Chapter 17
The night was cold, in the middle of George, Washington. But inside the homeless kitchen, Sam Puckett was heating up. And it was matching the temperature in the kitchen where her and Diana was working in. Even though around the same age, Diana became easily her sensei on culinary dishes. Not just that, she was her basketball partner as well. The one on ones were fierce and informative. She had to respect a person as fierce as her. She would trade elbows, get in her face on defense, and contest the ball to foul, but make sure it didn't go in. She was also an excellent slasher that was improving her shooting throughout the year. When Sam asked how she learned to play ball so well.
"Ex-Boyfriend" Diana would mumble, and quickly drop the conversation.
What she is proud, is of her cooking heritage that she would talk to Sam about, being from the southern (and more healthier,as Diana would say) part of Italy. And how she wants to be the next great chef.
"This cooking thing is a tradition of our family, and we kept going on with it and want to see where this will go." Diana said triumphantly.
Sam just rolls her eyes smirking before going back to working on her dish.
Sam, just wanted to have a backup plan for basketball. Cooking was a hobby of hers for many years. She didn't just eat to eat, Sam knew recipes to most of the foods she was shoving down her esophagus. But she never thought she could make a career out of it..
Diana, changed the game, and because of her fierce ways on the court and in the kitchen, the duo was making killer food for the grateful homeless, in George, Washington.
It's the end of the night and Sam and Diana was eating their dishes that they made for themselves. Discussing the schedule basketball wise for tomorrow as it would be the first time Diana makes the trip towards Seattle.
"So the plan is that I drive to Seattle, stay the night, and sleep til the afternoon..." Said Diana.
"Because, mama needs her sleep!" replied Sam.
"OK. Then we get up, ball out, and go to that darn party you got me going to!" It took her awhile for Sam to convince Diana to come as her wingman. It feels weird as now they may have transitioned to being...
Friends?
"Come on, we can have some fun and relax a bit!" Sam said.
"Well, you have been surprisingly scoring well, and you and me both need to relax and party. Why not have some fun and turn up!"
"Don't. Ever. Say. That. Again" Sam huffed.
"What? Turn. Up!" Diana emphasized the last two words.
"Just say yes already." Sam growled.
"Yea, why not?"
Jerome and Rudy was back in their dorm room contemplating the party that was going down tonight at a fraternity down the street from the team house. Just getting the invite from friends in the frat, was nervous about the things that can go wrong and maybe a night at a social gathering of these numbers wouldn't be so bad.
"So… Is this how parties are done in the Pacific Northwest?" Jerome asked skeptically.
"They have their own ways of doing things…" Rudy shrugged.
"Their own ways is right. Toga Parties?" Jerome scoffed, "Isn't that a bit old?"
"Well, Jerome, they seem to hit on the parties here most of the year from what I heard," Rudy reasoned, "and most of all. I want to relax after what was a long long season."
"Rudy, I would rather be in the Gym…"
Rudy cut Jerome off with an exasperated sigh, "And we will be working the day after. But this is about enjoying ourselves and reaping the rewards of being college athletes!"
Jerome pondered the idea for a moment and then spoke, "Okay… I am down," Jerome raised a finger, "but… if it gets boring or out of hand, we leave, deal?"
Rudy smiled "Deal."
Jerome decided that Rudy was right. After a long season and a disappointing finish despite all of their hard work. One night out with the guys wouldn't hurt… right?
In Freddie's dorm room, Freddie, Gibby and Carly are talking about the party too. Freddie, being the hard worker that he is, isn't interested in that party life very much. However, that doesn't matter very much when you're friends with Gibby Gibson.
"Freddie, it's gonna be the party of the year, I'll be your wingman, we could have the coolest time of the year!" Gibby gestured wildly with his arms, "of our lives! GIBBAAAAY!"
Freddie sighed, "Don't you think you might be overselling this a bit?" Freddie turned his attention back to his textbook, "Besides, finals are coming up, and I still want to hit the gym again,"
Freddie looked up and noticed Gibby begin to make another rebuttal before emphatically stating, "and I don't feel like it!"
"Freddie," Carly whined, "With you working so hard and Sam, oddly doing the same thing, I haven't been out with my best friends in a long time. So why not enjoy ourselves and have good time."
"GIBBAY!" Gibby reasoned, undaunted by Freddie's earlier refusal.
