kitchen and put my football bag into the trunk of my car while putting my backpack into the backseat. With that done I said goodbye to my parents, while they wished me luck, and pulled out of the driveway.

On the radio, all of the local talk show hosts are talking about today's game. Most of them are putting their money on East High, however, there are a few dissenters who have decided to put their money on West High. Dissenters that I'll have to silence by giving another stellar performance tonight.

I head to Rachel's place to pick her up today. When I get there both she and her dad are waiting on the front steps. I hop out of my car and walk up to Rachel to give her a hug and a kiss. After doing so I greet Mr. Harper with a firm handshake and say hello to Mrs. Harper who is just now coming outside. After a few moments of exchanging pleasantries, Mr. and Mrs. Harper begins pestering me about how I feel and if I think the team is ready to which I just give them a mischievous smile and tell them that they'll see when it's game time.

After saying goodbye to the Harper's I grabbed Rachel's bag and put it in the back of the Porsche with my bag and we headed to school. However, we aren't three seconds into the ride before she starts to question me if I think the team is ready, if I feel I am ready, if I slept well last night, if I ate enough, etc., etc. Unlike when dealing with her parents I answer all of her many questions with an honest smile on my face since I know she's just asking me out of care for my genuine well-being, more so than her parents were at least.

The drive to school was nice. After Rachel asked her rapid-fire questions and I answered her, we put a CD, with some of mine and Kerry's music on it, into the CD player and listened to some good country/rock and roll music on the way to school. When we got to school, we noticed the entire front of the school had been decorated with game day paraphernalia, which I couldn't help but think gets more extreme and extravagant for every home game. However, regardless of the extravagance our school's fans(moms) put into the decorations, I can't help but feel a bit grateful that they took the time to put all this up.

The moment Rachel and I got out of the car we were practically assaulted by the bevy of students who were relaxing in the parking lot with their friends. Most of the people ask about the game but some people try to grab me and pull me in a certain direction, and by some people I mean Kerry. He's been breathing down my neck since he got back from the Philippines and returned to school Wednesday. He speaks up over the sound of the crowd and asks "HEY! Can I borrow them for a bit?" The crowd goes silent for a moment, a moment that Rachel and I use to grab our bags and begin to move away before I announce to the crowd "All of your questions will be answered if you come to watch the game tonight. I can however give you a personal guarantee that it will be an entertaining event. However, you'll have to wait until tonight."

With that handled Rachel and I walk with Kerry over toward his car. Once there Kerry hands me a wad of E$20.00s. I count the bills which amount to just over E$250.00. "You remembered," I said. Of course, I did. Some things came up and I had to get some money so I wasn't able to pay you back when I got back Wednesday. The issues weren't hammered out until yesterday evening, but I'm a man of my word, so here you are E$250.00 richer while I'm E$250.00 poorer. Are we even now? Am I forgiven?" he questions with a smirk.

"You and I both know I wasn't really that broken up about the money right?" "You, Me, and Rachel all know you were definitely that broken up over losing your money," he replies dryly while Rachel just gives me the side eye. I ignore both of their responses and reply by saying "Money isn't that high up on the totem pole. It's like fifth, maybe fourth." "Oh, so you have a totem pole then? Please do elaborate on its structure then Johnny." Ignoring Kerry's goading I respond "I was going to anyway. Taking first place is my Mother and family by extension. No one even comes close to Mom though, sorry Rachel. Rachel takes second place. My Porsche comes in a close third followed almost equally closely by my guitar which comes in fourth. Last but most definitely not least is my love for the Eurodollar," I say.

