Title: Mo The Schmo (1/3)

Author: Romantique

Email:

Classification: Eric/Tami Pairing.

Rating: T for the Chapter.

Summary: A sequel to "Sore Subject." Tami's old flame returns to Dillon, and Coach is not happy to hear the news. Poor Julie is caught in the crossfire.

Disclaimer: This Friday Night Lights fan fiction occurs at the beginning of Season 4 which has yet to air.

Legal: These characters do not belong to me. I'm just a fan and have not made a dime. Please email me to obtain permission to post.

Applebees

Dillon, Texas

The customer traffic at Applebees was slower than usual, even for a typically slow Wednesday. By the dinner shift, the restaurant was pretty much empty, except for a lone male customer seated at the bar. A sign of the tough economic times, even the new $10.00 dinner specials and the national advertising campaign was failing to pull the regular customers in.

Julie Taylor leaned her weight against the hostess station, staring out the big, plate glass windows and into the restaurant's vast, empty parking lot. Her tips were off again this month, and she wondered how she was ever going to make this month's car payment. She had already dipped into her dwindling savings last month to make her big, semi-annual car insurance payment, and she did not want to ask her folks for help. They were already making half her car payment; and during the summer, the school district instituted across-the-board pay cuts for all school personnel. Both of her parents had been hit with the cut. And yet, unlike so many in the small town of Dillon, Texas, at least Julie and her parents still had their jobs.

Lost in thought, she then wondered if she would ever be able to go to college and get out of this town. It was always assumed she would go to college directly after high school, but with the uncertainties that came with this great recession, she began to doubt if a future that included college was indeed assured. After all, her parents, although extremely middle class and well-educated, were far, far from wealthy. Now that they had her baby sister Grace to raise, her lock on a 'college of her choice' education was in real danger of becoming a faint memory.

Once resentful of her sister's surprise arrival, or what sometimes felt like encroachment upon her life, Julie had come a long way. She had come to truly love her sister, and she also loved watching her parents deal with the day-to-day challenges of balancing work with raising a family. Somehow, Grace brought the family closer together. Julie even had the chance to see a much softer side of her father, the football coach, making him an even better role model to her, and especially to her boyfriend, Panther quarterback Matt Saracen.

A future with Matt seemed uncertain as well, as he was older than she. She had seen friends break up after one or both of the couple graduated from high school. Everything seemed uncertain, as her mind suddenly returned to her present, empty surroundings at the restaurant.

Then, suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a car pull up in front of the restaurant.

"Wow," she said to herself.

The car was a sleek, black Mercedes, a newer SL model she surmised. She and Matt were into high-end dream cars, and this was one of their favorites. Julie watched as a tall, thin man in a black cowboy hat stepped out of the car and walked towards the entrance of the restaurant. She hurried toward the front doors with a menu in hand, greeted the man, and led him to the nearest table at her station.

"Welcome to Applebees! My name is Julie, and I will be serving you this evening. May I get you something to drink?" she asked in her nicest waitress voice and an Applebee's smile.

"Is it always this dead in here, Julie?" the man asked as he surveyed the empty dining room, taking off his hat and briefly noting her name badge.

"Wednesday nights are typically slow, unlike Friday nights after the game," she again smiled at her customer.

"Are you into Dillon football?" the man asked, continuing to make small talk during the short walk to the table.

Julie rolled her eyes. "I sorta have to be. My Dad's a Dillon coach."

The customer again looked down at her name badge, as he took a seat in the booth. "You wouldn't by any chance be Julie Taylor, would you?"

"Ummmm," she stammered, studying the man and stalling before giving him unnecessary information. Her close friend and former Applebees trainer, Tyra Collette, had schooled her well about giving a customer any more personal information than was absolutely necessary.

Sensing his question had made the young girl very uncomfortable, the man quickly rephrased. "I'm Mo McArnold. If you're the Julie I think you are, I'm a friend of your parents."

