To-Do List
Disclaimer: Not mine, but Disney's.
...
Being recruited to Team USA was not on his To-Do List. His List (of the Day) mostly centered around making fun of the only other black kid playing hockey and getting a couple of laughs out of it. Then again, meeting a living, breathing cowboy in South Central Los Angeles was not on Russell's agenda.
Overall, it was a very fulfilling week.
He would otherwise be on his couch, watching TV, or playing schoolyard puck with his brothers and friends.
Ridiculing Team USA with their odd mix of teenagers was just a bonus in his otherwise monotonous summer.
He really couldn't do that much outside considering staying alive while living in one of the most bullet-infested areas of California –without being affiliated with a gang- was a major achievement in it of itself.
The future was not a linear course of events and Russell never raised his expectations higher than necessary. Expectations in his neighborhood usually ended in failure.
All he wanted to do when he met Team USA was to show them some real schoolyard puck and instill in them a pride they long since lost the moment their coach started slicking back his hair with that fancy two-hundred dollar hair gel. A few days later, confronted by one of the white kids from Team USA, an earnest smile on his face and an offer Russell knew would be foolish to pass up.
Walking through those doors to a coach he was previously mocking –bad idea, now that he thought about it- he knew that he would need to update his To-Do List.
And that is how Russell, a street-smart, loudmouth urban youth ended up on a national recognized hockey team with a cowboy; accent and lasso not ironically included.
Russell-well, after considering the surrealism of the situation, nodded and shook Dwayne's proffered hand. He would instill in him some street smarts and maybe he would show Russell how to lasso.
After the Good Will games, nearly a year later, Russell came across a relatively large, white manila envelope with pretty cursive words and a shiny gold seal waiting for him on the kitchen countertop when he arrived home from school that day. His mother was on the other side of the counter, her eyes large and watery. Beside her was his older brother, vibrating with excitement and urging him to open the letter.
Russell held it carefully between his fingers. He savored the envelope with its fancy letterhead with his name -his full name- printed clearly in big, bold black letters on the side. It's heavy between his fingertips, he can feel the weight of the paper, it must be expensive paper, like it had something official and important written on it- and he knows his life is going to change. With flourish and a wide grin that reaches ear-to-ear, he grabs the end of it and cleanly rips the top open.
His name.
Russell Theodore Tyler.
Eden Hall Academy.
We are happy to inform you-
His heart was beating a mile a minute in his throat.
-are awarded a full athletic scholarship to Eden Hall.
To say his parents and older brother was an understatement. This letter cemented his position as the unofficial rising star of his neighborhood. His family members and obscure friends from pre-school came out of the woodwork to congratulate him. Some cousins reminded him of their names so after he became a superstar or some rich guy, he'd then loan them five bucks.
Russell was just happy to leave his neighborhood and play the sport he was really, really good at.
While at the airport, Russell was bombarded with last minute reminders. His mother was crying and reminding him through pauses in her sobs to know his P's and Q's, his dad was telling –commanding- him he'll have his ass if he loses his athletic scholarship, and his brother was proudly urging him to bring some color into the private school. Those white kids won't know what'll hit them, and suddenly - while at the airport gate, a carryon bag by his side, the full brevity of the situation smacked him in the face like a no-nonsense grandmother with a newspaper.
The fog of excitement lifted from his dream-filled brain after he took his first few steps into the plane.
He has the potential to be something. Something more than a little, punk kid from South Central Los Angeles.
He knew he just had to prove it to himself.
Taking a deep breath, Russell leaned back against his uncomfortable airplane seat and closed his eyes. If he could survive this plane ride with the little child thumping his seat from behind him, and the woman snoring into his ear on his left, then surely he could survive this. This being an uncertain future that left his To-Do List with his family's suggestions (commands) and the singular goal to stay at Eden Hall and avoid the failure that he knew would be expected of him if he were to head back.
He met a familiar face when he settled himself on the hard, plastic chair of a Texas airport due to a layover. He was mainly people watching and was off-guard when he was ambushed. Russell was honestly expecting the staff of the Dallas airport.
He's more than a little pleasantly surprised to see a familiar, crooked grin and a 'howdy' already past their lips when he felt the thud of another body in the seat next to his.
"Hey, man, what up?" Russell said, raising his hand for a firm handshake and a knock against his knuckles in a light-hearted fist bump.
"Been a while," Dwayne replied easily, his drawl more pronounced since he's been back in Texas. He tilted his head back, a wide grin across his face, "You excited 'bout heading off to this fancy, rich kid school?"
"Yeah," Russell said, slowly nodding his head in contemplation. He turned his head and noticed that Dwayne was earnestly staring at him.
He may be the stereotypical cowboy with the easy-going attitude and the complete disregard –and tinge of confusion- for big two-dollar words, but he could see the slight shake in Russell's hand, and the letter from Eden Hall, tucked carefully in his knapsack, peeking out.
They looked at one another.
A matching grin spread across Russell's face.
Yeah, he'll bring a little color to this rich, little white school.
Russell will be that black kid to Dwayne cowboy antics.
He needs to update his To-Do List again.
...
SS: Russ felt like an underrated character. He was so adorable and I absolutely adore Kenan (the actor who played Russ). Plus, he is so witty with Dwayne, the cowboy, I had to write a little drabble for him!