Team Manager CHAMP!
Chapter 8
DENNIS SENT TEXT MESSAGES to his mother and Natalie to let them know they had company for dinner. He immediately got confirmation that there was plenty. It was still a little awkward to show up with Ardith, especially since Sheriff Moran was there for dinner, too. That was expected three or four times a week now, including regular attendance at Sunday dinner.
“Hello, Coach,” Dot said. “Welcome to our little home.”
“Please. We’re away from school, so call me Ardith. I’m happy to visit a small home with big hearts.”
“That’s eloquently spoken, and much the way I feel. Call me Tom. I’m off-duty,” the sheriff said.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you in a non-official setting,” Ardith said.
Natalie had enough of the formalities and stepped up to Ardith to hug her. “I’m so glad Dennis invited you to join everyone. I made my special lasagna for dinner tonight.”
“It’s nice that you and the girls are still making dinner for the Enders family,” Ardith said. “Hello, Peg. Do you remember me? I’m Ardith.”
“Ave Maria, gratia plena,” Peg responded. Ardith had helped her with Latin pronunciation when she sang that song nearly a year before.
“Ave, ave Dominus, tecum Benedicta tu in mulieribus,” Ardith responded. Peg hugged her.
“Are you going to be a sister?” Peg asked.
“Oh, no. I’m just a teacher,” Ardith said, assuming Peg meant a Catholic sister.
“That’s okay. If you are Dennis’s girlfriend, then you can be a sister.”
“Oh,” Ardith squeaked. She looked frantically at Dennis and Natalie.
“Peg, you know Ardith is our coach,” Dennis said. “Swish!”
“Oh, yeah! When’s basketball?”
“We start practice this week,” Natalie said. “Why don’t we gather around and have dinner?”
They got seated and Dot turned to Tom.
“Blessing, Tom?” she said. They all bowed their heads.
“Blessed be the hands that prepared this food and the company in which we eat it. Amen.”
Ardith and Natalie sat on either side of Dennis on one side of the table with Peg and Tom on either side of Dot on the other side of the table. Dennis liked the arrangement because it meant his mom and Tom could sit next to each other instead of at opposite ends of the table. Once lasagna and garlic bread and salad were in front of them, the conversation quickly relaxed. When dinner was over and dishes were cleaned up, Dennis read to Peg and she skipped off to bed.
“Let me take you home, Ardith,” Dennis said. “It’s getting awfully cold out.”
“I have to leave and get ready for work,” Tom said before Ardith could respond. “I’ll be happy to drop you off.”
“Oh. Yes, if it’s no trouble,” Ardith said. “That’s great.”
She looked over at Dennis and Natalie and smiled. Natalie immediately rushed to give her a hug.
“I hope you’ll get together with us often,” Natalie whispered. “We really like you.”
“I really like you, too. But we have to stay proper for now,” Ardith whispered back.
Dennis stepped right up to hug Ardith, too.
“It’s better that Tom take me home,” Ardith whispered. “You understand?”
“Oh, yeah. No problem. I’ll see you first thing in the morning,” he responded.
“How far has it gone?” Dot demanded of Dennis and Natalie as soon as Tom and Ardith left.
“Mom! Nothing has gone anywhere!” Dennis exclaimed.
“Nothing physical, perhaps, but I can see the same look in your eyes that the two of you have when talking about Lana,” Dot said. “I just want to make sure you know how bad it could be for her if she did anything improper with a student.”
“Honest, Ms. Dottie, we’re good friends. But first and foremost, she’s our teacher and our coach. Basically, that’s more important than anything else could be,” Natalie said. Dot sighed.
“I just worry. I let so much pass me by a year ago, I don’t want to miss anything now. I want to be a good mother.”
“Mom, we all like Ardith a lot. The only real friends she has in the area are the other coaches and us. One day, when we’re out of school, we could let that change, but not until then. Not at all,” Dennis said.
“You’ll both be eighteen in a few months. But even then, things could be bad for her if you got together. I know she is a good person and wouldn’t abuse you, but the state and the school board would see it differently. Natalie, even your mother would have to vote to discipline her—possibly even to press charges. Please, please be careful.”
