Sheryl was seated in Petey Jones' history class. Even after three weeks of high school, the thought of Petey as a teacher still tripped her out. To her, he would always be a hot headed linebacker for the Titans, not her teacher but she had to admit, she loved his class. It was great. He was always coming up with new and exciting ways to teach them history. His lectures never quite seemed like lectures.

Nikki Boone, her best friend since they were nine and a half years old sat on her right, an empty chair on her left. She sat, pen in hand, ready to take notes. Petey's, Mr. Jones' class was fun, but it was hard. Nikki leaned over as if picking up something, and dropped a note on her desk.

Sheryl kept it out of Petey's sight while she opened it.

Is it just my imagination, or can you hear "Petey, why are you fumbling my football?" Eveytime you look at him?

Nikki



Sheryl held her breath to keep from giggling as she wrote back,

No, I always hear. "Stop slanting to the strong side." Whenever I look at him.

Nikki wasn't as successfull as Sheryl at hiding her laughter, earning both girls a hard look from Mr. Jones.

He didn't have time to scold the girls, though he could never come down to hard on those two, as a knock on the door interrupted his class.

"Come in," he called. The assistant principal walked in followed by a boy with long brown hair and green eyes.

"Mr. Jones, this is Mark Gardner, he just transfered here from Monroe, Louisiana. He'll be joining your class. Make him feel welcome," with that, she handed Petey a stack of papers and left.

"Well, Mark, you're from Monroe?" Petey asked.

"Yes, sir. And its Trey."

"Trey?" Petey repeated.

"Yes, sir. Mark Anthony Gardner the Third. Trey."

"Are you an Indian fan, Trey?"

"Yes sir!" Trey grinned. "NLU all the way!!!!!!!!! How do you know about NLU?"

"My fiancee' went to school at Grambling," he answered.

"Aww.. man, Grambling sucks. Tigers suck, Lion's rule."

"Huh?" Petey was expecting Indians rule or something along those lines. He didn't know where Lions had come into the picture.

"I was starting quarterback for the Ouachita Lions," Trey answered, surprised his teacher was interested in talking about football in the middle of class. "Our rival is the Neville Tigers. Tigers suck."

Petey laughed. He hated to tell the boy, but at T.C. Williams, Lions 'sucked', since that was Goverton High's mascot. "Well, here, you'll be a Titan, if you play, and the Titan's rule thier universe."

"Titan," Trey repeated. "That could be cool."

"It is. Take that seat, there." Petey pointed to the empty seat next to Sheryl. "Class is almost over today, but I'll see about getting you a textbook for tomorrow."

Petey also didn't want to be the one to tell Mr. Mark Anthony Gardner the Third that if he did go out for football, the first thing Coach and Boone were going to do was cut off that brown ponytail.

He slid into the seat beside Sheryl. The boy behind Sheryl cracked, "Football player, yeah right. He looks more like a cheerleader."

"That's so intellegent," Trey replied. "I don't think I've ever heard that one before. NOT!"

Sheryl rolled her eyes at Nikki before leaning over to Trey and saying, "Don't pay him no never mind. He's QB for the Titans right now, but he can't throw worth a flip. Least not for any distance. He knows that if you go out and you're any good at all, he'll go back to being a 2nd string running back instead of first string quarter back. It's just plain jealousy."

"Thanks," he smiled, revealing darling little dimples in his cheeks. "I won't." Then he held out his hand. "Trey."

"Sheryl." She put her hand in his. "By the way, are you going to go out for football here?"

"Yes, definitely. If I'm not too late. I know ya'll've already played two games, but," he tried to sound optimistic, "I have a meeting with the Coachs this afternoon."

"Well, good luck," Sheryl smiled. "I hope you're not overly fond of that ponytail."

"Why?"

"You'll see." The bell rang and Sheryl and Nikki left while he was still waiting on Petey to find him a textbook.