Missed Signals
G. Younger
A Better Man: Missed Signals
An ‘A Better Man’ Story
First Edition: November 12, 2022
Copyright ©2022 G. Younger
ISBN-13: 978-1-955699-06-8
Author: Greg Younger
Editing Staff: Bud Ugly, Old Rotorhead, Rusty, TheMikeBomb, XofDallas, and Zom
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
All characters depicted in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Table of Contents:
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Notes from the Author
Prologue
Lexi
“We want to welcome Lexi Andon, David A. Dawson’s personal assistant. Unfortunately, Mr. Dawson is unable to be here today, so we got the next best thing,” Cassie Krieger of In The Know announced to her TV audience.
Lexi let a trace of irritation touch her eyes at the backhanded slam. Many people underestimated Lexi because of her youth and good looks. It was an easy mistake to make in Hollywood because there were beautiful men and women everywhere you turned.
People often forgot that her father was Paul Andon, an executive at one of the largest film companies in the world. They’d been responsible for the Star Academy movie franchise David was currently starring in. Lexi wasn’t a typical Hollywood kid, off in their own world; she’d paid attention to the details of her father’s work. But hardly anyone knew that about her.
Lexi had made up her mind not to use her dad’s influence to make her career. Instead, as soon as she graduated high school, she set her eyes on one of the most promising young actors to hit Hollywood in recent years: David A. Dawson. She planned to leverage working for him into bigger and better opportunities.
“David sends his regrets. He’s currently in New Zealand, wrapping up the filming of his most recent Star Academy movie,” Lexi answered with her best smile.
“It sounds like David has been busy.”
“Yes, he has. Besides wrapping the next two Star Academy movies, he recently finished filming his part in the upcoming James Bond movie, Devil May Care. In that one, he plays James’s son, Ian Bond,” Lexi related.
“I think we have a clip,” Cassie said.
“Yes, we do. This is the first time anything has been released to the public. Ian comes upon a terrorist attack in this segment,” Lexi said to set up the scene for the viewing audience.
They showed the clip. When it started, Lexi couldn’t help admiring David. There was a reason he’d recently been named one of the sexiest up-and-coming actors in Hollywood. He’d gotten his start modeling while still in high school. David was six-four with a body that made women swoon.
One of Lexi’s favorite pastimes was sitting back and watching women either check him out or fall all over themselves trying to get his attention. David amazed her with how he took it all in stride and ignored their antics, for the most part. He was too focused to be distracted. It took quite a lot for someone to catch his attention.
What amazed Lexi even more was David was never rude or dismissive. He always made time for people but remained firm in his refusals. It was hard to pull off and not have women feel rejected or mad when David didn’t succumb to their advances. He had a flair and quiet authority about him that somehow made it okay.
The scene began with David in running clothes, jogging in London. Suddenly, there came the sound of an explosion, prompting him to set off toward it at top speed. David reached the iconic Tower Bridge over the River Thames, where he found a scene of chaos. A double-decker bus was in flames, and traffic was beginning to pile up.
Suddenly, a second explosion rocked the bridge. People began to jump out of their cars and run away from the carnage. David fought his way through the utter chaos.
As he made his way through the madness, a cutaway scene showed another bomb. When the camera switched back to David, he spotted it.
“Run!” he screamed as the bomb detonated to end the scene.
“Oh, my. That looks exciting,” Cassie observed and then turned back to her guest.
“It does have a lot of action in it, as you would expect of a James Bond film.”
Cassie smiled and then got a serious look. Lexi knew what was coming next and prepared herself not to react if Cassie asked her something outrageous. David’s main PR man, Frank Ingram, had given her a set of talking points to help her navigate an interview like this.
“Tell me about what happened in India. I understand David refused to film there,” Cassie said, digging for dirt.
Lexi kept her composure as she felt some relief; she’d been prepped for this question. She sent a silent word of thanks to Frank and his team. Lexi paused a moment to show thoughtful contemplation, another trick Frank had taught her. It kept her from rushing her answer. Frank had pointed out that pacing was necessary when building trust with your audience. He said it showed she was confident.
“They’d planned to film in northern India. I understand it’s beautiful and would have made an excellent backdrop for the film. David began to be concerned when he did his homework on the region. He ran across an article that discussed births in the area where they intended to film. During one time period described, there were 216 children born in several neighboring villages. Not a single one was a girl.
“It raised the question: was this a fluke occurrence or something more sinister? David asked me to look into it,” Lexi said.
“What did you find?” Cassie asked as she leaned forward in interest.
It was one thing to watch someone like David give an interview and know what he was doing and another for Lexi to pull it off. She found being the one on stage to be much harder than she’d realized. She needed to tell a story, one that was engaging and held the audience’s interest.
“Many Indian families live in poverty. For them, boys are deemed more desirable since they are considered the main breadwinners. Families choose to never have girls because they are considered a burden. Indian baby girls are being aborted solely because of their gender,” Lexi explained.
Cassie gave her a shocked look. Living where they did made it easy to forget the reality of true abject poverty. What seemed deplorable to the average person could make perfect sense if you were going to bed hungry at night. Frank had assured her it was okay to show outrage but not go over the top with it.
“Isn’t that illegal?” Cassie asked.
“India made it illegal in 1994, but the practice still persists.”
“Wasn’t there another concern that put a stop to filming in India?”
Lexi looked at the camera and grimaced. This part genuinely disturbed her. In her mind, she could come up with no justification for what happened.
“There was an incident. There are nomadic tribes in the area where we planned to film. The local population was a different religion from the nomads, which caused tensions,” Lexi said to set the stage.
“What happened?” Cassie prodded when Lexi paused.
“An eight-year-old girl left her nomad camp to tend the horses, and she went missing. They found her body a week later. An investigation discovered she’d been taken to a small temple, drugged, raped for five days by a group of men, and then killed with a rock.
“When David heard about it, he told Chubby Feldman, the director. Chubby looked into it and agreed they would have to find another location to film. Neither the studio nor David wanted to have that taint the movie. I was glad they made the right decision,” Lexi said with conviction.
“That’s terrible,” Cassie admitted and then switched gears. “David is one of the most eligible bachelors in Hollywood, yet we haven’t heard a peep about a love interest.”
Lexi choked back a laugh because she was astounded. She’d just described a horrific event, but Cassie showed no interest in digging deeper. Frank had a term for it: ‘NIMBY,’ or ‘Not In My Back Yard.’ If it didn’t affect someone directly, they could just brush it off and ignore it.
Cassie had just shown Lexi that she wasn’t a serious journalist. In truth, though, Lexi didn’t expect anything more of Cassie, given her position on a show like In The Know. They were geared toward reporting the latest starlet exposing herself while getting out of a car, or a pop star getting drunk and making an ass of him or herself. So, switching to David’s love life fit better with their usual fare.
David hadn’t been linked with anyone on set because Lexi had hooked up with him. She’d made it clear that they were both young, good-looking, and had needs. They were to both understand that it was nothing more, just a hookup.
It wasn’t as if others hadn’t offered David similar opportunities. Both his publicist and agent had made it clear to David that if he wanted to maintain his ‘All-American Boy’ image, he shouldn’t be seen acting like a typical Hollywood douche. It was bad enough that he’d had five children before graduating high school.
Granted, one of those was adopted, but the optics were still far from ideal.
On a football recruiting trip, he met a young lady at the campus check-in. He asked her to show him around campus and go to dinner with him. David and a few of his fellow recruits went out as a group, accompanied by some sorority sisters of the girl in question.
It was all pretty innocent until the second night when the girl invited David to fulfill one of her sorority sisters’ fantasies. That night, he spent quality time with both the girl he’d asked out the day before and her sorority sister. Nine months later, one of them ended up having twin boys and the other a baby girl. They held off telling David about the children until after they’d been born.
In the meantime, he’d gotten a classmate pregnant, and she’d given birth to a little boy.
David, being the person he was, hadn’t shirked his responsibilities. He had a healthy family support system, and his parents had stepped in to help raise the children.
The fifth child was that of a friend who found herself in a tough predicament. She and David had dated for a while. She’d broken up with him and taken up with another guy who got her pregnant with a boy just as they were preparing to go off to college. The father signed away his parental rights, not wanting to have anything to do with having a baby at such a young age.
Since her parents wouldn’t support her, David and his family opened their doors and let the girl and her son move in with them. They gave her a job as a childcare helper, which allowed her to take college classes. From the beginning, David always treated her son as one of his own, and he’d made it official the previous spring by adopting the boy.
