Chapter 8: Chapter 8 – Hook, Line, and Sinker

Thursday has arrived and August is only a few days closer to ending. Fall will be arriving soon, the season the majority of athletes look forward to. For the Fall is prime dodgeball action. School spirit gathers in the air, as the Lone Star Classic looms over. But for Teddy Walker, this is a vital day. As he takes a sip of his iced coffee, he gazes at his patio to see the orange sun slowly rising up. He then sees his reflection, gazing upon each other, he thinks back to the previous day meeting with Jonathan. He got what he wanted, but they will see him in a different light now. Was that truly the only way he saw to fix it is what he thought. It’s too late to think anything could work now, what’s done is done.

Placing the last few notebooks he needed into his bag, he grabbed his key, locked the door properly this time, and headed out to the school building. 

On the way to the academy, he comes across Jonathan and Amelia. They seem to have been engaged in conversation. And exactly like a self-proclaimed sane individual, he decides to eavesdrop on the conversation. 

“It’s just I don’t know, Amelia. The more I think, the more I get confused.” Jonathan stated.

“It’s okay, Jon. We have time to think over strategy.”

“Besides, I really want to win this match. Not for my parents or anybody, I want to prove myself as this is my first year as Team Captain. If Raymond hadn’t left the school, my chances probably were next to none, so in a way, I’m grateful to Teddy.” This was a shock to Teddy. He knew he used him to get ahead on the team, but something like this he never expected. He recalls Coach Juggernaut’s words a few weeks ago.

“We just want to develop you to be the greatest you can be. You have some amazing skills and I think you could be a potential award winner. I think being on the bench could help you in your goals.”

“Maybe I got too hasty. Besides, it wouldn't hurt to stay on the bench a little while.” Teddy mumbled to himself. Learning to get adjusted to the team structure was a slow step for Teddy, but it might be crucial to the future. He decides to head up to Jon and Amelia.

“Jonathan!” The pair turn around to see the noise. “Can I talk? Amelia is fine to listen in on.”

“Okay.”

“I apologize for my rudeness the other day, especially to you, Amelia. I realized that was not the way of going about this upcoming game. I was more focused on myself than anything regarding the game.”

Jonathan smiles, he sees that he really means it. “I can understand most of what a little ego can do to you. It catches up with you if you are not careful and boy is it tough to get out.” 

“Apology accepted, Teddy. Moreover, you need to focus on what plan you have in order to defeat Carter High!” A slight smirk shows up on Teddy’s face. Teddy pulls out his phone.

“You mean this plan?” He taps the screen and a video starts playing. The two are in shock at this revelation, how long was he up making this level of quality. He even has footage of Carter’s High previous matches against other teams last year, previous King’s Academy teams, and them practicing from the last month.

Jonathan's eyes sparkled clearly, clearly impressed Teddy’s thoroughness, “How did you find all this? Some of this game footage, I’ve never seen in my life!”

“Had some help from a friend.” In reality, he means, he begged Marcus to research game footage at 11 PM to 4 PM. Not even in a wince of sleep for that man. “Just give me the go-ahead when you want to send that to the rest of the team.”

“Send it now.” Click. A notification instantly rings out through Jonathan and Amelia’s school app. Now the whole team knows.

“Shouldn’t Coach Juggernaut know that his players are running plans not under his supervision or is that reserved for after the victory?” Teddy jokes.

“I was already aware of this.” A shadow looms over Teddy’s body and he looks behind at him at the massive man that is known as Juggernaut. “Morning, son.”

“M-m-m-morning, sir-r-r.” Teddy felt like if he had to pee his pants instantaneously, the imitiemedate brain-image of Mr. Juggernaut looming over him would suffice him to do so.

“If you’re gonna pull that plan, it better be done correctly. Otherwise I hope you like 500 burpees, the others will get 100. Don’t let me down, son.” Right, sir. The school bell rings throughout the hallway, indicating that the first class of the day will be starting soon. 

“Welp, we gotta go Teddy.” “Cheerio!” said Jonathan and Amelia respectively. Teddy watches the pair moving into the campus. A slight smile emerges onto Teddy’s face. In his mind, Jonathan’s a good guy and with him as her boyfriend, she’s in good hands. Maybe that will calm Taigen’s nerves. Teddy looks at phone on the way to class. His messages have spiked up, all of the players on the team are asking for advice.