Freddie looks at her with some reserve and he sighs. Carly is right, even he didn't see Sam much besides just practicing with her. Maybe a night out with the friends/frenemies could work out.
"Fine, I'm in. Let's just be chill tonight?" Freddie shrugged, how bad could it possibly be.
"GIBBAAAAAAY!" Freddie could only answer with a face palm, as he tried to ignore the foreboding feeling that the response just gave him.
The place is huge, even for a frat house. As soon as they stepped on the front yard it wasn't far from feeling like it was a mansion rather than a fraternity.
The party was in full blast, people enjoying themselves and having fun. Games abound from Beer Pong to Flip Cup. Many people dancing, while almost as much growing wallflowers on the dance floor or out in the backyard. One of those people dancing was Rudy as he was always the social butterfly.
"Wooo! Lean wit it, rock wit it! C'mon everybody! Oh yea" Apparently, so was Gibson, as he was in the front with Rudy leading the line.
Jerome wasn't feeling it tonight, half the women in this place already hit on him and he kindly said no. He ended up checking his phone for emails from Diana. Nothing, again. He decided to look up YouTube vids.
Outside was the rest of the group was the rest of them where Diana, Sam, Freddie and the rest were. They were chilling looking at the party poolside, Freddie was complimenting the Frat leader of the house and asking about the huge pool.
"It really enhances the place." Freddie yelled over the loud noise.
"It's the water, it is from Fiji." Says the frat leader.
"You put bottles of Fiji Water into the pool?"
"No, silly" He pats him in the shoulder and walks away laughing.
Freddie intrigued looked at the water weirded out and just walked away. He was getting looks of interest from most of the girls there, but like Jerome, he was focused on other things. Freddie wanted to keep working, he was seeing such improvement in his game so much that he was confident he can keep up with some high school seniors now. He wanted to keep with it. He doesn't feel like being at the party is keeping up.
Leaning on the wall, and thinking about the future and what he rather be doing, he didn't notice a long haired brunette sitting by him, sighing and pulling out her DS and turning on a game, he seen quickly and couldn't stop himself from saying, "Pokemon Ruby?"
She looked up in surprised and then smiled "Yea it is, right now I am on 300 but I am looking for this legendary and it keeps slipping from me."
"Hmm, What island you're on?" They spent the next 30 mins talking about what was the Pokemon game then turned into everything nerdy. Her name is Ellen and he seemed at the very least, fascinated by her. She is a Sophomore going for biology and as she said "Organic Chemistry: it will change your life!" And how much she also liked computers. She was laughing at what was usually a joke about Galaxy Wars, that no one else would get. It was as much fun he had in a long time.
Unbeknownst to Freddie, Ellen wasn't the only one paying attention to him. Standing off by the pool was Robert Powers, the QB for the Huskie football team; the very drunk, very jealous QB of the Huskie football team. He had to have had the the worst luck in the entire school. He was a star two years ago. He had it all.
He was the starting QB leading game winning drives against rival WSU and upsetting conference champion favorite, at the time, USC. He had the girl every jock secretly dreamed of: the hot nerdy girl. All of a sudden the wheels came off. He got injured during spring practice and the injury eventually cost him three games at the start of the season. By the time he was able to play again the replacement had played well enough to take his place. In his journey to earn his way back onto the field he neglected everyone else including his dream girl. Eventually he lost her too.
A year later; here he is, alone, and trying to drown his sorrows in a sea of cheap beer; trying to bury his memory of her under a mountain of empty bottles. His friends on the football team, who were happy to accompany him, were doing their best to help feeding him drink after drink. Now he's watching some no name dork push up on his girl. Who in the hell does he think he is; making her laugh like that? HE downs the beer in his hands and saunters, at least he hopes he was sauntering, over to Freddie and Ellen. His friends decided to walk with him just to make sure that nothing crazy happened.
Freddie was in the middle of explaining why he hates Zubats when he felt the presence of six individuals surrounding him. He silently swore to himself, for he knew that he was, in fact, the unluckiest person on the campus. It would be just his luck is this wonderful girl that he'd met turned out to be…
"What're you doin' with my girl you scrub!?" Powers exclaimed hoping that it sounded as cool as it did in his head.
