After that game, I had no idea what to do. I just went on
with normal life. My performance was all over the news for being such a great
game, and I was getting a lot of attention. As a QB in high school, I really
couldn’t take all the attention that I was getting. All that I did was keep on
going with my normal life, which means that I just kept practicing. I wasn’t
really looking forward to practice tomorrow because I know that is all they will
talk about. I loved how great I did, but I didn’t know how the other players
would react to my play, I was guessing a mix of opinions. I thought there would
be the offence guys who would say I did awesome and then there would be the defense
guys who would say I was a ball hog. I wouldn’t be ready for them saying that,
but I didn’t care. I would just take it like a football player.

The next day when I woke up in the morning, it was 4:45. I
was 15 minutes off of my normal time of 4:30. I rushed out of bed and got
dressed. I ran downstairs and grabbed something for breakfast. I just took a
cold waffle out of the fridge and started walking to school. I always wanted to
be at football practice half an hour early so that I have time to warm up
before it starts. I always have some other friends there to warm up with. My
parents are never awake when I leave, and to be honest, I don’t think they
really care about what I do. After I got home from the big game last night they
didn’t say a single word to me. I was awake for 3 hours after I got home and
all they did was give me some weird looks. I was kind of scared of what they
will think if I don’t come home tonight because I am going to my friend Jimmy
house overnight and I never told them. They have no idea about what goes on in
my life, but to be honest, I really couldn’t care less. I mean, all they do is
buy me food at the store, and I am on my own for everything else that I may
need in life. So when I wake up in the morning, they just tell me not to make
any noise.

I saw one of my friends C.J. walking over to the practice
field and I decided to talk to him. C.J. was our kicker and he really wasn’t
that disappointed that he didn’t have to punt the ball much yesterday and he
got to do a lot of extra points.

“How were your parents last night?” He asked me, like he
didn’t know me.

“Dude, you know so stop asking me.” I replied to him, not
very happily.

“Ah, so it was just normal.”

“You got that right.”

People seemed to know what ‘normal’ meant for me. It meant
that I just had another crappy, really quiet night. I always hated how much my
parents interacted with me. Most of the other kids had awesome parents who were
always talking to them and giving them encouragement. I was kind of in the
group of the really mean kids and the nerds who never even wanted their parents
around. But until them, I really did want my parents to do things with me, so I
really didn’t like how the kids on the team would always ask me that. I once
knocked out a kid for asking me over and over after he said it over and over
and I told him to stop over and over again. I was just so sick of it.

When we got to the field I asked him if he wanted to throw
and get warmed up. He said sure, even if he did know he really couldn’t throw
the ball very well. I want down the sideline with the ball and I told him to
stand about 10 yards away from me so that we could get warmed up. We stated to
throw, but soon he said that he really wanted to stop and rest before coach got
there, I said sure. We went and sat down on the bench and started talking about
the school. We went to a small school in middle of no where Prescott Wisconsin,
so we didn’t really have the best education as there were no teachers who
really wanted to teach there, as the salary for them was also very very low. We
started to talk about who our least favorite and favorite teachers were. We
both agreed that our least favorite teacher was Ms. Jackson. She was the
teacher who taught Spanish and I swear she is single because she never wanted
to have kids. She hated kids. The only reason that she still had a job was
because she liked to get some money and she was really nice to all of the other
teachers. We both agreed that our favorite teacher was Mr. Auchampach, but his
name is so hard to pronounce so we just call him David. He is our tech teacher
and he really loves to play games in his class. And I don’t mean just games
like jokes, but he plays retro games. He is an amazing player at all of his
games, and we love to watch him. Although he does spend a lot of class time
playing games, we do learn a whole lot. That is all we got to talk about before
coach got here. By the time coach got there, there was about 25 of our 43
players there, and coach said that we should do some stretching while we wait
for the other players. We waited 5 minutes, and only 8 of the players showed
up, but coach told us that we should start practice anyway. We walked over to
the sideline and coach called out the first offence and the first defense. We
were about to do a scrimmage game. Coach then told me the next 5 plays that I
was to run and I told him I would try my best. I think that was enough for him,
but I wasn’t sure.

“Down… set…set…set hut… hut.” The ball came to me, there was
2 guys blitzing off the outside so I knew I had about a second and a half to
throw. I look to the left and saw an open man, I threw the ball to him. He
caught it and pulled it in. He went on for 5 more yards before he got tackled.
That was a 13 yard pick up which would give us a first down. The next play that
coach had told me to run was a hand off to the running back Lacy.

