Disclaimer: TC Williams High School and its environs belong to the city of Alexandria, VA. The original Titans belong to themselves, while the fictitious characters from the film Remember the Titans belong to Disney. The title of this chapter is taken from the 1972 Three Dog Night song. I only own Tamsin, the Edison High School Eagles, and assorted TC Williams students and Titans.
Technical Notes: This is an alternate ending to the football game in the previous chapter. I still believe the Titans can't win everything, but wrote this for those who want to read about them winning. (It was tough writing about them losing, believe me!)
Author's Notes: Many thanks, as always, to Livia Liana for the football beta read. I feel I've learned quite a bit about the game from you, despite all the errors that still keep cropping up in my initial drafts! ("Prefer the errors of enthusiasm to the complacency of wisdom." — Branch Rickey) Thank you for sharing the headache with me! I hope you're open to sharing more when it's time to write Rev's story ;-)
And, as always, thank you to everyone who reviewed :D Welcome aboard, Anni!
Outtake — Black and White"Oh, my God, the state championships!" Emma squealed as she and Tamsin sat in the bleachers, waiting for the game to start. "I'm so nervous!"
"Do you think the weather will affect the game?" Tamsin asked, wishing she had a hot water bottle tucked inside her coat. It wasn't snowing that afternoon, but it was really cold. She couldn't imagine actually playing out in weather like this without being bundled to the eyebrows in warm clothes.
"Don't worry, Tamsin," Rev assured her. "The guys will be fine!"
"Yeah, football players toughen themselves up for this kind of thing," Corey added. "Sometimes Ryan sleeps naked during winter to condition himself for playing in cold weather."
"Corey!" Emma and Cat shrieked in unison. Tamsin clapped her hands over Sheryl's ears and Rev tried to cover Nikki's, but it was obvious from the little girls' giggles that they were too late.
"I so did not need to know that," Liz said, her cheeks as red as her stocking cap. "I don't think I'll be able to look Ryan in the eye for a while. Maybe not ever again."
"Well, forget that!" Sheryl ordered, jumping to her feet. "The Titans are coming!"
Ryan's sleeping habits were forgotten (with some difficulty on Liz's part) as the Titans took the field to do their trademark warm-up. The team seemed to have no reaction to the frigid weather, save for the clouds of steam coming out of their helmets. To Tamsin's relief, no one slipped, so perhaps there were no icy patches on the ground.
"Here we go!" Rev exclaimed as the coin was tossed and the referee announced that the Titans would be receiving the kickoff. The battle for the 1972 Virginia High School AAA Football Championship had begun.
As usual, Ronnie sought Tamsin out in the crowd and sent her a thumbs-up. She waved back and watched, chin propped on her mitten-clad fist, as he joined his teammates in the huddle. Never, in her wildest dreams, did she ever imagine that she would be dating a football player. A tiny part of her still cringed whenever he picked her out of the crowd during games. On the whole, however, Tamsin loved every minute of it. Ronnie was smart, straightforward and a sweetheart — nothing at all like the stereotypical dumb jock. Given that, the extremely cliched idea of dating a quarterback actually had a campy appeal.
Cheering him on was kind of a cliché, too, but she screamed herself hoarse anyway because Ronnie had engineered a strong drive toward the Eagles' end zone, culminating in a touchdown by Eddie Lindros, the first of the game.
"All right!" Rev called over Liz's cheering. "Now that's what you call scoring with authority!"
Tamsin watched avidly as the Titans dominated the rest of the first quarter. The Eagles' defense was unable to make any tackles that counted, and their attempts to score were completely smothered. Big Julius sacked Mark Gunderson, the Eagles' All-American quarterback, during the third down. On the Eagles' desperate fourth down attempt, Ryan forced a turnover and ran the ball in for another touchdown.
"All right!" Liz cried, applauding as the blond boy spiked the ball in triumph. "That was some hustle!"
"You're just saying that because you know he sleeps naked," Corey teased.
The dark-haired girl blushed and smacked her friend on the arm. "Will you shut up about that?"
