"Coach!" Sheridan called up the stairs Saturday evening. She had agreed
to babysit while thier parents went out to dinner. "Ms. Truvy's here!
Get your butt.. I mean, your behind down here before she decides to find
someone cuter to dine with!"
She opened the door. "Hey, Ms. Truvy. Hey, Clay, come on in." She stepped aside. "Coach'll be down in just a minute. He's upstairs, seeing about Sheryl."
"What's wrong with her?" Truvy asked, concerned.
"Nothing, but she's a big baby. She wrecked her bike and scraped her hands up a little. Ain't even bleeding much, but you'd have thought she was dying."
"Honey, she's nine," Truvy replied. "Nine-year-olds see blood and they think they ARE dying."
"Hey, Sa-ri," Clay, tired of being left out, said. "I got's a book." He held up a book of fairy tales. "You wead it to me?"
"Later," she promised.
Just then, Sheryl came bounding down the stairs. "Look, Sissie, I got a Band-Aid."
"Eww, gross," Sheri replied, examining her outstretched hands. "That's gonna hurt tomorrow. Take Clay in the living room and watch T.V."
"I got's a book, Sayel," he said, proudly.
"Whoopteedo," she replied, but she did take his hand and lead him into the living room.
"You sure you want to send them off together?" Coach asked, coming down the stairs. "They're probably plotting to overthrow your rules and run wild."
"Probably so. When will ya'll be back?" She agreed, with a laugh.
"Later, tonight," he replied. "Put Sheryl in the tub, so she'll be ready to get dressed for church in the morning."
"Yes, sir. Would you also like for me to get her out?" She questioned, a smirk playing across her lips.
"Cute," he replied, his voice saying otherwise.
"Are you sure you don't mind us going out, while you stay home?" Truvy asked, before thier battle of wits could continue.
"No," she shrugged. "Just cause I don't have a life, doesn't mean ya'll shouldn't have one. But if you two don't leave, now, I will."
"We're going," Coach laughed. "Call us if you need anything. The numbers by the phone."
"I will. Bye."
"Bye, Honey," Truvy smiled.
"Bye, Precious," Coach kissed her cheek.
"GooooddBYYEE!" She shut the door behind them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
Sheri was cooking supper, when the phone rang.
"Hello?" She half-expected it to be Coach calling to check up on them.
"Hey, Babe," Gerry replied. "How ya' doing?"
"I'm..., okay. What about you?"
"Okay, I guess," he answered. "I talked to Alan a while ago. He was upset, but he was getting ready to go see that Anna girl. It just kinda don't seem real, does it? I mean, I can't believe that Freddie J is..."
"I know," she interrupted.
"Alan really likes Anna, don't he?" He asked, changing the subject.
"Yeah, I think so," she replied. "And I know she likes him. That's all she talked about when I was over at her house today. Alan this and Alan that. I was like, I've known the boy since we were in diapers, you're not telling me anything new. But, I'm glad they're happy."
"Hmm, me too. So, what are you doing?"
"Cooking supper for me and Sheryl and Clay. I'd offer you some, but you know Coach rules about visitors and no parents around. What are you doing home on a Saturday night?"
"Nothing, really," he admitted. "Just nobody to hang out with. Alan's out with Annie, and Kurt's out of town, and Ray, well, Ray's just out of the question. He's turned into someone I don't care to be around, lately."
"What about Julius?"
"Long story."
"I got time."
"He's all mad, cause he thinks I stood him up the other day, when he asked me down to the 'Berg to play basketball with him and some of his friends."
"Did you?"
"Well,..., yeah but not because I was just too racist to go down to the 'Berg."
"Then why?"
"Cause of Ma," he sighed. "She came home when I was getting ready to go and made it clear that she did not want me going down to the 'Berg, and she does not want to get to know Julius. She also came out with all that if- your-father-was-here crap. Then she said, you are going to church with your mother." He made his voice high and squeaky.
"Stop that, Gerry," she laughed. "Quit making fun of your momma. That ain't funny."
"Then quit laughing." She could almost hear him smiling. "So, anyway, I went to church with my mother to save my sanity."
