"Why do you say that?" Brook asked.
They all laughed at me. I took their good-natured ribbing in stride. The guys were all jealous when I told them about the porn-star party I'd been invited to and how he'd finagled an invite on my coattails. I also explained to Tim and Wolf how Zak was a player, not just a wannabe. He was always on the lookout for his next conquest.
I then told them the not-so-funny story of how he'd worked another invite to go on a yacht with me when they wanted me to sign early for the next two
Star Academy
movies. His wandering eye had almost gotten his butt beat when he let it slip that he'd slept with the girlfriend of one of my costars in
Star Academy
. They thought it was humorous that I'd invited said boyfriend, Ben Cowley, to tonight's party.
"What would make it even better would be if you invited the girlfriend," Tim said. "Then we could sit back and wait for the fight to break out."
"I'm not sure I have Isabel Alexandra's phone number," I admitted.
"You're talking about the babe from the
Baywatch
movie?" Bill asked, and I nodded. "Dude! You have to come to USC. I totally get why Zak wanted to have a party in your honor."
"She did look good in her bikini," I admitted.
That was when I was reminded that I already had a girlfriend. Going to USC might not be the best for my long-term relationship with Brook. I thought about it for a minute and decided she might as well get over it. She knew how I felt about her. That was why I sent a text to Ari. If anyone could get Isabel's number for me, it was him.
"And you're fine if Ridge and I invite some of our teammates?" Bill asked.
"Just don't overdo it. We might want Zak to invite us to more parties in the future," I suggested.
I saw my dad motion for us to get back with the group. We were ready to see USC's football facility, the John McKay Center.
---
It seemed that all the top football programs we had visited had new football facilities. Ohio State had spent a $100 million on theirs. Clemson and USC had each managed to keep theirs to only $70 million. This one was 110,000 square feet of football heaven. There was no doubt that boosters were pouring money into these top programs, and a new football facility was part of the arms race to attract the top recruits.
USC had taken a technology slant with their building. I think everywhere you turned there was a video screen that I wouldn't mind playing some Xbox on. It didn't stop in the public areas. In the locker room, each locker had its own video screen.
While all that was nice, they'd seriously thought out the building. The weight room was ginormous. Then there was the ... wait for it ... underground practice field. I mean, seriously. We were in frickin' Southern California. When would you ever want to be inside to play football? I guess it gets hot in the summer, but underground?
By the time Bill had finished showing us the facilities, we could check that off our list as being acceptable.
Our next stop was to talk to the academic advisors. I remembered that USC was a private school. They wanted us to know precisely what our scholarship would cover. Tuition was $51,442 plus a fee of $841. Room and board totaled an additional $14,348 per academic year. Students electing to live off campus elsewhere in Los Angeles were advised they'd have to budget at least that amount. The list went on from there, with guesstimates for books and other living expenses. Bottom line, we could expect the bill to be $69,711 per year. By the time we would graduate, they figure it would be closer to $100,000 per year.
This was 92% more expensive than the national-average private nonprofit four-year college tuition. The scary part was that their acceptance rate was only 17%. I hated to think how much the average student would be in debt by the time they graduated. For $70,000 per year, I'd better learn something, or I would have to face my mom.
Of course, I already knew that USC was a top-notch university. Their strength was in business-related degrees, and they also were heavy in the arts. This was, of course, what you would expect from a school that was just miles from Hollywood.
We then broke up our groups to talk to academic advisors one-on-one. Tim was a little overwhelmed when he discovered that their Bachelor of Architecture was a five-year degree. Wolf and I found that USC ranked in the top 10 in marketing, international business, accounting, entrepreneurship, and real estate. They had a dramatic arts program for acting and for everything technical surrounding that.
Our parents were satisfied that we would be fine academically. Another box checked.
---
We'd split off from the other recruits so Bill could give a private tour of the campus. Being from our hometown, he knew what would interest us and was able to explain how he'd adjusted to the move to a big city.
