Hall of Fame

Prologue

                                                   Prologue

        “Text me if you can go tonight, okay?” Xander told me.

        “I’ll ask my dad when I get home and then I’ll just come over with him then if I can go.” I informed him.

        “Yea that works. Are you gonna come over if you can’t go?”

        “Why would I?

        “Well we can still hang out.”

        “But you’ll be at the game”

        “Not if you don’t go.”

        “It’s the last one. You have too.”

        “I’ve never gone without you. And I’m certainly not starting now.”

        “But next year you’ll be playing. You’re never going to get to sit in those stands and watch the game again.”

        "It’s not even worth going to if you’re not there. It’d be a totally different thing.”

        “Xander.”

        “Andy. It’s not even like you won’t be allowed to go.”

        “You never know. This morning my dad said ‘maybe’, he never says ‘maybe if it’s a yes”

        “It doesn’t matter. I’m not changing my mind. There’s my dad” He was pointing to Shawn, his father. Shawn’s like my second dad. “Come on."

        “But it’s cold out there."

        “Deal with it” Xander grabbed my hand and pulled me across the parking lot. It really is freezing out here.

        He pulled me over to his family's SUV and opened my door. As usual, I got shotgun.

The drive home was pretty much the same exact thing as every Friday. Xander told me what homework we had while trying to convince that this should be the weekend that I don't put off my homework till midnight on Sunday, Shawn talked about player positions or whatever they're called, the other team's statistics, and anything and everything that had to do with that night's game. Shawn and my dad are the two head coaches of the varsity football team.

Despite the all to familiar drive home, I knew something was wrong the second I saw the cop cars as Shawn pulled onto my street. There was three cars in the driveway and two along the street. The cops were in my yard, walking through my doorway, they were everywhere.

        “Shawn, what’s going on?” I asked, my voice filled with worry.

        “I’ll go find out. Stay in the car. I’m sure everything’s okay.” He reassured me, but I knew. Something was wrong. Someone was hurt. But who?

        “Are you okay?” Xander suddenly asked me. He must’ve seen my face go pale as the realization hit me.

        “Uncle Sam.”

        "You don’t know that.”

        “I heard my dad talking to him a couple days ago. He said stuff was bad over there.” My Uncle Sam was stationed in Iraq for the past couple months.

        “Andy. It could be something totally different”

        I started to cry. It could be something different, but it wasn’t. Nothing else made sense. Xander got out of the car, and before I knew it he was carrying me over to the curb. He sat down still holding me as I cried.

        “No matter what, I’m here.” Xander told me, and I knew he meant it, no matter what had happened, whether Uncle Sam was hurt or dead, or anything else happened, I knew I could always rely on him being there.

        In a couple minutes, Shawn came out, pale, and tears running down his face.

        “Is it Uncle Sam?” I could barely look up at him.

        He helped me up and pulled me into a tight hug. “No Andy. It’s not.” Of course the moment I heard that I felt so relieved, but there was still a reason there were cops out my house, still a reason that Shawn, ‘Mr. Tough Guy’ as he called himself, would cry. “You’re dad came home early from work. He walked in on a burglar. Andy, honey, your dad was killed today.”

        And with those last 5 words, my whole world came crashing down.