Now he had all his children under one roof in his new home in Malibu.
“The poor guy’s schedule has been bananas. He’s been working nonstop since the middle of May when filming started on the James Bond movie. Immediately after that, in August, he flew off to New Zealand and Australia to film the next two Star Academy films. Because of the compressed schedules for filming, he’s often been on set eighteen hours or more a day. I challenge anyone to find time for a love life when that’s happening,” Lexi said to deflect the question.
“Well, that’s understandable. But why is his schedule so compressed?”
When David agreed to film the movies, he’d elected to bypass his first semester of college. It would have been a deal-breaker to miss the second semester.
“He did it to fit his college plans. He’ll enroll at the University of Oklahoma for the spring semester in just a few weeks.”
“Does he still plan to play football?” Cassie asked.
“That, and baseball.”
David had been one of the top recruits for both sports coming out of high school.
“Will he continue to act while in school?” Cassie dug.
Lexi had to admit that Cassie had finally asked a good question.
“He did get a waiver from the NCAA, but he has no plans to act while he’s in college. He’ll focus on getting his degree and playing ball. David wants to be a normal student-athlete,” Lexi answered.
Getting the NCAA waiver had been touch-and-go. The NCAA and its member institutions wanted to control the image rights of their student-athletes. With the help of his legal team, David had reached an agreement with the NCAA powers-that-be. His being a model and actor had been a sticking point for his eligibility.
The NCAA had specific rules precluding such activities. They contended that student-athletes gained the fame that made them marketable from their athletic endeavors. The schools provided training and opportunity, so the schools should be the ones to reap the benefits. But unlike most student-athletes, David had garnered his marketability before entering college. The NCAA recognized that fact and, in the end, provided him with a waiver.
Then came the fly in the ointment. A shoe company and a university had each approached David and two of his teammates with money if they would go to that school. David reported the entire scheme, which turned into a mess.
The NCAA investigator, Stewart Chadwick, wanted David to conduct further meetings with the bad actors, to the point of committing to the school. Chadwick expected that would help the NCAA get the goods on them. Unlike the FBI, the NCAA couldn’t compel people to talk, so they had to find other ways to gather evidence. The investigator was trying to do an end-around, but in the process could have seriously jeopardized David’s sports career.
‘Fat chance of that,’ Lexi thought with smug satisfaction. David had refused.
Chadwick tried to coerce David into cooperating. He threatened to pull David’s eligibility and waiver if David didn’t help him. David called his bluff and found himself ineligible for a while.
The NCAA and Chadwick didn’t know that, in addition to reporting the incident to them, David had talked to the FBI. The feds were in the process of building cases against various shoe companies for offering money to high school athletes to attend colleges they sponsored. However, no one but the FBI was privy to that information. It turned out the FBI was more interested in basketball recruiting, so they’d shelved David’s case.
David and his legal team arranged a meeting with the NCAA to work out his issues. The meeting was hijacked by the FBI, and the NCAA was forced to back off. The FBI didn’t want it made public that they were investigating shoe companies. They suggested the NCAA might want to reinstate David’s eligibility. The NCAA acquiesced but had slow-walked the waiver to allow him his name, image, and likeness rights, also known as NIL rights.
The FBI had moved on the shoe companies while David was filming in New Zealand. When the story broke, the NCAA feared that David would reveal that they’d known about the investigation and had done nothing. So they finally came to their senses and gave him the waivers he needed to promote his films. The agreements contained a lot of legal verbiage indicating that the waivers were an exception to their rules due to his unique history.
On top of that, the NCAA had dragged its feet because it faced legislation in several states that would negate one of its long-standing rules. Those laws would allow student-athletes to control their NIL rights and enable them to earn money through advertising, appearances, and the like. It might also mean they would get paid for jersey sales and other items that the universities controlled. If the market truly opened, the NCAA’s member institutions might take massive financial hits.
“But I’d understood that Lucasfilm approached him about doing the new Star Wars movie. What’s going on with that?” Cassie asked.
Lexi bit her tongue because Cassie had been on the cusp of uncovering what had happened behind the scenes at big-time football schools. Instead, she returned to more familiar topics.
In fact, David did win the role of young Han Solo but turned it down because it would have meant leaving high school to film it. His agent, Saul Gessler, hadn’t been happy when David made that decision.
But then the Star Wars movie had tanked relatively badly compared to the other films in the franchise. And David then won his Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Royal Palm. That was followed shortly by his filming the James Bond and Star Academy movies. Saul had pushed for David to skip college and act full-time, but David declined.
Saul had gone behind David’s back to see if Disney/Lucasfilm were interested in his client doing another project. David had been furious and fired Saul. Frank said he suspected that Saul had leaked the information as a parting f-you.
“Like I said, David’s made it clear that he wants to focus on his family and school for now. After college, he’ll see if there’s still interest in him as an actor. Then again, he might just play football or baseball,” Lexi explained.
“You can let him know that we’ll miss him on the big screen, and he needs to hurry and get back to acting,” Cassie said.
“I’ll tell him, but remember, you won’t be missing him for long,” Lexi assured her. “The three movies are due out this year. The first will be Devil May Care this Memorial Day, followed by the second in the Star Academy series around the fourth of July. And the last film in the Star Academy trilogy will be out around Christmastime.”
“What about you? Will you still be David’s personal assistant while he’s in college?”
Lexi wondered about that herself.
Everything had been perfect while filming; she’d made herself indispensable to him. She organized and catered to his every need so he could focus on his craft. He’d said many times that she was the best PA he ever had.
In retrospect, Lexi had to admit to herself that hooking up probably hadn’t been the best decision. She found herself in David’s bed most nights. In her fantasy world, that would have continued, but he’d made it clear from the start that it didn’t mean anything.
Lexi had made the mistake of announcing she loved him during a particularly nice orgasm a week before. After that, David had pulled back.
He’d suggested she probably should head back to LA since they were wrapping up the shoot. She found herself on a flight home the next day.
Kent, her boss, had been happy to have her back. He wanted to dump the management company’s problem child, Chloe Larkin, back in her lap. Chloe was mentally unstable but was currently a key figure in a highly rated TV series. One of the benefits of going overseas with David was Lexi had been able to fob the nutjob off onto one of her colleagues. Chloe required almost 24/7 babysitting to keep her from doing crazy stuff that would get her into the gossip rags.
So far, Lexi had fended Kent off by saying she needed a vacation.
“I’m back in LA. I’m sure I’ll still help David out as needed, but I’ll have other clients to keep me busy.”
Kent gave her the alternative of taking time off to go to college to get her degree. The company did more than PA work; they also helped celebrities manage all aspects of their lives. To do that effectively, she could really use a college degree.
Lexi’s long-term plan was to get into management at a studio, so she leaned towards going to school. If nothing else, it would make her parents happy.
“Thank you for stopping by today and giving us the scoop on what David A. Dawson is up to. Maybe you can talk him into visiting with us when he gets back into town,” Cassie said.
‘I doubt he’ll show up,’ Lexi thought but plastered a smile on her face.
“I’ll let him know.”
Cassie seemed happy, so Lexi was able to make her escape. David was going to owe her for this one.
◊◊◊
Chapter 1
David
Tim, Wolf, and David were sixteen hours into their seventeen-hour flight from New Zealand to Norman, Oklahoma, home to the University of Oklahoma. That was where they planned to go to school and play football.
“Can you imagine if we’d tried to do this via a commercial flight?” Tim asked.
“I’d rather not. With my luck, there would’ve been some little kid behind me, either screaming or kicking my seat the whole way,” Wolf replied.
Their original flight to New Zealand had been a nightmare. Tim and Wolf flew out in June—nearly three months before David arrived—to help set up and start filming the last two films in the Star Academy trilogy. David had been in Europe shooting the latest James Bond offering. Without David along, they were stuck flying commercial. For the flight home, the studio sprang for a private jet.
“I don’t think they allow rug-rats in first class,” David said with a bit of a smirk.
“Whatever,” Wolf said, not taking the bait.
David had gotten his two best friends jobs with the Star Academy production crew. The financial windfall was enough for Tim and Wolf to decide to gray-shirt and enroll for the spring semester instead of the fall. They’d found themselves with a lot more free time than David and were able to enjoy traveling all over Australia and New Zealand.
The copilot emerged from the cockpit.
“The tower in Norman asked me to tell you that Coach Michaels will be there to meet you. I let them know we’re still on schedule.”
“What time is it here?” Tim asked.
