DISCLAIMER: I don't own RtT! I wish I owned Ryan Hurst! He is the finest thing I've ever laid eyes on. He is so HOT! I don't own TC Williams, or anybody who went there, past, present, or future. I don't own the song, "If You're Going to San Fransisco (Wear Flowers in Your Hair)." I love the song! I just decided to toss it in there!
MY NOTES: Hey, y'all! I'm back again. Sadly, this chappie has no music. But it is kind of important. It includes a very strange moment between Julie and Rachel. It's also the regional championship chapter. Which means *eyes fill with tears* Gerry's accident. :-( *Sobs uncontrollably as she says Gerry's name* Which has very little bearing on the story, but I love Gerry, so I have to throw in a little aside about him every once in a while. That is my right as the writer. 'Course, his cousin is one of the more important characters, so I guess I can have him in here, right? Oh! To reviewers, thanks so much for doing your stuff! But, just a little question... Could y'all like, point out things that you particularly like, or don't like? That way, I know which "muse" to work with, and what stuff is crap to never do again. Oh, well. Sorry! My disclaimers and notes always seem to ramble pointlessly! Well, tell me if you hate my rambling, and I'll really try to cut it out...
~Chapter 7: An Unexpected Friendship~
That weekend, the Titans played for the regional championship. Rachel was glad that she had been able to travel to the away game. She was sitting on the front row with JoAnna on her right, and Rev's younger sister, Laura, on her right. Next to Laura was Julie. Even though they weren't at catfight-level, Rachel and Julie had no particular desire to sit together.
The Titans were amazing. Rachel was proud every time she watched her quarterback lead his team to a touchdown.
Ronnie crouched behind the center and prepared to receive the snap. "Blue 21! Blue 21! Hut-hut!" He felt the pigskin in his hands and backed up to let the linemen do their work. The defense was really good, and Ronnie began to get a little worried. He found his runningback and threw the ball hard. It landed neatly in the runningback's hands, and Ronnie watched him run. He ended up being tackled not far from the goal line by the star linebacker. Ronnie thought the guy deserved an 'unnecessary roughage' penalty, but the refs were turning a blind eye to everything the other team was doing.
When they went for the touchdown, Ronnie got sacked for the fourth down. The defense came in, and Ronnie took his place on the bench to wait until he was called in. As he watched, Ronnie knew something wasn't right. They kept calling holds on Petey and Blue. And they were obviously not holding. Ronnie wouldn't have been so upset had the calls been fair, but they weren't holding.
Sheryl Yoast was pacing up and down the bleachers yelling, "Come on! That wasn't a hold! That was such a bad call!"
Ronnie couldn't help smiling at the little girl. He thought he would feel better if he could go pace with her. He found himself slapping his thigh pads, then his knees. He couldn't sit still. He was completely on edge.
Rachel knew enough about football to know that the refs were calling holds that weren't there. And all of them were on black players. She was furious.
Coach Yoast kept looking at Sheryl, and Coach Boone was standing, arms crossed, chewing the living daylights out of a piece of gum that had lost its flavor long ago. Rachel saw the ref telling Boone to stay away.
Coach Yoast finally seemed to snap. He called the ref's name, and went up to talk to him. Some of the Titans were yelling, "Tell 'em, Coach!"
Yoast walked away from the ref, and called the defense in. As he talked to them, Ronnie saw Petey walk off and throw his helmet to the side. Then Coach said something that was apparently quite eloquent, because the defense started yelling, then they hollered, "Titans!"
The defense took the field again, and lined up. Ronnie looked on as Gerry and Julius took down runner after runner. Then, Gerry ran down to Coach Taber, and pointed in his face, as if to say, "You're going down."
And Taber and his boys did indeed go down. The Titans took home a 44-14 victory.
They were yelling, the fans were yelling... Everybody was on a complete and total adrenaline rush. The team finally had to go take showers and get on the buses.
Rachel rode to the unloading spot in Laura's blue Charger. She and Laura waited together for the boys. As the players streamed off of the bus, Rachel eagerly scanned the crowd for Ronnie. He walked off the bus behind Petey, who was still in a bad mood about the holding penalties.
Rachel ran up to Ronnie and kissed him squarely on the lips. "That was for winning the game." She kissed him again. "And that was just 'cause I love you."
Ronnie smiled. "Well, all of us won the game. So I guess you better go give the other guys their kisses."
She knew he was kidding, so she decided to tease him back. "Well, if you think I should... Who should I kiss first? I'm sorta thinkin' Gerry, 'cause he's mighty fine... Or maybe Julius? But then, maybe I should help Petey get over his bad mood... But that might boost his ego too much. Whatcha think?"
