Lion
"Hey kid," Sam said as fourteen-year old Tyler walked into the house after football practice. "Ugh, you smell like a locker room."
"I know, isn't it great?" Tyler grinned.
"So how was practice?" Sam asked, rolling her eyes.
"Awesome, I'm the only freshman who was able to execute the passing play coach came up with for us," Tyler said. "He said he's seriously considering making me the starting quarterback next year."
"Wow, that's great, Ty!" Sam smiled.
"Our first game is in two weeks," Tyler said. "Are you and dad gonna come?"
"Of course we are," Sam said. "We wouldn't miss it."
"Cool," Tyler said. "Oh, and you have to sign all these forms before then, by the way."
He reached into his bag and pulled out a small stack of papers and gave them to his mother.
"What are these?" Sam frowned.
"A bunch of waivers saying you can't sue the school if I break my arm or something," Tyler shrugged.
"Lovely," Sam sighed, rifling through them. "Hey, what's this one?"
She picked up slightly crumpled sheet of paper. "Father-Son Football Camping Weekend?"
"Oh, that's nothing," Tyler said, trying to grab the paper back from his mom.
"Hold on," Sam said, skillfully holding the paper away from her son. "This says your football team has some annual camping trip coming up. Your supposed to bring your dad to this little campsite in the woods for the weekend. Hey, this is next weekend. You just got this flyer today?"
"Er, no I had it for awhile," Tyler admitted.
"Well why didn't you give it to your dad?" Sam asked. "He's not doing anything this weekend, but you really should've given him more notice so if he did have anything scheduled he could've moved it around and-"
"Oh, he-he doesn't have to come," Tyler said quickly. "I don't have to go either. The trip isn't mandatory; it's just for some bonding experience. Coach thinks it's important to be close to your male role models or something like that."
"But it sounds kind of cool," Sam said. "Why wouldn't you want to go?"
"Um…"
"And I think your dad would like to go too," Sam continued. "He'd like to have a weekend to spend some time with you."
"But…it's with the football team," Tyler said.
"Yeah, I gathered that," Sam said. "So?"
"So? Having dad around the football team for a whole weekend in the woods?" Tyler frowned. "That-That would be-"
"Embarrassing?" Sam finished, raising an eyebrow. "You're embarrassed to have your dad around all your football friends, aren't you?"
"Well…sort of," Tyler sighed. "But mom, come on, it's dad! You call him a dork six times a day!"
"Yeah, he is a dork," Sam nodded.
"Exactly!" Tyler said. "Mom, the football team is made up of guys who are actually cool, and if I want to be the starting quarterback next year, I need to get in good with all of them. If I bring dad on that camping trip and they see him with his Galaxy Wars sleeping bag or he tries to lecture them about the newest Pearbook model, I'm going to be a laughing stock!"
"Tyler, first of all, you're not going to lose your position on the team because of your dad being dorky," Sam said. "You're talented; you'll get that position because of that. Second…I'm the first to say you're dad's a giant geek. Like a huge one. Like if there was a scale to rank geekiness, they would have to invent a second one just for him."
"Thank you!" Tyler said. "So you see my-"
"But he's your dad, Tyler, and he loves you more than anything in the world," Sam said. "And he's always been one of your biggest supporters. Yeah, if he goes on that camping trip with you, he'd probably do something that would embarrass you. But he'd only be doing it out of love. Think about it, Ty. Your dad hates football and camping, but he would absolutely jump at the chance to go on this camping trip because it would mean he gets to spend time with you."
Tyler looked down at his feet.
"I won't tell you what to do," Sam said. "If you want to skip this trip…that's up to you. But honey, it really would mean a lot to your dad to spend this weekend together."
Tyler groaned. "Well when you put it like that you really aren't giving me a choice, you know."
"I know," Sam smiled, kissing the top of his head. "Now seriously, go shower before I pass out from your smell."
…
"You think I should bring my book of knock-knock jokes on this trip?" Freddie said a few days later as he packed a duffle bag in his and Sam's bedroom.
"Knock-knock jokes?" Sam repeated.
"Yeah!" Freddie said. "I could tell a few when we're all sitting around the campfire. Oh, I know a good one! Want to hear? Knock-knock…"
"Yeah I'm gonna say you should probably leave that book home," Sam said. "And don't be surprised if it 'accidently' falls into the fireplace while you're gone."
"Eh, you're right, I guess I will be too busy bonding with Tyler to be worried about hilarious knock-knock jokes," Freddie said.
Sam smiled. "You excited?"
"Of course!" Freddie said. "What father wouldn't be excited about spending a whole weekend with his son? I'm really glad Ty and I are gonna have this time together. You know, I've sort of always felt like I never got to spend as much time with him as I would've liked to when he was younger. I guess that's what happens when you're the youngest child; you sort of get overlooked every once in awhile. But now that he's our only kid left at home I really hope I can get in more of these moments."
"That's sweet," Sam said, leaning up to give her husband a quick kiss.
"I wonder if Tyler is as excited about this weekend as I am," Freddie said.
Sam put an arm around him. "I'm sure he is."
…
The following Sunday, when Sam was lounging down in the living room with a full gallon of chocolate milk and a pack of bacon, the front door of the house opened up and Freddie and Tyler walked in.
"Well, the first weekend alone I've had in this house in years is officially over," Sam sighed. "It was a good run, though. So how was the camping trip you guys?"
"So fun!" Freddie beamed, setting his bag down. "Tyler and I got to go fishing, go on a six-mile hike, make some s'mores. And all the dads and their sons had this big three-legged race too; it was really something, wasn't it, Ty?"
"Oh yeah," Tyler nodded. "It was something."
"Hopefully the team decides to do something like this next year too," Freddie said. "Well, I need to go up and take a shower. Right as we were packing up our tent this morning a bird flew by me and pooped in my hair…"
"Cool," Sam grinned. "Can I see-"
"No!" Freddie said, turning to go up towards the stairs. As he disappeared, Sam looked back over to her son.
"So?" she said. "Was your dad super embarrassing this weekend?"
"Embarrassing doesn't even begin to cover it," Tyler said, rolling his eyes. "When we went fishing he fell into the lake and scared away all the fish. He brought low-fat marshmallows to use for the s'mores as a 'healthy alternative', and on our hike he lectured everybody about every different plant species we saw! He was on dork overdrive this whole weekend!"
"Yeah, I kind of figured he would be," Sam said. "But…do you regret brining your dad out to all that?"
"You know…not really," Tyler said. "Even though he humiliated the chiz out of me, I-I still really liked having him around this weekend. When all of the other dad got all tired and worn out on the hike, he still kept going even though I could tell he was tired too. And he stopped us all from building our tents near a patch of poison oak. And each night before we went to bed he pointed out all sorts of cool constellations."
"Nice," Sam grinned. "See, sometimes dad's dorkiness really isn't' that bad."
"No," Tyler agreed. "I guess not."