An Eagle field goal attempt failed, and at the close of the first quarter, the score was 14-0 in favor of the Titans. "This could be an easier win that I thought!" Sheryl said happily.
"Let's not get too over-confident," Tamsin warned.
"What's there to be over-confident about? We're steamrollerin' those guys! Now smile nice and wave to Sunshine — he's lookin' at you again!"
The Titans continued to do no wrong in the second quarter. Although the Eagles made some progress downfield, the defense stopped them again. Petey returned a weak punt and powered through the Eagles' offense all the way to the Titans' 30-yard line. The Titans offense came close to scoring another touchdown, but Paul Ellering, the Eagles' fleet-footed cornerback, intercepted the pass and set up an Eagle drive that resulted in a field goal.
"Aw, nuts!" Sheryl exclaimed, so loudly that her father sent her a severe look from the sidelines.
As if to placate the little girl, Jim Frederick returned the next Eagle kickoff and sped downfield. His 47-yard gain paved the way for another touchdown.
"Ha! Now that's more like it!" Sheryl said, satisfied.
* * *
The Eagles and the Titans each scored a touchdown after that, bringing the score to 28-10 in favor of the Titans at the close of the first half. "OK, Edison's startin' to show a little fire out there," Boone said in the locker room during the break that followed, "but we are still leading! Defense, we need you to stay strong out there! All we have to do is hang on for two more quarters and we win!"
"We'll try our best, Herman," Yoast told him.
"You got it, Coach!" Big Julius vowed at the same time.
The stands were a roaring blaze of red and white as the Titans took the field at the opening of the third quarter. Ryan started things off with a bang by forcing a turnover and taking the ball all the way to the Titans' 20-yard line.
"Good going, Hunter," Eddie congratulated his friend as the defense trooped triumphantly off the field.
Ryan grinned. He had ably filled into the void left by Gerry Bertier and was a shoo-in for co-captain next year. "Thanks, man."
"Why didn't you just go ahead and score the touchdown?"
"I thought I'd let you guys do it — you know, give the offense the chance to catch up."
"Shut up, man!" Ronnie chuckled and pounded the other boy's shoulder pads before joining the offense in huddle. He glanced up at where Tamsin was sitting before turning back to his teammates and relaying Boone's instructions.
They took their positions along the line of scrimmage. "Red 17!" Ronnie yelled above the cheering of the home crowd. "Red 17! Hut-hut!"
With only 20 yards to go, it was easy for Jim to run to the end zone and anticipate the pass while the offensive line tied up the Eagles defense. Ronnie cocked back his arm and let the ball fly. It rose and fell in a graceful arc, toward the receiver's waiting hands…
…only to be intercepted by Paul Ellering. Fortunately, Blue caught up with him before he got too far. "We really ought to do something about that guy," Eddie grumbled after the play was whistled dead. "I'm really starting to hate him."
Possession shifted back and forth between the two teams, but neither was able to score. The game remained a defensive battle until a Hail Mary pass from Gunderson found a receiver who proved too slippery for Petey. Touchdown, Eagles.
The Titans were unable to retaliate. They and the rest of the TC Williams crowd watched with mounting alarm as almost all of Ronnie's passes were intercepted. Those that weren't were turned over. The defense was unable to make the tackles that counted, and a Titan field goal attempt failed.
In contrast to the first half, the second half seemed to be all about the Eagles. They scored another touchdown toward the end of the third quarter, and again at the start of the fourth to take the lead, 31-28.
"What happened to us?" Blue wondered aloud as the offense trudged to the bench during a timeout. "It's like we all got replaced by pod people."
"Pod people who can't play worth a damn," Alan added glumly.
"We're trying the best we can," Ronnie said.
"Well, it's obviously not good enough," the other boy snapped. Even though he had already made a big contribution during the first quarter, Alan was anxious to redeem himself after the non-touchdown at the regional championships. He was obviously frustrated with the way the team was now playing.
Up in the bleachers, Tamsin was on her feet with the rest of the Titans fans. She wasn't cheering wildly the way she had been during the first half; but she was still clapping her hands. When she saw Ronnie looking at her, she gave him an encouraging nod. Ronnie grinned back and joined his teammates on the sidelines.