“Down… set…set…set hut… hut.” We normally don’t change the
snap count while in practice so on that hut the ball was put into my hands. I
dropped back and handed the ball off to lacy. I then ran out to the left and
did a pump fake to try to get some defenders off guard. I rolled in to see what
had happened. When I looked over I saw that we had a 3 yard pick up but it
looked like our full back Joseph Richards was down. I walked over to him and called
over to coach.

“You OK man?” I asked him.

“Yeah, I think so. Just got the breath knocked out of me.”
He replied. Joseph was another one of my friends and I was a little scared to
see him go down. He got back up and went to the sideline where he said he would
take a play or two out. The next play that I was going to run would be a 5 wide
set when I would get the ball and look for an open man. If I didn’t see one in
2 seconds or if the pocket collapsed, I was to run and slide at the first sight
of a defender.

“Down… set…set…set hut… hut… set hut… hut.” This time I was
to change the snap count. As soon as I got the ball, they brought a man right
off the left side of the pocket to I tucked the ball and ran. I ran for a few
yards before I saw someone coming at me. I slide. I didn’t get the biggest pick
up, but I got 6 yard which made it 3^rd down and 1. I knew that I had
to run one more play, and it was a hand off to Joseph, but he hadn’t come back,
so I changed it to a pistol formation so that I could pass the ball. I set up
the formation and called out some signs. I then got ready for the snap.

“Down… set…set…set hut… hut… set…set…set hut… hut… set…hut!”
And one of the defensive line man jumped off sides. That play was one that had
a long snap count that was made to get someone off sides, and if it didn’t get
them off sides, get them un prepared for a play. Normally when we do one of
those kinds of plays, we have to call a time out if it doesn’t work, but not
us. We don’t like to burn time outs.

“Awesome job getting them man, you did great picking up the
first down.” C.J. said to me when I got to the sideline after running one more
set of plays. I really didn’t want to have a big conversation right now, so I
decided to just say thanks to him and I went over and got some water.

“How was it coach?” I asked as I went over to the coach. “Did
I do the plays right?” I was really nervous of what he thought of that last
play, of how I got into a different formation then of the one he wanted.

“It looked amazing man.” He answered me, and he sounded like
he really meant that part. “That last play you did…” He started to say. I could
feel myself getting nervous. “Was a great showing of play call, and do you want
to know why that was so great?” He asked me.

“Yes sir. I sure would.” I answered him. I hope that he gave
me a real reason. I didn’t want something lame such as ‘because it was’. That
would really ruin the moment.

“Because you took a play that they knew we would be passing
because we weren’t lined up right, and you were able to show that we could do
it right.” He answered me. I just kind of looked at him. I had absolutely no
idea of what he had just said, but I was guessing that what he said was a good
thing. It was almost as bad as ‘because it was’ due to the fact that I would
have to think about what he meant. And that would take my mind of school work.
When he turned back to me, he looked at me than asked.

“Do you get what I mean?”

“Not at all coach.” I answered him, turning my ears on so I
could tell if he was about to tell me something I needed to know.

“You will get it by the end of this season.” He replied,
still quite happy. “You will get it, I assure you that.” I was pretty sure that
I wouldn’t get it no matter how long I got to think about it. I just kind of
nodded and went back over to the rest of the players. We still had 15 minutes
until the school opened, so we went into the locker rooms and took our pads
off. I have always hated the locker rooms as there are those people who just go
crazy in there and put us all in danger. As someone who doesn’t exactly like
getting killed, I get in and out as soon as possible. I still had 10 minutes
until school started so I sat down on one of the bleachers and did some of the homework
that I didn’t want to do last night after the game because I was thinking about
my playing. I normally do my homework during lunch, but this way I could make
sure that I get enough food so that I will have energy for the afternoon football
game. When I finished, I packed my stuff up. The doors had opened 15 minutes
ago, and the first period started in half an hour, so I decided to stay out
here for a few more minutes. I loved sitting out here in the 50 degree weather
alone with nothing but nature here. I love to just sit out here and be alone. I
take this time to think about what ever has been happening in my life in both
school and at home. During this time after football practice I never think
about football as I need to get ready for school. I have all A’s in my classes,
which is best out of every football player except for C.J. He learns almost
everything as soon as they teach it, and it really does get annoying how much
work I put into school and he does nothing and gets right passed. It kind of
ticks me off, but he is my best friend so I treat him with respect. He does
think that it is a little unfair, and that is something that I agree most with
him on. I went inside and put all my stuff at my seat and got ready for 1^st
period.

End Of Chapter 2