Now face to face with the QB Freddie could only be astonished that people could even become this large. Freddie had made some considerable growth from his time facing down; or rather, running away from, bullies in high school. However, even his new six foot tall 195 pound frame paled in comparison to the quarterback's six foot three 215 lb frame.
"That's ex-girlfriend Rob!" Ellen exclaimed.
"C'mon baby, don't be like that." He grabs Ellen's arm in an attempt to get her alone, "Why not ditch this two-piece mark? There's no way that this dork could make you feel half as good as I used to make you feel." Ellen struggled in the larger man's grasp.
"Hey meathead!" Freddie exclaimed, inexplicably emboldened, "She said she doesn't wanna go with you!"
The outburst caused some attention to be drawn to them. Sam and Diana had walked over to Carly and Gibby who were standing on the balcony looking over the backyard.
"Hey Carls!" Sam greeted, "This is Diana. The girl from the shelter I was telling you about!"
"Hey Diana. Sam talks about you all the time." Carly noticed the girl's purse, "That's a pretty cute purse. Looks kinda heavy though."
Diana waved and began to explain her purse when they all heard Freddie screaming. They turned around and saw a small crowd starting to form
"Is that Freddie?" Carly asked, with a motherly tone.
"That sure sounded like him." Gibby responded, "I'll go check it out."
Carly nodded and watched Gibby jog towards the commotion. The crowd around Freddie and the football players was still pretty sparse and Carly could clearly see Freddie facing off against a taller more muscular individual. Carly was also able to recognize the athletic apparel and saw that there were at least four or five people.
"Oh my God! Sam! Freddie's gonna die!" Sam scrunched up her face in response, "You gotta go help him."
Sam could only scoff in response, "Why? I'm sure he deserves whatever he's about to get." Carly could only roll her eyes as she thought of a way to convince Sam to help their friend not get killed at a frat party.
Gibby reached the scene and was none too pleased about what he was witnessing. "What the hell is this now?"
Freddie was trying to advance towards Powers who was holding Ellen by the arm. He was being held back by two other players. One Gibby recognized as the Wide Receiver with the particularly ridiculous name, Frequency Vibrations. He seemed to be around the same size as Freddie. The other guy was the kicker, Mike Rivera who was slightly shorter than freddie at five foot ten inches. As Gibby moved to help Freddie, two more football players step in his path. One was the running back John Thompson and the other was the punter Tom Johnson. Gibby noticed that the five foot eleven inch defensive back, DeVaughn Stevens, has appeared behind him. Gibby's six foot five inch height towered over the football players but just him and Freddie facing off against six football players were dire odds. Odds, the likes of which, he'd never faced before.
He responded to this new challenge the only way he knew how.
In an instant Gibby was shirtless, "GIIIBBBAAAYY!"
Rudy and Jerome were hanging out in the backyard as Rudy was taking a break from the dance floor. They noticed some students running by and that's when they heard, what sounded like, their teammate screaming his own name.
Jerome squinted his eyes in the direction of the noise, "Was that Gibson?"
Before Rudy could respond another student ran past them, "Dude! Some crazy guy just tore his shirt off after being surrounded by the football players!"
Rudy could only chuckle, "That's definitely Gibson. Let's go check it out, Rome." Rudy ran towards the slowly growing crowd.
Jerome could only shake his head and sigh in annoyance. He'd have happily let Gibson sort through it on his own but he couldn't let his friend charge into the fray alone. As he reached the fracas he observed that Benson was in the middle of it and immediately became more annoyed.
"This guy! Of course it's this guy!" he exclaimed gesturing towards Freddie. "Gibson! What the hell, man!?"
"What!?" Gibby shouted in a rare display of irritance, "Look man, you don't have to like him but he's my friend and I won't let him get beat down alone."
Jerome could only sigh, "Everybody chill! We're all on scholarships so no one will be getting beat down."
Powers released Ellen's arm and the two jocks released Freddie. Gibby picked up his shirt off of the ground and took a step back from the two football players that were facing him.
Sam, Carly, and Diana were still observing from the balcony. "See Carls," Sam remarked, "The dork is fine."
Just when it seemed that cooler heads were going to prevail Gibby made an observation. "Hey, Fred. Isn't that the girl that gave you her number in the courtyard?"
Powers' eyes widened; all of his friends looked to him. Freddie could only stare up at the sky incredulously. Rudy and Jerome buried their faces in their hands in disbelief. Ellen took this chance to escape towards the house.
