Chubby Chaser (9 page)

“Now we’re getting down to the real nitty-gritty,” Ms. Kallens said, doing her best to keep the excited crowd on the edge of their seats. “Our homecoming prince and princess are Riley Sims and Amy Reed.” The crowd clapped for them as Mr. Franklin gave them their roses and put sashes around them (Riley’s and Amy’s respective titles were written on the sashes in silver); Mr. Franklin placed a silver plastic tiara on Amy’s head as she blew a kiss to Collin. It was a nice moment, but Jason wished they would hurry the fuck up and get to the part where they named him homecoming king. It wasn’t as though anyone actually cared who won homecoming prince and princess.

“Hey, J, Collin, when I win homecoming king, no hard feelings, okay?” Eric said.

Jason humored his best friend by laughing at his dumb-ass joke, and he presumed that was the reason Collin laughed as well; even a retard could tell that Jason had this in the bag.

“And last, but certainly not least, our homecoming king and queen are . . . Jason Pruitt and Emily Bulstride.”

Jason could’ve sworn he felt the whole gymnasium shake; everyone was clapping so loudly.

“We did it, babe!” Emily kissed him on the cheek and gave his hand a little squeeze as they walked toward Mr. Franklin. Her face was teeming with joy and pride.

Mr. Franklin gave them their roses and put sashes on them that featured each of their respective titles, but their titles, unlike the homecoming prince’s and princess’s, were written in gold. Mr. Franklin completed the coronation by placing gold crowns on Jason’s and Emily’s heads.

The cheerleaders and the marching band put on one more performance, concluding the pep rally, then it was time for Jason to win the homecoming game and to impress the coach from SCU to complete perfect day number one.

“Call it, James!” The referee yelled, flipping a coin in the air.

“Tails,” said Allen James, the varsity starting quarterback for City High. Jason had a lot of respect for Allen: he had a strong throwing arm, and his passing yards and number of touchdowns were good—not as good as Jason’s but good nonetheless.

The coin landed in the referee’s palm. “Heads.” He looked at Jason.

“We’ll take first choice,” Jason said, “we’ll take the right side of the field, and we’ll kick off to start the game.”

“Okay,” said the referee.

Jason and Allen shook hands and then departed from the center of the field to return to their respective teams. On his way back, Jason scanned the football stadium for his parents, even though he knew they wouldn’t be there. When he got back to his team, he saw Ben Hoates talking to Coach Logan and the other coaches on the sidelines. The Tallis coaches were probably talking Jason up to Hoates. If it weren’t for those dumb-ass NCAA rules preventing college coaches from having off-campus in-person contact with recruits during an evaluation period, he could talk himself up.

Ben turned away from the coaches. He was walking toward the stadium seats when he locked eyes with Jason. He smiled, nodded, and gave Jason the thumbs up. Jason allowed himself to relish this moment, but only for a moment: he still had a game to win, and he needed to remain focused. He joined the coaches on the sidelines and apprised Coach Logan of the results of the coin toss.

“I think we should do an onside kick, Coach,” Jason said. “City won’t be expecting it this early in the game, and when they fail to catch it, we move in for the kill and take possession of the ball.”

“Agreed.” The coach called over Aaron Mears, the upback and varsity second-string middle linebacker, and told him the plan. Aaron nodded that he understood and then rounded up the rest of the members of the special team into a huddle.

Daniel and the rest of the special team moved to the forty-yard line for kickoff. Taking a few steps back from the ball, Daniel then ran toward it, his teammates close behind, and kicked the ball.

The ball had traveled ten yards when a kick returner for City tried and failed to catch it. Parker reached the ball seconds after it was muffed and recovered it for Tallis.

Coach Logan patted Jason on the back. “Good play, son.”

“Thanks, Coach,” Jason said, beaming.

“Tell the offensive team to run a bootleg play. Get Moxley to block for you. Fake a pass to Jackson, then when City’s focused on him, pass the ball to Abbott.”

“I’d like to run the ball all the way with no blockers, Coach, if that’s okay.”

