An Accidental Family

Jen arrived just before the game started, coming directly from work. I was a bit surprised that she was by herself. I saw no signs of Mike but maybe he was just late.

The first half of the game went well. On the very first play Lisa broke the ankles of the boy that was covering her and ran uncontested into the end zone. Just before half, Jason gave the signal to Sneaky to go long (a very subtle two-finger gun.) Jason lofted the ball into the deep left corner of the end zone and Sneaky came down with it over three defenders. The score was tied at the half and the team was stoked.

The second half was a different story. The other team decided to really put on the clamps and even Lisa had a hard time getting open once they stepped up their game. Sneaky was gassed and could barely make it up and down the field. We ended up losing by three touchdowns. After the game, Tom Miller, the varsity quarterback, made a point of coming over and shaking Jason's hand. "Great game dude. Are you coming out for the team this year? I don't remember you from last year's tryouts, but we can always use a solid backup."

Jason was floored, but managed to stammer out an affirmative before Tom was pulled away by his girlfriend Tabitha, a leggy brunette who was captain of the cheerleading squad. They seemed like good kids and took the time to congratulate the rest of the team as well before heading out to celebrate their victory. By this point Jen had come over to join us and I asked her if she was meeting Mike for dinner.

"I don't think so," she answered in a sad voice that suggested that maybe all was not well with her and Mike. To cheer her up I informed her that she would be joining us at Shelly's for a burger and soda instead. We dropped Jen's car off at the apartments and we all rode in the truck.

On the way, Jen admitted that she had never been to Shelly's but had heard all about it from Jason. I told her that she was in for a treat and that the sodas were on me. She smiled and my heart sped into high gear as she flashed her dimples before turning to look out the window. Damn, Lisa's smiles made me feel some kind of way.

Shelly's did not disappoint but Jen's smile still seemed hollow, rarely touching her eyes. I handed Jason a ten-dollar bill and suggested, "why don't you go buy Lisa a milkshake to celebrate the end of an amazing season? The two of you can sit on the stools by the counter while I talk to your mom for a bit."

Jason liked the idea a lot and I waited until he and Lisa were out of hearing before I turned to Jen and asked "are you alright? You seem kind of down this evening."

"I guess I am, it's just that Mike and I broke up. I thought he really liked me, but I guess not. Seems he was a bit of a nerd in high school, and he always dreamed about sleeping with a cheerleader. Well, he can check that off his list now I guess."

"Well, he's a fucking idiot," I replied vehemently.

"No, I get it. Now that he's a big success in life he wants all those things he couldn't have when he was younger. I was just one of those things. Everybody loves the fantasy of fucking the unattainable cheerleader, but not the reality that the cheerleader is now a single mom who is drowning in debt. He broke up with me by text, couldn't even be bothered to do it face-to-face.

I sometimes think I should just wear my old cheerleading uniform on my first dates and get it over with. If they are only there to see my tits in my old uniform, why prolong the agony? I just really liked him, JT, and I thought he liked me too. I hoped that this time might be different."

"Shit, I'm sorry Jen," I said putting a sympathetic arm around her shoulders. "You deserve so much more than that. You deserve the world. You are the smartest, kindest girl that I know and anyone who can't see that is an idiot."

"Do I? Do I really deserve more? I am not so sure anymore. In high school, I wasn't some mean girl who made people's lives hell, but I could have been so much more than I was. Rather than helping make people's lives a bit better, I just hung out with the jocks and other cheerleaders. I see what a difference having friends is making in Jason's life. I could have done that so easily for so many kids, but I didn't. I was selfish, so maybe my life now is karma for the bitch I was back in high school."

Before I could respond, Jason and Lisa had finished their milkshakes and wandered back to our table, and it was time to go. We dropped Lisa at her house and drove back to the apartments. Jen was quiet and I could see her sadness reflected in the passenger window as Jason regaled us with the statistics he had tracked during the game.

Early August, 2014

The summer flew by.

