A/N: It's the third quarter but will Jason play or is Huey and the gang doomed to lose their first game. Once again I want to give thanks to DaveTheWordsmith and KODfreak for reviewing and giving great feedback, everyone else please review so I can get your feedback as well. The more reviews I get, the more motivated I am to keep writing and the faster chapters will come out so for everyone else please review.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Boondocks, Aaron McGruder and Sony Pictures does.
Chapter 10 – G.B. Third Quarter
The clock reached zero and Jason and Riley had yet to return to the locker room. Unable to wait any longer, Huey led the rest of his team back to the field hoping the duo would meet them at the end of the tunnel. Why did he even care if the white boy made it back, when did Huey actually want to play this tournament? He was at a loss to answer this as they came up to the end of the tunnel. Originally he had only agreed to play to make sure Jazmine would not get hurt, but now he wanted to win so badly. He did not care that by winning he was helping Wuncler Sr., he just wanted to win.
"They're not here," Jazmine said, looking back down the tunnel for their two missing players but no one was coming up.
"We can't help it right now. We have to get out there. We have three timeouts before we have to forfeit," Huey said as the announcer announced their team for the second half. Bouncing on his feet, his cleats clanking on the cement floor of the tunnel, Huey led his discouraged team back onto the field, sparing one last look down the empty tunnel.
"What have ya decided?" Riley asked, looking at the slumped back of his rival.
Jason rummaged through a drawer in the medical counter and pulled out a needle and then opened the cupboard above the counter full of small bottled filled with all different coloured liquids. He found a bottle of clear liquid and turned back to look at Rummy. "I'm going to play, but I'll need some help." He offered the bottle and needle to the blonde haired ex-marine.
Rummy took the bottle and needle. "You're going to freeze it?"
"Yes," Jason nodded determination in his eyes. "I'm not going to let this stop me."
"You realize if I give you this and one of your ribs is broken it could kill you," Rummy said taking the cap of the needle and shoving the tip in the bottle. He extracted some of the clear liquid and pushed a little of it back out to remove the air.
"Just give me the shot," Jason said exposing his injured rib cage.
"Aight," Rummy said sticking the needle of regional anaesthesia into Jason's side before wrapping his ribs up again. "This should last you to the end of the game."
"Aight ya ready ta go know?" Riley asked hearing the announcer outside announcing the second half.
"I'm good," Jason gave him his cocky smirk. He grabbed his pads and shoved them over his shoulders as they ran, the medication already numbing his side.
"Waste that big pussy," Ed shouted after them, the pair of ex-marines taking their time to exit the medical room.
On the field Huey continued to watch the tunnel waiting for at least his brother to come out but so far neither of his stars had returned to the field and he had already used his first timeout.
"Where are they?" Caesar asked impatiently. Huey could tell he was nervous as his friend shifted his weight from one foot to the other.
"They'll get here," Huey assured him but he doubted his own words as much as Caesar.
"Still waiting for someone," Kyle called from the other side of the field with a sneer on his face. "He's not coming. We all saw his injuries."
"I stomped that rat good," Rex exclaimed, stomping the ground for emphasis.
"Den who's dat?" Cindy called drawing everyone's attention back to the tunnel. Jogging out of the tunnel came the Black Panther's two missing players. Seeing them side by side they were a rather imposing duo. While Riley was shorter, he had a slightly wider build. The sun reflected off their visors in a rainbow of colours giving them a halo like appearance.
"Look our two angels come to save the day," Caesar laughed throwing Kyle a smirk. "They're gonna make ya devil's pay."
Kyle continued to sneer before throwing a snort back at them unable to come back with real words before returning to his team's bench. His team would be receiving the ball this half so he had to wait another play. Off to the side Johnny and Mina had their heads together coming up with something Huey was sure of it.
"You're gonna play B?" Cindy asked Jason as they rejoined the group.
"Never a doubt in my mind," Jason smirked.
"Well it's good to have you back," Huey said, warming up to the white boy. If he had a broken rib it would not take much for that bone to puncture any of the organs around it and even knowing this Jason still came out to play unwilling to let his team down.
"Dude I'm a hockey player at heart, we don't give in tell the final whistle," Jason replied. "Now shall we get this under way, I have some fans to please?"
