Perfect Season (6 page)
Authors: Tim Green
THEY WATCHED CHUKU AND
his dad pull away.
Troy fought the urge to argue with Ty about who should take the blame on a bad pass. Instead, he did something he knew would make his mom proud. “Hey, man. I'm sorry. You're right about that genius stuff. I want to be a
player
, and that was a bad pass. If I'm gonna be a top quarterback, I need to take the blame. We good?”
Ty grinned and slapped Troy a high five. “You know we're good.”
On the way home Ty sat in front with Thane and Troy rode in the back. They were out on the highway before Thane spoke. “I took a peek when we had a break. You guys almost look like you know what you're doing.”
“Hey,” Ty said, “I might not be
Tiger
Lewis, but I'm a Lewis, too.”
They all chuckled and rode in silence for a few minutes. Thane's comment had given Troy an idea, but he didn't pursue it until he caught Thane's eyes in the rearview mirror. “So, Thane, you like McElroy
and
Sanchez?”
“Yeah, I seem to connect pretty well with both of them so far. I haven't been able to run my patterns at full speed, though, so it's still up in the air.”
“You like him, though, right?” Troy asked. “McElroy.”
“Everybody likes Greg. What's not to like?”
“That's good because chemistry is pretty important, right?” Troy met Thane's eyes again.
“You bet,” Thane said.
“I mean, people make their careers with the right partners . . .” Troy pretended to be thinking. “Peyton Manning and Marvin Harrison . . . Ben Roethlisberger and Hines Ward . . . you need that chemistry.”
They rode in silence some more before Thane looked at Troy in the mirror again. “And you two have
it
.”
Troy shrugged. “I like to think so . . .”
“And that's why I should let Ty roll the dice and take a chance on playing at Summit instead of St. Stephen's, where we know the coaching and the program is one ofâif not
the
âbest in high school football anywhere?” Thane made it seem as if the question was silly.
“And the fact that it looks like me and Ty just ensured he won't be the only thing defenses are gonna have to worry about.” Troy spoke confidently.
“Why is that?”
“No one's gonna be able to double-cover Ty all game long.” Troy waggled his eyebrows. “We pretty much just guaranteed we're gonna have speed on
both
sides of the offense.”
“Oh, really? And how did you do that?” Thane asked.
Troy told him about Chuku Moore.
“Faster than Ty?” Thane looked over at his younger brother. “What say you?”
Ty nodded and shrugged.
Thane sucked in his lower lip before he said, “Well, let's just see if Seth really gets the job, okay? You guys are putting the cart before the horse.”
Before anyone could say anything more, Troy's phone buzzed with an incoming text message. He looked down and saw Seth's number.
“Looks like we'll know in about two seconds,” Troy said as he hit the button and opened the message.
TROY CLEARED HIS THROAT
and tried to speak casually. “The cart is now behind the horse. He got the job.”
“He did? Just like that?” Ty crunched up his forehead.
Troy looked at Seth's text again. “It says the principal told him before the interview even started that Summit was honored to have him even consider it. They interviewed him for half an hour, then offered him the job.”
“Hey, that's great. I'm happy for you guys,” Thane said. “Look, Troy. I don't want you to get too excited is all.”
THANE SIGHED. “THERE'S NO
guarantee about Ty.”
Ty looked over at his brother. “Why not?”
Thane shook his head. “There's no question about St. Stephen's being a great football program right now. It's not easy to just come in and turn a team around, even for someone as good as Seth.”
Ty frowned and said nothing.
“You want to be with me, though, right, Ty?”
“Yeah. Sure. Of course.” Ty nodded.
Troy could see, though, that Thane wasn't completely sold, so he dropped it. They pulled into Troy's driveway and all said good-bye. Troy heaved a sigh as he watched the black Escalade roll away trailing a cloud of dust. Inside, Seth had a mess of papers spread out all over the kitchen table. He was talking on his cell phone but waved for Troy to come in and sit down.
“That's great, Joe,” Seth said. “Yeah, I find out for sure tomorrow night, but they said it's in the bag . . . Well, I'm going to get them going with some basic stuff right away, but we'll start officially on August fifteenth. It'll be great. Yeah, he's young, but he can sling it and wait till you see him read a defense. Okay. Bye.” Seth hung up and grinned.
“Congratulations!”
“Thanks!” Seth pointed at his papers. “I've been scrambling to fill out my coaching staff, and just wait till you hear who that was on the phone.”