"Did you tell Julius any of this? Or did you just let him believe the worse?" She asked, even though she already knew the answer.
"No, he wouldn't have listened, if I had. He's all hung up on it being a race thing. Besides, why should I?"
"Cause he's a good friend and you'd like to keep him that way."
"Not if he's gonna get all mad and claim I'm racist everytime I don't get somewhere."
"Gerry, baby, six weeks ago, you were racist," she replied.
"But not now," he defended himself.
"But how's he going to know that, if you don't talk to him?"
"I don't want to talk to him."
"You know what you are, Gerry Bertier? You are a stubborn, pig-headed mule. Why do I bother with you?"
"Cause you love me," he laughed.
"That's debatable," she shot back. "Listen, I've got to go see what my babies are up to. They're being way too quiet to be left alone."
"They're probably out in Coach's office, making a mess again."
"Yeah, I know. I'll talk to you later."
"All right. Night, baby." Gerry replied.
"Goodnight." She hung up the phone.
Much to her surprise, Sheryl and Clay weren't up to any mischief. They were cuddled up in a recliner, reading his book. Sheri smiled. She knew that book of fairy tales was going to capture Sheryl's attention sooner or later. "Supper's ready, you two," she announced.
She picked Clay up and hugged him, then carried him to the table as Sheryl ran ahead to set out the plates and forks. Sheri got them settled at the table, said Grace, then took her plate to the bar. She had a phone call to make before she lost the nerve and chickened out. She looked the number up on Coach's team roster, then cautiously dialed the number, sure that he wasn't home and she was going to get his mother, or worse his father.
"Hello?" A deep voice answered.
"Hello," she said. "May I speak to Julius?"
"Ya' already are," came his laughing reply.
"Oh, sorry, Julius." she replied. "This is Sheri Yoast."
"Hey, girl," he answered wondering why she was calling him. "Why ain't you out with Superman?"
"Mainly, cause he didn't ask me," she shrugged. "But, also becuase I'm babysitting for Coach and Ms. Truvy."
"Who?"
"Truvy Hampton. Coach's girlfriend. Since I don't have a life, I volunteered to babysit Sheryl and Ms. Truvy's little boy, Clay, so her and Daddy could go out to dinner," she explained.
"Coach has a girlfriend? All right, Coach," he laughed again.
Sheri giggled. She hadn't counted on Julius being so easy to talk to.
"Well," he continued. "You've only got it half as bad as I do. It's my folks' wedding anniversary this weekend, so I'm babysitting too. My thirteen year-old twin sisters, Jeramishia, and Teramishia, and I done had to run off about five little nappy-headed boys. They way too boy-crazy."
"Nah," she answered. "They're just thirteen-year-old girls. You have any other brothers or sisters?"
"Yeah, a ten year-old brother Alex, who decided to tell our baby sister, Queen, who's three that she could fly if she had a cape on, so I walk in the living room, and she's standing on the top of the bookshelf with a bedsheet tied around her neck fixing to try it. I tell I'm earning my ten dollars tonight. I think I must have been outside my mind to agree to this," he laughed. "And I got an older sister, but I ain't got to babysit her. She's grown and getting married soon. How's your babies doing?"
"Great," she laughed. "They are being little angels, and that's really got me worried. Usually they'd be tearing the house apart. Making me paranoid, dude."
"Maybe they're trying to get your gaurd down," he joked.
"Maybe," she agreed. "Or else, Coach told them to be nice and they're actually doing it. In which case, there must be a full moon. Why don't you call Gerry, and get him to come help you? He's home, and he's actually pretty good at babysitting, considering he's an only child and never had to deal with younger siblings. I'd invite him over here, but Coach doesn't like for me to have company over when he ain't here unless he knows about it beforehand."
"It's a long story," he sighed. "But I don't think he'd come."
"Cause of last night, right?"
"Yeah, and some other things," he replied.
"Last night was a bad night," she tried to explain. "Just before the game, we found out that a very dear friend of ours had been killed in Viet Nam. Gerry was hurting last night. Still is. So am I, and so is Alan. But, unlike me and Alan, when Gerry's hurting, he gets defensive and even downright mean. I'm sorry if he was being rude."