"Well, if I'd known you were going to be that excited about it, I wouldn't have suggested it."
"I'm just kidding!"
"Well, I'm not grounded anymore. So...you wanna go celebrate?"
"Yeah! Let's go!" The two teens went to tell Colonel and Mrs. Bass that they were going out to eat.
They walked off, hand-in-hand, to Ronnie's truck. They went to Antonio's, one of the integrated places in the city. It was an Italian place that Ronnie really liked. Ronnie ordered spaghetti and meatballs, and Rachel ordered chicken alfredo with cheese sauce, as "If You're Going to San Fransisco" played on the radio.
"We're gonna smell really nice, huh, Ronnie?" Rachel said, "All, this garlic."
Ronnie laughed. "Well, at least we're both eating it. So we can kiss without smelling each other."
"Good," she replied.
They payed no attention to the ringing phone until the waitress that answered it looked around the room and said, "Sunshine?"
Ronnie turned around. She held the phone out in his direction, so he stood up and went over to the phone. He wondered who would be calling him at Antonio's. Blue and Lewie had started an odd tradition of pretending to be a player from the other team and leaving weird death threats as a joke, but they wouldn't call him at Antonio's. Which reminded him that he was supposed to call Gerry and pretend to be Coach Taber's linebacker... And he didn't have a whacky threat planned yet... When Alan had called him, pretending to be the QB from Groveton, he had threatened to hang Ronnie up by the ears... But that wasn't good enough for Gerry. Ronnie managed to think all of that in less than three seconds, as he raised the phone to his ear. "Hello?" he said, not quite sure who's voice to expect on the other line.
"Ronnie, son, you need to come home," Colonel Bass said.
Ronnie didn't like his dad's tone. It worried him. "What's wrong, dad?"
"Just come home. I'll see you in a little bit."
"OK, Dad. I'm on my way."
Rachel was finished, so Ronnie payed the tab, and Rachel insisted on fronting the tip. They headed out to Ronnie's truck, and left for his house. He was worried when they were detoured because of an accident scene. He tried to see the car, but it was surrounded by people.
He took the detour, and got home. He and Rachel went inside. Ronnie was worried when he saw his parents and JoAnna on the couch and Petey in an armchair. The tall blonde could feel the tension in the room, and tried in vain to break it. "Hey, Petey," he said. "Feelin' better?"
Petey didn't answer his friend's question. He looked up at Ronnie and said, "Sunshine...we...uh...Bertier got hurt. Real bad, man. He totalled his Camaro, and...Well, we need to get to the hospital pretty quick."
"Oh, no! Is he...Is he OK?"
"I don't think so. Coaches said we'd talk at the hospital."
Ronnie nodded. "Rache, will you be OK here?"
She nodded. "Go ahead, babe."
The phone rang, and Ronnie ran to answer it. He came back, saying, "That was Emma. I'm gonna give her a ride to the hospital."
Colonel Bass nodded. "Be careful, son."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rachel was going crazy. She wanted to be with Ronnie, to comfort him. She was worried about Gerry, too. He was such a nice guy. And as much as she hated to admit it, she was feeling sorry for the things she had done to and thought about Julie. Even though they got along for the most part, Rachel had still been pretty mean to her at times.
Ronnie called about an hour later, from a payphone at the hospital. Colonel Bass answered the phone, then came into the living room to break the news. "Gerry's paralyzed from the waist down."
"Oh, that poor boy!" Mrs. Bass exclaimed.
JoAnna started crying, and so did Rachel. Everybody loved Gerry, and they couldn't believe he was hurt. Not like that.
Rachel needed to be with Ronnie. "Colonel, I need to go to the hospital."
"Me, too, Dad," JoAnna added.
"You two take the Camaro," he replied. Rachel guessed that it was only his military bearing that kept him from crying.
The two girls headed out to the car and drove to the hospital. "I can't believe this," JoAnna said. "This couldn't happen. Not to Gerry. Julius calls him Superman. I always kind of thought he was."
Rachel nodded as she accelerated.
They arrived at the hospital, and headed for the ER. When Rachel looked into the waiting room, she saw Ronnie with his arms around Julie. She was crying, her face buried in Ronnie's chest. "Shh..." she heard him whisper.
She tried to fight the jealousy rising up inside of her, and walked into the room. She knew that Julie needed someone to cry with, and Ronnie was a great crying partner.
"Hey, Rache," Ronnie said softly.
"Hey, Ronnie," she replied, sitting at his side. "How is he?"