Carly looked over to Sam, who only stared back for a moment before shrugging, "Eh, what the hell? It's been awhile since I've been in a good brawl." With that Sam left the balcony. Diana also excused herself
"It was really nice to meet you!" Diana exclaimed over her shoulder. Carly could only nod as she wondered to herself, how she and her friends always ended up in these situations.
"Get back here!" Robert yelled as he noticed Ellen leaving. He chased after her.
Thinking quickly, or perhaps not thinking at all, Freddie ran up to the quarterback and slammed his shoulders into Robert, knocking him over. Powers fell to the ground but quickly rolled to recover. Powers charged at Freddie but suddenly Gibby tackled Powers to the ground. Powers' head slammed on the ground and he was out like a light. As Gibby rose up from the ground he was tackled by Frequency Vibrations, the Wide Receiver and Tom Johnson the punter. This spurned Jerome and Rudy to action and they moved to assist Gibby.
"Remember Rudy, No broken bones!" Jerome shouted as they ran towards the two players that now had gibby restrained by his arms.
Before they could reach him, however, John Thompson, the running back and Mike Rivera, the kicker cut them off. The football players acted with no hesitation as they immediately tried to wrestle to the to basketball players to the ground.
Freddie was able to reach Gibby and wrestle Tom off of him. the punter swung at him but Freddie was able to back step quick enough to dodge him. Freddie was prepared to counter attack when he felt himself restrained by DeVaughn Stevens the defensive back. Tom sneered as he closed in on Freddie. Suddenly a loud shriek sounded from behind him.
Freddie never thought that he'd be glad to hear that sound. New feelings aside, Freddie knew what was going to occur next. It would be pain and it would have no concern for whether or not he was in the way. The sudden noise caused Stevens to relax his grip and Freddie was able to wriggle free and spin around behind him.
As he looked up and saw the wild mass of blonde hair and anger streaking and shrieking towards him he smirked a bit as he bumped the defensive back into the punter and dove to the side just in time to avoid Sam's flying body as she careened into the two football players. knocking them down into a tangled heap. Sam was the first to untangle herself and gave the punter a sharp elbow to the side as she pushed herself to her feet.
Tom let out a yelp of pain as he also rose up from ground. DeVaughn growled to himself as he set his eyes to help the punter take on Sam.
"Oh no ya don't." Freddie murmured to himself as he rushed the defensive back.
Jerome and Rudy were holding their own in their wrestling match; much to the surprise of the football players. Rudy was quickly able to dispatch Rivera, the kicker.
Rudy twisted the kicker's right arm behind his back and slung him to the ground. Feeling that the kicker had run out of fighting spirit Rudy grabbed him by his hair and pushed his face into the dirt. "How 'bout ya stay put? Eh?" Rudy lifted up MIke's head only to receive a defeated nod of the head, "atta boy."
Rudy let the kicker's head fall back to the ground and gave it a less than gentle pat as he went to assist Jerome. Rudy smirked as his eyes set upon a trash can. He emptied it and dragged it over to where Jerome was, predictably, having a tougher time against John Thompson.
Jerome and the running back were locked in a scrum, neither athlete wanting to give up ground. Jerome, not quite as used to this style of fighting, stepped in close to the running back. The running back dropped his hands and was able to lift up and throw Jerome backwards. However, due to his height he was able to land on his feet. The running back tried to close the distance again. Jerome, deciding he'd rather avoid another power struggle, stepped backwards and chose to rely on; what he hoped was, his superior agility.
What had begun as a clash of strength and wills had turned into a battle of evasion and maneuvering. Thompson continued to try and charge the more agile point guard. However, Jerome would, time and again, side step and move away from him. This strategy was paying off as Jerome's superior conditioning was starting to show. Every time Jerome successfully side stepped, Thompson would always be a little slower on the next pass. After every missed charge, the running back would be a little slower when gathering up his energy for the next charge. Jerome noticed Rudy waving at him and pointing towards a trash can that he'd dragged with him. Jerome picked up on the idea and began maneuvering in Rudy's direction. Convinced that his opponent had been thoroughly worn down, he nodded at Rudy who nodded in response.
"C'mon ya big dumb bull! Come and get me!" Jerome prodded.
The running back gritted his teeth and ran forward, only to be side stepped again.
"Ole!" Jerome exclaimed with a flourish.
