11th Grade, High School

Age: 16-17

March 2009

…

She can hear the squeal of sneaker bottoms against the gym's wooden floor before she has opened the door wide enough to see inside. Most of the other winter sports have long since finished their seasons, but the boys' basketball team has secured a district championship spot, which they'll play tomorrow night. There isn't much they can do to prepare for tomorrow – no last minute play changes or position switches. They'll play tomorrow night the same as they've played every game and hope it is enough to send them to States.

It feels very similar to how Gretchen feels about taking the ACTs tomorrow. All of the juniors in the school will be taking the test together in the morning, proctored by their teachers, as part of the district's efforts to ensure every student can be collegebound. Their English classes have given them test strategies and done mock exams, hoping to prepare their students, but at the end of the day, no last ditch studying effort will assist them with better scores. Tomorrow will come and go regardless.

But Gretchen doesn't do well being idle. Even when she knows she'll do fine, it's hard for her to not continue studying or at least think of the concepts, especially when the results are so important. Her ACT scores will in part determine which colleges accept her. She has even thought about taking the SAT as well, knowing that many of the east coast schools favor that test over the ACT, although her parents have told her to slow down and wait for summer to do that. She should determine her final list of schools first before she dives head first into studying for an additional admissions test that she may not need to do.

She climbs up the bleachers and takes a seat, waiting for the basketball practice to end. She pulls a book out of her backpack – The Great Gatsby, their English class's current book – and doesn't crack it open. Instead she watches as the boys on the court finish a scrimmage. The ball is passed back and forth until it lands in Vince's hands. He stands just outside the three point range, near the top of the circle, and he shoots the ball over his defender's guard. The ball sails elegantly, swishing through the net without even hitting the rim.

Vince, like her, doesn't excel with idleness. Sometimes she wonders if the boy ever sleeps. When he isn't playing basketball – for their school team or his AAU travel team – he is doing something else. He shoots his one hundred free throws and he attains nearly perfect grades. He studies with her nearly every day and, for the last month, he has woken up even earlier in the morning, shooting his free throws in the dark and so he can run with Spinelli before school. After she quit the soccer, track, and lacrosse teams, no longer comfortable with the girls she once played with, Vince convinced her to try this fall sport instead, stating that only the dorky guys run cross country. Gretchen isn't sure of how accurate his statement was, but the cross country team last fall did only have a handful of boys and no girls, and Spinelli agreed to at least try some longer distances. So now each morning, Vince has been getting up to shoot free throws, running three miles with Spinelli, going to school, going to basketball, studying, and somehow fitting sleep into this schedule.

So, she figured, perhaps it would do them both well to take a little break this afternoon and go to Kelso's. She isn't sure how well the two of them will do at relaxing, but they can at least try.

She taps the cover of her school book and watches as the coach huddles the team together at center court. She also selfishly hopes that going to relax at Kelso's can help ease Vince's mind. She knows he's struggling with his recruitment, even if he doesn't say it to the rest of their friends. While he has had plenty of interest from smaller Division I programs and the University of Arkansas, he hasn't had much interest from programs she knows were at the top of his list. Aside from Arkansas, he hasn't had any real recruitment from the ACC or SEC, which Gretchen now knows are two of the top conferences for sports and ones that he desperately wants to play in.

It doesn't help that he keeps comparing himself to Vance, who last week verbally committed to the University of Alabama for football. Gretchen knows next to nothing about football, but she knows that that is a big deal.

Vince has always compared himself to Vance and she knows that it's weighing on him that Vance has been recruited by a top program and Vince hasn't, even if they're being recruited for two totally different sports. She has seen him start to get down on himself. Just this morning as they were walking to school, he had made a quip about being able to fall back on his grades to get into school.

With the ACTs tomorrow morning and the big game tomorrow night, she is hoping that a milkshake at Kelso's might be able to keep Vince's head clear.

As the boys begin to disperse, Gretchen waves to Vince to catch his attention. He grins and motions to the locker room, letting her know he's going to grab his things. She starts to collect her belongings and heads down the bleachers as Vince disappears and only stops when she sees the door to the athletic director's office open. The AD walks out with a man she doesn't recognize, dressed in a maroon shirt and khaki pants. The two men meet with the basketball coach out on the court and Gretchen continues down the steps, heading toward the locker room doors to wait for Vince.

The boys start to file out, some of them waving to her as they pass. Vince is one of the last out of the locker room, dressed in his school clothes and smelling of body wash rather than sweat. He gives her a grin as soon as he exits and sidles up next to her.