After school wrapped up for the year Jason, Jen and I adopted an easy rhythm for the summer with running in the mornings, throwing after work, and weights in the afternoon out behind the shop for Jason while I worked. It wasn't uncommon for Jason to spend most of the day with me at the garage, often accompanied by Sneaky and Lisa or one of a half dozen other kids from the team.

Lisa often brought her little sisters with her since they had nowhere else to be and no one to look after them. Although I worried that a mechanics shop was no place for young kids, I set them up with juice boxes and colouring books and made sure the older kids looked after them.

Without even noticing it, I dropped the extra weight I had packed on since high school and by mid-July I was back down to my playing weight. I also gave my wardrobe a much-needed upgrade as my waist shrunk and most of my pants threatened to slip off my hips, belt be damned. One Sunday dinner, I sheepishly asked Jen for her advice on some new clothing, and by the next evening, she had put together an Amazon wish list for me that was two pages long. After modeling a few pieces of clothing that I picked out on my own that drew skeptical glances from her, I pretty much stuck to that list going forward.

I would like to say that my newfound commitment to exercise (or at least to training Jason) paid dividends in terms of my love life but that wasn't really the case. Sure, I had a few first dates over the spring and early summer and even spent six weeks dating a pretty redhead named Amanda, but she wasn't comfortable with the amount of time that I spent with Jason and Jen. After only six weeks the "it's her or me" ultimatum did not play out the way that she expected.

That was just as well. I had planned to end things with her anyways since my mind always came back to Jen. She was still way out of my league, but that was alright. Spending time with her was the highlight of my week, particularly our 'family' dinners on Sundays which now often included Lisa and sometimes her sisters as well. I decided that spending time with Jen as her friend was better than spending nights in bed with anyone else.

Altogether, it was the best summer that I had had since my dad passed away.

------

Towards the end of July, Jason began to ramp up his training and preparation for tryouts. With his arm and analytic mind, I figured he had a real chance of making the junior varsity team as the backup if not the starter. I was so proud of how far he had come, and I really hoped that his hard work would pay off at tryouts.

Coach Johnson, the head coach of the high school team, took what you would call an 'old school' approach to football. You trained hard, you played harder, and you kept your mouth shut. The head coach was God, and the position coaches were his apostles.

Mess up an assignment? You owed ten push-ups.

Screw up a play? Twenty push-ups.

Freelance rather than listening to the coach? Fifty push-ups, sprints till you drop every day after practice for a week and, if it happens again, a permanent vacation from the team.

He was also a fine coach, and he didn't play favourites. You made his team based on ability and effort only, not on politics or who your family knew. From the first day of tryouts everyone got the same opportunity to show what they could do.

I was far more nervous before the first day of tryouts than Jason was. I was almost vibrating with nerves as we drove to the field while Jason chatted about the latest videos he had watched and analyzed the night before. As we pulled up to tryouts, I pulled a shoebox out of the backseat of the truck.

"I just wanted to say how proud I am of you. Whatever happens today and throughout the tryouts, I am blown way by how hard you've worked. It might be kinda cornball, but I wanted you to start this next adventure with new cleats. These are the same ones that the pros wear, I know you'll do amazing in them."

Jason looked at me with a blank expression for a minute. Then he threw his arms around me and gave me a hug before jogging off to the field.

I decided to stick around to watch the first set of drills and made my way over to the bleachers. After a five-minute introduction from the coach, the players broke into their position groups. Returning quarterbacks and wide receivers went to work on drills while hopefuls went to the side of the main field to show their stuff. I remembered this well, each new QB was asked for their preferred throw and each wide receiver was asked to run a route. Rinse and repeat.

When it was Jason's turn to throw there was a longer discussion than with most of the others before a hopeful wide receiver took off straight down the field. Jason took a five step drop and lofted a perfect teardrop throw 40 yards into the hands of the sprinting receiver. Jason was asked to throw again, and he hit an in-breaking cut in stride followed by an over-the-shoulder throw on an out route. The position coach who was running the drill sent Jason jogging over to where the experienced quarterbacks and wide receivers were drilling.