“We promise. We won’t do anything before graduation.”
“I love you five so much, I would hate to see your hearts broken.”
“Us five?” Dennis said. “Um…”
“Debbie, Daniella, and Roberta have left your crew, as you call yourselves. It doesn’t take a brilliant person to see that Leanne and Rosie are pulling away. I talked to Renda Long the other day and I know Diane is going away to college. She thinks Judith is pulling away from the crew. And Tori —I’m afraid I don’t think much of her chances of staying with the crew for long. That leaves you two, Brenda, Amy, and Lana. Five. I’m not going to renumber you all. I think I can remember names now.”
“I’m worried about Lana and Amy,” Dennis said. “They’re a year behind us and it will be hard to stay involved while mixing college and high school schedules. It’s been really hard on Brenda and she’s living with Amy.”
“Those girls might surprise you. Assuming you want them, they’ll move heaven and earth to be with you.”
“Want them? Hell, yes! I’m just trying to figure out logistics that make it so we don’t have to be separated. And you know, Mom, I’m only even applying to colleges that are close enough I can get home regularly. I can’t just pack up and leave you and Peg behind.”
“Well, don’t limit your options too much. There’s nothing saying we have to be left behind. But Peg is becoming more resilient and confident every day since she started singing. We’ll survive.”
“How far has it gone?” Tom asked Ardith as they drove away from the Enders’ house. It was almost a duplicate of Dot’s question to the teens. Ardith sighed heavily.
“All the way in my fantasies. Can you arrest me for that? Nothing more has happened,” Ardith said.
“No handcuffs tonight,” Tom said. “Dot and I are concerned for you as much as for the kids. Getting involved could be very bad for you.”
“Age is one of the things that is between us,” Ardith said. “And student-teacher relation is the other. If it weren’t for those two things, I would be one of the crew.”
“It’s obvious they feel the same way. But Iowa law is clear. Any contact between you and one of your students or players seen as intending to arouse or satisfy sexual desire is an aggravated misdemeanor and is punishable by loss of job and up to two years imprisonment—even if the student is over eighteen. Don’t go there, Ardith. I intend to warn the kids as well. As long as you have a teacher- or coach-to-student relationship, you’re liable. You should really consider both your future and the future of the relationship you foresee,” Tom said.
“You quoted that like you just researched it,” Ardith said.
“I did. Dot asked me to help her understand the law. Before you go off on her, understand that she was not thinking of you at the time. I’m not sure how, but during our investigation of the brawl last spring, the incidents of abuse of Dennis when he was a freshman and only fifteen years old arose. The school decided the coach was cognizant of the abuse and fired him.”
“I was aware of that. Did you know Dennis was raped by the entire team? I don’t have that on direct evidence, but rather on the information passed on by his girlfriends. The boy who accused him after the school shooting was one of the abusers,” Ardith said.
“One of the main boys involved in the brawl was also one of the abusers. That is why he was charged and the school suspended him from fall sports and permanently from basketball. When we asked why he didn’t inform his coach about the threat from the other school, he laughed at us and said ‘Coaches don’t do anything but protect each other. They didn’t care that Coach Rogers was using players for sex. They just got him out of the school and off to a different one.’ That matter is under investigation because the kind of assault that was reported to us would put Rogers in prison for five to twenty-five years,” Tom said.
“My God!”
“The point is that this is serious and people on the school board and the faculty and law enforcement are all on edge over it. Do not get in the middle of it. I’d almost tell you to run before it goes that far. I know you are courageous in defending your students, but I’ll tell you to consider it anyway.”
“Ardith, are you okay?” Dennis said into his cell phone. Natalie huddled against him.
“Yes, Dennis. I’m fine. Quaking in my boots, but fine.”
“After Ms. Dottie talked to us, we were so afraid for you.”