"Physically, not too good. But he's alive."
She nodded.
Julie said she was going to get a cup of coffee, and Rachel said she was going with her. JoAnna was going to stay with Ronnie.
Rachel and Julie purchased their coffee at the cafeteria. Rachel stirred cream and sugar into hers, but Julie drank hers black. They sat there a moment before Julie broke the silence. "Rachel, I know... I know that Sunshine's yours. But...but I love him."
Rachel didn't really know what to say. "He's a hard guy not to love."
"Yeah. He is. But... you... Ronnie loves you."
Rachel nodded. "I love him, too."
"I'm jealous of you, Rachel," Julie continued. "You're so pretty and smart. And you're real social. Everybody likes you... But I'm not any of those things."
"Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Wait just a minute. First of all, you ARE pretty. I would kill to have eyes like yours. You can't always tell what color they are. If I were a guy, I would find that VERY sexy," Rachel said with a grin.
Julie laughed. "Sexy? Now THERE'S a word that has never been used to describe me before."
"Well, you know that people would call you sexy if Gerry wasn't always in the locker room."
Julie sniffled just a little at the mention of Gerry's name. Then she smiled. "True. Gerry wouldn't like hearing me referred to as sexy."
"Nope, probably not." Rachel smiled, and as much as she wanted to, Julie couldn't hate her.
Rachel smiled. "And as for smart...I'd be failing Spanish if I didn't borrow notes from you and Ronnie."
Julie smiled. Come to think of it, Rachel wasn't exactly SeƱora McLamb's favorite student.
"Now as far as social, I'm not sure. I like people, but... I don't really have too many friends. And not everybody likes me. I just try to get along with people. But it's harder here. In Alexandria, I mean. People don't react well to 'hippies.' It's like there is this little mold, especially for girls, and if you don't fit, you aren't 'in.'"
"But you're not really a..."
"Hippie? Yeah, I know that. And you know that. But alot of people don't."
The two girls went back to the waiting room, after finishing their coffee. They were surprised that they were facing the very real possibility of being friends.
"Thanks, Rachel," Julie said, in a gentle tone.
"Thank YOU, Julie," Rachel replied, a soft smile on her face.
~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
A/N: OK, so maybe that's kinda weird. But, anyway... I hope you still like it... Review, please! And please r/r "The Dated and the Dumped" by Jamaican Sunshine. She's my bud, so give her a look...
Up Next: Rachel's dad goes too far, and Ronnie is forced to take action...
MY NOTES: Hey, y'all! I'm back again. Sadly, this chappie has no music. But it is kind of important. It includes a very strange moment between Julie and Rachel. It's also the regional championship chapter. Which means *eyes fill with tears* Gerry's accident. :-( *Sobs uncontrollably as she says Gerry's name* Which has very little bearing on the story, but I love Gerry, so I have to throw in a little aside about him every once in a while. That is my right as the writer. 'Course, his cousin is one of the more important characters, so I guess I can have him in here, right? Oh! To reviewers, thanks so much for doing your stuff! But, just a little question... Could y'all like, point out things that you particularly like, or don't like? That way, I know which "muse" to work with, and what stuff is crap to never do again. Oh, well. Sorry! My disclaimers and notes always seem to ramble pointlessly! Well, tell me if you hate my rambling, and I'll really try to cut it out...
~Chapter 7: An Unexpected Friendship~
That weekend, the Titans played for the regional championship. Rachel was glad that she had been able to travel to the away game. She was sitting on the front row with JoAnna on her right, and Rev's younger sister, Laura, on her right. Next to Laura was Julie. Even though they weren't at catfight-level, Rachel and Julie had no particular desire to sit together.
The Titans were amazing. Rachel was proud every time she watched her quarterback lead his team to a touchdown.
Ronnie crouched behind the center and prepared to receive the snap. "Blue 21! Blue 21! Hut-hut!" He felt the pigskin in his hands and backed up to let the linemen do their work. The defense was really good, and Ronnie began to get a little worried. He found his runningback and threw the ball hard. It landed neatly in the runningback's hands, and Ronnie watched him run. He ended up being tackled not far from the goal line by the star linebacker. Ronnie thought the guy deserved an 'unnecessary roughage' penalty, but the refs were turning a blind eye to everything the other team was doing.
When they went for the touchdown, Ronnie got sacked for the fourth down. The defense came in, and Ronnie took his place on the bench to wait until he was called in. As he watched, Ronnie knew something wasn't right. They kept calling holds on Petey and Blue. And they were obviously not holding. Ronnie wouldn't have been so upset had the calls been fair, but they weren't holding.
