Author's note:
Part Seven. To see where the characters come from, it is highly recommended to read the first six parts. Please remember to vote after reading each part.
***
Chapter 24
Ashley woke Joe at 5, dressed in her cheer uniform. She had slipped out from under Joe during the night to wash both their uniforms, and now laid his jersey, t-shirt, and jeans out on his bed while he showered. They got to the school, and met the senior cheerleaders at the track for a light jog around a few laps. Afterward, the group waited for school to begin, huddled around their favorite place at the closed concession counter in the senior hallway next to the gym. Joe and Ashley were greeted back warmly by the janitor and staff as they made their rounds. As students filed in, a crowd formed around the group with everybody wanting to give Joe their condolences.
Classes resumed as usual, and after lunch, the senior classes were mostly empty, as the teams and many students left school to travel to the game. The last three periods, Joe's teachers had conceded their class time as a wash, letting the remaining few students chat as they wished. Joe and Ashley separately used the time to meet one-on-one with the teachers to catch up on their lessons. The dean told the two in the final study hall period that if they wanted to leave early, they could. About the same time, the student body heard a helicopter circle overhead. Joe looked at Ashley and asked if she was ready and she said yes. He told the dean that his ride was there, referring to the chopping noise that passed on and got quieter, and thanked her for letting them out early. They went to their lockers, grabbed the bags that had been there all week, and headed out to the track.
The helicopter had shut its engines down, but when the pilot saw Joe and Ashley walking across toward him, he restarted the turbines. As the engine revved up, Joe called out to Ashley to tell her to duck below the blades, not only to keep her head attached, but because the rotors beat down a lot of debris. The blades rapidly accelerated as they got close, and Ashley saw what Joe meant. Dead grass, bits of garbage, and sticks flew around her, and ducking made most of the stuff bounce harmlessly off her back. The passenger door opened and they stepped inside. Cindy was waiting for them, and Joe sat next to her. Ashley sat opposite and snapped the belt across her lap. She saw Joe put on a headset that hung behind his seat, and she did the same. Through the headset, she heard Cindy say, "I hope you don't kill me for taking the liberty to go ahead and pick y'all up."
Joe shook his head as they started lifting off. "Nah, thanks for the push. Not subtle, but thanks."
"You're welcome. I figured you really need to at least go to the game."
Ashley watched as the school got smaller. The pilot circled around once to head off east, so Ashley got a great aerial view from all sides and concluded that the school was much smaller than it seemed inside. "These headphones are great," she said. "You're not yelling, yet I can hear every word you two are saying."
Cindy smiled. "They're noise-canceling. The computer chip inside detects the background noise and cancels it out using a second sound wave. With the engine literally on top of us, we would be yelling without these."
Ashley looked out the window, realizing that the pilot had chosen to fly over the coastline, so that they could see the beaches. After a few miles, he trued up his course for a direct flight to Jacksonville, causing the beaches to slip under them and drift away from the right side of the aircraft. With Ashley facing the rear, it took a few minutes for her equilibrium to adjust, but now she was comfortable watching the forests of NW Florida fade away from her point of view. They were flying over Tallahassee when Ashley noticed Joe was lost in thought, but not in his usual focused manner before a game. She was about to say something about it, but decided not to.
They landed in Jacksonville and rode to the game site in a car that Cindy had arranged. When they arrived, the teams were already jogging some warm up laps. Ashley and Joe deposited their bags on the benches and fell in step with their teammates. Jill and Jasmine made their way up to them and Jill asked how they made it so fast. Between breaths Ashley said that Cindy arranged a flight on Joe's helicopter and they just rode in from the airport. Jasmine asked why not complete the show and just land on the field. Ashley simply answered, "Joe's not like that." Joe added that the aircraft needed to refuel anyway, so it was just easier to land there and ride in.
It was the second quarter, and the game lived up to its billing so far. Both teams' offenses were strong and overpowered the defenses. The score was tied at 21, with neither team failing to score on their possessions. Joe was trying to help his defense by playing at defensive back, but the other team had done their homework and avoided throwing to his side of the field. Their opponents had a running game that just blew through anything they put up against them, while Joe's Guardians allowed him to pick apart the defense with precision passing. But, Ashley noticed he wasn't playing like Joe. Usually, he looked as though he played like a kid with a toy while he was on the field. Tonight, he seemed flat, as if he was going about working at a job. At halftime, the score was still tied, the scoreboard reading 35 points a piece. Ashley ran up to Joe before he headed to the locker room and grabbed his arm, pulling him to the side.
"Are you okay?"
"I would be if we could stop them."
"That's not what I meant, Joe."
"Ashley, I gotta go. What do you want?"
"You're not playing like yourself. Are you okay?"