“The sheriff put the fear of God into me, but he was kind about it. But we must keep our distance. I had no idea how obvious we were. There are other factors at work that we didn’t know about. Everyone will be under scrutiny,” Ardith said. “Dennis, that means you need to curtail all trips into the locker room. I’m sorry, but there’s no other way to keep this straight. And that goes for the new boy, Noah, too. We need to either get him a female assistant and get Jill a male assistant, or they need to switch teams.”
“I’ll take care of it. Things should be easier with a training room next to the locker rooms. We can do taping and such in there and since men and women both use it, everyone will know they need to keep their shirts on.”
“That’s all assuming we can use the new locker rooms. I understand they won’t have adequate hot water for at least a week or two.”
“That was really incredibly dumb,” Natalie said. “How could they have made a mistake like that in the designs?”
“That’s going to be another explosive issue. Right now, everyone is pointing their fingers at everyone else,” Ardith said.
“We just wanted to make sure you were okay, Ardith. We’ll be on our best behavior from now on,” Dennis said.
“Okay. You guys sleep well. I’ll be thinking of you.”
The highlight of the team meeting Friday morning was Diane’s signing of a letter of intent with Iowa Northwestern.
“We’re proud to have one of our best students and top basketball players headed for the Raiders,” Principal Morris said. “Good luck, Diane, and good luck Red Raiders!”
“The Red Raiders had a great season last year,” their coach said. “We’ve got a good foundation on which to build a spectacular team. We’re glad to have Diane come to be a part of it. Diane, we’d like you to have this Red Raiders jersey and hat. Welcome to the team.”
“Thank you, Coach. This is a dream come true. I’m really happy to have this part of my life settled so I can focus on this season and help my Angelines team win another state championship.”
It took about ten minutes to do the ceremony and signing, followed by about twenty minutes of pictures and the reporter trying to dig out more for his story in the newspaper. As soon as the excitement died down, Ardith called the meeting to order and welcomed all the players. She laid out the practice schedule and game schedule for both varsity and JV and emphasized once again that she would shuttle players between the two teams as the season and the players developed. Then everyone had to head for class.
Dennis went to his desk in the coaches’ office and started working on his Sociology paper.
Saturday night, Dennis met with Natalie, Brenda, Amy, Lana, and Judith. “Met” was a nice way of saying they had a sleepover at Amy’s house. But in addition to fooling around, they had a purpose for meeting as well.
“Tori, Rosie, Leanne, and Diane have given notice,” Natalie said. “If they are still with us by the end of the school year, they won’t be after that. We’re not going to push them away or try to get together in secret without them, but it was necessary tonight.”
“Um… Do you want me to leave?” Judith asked. “I mean, I don’t have anyplace to go or anyone waiting for me to be free, but I feel like you guys have pretty much said you’re out of here at graduation. I don’t know about Lana and Amy, but I really can’t see the three of us sticking together without you three or any of the others. Are you breaking up with us? Or me?”
“No, honey. We wanted to find out more about how you feel and what you want to do,” Dennis said. “You being here is evidence that we don’t want to lose you, but we don’t know what you want, either.”
“Okay. I was just afraid… You know,” Judith said. “It feels like we’re all breaking up except Dennis and Natalie. And maybe Lana. And then Brenda and Amy. I don’t think I’m the third wheel on anyone’s trike.”
“It’s the whole age thing and where we are in school,” Brenda said. “I can’t expect that anyone else would choose to just hang out in Bartley after graduation like I did. But I didn’t really have anywhere else to go anyway. I just wish we were living together.”
“It’s even going to be hard for Dennis and me. We’ll go to the same school and I don’t care which one it is as long as we go together. But as freshmen, we’ll probably have to live in dormitories on campus or something,” Natalie said.
“I’ll try to get a place where we can stay most of the time, even if you’re required to live on campus,” Brenda said. “Don’t think that the two of you are going alone. I’ll have my AA at the end of next semester, just like Dennis will. I’m going wherever you go after that. And Amy and Lana and Judith shouldn’t worry too much. We all know that a priority for Dennis is to be within an easy commute back here so he can continue to be in Peg and Ms. Dottie’s life.”
