Blue sat in the skybox of Aggie Memorial Stadium staring down at the far corner of the field. A gap in the bleachers allowed the visiting team mascots to go back to their locker room or green room or whatever they called the rest and rehab area. The first half of the game was almost over and it was close, but Blue wasn't really feeling it. He was probably the only one in the sold-out stadium who wasn’t on the verge of hysteria. Both colleges had promising years, with a strong chance of going to a bowl game and competing for their conference championship, but Blue couldn't keep his eyes off the furry gray mascot popping in and out of that tunnel.

Blue had never been a mascot or studied them as much as he was doing today, but the people powering the hated Lobo image today seemed a little flat. Not as much life as he expected from Lucy’s cohorts. Not everyone could be a ball of spicy, excitement like Lucy.

What held his eyes glued to the corner was Lucy. Sometime around the start of the third quarter, Lucy would be down in the little corner of the field where the visiting mascots were allowed, doing her thing. Blue had been shocked when she told him that she would be back in the suit again, but apparently it was tradition for some of the old mascots to come back during one game a year and relive their glory days.

Blue chuckled at the thought of him trying to compete on the field without an entire preseason of practice, training, and conditioning to get him ready. According to Lucy, usually the mascots got their chance to get back into the suit at the homecoming game. Lucy had trained hard since Peru, and made a special request this year to get her time in the mascot suit today, because she wanted to do so at a game Blue was attending. Apparently some major strings had to be pulled to break the tradition of alumni mascots performing only on their home field at Homecoming, but apparently her family had the strings to make that happen. Someone plopped down in the seat next to Blue. He looked over to see his brother Jesse.

“What are you doing down here all by yourself?” asked Jesse. “You've been distracted today.”

With divorced parents and only one brother, who was a bachelor like Blue, this annual football game against their rival University was the closest thing they had to a family reunion. The skybox was full of Jesse's friends and their dad’s acquaintances. You could feel the testosterone in the air, as thick and pungent as the aroma of bratwurst and beer. The seating at the front of the skybox was comfortable and offered a better view than anywhere else, but it had been a tradition for as long as Blue could remember that not a lot of sitting went on during this game. As the Athletic Director for the university, Blue's father hung his hat on this rivalry game as much as any other university event of the year.

Taking one more peek to the corner of the stadium, Blue stood then went to join the guys milling at the top of the steps that led down to the seats. He didn't really know any of Jesse's friends. They weren't the guys he'd hung out with growing up, but higher society types – lawyers like Jesse and clients of Jesse's law firm. Back when Blue was playing ball, it had seemed like this crowd was it. Capital ‘I’ It. And he kind of pictured himself fitting in with them once he got established and started his life. But after eight years in the fire station and building up a true camaraderie with his brothers there, he was put off by the puffed out chests and expensive Polos.

The fire department was all about hierarchy, and there was always plenty of jockeying for position, putdowns, and trying to just be all-around more manly than anyone else. Blue had nothing against these guys, but their form of social positioning felt snobbish, and based on a system that Blue had outgrown. There was no true manly grit to it. Not the way Blue thought of it anyway. They probably thought Blue was less of a man because his yearly income was only in the five-digit range.

One of the guys Blue hadn't been introduced to said, "Sitting down there wishing you were taking snaps, huh?"

It surprised Blue, but he hadn't even thought of that today. Usually he thought back to his days as the big man on campus and his hopes of playing in the NFL but he was happy with his life. It couldn't have turned out much better so far. Especially now that his horizon was broadening in regards to letting someone else share life with him. Lucy hadn't just occupied all of his thoughts while here in the stadium, but pretty much all of them since they parted ways in L.A. after their flight back from Peru. After being up almost all night in the Skylodge talking, and then kissing a little, he had expected to sleep almost the whole way home. But the time had been too precious to waste sleeping and he and Lucy had gotten as comfortable as possible on the plane and talked the entire way.

Since then they had talked or texted every day. But it wasn’t the same as being together. And even though she’d used that nickname he hated when she texted him from the airport this morning—Blucy—he still couldn’t wait to see her, hold her, talk to her face to face again.

He was spacing out again. "Nah, let the young guys have their fun."

Another guy Blue didn't know said, “Man, I still remember that Hail Mary you threw at UTEP. I had a hundred bucks riding on that game. I already had my wallet out to pay it off when you hit Dixon in the end zone." He held up his hand for a high-five.

Just like that Blue was accepted into this prestigious group and given a place of honor because of what he done almost ten years ago. He gave the guy a high-five, and talk turned to the current season and the odds of going undefeated. The guy who had almost lost a hundred bucks obviously hadn't learned his lesson because he was looking for the best odds he could get on an undefeated season for the Aggies.

Blue wandered over to where his dad was talking to a couple of silver-haired university boosters. They both had wedding rings on but had left their wives at home. This skybox, for this game, had always been a bachelor suite. Both of his dad’s guests this year had a distinctive slimy feel to them. Whether it was the multiple gaudy rings the one guy wore on multiple fingers of each hand, or the rat-like face, and obvious comb-over of the second guy, Blue couldn’t tell. His dad never did make the most noble choices when it came to friends and acquaintances. It was a big part of what led to his parents’ divorce. That and the burner cell phones he’d been busted with, trying to hide women, his bookie, and who knew what else from Blue’s mom.

The two guys in the skybox were ‘Whales’ according to Blue’s dad. They were both considering seven-digit donations to the university, and Blue’s dad was hoping that between the two of them, he could make it eight digits.