“How far can you get before they tag you?”

“Pretty far. At least ten yards, Coach.”

Coach Logan looked at him: there was no emotion on his face, but Jason could tell that the coach was feeling a great deal of respect for him. “Okay. Go do it, Pruitt,” he said with a chuckle.

Jason gathered the offensive team in a huddle and informed them of the play. They got into their positions. Aries sent the ball back to Jason. Jason raced with the ball toward the right sideline and turned, pretending to throw it to Jackson. Jackson sprinted down the field as though he had the ball, drawing the attention away from Jason. Jackson faked a pass to Andy. Andy had only made it a couple of yards before he was tackled, but it didn’t matter: Jason had made it to City High’s end zone by that point. Jason commemorated his touchdown with a victory dance and then slammed the ball into the ground.

The audience was a cacophony of cheers from the fans of Tallis (they were shouting, “Do it, Pruitt!”) and jeers from the fans of City (they were shouting, “Blew it, Pruitt!” which was stupid, because he obviously hadn’t blown it), which made Jason smile. He wasn’t doing his job right if he didn’t have both fans and haters. He ran back to his side of the field, stealing a glance of Hoates along the way to read his reaction to the play, but Hoates was doing something on his phone. Jason wanted to snatch the phone out of his hands and smash it, he was so chafed. How the hell was Hoates going to see how great Jason was if he was dicking around on his phone?

Daniel came back onto the field after the touchdown for a one-point conversion. Jason had wanted to go for a two-point conversion, as it was more challenging to score this way, and thus more impressive, but Coach Logan had wanted to play it safe and overruled him. Daniel took several steps back from the ball and then, running at it at full speed, kicked it. The ball went through the uprights, scoring Tallis another point. Boisterous support came from the Tallis side of the stadium.

Another ball was put in front of Daniel. The rest of the special team gathered around him, as he was going to attempt another onside kick. What had worked so wonderfully the first time failed this time, because City was ready for them: one of their kick returners caught the ball and managed to evade the gunners targeting him for nine yards.

Coach Logan’s eyes flared when he realized how far City had gotten. He called Chris Trevino, the varsity starting middle linebacker, over after the play.

“Did you see how far that son of a bitch got?” Coach Logan was spitting, he was so angry.

“Yes, I—” Chris tried to answer, but Coach Logan talked over him.

“Did you see how far he got?” The coach repeated, his stout face turning beet red as he spoke. “That can’t happen again. On the next down, I want you to have Addlestein and Stevenson focus like a fuckin’ sonar missile on James, so when that son of a bitch throws, they can intercept or tackle whoever the hell he throws the ball to. And I want you to have the rest of the guys do a blitz on James. Got it?”

“Got it, Coach.” Chris nodded and then left to assemble the other defensive players in a huddle.

On the next play, the City center passed the ball back to Allen, and as soon as he did, several Tallis players sped toward the quarterback. Allen barely had time to throw the ball before he was tackled. The ball landed in the hands of a wide receiver. The wide receiver took off, but Addlestein leveled him a yard later.

“Yes! Now that’s what I’m talking about!” Coach Logan roared.

The game raged on, and the City Tigers proved themselves formidable adversaries: there was now only two minutes left in the final quarter, and City was leading Tallis by four points. The coach and the team were worried, but not Jason. He knew that no matter how many points City was up by, his team was still going to win, because he always won.

Tallis had control of the ball. Jason consulted with the coach, and they decided on an I formation: Jason lined up behind Aries for the snap, and Jackson and Dwayne Roberts, the varsity starting fullback, lined up behind him. The tight end, the guards, and the tackles were on the same line as Aries, and there was a wide receiver on each end.

Aries passed the ball to Jason. Jason turned and pretended to hand the ball to Jackson. Jackson, after clearing five yards, was tackled. He had pretended to throw the ball to Andy before the opposing player had made contact. Andy dodged a tackle and ran, drawing City’s players toward him. The rest of the Tallis team moved in on City to protect Andy. While all of this was going on, Jason, who actually had the ball, was galloping down the field. He was a hair’s breadth from City’s end zone when he caught sight of one of their players diving toward him. Jason leaped as high and as far as he could, and the player missed him by a whisker, allowing Jason to score another touchdown, his third for the game.