"Man," Julius sighed. "I sure wish I had known that. I wouldn't have been riding him so hard about his head not being in the game. But that don't explain away his being to racist to come down to the 'berg and play basketball with me and some of the other guys."
"Oh," she said, quietly. Gerry was either going to thank her for this, or bless her out for interfering. "That didn't have anything to do with HIM being racist, either. That had to do with his mother being a ...," she paused. "A word I won't say in front of little ears. Don't get me wrong, I love Mrs. Jean. She's a good person, but she used the one thing she knew would make Gerry go to church with her. Guilt. And she probably didn't even do it purposely. But it still worked."
"Guilt?"
"Yeah, about his daddy being dead. You see, Gerry thinks it's his fault. So, any mention of Mr. Micheal, and he'll do whatever you want just to get you to shut up."
"Why would he think its his fault his dad died?" Julius asked, wanting to know more about the boy he still hoped to be friends with.
Sheri sighed, "You remember the '69 championship game?"
"Yeah, yeah, I watched it on tv. Ya'll were playing in the snow and sleet. I remember thinking how glad I was that we weren't in the playoffs that year. Ya'll won, didn't you?"
"Uh-huh. Anyway, we were sophmores, and Gerry was a starter. Only sophmore starter on the team that year and you know how big a deal it is to be a sophmore starting in a championship game. Mr. Micheal was away on business, and told Gerry that he might not be able to make it back to town in time for the game. Well, Gerry threw a fit, cut up something awful, and just acted like a royal brat. To make a long story short when his flight was canceled, due to the weather, Mr. Micheal rented a car to drive in. He had a wreck down in Richmond, and ...and.. didn't make it." She stopped to collect her own thoughts, and steady her voice. She glanced at Sheryl to see if she had been listening, but she was busy trying to make Clay eat with his fork instead of his fingers. Then she continued, "Gerry's got it into his head that if he hadn't acted the way he did and made Mr. Micheal promise to try and get back, then he would have waited out the storm and would still be here. We all know that he wouldn't have, that wasn't the way he was. If hadn't thought he couldn't make it home, he would have tried it. No matter what he promised Gerry. But nobody, not even Coach can convince him of that. He doesn't..., when Mrs. Jean started all that "if-your-father-stuff," he went to church with her, just to shut her up, so he wouldn't have to hear someone talking about his dad."
"Why didn't he just tell me any of this stuff?" Julius asked.
"Cause he don't tell anyone anything about his daddy," she replied. "Too painful or something. I know it because I knew Mr. Micheal. Him and Coach were best friends from like grade school or something and Gerry and me have known each other practically from birth. I lived it with him."
"Coach and Mr. Bertier were friends?"
"Good friends. Always together. Always. Like me and Gerry and Alan."
He remembered Coach telling him that he knew friends didn't come easily, but he had figured it was just talk, but he did know what it was to suddenly lose your best friend. He also remembered how quick Gerry had changed the subject when he had asked him about his dad during Coach Boone's forced getting to know each other. He had just taken it for Gerry's not wanting to talk to him.
"Look," she said, when he didn't say anything. "I ain't trying to tell you that Gerry ain't got his faults. He's a stubborn, pig-headed mule, and he can be full of himself and cocky as all get out. If somebody had told me six weeks ago, that he would have become friends with you or Petey or Blue, I'd have been the first to say they were crazy. But he is trying to change and be a good guy. I think that you'll be throwing away a great friendship if you don't try to fix it. I told him all this too, but he's all messed up in the head right now over Freddie J. Besides, like I said, he's a stubborn, pig-headed mule."
"So, what you're saying, is that I have to make the first move," he replied.
"Yeah."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why are you telling me all of this?"
"Cause I'm a nosey friend who would hate to see ya'll waste a good thing," she answered. "Call him up and invite him over. I'm almost positive he'll come. If he don't you can be mad at me too."
"Okay, okay," Julius said, finally. "I'll try it on one condition."
"What's that?"
"That you take some advice from me, as well."
"Shoot."
"Give Gerry a break and go out with the boy. He's crazy about you. All he ever talks about is Sheri-this, and Sheridan-that."
