Chapter 18

It was Hodgen week. For the people of the small town of Petros, that was all it took. There was a different feel in the air and not because the temperature was slightly cooler. The excitement was building, even thought everybody expected the game to be a mismatch since the Bulldogs were undefeated and Petros was winless.

This was as big a rivalry as there was in the state. Even though Hodgen dominated, it didn’t lessen the excitement or intensity. The two towns were only ten miles away, just a short trip down the highway. Hodgen always pictured itself as the better place since it was bigger and more refined. It was the county seat, had the hospital, more businesses, shopping (especially with the Wal-Mart Supercenter), industry, jobs, pretty houses and most everything else.

The people of Hodgen tended to look down their noses at the residents of Petros, feeling like it was a little place that wasn’t worthy of being mentioned in the same sentence.

Many Petros residents worked in Hodgen, but didn’t share the belief Hodgen was such a great place. They believed Petros was a much better place to live, a close-knit community where everybody looked out for everybody else.

One thorn in Cole’s side was that in all the years he coached Petros, the Panthers never beat Hodgen in football. There had been some close games, but the Bulldogs wound up winning. The Panthers won some games in basketball and baseball, although few and far between.

In football, the blowout from the year before still stung. While Cole never voiced it, he felt the Bulldogs ran up the score, keeping the starters in until halfway through the final quarter even with a huge lead.

Hodgen was good last year, but was much better this year. The Bulldogs returned most of their key players, especially at the skill positions. They were ranked third in Class 4A, two classes above Petros, and were 2-0 on the season, winning both games by over four touchdowns without allowing an opponent to score.

Cole knew the Bulldogs were big, strong, fast and mean, the toughest team Petros would face. Hodgen was also a little dirty, something that had gotten worse as the years went by.

With the games growing so intense and the number of problems from off-field activities the week of the game, some of the administrators had talked about ending the rivalry, especially since it had gotten so one-sided. Plus, since the games were so physical, both teams frequently lost players that hurt them later in the season.

But as long as Cole coached at Petros, he would play Hodgen. He knew someday and somehow, that first win would come. It might even be this year. Cole just hoped to get that win quick, knowing Hodgen might cancel the game to play bigger schools. Although Cole knew the revenue from this game was the biggest of the year for both schools. Almost everybody in the two towns came to the game, a crowd that would be standing-room only hours before kickoff.

Cole had gotten his scouting report from Lance and watched some film of Hodgen, but already had a good idea what to expect. The Bulldogs ran the old wing-T formation, seldom passed and tried to pound the opponents into submission with their huge line and big, strong running backs.

Hodgen was never the fastest team Petros played, and that was one area where the Panthers might have an edge. It wouldn’t matter, though, unless the line could block the Bulldogs, something that had not happened lately.

Interest in the game was so high it was the main topic throughout both communities, every conversation seeming to drift over to the game.

The Panthers would make the short trip this year. It was not your typical road game. While the game was at Hodgen, the Panthers would have almost as many fans, and more enthusiastic ones.

One good thing for the Panthers about having the game this week was it shifted the focus from the disappointment of Friday’s loss to Reichert. Cole also watched film of that game, and felt a little better afterwards, now convinced the effort in the second half wasn’t all that bad, a lot of the problems were attributed to Reichert’s play.

Cole avoided people as much as possible, not really wanting to talk about the Reichert game or if this was the year Petros would end the streak by beating Hodgen.

He knew people didn’t mean anything by it, just knew it was because of the great interest in this monster Cole helped create that was Petros football. But all he knew was his team needed something to turn this season around. Cole had gone through all the losing he could handle and knew it was time to make changes.

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Probably the only one suffering as much as Cole was Lucky. He had already lost more games in one year than in all his years of playing football.

He had played most of the game against Reichert on defense and felt like his performance was okay, nothing spectacular. Lucky hadn’t made any mistakes that contributed to scores, and for that he was grateful.

One thing he discovered was high school football was tougher than expected. Lucky had always been better than everybody and able to dominate. That hadn’t been the case this year, as he was just another player so far.

With Hodgen next on the schedule, Lucky knew there was a good chance the Panthers would lose another game and fall to 0-3. Then people would really be griping about his father and the football team. He had already heard some talk among his teammates, grumbling about the team and how there needed to be some changes.

It had only been a few of the guys and nobody told him it might be time for a new coach, which was good since it would take the entire Petros police force to pull him off anybody saying that.

He and his best buds, D.J., Happy and Andy Tolbert were at the field, playing catch. Lucky was uncomfortable lately hanging out with his friends as it seemed like Gabby showed up wherever they went and always tried talking to him. This made Lucky feel strange and usually made him leave early.