"Science club get out early today?" he asks.

She nods her head, but science club had actually been canceled with the majority of the juniors stressing over the ACTs tomorrow. Instead, she had gone to the library computers and done some work on her college list. She has successfully whittled her school list down to twenty and cutting it any further seems like a daunting task. The guidance counselor had told her eight to ten schools would be ideal for her to apply to, with an equal split between safety schools, reach schools, and schools in the middle, but she just isn't sure she can get her list down to that number. Maybe fifteen might be a good compromise.

"I was thinking we could go to Kelso's," she says.

Vince nods in agreement. "Mr. Brown did say not to do anything tonight and just relax."

"There's a lot going on tomorrow."

Vince's mouth twitches slightly, as if nervous, but then he shrugs it off. "Just another day."

"You're not nervous at all?" she asks.

He shakes his head. "Not at the moment," he tells her. Then he smirks. "That answer might be different at three AM."

She chuckles with him and they turn to head out of the gym. Vince opens the door and gestures for her to exit first and she is just about to step forward when they overhear someone call his name. They both turn back to see the athletic director walking toward them, the man in the maroon shirt that Gretchen hadn't recognized earlier at his side.

"Hey Sully," Vince says. "What's up?"

Mr. Sullivan shakes his head and waves him off, as if he hadn't meant to stop them. Gretchen frowns at the behavior and glances at the man beside the athletic director, who glances at Vince with curiosity. He is neatly dressed, his maroon polo shirt tucked into khaki dress pants. The shirt has a small emblem on his upper chest – two letters with an eagle flying through them. A B and a C.

She quickly glances to Vince, who is seemingly talking about nothing with the athletic director. If he has taken notice of the emblem on the man's shirt, he isn't showing it. Perhaps in the hundreds of schools that he has sent videos to, this isn't one that rings out to him. But Gretchen recognizes the logo. She had visited Boston College when she and her parents had visited all the schools in the greater Boston area after her summer science program there two summers ago. In fact, it's a school still on her long list along with many other schools in the area, like Boston University, Harvard, MIT, and Wellesley.

"Just wanted to wish you luck tomorrow in case we don't see you before the game," Mr. Sullivan says with a warm smile.

The man next to him also smiles warmly and says, "Good luck." The athletic director then excuses them and continues out into the gym lobby, the man in the maroon polo walking with him.

"That was weird," Vince mutters.

"Did you notice the man's shirt?"

Vince shakes his head and smirks at her. "I mean, I don't really pay attention to people's clothes, Ashley G."

"I think you were just bumped into," she responds bluntly.

Vince raises his eyebrows, not connecting her points. "What are you even talking about?"

She quickly reaches into her bag, pulling out a small notebook she keeps with her. She thumbs her handmade tabs and opens to a section toward the middle where she has been taking notes. Prior to this year, she wouldn't have been able to explain anything related to college sports recruitment processes. But as Vince's recruitment started to ramp up, she hated being clueless to the timeline. In her notebook, she has an entire timeline listed of dates where coaches can contact players, when they can't, and all rules surrounding it.

"The bump rule," she says, struggling to contain her excitement. "During a period where there can be no contact between players and programs, if a coach, scout, or recruiter 'bumps into' a player, they can briefly communicate."

"What made you think that?" Vince asks, an eyebrow raised as if he doesn't believe her.

She tells him about noticing the man come out of the athletic director's office while his practice was ending. About how the man spoke with the coach and then waiting with Mr. Sullivan until Vince, who was nearly the last person out, was out of the locker room to leave the building.

"It could be a coincidence, but he had a Boston College polo on and was speaking with the athletic director specifically." She shrugs. "It seems quite possible that he may be here for you, especially considering your game tomorrow."

Vince mutters something under his breath, then quickly turns around, as if trying to see the athletic director and the other man. The two are lost from sight.

"You really think so?"

The way Vince speaks surprises her, lacking the confident bravado he rarely masks.

"It makes sense," she says. Perhaps being logical will convince him of her theory. "Have you been in communication with them at all?"

"I mean, somewhat," Vince says, his voice still unsteady. "A lot of it is kind of vague, like the schools are looking at you but you know they're looking at a bunch of players. I haven't been invited to any campuses yet."

"Well, like I said, this is a no contact window."

Vince bites his bottom lip and stuffs his hands in the pocket of his sweatshirt. His shoulders slouch and he opens his mouth a few times before actually speaking.

"Do you really think he's a scout? Maybe he's just a fan," Vince says, his voice getting smaller with each word. "I don't want to get my hopes up, you know?"

