Crossing the Barrier (24 page)

“What do we do about Wes?” someone asked.

Malakai glanced at David, hoping his friend would hint at an idea, but David shook his head and looked away.

“I don’t know,” Malakai said honestly.

“I’m glad she got a message to you,” one of the defensive players Malakai didn’t know that well said.

“Yeah, from what I heard, it could have been a lot worse,” Luis said. “Mind you, it was bad enough as it was.”

“You’re really into that girl, aren’t you?” one of the tight ends asked with a mischievous grin on his face.

Malakai’s face became hot. He hadn’t expected that one. He looked down and scratched the back of his head again.

“Yeah,” he muttered.

He then looked up; the entire team stared at him with grins or smiles on their faces.

“Well, no one’s going to touch your girl now, that’s for sure,” Luis said, standing up and walking to Malakai.

He presented Malakai with his right fist, and Malakai bumped it.

“But a band girl, dude?” he continued with a grin.

“Why not? He’s paving the way for the rest of us,” Tristan said, walking to Malakai and doing the same fist bumping Luis had done.

“Yeah, have you seen some of those girls?” another player said, presenting his fist to Malakai. “Some of them are hot.”

The rest of the team got to their feet, and some gave Malakai their fist to bump while others slapped him on the back.

“We’ll be fine,” Malakai said to his teammates, who were now all standing in the middle of the room with him.

“Malakai, if he ruins the game, tell Coach,” Luis said seriously.

“Yeah, okay.”

Chapter Forty-Eight

LILY

The band had
just finished getting to their seats in the stands when the introduction of the senior class football players began. Lily searched the row of players, looking for number fourteen, and found Malakai. Next to him stood a man as tall as he, dressed in a military uniform. The man had light-brown skin, darker than Malakai, and a shaved head. Malakai and he were talking and smiling.

“What are you looking at?” Sandra asked from next to her.

“Malakai.”

“Duh! Why did I even bother to ask?” Sandra said, rolling her eyes. “Who’s with him?”

“I don’t know. His father maybe?”

“Mmm, interesting.”

As the players were introduced, the band members cheered and applauded, but when Wes’s name was called, no cheer or applause was heard from the band or the dancers. The cheerleaders were also unusually quiet.

“Uh-oh,” Sandra said under her breath.

Lily followed her glance; the head coach was looking at the stands with a puzzled expression on his face. She then looked at Wes, who was having his photo taken with his parents, and she felt bad for them. Hopefully, they hadn’t noticed the lack of applause and cheering when their son’s name was called out.

“We should have applauded,” Lily said.

“No way,” Sandra said, shaking her head. “I know you. You feel sorry for him.”

“Not for him, for his parents.”

“Well, don’t. He brought it upon himself.”

Lily looked down at Malakai, who had just been called to the wild cheers and applause of the band members. The man with him was introduced as his father. They both stood for the photo and, once it was done, Malakai looked into the stands, directly at her. He smiled, waved, and then turned away, guiding his father toward the locker room.

“Now we know,” Sandra said.

“Yes, we do.”

Half an hour later, the game began.

And it was catastrophic.

Wes made mistake after mistake. The team’s first time on offense, Wes’s pass was intercepted. The other team almost scored, but the Warriors’ defense regained the ball a few plays later. The second time on offense, Wes dropped the ball when David snapped it to him, then ended up kicking it toward the defensive line. Lily was amazed at that mistake and so was everybody else. That fumble cost them the ball, again. They had been only twenty yards away from scoring, which made everyone pretty mad. The next time Wes had the ball, he fumbled again.

The pattern continued throughout the second quarter.

By halftime, everybody was on edge, and the players were shaking their heads. The score was seven for the opposing team and zero for theirs, and no one understood why the coach hadn’t replaced Wes. Everybody was puzzled since even the junior varsity team would have scored against the opposing team’s weak defense.

As for Lily, she was beginning to have a spectacular headache. The crowd felt nothing like it usually did, and the emotions were a lot less mindlessly positive. In fact, the crowd had begun to lose interest, which meant the emotions were all over the place, just like at the cafeteria. Thankfully, Sandra was there, and Lily kept continuous contact with her.

“What the heck?” Sandra said, watching the team disappear into the locker room as she and Lily stood on the sideline, waiting to perform the halftime show.

As he walked toward the locker room with David, Malakai glanced at Lily. She tentatively smiled at him, but he didn’t smile back.

Chapter Forty-Nine

MALAKAI

“Coach, you have
to get him off the field,” David said when he reached the sideline after Wes had fumbled again at the beginning of the second quarter. “His head’s not in the game.”

Malakai walked away before he heard the answer, but by the way David stomped away, Coach was probably giving Wes yet another chance.

“We have to tell Coach,” Lucas said, standing next to Malakai. “We can’t continue this way. If Tristan doesn’t get on the field, we’re going to lose this one. And everybody can see their defense sucks. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t have scored at least forty points by now.”

Malakai looked at him, thinking the same thing. He then looked at the bleachers, spotted the sergeant, and wished he could run up there and ask for his advice. But he hadn’t gotten it in the last two years, and like for everything else, he would have to figure it out on his own.

By halftime, however, Malakai had no choice. He walked toward the locker room, lagging behind, waiting for the coaches to catch up.

“You’re going to tell them, aren’t you?” David asked, falling in step with him as Wes passed by and glared at them.