The copilot looked at his watch.
“It’s nineteen hours behind Auckland … which would make it two-thirty, local time,” he said and then walked back up front.
“We didn’t rate the head coach when we came for our recruiting trip. Why do you think he’s meeting us today?” Wolf asked.
David had caught that, too.
“I dunno. I can think of a couple of possibilities, but it’s hard to say why he might do that.”
One possibility was that their Heisman-winning quarterback, Hayden Walsh, had announced plans to go pro. The coach might be greeting them to jumpstart David on his quest to lead the Sooners as next year’s quarterback. David had been rated the number one recruit his senior year and chose Oklahoma specifically to win national championships.
But in the back of his mind, he didn’t think the head coach would be there when one of his staff could have handled it.
“Oh, well, I guess we’ll find out soon enough,” David said.
“Before we left, I got confirmation we got a triple in Headington Hall,” Tim said.
“I got that, too. Did you get yours?” Wolf asked David.
David shrugged.
“I’m not sure. Lexi handled that stuff.”
“Not that I’m complaining, but why did she go home a week early?” Tim asked.
Lexi acted as his gatekeeper, sometimes to his detriment. She’d pissed off his friends more than once when she stopped them from ‘bothering’ him. Tim and Wolf had admitted to each other, though, that with the compressed filming schedule, the studios had run David ragged. He’d been lucky if he got five hours of sleep on any given evening.
Not that David was afraid to work hard. He’d put in more hours than anyone he knew of during high school to become an elite quarterback and baseball player. He was almost invariably up at the crack of dawn, hitting the pavement running when most everyone else remained snug in their bed.
But the past half year had been nonstop. If not for Lexi taking care of him, David couldn’t imagine how he would have survived. She made sure he was where he needed to be when he needed to be there. And she’d been tasked by David and others, including the director, with keeping all distractions away from him. That sometimes meant his friends and family found themselves blocked in their efforts to get hold of him.
David grinned as he reminisced about the time Lexi learned that her gatekeeper duties didn’t apply to his mom. All his friends loved his mom but knew to never cross her. In David’s junior year, she actually dragged his former best friend Alan out of the stands by his ear at a baseball game when he defied her.
It hadn’t taken long for everyone to figure out that if they really must talk to David, they should have his mom call. In fact, Lexi even interrupted filming one day when she called. That Lexi was more afraid of David’s mom than of Chubby Feldman, the legendary action director who’d filmed the James Bond movie, said a lot about David’s mom. When Chubby started to object, Lexi simply told him it was David’s mom. They’d been lucky that Chubby found it amusing.
“We were almost finished, and she’d done such a good job that I decided to reward her and let her go home early,” David explained.
Tim and Wolf looked at each other.
“I call bullshit,” Wolf said.
“He’s right. It must have been more than that because you were lost without her to boss you around,” Tim agreed.
“She said she loved me,” David confessed.
They both looked as confused as he’d felt for the last week. If he’d known that might happen, he would never have gone along with Lexi’s scheme to hook up. She’d made a convincing argument. Instead of him romantically linking up with another actor on set in stereotypical Hollywood fashion, she would fulfill his sexual needs.
Lexi had sold it as a way to prevent any friction on the set if things went south. She reminded David of what happened in the romantic comedy he’d been in, Love Letters. The two leads, Halle James and Ben Doman, became interested in each other. Halle was one of David’s best friends. He’d warned her that Ben was also dating Isabel Alexandra, the smoking-hot actor of Baywatch fame. It turned out David was right; Ben never intended to leave Isabel. The results were not good when Halle finally realized Ben wasn’t the best idea she’d ever come up with.
There were many other instances where such relationships caused problems, so David finally relented. It didn’t hurt that Lexi was his type: tall, smart, and athletic, with model-quality looks. On top of that, sex with her was more than satisfactory, and that was selling it short. Between the sheets, they clicked.
The final reason David accepted was that Lexi and he had a history. When they first met, he’d been convinced she epitomized the typical ‘mean girl.’ Numerous people who had a history with her warned him to be careful. Even when David first hired Lexi, he’d been cautious.
Then she’d made it her mission to prove him wrong. Despite a few rough patches, all in all, she’d done an excellent job as his PA. After a while, David came to think of Lexi as an integral part of his team. Sort of his Girl Friday, who just happened to be there for him in more ways than probably appropriate.
When Lexi said she loved him after the last time they’d made love, David panicked. He was of two minds. David once had a girlfriend explain to him that if you said you loved someone within 48 hours of sex, it didn’t count. A good orgasm didn’t make much of a foundation for love, so it was possible she didn’t mean it.
The other possibility was why he’d sent Lexi home: she really might have meant it. The honest-to-God truth was he’d never made the cognitive leap to even entertain the possibility. He’d realized that if two people worked together as closely as they had, day in and day out, for seven months, feelings might develop.
What made him even more skittish around Lexi was yet a third possibility, something his Uncle John had explained to him. It concerned something called ‘grooming,’ a process done in stages to tie a person to someone else. In its most insidious form, predators used it to lure underage children.
The stages include targeting the victim, then building trust; filling a need or finding something missing in the target’s life and providing it; creating a ‘special’ relationship; introducing sex; and finally, reinforcing the connection. The same steps could be applied to dating, but the difference was the intent.
David recognized that Lexi had, intentionally or not, accomplished each of those steps. If so many people hadn’t warned him about her, he would probably have never doubted her actions. In the back of his mind, though, David knew Lexi was smart enough to con him. He’d already seen her fake crying on demand to get her way.
If it had been anyone else, he would have taken the declaration at face value. In the light of day, he’d connected the dots: they were about to wrap up filming, Lexi would be going back to LA, and he would be going to college. Was her announcement of love a way to bind them closer together?
At the time, David almost instantly decided that if he harbored those kinds of doubts, then he didn’t want her as a distraction on set. There was still work for David to do. If she’d stayed there, he would have been focused on trying to figure out if she really meant it or not, rather than on making a quality film.
The big question now was … what if she did? What if she really loved him?
“That is an epic bad idea,” Tim said.
“Almost as bad as when you thought you could sleep with an entire women’s volleyball team,” Wolf reminded Tim.
That memory brought David out of his Lexi funk. There’d been a women’s volleyball team staying at one of the hotels the guys had been at. The first night, Tim got lucky and brought one home. His lucky streak lasted three nights, with a different girl each night. There’d been a lot of alcohol involved, and sound judgment was nowhere in sight.
On the fourth night, each of the three girls figured out about the other two. Wolf sent David a video of them going at each other in a pub. Tim made his next big mistake when he decided he should be the peacemaker.
The three girls’ focus suddenly turned from each other to Tim. He’d ended up with a pitcher of beer on his head, several lumps, and a cut over his eye. Then the girls thoroughly and loudly listed his shortcomings as a man for all to hear.
Back in their hotel room, after Wolf and David spent some time doing what they could for Tim’s bruises and abrasions, the guys reflected on what had happened. The three of them concluded that if something of the sort ever occurred again, it would be best to just leave.
“Why do you think I sent Lexi home? I don’t have time for girls right now,” David said.
“Says the man who has a hot stripper waiting for him when he gets to school,” Tim rejoined.
David sometimes wondered why he had friends.
The three of them had taken a recruiting trip to Oklahoma during their senior year of high school. The university’s then-starting quarterback, Hayden Walsh, acted as their guide for the day. He took the three boys to a gentlemen’s club near the campus, where they witnessed a living work of art named Tawny Greenwalt, aka Mercedes.
After the club, the group went to a party at Hayden’s apartment; David had learned that the goddess was an OU student and lived upstairs from Hayden. Tawny and David decided to bail on the party and instead walked upstairs to her place to talk. Not that he didn’t want to spend some quality time with her, but it was more that he’d found a friend. His best relationships started that way. If something happened between them, he didn’t want it to be just a one-night stand.
“I haven’t really talked to her since that night,” David explained.
“But you’ll be looking her up,” Tim said.
“Yeah, I might,” David admitted.
“That’s my boy. Get Lexi out of your head. If she got her claws into you, we would never see you again,” Wolf predicted.
On more than one occasion, Lexi had said the two of them were terrible influences on David. He could see her putting her foot down if he came home with glitter on his face from some stripper’s boobs. It would, of course, be all their fault if that happened.
“So, are we set on the plan for today?” David asked to get them off of their Lexi rant.
“We might want to get Lexi back just to organize him,” Wolf teased.
David flipped him off.
