Hey fans; sorry for the hiatus, I promise to get a couple of chapters done in the morning before hitting the beach in the afternoon. This continues to be the fictional coming of age story about 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 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.
In the weeks leading up to the early spring break prior to Easter, the men's lacrosse team from Severn High School racked up a string of consecutive victories against other Anne Arundel County high schools including South River, Chesapeake and the county's other lacrosse powerhouse: Severna Park. The Highlanders were also victorious in their first inter-county game against Lansdowne in neighboring Baltimore County. Coach Dase was proud of the hard work his staff was doing to coach the team's offense and defense and equally as proud of the effort the boys were putting into their team.
Jake took his position as lacrosse team captain exceptionally seriously, not by pointing out mistakes made by others but by trying to be the best athlete he could be. Instead of pointing out a team mate's weakness in a certain skill or ability, he tried showing him a better way to do it, not necessarily Jake's way but just a better way. And Jake's easy-going personality never revealed how genuinely uptight, tense and stressed out he was about everything in his life: winning each game, keeping up with his school work so his grades remained high and dealing with his own growing sexual curiosities.
Will had opened the proverbial Pandora's box of Jake's desires but somehow, Jake kept it all in check until him and Will were alone. It was then Jake would ask Will to help him explore these desires which Will was usually very agreeable to participate in. And its not like Will didn't have a few out of the ordinary ideas of his own too; his favorite was being the nerdy guy fucking the snot out of the big jock. So it was a good fit for both, allowing each to be comfortable in their presence, their agreement to be friends preserved and some pent up sexual energy released for just a bit until one or the other or both had another idea to try out.
Alva Birdsong kept a finger on the pulse of the concert committee and as soon as she detected they were slacking off, she sent for Will Hurley to provide an update on their actions. It seemed at each meeting that one more person had to be included in the planning phase, whether a faculty or staff member or a parent or somebody else that would be instrumental in pulling off the whole event. The most recent outsider added was the governor himself offering some legal advice. At their latest meeting before spring break, Erik informed the group that, "The Gov says we can't charge admission." Will seemed a little heart-broken at the news as Erik continued, "we would be opening ourselves up to copyright violations and all sorts of other stuff like that. Dad says most artists probably wouldn't mess with some high school kids who might gross a couple thousand bucks but it would just take one with a prick for a lawyer who wants to make a name for himself. Then we would be toast."
The group came to agreement quickly to scrub the admission based on the advice from Erik's father with Will asking them, "so what do we do?"
Evan jumped in, "The show goes on, no admission. My dad kind of hinted at the same thing so we better stay away from charging admission. He said the Kennedy Center, even though they are a non-profit, does some community based charitable stuff so they can provide a little bit of logistical help. We just have to ask ourselves what do we really, really need and what can we do without and still have a good time?"
"All that needs to be done is the stadium needs to be put back together for graduation the next day. That means all the folding chairs back on the field in their nice neat orderly rows, all the trash picked up and hopefully nobody does something crazy and breaks anything," Jake said looking at Will and then Evan for a sign they agreed, "that's all we need."
Aaron spoke next, "Any of you brain surgeons take a look at the calendar?
If, and it's a pretty big if. If we go to the state championship somewhere in Maryland, it's the day before graduation; same day as we are planning this gig. You really think we can play, win, be back here and up on stage?"
"Well genius," Jackie looked at Jake, "did you factor that in?"
"No," Jake admitted, pissed at himself for not seeing the potential schedule conflict, "but a victory concert would be awesome!"
Erik backed up Jake, "me neither, doesn't mean we can't do it, it's just one more detail to work out," and with a smile he added, "In fact, I might be able work something out with a little help from the `Gov'."
Will looked at him, "Make it so Mr. Syms."
Then Will looked at them all and began a new round of questions, "So, who is going to play, have we been able to recruit any talent outside of this room?"
Shelia Downes volunteered, "I asked some girls from Show Choir and they liked what they did at the Christmas concert, singing back up with our own boy band here."
"I thought we were trying to keep this from being just about us," asked Evan with a look to Jackie.
"Listen, you guys rule the school, like it or not, you are the designated rock stars here. All of you are friends with just about everybody who walks up and down the halls here at Severn. It might as well be your swan song," Jackie told Evan and the rest of the Mohawks.
"Even Miss Birdsong said pretty much the same thing," added Will, "she says its been a long time since she saw so much cohesion and spirit in the student body and she is a lifer here at Severn."
"Well, here's my two cents," Jake began to offer, "if we are going to make this a tribute to our years here at Severn, then we pay tribute to those who helped make us who and what we've become. Maybe it shouldn't be all about us, but about our parents and our teachers. Let's do the concert for them."
"The train's leaving the station with Jake at the throttle," Aaron said just loud enough to make the group grin and with a smile to Jake, "let's hear it bro; you never let us down before."
"Well, we play their music, maybe make them think of when they were back in high school," Jake continued, "we've been cool doing that before."
"You think anybody else would come to the concert if we just play all that classic rock stuff," Erik asked, "how about something a little newer, you know, for the newer teachers. They're not all as old as our folks you know."
Will continued, taking some notes, not sure where the whole concert was heading now before he suggested, "well, we all have favorite teachers, we could start by asking each of them what some of their favorites were in high school. In fact, Jackie and Shelia, why don't you do that so nobody on the faculty gets suspicious if the guys were to start asking."