The defense didn't fare any better when it was their turn on the field. Their opponents practically danced circles around them on their way to a substantial yard gain. They managed to hold the Eagles off and the offense did their best to shift play back nearer to the Eagles' end zone. However, the Eagles forced another turnover and ran the 15 remaining yards for another touchdown. 38-28, Eagles. Boone bellowed for a timeout.
The Titans gathered on the sidelines, heads bowed, ashamed to face their coaches. To their relief, the head coach didn't bawl anyone out. He did look at each and every one of them with an expression so stony that they all squirmed, but he said only one thing.
"I want that ball and I want it in the end zone!"
The Titans responded to the terse instruction and, after the kickoff return, the offense returned to the field intent on a rally. In the huddle, Ronnie relayed Boone's instructions to run the same pass-action play that had saved them during the regional championships. "And Jim," he said to the halfback, "I would really appreciate it if Pain-in-the-Ass Ellering is humiliated during this play."
"So would we!" Blue and Eddie chorused.
Jim grinned. "I'll make y'all proud of me, I promise."
"And you'll get your chance later," Ronnie told Alan as they trooped to the line of scrimmage. "I promise."
The wiry blond boy smiled tightly. "Thanks, Sunshine."
Ronnie gave him a brief nod and then crouched behind Blue. "Ready!" he hollered. "Green 49! Green 49! Hut-hut!"
Alan ran past Ronnie the way he had at the regional championships, pretending he had the ball, but Ellering saw through it easily. Trepidation seized Ronnie as the cornerback broke away from the Eagles converging on Alan and began to pursue Jim. "Come on, Footsteps," Ronnie murmured as a few more Eagles joined the chase. "Shake them off!"
Eagle and Titan fans alike were yelling wildly as Jim sprinted down the middle toward the end zone with Ellering practically stepping on his heels. The Titan halfback poured on more speed, but the Eagle defender continued to hound him. Ronnie watched tensely as Ellering gained on Jim. It looked like the Eagles were a hair away from tackling the halfback and ending the play.
Then suddenly, Jim cut to the outside, too far to the right for Ellering to get him. The TC Williams crowd went wild as he left the Eagle in the dust in a final burst of speed and scored a touchdown, narrowing the gap to 38-35.
Eddie leapt into the air, pumping his fist in victory. "All right!" he chortled. "In your face, Ellering!"
Ronnie laughed and thumped his teammate's shoulder pads. "OK, we've had our revenge over that guy, now come on. We still have to win this game."
Boone signaled for an onside kick as the Titan offense returned to the sidelines. "We want that ball back!" Yoast roared to the defense. "And we want it yesterday!"
"Aw, man, I knew it," Blue muttered as he and Ronnie went to watch the kickoff return. "Boone is contagious!"
Ronnie's heart began to pound with a freight train pace as the ball bounced off the side of the kicker's foot. It traveled ten yards and during the scramble that ensued, Ryan dove for the ball to regain it for the Titans.
The stadium erupted and the offense prepared to return to the field. "We got seventy yards and seven seconds to go," Boone said to Ronnie. "Do you want the win or the tie?"
Did he have to ask? "The win, Coach," the blond boy replied. "The guys don't deserve anything less." The statement came out with more force than he had originally intended. Ronnie hoped irrationally that he wouldn't be benched for being rude.
He wasn't, of course. Boone favored him with a small smile around the gum he was still chewing. "Of course they don't."
"We're going for the touchdown, ain't we?" Blue asked as the offense gathered for their final huddle.
Ronnie managed a laugh over the pounding of his heart. "We can go for the field goal if that's what y'all want."
"Heck, no, brother! It's all or nothing!"
"Then that's what it's gonna be." The blond boy quit joking around and looked intently at his teammates. "They're expecting us to go to Jim. He's going to get everyone away from me and then throw the ball back for a flea flicker. Alan, you'd better be in place, you hear?"
"You can count on it," Alan vowed.