The man returned a friendly smile to Julie's suddenly blank face. She was studying his. Mo McArnold. She had always wondered about this wealthy man of mystery, the man her mother might have married in days gone by. "Ohhhhhh," she nodded as the information clicked. "Yes, I am, and no, I'm not so sure how good of a friend you are to my Dad's face," she said, suddenly feeling awkward again.

Mo quickly dissipated the awkward moment with laughter. "You should have seen what your Dad did to my nose," he smiled, rubbing his nose for emphasis. "He blackened both of my eyes!"

Julie gave him a little smile that grew even wider, as she was secretly tickled to hear her Dad had gotten the better of his rival for her mother's affections. Her father, head football coach Eric Taylor, was the most confident and forceful man she'd ever known. Yet whenever the subject of her mother's old flame, Mo, came up, Julie could tell it bothered her father ... to the point of his becoming involved in an old-fashioned fist fight. She couldn't help but be curious as to why her normally 'steady' father would be jealous of this man.

"Oh, I go way back with your folks. That brawl was just good, clean man fun. I still think the world of them," Mo good-naturedly explained. "You be sure and tell Tami and Eric that Mo says hello."

"I will," Julie's smile continued. Still searching her customer's face, mostly to see what her mother saw in this guy, she couldn't help but note her Dad was a hundred times more handsome. And yet, Mo was very charming and at ease with himself.

"And you … you are an absolute stunner!" Mo added. "Easy to understand because you have such great genes. Of course, you would have had better genes if I had been the one to marry that gorgeous mother of yours."

There it was, that "too full of himself" part of his personality that Julie's Dad talked about with great disdain.

"Well, thank you, Mr. McArnold?" Julie wasn't sure how to respond to his backhanded compliment.

"Oh, no. I'm 'Uncle Mo,' to you, kiddo," the man insisted.

"Okay … Uncle Mo," Julie decided to play along. She needed a tip, and Mo was the only customer in sight. "Could I get you something to drink?"

"Are you old enough to serve alcohol? I'd like a Scaldis if you carry it," the man decisively ordered.

Julie glanced down. "No, I'm not, and yes, we carry Scaldis. I can have the bartender bring you one. Would you like to order something to eat to go with it?"

"Do you have wings? Yeah, start Uncle Mo off with some buffalo wings to go with his ale," the man spoke of himself in the third person, nodding his head, and closing the menu. "And we'll take it from there."

"Can do," Julie returned the nod and left to place the orders.

Taylor Home

Later that night

Julie arrived home to find her Dad sitting in "his" chair watching game films. Her mom was likely in the back of the house with her baby sister, Gracie. She carefully walked towards the living room.

"Hey Dad," Julie said to announce she was home.

"Hey," Eric answered, adjusting the volume down from the tapes with the remote control. He reached over and acknowledged her arrival home from work by giving his oldest daughter's arm a loving squeeze, as she passed by his chair.

"Have you got a minute?" she asked.

"For you, I've got more than a minute," Eric said and froze the frame of the film's action.

Julie took a seat on the arm of her Dad's recliner. "Okay, I'm going to give you a heads up about something, but you need to promise me first that you won't get upset."

The look on Eric's face changed to one of concern. "It's kinda hard to promise somethin' when I have no idea what it is I'm promisin'." He searched her face. "Are you in some sorta trouble?"

Julie shook her head. "Oh, no. This has nothing to do with me. This has to do with one of your least favorite persons in the world."

Eric then gave his oldest daughter a very puzzled look.

"Mo McArnold is back in town. He came into Applebees tonight," she said. Then, she lovingly placed her small hands on both sides of her Dad's face and turned his head to face her. "I thought it would be better if you heard it from me."

Her Dad didn't say anything, but she could tell by the fallen look in his eyes he was not happy to hear the news. It was further confirmation to her that Mo was the only person in the world who could make her father act as if he was not so sure of himself.

"And I also thought it would be good for you to hear that you hurt his nose and blackened both of his eyes," she informed her father.

