Later in the day it rained, the kind of storm that was all too common at the tail end of summer in Texas. Leo had hoped that it would let up, but by the time practice came, it had only gotten worse.
Hail was starting to come down, thus practice was cancelled, so instead the coach scheduled a team meeting. The Coach mentioned their previous game, and kept pointing out Leo's mistakes, as few of them as there were.*
Four hundred and seven was the number that kept entering Leo's mind. That number was the amount of yards the defense had allowed, but Leo would be the easy target for now. "And", the coach began; "Tomorrow our transfer will be replacing Cortez at strong safety."
Grumbling began in the room. Safety was their weakest point, but Cortez (who had joined via open tryout) was good enough to help them get to state. During the last game he'd gotten injured though. "Don't grumble" the coach said, "last year he was all city."
Likely where he came from All City was given to any athlete because it was the only school in the county. They were already having a rocky year, but now it seemed over. It got Leo down, but there was still next year, but then again, next year was forever away.
Leo picked up the playbook. It was already mangled from him studying it so much, with the covers plastic partially hanging off. Leo stuffed it into his backpack and walked out into the rain, thunder still booming in the distance.
By the time Leo got home, the rain had stopped, but the clouds were still threatening to open up. When he walked into the kitchen he caught the familiar sight of his parents writing at the dining room table.
"What's for dinner tonight", Leo asked. "Hamburgers", Leslie said not leaving her eyes from the paper, which currently had her full attention. Leo went into his room and threw his backpack down on the bed, while concurrently plopping himself on the bed.
It was 5:30, which meant Leo had just about an hour and a half to get to work. There wasn't a lot that he could do, so he pulled out his IPod, cranked up the volume, turned on the noise canceller, and started his homework.
Because of the recession, Leo only worked sparingly throughout the week, and if he was lucky, weekends. So long as he had enough for car payments, he wasn't complaining too much.
By the time Leo was done with homework and ready for work, the storm had started back up. The rain pelted the roof, the lightning wasn't there (yet) but the wind howled. Leo just knew his mom was going to tell him to call in.
Leo couldn't sneak out by way of the door in his room because it led to the backyard, and there was no possible way for Leo to not get mud on him. The only option was t5o slowly, inch his way to the front door and quietly open-
"Where ya goin, son?" Jess said walking towards Leo. "Just to work", Leo said with a hint of a squeak in his voice. Leo knew if that had been his mom, he'd be sweating bullets right now.
"It's pretty bad lookin out right now, isn't it", Jess said getting his keys off the wall. Leo didn't answer. He knew it was a potential mine field. "I'm goin in ta town ta pick up some burgers, I'll drop you off."
While Leo didn't want to be dropped off, and then have to call for a ride, it was still a better option then what his mom would've offered. Leo shoved his keys into his pocket and walked toward the door leading to the garage.
"You got your car keys on ya, Jess asked Leo." "Yeah", Leo answered handing him the keys. He figured they were taking Leslies SUV, but also had a suspicion that they might take his car.
Before starting the car, Jess went to turn down the radio volume. "Jeez, how loud did you have the volume?" Jess asked starting the car. "Just fifteen", Leo replied. When they were pulling out of the drive (slowly, because of the rain) Leo noticed a car parked next door, with people running to and from with boxes.
It brought back memories from when he was little. Before Jess and Leslie hit it big, when they moved once or twice a year. One time it was raining just like this, and they also unloaded boxes from the car to the house in the rain.
It was a bad neighborhood was they had to do that. He wondered if these people thought this was a bad neighborhood, and that's why they were doing the Rainy Day Marathon Move-In.
Most of downtown Lockhart had bad neighborhoods, but the outskirts were pretty quiet. "What time you get off work?" Jess asked. "Twelve", Leo replied. "Five hours is an odd number of hours for a shift, not that I'm complaining."
"It's a part time job in high school is why the hours are Five one day, and the next three", Jess replied. When Leo got out of the car, the rain had let up enough that as long as he ran as fast as he could, he could get inside without being soaking wet.
The place Leo worked at was H-E-B. It was the Texas version of Winn Dixie that, in some locations tried to model it self after a Wal-Mart Supercenter. This particular version was a pantry, which as far as Leo could determine meant a place where you only went for groceries if there wasn't a larger store nearby.
Leo was a cashier, which didn't suit him too well since he wasn't exactly the most social person in the world. Often times it was more exhausting cashiering than playing football or working out, but he could scrape by.
Three hours into his shift, the lights went out. Someone screamed (it was an adult voice, so it made Leo wonder why anyone would scream) but other than that everyone remained quiet.
Leo hadn't been paying attention to the weather, so with the lights out and everyone in total silence, Leo could hear how violent the weather had become. He got a feeling, down in the deepest part of his gut listening to the howling wind and thunderous booms.
Leo had never admitted it, but he was afraid of bad weather. He shared it with his mother and he knew it. He remembered in his parent's book, what happened to his mom. And then there was the time Leslie had just picked Leo up from daycare during a thunderstorm.
She was taking him to get a blizzard from Dairy Queen (what she usually did after picking him up from daycare) when she lost control of the wheel (because of the slick streets) and crashed into some object.
Leo doesn't remember much about that day, except for the bad weather and having to get butterfly stitches in his forehead. He couldn't remember if Leslie got injured or not. He didn't question her fear of storms, but it seemed a bit odd to Leo to be so afraid of something when you can't even remember the event that caused such fear.
The power came back on ten minutes later, and Leo and a couple of other cashiers and baggers were told to assist people with loading their groceries in their cars. The remaining hour and a half was loading cars up, going back inside to another customer, and going back out. Leo was sure a cold was inevitable.
By the time Leo clocked out, the storm had only gotten worse. Just as Leo was going to call his dad, he saw Jess running toward the door. Running back to the car was a challenge, even for two physically fit individuals like Jess and Leo. The wind blew so hard keeping balance was an Olympic challenge, the rain felt like punches, and the lightning blinded you, while thunder made it impossible to hear.
Jess picked Leo up a combo meal at McDonalds on the way back to their house. A tornado watch was in effect, but Leo wasn't paying attention to the weather on the radio, just on wolfing down his food.
When they got back, Leo ran inside and changed his clothes. He still had Algebra homework, but he was too cold and tired for it to matter to him right now. The instant he closed his eyes, sleep overtook hm.