Chapter 28

Misty had a lot of time to think on her drive back to Spearfish Lake. She thought about Howie a lot, of course; it still ground at her that she’d let him get away. The plan, of course, had been to get him out on a limb and saw it off, but somehow she’d overreached her grasp and he’d done it to her instead. That hadn’t been part of the plan. It would have been nice if she’d been able to pick herself up and put things back where they should be, but the Trevetheck bitch had beaten her to it.

It still ground at her – Howie was hers after all! But everything she’d done to put things back the way they were supposed to be had been wasted. Despite everything she’d tried, nothing had shown even a hint of success. She hadn’t managed to get back to square one with him.

While there was no doubt it would be nice to get back with Howie and get things the way they had been a year ago, she was coming to realize that unless things had changed radically in the weeks she’d been gone, it wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. At least Walt was out of the picture and would be for a while, so there wasn’t that issue to deal with. In a year, it might be an issue again, but, well, who knew? She certainly wasn’t going to wait for him, no matter what he might think.

But that was then. For now, well, while it might be nice to get back with Howie, it didn’t seem likely to happen. Probably the best thing to do would be to give it up as a bad job and press on to someone else. Maybe Jared Wooten would be a good possibility, she thought – she knew he’d been hanging around with that mousy little Bree Gravengood for as long as Howie had been with the Trevetheck bitch, but from what she’d seen they hadn’t been that close. Friends, yes, but only friends. Jared would be a good catch, too, not just as a practice boyfriend, either. He was a kid who was clearly going somewhere in life and it would be nice to be along for the ride. She should have seen that long ago, but maybe there was a chance . . . and as far as that went, it might somehow provide a door back to Howie so she could settle a score there.

Still, Howie first. Things might have changed since she’d seen him last. Probably the best thing she could do would be to see if there might be a chance there. If it worked, fine; if not, no great loss. It was at least worth a try, and there was nothing lost if she failed this time. If she did, as seemed likely, she could still take a run at Jared. And after that . . . there had to be someone out there. She was wasting time if she couldn’t find someone; she’d wasted a year on Howie, after all, and had only accomplished a little right at the beginning. There was still the chance that somewhere up the road she’d find someone like Derrick; that relationship had come within an ace of working, and it was just a damn shame for Bethany that it hadn’t.

It would be good to get back to Spearfish Lake, after the long time spent with Bethany and her moods and her attitude. It had been better than having Walt threatening her, but with him out of the picture she could get back to where she needed to be. It may have been late when she finally parked her car in front of her house, but it was good to be back. She left her things in the car, thinking that her mother could get Rusty to carry them in. She was halfway to the door before she realized it wasn’t going to happen; the last she knew there had been no sign of him. What had happened with him?

With two-a-days now under way, the first practice of the day got started early, before it got too hot. The team was settling down, now; some of the new plays were a bit tricky and took some study and practice, and were going to call for Howie to really be on the ball, but things were coming together. It wouldn’t be long before they found out how some of Coach Reardon’s ideas were really going to work.

The guys were still getting their pads on in the locker room when Jared came over to Howie. “Got bad news, guy,” he said without preamble. “I happened to drive by Misty’s house this morning, and there’s a white Toyota sitting out front.”

“Wow, that took her a couple days longer than I figured,” Howie shook his head. “I’ll bet it isn’t long before I hear from her.”

“Me either. You think maybe you might want to hang out pretty closely with Autumn the next couple days?”

“Something to think about, although I don’t plan on worrying about it much. I’m over Misty. I was over her a long time ago, and the last few weeks Autumn has made it pretty clear it’s going to stay that way. I’m just going to do my best to ignore Misty and hope she gets the message. If I have to tell her straight to her face, I will. She’s history.”

“Actually, from what I recall she almost flunked history.”

“Yeah, well, same difference.”

“You want to go out to the pond again during the day?”

“I can think of worse things to do.”

That morning, Coach Kulwicki had them working on something different: he let Jared try some kicks from field goal or extra point setups, which were pretty much the same thing. This time it was something more than just kicking; it was under simulated game conditions, with the offensive line trying to hold off a rush by the defense. Since Howie had been Jared’s holder in practice for months, he was nominated to do the same thing under game conditions.

