Stephanie
Stephanie
You know what's incredibly annoying?
Learning that you could have gotten free tickets to a football game, because faculty gets comped for showing school spirit.
Since I was suspended though? I had to pay full price.
Full price was high. Way, way too high. Two hundred dollars for the bleachers? This was highway robbery!
If people are willing to pay it though, people will charge it. Since I was being surrounded by people painting themselves green, I knew that my interest in this game as atypical to most people's.
Not being there wasn't an option, though. This was the most important game Trevor was going to have in his life – or at least so far. I knew he had big dreams, but to get to the world championship games, you have to get signed first, and this was where the road to that started.
I managed to cough up the pile of money and make my way to my seat. It was like watching ants from up here. It was an incredibly cold day, with a light frosting of snow covering the ground. It wasn't too slippery, so it really shouldn't have much impact, but I had to say, it was pretty. Snow was pretty until you break your neck on ice.
Today I was fully decked out in my incognito garb. Trench coat, sweatshirt, sunglasses, baseball cap, with the new addition of a scarf. In addition to making me not obvious to see, it had the added benefit of keeping me really quite warm.
All I had to worry about was someone looking at me and thinking I was a terrorist or something. Looking in the mirror before I left, I looked like a lady Unabomber.
The national anthem filled the arena, then there was pop song following it up. There were cameras everywhere, everyone across America was going to be paying attention to this game.
The teams soon filed out on the field, and the coin flip was made.
I was hunting for Trevor, and soon, I found him. Lucky number thirteen, Trevor Richards.
As I suspected, I couldn't actually see much of him, but that didn't make my imagination any less vivid about him. I knew what was underneath all those pads and it was good.
I wish I knew more about football, all things considered. The players were dashing down and up the field, Trevor frequently getting the ball and blitzing past everyone. People tried to take him down, but he was fast.
When the other team got the ball? He barreled through them. He really was the Train in more ways than one.
I knew there were plays. Where they would set up tactics to get someone the ball. More often than not, it was Trevor.
Soon enough, half-time came. AU was leading their opponents by five points, 26 to 21.
It was a lead, yes, but given the touchdown things being worth six points... then seven points... and then it was eight points? I really didn't fully understand the game, but the point was, it wasn't a super safe and secure lead.
I knew it was called football at least, so I had that over Professor Hatch.
I cheered for Trevor. Calling out. I got weird looks randomly from the people near me. I wondered if they were simply looking at me like I was crazy, or if they were just die-hard fans of the opposing team. Given one of them was painted red, the color of the opposite team, Franklin, it was likely the latter.
The former likely didn't help things.
Trevor slung off his helmet, and I catcalled him. Somehow, someway, hoping that he would notice me in the crowd of thousands.
He did.
He didn't wave. He didn't draw attention. He knew it was still a risk. But he smiled my way. There was so much in that smile that it really wasn't funny. Acknowledgment, longing, desire. I felt the strangest desire to run toward him, but I knew that would do no good. So I just smiled back. Then I lowered my scarf so he could see the smile.
Another ludicrous musical number, this time from the school’s marching bands. I couldn't have cared less. It was all putting off the return of Trevor to the field.
"Train, Train! Er, Trevor! I mean, Richards!" What was I supposed to cheer him as? Was it rude to cheer for a specific player instead of just the team in general?
Screw it. Despite hostile surroundings, I continued my raucous cheering. How was I supposed to know this was the Franklin team section?
The football game resumed soon enough.
AU had the ball first. They were planning something. Their huddle broke and they lined up, the other team mimicking them. The whistle blew and they were off. Trevor got the ball and started to run full steam down the field.
Only to be crushed by two, no, three of the other team. It was almost a dogpile situation. Bodies on top of bodies.
The whistle blew again and they relented. Everyone on top of Trevor got off. He wasn't moving too quickly. The ref checked on him, but then he twitched and stirred. Pushing himself up, he took the helmet off, shaking his head of it. He ran down to his sideline, grabbed some water, and dunked it over his head. He shot me another look, this one just to let me know that he was okay. This glance, though, told me he was still determined. It would take a dozen men to take him down for good.
The play got rougher following that. Players running up and down the field, gunning for Trevor, but AU was onto their tactics, and was guarding Trevor pretty well.
The end of the fourth quarter was coming. The Franklin team was catching up, and surpassing AU. Their aggression and acting against Trevor was hamstringing them.
Grimacing, I looked at the score. 52-45, Franklin. One minute was left on the clock.
They were near AU's goal. They were on the brink of a score, but I was unsure if this play would give them one of those six-point or eight-point or whatever touchdowns.
A shout, the play began. Trevor looked to be the focus again. Franklin's team all rushed toward him, but before they could reach him, he flung the ball to his teammate. They were already lunging, but the pass was completed, and his teammate barreled straight into the end-zone.
The score shifted. 52-51. Twenty seconds left on the clock. Just six? How did they get other points then?
Again, the teams lined up.
I was getting annoyed at my ignorance. So I dared to ask a question to a stranger near me. The ones who were cheering for the opposite team.
"Excuse me, sir?" I tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hmm?"
"Why are the touchdowns worth only six points sometimes and seven or eight other times?"
He looked at me like I was stupid.
"I'm sorry, I'm just here to... um... uh...support my..." What was he to me? Did such minor details matter anymore? "My boyfriend."
He stared at me a little longer and then shook his head. "All right. That makes sense. When a team scores a touchdown, they can either kick it through the goalposts for one point, or try to basically do another touchdown against the other team's defense for two."
"I'm following." That explained a lot that I was seeing.
"Those AU assholes can either field goal it to tie it up, or do the touchdown thing for the win. This is all called the conversion. Or a try."
"Thank you." I nodded. "Um, no hard feelings if your team doesn't win?"
"We ain't the ones playing, I never got the point of starting a brawl over this shit."
So a conversion. Trevor and his teammates were huddled again. They were lining up. They were going for the win.
The Franklin team was prepared to defend. Everything was coming down to this play. I crossed my fingers for Trevor's team, somehow hoping it would help them win.
Soon, the huddle broke. They rushed. They threw Trevor the ball. He was going for it. The defense rushed toward him, and Trevor quickly threw it over their heads, only for a teammate to catch it. The defense swapped and started for the other guy, but the other guy threw the ball right back to Trevor.
It wasn't a long trip, and the defense had already burned a lot of effort bouncing between them. They were sprinting though, victory on the line.
They dove for Trevor, Trevor jumped. He spiraled over them and planted himself face-down onto the field.
A siren went off. The crowd erupted. The Score shifted to 53-52, with two seconds on the clock. The game was won.
Franklin's players moved away, taking off their helmets and revealing an expression on their faces where it would be a rare time I would use the term crestfallen to describe someone.
AU, though? Celebrating. The cooler was tipped over and poured all over the coach, but I was paying more attention to the fact that Trevor was being carried around on his teammate's shoulders with wild cheers.
The big fancy screen on the scoreboard showed a replay of the game's final play, then sparked up with
Most Valuable Player:
Trevor Richards
Aaronsville University
He'd done it. He had sure as hell succeeded in getting all of the eyes on him.