Gretchen sighs and feels her stomach bubble. She had assumed that this would be welcome news for Vince, who has been bemoaning Vance's Alabama news since it broke. But instead of glee and determination, Vince just appears nervous. Maybe she shouldn't have pointed out the man at all. What if she's wrong? Or worse, what if she's right and Vince's sudden nervousness slows his performance?

"I'm sorry," she blurts out. "I shouldn't have said anything."

"No," Vince says quickly, shaking off her guilt. "No, I'm glad, Gretch. Really. I just…had kind of written off D1."

She frowns. "What about U of A?"

He shrugs and doesn't respond, instead, nodding his head over his shoulder. "We should get to Kelso's before all the tables are gone."

She allows Vince to lead her out of the gym and keeps an eye on him as they start to walk in silence. This has been a touchy subject for Vince, but she can't help but feel a little hurt that he didn't want to talk to her about it. Logically, she understands. So much of Vince's identity growing up was tied to his basketball goals that any imperfections are a personal affront to his soul. But Vince has told her some of his deepest and darkest insecurities in the past that she had grown accustomed to being his confidante.

They're silent for most of the walk. Gretchen watches Vince closely with each step, wondering if she should intervene. But Vince is clearly deep in thought, the corner of his lips twitching and his eyebrows furrowing. It is similar to the face he has in math class when he is working through a particularly difficult problem on the exam. Once she is finished with her test, she often looks up at Vince to watch him work through the final problems. She likes watching him work through it – she can read the process through his facial expressions.

Vince comes to a stop and she does as well. They're a few storefronts up from Kelso's, the store's sign visible from their distance. Gretchen glances both ways and steps off the curb to cross the street, but when she notices Vince hasn't moved with her, she turns back. She returns to the sidewalk and sees him staring at Kelso's in the distance.

"Vince?"

He sighs. "I'm not going to play in the NBA."

He doesn't sound sad. It's a very factual statement, no emotion really tied to it at all.

"Not many people do," Gretchen responds in an equally factual voice. She doesn't want to sway his conversation, allowing him the space to say what he needs to say.

"I've known that for a while even if I didn't want to say it out loud," he tells her, still staring at Kelso's in the distance. "I always knew the NBA was a pipe dream, but I thought I could play professionally for a while, maybe D-league or overseas somewhere."

"That could still be a possibility," Gretchen says, even if she isn't sure what type of talent those leagues would require. But she trusts that Vince has thought it through and knows the ins and outs that she doesn't.

He sighs again and finally turns away, ending his deep gaze toward Kelso's and their neighborhood to turn his focus toward her.

"It could," he agrees. "But for a while it seemed like no one was really impressed with me, none of the big names anyway, and so I started to think about, you know, what I might want to be when the dreaming ends. What it might look like if I went to a D2 school and focused a little more on my academics and a little less on being a professional athlete."

"It sounds like your priorities might be shifting," she says, reading between the lines.

He shrugs his shoulders in the little way he does when he doesn't quite want to agree.

"They were," he says, stuffing his hands in his pockets again. His lips twitch sheepishly. "I've just been thinking about different careers and stuff. What classes I like. You know."

"Any ideas?" she asks curiously.

Vince is a smart kid and paired with his natural determination, she figures he would do well in most careers. She knows that he has no desire to pursue his culinary talents, preferring to keep that as a hobby. Perhaps sports broadcasting? He's so charismatic. Or something entirely different?

He shuffles slightly before speaking.

"I, um, well, I've really liked the science classes we've been taking together," he says. "Especially anatomy. It's been pretty cool to learn about the body and how it works. I was talking about it with my mom actually and there's this program at the hospital she works at – high school kids can come and learn about different jobs in healthcare. So I've been doing that when I'm not busy."

As Vince speaks, she can hear his voice pick up, sounding more and more sure of himself with each word.

"In fact, you should come next time," he says. "I think you'd like it. It's every other Wednesday."

Vince fills her in on the previous speaker, an anesthesiologist who brought some teaching materials with him in addition to a powerpoint. Apparently he had allowed the teens to use a laryngoscope to look into the throat of a dummy. The idea of Vince going to medical school doesn't seem foreign to her, even if it might to others that don't know him. He is extremely resolute in his goals, which would be necessary for the grueling schoolwork.

"I'll pencil it in," she promises. Then, as he often jokes with her, she adds, "Dr. LaSalle."

He smirks, but then his face constricts. "Well, maybe. I don't know if I could be pre-med and do Division I."