"Well then, I guess he is going to do just fine," I thought to myself. It had to be the cleats.

------

By the time that tryouts were over Jason had made the junior varsity team as the starter, moving in front of two returning sophomores. Just before the season, the backup quarterback on the varsity team's father got posted to California and Jason found himself as the backup on the Varsity squad without ever playing a game of junior varsity. I was so impressed, and I told him as much. Jason took the news in-stride without any visible show of emotion.

Sneaky also made the varsity squad as a backup tight end and emergency backup offensive lineman. I'm sure he would also spend some time on special teams and in whatever other capacity might help the team. It was amazing, Sneaky looked nothing like the boy who showed up in the spring barely able to run the length of the field. He now had defined muscles in his shoulders and arms, and he had dropped most of his baby fat. Despite the changes he was still the same goofy kid at heart, and I was almost as proud of him as I was of Jason.

The first game of the season was in late August and, as per tradition, was a grudge match against our cross-town rivals. Both schools went all out for the game, with pep rallies and packed the bleachers with boisterous face-painted and sign waiving crowds. Rival marching bands performed to fire up the crowd and the cheerleaders led almost continuous chants while performing stupendous feats of acrobatics.

I dropped Jason at the school late in the afternoon to get ready for the game. As the back-up quarterback he was unlikely to see the field except to hold the ball for field goal attempts, but he arrived early along with Tom, who would start the game, and he went through the same warm-ups and preparation. Some back-up quarterbacks don't take their preparation as seriously as they could, figuring there was very little chance that they would be called on to play, but Jason was as serious and focused as he would have been if he were to play every down.

After dropping Jason, I went back to the apartment to steady my nerves and to pick up Jen who would ride to the game with me. She was decked out in school colours and had painted 15, Jason's jersey number, in black grease paint on each of her cheeks. She looked as nervous as I felt but gave me a radiant smile when I knocked on her door. On the way to the game, we picked up Lisa and her little sisters who came with us to the game.

I wondered, as I so often did, that Lisa's uncle seemed to have no interest in the children's activities or whereabouts. Lisa did the best she could to look after the younger girls in the absence of her parents, but I could tell she was struggling. I wished for the thousandth time that I could do more for them, but at least I could greet the girls with a big smile and make sure that they had a great time at the game.

The game started poorly for our team. Despite being heavy favourites to win it all this year, due mainly to the strength of our quarterback play under Tom's leadership and the trio of senior wide receivers, we were down 7-0 after the first quarter and 17-10 at the half. Tom was really struggling in the first half as the other team used a mixture of defences to take him out of his comfort zone and to neutralize, as best they could, the deep game. Jason watched intently from the sidelines, helping to relay plays to Tom but otherwise staying in the background.

Late in the first half I saw Jason go up to Tom on the sidelines. He spoke for maybe 10 seconds before Tom shook his head and brushed him away. Since Jason was bad with social cues he sometimes inadvertently did or said things that pissed people off. He had a hard time 'reading the room'.

I wondered if Jason had seen something in the coverage or defensive scheme that Tom could use. If he had, it didn't seem like Tom was interested in listening to him in that moment. I felt for Jason, even if he had noticed something that could help the team, he might not be able to communicate it in a way that others would listen to him.

The bleachers were tense and quiet at half, and I took Lisa and her sisters to get some popcorn from one of the vendors.

The second half started with our team kicking off. As our opponent's initial drive stalled out, I could see Tom beckoning Jason over from the bench and they chatted for a minute before Tom and the offence went back onto the field after the punt.

Since Tom was a senior, he had as much latitude to adjust plays at the line of scrimmage as Coach Johnson had ever allowed, which was to say some but not a lot. On his first play of the half, Tom audibled out of the called play and went with play-action instead. The linebackers attacked aggressively to take away the run and Tom hit his favorite tight end over the middle for a 12-yard gain. Two of the next three plays also went for first downs over the middle of the field, followed by two long runs, the second for a touchdown. Tom came to the sideline and found Jason on the bench to give him a fist bump.