"OK, guys." Ronnie took a deep breath. "This is our last time together on the field. Let's make it count, all right?"
The Titans' faces were set when they took the field. Ronnie took one last look around before crouching behind Blue for the last time. "All right! Ready!" he yelled. "Green 23! Green 23! Hut-hut!"
As the Eagles expected, Ronnie pitched the ball to Jim at the snap. As the Titans expected, the defense went after him, led by Paul Ellering, who was still smarting from the last touchdown. Alan sprinted downfield, but he didn't have the ball so no one paid him any attention.
Jim led his pursuers several yards downfield before the ball came sailing up and away from the small cluster of Eagles. Ronnie caught it and fired the long bomb. Most of the Eagles had started toward him, but some were running the other way toward Alan.
Ronnie and the rest of the Titans clenched their fists and watched the ball, willing it to reach Alan before those other guys could. "Yes…"
Alan caught the ball neatly with three seconds to go and the Titans willed him to run. The clock was running out, and if the Eagles tackled him now, it would be all over. "Yes…"
Three. Two. One.
The stadium erupted as Alan took the ball in for the touchdown. "YES!"
* * *
A tide of red and white washed out of the stands and flooded onto the field.
The coaches and players who had been watching from the sidelines reached the Titans first. "That was a hell of a touchdown, Alan," Coach Boone congratulated him. "Good job."
The wiry blond boy grinned proudly. "Thanks, Coach," he managed to say before his family swept him away.
Ronnie grinned as he watched a jubilant Mr. Bosely all but swing his son onto his shoulders. "What a way to go, huh?" he asked Petey, who had come up beside him.
The black boy's eyes were bright. "Yeah," he agreed hoarsely. "What a way to go."
Ronnie could feel his own eyes starting to smart. "It was quite a ride, wasn't it?" It had finally sunk in that the last game ever of their high school careers was over. He was torn between wanting to celebrate its outcome and play it all over again.
"Sure was." Petey smiled at him and sniffled. Embarrassed by his show of emotion, he turned to Ryan and Jim. "Hey!" he barked. "Y'all take notes to see how it's done?"
"You young whippersnappers got quite a job ahead of you next year!" Gerry piped up.
"Don't worry," Ronnie laughed. "They can do it. Right, Matt?" he asked the backup quarterback.
"We'll try," Matthew replied bravely.
Presently, Rev came running up, followed by Emma. The blonde girl threw herself into Gerry's lap. "You guys were unbelievable!" she cried, bussing her boyfriend noisily on the cheek.
Gerry grinned. "They were unbelievable, sugar," he corrected her modestly. "They were the ones on the field, after all."
"Well, you were on the sidelines telling them what to do out there, right?"
"Eeew, mushy!" Blue joked. Ronnie chuckled and turned to see a dark-haired girl jump into Ryan's arms and plant one on him. For a heart-stopping moment, he thought it was Tamsin, but it turned out to be Liz Lindros. "I hope she's just caught up in the moment," he murmured to Corey and Robin, who had appeared not long after.
The sandy-haired boy grinned and turned away from the sight of his brother kissing his girlfriend's best friend. "Personally," Robin confided, "I think that was a long time coming."
Then the real Tamsin showed up, whooping madly. Ronnie whooped right back and scooped her up in his arms. "Congratulations!" she said after whooping in his ear some more.
He grinned and kissed her quickly, not wanting to take the spotlight away from Ryan and Liz. "Thanks." And since she was so conveniently near, Ronnie kissed her again.
Tamsin blushed and scrubbed at his cheek with a woolly thumb. "Someone got dirty," she remarked.
"Well, I guess I'd better put you down before you start to smell like me."
She laughed. "That's OK. I need to wash this coat anyway!"
Tamsin did ask to be let down a short while later, though, because Blue started bellowing the Titans' warm-up song and the rest of the team soon took it up, complete with dance steps. She definitely didn't want to be anywhere near that!
Ronnie chuckled and did as she asked. She yelled that she'd see him later and scurried away as he joined his teammates in singing.
We are the Titans
The high and mighty Titans…