She nods her head, knowing that despite Vince's hard work in school and on the playing field in high school, college athletics and the road to professional sports is hard fought. It would take priority over taking potentially more difficult classes. Her parents are professors. She knows that there are certain majors that athletes are more prone to choose. There are just not enough hours in the day for most pre-professional athletes to devote to their sports and the most rigorous course loads. Even if Vince had been thinking of giving it a go, it would be a sure fire way to burn himself out.

"Over the last few weeks, I had sort of come to terms with not going D1. I can't go to U of A, even if they were my only offer," he admits. "I just…being right down the road, I just feel like I'd end up in my own shadow. So I thought at least going to a far off D2 school, I could focus more on school and what I was going to do when basketball was over."

That makes sense to her. Vince is already quite popular in their neighborhood. She could only image Mr. Kelso putting up the Razorback's schedule on his wall and the contingency of fans that would make their way to Vince's games. But, also, a lot of their high school classmates and probably some of their friends will all end up at U of A. It's a popular choice of school. It would be nice for Vince to have built in fans, but he is right. It wouldn't afford him the anonymity that an out-of-state school would provide for him to explore his life outside of the court.

Vince continues.

"But then you said you thought that guy bumped into me, it just reignited everything. And, I mean, BC isn't a top program but it's still ACC and that's a big deal. Maybe there are others that are looking at me too. And now I guess I'm just conflicted."

"Well, at this point, I think the best thing you can do is do your best, collect your offers, and make your decision then," she says.

He nods his head and gives her a small smile. Then he nudges her arm. "That's your plan, right?" When she nods, he adds, "Have you crossed any off recently or are you still at twenty?"

She gives him an evasive look and he just laughs, looking both ways before starting to cross the street toward Kelso's.

"Gretch, it's going to take you forever to do twenty applications. The guidance counselor said most people can get away with eight schools and it's not like you're most people."

She ignores the second part, knowing that college admissions results can vary no matter the applicant. Someone in this year's senior class who she does mathletes with ended up being rejected from most of the schools they applied to, even with nearly perfect grades and stellar extracurriculars. That's partially what drives her – knowing that it's entirely possible that could happen to her. She worries that colleges where she surpasses their average stats will see her as unlikely to attend while the top tier colleges are so competitive that they turn away multitudes of students with perfect statistics.

She has always maintained that education is so much more than what is learned in books, but at the college level it takes a slightly different connotation than high school. In high school, social events and community were just as important to her as her studies. In college, she knows her grades will be important but that the networking a college provides is paramount to her next steps.

"Since most schools use the common app, it won't actually be that difficult," she says, focusing on the first part of Vince's statement. "But, I think my plan will be to apply to the early action schools and then depending on what I hear back, I'll pick and choose which regular decision schools to send out."

"What are the early ones?" Vince asks.

She counts on her fingers, knowing her list inside and out. "MIT, Caltech, UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, and," she nudges his arm as she finishes, "BC."

Vince smirks. "You're acting like that's high on your list."

"It's a good school," she insists.

He shakes his head and opens the door to Kelso's, gesturing for her to walk through first. "You will go to MIT," he says, as if it's a given. He smirks. "But, hey, if I do end up getting recruited by BC, you can come over from MIT to watch my games."

She likes the idea of that. The idea of being in a far off city has never bothered her before, but it would provide her an extra comfort knowing that Vince was nearby. But a lot can happen in a year, when they'll be making their final decisions, so she tries not to let the idea sink in. As much as Vince has gotten down on himself about recruitment, there is still plenty of time for other schools to express their interest. And it is no guarantee that she gets into MIT, or BC, or any school for that matter.

But it is a nice thought.

…

Notes:

I have never known so much about college basketball rankings in the late 2000s/early 2010s in my entire life lol. I really tried to pick some schools that would have realistically been schools that may have chosen to recruit Vince (yes, schools, more will come even if he's being pessimistic). I also have all 20 of Gretchen's schools chosen. It was actually kind of fun to see what the characters might like and why they might choose certain colleges over others.

I'm so sorry at how long this took me to get this out. I got a little sick, lost some motivation, and then when I finally had some time I just couldn't get the words out. It stinks because these characters live rent-free in my head all the time and I wish it translated that easily to the written page! I even tried to write outside of this universe and just write a one-shot to get into the groove, but it felt weird not having it fit into this when I know everyone is waiting patiently for me to update.

But, hopefully this was okay! Hope you enjoyed!

One more chapter and then we'll head into senior year :)