The running back, now incensed by Jerome's antics, charged at Jerome with a full head of steam. However, consumed by both, fatigue and anger, John didn't notice Rudy drop to his hands and knees behind Jerome. Jerome dodged the running back's charge with ease and forward momentum sent him toppling over Rudy.
Jerome helped Rudy to his feet. "Just like back home, yeah?" Rudy asked with a smile.
"Not quite." Jerome answered, moving over to the running back, who was trying to toss to his feet, "gimme a hand."
Rudy quickly caught on and helped Jerome pick up John Thompson off of the ground. "What're you talkin' about?" The running back tried to struggle against the two but in his weakened and energy deprived state all struggling was useless. "This just like that time at The Cage. Y'know? When we had to fight our way out because you got us caught hustlin'?"
Thompson could do nothing as he felt himself be lifted up off the ground. "What d'you mean I got us caught!?" Jerome exclaimed, tightening his grip on the running back's arms in agitation, "That weasel Morgan dimed us out!"
Thompson had been tackled before. Of course he had; he'd been playing running back since he was ten years old. He'd been tackled every way imaginable. from being tripped up by a stray arm from a diving defender; to being stopped in his tracks. There were even a couple of times when he'd indeed been upended by two or three defenders. There was nothing, however, that could match the helplessness of being carried and lifted into the air.
"Any last words?" Jerome asked.
The running back could only hang his head in shame. He knew what was next. He could smell it behind him, and following a short gust of air rushing past his head; he could feel it.
"Why don't ya hit the showers? You look a little dirty." Thompson, again, could only hang his head in shame.
Jerome and Rudy walked back towards the pool. The first sight that greeted them was Gibby. A wild shirtless Gibby hoisting Frequency Vibrations over his shoulders.
Jerome whistles in astonishment, "Damn. Gibson must've been a terror in high school."
"Nah," Rudy said tapping him on the shoulder and point in the general direction of Freddie and Sam; both of whom were still fighting the punter and the defensive back on the other side of the pool, "I think the real terror was her."
Sam was currently dragging around the punter with his arm locked in what seemed to be an awkward position; all while laughing maniacally.
Jerome could only raise his eyebrows, "Is that the chicken wing?"
Rudy chuckled as he looked over to see Freddie engaged in what seemed to be a dance with the defensive back. Rudy took notice of his confident movement. It was a stark contrast to what he'd witnessed back in New York and during tryouts. Stevens would throw a punch and freddie would adeptly step back and dodge. when the defensive back would lunge at him he would side step almost as quickly and decisively as Jerome did; maybe even more so. Freddie looked to have taken a few hits but it didn't seem to be anything too severe.
"Hey Rome," Rudy tapped Jerome on his shoulder, "Check that out." He nodded in Freddie's direction.
Jerome stared at the scene playing out before him. Freddie's conditioning had always been good. Even he could admit to that. Thus he was ultimately unimpressed that Freddie seemed to be gaining the upper hand. "That alright, I guess. But this?" He gestured back at Gibby who was seemingly toying with wide receiver at this point, as he was now spinning around in circles, "This is pure entertainment." Rudy couldn't exactly disagree.
As he was about to agree he looked over to Freddie again to see that Powers had risen and was rushing towards him. With an exclamation and a curse Rudy ran towards him.
Freddie wondered to himself how he always ended up in situations like this. Sure it wasn't always fights. In fact, it had never escalated to this. It had NEVER been a fight. What was astounding to Freddie was that it was always something new. The only reasonable answer he could come up with was that it was when he met them. Carly and Sam had somehow been the center of every crazy adventure that he'd had since middle school. No… that's not accurate… it was her. He didn't get his first detention when he met Carly. Carly didn't expose his deepest darkest secret to the infinity of the internet. Carly didn't make him give up the opportunity of a lifetime. Carly didn't have him training for basketball practice. It was always that demon-witch Sam Puckett.
Even more astounding, however, was that all of those seemingly awful things often led to something amazing. Sam had gotten him a detention that somehow turned into one of the largest internet phenomena of its time. Sam was the major motivation behind him giving up a semester at sea that, against all odds, cemented a friendship… or a frenemy-ship… whatever. Sam revealed his secret to everyone and that led to… crazy. Now here he was again, mixed up and tangled up in this fight over a girl who only looked towards him for his new athletic build. A build that he only has because Sam challenged him… forced him to challenge himself.