"Okay, Jazmine give us a good kick and everyone let's make them pay for every yard," Huey said strapping on his helmet as the official blew his whistle to signal the end of their timeout.
Jazmine gave them that good kick letting the ball hang in the air for a few seconds before it fell to Johnny. Jason was the first one down the field now that the pain no longer held him back. The anaesthesia was starting froze up his entire side, but when he lunged to Johnny who tried to juke right and then go left the pain returned just enough to seize Jason up and let Johnny blow by him.
Johnny did not spare Jason a thought even though he knew that if not for his injury the Black Panther receiver would have caught him at his own twenty, but the Hawaiian born receiver had to use what was given to him. Passing the thirty, he came against Riley who in his inexperience fell for a simple juke, and then the wall came.
Johnny ran straight into the wall created by the battling teams. For once he was thankful Rex was on his team as the giant defender cut a gap in the wall right in front of Johnny and he exploded into the open space beyond the wall.
He was not left alone for long though as Huey caught up to him getting his arm around the Chargers' receiver. The tackle was perfect and Johnny found himself being dragged down to the ground, but he was not done yet.
Out of the same wall he had broken out of just moments ago, Mina came streaking across the field. It was the prearranged play they had just constructed during the time out. With the Black Panther's fastest players on the other side of the wall and their best defensive player wrapped around Johnny if they could keep the play going there would really be no one who could stop them.
Before his knees hit the turf, Johnny tossed the ball back behind him to Mina who was passing by him on her way to the other side of the field. Free of the ball now, Johnny did his best to delay Huey from returning to his feet.
Meanwhile Mina cut back up the field, now with the ball and a huge open field before her. She crossed the midfield before Hiro caught up to her crossing the field diagonally to meet her in Black Panther territory. Mina got her arm out knocking Hiro out of the way, but he did manage to slow her up enough for another one of his teammates to catch up.
Seeing Mina with the ball ignited a fire in Cindy and she blow across the field to try and catch Mina before she could reach the end zone.
"You're not going to catch me," Mina shouted hearing Cindy huffing behind her.
"We'll see," Cindy replied pushing her body to it limit. Her muscles screamed and breathing was becoming hard. She could do laps around the field all day, but the constant start and stop and battling of the last two quarters were taking their toll. While Cindy felt the burn of playing both offense and defence, Mina was still relatively fresh only having to take to the field for the offensive half of their game and thanks to the ability of the Black Panther offence she had not been on the field for much of the first half.
By the time they reached the ten yard line, Cindy began to fall back unable to keep up the pace anymore and Mina kicked it up a notch. Mina crossed the end zone line as Cindy's run slowed to a crawl when she realized she was not going to catch up.
Mina spun around to face Cindy pointing the ball out at her and then she simply flipped it in the air turned her back to the ball and walked away allowing the ball to fall to the ground. Walking back past Cindy she could not help but add, "Beat that."
"I want da ball," Cindy said to Huey as they lined up for the extra point.
"Alright," Huey nodded at the Chargers' center hiked the ball and their kicker got the easy point. It was now 17-14 for the Chargers.
The Chargers' kicker launched the ball into the last ten yards of the Black Panther half of the field where Jason caught the ball and took off down the field. He slipped the first tackle by one of the Chargers' defenders but could not find a hole through the wall that formed before him and was taken down trying to break through at his thirty-eight yard line.
"I want something big," Cindy said as they came in for the huddle.
"We'll go with a Hail Mary," Huey suggested. "Cindy you line up with Jason and Hiro on the right side and Jazmine you run the route on the left side. Riley I need you to block for me and buy enough time to get this play off."
"No niggas is gonna get through Riley Esco," Riley bragged.
"Then let's get Cindy this pass," Huey said breaking the huddle.
"Hike, hike, five-ninety-five, hike, hike, hike," Huey called and on the last hike Caesar snapped him the ball before pushing forward to stop the momentum of the pushing defensive lineman in front of him. Occupied with his man he could not move when he saw Rex break through the line gunning straight for Huey who was looking down the right side of the field where Cindy, Jason, and Hiro had taken off down their routes. The two boys flanked Cindy ready to throw blocks when she caught the ball.
"Take him," Riley said from behind Caesar. Rather than try and take Rex with no chance of stopping him, Riley chose to slide up to Caesar.
Caesar nodded and disengaged from the linemen allowing Riley to take his place holding the line while he dropped back to interfere with Rex in their back end.