Both Kerry and Rachel glare at me, while I just give them my signature shit-eating grin. Then they both explode. "The Porsche!! You mean to tell me that your car is almost as important to you as I am?" Rachel questions, while Kerry just asks "Hey what about me? I'm your best friend. Where am I on the totem pole?" "Well Kerry, to answer your question first, the totem pole only has five positions and after your little ditching me stunt your position fell off the list. You used to be fifth, but now you're not. You're well on your way back though," I say, waving the wad of cash he just gave me in front of my face, shit-eating grin still on it. "Now to answer your question, milady. In short, the Porsche has a very special place in my heart due to, one, its beautiful craftsmanship that makes it more beautiful than any woman on the planet, both you and Mom included, and two, due to its sentimental value. I've had a lot of firsts in that car and it's a car my dad and I built together so it's way better than any family heirloom, or anything like that. Finally, I must add that if either of you are displeased with your ranking you should endeavor to do better so that you can achieve a higher margin of distance between your opponents on the totem pole," I say as I finish my in-depth explanation

Moments later Rachel was the first to respond. "Increase my margin or else," she says in a threatening tone. "Or else what love?" I question "June 14, 2003, goes public,". "You wouldn't," I say. "Do you really wanna find out?" she questions back. "Dammit, I thought we both agreed that all data pertaining to that very dangerous and very embarrassing event was to be deleted and that we would never mention or bring it up again," I say with a mix of emotions all while Kerry is staring at us with a confused look on his dumb face. On one hand, I feel proud of her because she has me somewhat cornered, but on the other hand, I feel somewhat betrayed. "Fine." I replied, "I'll double the margin between you and the Porsche." "Triple," she demanded without batting an eye. 'Fucking blackmailing extortionist corpo-terrorist. Heh, well two can play at that game,' I think to myself before responding. "Double and I don't release January 6, of the same year," I say as her eyes open wide. "You said you deleted that," she said in poorly disguised embarrassment and mild horror. "I lied. Same as you apparently," I replied. "Fine. I'll settle for an increase in my margin by a factor of 2.5 however this time we both have to delete the damning data" she says. "Deal," I reply as a smile begins to form on my face once more. This is due to my triumph in our relationship. I have once again asserted dominance and firmly established the continued existence of the Patriarchy. One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

"Now that you both know of the existence of the totem pole and of your location on said pole, or lack thereof," I say as I look at Kerry who still looks baffled by mine and Rachel's previous exchange, "I think we should begin heading to class now since school will start in a few minutes." Both of them agree and we begin to head in the direction of the school entrance. Once there Kerry splits off from Rachel and I and heads towards his classes. Before we get to class both Rachel and I pull out our phones and delete the stored photos and videos pertaining to the aforementioned events. We delete them from our photo library, the trash bin in the photo library, and from the cyber-cloud, effectively deleting them from existence completely.

Once done deleting our blackmail material we both head to class and sit at our desks just as the bell rings and Mr. Johnson comes walking in. "Good morning. Pull out a pen and paper. You have a pop quiz this morning," he announces to the class the moment he arrives. Both Rachel and I groan and put our heads down on our desks in unison, not because we don't know the material but because who the fuck gives a pop quiz on a Friday, on game day. It's moments like this that I remember why I hate Mr. Johnson. He's an ass whose sole purpose of existing is to make the lives of his students miserable. 'I pity the poor souls who forgot to study.'

After almost an hour in the torture chamber that is Mr. Johnson's math class, the bell finally rang and I was able to escape with Rachel and smell the taste of sweet refreshing freedom before heading to American History, which is taught by Mrs. Esmerelda Harper, Rachel's mother. Once we got to class and the bell rang Mrs. Harper began handing out unnervingly thick pamphlets of papers to the students. When it got to me and I read the contents, my heart dropped. There in all caps, italics, and bold print on the first page, was the dreaded title that no student ever wants to read "GROUP PROJECT". I looked at Rachel and she just shook her head which means she didn't know about this either. 'Well played Mrs. Harper. Deceive your allies to deceive your enemies. Your stratagem has been noted and appropriate countermeasures will be prepared for future occasions' I think to myself.

I glance down at the pamphlet and nearly immediately balk at what I see. We have to write a report. Not an essay, but a full-fledged MLA report that is a minimum of 6000 words long. We also have to make a slideshow and create a presentation that everyone participates in. To top it all off this is due next Friday. 'Fuck me this day is gonna be really long. I can't wait for school to end so I can get ready for the game. I really wanna play so I can face a challenge,' I think to myself while looking up at the ceiling.