All in all, it went pretty well. Jared proved to not have quite the power Lyle Angarrack had shown the year before, and not quite the accuracy, but he did almost as well under the pressure of game play. “We’re going to have to work on that some more,” Kulwicki told them, “but I think we’ve at least got an arrow in the quiver. We may not use it until we have to, but there’s one there.”

Once practice was over with, Jared and Howie headed home. It took a little bit of arranging, but they decided to all meet at Howie’s house and take the Jeep out to the pond again. It proved that the girls were wearing their tiny bikinis again, but perhaps a bit sadly there had been no escalation in that particular arms race, not that the guys minded very much. They swam, they joked, they had lunch and talked of football, and they talked about Misty and what she might try. Nobody, least of all Howie, seemed very worried about it.

They made two minor mistakes: they didn’t take quite enough cold drinks with them, and they wound up leaving a little early. There was nothing wrong with that; Howie offered to raid the refrigerator at home, and they were all sitting on the back porch, ignoring the bird feeders in their case, when Misty came around the corner.

“Hi, Howie,” she said, ignoring the presence of the others, especially Autumn snuggled up next to him. “How was your summer?”

“Not too bad,” he said. “How was yours?”

“It could have been better. Howie, we need to talk.”

“Maybe we do. What do you have to say?”

“Howie, maybe we should talk alone.”

“Misty,” he said firmly, “anything you have to say, you can say in front of my friends.”

She looked at him, and saw Autumn sitting up, a little fire in her eye. Bree untangled herself from Jared and sat up, too. “Howie, I’m sorry,” she started. “I made a mistake with you last fall. I never should have blown you off like I did.”

“It really was a pretty rude thing to do, especially after you promised you’d go with me,” he replied.

“I know that. I really goofed up and I didn’t realize just how bad. Howie, I don’t know how to say this, but I’d like to put it behind us. Maybe there’s some way we can be friends like we were again.”

“I wouldn’t mind being friends with you again, Misty, but it can’t be like we were. I’ve moved past that,” he replied, taking Autumn’s hand. “If you’d come to me and apologized to me last fall, well, things might be different, but you missed your chance. Even if I was willing to go back to what we had, I wouldn’t want to, considering what Autumn and I have now. It’s over, Misty. You’re just going to have to accept it.”

“But Howie . . . oh, hell, you’re right. There’s no point in trying. I should know you’re not going to listen to me anyway. You guys have fun. I won’t bother you again.” She turned and walked back toward her car.

There was silence among the four friends until they heard Misty’s car start, and listened to her drive off. “That went easier than I ever expected,” Howie said.

“If she’s really done trying,” Autumn commented.

“Maybe she got the message this time,” Howie shrugged. “I mean, I tried to be nice. But there’s no way I’d take up with her again, Autumn, even if you weren’t involved. I learned my lesson the last time. She can try her tricks on someone else.”

“She may have learned there’s no point in beating her head against a brick wall,” Bree smiled. “But I’ll believe it when I see it.”

“Anything is possible, I suppose,” Howie replied thoughtfully. “Somehow, I don’t think that was the end of it, but I wouldn’t have said anything different if had been just her and me.”

“In a way, it’s a damn shame she’s got this practice-dummy thing her mother laid on her,” Jared said. “She could be a good kid, but she’s pure poison. I wonder who she’s going to try next.”

“Whoever it is, I pity him,” Autumn sighed. “I suppose we’d better drink up and scatter. We’ve all got practices starting pretty soon. Anybody feel like getting together again after dinner? Maybe we could hang out at the Frostee Freeze for a bit and let her get another dose of seeing us together.”

“Fine with me,” Howie said. “But let’s not rub it in. Let’s just be friends and let her watch from the outside.”

“You’re being a gentleman, Howie,” Autumn smiled.

“Not really,” he laughed. “I just don’t want to lay down a challenge she’ll feel forced to take up.”

Well, that went about the way I expected it to go, Misty thought as she drove away from the Erikson’s. I didn’t stand a chance, but then I never really thought I did, at least not now. Maybe someday – who knows? But not now.

And while we’re at it, she thought, there goes the bright idea of getting together with Jared. He and Bree were awful cuddly, and I’d never have expected it out of the shy little blonde. Maybe someday, but again, not now. I might stand a chance, if only because I didn’t piss him off the way I pissed off Howie last fall. I never should have listened to Mom on that one, but what’s past is past. What’s important is the future. Damn it, there are other fish in the sea. I’ve just got to catch one of them.