"I've got like 300 yards passing, what more do you want?"
"You have 274," she corrected him. "I want you to play for you. You're not having fun out there, and I'm afraid that you'll get hurt because of it."
"I'm just trying to win, Ashley."
"I know, and you're doing great. Just please get back to playing a game, rather than working a job?"
Joe reflected on her comments while the defensive coach berated the squad for letting the running back through so much. He realized that she was right. Tonight wasn't fun at all. His thoughts were interrupted when Coach Mike asked him if he noticed anything that could give them an edge. Joe shook his head, reminding the coach that he missed all the videos during the week. Coach Mike pressed a bit more, asking if he saw anything tonight that might help.
"No. He lines up perfectly square, and he has that damn visor on, so I can't see what his eyes are doing. Maybe shade everyone to that side of the field, since they're avoiding me?"
"That would leave you all alone."
Joe shrugged, "you asked for ideas. Didn't say it was a perfect one."
The game's pace slowed down after the half, as both sides tried to break free of the pattern. Joe returned to some of his old ways, toying with the defense a bit by changing calls to run right where they were guessing, and then throwing perfect passes to burn the secondary. His Guardians started to tire as the game wore on, but Joe started having fun again. As the protection broke down, he would spin, juke, and run out of sure tackles, usually able to finish up the broken plays with a short completion.
Then, very late in the fourth quarter, the game clinching play happened. The opponents decided to chance throwing the ball to the receiver Joe was covering. He saw his assignment's eyes go up and Joe turned to track the ball in the air. He jumped to knock it away and it glanced off his finger tips. The receiver made an improbable catch, grabbing the flailing ball just before it hit the ground behind Joe. The contortion he did to make the catch sent the receiver off balance, running out of bounds to try and stay upright. Joe had recovered and was right behind to make a tackle if he stayed in. The receiver still was off balance and was barreling straight for the group of cheerleaders who were facing the crowd. Joe leaped and hit him off course, causing Jasmine on the end to only get brushed. The officials flagged the move, penalizing Joe for a late intentional hit out of bounds. Coach Mike nearly got ejected for vehemently objecting to the call, saying Joe was trying to save the girls from injury and did not attempt harm, but the call stood. The penalty gave the other team an extra 15 yards that put them in field goal range, and they ran the time down until they had just long enough to kick the winning score.
The coaches met midfield to congratulate each other for making the playoffs and on the good game. Joe led the majority of players across to shake hands with the opposing ones. He made a bee line for the receiver who he covered most of the game. Joe found him celebrating with the outstanding running back that killed his defense. Joe held out his hand and said, "I just wanted to say that I hope you know why I hit you out of bounds. I didn't try to hurt you."
His opponent took the handshake and replied, "thanks man. I mean that. I really was trying to stop, but just couldn't. Your girls are okay?"
Joe nodded, "yeah, I think so. I clipped Jasmine's elbow, but she was still standing. Anyway, congratulations."
"Sure, you too for making it this far and almost pulling it out. My name's Will, this hos is Ben."
Joe acknowledged the introduction. "I'm Joe. Y'all seniors, I hope?"
"We know who you are, as it's been on the news. You're every stretch as good as they say. We were hoping you wouldn't be here, but I am sorry to hear about your folks."
"Thank you. Been a rough week."
"I imagine. Anyway, yeah, we're seniors. In fact, we're signing with FSU tomorrow."
Joe's eyebrows went up. "Really? Should have a pretty decent freshman class, then."
"Oh man, you throwin' the ball to me, and Ben runnin' behind you...we'll be unstoppable."
"Well, I don't like counting chickens before they hatch, but it should be interesting. Good luck on State Finals, and congratulations again."
"Thanks, we'll see ya this summer."
Joe about jumped when he turned to find their head coach standing right behind him.
"Good game, son."
Joe took his hand and shook it firmly. "Yeah, you too. Wish it went the other way for us, but y'all deserve it."
The coach shook his head. "No, y'all deserved it. We got lucky. Anyway, I wanted to give you our game ball."
Joe cocked his head. "What, because I won your game by getting flagged?"
The coach laughed. "No, that was a raw deal. I knew you wouldn't have touched Will if your classmates weren't in danger. Or your girlfriend." Joe closed his eyes and shook his head. "Yeah," the coach continued, "we know who both of you are."
"I'm sorry I can't say that about your team."
"Well, that's why I'm giving you our game ball. You were the MVP of the game, even though you had never seen our defense before. You have my sympathy for your folks, by the way."
"Thanks."
"It's just that no team had put up more than seven points against us, yet you burned us for 42...without benefit of seeing any film. That's good, kid. I can't wait to see you play in college. Good luck to you."
"Thanks. Congratulations."
The coach nodded and rounded up his team.