A tight, closed-lipped smile slowly came over Eric's face that was still in his daughter's hands. "I blackened both his eyes?" Then, a twinkle of light appeared in his eyes.

Julie nodded and smiled. "Oh, yeah."

Eric nodded with a look of satisfaction, and Julie released his face.

"You know what I think?" Julie asked. Answering her own question, she continued. "He's Texas flash. Underneath his black hat and his flashy car, there's really not much there."

"Where did you see his car?" he suddenly raised an eyebrow.

Quickly, she answered to calm him back down. "Out the window, in the parking lot. The lots been so empty, it wasn't hard to see." Then, Julie added, "I am so glad you are my Dad." And she leaned over and gave him the biggest hug ever, around his neck. "You were right," she said as she held him tight. "I saw with my own eyes what you saved me and Gracie from."

Eric wrapped his arms around his daughter and hugged her hard. "Thank you, Monkey Noodle." And then, he kissed her on her forehead. "I love you."

"Love you, too," she smiled. She knew this conversation was going to be tough and was happy it went as well as it did.

"Hey, Jules," Tami said as she joined her husband and daughter in the living room. "How was work?"

"I was just telling Dad that Mo McArnold came into work tonight," Julie informed her mother, still sitting on the arm of the recliner, leaned back and wrapped in her Dad's loving arms.

"Oh?" Tami gave a pensive look and braced herself for Eric's reaction.

"She already gave me a heads up," Eric calmly announced from the recliner.

Surprised, yet happy to see her husband appeared to be unscathed by this unexpected development, Tami gingerly asked her daughter, "Well, what is Mo doing back in town? Did he say?"

Julie looked over at her Mom, in an almost protective posture with her father. "He didn't say. He said he was a friend of both of yours, and he asked me to tell you both, hello ... so 'hello.' I sort of disputed the 'friend of yours' stuff, but he said you all go way back and that the little brawl was all in good fun."

Eric chuckled with sarcasm. "Hmmmmph ... 'Mo, the Schmo,' says it was all in good fun," repeating the comment coming from his arch rival.

"What's a Schmo?" Julie asked.

Tami rolled her big blue eyes. "Your Dad found out that 'schmo' means 'jerk' in Yiddish. And ever since then, that's been his pet name for Mo.'"

"I'm not the one who called him a jerk," Eric reminded his wife.

Tami nodded, "Well, that is true. He can be a jerk, at times."

Julie added, "I caught a little of that tonight."

Eric gave a smug little smile, feeling rather justified tonight by his daughter.

"Was Mo mean to you, Honey?" Tami asked Julie. Her protective mother bear tendencies were beginning to show.

"Oh, no. He's kind of full of himself, but he wasn't mean." Julie reassured her parents, sitting back up on the arm of the recliner. "In fact, he tipped me a hundred dollars tonight. And the car payment I was so worried about making this month is now all taken care of," Julie beamed from ear to ear.

"Julie!" Tami exclaimed. "Is it right to accept a hundred dollar tip? I don't think I like that."

"I know," Julie began to explain. "I told him it was way too much. And he looked around the empty restaurant and said it was his contribution to the 'Applebees' stimulus package.' He told me to take it, and I did. He left another hundred to tip the cooks, dishwashers, hostess, and the busboy. Since I play hostess and bus my own tables, in addition to serving my tables, I kept my tip and gave the other hundred to the guys in the back. They were all so happy."

Julie paused a minute and then added, "Oh yeah, and he told me to call him Uncle Mo."

"He's not your uncle," Eric leaned over to his daughter, still seated on the arm of his chair, and stated the obvious.

"I know," Julie told him, "but he was my only customer all night, and I kept my eye on the ball which happened to be my tip."

"Since when did you become so mercenary?" Eric asked with a chuckle.

"Since I have a car payment to make," Julie answered right back and then, jokingly, fist bumped her Dad.

"I don't know," Tami sighed. "I still don't like it." After a pause, she said to herself, "Mo's up to something." And she walked away, deep in thought, shaking her head.

To be continued ...