"Really?" She was surprised, but happy to hear that.
"Would I lie to you? Listen, I'm gonna be the nosey friend now and tell you, you're throwing away a good thing too."
"I know, I know, you sound just like Alan. I'm crazy about Gerry, too. It's just..., I don't want to lose him as a friend again, if it don't work out."
"Give him a chance, girl. You didn't lose him last time, or he wouldn't have gone chasing after you and Ray the other night. Trust me, I'm a guy, I know these things."
Sheri laughed, "I'll think about it."
"You do that," he replied. "Hold on."
She laughed as she heard his muffled voice. "No, Queen, you can't talk. I ain't talking to Reesa. I ain't talking to Petey, either. Go play with Jerri and Terri." Then to her, "Sorry 'bout that. My baby sister thinks I can only talk to Kareesa on the phone. Kareesa or Petey."
She giggled, "Who's Kareesa?"
"Kareesa Randall. My girl," he explained.
"Does she go to TC?" She couldn't remember seeing him with any girl she didn't know.
"Nah. She graduated from GW last year. She's going to UV this semester."
"An older woman? You go, Julius."
"Yeah," he laughed. "I can't wait for her to come home, so she can meet ya'll. She's great."
"I'd like that," she paused for a minute, then, "Julius, I really glad the schools intergrated. Otherwise, I'd have missed a great friend."
He smiled, "Thanks, Sheridan. I would have too. So, do we have a deal? I'll make amends with Superman, if you consider going out with him."
"It's a deal," she happily agreed. "Thanks for hearing me out. I appreciate it."
"No problem. Thanks for calling me," he replied.
"Anytime."
"I'm going to hold you to that, okay?"
"Okay," she smiled again. "Talk to you later, Ju."
"Night, Sheri."
They hung up.
"Oh, you were talking to Julius," Sheryl giggled.
"Took you that long to figure that out?" She replied, knowing Sheri was up to something. "Go take a bath."
"I'm going to tell Gerry," Sheryl answered in a sing-song voice.
"So, tell him. See if I really care," she shot back.
"I will." Sheryl danced out of the room, sing that she was going to tell Gerry with every step.
She opened the door. "Hey, Ms. Truvy. Hey, Clay, come on in." She stepped aside. "Coach'll be down in just a minute. He's upstairs, seeing about Sheryl."
"What's wrong with her?" Truvy asked, concerned.
"Nothing, but she's a big baby. She wrecked her bike and scraped her hands up a little. Ain't even bleeding much, but you'd have thought she was dying."
"Honey, she's nine," Truvy replied. "Nine-year-olds see blood and they think they ARE dying."
"Hey, Sa-ri," Clay, tired of being left out, said. "I got's a book." He held up a book of fairy tales. "You wead it to me?"
"Later," she promised.
Just then, Sheryl came bounding down the stairs. "Look, Sissie, I got a Band-Aid."
"Eww, gross," Sheri replied, examining her outstretched hands. "That's gonna hurt tomorrow. Take Clay in the living room and watch T.V."
"I got's a book, Sayel," he said, proudly.
"Whoopteedo," she replied, but she did take his hand and lead him into the living room.
"You sure you want to send them off together?" Coach asked, coming down the stairs. "They're probably plotting to overthrow your rules and run wild."
"Probably so. When will ya'll be back?" She agreed, with a laugh.
"Later, tonight," he replied. "Put Sheryl in the tub, so she'll be ready to get dressed for church in the morning."
"Yes, sir. Would you also like for me to get her out?" She questioned, a smirk playing across her lips.
"Cute," he replied, his voice saying otherwise.
"Are you sure you don't mind us going out, while you stay home?" Truvy asked, before thier battle of wits could continue.
"No," she shrugged. "Just cause I don't have a life, doesn't mean ya'll shouldn't have one. But if you two don't leave, now, I will."
"We're going," Coach laughed. "Call us if you need anything. The numbers by the phone."
"I will. Bye."
"Bye, Honey," Truvy smiled.
"Bye, Precious," Coach kissed her cheek.