"Not this time," Caesar growled locking up with Rex.
"Out of the way puny rat," Rex growled trying to use his overwhelming strength to power through Caesar, but the smaller teen stood his ground using his lower centre of gravity. Compared to Rex, Caesar was not that big, but compared to his friends, his body had filled out the most. He had wider shoulders, bigger arms, and a wider core of solid muscle. In addition to his body his years of helping Huey train gave him a low centre of gravity and balance that he now used to his advantage. Just like the last time he locked up with Rex he did not try to push Rex away, but instead focused his entire being on making sure Rex did not get any closer to Huey.
Once Huey released the ball far down field, Caesar gave way and Rex charged head long toward Huey, but the young revolutionary was ready by then and he easily sidestepped the truck of a teen.
Down the field, Jason had paced his speed with Cindy and Hiro and as he hoped the defenders sent to cover them all gravitated toward him aware of his ability. Aware of this Jason slowed a bit more and cut a new route a little more toward the centre of the field drawing off the defenders even more from the now in the air ball's true target.
With almost no coverage on her Cindy easily caught the ball and thanks to a well timed block by Hiro she made it to the Charger's twenty two yard line before being pulled down. Cindy jumped up still holding the ball and turning to Mina who was on the side lines just pointed the ball at her before tossing to the official.
Huey tried over the next two plays to activate his running game but both times, Riley was stopped before he could get past the line of scrimmage. On the third down Rex managed to break through Caesar once again and caught Huey in the backfield for his second sack of the day. Rex's sack pushed the line scrimmage back almost seven yards.
"We're going to have to kick again," Huey said in the huddle. "Can you handle a thirty-eight yarder?"
Jazmine frowned under his helmet; a thirty-eight yard field goal was well out of her current range with only two weeks of practice. She had yet to consistently hit anything beyond thirty yards, but she could not let Huey down again, if she did he might not like her anymore, "I'll do it." In her head she kept saying it over and over again as they lined up for the field goal, hoping that after saying it so many times it would come true.
Caesar hiked the ball the seven yards separating him from Huey who was kneeling ready to set the ball up for Jazmine. Grabbing the ball from the air, Huey quickly set up the kick as Jazmine came in.
On the line the Charger's had once again brought Johnny in for the kick, but this time when he tried to break through Jason he met the imports full strength and could not break through. Stuck on the line Johnny could only watch helplessly as Jazmine made full contact with the ball. The ball went up in an arch spinning end over end. Jazmine watched the ball praying for it to go in, but it did not. The ball curved to the left and missing the uprights by nearly two feet.
Once again Jazmine fell to her knees in despair. Once again she had failed Huey when he needed her to come through.
"Jaz, it's aight Jaz," Cindy said comforting her friend trying to stop the tears before they started and she knew they would start without pre-emptive action.
"But I failed again," Jazmine cried the tears beginning to well.
"Then just try harder not to fail next time," Huey said, his chest hurting for the second time in the game. Those tears were like his kryptonite and they were the only thing that could break his revolution harden heart. No matter how many times she missed he knew he would forgive her on the spot even if the team lost by a single point.
"Really?" Jazmine sniffed looking up at Huey form her place on the ground.
"For sure, babe," Jason smirked his cocky smile from behind Huey. "Just keep on kicking and if ya mess we'll cover for ya."
"They're right. Ya try ya hardest to hit dose field goals and when ya miss we'll cover for ya," Cindy added.
"Straight up," Riley said joining the group.
"They're right," Caesar added as he and Hiro joined the gang in cheering Jazmine up. "One day you'll give them a damn right fright."
"Just keep practicing," Hiro said with a smile before looking at Caesar and shaking his head at Caesar's corny rhymes. For a guy who claimed to be a good rapper he could come up some really bad stuff and as a DJ it offended his ears. "Both of you."
Jazmine just nodded as Huey helped her to her feet. "I won't miss next time."
"We know you won't."
Having missed the field goal the Black Panther's gave the ball up at the Charger's thirty-eight. For the first time since his injury Kyle returned to the field. He went for a fast snap handing the ball off to his running back who managed to break through the line, but met Huey who was once again lined up in the safety position in the secondary.
Kyle next faked a pass over to Johnny who was being covered by both Jason and Hiro and instead switched direction with Riley barrelling in and threw a clean but short pass over to Mina.
