In Virginia, high school football is a way of life. It's bigger than Christmas day.
Up until 1971, in Alexandria, there was no race-mixing. Then the school board forced us to integrate. They combined the white school and the black school into one ca...
"Would you hurry up and get off the phone?" Petey yelled as he stood in line for the telephone.
"I got to call my girl, too, man!" Blue said as everyone stared at Gerry who was currently using it.
"Oh, oh, don't do this right now." Gerry groaned before turning around to all the guys. "Shut up, y'all!" He shouted. Everyone groaned or rolled their eyes. After a few more moments of quietness, we heard Gerry's voice, "I love you, sugar." Everyone burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! I love you, sugar!" Petey hollered and Gerry slammed the phone, hanging it up before stomping away. I moved to the side of the hall to avoid getting slammed by Gerry as he stormed away from the guys laughing at him. I chuckled a bit.
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"Set! Hut!" Rev shouted as we started practicing drills.
"Get him! Get him! Get him!" Yoast yelled from the sidelines.
"What are y'all doing?" Gerry asked us, "44 stack! You're supposed to know your jobs! Campbell, you're playing selfish, show-off football. Hold your man down." Gerry pointed at me.
"Don't you single me out like that, what, you think I'm stupid or something?" I snap.
"Listen, I'm the team captain, and I don't need you up in my face--" Gerry said getting up in my face. I had enough of his attitude so I shoved him away from me.
"We're here to play football, y'all. Let's play football." Blue said, pulling us apart.
"Y'all didn't come out here to practice!" Coach Hinds yelled, coming up to us. "Cause champions pay the price! Lookin' like a bunch of bums out here!" He continued shouting at us.
Gerry and I glared at each other before walking away to cool off. Boone decided to switch gears and work on conditioning.
"Who's a coward? Cowards won't block. Cowards won't tackle. Cowards won't go after fumbles." Boone yells as he walks behind us, watching our form as we practice tackling using our practice dummies.
"Coach, we need a water break. We been out here all day." Blue mumbles.
I hear Boone blow his whistle before slowly stalking his way over to Blue.
"What did you say?" Boone askes.
"I said we need a water break." Blue repeats, gasping for breath
"You need a water break? Water is for cowards. Water makes you weak. Water is for washing blood off that uniform, and you don't get no blood on my uniform. Boy, you must be outside your mind! We are going to do up-downs until Blue is no longer tired and thirsty." Boone says, turning to all of us. We groan but make our way to get into formation. Coach blows the whistle and we started.
He blows his whistle. We drop to the ground and jump back up.
"Coach!" Yoast yells, Boone makes his way to him.
He blows his whistle. We drop to the ground and jump back up.
Yoast says something to him, but I was too far away, and too tired to hear.
He blows his whistle. We drop to the ground and jump back up.
Boone takes the whistle out of his mouth, about to say something, but he puts it back up to his lips. He blows the whistle twice.
We all stop what we are doing. Some other guys put their hands on their knees, bracing themselves. Others fall to the ground, gasping for air or throwing up.
"All right, get some water," Boone says to us before walking away. We all start to make our way towards Grace and Sheryl who were filling up cups of water for us.
"I'll take that," Petey said gratefully as Grace hands him a cup. Rev walks up to take a cup from Sheryl but Ray grabs ahold of him.
"Hey, wait your turn, boy," Ray says, pulling Rev behind him.
"Who you calling a boy, cracker?" I yelled and I tackle Ray to the ground, knocking the table over.
"Quit it, jerks! Come on! You're all acting like a bunch of sissies! Quit it!" Sheryl yelled at us, but we ignored her as we continued taking shots at each other.
"Sheryl," I hear Grace call from somewhere in the crowd. Ray knocked my helmet off and punches me square in the face. I stumble back. "Sheryl!" I hear her yell loudly. I hear all the guys yelling.
"Hey! Hey! Watch out!" They yell as they drag others out of my way as I lose my balance, falling to the ground. I jump back up and just as I'm about to slam my fist into Ray's face, I feel a hand grab onto my arm, they pull me back hard and with so much force that I end up falling back on the ground again. I look up to see Grace standing between me and Ray. She was furious.
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"What is wrong with you two?!" She yelled. "Have you lost your minds?! You almost hurt Sheryl, and some of your teammates!!" Ray scoffed.
"Come on Gracie, It's not my fault these guys don't know their place," Ray said gesturing to me and Rev. I tried to get back up and to go at him again, but Blue and Petey held me down.
"That is enough out of you Ray!" Grace says turning to Ray. "I'm sick and tired of hearing you talk about these guys like they aren't human beings." She says venomously. Ray rolled his eyes. "I feel sorry for you, Ray. You are filled with nothing but hate." She said darkly. She stared him down for a few more moments before Ray stormed off. Grace then turned around to face me. My heart dropped.
"Julius...." She paused looking me dead in the eyes. "Let's get you cleaned up." She said, offering me her hand to help me up. I took it, and the moment her hand touched mine, I felt a spark of electricity flow through me. Her hand was so soft, I thought it was going to slip right through mine. She grasped my hand tightly and pulled me up. The second she pulled her hand back the warmth left and I wanted nothing more than to have her hand in mine once again. She nodded her head before turning to walk to the dorms with me following right behind her.