“WHO?” TROY ASKED.
“Joe Sindoni, our new offensive coordinator,” Seth said.
“Joe
who
?” Troy's spirits sank. “Did he play in the NFL?”
“Nope.”
“Coach college?”
“Nope, he was the JV coach at a Catholic school called CBA, so being a varsity coach is a nice step up for him. Don't look at me like that. Trust me.”
“But . . .” Troy bit his lip. “It's just that Thane was talking to us on the ride home about how great St. Stephen's is. I don't know if Thane's going to let him come.”
Seth stood up and put a hand on Troy's shoulder. “We can't worry about one guy. We need to build this thing from the ground up. It'll be you and me and my staff. Maybe we get Ty, maybe we don't. Don't worry, we'll find an athlete or two and turn them into receivers. The rest of it will be up to us.”
Before Troy could tell him about Chuku, his mom and Tate arrived.
“How are your nails?” Troy tried not to sound disgusted.
Tate held up both hands and splayed her fingers, showing off her dark blue polish.
“Yeah. Nice.” Troy rolled his eyes.
“Why so sour?” Troy's mom asked.
“He's balled up about Thane maybe keeping Ty at St. Stephen's,” Seth said.
“I've been meaning to talk to you about that, Troy.” His mom showed Seth her painted nails. “I've told you, you can't manipulate everyone and everything. You've got to leave that alone.”
“He hasn't said no
.
” Troy frowned.
“Thane doesn't
want
to say no,” his mom said. “But sometimes people
mean
no when they don't say yes. Do you understand?”
Pressure built up inside Troy's head like someone was working a tire pump in his ear. “No.”
“Well, trust me. Let it be. If Ty is going to come, they'll tell you. Stop asking.” His mom brightened suddenly. “Hey, Mrs. McGreer called while we were having our nails done, and good news . . . Tate's father is stabilized.”
“What's that mean?” Troy asked.
“He's not getting any worse.” Tate wrinkled her forehead. “But they said it'll be a while before they know how well he'll be able to recover. My mom wants me to get ready to go to school here.”
Troy's mom put a hand on Tate's head. “It'll be all right, honey. We're all praying for him. He'll be okay.”
“Well, it'd be great if you went here.” Troy didn't hide his enthusiasm.
“Your mom even called the soccer coach,” Tate said.
“And Tate's going to the last day of her camp, tomorrow. Isn't that great? It'll be a good start if she does have to go to school here,” Troy's mom said.
When Tate smiled, Troy relaxed.
During dinner, he explained his new plans to Tate.
“You see, if we have
two
fast wide receiversâChuku
and
Tyâthe defense just doesn't have enough men to cover them both. When someone is that fast, you have to have one guy take the underneath routes and one guy for the deep stuff. It makes everything ten times better if you have two.”
“I've never seen you so hyped up, Troy,” Tate said.
Troy nodded. “It's just that there's so much at stake here. I mean, when I went to register at school my mom and I saw some people surveying the field. Mr. Bryantâhe's the guidance counselorâhe said the school had to either upgrade the stadium or end football. So if we can win and turn this thing around, I know the school board and everybody will want a new stadium. It'll be like the beginning of a football dynasty.”
Tate glanced at Troy's mom, then leaned close so only he could hear. “Do you think Ty will really come with you?”
“I hope so.” Troy lowered his voice, too. “We need him.”
“Great food.” Seth wiped his mouth and set the napkin down before standing up to help clear the table.
When the kitchen was clean, the four of them went to a movie. On their way home through town, Troy pointed to an apartment building just off the main street. “If Chuku's dad is in, why couldn't they live right there?”
Seth pulled up in front of the redbrick building to take a closer look. A sign said there were places available for rent. “Nice. Perfect. You got his phone number?”
“Yeah,” Troy said.
“So text him the number for the rental office. It's there on the sign. Tell him we said they should check it out.”
Troy did as Seth said.
“You're really serious about all this, aren't you?” Troy's mom said.
“Of course.” Seth started heading back. “Who knows? They have to live somewhere.”
“But to move someplace just because you want your son to be on a football team?” Troy's mom shook her head. “You'd have to be crazy.”
“Hey, Chuku's dad plays in the NFL.” Seth moved his eyebrows up and down. “You can bet he's crazy.”
THAT NIGHT TROY'S MOM
got a text from Thane asking them all to join him and Ty for a day at their beach house on the Jersey Shore.