“Sign our financial aid docs, get our class schedules, and then we go to our dorm room and see what it needs,” Tim listed off.
“I already know that we need a giant flat-screen TV,” Wolf said to make his priorities clear early.
Tim and David rolled their eyes because he’d been politicking for that for the last several weeks. They’d both come up with reasons why they didn’t want one. Of course, they were just giving him grief.
“We’ll have to see if there’s room for one,” David said.
“I’m not sure we need the distraction,” Tim added.
Wolf gave them a determined look but let it go for now.
“Do we really have to have cameras in our unit?” Wolf asked.
“It’s either that or my mom will insist that a security guy sleep on the couch. Besides, there won’t be any in your bedrooms. Only I have to carry that burden,” David said.
The downside of fame and money was that a person having both needed to protect themselves. On more than one occasion, David had been happy that there was always a camera on him, be it a bodycam or cameras where he lived. It helped eliminate he said/she said situations. Too many celebrities found themselves shaken down that way. The easiest method was to claim that sex was nonconsensual after the fact. Nine times out of ten, people believed the accuser.
Wolf snorted.
“Like you would hesitate to make a sex tape.”
Since he’d been a model, David was not in the least body-shy, and his friends knew it.
“The problem is my security team won’t let me have access to them,” David shot back.
Over the speakers, the captain told them they were preparing to land and to put on their seatbelts.
“I’m so ready for this,” Wolf said.
“Today begins our drive for a national championship,” David said.
“Hell, yeah,” Tim agreed.
A new chapter in his life was about to begin. David relaxed in his seat as he thought of what was to come. He hoped he could just be a regular college student-athlete. His preference would be to let the whole David A. Dawson actor persona fade into the background while he was going to school.
He still had some movie commitments, like voice work and then the publicity tours, but he’d been promised it would be kept to a minimum.
What he really needed was to be treated like any other guy—and maybe to sleep for a month.
◊◊◊
Chapter 2
Coach Bob Michaels
Oklahoma’s head football coach, Bob Michaels, had been summoned to the athletic director’s office. While it wasn’t unusual for him to meet with Dr. Wilken, they’d just met two days ago to talk about their upcoming bowl game. The athletic department was in charge of the logistics, and the coach wanted to make sure everything was on track.
In the past, he would’ve been confident everything was being handled. But Dr. Wilken had suddenly been thrust into the job as the interim athletic director. Bob’s old boss, Tug Candis, had unexpectedly retired because of health issues.
Tug had been in charge for the past seventeen years. He knew all the ins and outs of running a smooth operation. In contrast, the best characterization Bob could come up with was that Dr. Wilken was ‘muddling through.’ The coach didn’t expect anyone in the department would be happier than him when they found Tug’s permanent replacement.
“Hey, Becky. I’ve been summoned,” he said as a greeting to Tug’s long-time assistant.
Truth be told, she was probably more responsible for the success of Oklahoma’s athletics than anyone else. Coach Michaels knew that if you really needed something done, you went to her.
“Bob,” she said, which brought him up short. Becky had never used his first name before. “I tried to stop it, but they’ve made up their minds. Don’t lose your job over what he’s going to tell you.”
As she was speaking, she pushed him out into the hall so her boss wouldn’t overhear them.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“The new compliance guy we hired from the NCAA rejected the waiver we were granting David Dawson.”
“Son of a b … We had that worked out,” he said, stunned.
“Go make your case, but I’m telling you he has made up his mind. Dr. Wilken is worried he’ll look weak if he grants it,” Becky said.
“Why couldn’t Tug have waited to retire?” Coach Michaels complained. “This will cost us, mark my words.”
She simply nodded and walked back into her office, where she announced him. Bob put on a neutral face and walked in. Dr. Wilken was with a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties. How anyone thought the interim AD was fit for the role was a mystery to Coach Michaels.
“Bob! Thanks for making time for me today,” Dr. Wilken said, a bit too excited.
“We need to make this quick. I’m meeting with Darren Ludlow for lunch today to talk about signing David Dawson, Tim Foresee, and Wolf Tams to financial aid agreements. He’s doing a piece to welcome them to Sooner Nation. He plans to write a big spread for Sunday’s paper. It’s not every day that we pull in the number one recruit. The timing couldn’t be better, with Hayden planning to go pro.”
Dr. Wilken visibly flinched. Coach Michaels really didn’t have a lunch meeting with the local paper’s lead sports reporter, but he soon would if this meeting went south.
“Bob, I’d like you to meet Stewart Chadwick from the compliance department. He has something to share with you.”
A glimmer of hope cracked through when he saw Dr. Wilken toss the grenade to the source of all this nonsense.
“It concerns David Dawson. We’re not going to be able to provide him a waiver for his image rights. The long-term implications are too grave to allow it,” Stewart announced.
Both men braced themselves for the coming explosion, which would have happened if Becky hadn’t warned him. Instead, Coach Michaels put on a confused face before trying to reason with the two … well … idiots.
“Tug Candis already agreed to it and signed a letter of understanding to that effect. David will probably take in more money from his movies than all of us together make in a year. Part of that pay requires him to help with promotions when the films are released. At the time he verbaled, he made it clear that giving up those rights was a deal-breaker.
“What I need to understand is, what changed? What is making us go back on our word?” Coach Michaels asked.
“Nothing changed. It has been our policy all along that all student-athletes sign a blanket document granting us the use of their likeness. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to function,” Dr. Wilken explained.
“Even the NCAA provided him with a waiver because what he needs it for is something he’s created on his own before he steps on campus. This isn’t going to change how we do business. A little common sense would dictate that we work with the young man on this. Unless we all missed something before, I strongly recommend we stick with what we promised,” Coach Michaels said.
“We have several concerns,” Chadwick said. “A good example is our upcoming bowl game. We, as a university, had to grant them image rights for all our football players, coaches, and anyone affiliated with the program. That’s required to allow them to promote and televise the game. If we give up those rights to David, he could potentially refuse to grant the bowl committee the use of his likeness for the promotion of the game. That would be a huge problem for us.”
“Did you even read the letter? He is granting us the rights to his image for football and baseball activities,” Coach Michaels countered.
“There is a clause that says that for marketing purposes, David has veto power,” Chadwick added.
“That was explained at the time. David has a public image beyond football. One that, I might add, he pays a PR firm to manage. What he’s protecting himself from is some marketing guy deciding he’s the bad boy of football or being asked to make an excessive number of appearances. It’s intended to limit us from turning him into some kind of show pony as the face of the program. He’s serious about getting an education and doesn’t want his athletics to affect that,” Coach Michaels reasoned.
At the time, Coach Michaels had wondered why David would be worried. Then the whole Heisman hype had hit for Hayden Walsh. He’d had to step in to limit all the press requests for Hayden so he could focus on football. The marketing arm of the athletic department had naturally wanted the exposure that one of Oklahoma’s players winning a Heisman would give the university.
“The decision has been made. I suggest you get David to sign it,” Dr. Wilken ordered to show he wasn’t backing down.
Coach Michaels would have taken this to the Board of Regents or the university president if he had time. He suspected Dr. Wilken deliberately waited until this morning to spring this on him. David and his friends would be here in a couple of hours to sign the financial aid packets that would give them scholarships. Part of that paperwork was the document granting the university the almost exclusive right to use their likenesses.
He could try to sell David on the idea that he’d make this right after the fact, but once David signed away his rights, there were no guarantees. Coach Michaels couldn’t, in good conscience, do that to the young man. If he couldn’t get this worked out, he would advise David to not accept a scholarship.
“He’ll walk, and I predict the other two will as well,” Coach Michaels said. “Wolf Tams is one of the better tight-end prospects and one I’d planned to use next year. Tim Foresee is a bit of a project, but he might start his junior and senior years for us. Those were three key recruits I was counting on to fill out this class.”
Coach Michaels had another thought.
“And you two need to remember something: none of these three has signed a National Letter of Intent. Without those in our hands, they can walk and enroll at another school without any consequence to them. They won’t have to sit out any time at all.”
From Dr. Wilken’s stunned expression, it was clear the idiot had thought they were locked in. If they’d signed the National Letters of Intent and decided to transfer, they would have to sit out another year before playing ball at their new school. Glancing over at Chadwick, though, Coach Michaels saw he was trying mightily to hide a smirk.
“That’s not really a problem. All you have to do is get them to sign their enrollment and scholarship papers before you tell them,” Chadwick said, showing the man completely lacked morals.
