NOTE: This is the fictional coming of age story of Jake Grimke as he matures through high school, into college and eventually into adulthood in the Baltimore, Maryland region. It contains and embraces accurate representations of life in Baltimore and its suburbs; Maryland's traditional sport of lacrosse and the career path a firefighter might follow in his profession. All of the characters in this story are fictional and resemblance to any one person whether dead or alive is purely coincidental. If you liked this installment, please send me some feed back; I got a rough idea where this is headed but I am always open to some suggestions. Needless to say, if you are offended by handsome athletic young men growing up gay and the obstacles they will encounter as well their personal triumphs, you should use the BACK button on your browser forthwith.
Will dressed himself just enough to conceal what took place in the early hours of the new year on the sofa in the family room of the Grimke house. Jake cuddled with him on the couch, barely sleeping for fear that one of his parents would wake and find both of them in that compromising position. The jock gently slipped out of Will's arms and put the comforter from the back of the sofa over him, gathered his own clothes and retreated to his bedroom before his father's alarm would go off at 5:00 am signaling the start of his last day shift at Truck Company 19.
Jake padded his feet up the steps to his room and hung up his suit and cast the rest into his laundry basket before slipping into his lacrosse shorts. No need to take matters into his own hands now as he dozed off only to be wakened by Lt. Grimke doing his customary early morning good bye. "I love you Dad," Jake said, "thanks again for letting me have the party and, could you be a little quiet please downstairs; Will's sleeping on the couch. Be safe today."
"Sure Jake, Happy New Year, son, I love you too" John replied.
Twenty four hours later, he spring term commenced on January 2nd without much change to Jake or anybody else's schedule. Jake could feel the eyes of the student body on him, some with a smile, some with a scowl and some with the look of just confusion. He took it all in stride, remembering what everybody has repeated to him for as long as he can remember, "no matter what happens Jake, things usually work out for you."
Coach Dase caught up with Jake after second period phys ed asking, "so, is your coming out going to cause any distractions from our goal?"
"No sir, not on my part Coach," Jake replied, "I'm focused on winning.
If anybody else gets distracted by me, then they are going to have problems. You picked me to be the captain, to lead and I will lead by example, by being the best athlete I can be. Beecher, Syms, Ev, all of us want that state title this year; we were so close last year but we won't let it slip away this season."
"Listen son, I know it's easy to talk like this, but now you got to walk the talk. Lots of eyes are on you Jake, lots; and most of them don't even know what happened at that party. I know you Jake, I've watched you grow and mature as an athlete and as a young man; you and Evan are the only two freshmen I ever moved up to varsity since I got to Severn. I know what you can do on the field and a good idea of what you can do off the field; but, if anybody, anybody at all at this school gives you or Will or anybody else here any shit, come to me immediately. I won't stand for it and neither will Lafferty or any of the other administrators."
Jake smiled hearing a faculty member say a taboo word in front of a student, "I understand what you are saying Coach and appreciate the confidence you've shown in me. I don't think any of us on the team will let you down; confidence is high."
"I'm glad we had this little talk Jake," Coach Dase said high-fiving his varsity lacrosse team captain, "and if you are late to English, let me know and I will send Miss Birdsong an email saying you were talking to me."
"Copy that Coach," Jake said as he strode down the almost empty first floor corridor to English Composition with Trooper Marsh standing just outside the still open door to room 124 that Miss Birdsong always closed before the late bell could finish ringing.
Will, Jake and the rest of the Mohawks settled in their seats along with Jackie and Shelia as Miss Birdsong took attendance. Before formally starting the class, their senior faculty advisor took a minute to say how proud she was of what she saw in the auditorium before Christmas break started and how fortunate she felt to be their faculty advisor. Forty five minutes later after each student wrote an in-class essay on the best part of their holiday break, the end of class bell rang and the seven students approached Miss Birdsong.
"We need your help Miss Birdsong" started Jackie, "we want to do another concert."
"Really, wouldn't Mr. Hartley be better for that?" she replied, not sure why they were all lingering around her desk.
"We want to do a surprise concert, with the Mohawks and anybody else we can enlist," Shelia started to explain before adding, "kind of a way of giving back for our years here at Severn."
"In lieu of some slick senior prank," Beecher added in an effort to sweeten her interest.
Jake spoke next, "we need somebody with some pull on the faculty, somebody who the entire school respects as one of its best teachers."
"Easy Jake, don't pile the fluff on to soon sonny," Miss BIrdsong chided him, "tell me more about this concert."
"We were thinking the stadium, day before graduation," Erik marched out his suggestion again, "it's all set up, wired and sound checked, just needs somebody to flip a switch."
"Please Miss Birdsong, help us?" Will pleaded, "we got over six months to plan this out."
"Alright, I will think about it, but be prepared to work your buns off," Alva Birdsong said, "The more people you let in on this, the greater chance it has of being an unsurprise concert. I will work on a few key faculty people and Mr. Croom from House and Grounds. Will, I appoint you chairman."
"Yes ma'am," Will acknowledged with a smile over to Jake and then turned to everybody, "first meeting at Shelby's diner this afternoon at 3:30 pm. Be there!"
