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...
I had Grace's hand in mine as we walked along side Gerry and Alan down the sidewalk while Petey, Blue, Rev, Louie, and Sunshine were a few paces ahead of us, yelling at the top of their lungs.
"Yeah! The Titans are here, y'all,! And we ain't goin' nowhere!" Petey shouted while spinning the game ball in his hand.
"Yo, you got to be loud all the time, man? Virginia can hear you, baby." Blue said laughing.
"I think they all heard you fumble, man," Sunshine said smugly, as he put his arm around Petey's shoulders.
"First of all, the hand. Second of all, who won the game?" Petey snapped as he took Ronnie's arm off him. I rolled my eyes.
I tuned back into the conversation Alan was having with Gerry which was about him being taking out of the game, and how his dad would react.
"My dad is--" Alan groaned, but Gerry put his arm around his shoulder and cut him off.
"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault." He said, trying to comfort Alan, "They--they like to show off, and that's what they do." I took my hand out of Grace's and tapped Gerry's wrist before putting my hands up.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Wait, wait, wait. ''They''?" I said, offended. Gerry stopped and looked at me.
"Yeah. What?" Gerry said, confused. Alan and Grace stopped too.
"I heard you say ''they,'' I said getting angry.
"Yeah, they. Them. Them over there." Gerry said pointing at Petey and Blue.
"But what you mean by ''they''-- you talkin' about Pete--" I started but Gerry cut me off, matching my anger.
"You're you, and they are them." Gerry snapped. We ended up getting in each other's face while we were arguing. Grace stepped in between us and pushed us apart
"Okay guys, cool it." She said firmly.
Just as Gerry and I were about to go at each other again, a car honked its horn as it pulled up next to us. There were four people in the car, Ray sat in the passenger's seat, and two girls in the back. While I didn't recognize the driver, or the girl sitting in the left-back seat, I knew that the girl sitting next to her was Emma, Gerry's girlfriend.
"Gerry. Grace." Emma called out. They both walked up to the car. I stayed behind with Alan, but I was still able to hear what they were saying.
"Hey, you two. Hop in." The driver said. I felt the jealousy rise in me at the thought that Grace might ditch me for them.
"We're heading over to the hill, Gerry. Everyone's gonna be there." Emma said, smiling.
"Why don't you hang out down here with us?" Gerry said gesturing to him and Grace. "We're, you know." He trailed off when he saw Emma's smile fall.