"GooooddBYYEE!" She shut the door behind them.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~
Sheri was cooking supper, when the phone rang.
"Hello?" She half-expected it to be Coach calling to check up on them.
"Hey, Babe," Gerry replied. "How ya' doing?"
"I'm..., okay. What about you?"
"Okay, I guess," he answered. "I talked to Alan a while ago. He was upset, but he was getting ready to go see that Anna girl. It just kinda don't seem real, does it? I mean, I can't believe that Freddie J is..."
"I know," she interrupted.
"Alan really likes Anna, don't he?" He asked, changing the subject.
"Yeah, I think so," she replied. "And I know she likes him. That's all she talked about when I was over at her house today. Alan this and Alan that. I was like, I've known the boy since we were in diapers, you're not telling me anything new. But, I'm glad they're happy."
"Hmm, me too. So, what are you doing?"
"Cooking supper for me and Sheryl and Clay. I'd offer you some, but you know Coach rules about visitors and no parents around. What are you doing home on a Saturday night?"
"Nothing, really," he admitted. "Just nobody to hang out with. Alan's out with Annie, and Kurt's out of town, and Ray, well, Ray's just out of the question. He's turned into someone I don't care to be around, lately."
"What about Julius?"
"Long story."
"I got time."
"He's all mad, cause he thinks I stood him up the other day, when he asked me down to the 'Berg to play basketball with him and some of his friends."
"Did you?"
"Well,..., yeah but not because I was just too racist to go down to the 'Berg."
"Then why?"
"Cause of Ma," he sighed. "She came home when I was getting ready to go and made it clear that she did not want me going down to the 'Berg, and she does not want to get to know Julius. She also came out with all that if- your-father-was-here crap. Then she said, you are going to church with your mother." He made his voice high and squeaky.
"Stop that, Gerry," she laughed. "Quit making fun of your momma. That ain't funny."
"Then quit laughing." She could almost hear him smiling. "So, anyway, I went to church with my mother to save my sanity."
"Did you tell Julius any of this? Or did you just let him believe the worse?" She asked, even though she already knew the answer.
"No, he wouldn't have listened, if I had. He's all hung up on it being a race thing. Besides, why should I?"
"Cause he's a good friend and you'd like to keep him that way."
"Not if he's gonna get all mad and claim I'm racist everytime I don't get somewhere."
"Gerry, baby, six weeks ago, you were racist," she replied.
"But not now," he defended himself.
"But how's he going to know that, if you don't talk to him?"
"I don't want to talk to him."
"You know what you are, Gerry Bertier? You are a stubborn, pig-headed mule. Why do I bother with you?"
"Cause you love me," he laughed.
"That's debatable," she shot back. "Listen, I've got to go see what my babies are up to. They're being way too quiet to be left alone."
"They're probably out in Coach's office, making a mess again."
"Yeah, I know. I'll talk to you later."
"All right. Night, baby." Gerry replied.
"Goodnight." She hung up the phone.
Much to her surprise, Sheryl and Clay weren't up to any mischief. They were cuddled up in a recliner, reading his book. Sheri smiled. She knew that book of fairy tales was going to capture Sheryl's attention sooner or later. "Supper's ready, you two," she announced.
She picked Clay up and hugged him, then carried him to the table as Sheryl ran ahead to set out the plates and forks. Sheri got them settled at the table, said Grace, then took her plate to the bar. She had a phone call to make before she lost the nerve and chickened out. She looked the number up on Coach's team roster, then cautiously dialed the number, sure that he wasn't home and she was going to get his mother, or worse his father.
"Hello?" A deep voice answered.
"Hello," she said. "May I speak to Julius?"
"Ya' already are," came his laughing reply.
"Oh, sorry, Julius." she replied. "This is Sheri Yoast."
"Hey, girl," he answered wondering why she was calling him. "Why ain't you out with Superman?"
"Mainly, cause he didn't ask me," she shrugged. "But, also becuase I'm babysitting for Coach and Ms. Truvy."
"Who?"
"Truvy Hampton. Coach's girlfriend. Since I don't have a life, I volunteered to babysit Sheryl and Ms. Truvy's little boy, Clay, so her and Daddy could go out to dinner," she explained.