Coach Michaels fought hard to master the upwelling rage that now threatened to consume him.
“I doubt David will leave,” Dr. Wilken said doubtfully, but then he firmed up, obviously reciting a prepared litany. “We are the University of Oklahoma and just produced the latest Heisman winner. He picked us because he recognizes we are his best shot at both winning a national championship and landing in the first round of the NFL draft.”
Coach Michaels shook his head in disgust. This idiot was making a colossal mistake. Heaven help them if they ever met David across the field of play.
“David can make one phone call, and every top program in the country will roll out the red carpet for him. We’ve never had a quarterback with his raw talent step onto this campus, and I include Hayden in that statement. I have him penciled in as next year’s starter, and everyone knows I hate playing freshman quarterbacks. He is the exception to that rule,” Coach Michaels tried one last time.
“Like I said, the decision has been made.”
“That’s fine and dandy,” Coach Michaels said and then turned his gaze unblinkingly on Stewart Chadwick. “However, if you think for one second I am going to be the front man for your little scheme to defraud these young men, you’re dead wrong. I will not be getting them to sign binding documents without telling them first what it means for David.”
He thought for a second and turned back to the interim AD.
“Like you said, we’re the University of Oklahoma, and we do things the right way. I’ll meet with them and try to salvage this, but I don’t hold out much hope.”
Coach Michaels made a mental note that as soon as Dr. Wilken was gone, he would make it his life’s mission to get Stewart Chadwick drummed out of the university.
◊◊◊
He strode back to his office, where he found his brother Tom, who was his defensive coordinator, waiting for him.
“You will not believe what Wilken did this time,” he said without preamble.
“I have a healthy imagination. Why don’t you just tell me?”
“He just jerked the waiver David Dawson needs to allow him to promote his movies.”
“I thought we agreed to that already, and his coming was a done deal.”
“It was, but some jerk in the compliance department got into Dr. Wilken’s ear. The long and the short of it is we just lost our starting quarterback for next year,” Coach Michaels said.
“And we turned away the kid from Texas. Do you think he’ll still be open to us?” Tom asked.
“I’ve no idea. Tell Charlie to get in touch with him soonest. We need to come up with a way to not make this worse than it already is. David will never sign, but Wolf Tams and Tim Foresee are both with him, and they plan to sign today.”
“Have them come here first, and we can separate them from David when we tell him,” Tom suggested.
“It’s bad enough that we’re going back on our word to David, but you’ll never guess what else that weaselly little compliance prick tried to get me to do. He actually wanted me to wait until after they signed their enrollment documents before letting any of them know, including David.
“I have to be able to look at my face in a mirror, to begin with. We aren’t some desperate program that has to stoop to underhanded tactics. I won’t try to deceive any of them,” Coach Michaels said.
Tom looked embarrassed by his initial comment.
“You need to go to them. It would send the wrong message to make them come to the football offices.”
Though Tom might want to go a bit too far sometimes, his moral compass was just fine when he took a moment to think about it. Bob loved that about his brother.
“They’re flying in on a corporate jet over at the university’s field. I’ll get the tower to contact them and tell the guys to be looking for me. Doing this there conveys that I’m taking this seriously.”
“Do you want me there?” Tom asked.
“Thanks, but no. I don’t want them to feel like we’re ganging up on them.”
“Okay, I understand. I’ll give Charlie a call. If I remember right, he’s in Dallas, seeing that receiver we want. After he’s done with that visit, I’ll send him to Houston,” Tom assured his brother.
“Tell him to do whatever it takes. We may be forced to start Jordan Murphy, but we need the Texas kid after that. We’ll have to save a scholarship for a transfer to back up Jordan,” Coach Michaels planned.
He envisioned the domino effect losing David was going to cause. If David had come, he would have had spring ball, all summer, and then preseason practice to get ready. The kid from Houston wouldn’t be able to come until summer school started. They would lose five months of his learning the offense.
Jordan would be a junior. The party line would be an open competition at quarterback, but the fact was that Jordan wouldn’t win the job unless David fell flat on his face. He would then turn into the security blanket in case the pressure or an injury got to David.
While a top prospect, it wasn’t reasonable to expect the kid from Houston to walk in and be the backup at Oklahoma. He might be ready by the last third of the season, but no way would they be able to trust him early on.
Coach Michaels mentally prepared to put on his figurative kneepads so he could apologize to David and hopefully keep the other two.
◊◊◊
The University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport was designated a regional business airport. It served general aviation aircraft, including business jets, but not regularly scheduled commercial flights. Coach Michaels arrived early enough to watch the plane carrying the guys land.
He put on his game face as they made it to the building. The first thing Coach Michaels noticed was that David looked exhausted, with dark circles under his eyes as he stretched at the entrance. Wolf and Tim were joking with him, and he saw a tired smile touch David’s lips in response to whatever they said.
“Coach Michaels, you didn’t have to come to pick us up,” David said as he led the group to say hello.
It wasn’t lost on him that David had been the one to initiate the conversation.
“I need to talk to all of you before we get to campus. They have a small conference room this way,” Coach Michaels said as he led them. “How was your trip?”
“Much better than the flight out. When you’re with David, you get the perks,” Tim said.
“I’m so ready to get started. Working for the last several months just highlighted how good college kids have it,” Wolf added.
Once they got to the conference room, everyone took a seat.
“What’s wrong?” David asked.
“Our interim athletic director called me to his office this morning and informed me that we are reneging on the waiver we agreed to.”
Tim and Wolf rocked back in their chairs. Bob was impressed when David didn’t say anything for a minute as he thought through what that meant. David took a deep breath and then looked Coach Michaels in the eyes.
“That’s a real problem. I can’t play football or baseball without it.”
“I was afraid you would say that. Would you consider enrolling to give me time to fix this?” Coach Michaels asked.
“Would I be able to play baseball or football without an agreement in place?” David asked.
“No. Even as a walk-on, we must have something signed so you can be shown on television. I would have to see if you’d be able to practice or not,” Coach Michaels said and then took a deep breath. “I hate what has happened, and I’m sorry, but I don’t have all the answers. This is uncharted territory for me.”
“Thank you for the offer, but I have a real problem with the athletic department going back on their word. I’m going to have to find somewhere else to go to school,” David said.
The words were spoken casually, but there was a tightness in David’s face that told Coach Michaels he wasn’t happy. This was going just as badly as he’d feared.
“I don’t blame you in the least. If you need me to make calls on your behalf to explain how you were forced into this, let me know.”
“What about my teammates?” David asked.
“I’m not sure I want to stay after that,” Wolf said.
David turned to look at him, the stormy eyes changing to look at his friend with understanding and compassion.
“Before you make a hasty decision, I want you to remember why you picked Oklahoma. It’s one of the places where we felt most at home when we visited campuses. On Saturdays, you’ll be playing ball in front of a sold-out stadium. If I end up somewhere like Northwestern, it’ll be more like playing high school ball.”
Coach Michaels would be forever grateful David said that. It would’ve been easy for the young man to let his emotions reign and take Wolf and Tim with him wherever he ended up. David had put his friends’ welfare first.
“I want to assure both of you we didn’t offer you scholarships just because David was coming; you earned them on your own merit. We have plans for both of you,” Coach Michaels added.
“I don’t know, David. The plan was the three of us would play ball together,” Wolf replied sadly.
The conflicting emotions were there on his face for all to see.
“I understand, but we all knew that at some point, one of us might get hurt or transfer, and we’d have to break up the band. It might just be happening a lot sooner than we expected.”
Neither Tim nor Wolf looked happy, so David added to his comment.
“Look, I can’t ask you to give up an opportunity like this. It would be ten times harder to find a spot for the three of us this late in the game. Take the scholarships and play ball here. You both know that’s what you want. If it weren’t, we would never have all agreed to come here.
“Besides, who can say what the future holds for me? This might be the wake-up call I needed. After everything I’ve gone through doing the movies, I seriously need a mental break. The idea of taking the first semester off to just be a college student looks pretty damn appealing right now. You both know how much work it is to play ball, go to school, and all the rest,” David said.
“And you planned to play baseball, too. I never could figure out how you were going to do it,” Tim admitted.
“Like I said before, you can do that here,” Coach Michaels said.
The guys laughed. He had to admit, it sounded weak when it came out. He recognized David’s best bet was to go elsewhere.
“Are you guys going to sign?” Coach Michaels asked.
Tim and Wolf looked at each other and then at David. He gave them a slight nod.
“I’m still in,” Tim said.