Now he's able to hold his own in this dangerous dance against what was considered to be one of the more athletic people on the football team.
Suddenly, Freddie hears a violent yell from his right that jars him from his reverie. he quickly jumps backwards, narrowly avoiding the charging quarterback. If he remembered football correctly, the quarterback wasn't a very physical position. Defensive Back, however, was extremely physical, which was evident by how he came charging at Freddie shortly after the quarterback had missed.
Freddie jumped to the side narrowly dodging once again. However he found himself in a bit of a precarious position. Side stepping would be useless now as found himself next to the pool. As panic began to set in he felt himself restrained by the quarterback. He'd gotten careless and now he was staring at a defensive back with murder in his eyes. Stevens started charging at him and he seemed like much less of a person now as he seemed to be a charging bull. Freddie resigned himself to his fate.
This was gonna hurt.
This was the kind of hit that a defensive back dreamed of. The target in sight; helpless; with no choice but to accept the hit that is coming. This kid was different though. He'd made a fool of him. toying with him. Not really attacking him physically but the mental assault never stopped. Every punch thrown met with nothing more than a graze. Every lunge quickly avoided. Oh yeah… he was gonna enjoy laying this fool out.
"Hey! Heads up!" Rudy's voice rang out causing Stevens to stop in his tracks and look towards the voice.
All he saw was a pair of boots attached to a flying human being barrelling down on him… and there was only one thought that ran through his mind.
It would've been a damn good hit.
With that thought, the impact of a pair of timbs into his chest sent him flying backwards into the pool.
Powers couldn't believe it. In his own astonishment he laxed his grip on Freddie. What had he done? He'd dragged his friends to this party and gotten wasted, then proceeded to make a series of poor decisions that got him and his friends; his teammates; his brothers beat up. How could he dare think himself worthy enough to lead the team on Saturdays on the field? He couldn't even lead them on this Friday night. He didn't deserve their loyalty. He didn't deserve their faith. There was only one thing, right now, that he deserved.
Freddie, deciding to take advantage of the situation kicked his foot out backwards and sent Powers tumbling into the pool as well.
"Rudy, check this out!" Everyone's attention was drawn over to the other side of the pool where Gibby had just finished dizzying the wide receiver. With a final roar Gibby ran and jumped at the receiver. He grabbed him by the head and landed in the pool. "RKO, outta nowhere!" Jerome laughed.
In one final attempt at redemption, the kicker ran forward and tried to throw a punch at Jerome. He was able to quickly step back and safely out of the way. He readied a punch but stopped when he saw a familiar face and a familiar purse land in the kicker's chest with a familiar, if not uncommon, thud. The kicker fell backwards into the pool.
"Like old times," Diana shook her head.
"What do you mean?" Jerome said indignantly, "I had him on the ropes! I would have turned that swing at me into an armbar!"
Diana could only facepalm.
"So you still use the brick?" Jerome asked, feeling a bit more cheery than anyone would believe.
Diana pulls out the brick in her purse. "What you think?"
"That's the chef I know"
There was a commotion coming from the water as Gibby broke the surface with a roar, "GIBBBAAAAAY!"
"Is that your power forward?" Diana asks.
"Best in the conference, just you wait." Jerome answers with a smirk gracing his features.
"So Humphries, what are we going to do here?" Steven Blasikowski, The defensive captain of the University's football team had arrived. He and Jerome were standing in the front yard. He and his defensive teammates decided on not going out and stayed in the dorms. It turns out that it was lucky that they did; as they got the call of his backup quarterback and others getting into a fight at a frat party. The two leaders were in the middle of the front yard as the others were dragging the football players to the car, as if it was carrying bodies after a war.
"You tell me Blake." Jerome said using Blasikowski's nickname, "Your guy came after mines and we just wanted to enjoy our nights.", With a heavy sigh Jerome offered his solution, "Look, it's like I told everyone before the fight started, we all have scholarships. I made sure that there wasn't any major damage, plus we've all had rough seasons one way or another, so I say, let's act like none of this ever happened and let bygones be bygones and call it blowing off steam. Deal?" Jerome puts his hand out.
"Deal." Blasikowkski takes it. "And again sorry about this, we need to get our guy back on track. He hasn't been the same since that Freshman took over at starter last year and taken leadership of the offense."