"A teacher or two a day," Jackie said, "we can get a list together by early April, don't you think Shelia?"
"Easy." Shelia agreed.
Erik looked at his watch and found a five dollar bill in his pocket and plopped it on the check. "I got to bail, catch you at practice over the break," he said just as Trooper Marsh walked up to their table at Shelby's diner.
"C'ya Erik" the group said as he exited out the side door and into the idling black Suburban.
It was almost 6:00 pm and Jake was ready to go too knowing his dad would be home momentarily. Will gave Jake a ride home after the rest of the group paid their fair share of the after school snack at the diner. "What do you think Will, do our teacher's music, for them? Is that a bad idea?" Jake asked Will.
"Not a bad idea, I just don't think that's what we had originally envisioned but we got to start nailing this stuff down soon. You guys need a play list and time to practice. I'm beginning to think it might be better if it's just you guys anyhow, less moving parts in the plan, less to go wrong, you know, keep it simple."
"I know, it's just not what we set out on earlier in the year, but I do agree with you. And we kind of opened this can of worms with Miss Birdsong and can't retreat from it if you catch my drift; none of us are quitters and I think she would be crushed if we stepped away from this," Jake said to Will as Will dropped him off.
"None of us are quitters Jake, we are all going to do this and do our parts;
I'll get the girls to get the songs and you guys practice it and play it," Will said as his car idled on side of the Grimke driveway.
"I know, I'm just letting this get to me; it's almost like it's too much with the paper for history, practice, keeping up on the guys on the team and," Jake listed, "trying to keep up with you and everybody else."
"It's okay Jake, you don't have to do all of it, we're all going to do our part and do our part to the best of our ability," Will reminded him, "remember, like I told my old man, this is for extra credit."
"Yeah well, I'm working my balls off already this semester," Jake mustered a smile, "Mom and Dad said this would be the easiest semester."
"Nothing is easy for guys like us Jake, nothing is really easy." Will offered.
"I know. Is this really going to work or are we just going to make asses of ourselves?" Jake asked his gay friend.
"We're gonna be great Jake Grimke, just great my friend," Will said while offering an in-car hug for encouragement, "talk tomorrow."
As Jake got of Will's car he leaned his head back in the window, "and what are you doing with all those pictures and video you are shooting when we practice and at the games?"
Will flashed a smile, "You'll see, I promise, no YouTube!"
Will backed carefully out of the driveway just as John Grimke was driving up in the older Honda. John parked the car where Will's had just been and Jake waited for his dad to grab his day bag from the back seat and head inside.
Just before entering the side door, Jake hugged John, "Hey Dad, how was work today?"
"Fabulous. Life on Rescue 1 is fabulous; ran two calls for people trapped in stalled elevators downtown, a box alarm downtown for a burned up motor on an air handler and got to overhaul a rowhouse on a small fire we caught on the way back from the shop."
"You miss the truck company don't you?" Jake asked.
"I miss the truck work, going to more fires per se but sometimes," John said, "when somebody reaches out to you and asks you to help them, you help them; which in the grand scheme of life usually has rewards of its own down the road. And who knows, if I get bored enough I might study for the battalion chief's exam in two more years."
"That'll be the day, you a chief, you always bitch about them losing touch with the guys in the field," Jake reminded him as they walked towards the kitchen.
"Enough about my day, how are you doing? Finish that paper yet? I want to read it before you turn it in," John asked his son.
"I got a rough draft of it, got a few more points to research and refine and I found another one of his quotes that I like," responded Jake.
"Yeah?" John asked, "does it go something like `Far better is it to dare mighty things, win glorious triumphs, and even though checked by failure...than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat'."
"That's it!" Jake exclaimed, "I use that in the locker room before practice."
"I knew you would find that one too," John said, "c'mon, let's see what your mother has made for us to feast on."
As dinner progressed, Emma asked, "Jake, how are your plans for your concert coming honey?"
John looked over at Jake as he started to reply, "I'm not sure but I think it got down-sized to just us. I don't think anybody else really wants to perform in front of the school. I'm beginning to think we bit off more than we can chew."
John followed up the question with, "Well, how much did you bite off?"
"We haven't finalized it yet but we're kind of changing the theme of what we are doing since nobody else really seems to be jumping in. Today, I suggested that we do songs that honor our teachers and our parents. Nobody disagreed with the idea but now we have to found out what songs our teachers like."
"Your father and I can help, hell, we put you guys on the map!" Emma said and then turning to John, "imagine them playing all our old favorites."
"Well, not all our teachers are as old as you guys," Jake said as nicely as he could trying not to call his parents old, "we do have a few younger and cool teachers so we have to play stuff for them too."
"Let me give you a piece of advice," John offered, "your mom and I have been to enough rock concerts to know that you can play about a dozen songs, maybe last for an hour and a half or so."
"Damn, a dozen songs?," Jake sounded stunned, his head mentally calculating how much practice would be required.
Emma asked, "who all is invited to this thing?"
Jake smiled, "everybody I think."
Emma followed up, "and when is it?"
Jake smiled even harder, "sandwiched somewhere in between winning the state championship and graduation."