“Good grief.” Teddy sighed. “This is going to be a long day.”

The day rolls on as Teddy heads back to the dorm room, hoping to rest from all the questions his fellow teammates had to ask on the plan. He flops on the living room couch and lets the soft leather collide with his face. Lying down, his worries are being carried away. The book of revelation could be occurring down at this very moment and he would not move a muscle. At ease. That is until a faint knock briefly interrupts his peaceful serenity until it subsides. Then another knock…and another one. Then another. Oh, wait there’s one more. Then a barrage of knocks roughly wakes up Teddy.

“I’M COMING!”

He opens the door. The person behind the unnecessary knocking was Veronica Garcia.

“Heyo Ted-Man.”

“Damnit, V. You’re gonna wake up the whole dang housing complex.” Due to the excessive knocking, many students who were in their room peek out the door to check the commotion.

“Hehehe sorry dude! Anyway, I need to talk to you. Can you let me in so we can talk privately?”

“Only if I can ask you something myself.” 

“Fine, Ditto.” Hook, line, and sinker. Without waiting a minute, Teddy escorts Veronica to his living room without question.

“What do you wanna talk about?”

“Apparently you’ve devised a strategy to defeat Carter High.”

“You didn’t watch the video?”

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“Practice Squad kids don’t get that privilege, ya know? Considering we aren’t on the active roster for games.”

“How did you hear about it then?”

“I have my sources. Teddy raised an eyebrow. “Amelia, I mean.”

“Figures as much.  Amelia’s one of the few roster players besides me who frequents with the PS kids.”

“PS?”

“Come on, it’s an acronym.” Veronica looks at Teddy with a done-with-your-games look.

What did I do to deserve this? Teddy thought to himself.

“Anyway, I’ll go into detail into the plan….”

Teddy spends the time talking to Veronica about the plan process. Explaining the team’s strengths and weaknesses and how to exploit it. He also emphasizes the surprise factor the plan to implement if things get to dire.

“I see and you’re 100% sure that this plan will help the team succeed, right?” Veronica asked.

“Nope. There are too many undetermined factors to this game. We don’t know lineups until a few hours before the match starts. Despite the game taking place in Dallas, the crowd is gonna be neutral. This school has been wanting to beat for a long while. And Thomas Mallory, mullet-wearing freako, I don’t know what he has planned for us when we face him.”

“Well, it’s better than having no plan at all, right?”

“Agreed. Now then you gotta answer my question?”

“Fair enough, go enough.”

“I’ve been seeing you more and more with Marcus since the beginning of the school year. Wanna “spill the tea”?” Veronica appeared red at the hint of that comment.

“As I’ve explained before, we are just close childhood friends.” Teddy grinned at her attempt to be unfazed.

“Do just friends really just hangout daily like I see you two do? You do have girlfriends don’t you?”

“You’re too much in my business-'' She is interrupted by Teddy.

“Relax, homegirl. Unless one of you makes a move, it’s gonna stay in the friend-zone.” He then puts on glasses and sits in his seat cross-legged. It’s almost enough to make him chuckle.

“Where the heck did you get glasses? But….I get what you’re tryna say…I’m scared though. She grunts. “Why am I asking you of all people for advice?”

“Whoa, Deja Vu.”

“In just almost three weeks since he’s met you, it’s like he is a different person, in the good kind of way. He’s more confident, more brash. He’s still a bit of a herbivore but I don’t feel that’s a bad thing you know?”

Teddy smiles and does a mini fist pump.

“All I gotta say V is, make your choice. Friends or more than that. I’ll give you my best support possible.”

“Wow….that sounded so sweet and sincere coming from you.”

“Hey, I can be sentimental sometimes. It’s coming to be late, see ya later?”

“See ya later, Ted-Man. I’m gonna need your help with planning friend dates and all that.”

“I can’t help but think that I’m a third wheel in all the friends groups I’m in. Eh, not too worried about that.”

With that, Veronica leaves to head back to her dorm. Teddy locks the door and heads to the bathroom for a well-deserved shower.

“Best of Luck, Veronica Garcia.”

Heading out of the shower, he heads to his bedroom to open up a drawer to find a lone headband with a tie. On the front of it, it is engraved with a peace symbol.

“Can’t wait to use you tomorrow. For you, pops.”

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