Secrets: The Hero Chronicles (Volume 1) (7 page)

“We’ve been watching you and we like what we see. For the next scrimmage against Moeller, we want you to play with varsity.” I was stunned. “How does that sound to you?”

“G-G-Great, Coach! Thanks!” I said, almost bursting with excitement.

“And, Keller, don’t let me down.” He looked into my eyes.

“I won’t, Coach.”

Suddenly, I heard a loud metallic crack and spun around. One of the large light towers used by the TV stations was falling out of the bleachers and heading right for us. I pushed Coach Miller out of the way as it crashed and sent pieces of glass and metal everywhere.

“What are you trying to do, kill us?” Coach Miller yelled into the stands. “I am going to ban whoever is responsible for this.”

Several news crew members scurried out of the stands. Through the bleachers and the smashed light tower, I saw the same sea green truck that I had seen at the rest stop. I moved to see it better, but it sped away.

“You okay, Keller?”

“I’m fine, Coach.”

“Okay then, go get cleaned up while I deal with these hooligans.”

I sprinted back to get changed. I couldn’t believe I was almost killed. But, at least I was going to break my three-years-of-not-playing streak, and I was going to do it playing with varsity. JV hadn’t had a scrimmage yet. Their first one was the same day as varsity’s scrimmage. I was looking forward to playing with JV, but the chance to play with varsity was a dream come true.

When I got off the bus, I ran the ten-minute walk to my house. I was so excited to tell Cora the incredible news. I bounded up the walkway and through the front door, slamming it with a loud thud. Cora came running down the stairs.

“Is everything okay? Nicholas, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing’s the matter. Everything is great. I think I might actually play in the next scrimmage!”

“That’s wonderful!” Cora was excited too, because for the last three years she had sat in the stands waiting for something to cheer about. Now she would get her chance. “That is great news!”

“Well, it’s just a scrimmage, but I have to start somewhere.”

“Nicholas, I am so proud of you.”

“Wait, the best part is Coach Miller, you know, the varsity coach, told me he wants me to scrimmage with them!”

Cora’s face turned to stone. The air in the room felt like it was sucked out. All of the excitement was gone.

“How can you go from not playing the last three years, to playing with varsity this year? You’re just a tenth grader. Is the team really that bad?”

“Gee, thanks! What happened to the excitement?”

She took a deep breath. “No, it has nothing to do with you. I mean, you have never played in a game before at the smaller schools, and now they want you to play varsity for a school that is known for its football team. There will be,” she paused and took another deep breath, “a lot of people watching you.”

“I finally feel like I fit in somewhere,” I said, “and this is how you congratulate me. First you tell me that it would be impossible to make the team, and now that I’ve made the team and will actually play, you’re not even happy.”

Cora didn’t say anything. She walked into the living room and sat on the couch. She crossed her arms and stared out the front window. Her legs were bouncing around more than her usual nervous twitch.

After a minute, she spoke in a very calm voice. “Nicholas, I’m sorry for how I acted. I am so proud of you—you know that! We will make this work somehow. I can’t wait to cheer for you during the game.” She got up and walked over to me. I was still standing in the hall rooted to the ground. She gave me a big hug and walked into the kitchen.

I wasn’t buying the “I’m proud of you” routine. Why was she acting this way? She was so happy at first, but as soon as I mentioned varsity, everything changed. But why? I knew there would be more people watching, but there would be people watching the JV scrimmage, too.

I retreated to my room after a long, hot shower to escape Cora. She was busy cleaning the already clean house, and from the smell of it, she was cooking an “I’m sorry” dinner. I couldn’t stop being angry at her. Nothing I tried to do or think of made me feel any better. I just wanted to be mad. The fire in me was feeding off my anger. I turned on some Simon and Garfunkel. It was my mom’s favorite. She would listen to them when she wanted to relax, and I needed to relax. My stomach muscles were in knots from being angry.

The pitter-patter of rain against the window took me by surprise. It was the first time it had rained since we moved. The rain would help the brown, withered plants get back some of their life. Hopefully, it would do the same for me. There were several claps of thunder off in the distance, and the rain intensified. I turned my music off so I could listen to the storm. When we lived in Oklahoma there were storms every night during the summer. They would put me to sleep.

I turned off my desk lamp, which was in front of my window, so I could see the lightning better. The thick, swirling black clouds that reached up to heaven rolled toward our house. It was getting darker outside. The storm rolled over the top of our house. The black clouds swirled around in the sky until it became pitch black. It was as dark as a starless night, and it was only 6:00 p.m.

The lightning lit up our small backyard and the woods lining it like fireworks on the Fourth of July. I noticed there was something just beyond the tree line. Another flash of light illuminated the tree line again, exposing two silhouettes. There were two people standing down in the trees. I knew somehow that these people, these spectators, were watching me. I didn’t know how or why I knew this.

My heart began to race. I wasn’t scared, but my body was reacting to the sight of them. A crooked, long bolt of lightning came racing out of the sky toward the two. Right as the lightning approached them, everything slowed down before me. It was like watching a movie in slow motion. I could see the lightning make its way slowly toward the ground with all of its jagged edges shooting off in different directions. The two disappeared back into the woods right as the lightning struck a tree near where they had been standing, shattering the tree, leaving only charred remains. I wanted to race into the woods after them to see who they were. But, my curiosity would have to wait because I had developed a sudden painful headache that made me dizzy. I crawled into bed to relax and recover, listening to the storm, wondering who they were. My head pounded.

ANGEL

CHAPTER SEVEN

T
he day of the scrimmage had arrived. I hurried and ate my lunch, which was of five-star restaurant quality.