From that point, the route was on. The defence created two turnovers on a fumble and an interception both of which were converted into touchdowns, and we ended up winning by 20 points. We went to look for Jason after the game and found him standing off to one side of the celebrations on the field.

"Great game," I said to him with a proud smile. He knelt down when he saw Lisa and her sisters to ask the younger girls what they thought of the game. "We had popcorn and juice," was their happy reply. Good to know they had their priorities straight.

Just then Tom wandered by to invite Jason to join them at the chain restaurant down by the highway to celebrate the win. Jason thanked him but said that he was going to go to Shelly's with his family.

"Well, suit yourself ... and thanks for the in-game analysis, you were spot on."

"It was nothing," replied Jason, "You would have seen it without me on the next series for sure."

On the way to the car, I asked Jason what Tom had been talking about. It turns out that Jason had noticed the linebackers overplaying the run and had suggested the audible to play-action to take advantage of their aggressiveness. I wasn't so sure that Tom would have seen that on his own, but I didn't say anything. Heck, I had missed it, and I was sitting up in the stands with nothing to distract me while Tom was in the middle of the game. It was nice to see Jason be gracious and humble, though, even if he had played a key role in solving the defence.

Jen and I and the four kids went to the diner after the game as planned. Jen kept the younger girls engaged with talk of princesses and colouring while Jason and Lisa analyzed the game in detail. Lisa had at least as much insight as Jason about the game and they rehashed and dissected every important play from an offensive and defensive perspective. I sat back and ate my burger with a smile on my face.

I watched Jen's eyes dance as she played with the younger girls watching them laugh as they chattered away. I watched Lisa and Jason disagree about a play, recreating it with sugar packets and the salt and pepper shakers (apparently the pepper shaker should have run a deep post route). I realized I could have sat there forever watching the people I love and keeping them safe.

All too soon the night came to an end with some big yawns from little mouths and we dropped Lisa and her sisters home on the way back to the apartments.

End of September, 2014

By late September, we had settled into a comfortable routine with Jason focusing most of his time on football, but still fitting in workouts with Lisa and Sneaky, working with me on the Shelby and even making time for a bit of gaming with me and his friends.

One of the highlights of my week was sitting with Jen in the stands for Jason's games. Even though he wasn't seeing time in games (other than holding the ball on placekicks) Jen was just thrilled to see him fitting in on the team and making friends.

Lisa and her sisters sat with us during games, and Jen was incredible with the younger girls. By the third game, they would run to meet her, each grabbing a hand and instantly beginning to tell her about their weeks. She would smile and listen to them with a seemingly infinite reserve of patience and kindness. It brought me a ridiculous amount of joy to buy Jen and the girls popcorn and soda at half, and to see their excitement at Jason (and Sneaky's) success.

After games, we kept up with our tradition of going to Shelly's for burgers and milkshakes. Jason was often invited to hang out with the rest of the team at the chain restaurant by the highway, but he always deferred saying he was going to Shelly's instead.

After that first game, Tom's trust in Jason's game analysis continued to grow and he would spend as much time on the sideline talking to Jason as he did with the coach. Jason could often see weaknesses in opposing defensive schemes long before anyone else and Tom was a good enough quarterback to take that information and turn it into dominating on-field performances.

Things might have continued like this for the rest of the season but for one play early in the 2nd quarter of our 6th game against Fairview Central, a perennial powerhouse from the next town over. They had a senior defensive end, Jack Deslauriers, who was a terror. As a junior he made all-state, and now as a senior he was already fast and strong enough to start for a Division 1 college program. Jack was the kind of player who could change a game (and a season) in a heartbeat.

We were up 14-7 in the second quarter and driving for another touchdown when it happened. On a 3rd and long Fairview dialed up a blitz, and Jack destroyed the right tackle who was desperately trying to slow him down in single coverage. As the pocket collapsed, Jack was clipped from behind and he ended up going straight through Tom's right ankle. Although unintentional (Jack was a classy player and he and Tom were good friends from playing together in summer camps), Tom writhed in agony on the field while the trainer ran out to check him over.