Lucky was cordial, as she had never done anything to him. But he preferred not spending time around her. He had no idea what caused these feelings, just wished they would go away.

He had never been around anybody so cheerful, and would catch himself smiling and staring at her, not a good thing when she was seeing one of his friends.

They were playing a game where everybody got to rotate and play quarterback, receiver and defensive back. It got their minds off the loss to Reichert and helped them remember how fun it was to play ball when winning and losing wasn’t the most important part.

Happy and Andy couldn’t cover Lucky or D.J. They could cover each other but didn’t have the speed to stay with the other two. Everybody could cover Happy. The more Andy learned, the harder it was to cover him. Andy was starting to catch on to the routes and tricks. He seemed to run as fast as needed, his long legs gliding gracefully to run down passes, then swallowing up the ball with those huge hands.

They weren’t the only ones to notice. Cole was sitting at the desk in his office, watching the boys out the window. He was intrigued, noticing how hard it was for anybody to stop Andy from catching passes.

Cole knew Andy still had some rough edges, but had a lot of talent and was a good athlete. The biggest problem for Petros’ coach was his current starting quarterback didn’t seem able to get the ball to the receivers. But that was fixing to change.

As he watched the boys play and have fun, a smile formed on Cole’s face. The boys were just being boys, not worrying about anything other than having a good time. The three of them always spent so much time together and were best friends, and now Andy seemed to be fitting right in.

Cole saw it was Lucky’s turn at quarterback. His son dropped back a few steps, watching Andy try to beat D.J. and Happy, who were covering him.

Andy was running even with D.J. They left Happy behind quickly. Lucky let loose with a rocket, a pass that never got over eight-feet high as it cut through the air during the thirty yards to Andy, who caught the pass in stride, using his body to shield off D.J.

The more he watched, the more Cole questioned his thinking. He wanted to give Gary a shot since he was a senior, but it was obvious the offense wasn’t going anywhere with him. Cole knew there was another quarterback with all the tools sitting on the bench because the coach didn’t want anybody thinking he was playing favorites.

Cole sat in his chair, leaning back and staring out the window. He knew that wasn’t the right thing to do. You had to have a tough skin to be a coach, willing to do what was best for the team. The heck with controversy, Cole decided. His job was to make this team the best possible and he hadn’t done that.

He decided to start Gary and give him another shot against Hodgen. But if the offense struggled again, it would be time for a change.

After they finished playing their game, Gabby pulled up in the parking lot. They loaded up in Gabby’s car and went to the Downtown Café, where most of the high-school kids hung out.

D.J. had to go home, leaving Lucky, Andy, Happy and Gabby. There was a small crowd at the Café. A song was playing on the jukebox, one just getting popular in Petros while losing steam everywhere else. There was a pool table in the back room and the sound of pool balls hitting each other could be heard above the music.

There were several booths lined up against the outside windows with tables scattered around the interior, just enough room separating them for people to walk through. They got a booth on the left wall, the one farthest from the door. They walked to it and Andy and Happy climbed in one side together, forcing Lucky to sit next to Gabby, who had gone to the restroom.

Lucky got in first and wanted to ask if they would change seats, but knew that would sound silly.

He slid over as close to the wall as possible. Gabby came to the table and slid in the seat, her momentum carrying her next to him. She still sat right next to him, her body touching him, even though there was room for her to scoot over to the outside of the seat. Lucky felt her against him and smelled her perfume. Goosebumps broke out all over his arms and legs.

“Are you cold?” she asked, looking at his arms.

“Yeah,” Lucky answered.

He wished she would scoot over, but also liked being so close.

The waitress took their orders, left and returned in a couple of minutes with their drinks. Happy was the only one who was hungry, no surprise since he seemed to be hungry every minute of every day.

Happy ordered a double cheeseburger, cheesefries and a corndog. Everybody else just ordered something to drink.

“You hungry?” Andy asked.

“Nope,” Happy responded. “Just a little snack.”

They talked a lot about nothing, mainly about school, classmates and everything other than Petros football.

Happy enjoyed teasing Gabby, even though it seldom got to her.

“You seem a lot happier now,” he told her.

“What do you mean?” she asked, taking a drink from her straw.

“Now D.J.’s not here.”

“That’s not true.”

“Yeah, it is,” Andy chipped in.

“You guys don’t know what you’re saying,” she protested. “Do they Lucky?”

He shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to get involved.

“You guys are full of it,” Gabby stated. “I don’t see any girls chasing after you, Andy, and Happy will have to go somewhere else to get a girlfriend because all the girls here know what he’s like.”