Mina caught the ball but had to jump on the air to do so. While in the midair Cindy hit her and Mina dropped the ball as she made contact with the ground. "Dat's how I do," Cindy whispered to Mina while getting up.
Kyle reset his offence as fast as he could and once again did a quick hike hoping to catch Huey and his team off guard. It worked this time and Mina was able to create a little space between her and Cindy, enough to catch the ball and make the first down.
Once again Kyle got a quick start and was rewarded as Johnny got another first down bringing them into field goal range. For his next three plays he tried to run the clock before handing the ball off to his running back that made five yards in two plays and then he tried a pass to Mina on his final attempt to get a first down.
Mina ran a hooked route from the line of scrimmage and as was becoming the norm Cindy moved along with her. As Mina cut back toward the line of scrimmage she could not get around Cindy. When the ball finally came the two girls were so tangled with each other the most Cindy could do was knock the ball down.
Still five yards from a first down, the Chargers' elected to try for a thirty two yard field goal. The kicker got the ball up and through the uprights giving the George Bush Chargers a 20-14 lead.
The Chargers' kicked the ball off and Riley caught it this time running it back to the Chargers' forty-seven yard line.
Huey caught the snap looking down field to Jason who was running a solo route down the left side. When the import cut in toward the middle, Huey released the ball in a perfect spiral. The ball cut through the two defenders trying to cover Jason and the import caught it and took off into the Chargers' red zone. The end zone was in sight when he was dragged down two yards from the end zone. His tackler had enough sense when he grabbed him to pin his arms down so Jason could not reach out and break the end zone plane with the ball. Hit hard from behind and to the side Jason stayed on the ground for a few moments longer than he should have and everyone on his team grew worried until the receiver got back to his feet, flashing them his cocky smile.
"I'm fine," Jason said returning to the huddle. "Just a little winded."
"Good because we are running out of time and I need a big play," Huey nodded.
"Give it to me," Cindy said abruptly, looking past the circle to the Chargers' bench where Mina was still smiling smugly at her. "I want to wipe dat smile off dat bitches face."
"C-Murph can do dis," Riley concurred giving his fellow hoodlum a fist bump.
"Okay we're going to run a PA Flood G line with Cindy as the main target," Huey said breaking the huddle keeping his eye on the clock
They lined up along the two yard line and Caesar snapped the ball back to Huey who faked a handoff to Riley who was moving forward to give him a block before dropping back and giving Jason a look on the right side as a he ran a hook route. The look was also feint and while he had been pretending to hand the ball to Riley he snuck a peak at where Cindy was. When he turned back to the left he already knew where Cindy would be and threw the ball while still turning his head.
Cindy took off for the far corner of the end zone and when she hit the end zone she turned and ran backward. The ball came like a speeding bullet and she grabbed it out of the air diving back. She caught the ball with her finger tips pulling it into her shoulder as she hit the ground. The fireworks went off and the crowd cheered. Cindy jumped back to her feet, did a back flip before sliding out of the flip to the ground where she laid on her side with her head in the palm of her hand and spinning the ball in front of her.
"That was for ya," she shouted to Mina at the sidelines as she got up. "Recognize."
Jazmine made the chip shot for the extra point making the score 21-20 for the Black Panthers.
With only one twelve seconds left on the clock, Mina caught Jazmine's kickoff determined to respond to Cindy's touchdown with one of her own. As she hoped Cindy was the first one on her, but she should have been careful for what she wished for because Cindy was not going to let Mina show her up. When Cindy made contact she knocked the ball out of Mina's hands.
Once again there was a mad scramble for the ball but Johnny came up with it having already been moving to the other side of the field to provide support for Mina. With the mad scramble the field was full of gaps and the experienced receiver took advantage of everyone of them, taking the ball all the way back to the end zone, none of the Black Panthers able to catch him as fatigue was finally starting to set in after three full quarters of grinding on the field. Slightly fed up with the way his team had been acting all game, Johnny simply tossed the official the ball and went to the sidelines, avoiding any congratulations from his teammates.
With the score now 27-21 in favour of the George Bush Charger's can Huey's team overcome the onset of fatigue to regain the lead in the last Quarter? Will Cindy show up Mina? Can the Chargers' hold on to their slim lead as their team seems to be falling apart?