“Judith, honey, don’t feel like you need to decide if you’re in or out right now,” Amy said. “I know when we all started to date each other, we weren’t thinking about forever. For some of us, that’s grown in our minds and hearts. If you aren’t sure one way or another yet, that’s okay. We’ve always held that no one should be pressured into anything.”
“I love you guys so much. I can’t see past the end of the school year—maybe not even past the end of the season—but I don’t want to be apart from you right now,” Judith said, hugging Brenda.
“Before we start getting naked, there’s another item we need to discuss that probably won’t affect the other girls, but might affect the rest of us,” Dennis said. “Ardith.”
“I’ve been out with Ardith on a friendly Sunday afternoon coffee date,” Brenda said. “She is aching to be a part of us. That would mean there’d be another anchor in Bartley.”
“We had dinner Thursday night,” Dennis said. “She came over and Natalie cooked. Mom, Tom, and Peg were all there, too. We got grilled after she went home.”
“And from what she said, she got grilled by the sheriff when he took her home,” Natalie added.
“What did you guys do?” Lana asked.
“Nothing! I swear. But Tom and Mom both latched onto the idea that we were all in love with each other,” Dennis said. “I guess after two years, they’ve kind of gotten used to seeing the way we look at each other. They wanted to know how far we’d gone and warned us all of dire consequences if we stepped across the line of proper student-teacher relations.”
“They even told us that your mom and my mom would have to agree to her immediate dismissal, whether they wanted to or not. And she could face criminal charges,” Natalie said to Judith.
“That’s harsh!” Lana said.
“That’s why they were warning us,” Dennis agreed. “Even things we might consider innocent, like hugs or goodnight kisses, could be seen as evidence there is something else going on.”
“They’d probably be right,” Brenda said. “The little kiss we shared when we were out wasn’t innocent. Not like it was headed for the bedroom or anything, but it was definitely more than friendly.”
“You getting involved with her wouldn’t have any direct consequences,” Natalie said. “Except that it would point to the rest of us and raise suspicions.”
“And we can’t afford to raise suspicions,” Dennis said. “I talked to Tom this morning. He… um… spent Friday night with Mom. I think they’re talking marriage. But anyway, he explained things the way he did to Ardith, which helped clear up some questions. First, it doesn’t even make a difference if we’re eighteen—like I will be in February and Nat will be in March. It isn’t an age thing because we are all over sixteen, which is the age of consent in Iowa. It’s a whole law that governs teacher-student relations. Any sexual relationship with a student, up to thirty days after graduation can be considered a misdemeanor or in some cases a class D felony. There was a teacher convicted this summer who had a relationship with a student ten years ago.”
“Shit! I had no idea it was that serious,” Amy said.
“We have to be absolutely squeaky clean in order to protect Ardith,” Lana said.
“There’s more and it’s possibly worse. I’m afraid I’m part of the problem,” Dennis said. “You all know Si Goodman was charged with misdemeanor assault in the brawl with the Bulldogs last spring and can’t play basketball this year. His suspension from all sports ended with the fall season. The reason he was suspended was partly because he already had a record as one of the bullies in my case. But in the investigation, things have come out that suggest Coach Rogers was not only complicit in what was happening to me, but was coercing some of the boys on the team to have sex with him. He could be arrested at any time if they find enough evidence. As a result of that incident and the brawl and Coach Byers resigning, everybody is looking at the school for irregularities in the program, or anyplace else in the school.”
“We need to be really careful, not only about Ardith, but careful to keep Dennis out of the way of any of the girls who might be sensitive or not understand our relationship,” Natalie said. “Dennis won’t be coming into the dressing room again this season. Lana, you and Debbie are going to handle all the taping unless it’s done in the hall or in the training room. We need to protect our boyfriend, our coach, and each other.”
The conversation definitely put a damper on the hurry to get naked together. Gransy called the teens to dinner and once again provided more food than they could possibly eat. The Yankee pot roast and root vegetables was a delicious way to end a cold November day.
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