“And that’s another touchdown for Tallis by Pruitt, the team’s quarterback,” the game’s announcer reported, amid thunderous applause. “Tallis is now up by two points with thirty seconds left. Pretty nice comeback for the home team.”

“Do it, Pruitt!” blared from the Tallis side, deadening the boos from the City fans.

Jason did his victory dance in the end zone again. Once he was finished, he tried to head back to his side of the field, but he was grabbed from behind and pulled to the ground. The City High player Jason had eluded earlier to make his game-changing touchdown spat on him and kicked him all over his body. Jason grabbed the guy’s foot and shoved him backward, knocking him on his ass. Jumping to his feet, Jason stalked toward the player for some retribution, but the referee, the City High coach, and several City High players got in between them, barring Jason from getting to him—an act Jason realized, now that he was starting to calm down, benefitted him more than his opponent: if he had gotten to the guy first and issued some much-warranted payback, then he would have been in trouble, too, possibly even kicked out of the game, and with Hoates there to see it.

“You okay, man?” Andy was running up to him.

“Yeah, it looked like that douche really wailed on you, J,” Eric said, arriving a second later.

“I’m fine,” Jason assured them as he resumed his journey to the Tallis side of the field. That was mostly true, though there was a throbbing pain in his ribs and in his lower back—where most of that motherfucker’s blows had landed—but he had suffered worse, and the pain was starting to dissipate.

“What a fucking pussy,” Eric said. “What kinda man attacks somebody when his back’s turned? Did you at least get a few licks in?”

“No, but it’s okay, though. When we win this game, that’ll be all the licks I need.”

“Not me. I’m gonna catch his ass later and give him a taste of his own medicine.”

“Lerman has been thrown out of the game for a personal foul on Pruitt, and the City Tigers have been hit with a fifteen-yard penalty,” the announcer informed the audience. “With only thirty seconds left in the game, they’re gonna need a miracle to defeat Tallis.”

The coach greeted Jason when he, Eric, and Andy made it back to their side of the field. “How you feeling, son?”

“I’m fine, Coach. Ready to win the game.”

“Glad to hear it.” The coach started to walk away.

“Coach, I think we should try for a two-point conversion this time.” The coach had shot Jason down earlier when he had suggested it, because it had been too big of a risk, but with thirty seconds left on the clock and a two-point lead, that should no longer be a hindrance. The worst that could happen was they didn’t gain the extra two points if they failed (and that was a big
if
with Jason leading them) but would still win the game. If they succeeded, they would increase their lead by four points, and they would pull off an impressive feat that would make them look like gods and City look like chumps. (Plus a two-point conversion—unlike a one-point conversion—allowed Jason to be on the field for the final play.) He was about to explain all of this to Coach Logan when the coach told him to go for it.

Jason called a huddle for the offense and told them they were going to do a quarterback sneak for the last play: not only was it a good tactic but it also ensured Jason all the focus and attention when the team won. And when he scored those final points, he’d wow Hoates and cement his legend status at school.

The Tallis Eagles faced off against the City Tigers on City’s three-yard line. Aries snapped the ball back to Jason. Jason accelerated forward and ran toward the end zone while the rest of the offensive line rushed forward to protect him. One City player tried to block Jason, but Jason bulldozed him out of the way and leaped into the end zone, scoring two points and winning the game.

“Do it, Pruitt!” Tallis fans chanted one last time.

The guys on Jason’s team hoisted him up onto their shoulders. The announcer was saying something, probably declaring Jason’s victory, but Jason couldn’t hear a word he said, for compliments and praise surrounded him, and it was all for him. Everything that had taken place that day was all for him. Though he knew it was pointless, Jason looked around the stadium once more for his parents. He didn’t see them.