“Rats,” Tate said. “I've got soccer camp.”
“We'll be going plenty,” Troy said. “Don't worry about that.”
The next morning, Thane's big black Escalade pulled into the driveway just after breakfast. Seth rode up front with Thane while the rest of them spread out in the back. They dropped Tate off at the school on their way. It wasn't until she hopped out that Ty could even pick up his head.
“Bring your football?” Ty asked.
Troy held up his ball before tucking it back under his arm.
They watched a movie on the drive and before Troy knew it, they pulled into the gravel drive of a modern-looking white house full of glass and sharp angles. They piled out and Ty proudly showed them inside.
A huge mobile was suspended above them in the massive entryway. The simple, flat, black-and-white shapes drifting around wires looked like space junk to Troy.
“Thane bought it decorated like this,” Ty explained. “The realtor said it was a good deal. People got divorced.”
A jealous sigh escaped Troy at the thought that he could have a beach house, if only his father hadn't been such a sketchy character. As he changed into his bathing suit, he gritted his teeth and told himself he could still have a beach house . . . it would just take longer than he'd have liked.
There was a large deck off the back of the house surrounding a rectangular pool that looked like it dropped right off into the ocean. Beyond the dunes, half a dozen lounge chairs rested in the sand beneath two huge white umbrellas. The adults were talking and said they'd meet the kids down on the beach.
“Sunblock!” Troy's mom tossed him a tube.
Troy lathered up and looked around for someone or someones who put out the chairs, kept the pool sparkling clean, and trimmed the dark green shrubs. A brown-skinned man with a dark cap of hair disappeared around one corner of the house.
When they got to the beach, Troy was amazed to see two black-and-red WaveRunners on a kind of trailer with overblown white tires.
“Totally cool.” Troy's excitement at the sight of the machines overcame the funk of jealousy. “Can we use them?”
“Thane says that's what they're for.” Ty handed him a soda, uncapping his and taking a slug before setting it down on one of the chairs. “Come on, help me.”
Ty passed out life vests slung from the handles of the machines. Troy tossed his football under a chair, put his on, then grabbed half of the long T handle of the trailer as Ty raised it out of the sand. Together they wheeled the WaveRunners toward the surf.
Troy couldn't believe how easy it was. The machines were huge, but the design of the cart or trailer, or whatever it was, was so perfect that it took less than two minutes to have the WaveRunners bobbing in the light surf.
“Hop on.” Ty pushed the cart back up into the sand, then climbed onto one machine, grabbing the handles before he stepped up and slung his other leg over as if he was mounting a horse.
Troy got on his own machine and did as Ty instructed him, clipping a curly plastic cord to his vest so the key would yank out and stop the motor if he fell off. With the push of a button, the machine revved to life. One squeeze of his thumb and he was surging ahead, through the light waves, then up and flying,
flying
, behind Ty.
Troy's thumb was sore by the end of the day and his hair was salty and windblown straight back. The football saw no action until Troy scooped it up and tossed it into the air on their way up to the house for dinner. The man Troy had seen before along with a woman who seemed to be his wife served them grilled chicken with rice and curried vegetables out on a linen-covered table on the deck. The sky showed off a rainbow of colors as it wound its way into night.
Troy was full and tired as they rode back toward Summit. Ty alternated between “Angry Birds” on his iPad and texting. Troy smiled because he bet he knew who Ty kept textingâTateâbut Troy kept quiet. He was happy just to bump along and relive the afternoon out on the water. With Ty on the same practice and game schedule, they'd be getting away to the beach house pretty regularly, and Troy couldn't wait. He wondered if Tate would ride with him or Ty on the WaveRunners. That made him grin. He'd almost forgotten about football when Thane guided the Escalade off the highway at the Summit exit and Seth started talking about his spread offense.
Troy listened as the two of them went back and forth, discussing how certain patterns defeated certain defensive coverages. Troy felt the excitement building up inside him because he just knew where Seth was headed with all this football talk. When Thane turned onto Cedar Street, Seth cleared his throat.
“So, Thane,” Seth said, “now that I'm locked in as the coach at Summit, I plan on getting the team going right away. That way the kids will know those patterns like their own cell phone numbers.”
“Nice,” Thane said.
The energy in the truck suddenly amped up. Ty must have sensed it, because he stopped playing to listen. Troy sat up straight, and so did his mom.
“For sure,” Seth said. “So . . . do you think you'll be getting Ty enrolled?”