“My scrimmage is at 1:00 p.m. at the high school,” I reminded Cora, who was sitting with me at the table.

“I know. I’ll be there,” she said, not looking away from her newspaper propped up in front of her.

“I just want to make sure that you don’t go to Moeller, because that’s where JV is playing.”

“I am well aware of where you are playing today.” I could tell that Cora was still unhappy, but I wasn’t going to worry about her because today was the day that I had been waiting for my whole life; I get to play in a football game just like my dad. He would have been so proud. His son was playing varsity.

“How are you getting to school?” Cora’s voice interrupted my daydream.

“Eric is picking me up,” I told her.

“Isn’t he on the JV squad?”

“Yes, but he has to take the bus to Moeller from the high school.”

“No, I meant is he old enough to have his license?”

“Yes, his birthday was in June.”

Cora went on reading, seeming to be content with Eric taking me to football. “So where are you meeting him?”

Two loud thuds came from the front door. I had told him where we lived. I had forgotten another one of our rules: never tell anyone where we live. I jumped up quickly to get out the door before I was scolded.

“Before you go, finish your juice. It’s hand-squeezed,” Cora said to me, pointing at the cup of juice. I drank it and quickly ran to the door.

“Nicholas, please do not tell anyone else where we live, and no more breaking the rules. Do I make myself clear?”

“I won’t. I’m sorry.”

“You better not or we will move. We can’t take any more risks.”

“Okay. See ya, Cor—Mom!” I shouted as I opened the door.

“Let’s go, Keller. I don’t want to be late.” Eric had on his green JV game jersey. I was wearing the gold game jersey that Coach Miller gave me.

“Nice jersey. I can’t believe you are playing with varsity. Well, I better get the big star to his debut.”

I opened the door to his old black VW Beetle, which was in mint condition. “I don’t think I’m actually going to play. I’m probably a backup just in case someone gets hurt.”

Eric smiled and turned up his car stereo. A new song came on the radio. “Keller is going to be a varsity rock star,” he sang, replacing the words with his own. It would have been annoying, but Eric was funny.

I got dressed in the pitiful JV locker room down the hall from the varsity locker room. It was weird being the only one in a gold jersey in a sea of green. Eric wouldn’t stop talking about me playing varsity.

“Dude, you are so lucky to be playing with varsity, and to think you are only a sophomore. No sophomore or freshman has ever played on varsity, not even Oliver. When Coach Miller started coaching he made the rule that no underclassman would play on varsity no matter what. It is going to piss off Oliver to see you playing varsity, which is awesome. You nailed him during tryouts, and now you are up on varsity. This can’t get any better. The only thing that would be better is if I could see his face when you walk into their locker room.”

I had noticed how much Eric liked to hear himself talk. I don’t think he needed to actually have anyone around him to talk, but unfortunately he had half of the locker room listening to his every word.

“Listen, it’s just a scrimmage,” I said, hoping to shut him up. Was Eric right? Was I really the first underclassman to play varsity? No way! There had to have been someone else.

Coach Hoff walked into the locker room wearing his typical short grey coaching shorts and his green polo shirt with clipboard in hand. “Let’s go, team, out to the bus. We leave in five.”

Everyone stood up and filed out. Eric was the last one through the doors and yelled back to me, “Hit some Moeller varsity chumps for me, Keller! See ya, star!”

I got up and headed toward the varsity locker room down the hallway. Coach Miller was standing outside of the locker room. He looked at me walking slowly.

“Keller, if you don’t hurry up, I am going to send your butt back to JV.” I jogged to where he was standing and walked through the double doors.

The entire team was sitting in plush green and gold chairs, watching one of the coaches drawing up plays on the chalkboard in the front. I walked along the wall to the back of the room. All eyes were on me. I searched for an empty chair in the back. Oliver didn’t look away until I was in the back and sat down. No one could stare at me all the way in the back, not even Oliver.

Looking around I realized that I had never been in the varsity locker room before. It was incredible. The school colors, green and gold, were everywhere. Each of the varsity players had his own polished green locker with his name engraved on a gold plaque above it. The lockers were big. I could stand in one easily with room to spare. The JV lockers were each the size of a small bread box. I could barely fit my clothes into them.

Instead of benches, each locker had its own green and gold chair. Throughout the locker room there were big flat screen TVs. I couldn’t believe that this was a high school locker room; it had to be a pro-football team locker room. The JV locker room looked like a janitor’s closet compared to this mecca of football. Now I knew why Eric couldn’t stop talking about me playing with varsity.

Coach Miller walked up to the front of the room. He talked about the defensive plan we were going to use against Moeller. Coach Miller had been the head coach for the last thirty years and had won seventeen division championships and eight state championships. Cora had given me the run down about the football program and Coach Miller after I made the team.

Coach Miller is a legend in Winsor and the whole state of Illinois. He was the only shining star on Winsor’s team when he was in high school. He set a bunch of state records himself. He was offered dozens of scholarships to most of the college football powerhouses around the country to play linebacker, but he turned them all down. His dad wasn’t well and his mom had died years earlier, so he decided to stay close to his dad. He worked at the local apple farm, and most importantly, he joined the volunteer fire department. Winsor only had a volunteer fire department because of how small the town was back then. While serving at the fire department, he saved dozens of people from fires. So not only is he a legend, but a true hero.

Coach Miller continued drawing elaborate defensive plays, which I didn’t understand at all. JV taught me the basics and I barely understood those. After fifteen minutes of talking, Coach Miller abruptly went down on one knee and bowed his head, looking at the ground. The room went quiet and everyone bowed their heads, too. I watched him intently, not knowing what he was doing, but as quickly as he went down on one knee, he was back standing on his feet.