“There's the hero of 2009," said the man on the left. "If the NCAA gave you another year of eligibility I'd go down there right now and tell Coach to put you in for the second half. I don't care what kind of shape you're in or whether you know the new coach’s plays. Any Aggie would follow you anytime, anywhere.”

Blue wondered how much of his optimism had to do with the alcohol he’d consumed that was now slurring his voice.

“What do you mean what kind of shape he's in?” said the other man who had obviously had a few drinks as well. “He's built like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his heyday. Linebackers would bounce off this guy.” The man patted Blue's bicep. “Wow, are you a professional bodybuilder or something now?”

“No, I’m a fireman.”

Both men looked surprised and somewhat disappointed. “Oh,” said the first man. “I'm sure that's, uh, very… rewarding for you.”

The reaction was similar to his dad's reaction when Blue had told them during his last semester of college that he wanted to be a fireman and not pursue a career in business, which was the field of study of his degree. It didn't matter to Blue; he'd seen all sorts of reactions to his career choice, most of them positive. In the end, it came down to him doing something he loved and something that made the world a better place at the same time.

“I love it,” said Blue, when he realized they were waiting for some response.

"I know what it is," said the second man as he stepped forward and put a hand on Blue's shoulder. Blue felt like he was the buffet, the way these guys had their hands all over him. At first he’d felt like they respected him or looked up to him, but now he realized they felt some sort of ownership of him since they were ready to shell out so much money to the university.“You still want to be a hero. You want to be the guy with the ball, the big hero making a difference. It's the same as being on the field down there. You save the day, you pull the kids out of the burning house. The crowd goes wild!" His hands shot into the air in a touchdown signal.

The man's tone was condescending and his drunkenness in general made his unsolicited assessment of Blue's life feel inappropriate, but maybe there was some truth to his words. Well, if it was selfish to enjoy helping people, then maybe Blue was guilty of self interest. So be it. He was doing a job he loved that paid him a good salary and let him have time off for more things he loved. And unlike some of the slimy cretins in the room, Blue wasn't hurting anybody by doing it.

Okay, so slimy cretins might be an overstatement but today everyone in the box was rubbing him the wrong way. And he knew for a fact that a couple of Jesse's friends were the worst kind of ambulance chasers, building and pushing for cases where none really existed.

Blue looked at his dad, wondering if he would step in at all and take some pressure off or distract these guys. Nope. He was standing there with his arms folded, smiling along with his drunk buddies. It was stupid to even think his dad would make any waves. Jeff Reed hadn’t gotten to the very politicized position of Athletic Director by having any sort of a spine when it came to big boosters and rich alumni.

Blue excused himself and went to take another look at the food selections. Now that the calendar shoot was over, and since he didn’t have to suit up on the field, his diet was more relaxed than it had been a month ago. A roar from the crowd announced the Aggies taking the field for the second half, so Blue diverted back to the chairs at the front of the box. Even behind the glass Blue could feel the excitement of the sold-out crowd. His team was up by one, so it was anyone’s game.

The Aggies kicked off to the visiting Lobos. The kick receiver caught the ball at the 10 yard line, busted through the wedge, and ran it all the way back for a touchdown. The crowd just outside the skybox erupted, making Blue’s world tremble even as the rest of the arena went suddenly silent. Apparently the bulk of the visiting crowd was seated just below the skybox.

When the replay came up on the Jumbotron, the Aggie crowd went crazy. The refs had missed an obvious block in the back by the Lobos that probably would've prevented the touchdown. The crowd was livid. Of all the games and in all the seasons for the refs to miss such an obvious call, why did it have to be this one? Inside the box there were some choice words directed at the refs and more beers opened in frustration. On the other side of the glass, indistinct taunts rose from the Lobo sections to the stadium at large, then back from the Aggies. It had been years and years since the rivalry game meant as much as it did today. Lucy was probably doing backflips right now.

Oh! Right. Lucy. There was no sign of her down there yet. Blue saw only the stupid Lobo Louie taunting the crowd with his stupid tongue lolling out of his stupid mouth to the side. Lucy must still be making the transformation to Lobo Lucy. She’d be appearing any second.

At the far end of the skybox from where Blue sat, the door opened. He had thought everyone who was coming was already there, so he checked over his shoulder and was stunned to see Lobo Lucy strolling into the box as if she belonged there. Blue had to be seeing things. She had flat out told him that she was confined to that one corner of the stadium. How would she find her way all the way up to one of the most hostile skyboxes in the stadium?

Blue started walking toward her, but Jessie's friends were much closer. Four or five of them surrounded her, all taunting, asking if she was lost and what she thought she was doing.

“You going to stop this, Dad?” asked Blue, pausing momentarily. If ever there was a time for his dad to do something decent, it was now. After all, this was his box, his ‘Whales’, and his son’s friends. None of them knew that Blue was dating the Lobo mascot. He’d been waiting until she came out of the field to point her out to them. This situation would deescalate much better coming from his dad instead of Blue getting in between everybody and trying to defend her while they kept at her.

One look at his father’s face told Blue everything he needed to know. He was laughing along with all the other guys in the room.

What in the world was going on? Had there really been enough alcohol consumed in the box to make everyone lose their minds like this? Blue hadn’t been raised to treat anyone like this, even at a rivalry game. At least not by his mom.

Blue never struggled with anger issues, but everything about this situation was pissing him off. How could his dad and brother condone this? What was Lucy thinking coming up here? He felt like he was ready to Hulk out.

The circle of men surrounding Lucy started spinning her around in a circle.

That was it. Blue couldn’t sit back any longer. No little twerp was going to lay a hand on Lucy, or any woman, for that matter. Not in Blue’s presence.