"I know the feeling, just keep him on watch, you get me?"
"I do" He looks to see Powers being dragged off with Frequency Vibrations in tow behind him.
"Frequency Vibrations, really?" Blasikowski raised an eyebrow, "LIke… that's his real government name?"
"Beats me man, beats me." Jerome tells Blasikowski goodbye and meets up with his players at the backyard.
Blasikowski reaches his team; face now adorned with a look a blatant disgust. He raises his hand to silence the team members as they open their mouths to begin to offer explanations. "There's only one person I want to hear from." Powers raises his head; knowing that the comment was directed at him.
"Powers, what the hell happened man." He asked solemnly, "I remember when Washington recruited you. I was your host on your visit. you were supposed to lead us to the promised land; to heights that we've never seen before. Now just look at you. Look at where you have us. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Powers got up, with help from his teammates. "I have nothing to say for myself. There's nothing that I could say to excuse what happened. I'll take the fall for tonight. There's no need for everyone to take a fall for tonight. You guys fought hard… and regardless of how all of this shakes out; I just want to say that it has been an honor playing with you guys… playing for you guys."
Blasikowski, placed a hand on Powers' shoulder, "Save your goodbyes. We've talked to the basketball guys and the frat leaders and since damage is minimal, we're sweeping this under the rug. You've got a second chance, Powers, Don't waste it."
Jerome goes to the backyard and he sees Rudy and Gibby on the lawn chairs by the pool, Freddie and the rest are around the table sitting down.
"Gibson," He yells out "Good RKO there, great stuff."
"I always wanted to do that." He slyly says as Carly comes over and lays her head on his shoulder, and wraps his arm around her. "Gibbay."
"Regardless of how much of a shit show this was," Rudy spoke up, "I think it was valuable team building."
Jerome scoffs, "Yeah, maybe for those of us actually on the team." Jerome glares at Freddie.
Freddie feels everyone's eyes on him. He responds only by shrugging, "Believe me I'll be there soon enough. Tryouts are coming up. I can show you better than I can tell you." Freddie level a glare of his own.
Jerome, grew bored of the power struggle and looked away first, "Anyway, I just talked to the captain of the football team. We're good we are going to forget this night." As Jerome was talking he saw the frat leader.
"Hey!" He yelled at the leader, "Could you come here a sec?" The leader walk to him.
"Dude, sorry for the end of the party man, it was way too nuts and…"
"Sorry?!" The leader yells out suddenly, "I should be thanking you!" "Put the icing on the cake that is that party dude, it was like the main event of a wrestling Pay-per-view! Thank you for the action my man!" The frat leader lined up for a high five.
Jerome accepted it with odd skepticism as the leader walked away to tend to his house.
"Anywell! Who's up for some food?"
"I am going back to Sam's apartment" Diana spoke up.
"D, c'mon it's been awhile, why don't we catch up!"
"I need some sleep, it's been nice meeting you guys!" She briskly walked away.
"Okay…. Anyone else?" Everyone was going to say yes, then a ringtone blared and Freddie picked up his phone, stared at it and looked back up to everyone.
"You know what? I think I'm gonna just go out with Ellen for the night, you guys enjoy your night.", everyone looked at Freddie with a look of astonishment. except for Gibby who was simply nodding at Freddie approvingly, "What? I figured that that was the whole reason tonight happened in the first place. Shouldn't let it go to waste." With a wave, Freddie went off to meet Ellen in the front yard; unaware of Sam's piercing eyes watching him as he left, lingering a bit longer than usual.
"What about you blondie," Sam looked up with a scowl that gave, even Jerome pause
"Name's Sam, chizzbag," Carly quirked an eyebrow taking notice of Sam's notably poor mood. "I'm sitting this one out." She rose and followed after Diana.
Carly looked at Gibby, who only nodded, She got up from the lawn chair she was sharing with Gibby and left the back yard calling to Sam.
"Welp," Gibby mentioned, "Looks like it is a bit of a team bonding night tonight, huh boys?"
"Word," Rudy exclaimed, "So where are we going?"
Author's note: So that is the end of the first arch of "To be Something More" We are setting up the next part of this story and we are really finally getting something good going. So get ready, its going to be good. Thanks for who is still reading, and reviewing because it is cool that people still like this story after so long. Thank you very much and be on the lookout for more, much more.