"Coach has a girlfriend? All right, Coach," he laughed again.
Sheri giggled. She hadn't counted on Julius being so easy to talk to.
"Well," he continued. "You've only got it half as bad as I do. It's my folks' wedding anniversary this weekend, so I'm babysitting too. My thirteen year-old twin sisters, Jeramishia, and Teramishia, and I done had to run off about five little nappy-headed boys. They way too boy-crazy."
"Nah," she answered. "They're just thirteen-year-old girls. You have any other brothers or sisters?"
"Yeah, a ten year-old brother Alex, who decided to tell our baby sister, Queen, who's three that she could fly if she had a cape on, so I walk in the living room, and she's standing on the top of the bookshelf with a bedsheet tied around her neck fixing to try it. I tell I'm earning my ten dollars tonight. I think I must have been outside my mind to agree to this," he laughed. "And I got an older sister, but I ain't got to babysit her. She's grown and getting married soon. How's your babies doing?"
"Great," she laughed. "They are being little angels, and that's really got me worried. Usually they'd be tearing the house apart. Making me paranoid, dude."
"Maybe they're trying to get your gaurd down," he joked.
"Maybe," she agreed. "Or else, Coach told them to be nice and they're actually doing it. In which case, there must be a full moon. Why don't you call Gerry, and get him to come help you? He's home, and he's actually pretty good at babysitting, considering he's an only child and never had to deal with younger siblings. I'd invite him over here, but Coach doesn't like for me to have company over when he ain't here unless he knows about it beforehand."
"It's a long story," he sighed. "But I don't think he'd come."
"Cause of last night, right?"
"Yeah, and some other things," he replied.
"Last night was a bad night," she tried to explain. "Just before the game, we found out that a very dear friend of ours had been killed in Viet Nam. Gerry was hurting last night. Still is. So am I, and so is Alan. But, unlike me and Alan, when Gerry's hurting, he gets defensive and even downright mean. I'm sorry if he was being rude."
"Man," Julius sighed. "I sure wish I had known that. I wouldn't have been riding him so hard about his head not being in the game. But that don't explain away his being to racist to come down to the 'berg and play basketball with me and some of the other guys."
"Oh," she said, quietly. Gerry was either going to thank her for this, or bless her out for interfering. "That didn't have anything to do with HIM being racist, either. That had to do with his mother being a ...," she paused. "A word I won't say in front of little ears. Don't get me wrong, I love Mrs. Jean. She's a good person, but she used the one thing she knew would make Gerry go to church with her. Guilt. And she probably didn't even do it purposely. But it still worked."
"Guilt?"
"Yeah, about his daddy being dead. You see, Gerry thinks it's his fault. So, any mention of Mr. Micheal, and he'll do whatever you want just to get you to shut up."
"Why would he think its his fault his dad died?" Julius asked, wanting to know more about the boy he still hoped to be friends with.
Sheri sighed, "You remember the '69 championship game?"
"Yeah, yeah, I watched it on tv. Ya'll were playing in the snow and sleet. I remember thinking how glad I was that we weren't in the playoffs that year. Ya'll won, didn't you?"
"Uh-huh. Anyway, we were sophmores, and Gerry was a starter. Only sophmore starter on the team that year and you know how big a deal it is to be a sophmore starting in a championship game. Mr. Micheal was away on business, and told Gerry that he might not be able to make it back to town in time for the game. Well, Gerry threw a fit, cut up something awful, and just acted like a royal brat. To make a long story short when his flight was canceled, due to the weather, Mr. Micheal rented a car to drive in. He had a wreck down in Richmond, and ...and.. didn't make it." She stopped to collect her own thoughts, and steady her voice. She glanced at Sheryl to see if she had been listening, but she was busy trying to make Clay eat with his fork instead of his fingers. Then she continued, "Gerry's got it into his head that if he hadn't acted the way he did and made Mr. Micheal promise to try and get back, then he would have waited out the storm and would still be here. We all know that he wouldn't have, that wasn't the way he was. If hadn't thought he couldn't make it home, he would have tried it. No matter what he promised Gerry. But nobody, not even Coach can convince him of that. He doesn't..., when Mrs. Jean started all that "if-your-father-stuff," he went to church with her, just to shut her up, so he wouldn't have to hear someone talking about his dad."