Sheryl Yoast was pacing up and down the bleachers yelling, "Come on! That wasn't a hold! That was such a bad call!"
Ronnie couldn't help smiling at the little girl. He thought he would feel better if he could go pace with her. He found himself slapping his thigh pads, then his knees. He couldn't sit still. He was completely on edge.
Rachel knew enough about football to know that the refs were calling holds that weren't there. And all of them were on black players. She was furious.
Coach Yoast kept looking at Sheryl, and Coach Boone was standing, arms crossed, chewing the living daylights out of a piece of gum that had lost its flavor long ago. Rachel saw the ref telling Boone to stay away.
Coach Yoast finally seemed to snap. He called the ref's name, and went up to talk to him. Some of the Titans were yelling, "Tell 'em, Coach!"
Yoast walked away from the ref, and called the defense in. As he talked to them, Ronnie saw Petey walk off and throw his helmet to the side. Then Coach said something that was apparently quite eloquent, because the defense started yelling, then they hollered, "Titans!"
The defense took the field again, and lined up. Ronnie looked on as Gerry and Julius took down runner after runner. Then, Gerry ran down to Coach Taber, and pointed in his face, as if to say, "You're going down."
And Taber and his boys did indeed go down. The Titans took home a 44-14 victory.
They were yelling, the fans were yelling... Everybody was on a complete and total adrenaline rush. The team finally had to go take showers and get on the buses.
Rachel rode to the unloading spot in Laura's blue Charger. She and Laura waited together for the boys. As the players streamed off of the bus, Rachel eagerly scanned the crowd for Ronnie. He walked off the bus behind Petey, who was still in a bad mood about the holding penalties.
Rachel ran up to Ronnie and kissed him squarely on the lips. "That was for winning the game." She kissed him again. "And that was just 'cause I love you."
Ronnie smiled. "Well, all of us won the game. So I guess you better go give the other guys their kisses."
She knew he was kidding, so she decided to tease him back. "Well, if you think I should... Who should I kiss first? I'm sorta thinkin' Gerry, 'cause he's mighty fine... Or maybe Julius? But then, maybe I should help Petey get over his bad mood... But that might boost his ego too much. Whatcha think?"
"Well, if I'd known you were going to be that excited about it, I wouldn't have suggested it."
"I'm just kidding!"
"Well, I'm not grounded anymore. So...you wanna go celebrate?"
"Yeah! Let's go!" The two teens went to tell Colonel and Mrs. Bass that they were going out to eat.
They walked off, hand-in-hand, to Ronnie's truck. They went to Antonio's, one of the integrated places in the city. It was an Italian place that Ronnie really liked. Ronnie ordered spaghetti and meatballs, and Rachel ordered chicken alfredo with cheese sauce, as "If You're Going to San Fransisco" played on the radio.
"We're gonna smell really nice, huh, Ronnie?" Rachel said, "All, this garlic."
Ronnie laughed. "Well, at least we're both eating it. So we can kiss without smelling each other."
"Good," she replied.
They payed no attention to the ringing phone until the waitress that answered it looked around the room and said, "Sunshine?"
Ronnie turned around. She held the phone out in his direction, so he stood up and went over to the phone. He wondered who would be calling him at Antonio's. Blue and Lewie had started an odd tradition of pretending to be a player from the other team and leaving weird death threats as a joke, but they wouldn't call him at Antonio's. Which reminded him that he was supposed to call Gerry and pretend to be Coach Taber's linebacker... And he didn't have a whacky threat planned yet... When Alan had called him, pretending to be the QB from Groveton, he had threatened to hang Ronnie up by the ears... But that wasn't good enough for Gerry. Ronnie managed to think all of that in less than three seconds, as he raised the phone to his ear. "Hello?" he said, not quite sure who's voice to expect on the other line.
"Ronnie, son, you need to come home," Colonel Bass said.
Ronnie didn't like his dad's tone. It worried him. "What's wrong, dad?"
"Just come home. I'll see you in a little bit."
"OK, Dad. I'm on my way."
Rachel was finished, so Ronnie payed the tab, and Rachel insisted on fronting the tip. They headed out to Ronnie's truck, and left for his house. He was worried when they were detoured because of an accident scene. He tried to see the car, but it was surrounded by people.
He took the detour, and got home. He and Rachel went inside. Ronnie was worried when he saw his parents and JoAnna on the couch and Petey in an armchair. The tall blonde could feel the tension in the room, and tried in vain to break it. "Hey, Petey," he said. "Feelin' better?"