“Me, too, but I’m not happy about what you did to David,” Wolf agreed.
“I’m not happy either,” Coach Michaels said and then turned to David. “In my wildest dreams, I never thought something like this would happen. All I can say is, best of luck. If circumstances change, I’ll welcome you with open arms.”
“I appreciate that, Coach,” David said and then turned to his friends. “You guys are set for transportation back home?”
“Yeah, our flights are booked,” Wolf said.
“I think I’ll see if the pilots are up to taking me to California. They’d planned to stay overnight and take me back tomorrow, but I want to get home and see my family,” David said.
Coach Michaels watched with Tim and Wolf as David walked back to the plane.
“Come on, guys. Let’s get you set up. If you’d like, my wife is making lasagna tonight. Can I interest you in a home-cooked meal?”
◊◊◊
He dropped Tim and Wolf at the admissions office. While they dealt with getting registered, he called Darren Ludlow.
“I’ve got a story for you. Want to hear how our interim athletic director and our compliance officer lost us our starting quarterback for next year?”
“You’ve got to be shittin’ me,” Darren said.
“Do me a favor. Call the university president and the board of regents for comment,” Coach Michaels said.
“You looking for some heads to roll?”
“You got it. Those two need to go. Make sure it’s clear that David Dawson is the victim in all this. Tug set it all up for everything to go smoothly for David, and those two blew it up in one morning. Call Becky, and she can get you the dirt,” Coach Michaels said.
“Can I use you as a source?” Darren asked hopefully.
“Hell, no. You can say you got it from my brother, though,” Coach Michaels said with a laugh.
They had a standing joke that if something negative had to be said, his younger brother was the source. Darren knew Coach Michaels was joking. At the same time, he recognized that if he’d been given access to Becky, the coach was dead serious. He would be focused on getting rid of whoever was involved in losing him a star recruit.
“I’ll have a bottle of the good stuff sent over.”
“If you get them fired, I might even let you come over and drink it with me,” Coach Michaels said.
◊◊◊
Chapter 3
Coach Dylan Clayton
USC’s head football coach, Dylan Clayton, had a dilemma on his hands. He’d received word from his recruiting coordinator, Bryant Franzese, that David Dawson had backed out of his commitment to Oklahoma and was interested in coming to play for USC.
Dylan had asked Bryant to call Coach Michaels to get some background on why David was making a change. When he heard what had happened, the coach couldn’t help but chuckle at what a boneheaded move Oklahoma’s interim athletic director had made. Bryant had also sent him an article from the local paper in Norman calling for the athletic director’s head.
Dylan’s dilemma stemmed from his system for recruiting and handling his quarterbacks. He wasn’t one of those guys who just kept recruiting top talent, letting them fight it out to see who came out on top. He didn’t want his starting quarterback continually looking over his shoulder, worried that one minor mistake would see him on the bench.
The coach was a believer in having a clear number one recruited every two years. That would give the future number one a couple of years to get settled and learn the offense.
USC’s current situation was a textbook example of how and why he wanted quarterback recruiting to work. Ridge Townsend had been their starter for the last two years and was projected to be a top-five pick in this year’s NFL draft. Even though Ridge was leaving a year early, they’d picked up Matt Long, who’d had a chance to redshirt. He was set to take over this fall as the starter with four years of eligibility.
Last year, they’d recruited both David and Matt. Dylan had sat David down and assured him that if he accepted, they would back off on Matt’s recruitment. It wasn’t like Matt was a consolation prize or Plan B-type player, though. He ranked as the number four quarterback and the tenth overall recruit in the nation coming out of high school.
As tempting as it was to take the number one ranked quarterback and number one overall recruit in David, it went against what Dylan believed. David would walk on and be at a significant disadvantage because of Matt’s year of experience in the program.
In his system, he gave the lion’s share of coaching and playing time in practice to his starter, another factor that worked against David. David had sat out the football season to make movies and would walk onto campus without having taken a live football snap in over a year. High-level college football wasn’t something you could just show up for after that kind of layoff and do well. He would require practice time that would eat into what they planned to give Matt.
Having two highly rated quarterbacks would mean one of them would have to sit on the bench. That wouldn’t be fair to them because he felt they both had the potential to play on Sundays after graduation.
With that in mind, the coach was leaning towards not taking David, as crazy as that sounded. Before Dylan called David back, he wanted to get his brain trust together and talk about it. That included his offensive coordinator, Wyatt Thomas, and defensive coordinator, Jackson Farrow, to get their thoughts.
Dylan was on his way to meet with them in their small conference room, where they usually talked about strategy. He found both men waiting for him, so he took his seat.
“Bryant got an interesting call from David Dawson. He pulled his verbal from Oklahoma and has put out feelers to see if we’re still interested in him joining us. I asked Bryant to talk with Coach Michaels at Oklahoma, and Michaels is okay with it. He says David has a legitimate beef with Oklahoma’s administration.”
“My first instinct is to say absolutely,” Wyatt said. “My only concern is what this will mean for Matt. He might transfer if he hears David is coming. I’d hate to see that since we invested so much time in Matt, and he’s going to be a good one.”
“Do you really think that David, who hasn’t touched a football in over a year, can come in and displace Matt?” Dylan asked.
“When you put it that way, maybe not. But when we recruited them, it was obvious David had the higher ceiling. While Matt might get us to a national championship game, David could win it for us,” Wyatt said, giving his evaluation.
“It sounds like we’re splitting hairs,” Dylan said and then made his opinion known. “I’m leaning toward saying ‘no.’ Matt has earned his shot, and I don’t want to muddy the waters with a quarterback controversy before he’s even had a chance to take the reins.”
“If you two idiots don’t want him, I do,” Jackson said to weigh in.
Jackson had kept out of it to this point because David’s best position was on offense. But the boy was more than a quarterback. He was, first and foremost, an athlete. Reports said that in high school, David played defense at times; in fact, Dylan had said that he’d seen film of David playing defense. Further, when he did, he showed he could play almost any position on the defensive side of the ball. Jackson was excited because he could move David all over the field, from stand-up defensive end to linebacker to cornerback, as situations dictated.
Jackson also was of the philosophy that you put your best athletes on defense. While schools like Oklahoma loaded up the offensive side of the ball, they ran into problems when they met better teams outside their conference. Defense won championships, in his opinion.
“We don’t have any more scholarships for your side of the ball. You used them in the early signing period,” Wyatt pointed out.
“This surely warrants giving me one more, don’t you think?” Jackson asked.
“What if we offered him a preferred walk-on spot with the promise of a scholarship when one opens up? I mean, he can certainly afford tuition, to start with. It shouldn’t be long until we have someone leave for one reason or another, and we can give him one then. We can sell it to him as, ‘if we’d known you were coming, we would’ve had a scholarship on hand,’” Dylan floated.
“Why take the risk of his going elsewhere?” Jackson worried.
“If he threatens to do that, we’ll give him a scholarship. But we make it clear we’re offering him a shot to play defense and not to take over at quarterback. If he doesn’t accept that, then we take a pass,” Dylan said to make the final decision.
“I want to take the lead on this,” Jackson said.
“Go tell Bryant. He has enough on his plate and will be happy to let you handle it,” Dylan said to conclude the meeting.
◊◊◊
Coach Jackson Farrow
Jackson wanted a chance to sell David on this before Dylan could mess it up. Dylan’s focus was on his precious offense and some rather rigid ideas about how to build a team. Jackson had no doubt David would beat out Matt if given a fair shot. After all, he’d seen the tape from both, including tape of the two of them going head-to-head at a football camp, where David was clearly the better quarterback. But David was also excellent and flexible on defense. No, the best thing would be to get him into the fold and use him defensively. That would leave open the possibility of going to the offense somewhere down the line if the change was needed for some reason.
He swung by Bryant’s office to get David’s information and let the recruiting coordinator know he’d been put in charge of David’s recruitment. Bryant was thankful because he had his hands full working to fill out this year’s class.
Jackson confirmed they were still willing to give David his waiver. Bryant smiled and assured the coach that they’d agreed to the waiver request and would make it official as soon as David decided to come to USC.
When Jackson got to his office and discovered that David lived in Malibu, he called David and set up an in-home visit for that very night. The coach wanted to be in front of all the decision-makers, which he assumed included David’s parents, when he worked to sell him on the idea of playing defense.
◊◊◊
David lived in a gated community of higher-end homes. The guard at the gate gave him directions. As Jackson pulled into the driveway of the given address, the gate magically opened. A large man who looked to be Samoan or Tongan pointed to where he wanted the car parked.