"Why didn't he just tell me any of this stuff?" Julius asked.
"Cause he don't tell anyone anything about his daddy," she replied. "Too painful or something. I know it because I knew Mr. Micheal. Him and Coach were best friends from like grade school or something and Gerry and me have known each other practically from birth. I lived it with him."
"Coach and Mr. Bertier were friends?"
"Good friends. Always together. Always. Like me and Gerry and Alan."
He remembered Coach telling him that he knew friends didn't come easily, but he had figured it was just talk, but he did know what it was to suddenly lose your best friend. He also remembered how quick Gerry had changed the subject when he had asked him about his dad during Coach Boone's forced getting to know each other. He had just taken it for Gerry's not wanting to talk to him.
"Look," she said, when he didn't say anything. "I ain't trying to tell you that Gerry ain't got his faults. He's a stubborn, pig-headed mule, and he can be full of himself and cocky as all get out. If somebody had told me six weeks ago, that he would have become friends with you or Petey or Blue, I'd have been the first to say they were crazy. But he is trying to change and be a good guy. I think that you'll be throwing away a great friendship if you don't try to fix it. I told him all this too, but he's all messed up in the head right now over Freddie J. Besides, like I said, he's a stubborn, pig-headed mule."
"So, what you're saying, is that I have to make the first move," he replied.
"Yeah."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Why are you telling me all of this?"
"Cause I'm a nosey friend who would hate to see ya'll waste a good thing," she answered. "Call him up and invite him over. I'm almost positive he'll come. If he don't you can be mad at me too."
"Okay, okay," Julius said, finally. "I'll try it on one condition."
"What's that?"
"That you take some advice from me, as well."
"Shoot."
"Give Gerry a break and go out with the boy. He's crazy about you. All he ever talks about is Sheri-this, and Sheridan-that."
"Really?" She was surprised, but happy to hear that.
"Would I lie to you? Listen, I'm gonna be the nosey friend now and tell you, you're throwing away a good thing too."
"I know, I know, you sound just like Alan. I'm crazy about Gerry, too. It's just..., I don't want to lose him as a friend again, if it don't work out."
"Give him a chance, girl. You didn't lose him last time, or he wouldn't have gone chasing after you and Ray the other night. Trust me, I'm a guy, I know these things."
Sheri laughed, "I'll think about it."
"You do that," he replied. "Hold on."
She laughed as she heard his muffled voice. "No, Queen, you can't talk. I ain't talking to Reesa. I ain't talking to Petey, either. Go play with Jerri and Terri." Then to her, "Sorry 'bout that. My baby sister thinks I can only talk to Kareesa on the phone. Kareesa or Petey."
She giggled, "Who's Kareesa?"
"Kareesa Randall. My girl," he explained.
"Does she go to TC?" She couldn't remember seeing him with any girl she didn't know.
"Nah. She graduated from GW last year. She's going to UV this semester."
"An older woman? You go, Julius."
"Yeah," he laughed. "I can't wait for her to come home, so she can meet ya'll. She's great."
"I'd like that," she paused for a minute, then, "Julius, I really glad the schools intergrated. Otherwise, I'd have missed a great friend."
He smiled, "Thanks, Sheridan. I would have too. So, do we have a deal? I'll make amends with Superman, if you consider going out with him."
"It's a deal," she happily agreed. "Thanks for hearing me out. I appreciate it."
"No problem. Thanks for calling me," he replied.
"Anytime."
"I'm going to hold you to that, okay?"
"Okay," she smiled again. "Talk to you later, Ju."
"Night, Sheri."
They hung up.
"Oh, you were talking to Julius," Sheryl giggled.
"Took you that long to figure that out?" She replied, knowing Sheri was up to something. "Go take a bath."
"I'm going to tell Gerry," Sheryl answered in a sing-song voice.
"So, tell him. See if I really care," she shot back.
"I will." Sheryl danced out of the room, sing that she was going to tell Gerry with every step.