"Hey guys, what about me?" Syms asked.
Jake and the rest looked at him puzzled, "What about you, why would you think we would exclude you?" Jake asked him.
With a couple of points of his thumb outside the door to room 124, "Trooper Marsh is not exactly a barrel of laughs and does not like the schedule upset one little bit."
A collective "ohhhhhh" filled the room as Miss Birdsong dismissed them to their fourth period class.
"Can't you call your parents?" Evan suggested, "that's what would seem natural."
"Mom maybe, probably, Dad not so much. I now have a staff person I report to about my comings and goings and everything else I do who tells Governor Dad while he is in between meetings or whatever," Erik explained, "and the trooper does not and will not deviate from what's printed on her daily itinerary for me."
"Well, I'd say the coolness factor of being the governor's kid dropped from a ten to about negative two," Aaron mused.
"Yeah well, I'm still here and still playing ball with you Beech and the rest of you guys," Erik said as a reminder, "there was a brief discussion about me finishing at a private school or worse, being tutored in the Governor's Mansion."
Erik continued, "I'll call mom at lunch and tell her about the meeting. I think she can call the State Police watch commander and have him or her tell my detail it's okay to change plans. I will let you guys all know by last bell, okay?"
The seven split for fourth and fifth period classes, Will and Jake sitting together in Jake's favorite class, American History, that they shared with Will's tormentors Chord Michaels and Ernie Holst who's seat was empty. After that, it was fifth period College Algebra before lunch, senior study hall and then the Mohawks were reunited for last period in Organic Chemistry with the last bell ringing at 2:15 pm.
As the last bell rang, Jake corralled the Mohawks and said, "Stadium steps in 15 minutes, we run them then off to Shelby's to meet Will. We got to show Coach Dase we are serious about winning every game this year."
"Yeah, and scare off any lacrosse just-wannabees," Aaron said as they strode four abreast down the corridor.
In the lacrosse team locker room as they changed into their warm ups, Evan reminded them of the schedule, "tryouts start next week, cuts are the week after and then it's balls-on hard core practice until February 8th at Northeastern."
"Run the even days, push steel the odd days," Beecher suggested.
"10-4, roger that," Jake acknowledged their own training schedule, "Erik, you better let Trooper Marsh know our schedule, we want you right there with us, every painful step of the way bro,"
"I'm in, but you should have seen her face when she was paged to call the Watch Commander and got the change order," Erik told them, "I thought she was going to blow a gasket."
Evan chimed in, "it's just an adjustment period, til she knows you and you know her."
"Yeah, probably, just hope it's not too long," Erik reflected.
Each player took the lead four times until they had run up and down all eight aisles of the bleachers on both sides of the stadium. All showered and changed back into their street clothes before heading over to Shelby's Diner on Arnold Road, less than a mile from Severn High School.
Will sat at a big booth with Shelia and Jackie waiting for the Mohawks to arrive, a long pad of paper in front of him with just some of the items and ideas he began to consider as the hungry jocks glanced the menu to replace the calories they had just burned up. Shelby herself took their order of french fries and sodas as Will began to read through his initial list, "tickets, admission, gate money, weather, liability issues, trash, set-up, tear down, trash removal and just to top it all off, we have to leave the stadium in pristine condition for our graduation the next day."
Everybody's eyes bulged at all that had to be accomplished. Evan pondered for a moment and announced to the group, "I got it covered, I think."
"Let's hear it wingman, cause I know I am now part of whatever you are scheming," Jake said.
Evan turned to Jake but said for loud enough for everybody to hear, "you know how I always tell you my dad wants to be more involved in my life after one my visits with him?"
"Yep, sure do," Jake replied.
"And what's my dad do?" Evan quizzed Jake.
"Works at the Kennedy Center in DC, right? Oh no way," Jake said with a surprised look on his face.
"Dad's a program manager down there, pretty high up in their food chain," Evan reminded Jake and the rest at the table, "I'm not saying have the concert there which would rock, but he's got event planners and staff that deal with these things all the time."
"You pull this off Ev-man, you will be a god," Aaron said.
"Will's got good ideas about things we need to consider," Evan said, "let me talk to Dad about this, give him a chance for his moment in the sun and see what he says about it."
"You sure Ev?" Jake asked.
"Let me be perfectly clear, no promises, just let me run it up the Dad-pole and see where it goes, that's the best I can offer now," Evan said to everybody as they finished munching french fries."
Trooper Marsh walked over to their booth, "Mr. Syms, we have to go, I got just 22 minutes to get you home by 5:30 pm and you know how the traffic is this time of day from here to Annapolis."
"Yes ma'am," Erik said, gathering his belongings not wanting to roil the waters with the terse trooper.
And after scrounging for money to pay the tab, the rest of the group began to disperse for their own homes leaving Jake and Will at the table alone for a minute. "I want you to come over and meet my family," Will asked Jake.
"When?" Jake replied.
"The sooner the better I suppose. Otherwise Mom and Dad just think I have an imaginary friend named Jake," Will said with a smile.
"I promise, very soon, just let me plan it on my end at home," Jake answered and they walked out into the parking lot at Shelby's and had a quick hug before each went his own way home.