As he passed by the band, Malakai’s eyes landed on Lily, who gave him a small smile, but he couldn’t find it in himself to smile back at her.

“I don’t really have a choice, now do I?” Malakai said, shaking his head. “He’s ruining everybody’s morale.”

Malakai wanted to be far, far away from the field. He knew Lily had asked them not to say anything, but he had no choice now. He glanced her way again.

“I think she’ll understand,” David said. “And I’ll do it with you. You’re doing the right thing, you know.”

“I do it for the team, not for me.”

“That’s what being captain is all about, I heard.”

“Thanks for the pep talk,” Malakai said sarcastically.

“No problem.”

They got to the locker room door and waited for Coach to catch up.

“You have something to say to me?” the man barked.

“Yes, sir,” Malakai said, taking a page from David’s book and looking at Coach straight in the eye. “And you won’t like it.”

“Will it explain what the hell’s going on?”

“Yes, sir,” David said with a firm nod.

Coach looked at each of them in turn, then took a few steps away from the door, motioning for them to follow. He called over the assistant coach, then turned to them.

“Talk,” he said, crossing his arms.

The last four players walked by, glancing their way. Malakai saw one of them nod in approval.

“Last week, Wes went after one of the band girls,” Malakai began.

Coach frowned, his eyebrows disappearing under his baseball cap. Malakai then told him the rest of the story, and David helped with what he had witnessed at Lily’s house. They also explained how the team had found out and their reaction to the news.

“This is some serious shit,” the assistant coach said, shaking his head.

Malakai knew the assistant coach was disturbed when he used the word
shit
. It was simply not his style to curse.

“Indeed,” Coach agreed. “I suspected something was bad when the band didn’t cheer, but I never suspected something that major. I wish you had come to me yesterday with this. Heck, I wish you had come to me the minute it happened,” he continued, shaking his head.

“We wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt,” David said. “We’re a team after all.”

“Yes, you are, but this is so incredibly serious we could lose the chance to play for the rest of the season,” Coach said, removing his hat, scratching his head, then putting it back on. “You realize if this had gotten out, the league would have suspended the entire team for not acting on it, right?”

Malakai hadn’t known but now that he did, he was glad he told.

Coach paced back and forth a few times before stopping in front of them again.

“Okay, guys, let’s go fix this mess.”

The moment they walked inside, Coach waved to the other coaches to follow him, and they left for one of the meeting rooms. Malakai and David made their way to the bench and sat. Malakai leaned forward and took his head in his hands, his elbows on his legs. The team was deadly silent, and everybody was waiting. In the distance, they heard the band play.

“You told them,” Wes suddenly spat, standing up and stalking over to Malakai and David.

Malakai looked up and slowly got to his feet, followed by David and the rest of the team. Wes was shaking, his fists clenched at his side. He would have bumped his chest into Malakai had David not extended his arm to stop him.

“Yes, we did,” David said, looking straight at the enraged player. “We gave you the chance to play as part of the team, but you keep on having your head up your ass. We can’t afford it when we play.”

“You ruined me.”

“No, you did that to yourself,” Coach said, walking in. “You’re lucky your teammates were nice enough to give you a chance you didn’t deserve. Now sit down!”

All the players resumed their seats, but Wes stood his ground until Coach threw him a look that would have scared a man twice Wes’s size. By the time Wes was seated, the other coaches had trickled in except for the assistant coach. Their faces were long and sober.

“I sent for your parents,” Coach continued, a finger pointed at Wes.

Wes opened his mouth to protest.

“Don’t. Say. Anything,” Coach growled.

Malakai had rarely seen him so angry.

“You lost that right when you went after that girl.”

Wes didn’t even look down under Coach’s glare.

“Samson, you’re quarterback for the rest of the game,” Coach finally said, looking at Tristan. “Gonzales, you’re alternate quarterback for the rest of the game,” he added, looking at Luis.

Malakai glanced at the wide receiver, who nodded once. Luis didn’t frequently practice as quarterback, but he would do all right for one game if need be.

“Thomas, I think the team has rallied behind you for a while now. You’re captain from now on,” he added, looking at Malakai. “Now the rules of the game haven’t changed. You get there, and you do what you do best: you play and win.”

The players remained quiet, and Malakai looked at them, worried. He wondered if they could salvage the game. As Coach disappeared out of the door with Wes, the other coaches took over, giving them directions and pep talks. Five minutes later, they made their way to the field for the second half, still unusually quiet.

“I’m nervous,” Tristan said to Malakai, once they reached the sideline.

“Why?”

“What if I don’t get it right?”

“Tristan, you practiced your arse off, and you’ve done it before,” he said, grabbing Tristan by his helmet guard. “You know what to do, and you do it right. Stop doubting yourself,” he said, shaking the quarterback’s head. “Now all you have to do is do what you do best and pass those balls.”

“Okay,” Tristan said hesitantly.

“What?!”

“Okay!” Tristan screamed.

“That’s my man!” Malakai encouraged, slapping him on the back.

It took a good five minutes for the guys to get back in the game, but Tristan’s flawless performance coupled with Malakai’s scoring their first touchdown in the first three minutes of the third quarter got the team going. By the end of the game, they had scored twenty-eight points and won. Happy, the team made their way to face the stands for the school song.

“We did it,” David said.

“Yeah, we did.”

As he looked up at Lily in the stands, Malakai smiled.

Chapter Fifty

LILY