Adventures in Summoning

Chapter 3

"Dude, no, you have to go deep to Billy!" Greg yelled as we reviewed the game film from last year.

"Greg, the tight end is wide open up the seam after the safety bit on the play action! Billy is double covered, why would you throw that?" Trey groaned.

Inwardly, I was right with Trey in that one, that camp had really boosted his self-confidence. Last year he would have never gone against one of Greg's answers. If he could take the confidence and vision from the film room to the field, Greg might not be the starter too much longer!

"Hey, Billy is my best friend, he gets the ball, " Greg smirked. Wrong answer.

"Greg, you tell a recruiter that, and you're not getting that scholarship," I stated. I could see him getting frustrated, he wasn't good with any criticism. "Alright, enough film. Let's go try out some of these new drills," I compromised.

"Oh yeah!" Greg was all for that. He loved throwing a lot more than looking at film.

Trey had come prepared, he had videos of the drills, and what they were going to help with. Some were for mobility, some were for arm strength, and several for flexibility to help avoid injury. I liked all of them, and we started setting up a program to do some every day during practice. Even Greg was on board with that. I knew he wasn't a great quarterback, but he was popular, seemingly with a different girl every weekend. I also knew he was banking on a scholarship to continue playing since his grades weren't going to get him into college on their own. Maybe Trey breathing down his neck as competition would motivate him to get better.

The second day of school hadn't been much different than the first. Dee was still her bubbly self, and honestly if I were like most people, I'd love the attention and would have already asked her out. But I'm not, so I just try to remain friends. Maybe I needed to find her someone else to be with, she should be happy, not wasting her time on someone who isn't going to return her feelings. I wonder if she'd be against dating a sophomore. Trey might be a little younger than she is, but he's a good kid and I know I've seen him checking her out a few times at lunch.

While school was the same, home most certainly wasn't. When I pulled up into the circular drive, I was surprised to see a lot of vehicles at the house. Both my parent's and aunt's cars were there, as well as a contractor pickup, a small moving truck, and a waste truck. There were several people carrying what looked to be furniture and televisions out to the moving truck. Did those come from the downstairs movie room? They sure looked like it. Confused, I headed inside, and found my parents and Aunt Karen in the kitchen chatting. I was surprised that they even knew where the kitchen was, since none of them cooked and they usually paged someone to fetch them snacks.

"Hello honey!" my mother chirped happily. What the fuck kind of vacation did they go on that got them this happy?

"Hey, what's going on?" I jerked a thumb back at the workers, who were hauling up more of the leather recliners from the movie room.

The three of them shared a look. "Justin, we've been talking," his father sighed. "We had a bit of a wake-up call during that last visit with your grandmother, and we're going to try to be better."

"Better?" I asked, unsure of which way this was going.

"We've been absentee parents," my mother stated.

"And Aunt!" Karen interjected.

"Well, yes," my father continued. "We're going to be here more, spend more time with you. We're even going to refurbish the cinema room, make it better," he smiled.