How about Matt Wadsworth? Now, there was a thought. It was like she’d told her mother – Matt was a jerk, although at least less of one than Walt. And he was a known quantity; in the time she’d been going with him she’d had him wrapped around her little finger the way she’d have liked to have Howie wrapped around it. True, they’d broken up a little spectacularly, but she couldn’t believe she wouldn’t be able to fix that.

Maybe she shouldn’t take as direct an approach as she’d taken with Howie, she thought. That might have been something of a mistake. Maybe I could just run into him someplace casually, get to talking, and maybe we can patch things up. That approach wouldn’t do any good in patching things up with Howie, not that it had a chance of working the first time, but at least Matt’d be something . . .

Matt was on the football team, she knew, but he was one of that gang who seemed to spend half their time hanging around the Frostee Freeze. That would be a good way to do it, but she’d have to wait till after football practice. No big deal.

She made it into the Frostee Freeze just as the sun was getting low. One quick look around the lot showed her that Howie’s Jeep was there, and that he was there at one of the tables with Autumn, Jared, and Bree. You hardly see one of them without seeing all of them, she thought as she looked around for Matt, but I’m not going to worry about it.

She soon found Matt, sitting at one of the small tables. That was easier than it could have been as she walked toward him, then noticed Charlotte Ward sitting there with him. The two of them seemed to be having an awful good time together . . .

Charlotte Ward, for God’s sakes, she thought. Charlotte was a nice enough girl in her way, for being maybe fifty pounds overweight and not looking very nice in the face. Her grades in school were nothing special, better than Misty’s in some subjects, worse in others, but she was a very friendly girl who laughed a lot, and was really fun if you could stand her at all. My God, Misty thought, is Matt actually going out with her? This should be easy . . .

To make it look casual, Misty got a small cone, then went over and stood next to Matt and Charlotte. “Hey, Matt,” she said, “long time, no see. How’s it going?”

“Oh, pretty good,” he replied. “I haven’t seen you around for a while myself. Have you been doing anything interesting?

“Not really,” Misty sighed. “I’ve been staying down with Bethany for a bit, trying to get a feel for what it’s like to be someplace other than Spearfish Lake.”

“Yeah, I guess I’d heard that. You hear anything from Rusty?”

“Not a word since right after school got out. I have no idea what’s happened to him.”

“Well, me either. I thought maybe you’d know.”

Might as well take a more direct approach, she thought. “Hey, Matt,” she said, “I’m sorry about our little fracas last spring, and I’ve been out of touch for a while. I thought maybe we could get together sometime and go somewhere.”

“I’m going to have to take a pass on that,” he replied. “I mean, it might be fun, but I’ve sort of got an understanding with Charlotte, here. We’ve been having an awful lot of fun the last couple months.”

“I can see,” she smiled. “But Matt, I’m perfectly willing to let bygones be bygones, if you are.”

“I’d be happy to let what happened slide, but it’s not going to change anything. Even if you ignored the fact that I’m perfectly happy going with Charlotte, I wouldn’t dare go out with you. Not even think about it.”

“Why’s that?” she asked, moving a little so he could get a good view of her cleavage.

“Oh, come on, Misty,” Charlotte piped up. “The word is out that you’re untouchable. Walt may be in jail, but he sure let people know that if anyone went out with you they’d have to answer to him next year.”

“He said that?”

“From what I hear,” Matt agreed. “It’s all over town and I don’t doubt him in the slightest. Beyond that, I don’t think you’d like what happened if he finds out you’ve been stepping out on him.”

“Come on, it can’t be that bad.”

“Maybe not, but I don’t want to bet on it,” he replied, “and maybe you shouldn’t bet on it either. He was a pack of trouble when you blew me off for him, and I doubt he’s going to get any better after having a year to think about it.”

Practices continued for all four of the friends. Bree was the first to get into action, in a big pre-season warm-up meet down at Moffatt Eastern, and it went pretty well. In spite of spending all the time she could manage flying, she’d also spent a lot of time in training, mostly with her friends, and she was ready when the season started.

While she rode down on the team bus, her friends along with Jackie and Mark drove down to watch the big meet, so she had a cheering section when things got under way. There were several sections for both the boys and the girls, divided up by the size of the schools. Bree was able to get a good start in her section, and was right near the front of the field as the group narrowed down to get onto the unfamiliar course. At the halfway point she was running eighth, but in the final kilometer she passed five girls who had set out a little harder than their training would allow. In the end, she wound up third overall, and far and away the fastest of the Marlin girls!