“Coach Farrow?” the security man asked as he got out of his car.
“Yes, that’s right. I’m here to talk to David.”
“Right this way.”
As they walked to the front door, Jackson looked around to take in the property. It was evident that making movies paid well.
When they entered the house, he was led to a large playroom. There he found David sitting on the floor next to a short table where his five kids were coloring with markers.
“Daddy! Help circle,” the redheaded boy of the bunch said.
“Hey, Coach. Give me a minute, and we’ll go upstairs,” David said and then helped the redhead draw a circle. “You just take your time and go slow. Start with little circles and then try a big one.”
A young redheaded woman came in.
“Carol! Don’t draw on Coby,” she said as she rushed over to take the marker out of Carol’s hand.
“I’m too young to have to know what child-safe markers are,” David said, standing up. “You got this, Peggy?”
All the little ones started to clamor for their dad not to leave. David reached into his pocket and pulled out small suckers.
“Bribes,” he admitted.
Peggy didn’t look impressed, but it distracted them enough for David to make his escape. As he and Coach Farrow walked upstairs, he explained.
“While I was away filming for the last seven months, I was only able to talk to them via video chat. Now that I’m home, they want to be with me all the time. I figured I better do just that until I go off to college,” David said.
“My two are older. My boy is a junior in high school, and my daughter goes to USC. She’s a freshman. When they became teens, they didn’t want much to do with me anymore. Enjoy it while you can,” Coach Farrow advised.
David took them to the kitchen, where two women were cooking.
“Mom, Rosy, meet Coach Farrow.”
“Carol Dawson,” David’s mom said to introduce herself. The coach could see where David got his good looks. “Rob should be here shortly. I sent him out to pick up some wine.”
“Get out of there,” Rosy chastised David when he stuck his head in the oven to discover what smelled so good.
“Oh, man, she’s outdone herself tonight—both red and green enchiladas. Rosy is the best cook … besides my mom,” David announced.
Coach Farrow gave him points for the save. The kid had already learned what had taken him five years of marriage to discover: never compare women to each other.
“Are the adults eating on the roof deck?” David asked.
“Yes. We’ll feed the horde down here,” Carol said. Turning to Coach Farrow, she asked, “Would you like a beer with dinner?”
“I’ll wait for the wine,” Coach Farrow said.
“We’ll go up and get everything set up,” David said.
Coach Farrow followed him up to the roof and was instantly jealous. He would never bring his wife here because she would insist they remove their roof and install something like this. It had great views of both the hills and the ocean and was set up for adult entertaining, complete with an outdoor kitchen, wine fridge, and fireplace. The topper was the ten-person hot tub. The space took full advantage of what drew people to live here, namely the weather.
David grabbed some cleaning supplies so he could wipe down the chairs and a substantial redwood table. The table was cut out of a single solid piece of wood, evident by the live edges. While David did that, Coach Farrow followed behind, setting the table for eight. It looked like he was going to meet more than just David’s parents tonight.
They’d just gotten done when people began to come upstairs. Coach Farrow was introduced to Ashley and Scarlet, the mothers of three of David’s children: Allen, Dawson, and Carol. Peggy was the slender redhead, Dave’s mother. David’s parents, Rob and Carol, were the last to join them; David introduced the coach to his dad.
Coach Farrow sat back and watched their interaction throughout dinner. He came away with the conclusion that they’d built a stable family environment. He could tell Rob and Carol were principally responsible for making everyone feel at home.
After dinner, the girls cleaned up, leaving David and his parents to talk to the coach.
“There has to be something that’s come up. I’m curious why they sent you,” David said.
Coach Farrow was at first taken aback that David had figured it out. He was also impressed with David’s natural confidence in taking the lead in the discussion. Usually, when a family sensed something wasn’t right, one of the parents stepped in to deal with it. It was refreshing to see someone David’s age take charge and do it in a way that wasn’t overbearing or immature.
“Remember when you came for your recruiting trip, and Coach Clayton talked to you about his quarterback philosophy?” Coach Farrow asked and waited until David nodded. “He wants you to know that Matt is penciled in at QB1. We aren’t going to offer you a scholarship to play ball at USC to be a quarterback.”
Coach Farrow waited for the blowup he knew was coming. Instead, the three Dawsons simply stared at him. It was the most unnerving experience he could remember. Before the coach knew what he was doing, he began to babble everything.
“While Coach Clayton doesn’t want to create a quarterback controversy—which would surely happen if you were recruited as a quarterback—I want you to play defense. I can see you playing multiple positions based on the situation. With your size and speed, you’ll be a difference-maker. I personally think you may have as much potential impact on my side of the ball as you would at quarterback.
“But I have one problem. I used all my scholarships for defense in the early signing period. You would have to be a preferred walk-on at first. We can get you through the admission process via the athletic department and get you placed in the athletic dorms without a problem. You would have to wait until a scholarship freed up to get your tuition, room, and board paid for,” the coach ended in a flourish.
Coach Farrow felt like a complete ass after he’d said all that in a rush. He held his breath to see what the response would be.
“What about the waiver?” Rob asked.
“Sorry, I forgot to mention that. I confirmed that we’re on board, and David wouldn’t have any issue there.”
“Would there be any problem with David playing baseball?” Carol asked.
Coach Farrow rubbed his forehead before answering. While he would prefer that David focus entirely on football, there was no way he could see to prevent his playing baseball under the circumstances.
“No, that would be fine. I can even talk to the baseball people if you want.”
Finally, David weighed in.
“Would I be required to attend preseason training as a preferred walk-on?”
“Technically, no …”
“Would I have to live in the athletic dorms? Can I live elsewhere?” David asked.
Now Coach Farrow was confused. Why would David not want to work out and live with the team?
“If you want, but we want freshmen to live in the dorms,” Coach Farrow answered.
“Technically, David will be a sophomore. He took enough advanced placement classes in high school to bypass his freshman year. He plans to get his undergraduate degree in two and a half years,” Carol said.
“I’m seriously considering pursuing the five-year BA/MBA program USC offers,” David added.
Coach Farrow suddenly realized he’d not been prepared for this meeting. He should have known that.
“I think living in the dorms would be good for David. It helps young men get acclimated to college life since this is their first time away from home,” the coach said.
“As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been living away from home for the past seven months while I filmed my movies. So, I’m not particularly worried about living away from home. I’m going to college with a purpose; I’m not going to party 24/7,” David said.
“Well, I’d have to see about you living off campus,” Coach Farrow hedged.
“I’m fine with living on campus, but I have a specific request. I want to live in Sandoval Hall, and I want to room with Alejandro Sandoval,” David said.
“Well, I … uh … I … uh …” Coach Farrow stammered as he gathered his thoughts. “I’m not sure I can get you into Sandoval Hall, let alone be Alejandro’s roommate. There’s a waitlist to get in, and most have to demonstrate a need …”
Then he got it. Umberto Sandoval had wanted a high-security residence hall to house his two children who were coming to USC. A building that had formerly housed medical offices had been miraculously transformed over last summer so it was ready for the fall. The new dorm, Sandoval Hall, was referred to as ‘The Palace’ around campus. It housed high-profile students in accommodations equivalent to what one would find in an exclusive condominium.
Once word got out about the new dorm, it had instantly filled up with students whose families had connections, money, or both. It was the only residence hall that charged a premium over the standard rate for campus housing. The extra money paid for security, amenities, and the like. He’d heard rumors about how great the food was.
“Never mind. I get why you would want to live there,” Coach Farrow finished.
“It’s part of the deal I had to make with my parents. It was either live there or have a security guy follow me around. I want to go to school and be just a normal student. You met Manaia; he kind of stands out,” David said, referring to the large Polynesian man Coach Farrow met when he arrived.
“Even if I can get you in, I’m not sure I can displace whoever is living with Alejandro,” Coach Farrow said.
David got a big smile on his face.
“I’ll let you in on a little secret. Both Alex and his twin sister, Natalia, live there. Alex lives in a double suite by himself and has been bragging about how nice it is that he doesn’t have a roommate. I want to surprise him and crash his perfect little setup,” David said.
“If he’s living alone, then I can get it done,” Coach Farrow said, feeling more confident.
“And you can’t tell Alex who his new roommate is. You might have to tell his father, Umberto, but he’ll go for it,” David assured him.
Coach Farrow didn’t really know what to do but nod ‘yes’ to that.
“Aren’t you even going to ask David to come to USC?” Carol asked.