"At first, it was a little overwhelming. It's much more diverse, and people don't seem to have the same values that we're used to. It's much more a 'me first' attitude. A good example is when someone breaks down on the highway. Everyone'll slow down to see what's going on, but they won't stop to help. That is unless they think they'll get something out of it.
"The first month I was here, Ridge and I were headed somewhere and had to take the highway. I saw a woman who looked to be about my mom's age pulled over on the side. Ridge thought I was crazy for wanting to stop. All I could think of was that back home I wouldn't think twice about it. Ridge was worried she would think we were trying to rob her or something.
"One thing I like is that it's much more diverse. I'm starting to have a thing for Asian girls," he admitted.
Several inappropriate comments were made in fun. My mom shut that down, but we all knew we shouldn't have been making fun anyways. We were in the land of the politically correct, plus we knew it was just wrong. I thought about it as we toured the campus. It wasn't that I was thinking in racist terms, but I could see how it could be hurtful if viewed from a different perspective. I vowed to do better.
I'd never thought of people being different because of race. To my mind, people differed because of their personal experiences. Just like Wolf had felt the store clerk was profiling him, I reacted differently because of who I was. We each would bring our own life experience to the table, but the bottom line was that we shouldn't judge someone solely on their ethnicity. I couldn't lie, though: I thought Asian women were hot, too.
USC is in the heart of LA and has two primary campuses situated on 249 acres. The second campus was just a couple of miles away, and it was where they had their Health Sciences campus, home to the Keck School of Medicine of USC and the School of Pharmacy, as well as three major teaching hospitals. If you didn't know you were in the middle of LA, you wouldn't even sense it. It was like the other campuses I'd been on: large green areas and students either going about their business or goofing off.
Bill said that some areas close to campus were a little sketchy, but if you paid attention and didn't do anything stupid, you should be okay. He liked that you could find just about anything you wanted without having to travel for miles to get it.
After the tour, he had to go get ready for the game. USC was playing Colorado today, a team they hadn't lost to in the last ten years. Today might be a different story, though. Colorado came in ranked number 21 and USC was 2--3. The Trojans had started the year with a game against Alabama (number 1) and gotten the stuffing kicked out of them 52--6. They also lost to Stanford (number 7) and Utah (number 24). So, all three of their losses had been to ranked teams.
Last week they'd played Arizona State. In many ways, it had been Ridge's coming-out party. He finally looked comfortable in the offense, and they had won a game most people didn't think they would. They'd done so in convincing fashion on national TV, winning 41--20. Today's game was big for them. A win would bring them to.500, and they needed a win against a ranked team.
---
The neighborhoods around the stadium were on the rougher side, so Fritz made a run for sandwiches while I took everyone to the Exposition Park Rose Gardens. It looked like a lot of people had the same idea, and for good reason. It was a beautiful afternoon, and I couldn't think of anywhere else you could see so many varieties of roses. I'm not big on formal gardens, but this was nice. Fritz found us with the food, and we all took a break sitting around the huge fountain in the center of the park.
"What do you think so far?" Mom asked.
"I've always thought that USC might be a good place to go, especially if I wanted to focus on acting. As far as football goes, there's a clear path to playing time. Last year Ridge played behind Cody Kessler who was drafted in the third round. He'll probably play this year and next and then enter the draft early. That would set things up for me playing right away.
"USC is one of those schools that seem to get quarterbacks to the NFL. Their alumni include Carson Palmer, Matt Leinart, John Booty, Mark Sanchez, Aaron Corp, Matt Barkley, and finally, Cody Kessler," I ticked off.
"I think that's every quarterback that's played in a game at USC, except a couple of spot starters, since you've been born," Dad said, surprising me with his knowledge.
You have to understand, my parents were never really sports nuts and hadn't followed football until I began to play. Dad's focus was more on golf. Yes, we followed the Cubs and Bears, but that was just a way of killing time, for them at least. For Dad to recognize that almost every starting quarterback who'd played for USC had at least had a cup of coffee in the NFL showed that he had done his homework.
None of the other schools I was looking at had USC's track record in that regard.