The food came and Happy attacked it like he had not ate in days. The cheese fries were the first to go, especially the really cheesy ones.

“Y’all want some?” he asked, his mouth so full it was hard to tell what was said.

They watched with a touch of disgust, not used to seeing anything other than pigs eat in this manner.

“Not now,” Gabby managed to say. “You ate all the good ones.”

“Sorry.” Happy smiled with cheese covering a large part of his face, his mouth open just enough so it was easy to see the gob of food inside. “You should’ve ordered some.”

Happy wiped his hands on his shirt, leaving big, yellow streaks.

“We just wanted to eat your fries,” she pointed out, grabbed a napkin and tried handing it to him. “Here, most people wipe their hands with this instead of their clothes.”

He dropped the napkin next to his plate and turned his attention to the massive cheeseburger waiting for him, so big it practically took up most of the plate. Happy tore into it, the first bite tearing away at least a third. He sloshed it down with a drink, barely taking time to chew before swallowing.

Gabby watched in disgust. Lucky and Andy had seen him eat before and were used to it. At least used to it enough to know they didn’t want to watch.

“Andy, I know I’ve never told you,” Gabby said, “but I’m really glad you’re my brother instead of Happy.”

They all laughed, except for Happy. He really didn’t understand what she meant, not that it bothered him. The only thing Happy was thinking about was finishing off his cheeseburger, now reduced by another third with his second bite.

Another drink and Happy took the final third and shoved it down the funnel, the bite so big his lips had to stretch out farther than anybody thought was possible.

“Does he always eat like that?” she asked.

“Usually it’s worse,” Lucky answered. “Haven’t you noticed nobody sits next to him in the cafeteria? When he really gets going, food starts flying and he’ll start eating off other people’s plates without asking. The cafeteria crew hate to clean up after him cause it looks like there’s been a bunch of pigs in the slop.”

Happy wanted to come back with some witty comment but his mouth was too full. He finally managed to swallow the rest of his burger, causing a huge lump to go down his throat, much like a snake does after it eats a rat.

He drained the last of his pop and let out a burp that could be heard back in the poolroom.

“Now that was good manners,” Gabby mentioned with a touch of disgust, wishing everybody wasn’t staring at them.

“Nope, not bad manners,” Happy responded, grabbed his corn dog and dipped it in a small bowl of mustard. “Good food. Come on, Andy. Let’s go shoot some pool. I’ve had enough of your sister for a while.”

“At least you don’t have to live with her,” Andy pointed out.

They got out of the booth and started walking back toward the poolroom. Lucky almost swallowed his straw, watching his friends leave, forcing him to stay with her. Alone with her! He wanted to protest this wasn’t fair and get out of there but knew that would be rather silly.

She looked at him and smiled, forcing his heart to skip several beats.

“Want something to eat?” she asked.

“Uh, no thanks,” he replied, speaking so softly she barely heard him.

“Has Happy always been like this?”

“Yeah,” Lucky answered, smiling, even though he did feel uncomfortable. “He’s pretty disgusting.”

She continued making small talk, still sitting right next to him in the booth. He stared at the empty seat across from them, wishing for the opportunity to move. It just didn’t look right and he didn’t want anybody thinking he was hitting on her.

Lucky said something funny and she laughed, putting her hand on his arm and leaning closer. Her leg was pressed against his and while this was almost more than he could handle, Lucky also wished they could stay like this for a long time.

She removed her hand from his arm, almost like Gabby realized that was probably not a good idea, especially after her hand started going up and down his arm. Lucky noticed this and was so stunned he couldn’t speak.

“Sorry,” she said.

Lucky nodded, since his vocal box wasn’t responding.

“Are you seeing anybody?” she asked.

Lucky shook his head, his face getting even redder.

“I’m surprised,” Gabby added. “You should be able to date whoever you wanted.”

Lucky wanted to say the only one he really wanted to date was already seeing one of his best friends, but didn’t think that would go over very well.

“Isn’t there anybody you like?” she asked.

Lucky looked right into her eyes and shrugged.

“Nobody?” Gabby asked, smiling like she knew the answer but wanted to hear him say it.

“I’m going solo,” Lucky answered, avoiding the correct answer. He could still smell the perfume and looked back at her, their eyes locked together.

Lucky had no idea how long they were like this, just knew it was broken up when Andy and Happy came walking back and sat down. It was time to leave as there was only an hour before church and they needed to get ready.

She looked at him one final time, smiled and slid out of the booth. Lucky sighed and followed, wishing they didn’t have to leave.

Chapter 19