“My mom sells real estate. She’s been teaching me to ask for the sale,” David said to clue him in.
“No, I get it. I was just processing all this,” Coach Farrow said and then cringed. “Sorry. Would you honor us by attending USC?”
“Absolutely,” David responded.
“You don’t know how much David wants to play defense. In high school, he would’ve never come off the field if the coaches hadn’t made him,” Rob chuckled.
“Now that I know you’re coming, clue me in as to why you don’t want to work out with the team.”
“I already have a trainer; her name is Cassidy Hope. She’s the daughter of my high school coach and is on a scholarship at USC for rowing,” David explained.
“Don’t worry. Cassidy will have him in shape,” Carol added.
“But we have some of the best strength and conditioning people in all of college football,” Coach Farrow objected.
“I’ll make you a deal. I’ll meet with them periodically so you’re confident in the training I’m getting. Let Cassidy work me out, though. She knows how to get the most out of me,” David compromised.
“Besides, she would hurt him if he didn’t let her,” his dad added.
They all laughed when Coach Farrow looked confused.
“Just wait until you meet her and see her work me out, and you’ll understand. I contend that without her, we wouldn’t have won three state championships in football and one in baseball. We were always the best-conditioned team in the state, hands down,” David assured Coach Farrow.
“Welcome to the team. Can you come to campus tomorrow? We can get your waiver signed, get you enrolled, and assign your dorm room. You’ll also need to pay for school.”
“Yeah. Let’s get this done,” David said and then raised a finger as he thought of one last concern. “By the way, I don’t want there to be an announcement that I’m coming to USC.”
“Why’s that?”
“David wants to try to be a normal college student,” Carol explained. “At some point, word will get out, and he’ll have to deal with all that. But he wants to just be a regular guy for as long as he can.”
“I’ll make it happen. Can you be at the football offices at around ten tomorrow?” the coach asked.
“Yeah. I’m looking forward to it,” David said.
◊◊◊
On the drive back to campus, Coach Farrow couldn’t help but think that he’d made the right call in getting David Dawson to commit. He predicted that by the end of next season, David would be their starting quarterback. In the meantime, the coach would take advantage of having someone like David play defense.
He made the prediction based on what had just happened. David hadn’t thrown a fit when faced with being told ‘no’ about playing the position he was best suited for. Coach Farrow had no doubt David could learn both the offense and defense. The young man exhibited a quiet confidence in himself that the coach had only seen in kids his age once or twice in his career. One of those times was Ridge Townsend, who was about to be drafted in the top five of the upcoming NFL draft.
Matt Long was still a boy, maturity-wise, compared to David. He would’ve had a meltdown if he’d been faced with David’s situation today. That told Coach Farrow that when the going got tough, Matt would more than likely focus on the problem. He’d be so wrapped up in it that he wouldn’t be able to quickly move on to the solution. In football, developments that didn’t go your way often happened quickly. In many ways, a quarterback had to have amnesia about what had just happened so he could focus on the task at hand.
While Coach Clayton was big on how his process worked and inflexible about it, to boot, he was also about winning games. Dylan would ride the Matt Long experiment until it failed. Then he would be open to David taking charge. If that ever happened, Matt would probably need to transfer or pray that David was off to the NFL soon.
Matt was a typical 18- or 19-year-old, after all. He was living the dream and had been handed the keys to the football program. Like when giving your teenage son the keys to your sports car, you shouldn’t be surprised when he wraps it around a tree. That was probably the biggest reason Coach Clayton liked to wait until a player had been in the system two years before starting them at quarterback. It gave them a year to get playing ‘big man on campus’ out of their system and settle down into the job.
David’s circumstances had forced him to grow up. Any young man with a family to look after had no choice but to face some hard truths. David also had the advantage of living in the public eye because of his acting success. From the way he talked about wanting to be just a regular student, it was apparent that David was already over wanting to be the big man on campus.
That would allow the young man to focus on what mattered and not all the trappings and popularity. David wouldn’t be tempted to do anything that would get him off track.
Coach Farrow looked forward to working with him.
◊◊◊
Chapter 4
David
There was a lot on David’s to-do list for today. Coach Farrow had called to tell David that he’d pulled some strings, and David was set to move into Sandoval Hall. David needed to go to USC to register for classes, and he planned to swing by the dorm and see what he might need or want to bring with him.
He’d dressed down for this. David’s clothes were casual Midwestern, making him look almost like a bum compared to the LA smart set. The addition of his baseball cap and ‘birth-control’ glasses—complete with a built-in camera, black rims, and clear lenses—reinforced his low-profile look. David’s actor friend, Halle James, would be appalled at him for allowing himself to be seen in public dressed like this. But he didn’t want to draw attention to himself today, and this seemed the best way to accomplish that.
After visiting the dorm, David planned to stop in at the baseball offices to talk to the coaches. USC’s first game was only three weeks out, and he wanted to find out what it would take to walk on as soon as possible.
Last on the agenda was to pick up his car. When he’d won his Academy Award last spring, they’d given all the nominees swag bags full of goodies ranging from skin-care items to lavish vacations. David either donated or gave away most of the stuff. One that he ultimately wound up keeping for himself was the use of a high-end car for a year.
David had contacted Drexler Motors, and they told him he could either pick something from the lot or they would order what he wanted. He planned to use it for his car on campus, so he didn’t want anything too over-the-top. The way his luck had been going lately, it would get banged up or stolen.
When it was time to go, David walked downstairs from his apartment over the garage to meet Manaia, his security and driver for today. David saw Manaia pull out his Dodge Challenger SRT Demon. This was one of four prototypes Dodge had built to test the Demon’s design. When he’d first gotten it, he’d been disappointed to discover it only had a driver’s seat and no creature comforts, including no radio. Fortunately, his dad and uncle contracted with the dealership to trick it out.
Dodge had included all the bells and whistles performance-wise so they could test the car’s limits. That meant it came with more horsepower and beefed-up brakes compared to what ended up coming off the production line—and the production version was no slouch. The car was a beast and a joy to drive.
“Keys,” David said, holding out his hand.
“Can’t. I’m supposed to drive you,” Manaia countered.
“Either you let me drive, or I’ll make sure you’re the sole driver for the kiddy van. That means driving them to and from daycare, playdates, and the like … forever.”
Manaia must have seen he was serious and just tossed David the keys. Being stuck in traffic with five two-year-olds would make anyone want to blow their brains out, especially if they weren’t yours. Manaia probably imagined David would feed them sugar to get them amped up before the trips, too. Not that David would ever do that … well, not too often.
David got in and adjusted the seat backward to accommodate his long legs. He fired up the engine and gave Manaia a grin as it rumbled to life.
“I haven’t gotten to drive since I left to make my movies,” David admitted.
“That’s probably another reason I should drive,” Manaia grumped.
David ignored his whining. He pulled the car from the back garage and found his mom standing in the middle of the driveway.
“Did you narc me out?” he asked.
Manaia gave him a sideways look and shook his head ‘no.’ His mom walked around to the passenger door and opened it.
“Get in the back. I’m going with you.”
David was impressed when Manaia just stuffed himself into the back seat without a word. It seemed his mom had Manaia better trained than he did.
David didn’t even comment about his mom going with. She would want to review his classes and see where he was going to live. There was no point in fighting it.
“We’re picking up Lexi,” Mom announced once she’d buckled her seatbelt.
‘Frick!’ David thought.
He’d been avoiding Lexi since he’d sent her home from New Zealand. If Oklahoma hadn’t had their collective head up their posterior, he would have been free of Lexi. Living in the same city might make that more of a challenge.
◊◊◊
They caught a break on the ride to USC as they missed most of the morning rush hour. When anyone drove a car like the Demon, they’d naturally want to let it run, not be forced to endure LA’s stop-and-go traffic.
Once they found parking, they went off in search of Coach Farrow. After being introduced to Lexi, the coach walked David’s group over to admissions and got all the necessary paperwork filled out for him to be able to register for classes. David also received his student ID.
They then walked across campus to see a counselor at the Marshall Office of Undergraduate Advising to get him signed up for classes.
David wasn’t surprised when his mom took over. She’d brought a folder with everything needed from his high school days to show he’d earned the necessary AP credits to skip a year’s worth of the basics like calculus.
Monday-Wednesday-Friday:
9:00 am – 10:00 am Principles of Microeconomics – 4 units
11:00 am – 12:00 pm Communication Strategy in Business – 4 units
Tuesday-Thursday: