Team Manager 1: SWISH!
Chapter 7
IT WAS COLD OUT and Amy wasn’t dressed well for it, but her parka was white and she wanted to be hidden. The lighter weight jeans jacket didn’t do much against the chill October wind. At least she had a stocking hat pulled down over her ears and her hands stuffed in her pockets. She was a long way from what she wanted to see, but there was no place to hide between the Johnsons’ storage shed and the back of the C-Store where her brother worked.
It was just midnight and her timing was perfect. A dark blue van pulled up behind the store. Harry Conway got up from his chair next to the back door where he’d idly been doing curls with a twenty-pound dumbbell. He went to the driver’s door and the window came down. She was too far away to hear what was said, but when they’d finished talking, the driver showed Harry a box. He nodded and returned to his chair, pausing to knock on the C-Store door again.
Something about Harry’s posture and attention told Amy this was different. Harry was holding something in his hand, but the dumbbell was still on the ground next to his chair.
The door opened, and Jerry came out, carrying a box of cold cereal. He walked up to the driver’s door and showed the driver what was inside the box. The driver handed him the box Harry had inspected and immediately backed out of the store lot.
Amy clicked one more photo on her cellphone and backed away from her hiding place. As soon as she was in the Johnsons’ front yard she turned and ran the six blocks back home. She narrowly missed getting run over by some idiot driving with no headlights. She slipped in through the kitchen door and quietly crept upstairs to her room. She didn’t turn on any lights, but stripped off her clothes and crawled into bed, shivering.
Amy wasn’t the only one practicing her surveillance skills this weekend. Will Enders was parked in a field access road with his lights off. He’d left twenty dollars here the night before and returned to pick up the pint of hooch he’d paid for. The process of getting corn liquor out here in the country was one of the worst-kept secrets around. It wasn’t the first time he’d picked up a bottle.
When harvesting and picking had tapered off in October, he was laid off from the grain elevator. He got his notice at the beginning of the week, but stayed clean and sober all week long. He had a lead on a job driving a snowplow for the county but who knew when it would snow this winter? He figured a little drink this weekend wouldn’t hurt anything.
But Will had another purpose for picking up a bottle just now. He’d been disturbed for two weeks about his son being attacked by those bullies again. He appreciated and approved of the team making sure Dennis got home safely at night. He didn’t like having to depend on girls—even big girls—to provide safety. And that had brought him to a well-reasoned conclusion. He was going to have to do something to make sure those kids were no longer a threat to his son. He wasn’t sure what it would be yet, but it started with observing their patterns and behaviors.
He left the field drop-off and drove up the road a ways to pull in to another field where he sat with his lights off watching the direction of the exchange. He opened a Pepsi, drank off a few swallows, and filled it back up with hooch. This stuff could take the chrome off a Cadillac and you didn’t want to drink it straight. Besides it tasted terrible.
He sipped on the drink for half an hour before he saw a car come out of the field he had left and head toward town. He pulled out of his field without turning on the lights and followed a safe distance back. The car pulled into the Smiths’ driveway and Lee Smith got out to go inside. So, it was the boy himself who guarded the drop-off. Everyone knew that if you tried to stiff the Smiths or if it wasn’t your turn to pick up, you were likely to get a tail full of buckshot and never be allowed close to it again.
Will drove back home, weaving a little uncertainly with his drink still clutched in his hand. A shadow darted out in front of him and he slammed on the brakes, squealing to a stop. He saw long hair flowing out behind her as she ran. He didn’t know who it was, but she was probably out past her curfew giving a blowjob to her boyfriend. Damn kids. He turned on his headlights and made his way back home.
It was delivery night and Harry sat outside the back door of the C-Store lifting his weights while he waited for the van. The delivery went off without a hitch when Jerry handed over the box of twenties and took the box of coke from the driver. They’d need to repackage that and get it ready for their regular Saturday night customers.
As Jerry returned to the store, Harry’s eye caught a movement across the way near the Johnsons’ back yard. It was short and skinny, just like that little pussy who turned them in last spring. Did he think he could get away with spying on their private business? Harry took off running after the fleeing spy, his gun clutched in his hand. That kid would pay this time.
Fifty feet ahead of him, a car squealed to a stop and then turned on its lights and pulled away. Harry kept running and looked down the street toward where the car turned on Elm. He recognized the car as the one the shrimp’s parents brought him to school in. They must all be in on it. He brought his gun up into the kind of stance the cops used on TV shows. “Bang,” he whispered. Of course, he wouldn’t shoot in the quiet town at night. Someone would hear and get curious. But later, he’d teach that cunt a lesson.
“Good work, Team!” Ardith shouted at the end of practice Thursday. The girls practiced four days a week, but it had proven too hard to get a practice in on Fridays with the other activities around. “That’s a wrap for our pre-season practice. The IGHSAU gave us October to pull ourselves together and create a team. Now, the official season practice starts Monday. It’s November fourth and all the other schools will start practicing. That means that any edge we got by starting practice a month early is going to erode pretty quickly if we don’t keep on our toes and work even harder. I know you’ve got a big party planned Saturday night. No alcohol! No drugs! No hazing! Otherwise, have fun.”
“You didn’t say ‘no sex,’ Coach,” Roberta called. The other girls gasped and then started giggling.
“And no unprotected sex,” Coach called back. That really got them laughing.
“Don’t forget to wash your practice jerseys and personal towels,” Dennis called as the girls headed for the locker room. “Some of them are getting ripe!”
Dennis followed Ardith to her office and opened his laptop.
“What’s our weekly status?” she asked.
“I put in the order for uniforms,” Dennis responded. “You said it looked like we were keeping all of them on the team, so I ordered the full ten plus one extra in each of the three sizes. The girls all chose their own numbers and there were only a couple arguing about who got which number. Roberta and Daniella were funny because they wanted numbers as far apart from each other as they could get. So, they’re eleven and fifty-two.”
“Eleven sounds normal. Why fifty-two?”
“Daniella said it was the number of cards in a deck. And, like she wanted, it’s our highest number.” Ardith just shook her head.
“So far, we have eight parents who have volunteered for scoring positions. I figure we need four more volunteers to make sure we’re covered with two for every game.”
“Good.”
“We’re going to pull the gym divider for practice, starting Monday. JV will be practicing at the same time we do so we’ll be playing the side baskets for practice. And I’ve put in a request to double the number of towels we get. I figured we could slide the order in with the increase for the two boys’ teams. Some of the girls have been leaving their personal towels in their lockers and they don’t smell very good. I don’t know if we’ll get them by Monday or not. We should have them the following week.”
“You take good care of them, Dennis. Any problems?”
“Nothing to speak of. Sometimes there’s grumbling, like when I got on them to clean up the locker room before they left. But it’s just normal grumbling.”
“Good. Wrap up and get home. You’re doing a good job.”
Dennis beamed with pride. The coach last year had never said one word of praise or encouragement. But what could he expect? He grabbed his backpack and waited for the last girls to leave so he could take the towels out. Natalie was giving him a ride this evening. Well, Daniella was driving, but he’d be riding in back with Natalie and that was what counted.
“Do you have a costume for the party Saturday?” Natalie asked when they were in the car. Dennis looked at her blankly.
“Huh?”
“The party. You’re coming to the party, aren’t you?”
“I… um… I thought it was just for the team.” Natalie looked at him with her mouth open.
“You’re part of the team!” she said. “Did you think it was just going to be girls? Roberta’s got a date. And I’ll bet Carol and Brenda have dates.” She dropped her voice to scarcely mumble, “Um… You can bring a date if you want.”
It was Dennis’s turn to stare with his mouth open. “Me? A date? The only girls I even know are on the team.”
“Oh. Well, then, you can like pretend you’re my date. I’m going to be Buttercup, the Princess Bride. Okay? Nobody else needs to know anything.”
“Wow! Really?”
“It’s just pretend. My parents are insisting that since Roberta and Daniella had to wait until they turned sixteen before they could date, I have to, too. So, it can’t really be a date. Don’t like read anything into it, you know?”
“Oh, sure. We’ll just pretend. I can’t date until I’m sixteen either. Unless I grow ten inches, gain fifty pounds, and suddenly get my eyes fixed. I’m pretty sure my parents wouldn’t say anything then.” They laughed.
“God! Neither would I! I mean…” Natalie gulped and Roberta turned in her seat to scowl at her sister.
“Natalie!” Then she glanced over at Dennis. “Oh, hell. I guess I wouldn’t object either.”
The car pulled up to Dennis’s house while they were all still laughing. Dennis jumped out and bid a hasty goodbye and ran for his door. He was going to date Natalie! Pretend or not, that was a pretty good sign. His sister bowled into him and nearly knocked him off his feet. The evening was pretty well set from that point on and Dennis didn’t get a chance to think again about dating Natalie until he went to bed. By the time he finished thinking about her, he was totally relaxed and fell asleep.
“It will be okay, Mom,” Dennis said. “It’s a party for my team. It’s at the Armors’ house and you know it will be chaperoned. And I don’t need any more costume than this. I don’t want to look like a complete dork in a Spiderman costume.”
“I still worry about you. All those girls aren’t taking advantage of you, are they?”
“No, Mom. Gees. I might be small, but I’m not a little kid anymore. Mom, I have friends. Don’t you know how important that is?” Dennis was a little exasperated.
“I’m very proud of you,” she answered. “I can’t help but worry a little. And a black shirt and black mask don’t seem like much of a costume. Who or what are you supposed to be?”
“I’m Westley, the pirate from The Princess Bride. Don’t worry. She’ll… They’ll know who I am.” He adjusted his glasses over the top of the mask and decided he could see adequately. Natalie had told him she had a red dress and was going as Buttercup. It was only a pretend date, but he thought it would be clever to go as her counterpart. His mother noticed the slip but decided not to say anything.
Peg pointed at him and laughed, “Robber!” They went to the car so Dot could drive him the six blocks to the party.
“I don’t want you walking home late on a Saturday night. I’ll be there to pick you up at eleven and if you want to come home earlier, you call me. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Mom.” His heart was beating a mile a minute. As calm as he had tried to be with his mother, this was a big occasion. He’d never been invited to a party before. And he’d never been on a pretend date, either.
“That was clever,” Natalie said. “I knew you’d come up with something when I told you what I was wearing.”
“I had to think of what I would do if I were on a real date and I pretended to do that,” Dennis said.
The party was relaxed. Girls outnumbered boys by a considerable margin. Over half the girls on the team were too young to date and of the other four, Daniella had brought a girlfriend. Roberta had brought Rick Probst who was the center on the boys’ varsity team and was one of the few guys who really towered over her. They’d been dating all term. Brenda brought Paul Klinefelter who was considered the brain of the senior class. Everyone assumed Paul would be the valedictorian. As smart as he was, though, Paul was also cool. He didn’t play sports, but he was popular, funny, and good looking. Dennis would bet Paul and Brenda would be the homecoming or prom king and queen. He didn’t know the guy with Carol. He looked older than high school.
There wasn’t much organized in the way of games but there was a costume judging. What got Dennis giggling when he first came in to the party was that all the sophomore girls, Leanne, Diane, and Natalie, had dressed in red dresses and claimed to be Buttercup. Each of them tried to claim Westley and did, for at least one dance. Dennis had never danced before but he tried to copy what the girls were doing and didn’t make too big a fool of himself.
“Who’s the four-eyed house-elf?” Carol’s date asked loudly. Carol broke up laughing a lot more than the joke merited.
“Cool it, Tom,” Daniella said. “That’s our team manager and he deserves your respect. Don’t be an ass.”
“Whoa, girl. Don’t get so protective. I won’t give him a sock or anything.” Carol continued to laugh at her date’s mockery.
“You don’t need to stay,” Daniella insisted.
“Yeah, le’sss leave,” Carol slurred. “Take me home, Tom. I’m tired of these kids.”
“You got it, babe. Here, finish your drink.” He handed her the coke can he’d been holding for her and she downed the remains. She looked up at him sleepy-eyed and leaned against him.
“Le’ssss go,” she said. “’Night!”
Tom wrapped an arm around her to support her and led her out of the house.
“Is she okay?” Dennis asked Natalie. “She looked drunk.”
“Mom checked everything we had to make sure there was no alcohol. She was probably just too into her character and making a fool of herself,” Natalie said.
“Who was she supposed to be?”
“Oh, some drunk idiot on Jersey Shore reruns. I’ve never watched it so I don’t know the show. Come on, let’s dance some more.”
Somehow, when they started dancing this time, the music switched to a slow song. Dennis didn’t know what to do, but when Natalie put her arms around him and pulled him in close, he managed to shuffle his feet and not hyperventilate with his face pressed against her chest. He thought he might burst through his pants, though. When the dance ended, Natalie looked a little flushed, too. The others continued to dance; Roberta, Brenda, and Daniella with their dates. Leanne and Diane were holding each other, and the three freshman girls were standing on the other side of the room giggling together.
“Let’s sit one out,” Natalie said. “I didn’t realize I was so thirsty. I’ll have a bottle of water.”
“Good choice.” Dennis reached in the ice tub and handed Natalie a bottle, then retrieved one for himself. He looked at the screw top bottle in his hand and then at his other hand, held in Natalie’s. “Um… We’re kind of holding hands,” he croaked.
Natalie looked down at their hands as well and pulled him toward the sofa. “It’s okay,” she said. “We’re pretending to be on a date and we’d totally do this on a real date. Let’s sit down.” They sat and let go of each other’s hand long enough to take the cap off their bottles. Then they looked at each other before taking a drink while they felt for the other’s hand and joined them again.
It wasn’t long after that, the doorbell rang and Dennis’s mother stood there waiting for him.
“Oh! Sorry, Mom. Gee, is it eleven already?”
“Where is your phone?” she demanded.
“Um… I guess it’s in my jacket pocket. I’ll be ready to go as soon as I get it.” He turned to get his jacket and Natalie was standing there with it in her hand. His mother started back toward her car.
“Gosh! It’s only five after,” Natalie whispered. “I’m sorry I didn’t watch the clock.”
“It’s not your fault. I had a really good time tonight. Thank you for being sure I came to the party.”
“I’m glad you came. It was fun. We should, um… pretend to date again sometime.”
“Yeah. That would be great. Well, I’ll talk to you at school Monday. I guess, goodnight.” Somehow his hand had found its way back into hers and he reluctantly pulled it away so he could rush out to the car where his mother was waiting impatiently.
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