Petey didn't answer his friend's question. He looked up at Ronnie and said, "Sunshine...we...uh...Bertier got hurt. Real bad, man. He totalled his Camaro, and...Well, we need to get to the hospital pretty quick."
"Oh, no! Is he...Is he OK?"
"I don't think so. Coaches said we'd talk at the hospital."
Ronnie nodded. "Rache, will you be OK here?"
She nodded. "Go ahead, babe."
The phone rang, and Ronnie ran to answer it. He came back, saying, "That was Emma. I'm gonna give her a ride to the hospital."
Colonel Bass nodded. "Be careful, son."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Rachel was going crazy. She wanted to be with Ronnie, to comfort him. She was worried about Gerry, too. He was such a nice guy. And as much as she hated to admit it, she was feeling sorry for the things she had done to and thought about Julie. Even though they got along for the most part, Rachel had still been pretty mean to her at times.
Ronnie called about an hour later, from a payphone at the hospital. Colonel Bass answered the phone, then came into the living room to break the news. "Gerry's paralyzed from the waist down."
"Oh, that poor boy!" Mrs. Bass exclaimed.
JoAnna started crying, and so did Rachel. Everybody loved Gerry, and they couldn't believe he was hurt. Not like that.
Rachel needed to be with Ronnie. "Colonel, I need to go to the hospital."
"Me, too, Dad," JoAnna added.
"You two take the Camaro," he replied. Rachel guessed that it was only his military bearing that kept him from crying.
The two girls headed out to the car and drove to the hospital. "I can't believe this," JoAnna said. "This couldn't happen. Not to Gerry. Julius calls him Superman. I always kind of thought he was."
Rachel nodded as she accelerated.
They arrived at the hospital, and headed for the ER. When Rachel looked into the waiting room, she saw Ronnie with his arms around Julie. She was crying, her face buried in Ronnie's chest. "Shh..." she heard him whisper.
She tried to fight the jealousy rising up inside of her, and walked into the room. She knew that Julie needed someone to cry with, and Ronnie was a great crying partner.
"Hey, Rache," Ronnie said softly.
"Hey, Ronnie," she replied, sitting at his side. "How is he?"
"Physically, not too good. But he's alive."
She nodded.
Julie said she was going to get a cup of coffee, and Rachel said she was going with her. JoAnna was going to stay with Ronnie.
Rachel and Julie purchased their coffee at the cafeteria. Rachel stirred cream and sugar into hers, but Julie drank hers black. They sat there a moment before Julie broke the silence. "Rachel, I know... I know that Sunshine's yours. But...but I love him."
Rachel didn't really know what to say. "He's a hard guy not to love."
"Yeah. He is. But... you... Ronnie loves you."
Rachel nodded. "I love him, too."
"I'm jealous of you, Rachel," Julie continued. "You're so pretty and smart. And you're real social. Everybody likes you... But I'm not any of those things."
"Whoa, whoa, WHOA! Wait just a minute. First of all, you ARE pretty. I would kill to have eyes like yours. You can't always tell what color they are. If I were a guy, I would find that VERY sexy," Rachel said with a grin.
Julie laughed. "Sexy? Now THERE'S a word that has never been used to describe me before."
"Well, you know that people would call you sexy if Gerry wasn't always in the locker room."
Julie sniffled just a little at the mention of Gerry's name. Then she smiled. "True. Gerry wouldn't like hearing me referred to as sexy."
"Nope, probably not." Rachel smiled, and as much as she wanted to, Julie couldn't hate her.
Rachel smiled. "And as for smart...I'd be failing Spanish if I didn't borrow notes from you and Ronnie."
Julie smiled. Come to think of it, Rachel wasn't exactly SeƱora McLamb's favorite student.
"Now as far as social, I'm not sure. I like people, but... I don't really have too many friends. And not everybody likes me. I just try to get along with people. But it's harder here. In Alexandria, I mean. People don't react well to 'hippies.' It's like there is this little mold, especially for girls, and if you don't fit, you aren't 'in.'"
"But you're not really a..."
"Hippie? Yeah, I know that. And you know that. But alot of people don't."
The two girls went back to the waiting room, after finishing their coffee. They were surprised that they were facing the very real possibility of being friends.
"Thanks, Rachel," Julie said, in a gentle tone.
"Thank YOU, Julie," Rachel replied, a soft smile on her face.
~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~
A/N: OK, so maybe that's kinda weird. But, anyway... I hope you still like it... Review, please! And please r/r "The Dated and the Dumped" by Jamaican Sunshine. She's my bud, so give her a look...
Up Next: Rachel's dad goes too far, and Ronnie is forced to take action...