“That was an incredible run,” Coach Emerson told her afterwards. “We’ve never done very well in this meet since it’s so big, but that was really great, and brought us up to a sixth place overall finish. In this meet, that means the whole team medaled. That wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t been going like a scared deer.”

“Well, I think I was ready for it,” she told him. “Maybe if things go well we can have a good season.”

“It’s starting out just fine,” he smiled. “This could be a very interesting season.”

That was on Saturday, still more than two weeks before school started, but the first football game of the season was the following Friday, against the traditional season opening team, Coldwater.

A year before, the Marlins had totally surprised the Icebergs in what the Coldwater team had expected to be an easy season opener against a team that was at best, a walkover. The narrow loss had stung them badly, and from all reports they were looking to get even on their home field. Even with the confidence the Marlins were carrying into this season, the Coldwater game looked to be a challenge.

But the Marlins also knew they had something going for them – and what was more, the whole community of Spearfish Lake knew it, too. The previous year they had been incredibly lucky, and the whole team had seemed charmed all through the season. No Marlin fan was unaware of it, and they also knew that this year the team planned on having things different. They didn’t plan on having good luck, although they would be willing to take any that happened. This year, they planned on dominating through skill, and the Coldwater game would be a test of if it was really possible.

It would be unfair to say that the town emptied out for the game, but there were darn few people left around town when game time approached. The field at Coldwater had a reputation for having inadequate visitor bleachers, and they were crowded to overflowing an hour before the game got under way. Among the crowd hanging around the sidelines were Howie’s older brother Jack and his girlfriend Vixen, and Autumn’s older sister Summer and her boyfriend Alan. It would be the only Marlin game they’d have a chance to see this year, and they hoped for a good one. All the parents of the four were in the stands, along with Bree, and there were plenty of people they knew.

Excitement was at a high when Jared made the kickoff, driving it deep down the field, but not quite to the goal line. An Iceberg player tried for the catch but just plain dropped it! Another Coldwater player managed to pick it up and ran it out a couple yards, before he was hit by Marlin Brad Dollarhyde. The ball was knocked loose, and Jimmy Gogolen picked it up and ran it in for the score, right on the opening kickoff.

From that instant it was clear to the Marlin fans that their incredible luck hadn’t deserted them this year!

The Marlins weren’t quite that lucky for the rest of the game, but at least they didn’t have much in the way of bad luck. All the work, all the training, all the practice – it all paid off. It was obvious that the Iceberg coach had spent some time on pass defense after the way the Marlin quarterback had made them look like fools the year before, but it didn’t do a lot of good. Howie only passed the ball five times in the whole game, mostly to remind the Icebergs that he hadn’t forgotten how to throw the ball, keeping them loose and wondering what came next. In fact, the offense looked a little lackluster, since it had been decided ahead of time to keep some of the more exotic tricks up their sleeves until they might be needed later in the season. Still, both Jimmy and Jared got in over two hundred yards each rushing, which, while not a school record, was better than either had done the year before.

It was the defense that really shined. Coach Kulwicki had worked directly with the defensive squad, and he’d done wonders. The defense held the Icebergs to a total of thirty-seven yards, which was an ignominious showing for what had been expected to be as strong an offense as it had been in years past.

The result was pretty clear at half-time, when the Marlins led 21-0, and had clearly had control of the game all the way. After another score in the third quarter Coach Kulwicki let some of the reserves into the game, and they did just fine as well, adding another score, although a fluke let the Icebergs get onto the scoreboard in the final seconds. In the end, the scoreboard read 34-6 for the Marlins, a result they could be proud of over a team that had routinely humiliated them for a couple decades.

After the game, everyone – fans, players, coaches, cheerleaders – were jubilant. Everything had gone just about as well as could be expected. “I told you guys last year,” Kulwicki told them, “we were going to be back this year and better than ever. They still weren’t expecting us, but I don’t think we’re going to manage that every game this year.”

“We’re still going to get ’em, Coach,” one of the players yelled from the back of the crowd.

“You’re darn right we are,” he replied with a huge grin on his face. “This year, when we face a team, they’re going to have seen Marlins on the schedule and know they’re not up against a bunch of patsies. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, so we’d better be doing it!”

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