Passion In The Game

History Pt. 2

Anthony, at 14, had just finished a middle school football game and was getting dressed to leave.

"Great game, Anthony." one guy said.

"Thanks man." Anthony said.

"Yeah, good game." Brad Herringer said.

Anthony turned to see Brad, a skinny red-head kid who clearly was going through the bad part of puberty. He had the worst case of acne Anthony had ever seen. He wore glasses and had a mouth full of metal.

"What are you looking at, fag?" Anthony said putting his shirt on.

"I'm just telling you good game." Brad said.

Anthony walked towards Brad and smacked him hard enough to knock his glasses off.

"What makes you think you can speak to me?" Anthony said. "Fag."

"Aren't we teammates? I thought we were cool." Brad said.

"I'm not cool with fags." Anthony said pushing him into the lockers.

"Chill!"Brad said holding his hands out infront of him.

"Bitch." Anthony growled. "I'm sorry that's a compliment to you." Anthony grabbed his stuff and left.

Anthony was a good kid around the right people. He had to be good for his mom and dad. However, he needed an outlet. Football was great and all but he still had a void in his soul. Bullying seemed to cover that up for him.

During his brother's high school football game, Anthony and some kids were messing around under the bleachers.

"So Anthony, you taught Fag Brad a lesson?" His friend Tommy O' Heal said.

"He was asking for it. I swear at any minute I thought he was going to kiss me." Anthony laughed.

"You didn't catch any queer cooties, right?" Tommy said.

"Hell, no." Anthony said.

A girl with pretty blonde blonde hair walked past to meet with several other girls.

"Isn't that Trisha Marks?" Anthony said.

"Yeah, it is." Tommy said.

"She has really nice legs." Anthony said biting his lip.

"Oh I see you." Tommy said nudging him. "Anthony got a crush on Ms. Goodie Two Shoes."

"After I'm done talking to her, she'll have a crush on me." Anthony said. He smoothed out his shirt and spat out his gum. He made his way over to Trisha. He politely tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to him and looked as if she didn't want to be bothered.

"Hey Trisha." he said.

"Hi Anthony." she said uninterested. She turned back to her friends.

"You got a minute?" Anthony asked.

Trisha sighed and gave him her undivided attention. "Minute starts now."

"Have you ever been to one of the Junior High games?" he asked.

"I like high school games better." she said. "Junior High don't have as much action."

"Well, you haven't seen me play. With me on the field it's just as action packed as any high school game." Anthony said.

"Oh really?" Trisha said, disapproving.

"Yeah. Come to next week's game." he said with a smile.

"Mm. Thanks but no thanks." she said. "Minute's up." Trisha started to turn back to her group when Anthony grabbed her wrist.

"I'll give you the answers to Mr. Fitzgerald's test." he said.