…

…

The Bell signaling the end of school rang as we began filing out of the gymnasium after the pep rally. I never understood the point of those things, to be honest. It's not like making any of the football players talk to the crowd to inspire them, ever really does anything. If they were planning to come they would still come and if they weren't planning to come then they wouldn't. It's not like it matters once you step on the field anyway. Once you're on the field everything goes pretty quiet. It's just you and twenty-one other men at that point all typing to complete one of two goals. The defense wants to smash you to bits to prevent you from scoring while the offense wants to smash the defense to bits so they can score. It's pretty simple.

I stop my train of thought as we arrive at the chapel for a fifteen minute meditation session, then an inspirational speech after that. At first, I thought meditation was bullshit, but Mr. Harper gave an inspirational speech on Samurai one time before a game during sophomore year. He talked about how meditation was an essential part of their daily activities. And affected how they carried themselves and fought. He went on to talk about a warrior's honor and how we were warriors and the field was our battlefield. It was pretty motivational. The samurai stuff has stuck with me since then so in my free time I started to train myself in how to properly breathe and meditate. Over time I expanded my studies to their fighting style and lifestyle. I have no intention of emulating them in every way but I have endeavored to emulate a few of their ideologies and character traits, but I digress. After fifteen minutes of meditation and focusing my mind purely on the task at hand, winning, Mr. Harper walked up to the podium to inspire us.

"You've heard it said that the lion is the king of the jungle, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself why? Have you ever really stopped and pondered about why the lion is the king of the jungle? How can he be the king of the jungle if he's not the biggest? the elephant is probably the biggest, or one of them at least. He can't be the fastest because the cheetah is the fastest, and he probably isn't the smartest either. Anyone who's watched Animal Planet or National Geographic will probably agree with me on the last one. So, if he isn't the smartest, the fastest, or the biggest, how does he become the king of the jungle? What separates him from all the other animals that enables him to be crowned king of the jungle? It's his mentality. You see the Lion's mentality is different from every other animal out there. It's what sets him apart from, say, the elephant. When the lion walks up and sees the elephant, he thinks 'lunch'. However, when the elephant sees the lion he thinks 'run'. You see this is what is called a predator vs. prey mindset, and this is the reason why the lion is able to be crowned as king of the jungle. You see, lions are feared and respected because they hunt. They will hunt during storms, and do most of their hunting at night. They hunt during the storms because the noise and the wind make it hard for their prey to see, hear, or smell them. What does a lion do when it sees an injured animal? The answer is nothing. A lion is a hunter and it is the thrill of the hunt, the process, that satisfies the lion just as much as the reward of the meal that they will be feasting upon later. Lions walk around fearlessly and confidently. They do it not out of some false sense of arrogance but out of a pride born from their mentality. They are kings and view everything else, even other lions as prey. Tonight some other lions are coming into our house, our territory. They are here to challenge our pride. Are you just gonna sit on the sidelines and take it?! NO! NO, YOU WILL NOT! YOU ARE LIONS AS WELL. MORE THAN THAT THOUGH YOU ARE PREDATORS AND THEY ARE THE PREY. THEY ARE THE ONES WHO MADE THE MISTAKE OF COMING INTO OUR TERRITORY AND ATTEMPTING TO CHALLENGE US. So tonight I need you to tap into your LION mentality, your PREDATOR mentality, and dominate your territory. What is the lion's mentality exactly you may ask. Fearlessness, bravery, courage, leadership, never willing to surrender, and will fight unto death. You don't have to be the biggest or the smartest or the fastest but you must adopt the mindset of a lion. It is up to you to get the most out of everything you have worked so hard for while preparing this entire week. For 60 minutes you MUST dominate every snap, every pass, every run, every block, every tackle. These lions that have come into your territory with hostile intentions should not leave your territory alive. Make them remember you and make them fear you. They don't deserve the title of lion. That title is earned. So tonight go out and show them and everyone else why you are lions and they are just kittens.Tonight, let's go out there, and hunt as Lions.