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.
Jake took his time getting to the cafeteria the next day, stopping to talk to Coach Dase in the hall before entering the end of the express cafeteria line for his pint of Hershey's chocolate milk. The 30 minute senior lunch was already in full swing as he inched towards the cashier talking to others and paid, focusing most of his attention on the table where he sat with the Mohawks and now where Will usually joined them. Chord Michaels was standing by their table, almost next to Will and Jake could see the unease on Will's face but knew he was safe in the company of the rest of his teammates.
Chord stood between the tables, most of the girls on one side and most of the boys on the other and mentally took roll call of who was and who wasn't at Jackie's Christmas party before soberly starting in a quiet voice at first, "hey everybody," and then, "Will."
And not unlike his reception from certain seniors on the lacrosse team the afternoon before, he perceived a similar sense of being outcast by the other party attendees before he continued, "Jackie, Evan, I'm sorry about the scene I caused at your party, I don't have an excuse for my behavior, none what so ever."
All eyes watched him as Jake walked quietly up to the table and stood a short distance from everybody as Chord turned. "Will, you and Jake are good guys, it doesn't really matter to me and shouldn't to anyone else if you are gay or straight. I'm sorry I said those hate-filled things to you and Jake the other night at the party, it was wrong and uncalled for. I've apologized to Jake already and now I want to personally apologize to you in front of everybody," Chord said before he turned to the rest of the hushed students assembled, "I'm sorry I shamed Will and Jake in front of all of you and I've already promised to do better and not let this happen again."
"Apology accepted," said a surprised Will before asking, "where's your sidekick Ernie?"
"Some Christian Academy in the horse-ass end of nowhere in Virginia," Michaels replied, "his parents shipped him off there when they heard what happened. He's not coming back."
Chord Michaels made the cuts and started on defense with Aaron Beecher and a promising junior named Tyler May with senior Kit Winterson standing behind them in the goal. Before Chord came along, Jake was the relative newcomer, Erik Syms, Evan Harmes and Aaron all having grown up together and attending the schools that fed into Severn High.
Chord pushed himself to be accepted by the rest of the seniors on the team, all of whom had varsity experience for at least the last couple of seasons under their belts already but it didn't come easy, especially after his social guffaw at the Christmas party in spite of the apologies he made.
Before the final rosters were assembled, the Mohawks kept up with their pre-practice warm-up drills; a run on the even days, usually up and down the step aisles on the stadium's bleachers and in the weight room on the odd days where each player came up with a different exercise all them would do three or four sets of for core strength training. Morning time before first bell was used to review homework together or quiz each other on a reading assignment before a teacher could spring a pop-quiz on them. Jake, Evan, Erik and Aaron personified the word team, on and off the field.
After their strong junior year performances, the seniors on Coach Dase's team of Severn Highlanders earned high praise in local sports media circles and a prediction from one outlet that they would probably go all the way to the Maryland state finals. Will, an accomplished photographer and videographer enjoyed spending the afternoons taking pictures and shooting video of the team at practice and at their first home game against Chesapeake High which was an easy win for Severn.
Trooper Marsh took the schedule changes in stride and finally started to warm up a bit but remained ever vigilant about her charge and keeping governor's son on a strict timetable. She opened up slowly and revealed that she played on the women's lacrosse team at not-too-distant Towson University while pursuing her bachelor of science degree in criminology less than a decade before. Finally, Erik and the trooper from his security detail had a bond to share and build on.
Jackie took the practices and games in stride, just as Evan had done with her in the fall when she had cheerleading practice to attend, pep rallies and football games to cheer for. Anna loved watching the games and wondered why the game never came across the ocean to Europe.
Will explained, based on his own crash course from Jake, to her that it was a game of the native American tribal warriors where legend has it that games went on for days and were spread out over miles of the Great Plains and into Canada.
Jake and Will continued to enjoy their fourth period American History class, with Mr. Franz, the only senior elective they had together. Each student in the class was assigned a paper to write about a U.S. president with Jake drawing the name Teddy Roosevelt while Will got stuck with Herbert Hoover. Jake began research that evening and immediately fell in love with the leader of the Rough Riders, pursuing link after link on the internet to learn just another fact about the first President Roosevelt before John Grimke stuck his into Jake's room just after 11:00 pm and said, "Enough Mr. Rough Rider, lights out; go to bed."
Jake smiled and turned, quoting Roosevelt, "It's not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or when the doer of deeds could have done better..."
The one-time history major from the University of Virginia picked up on cue, "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly"
And together, they recited it to the best of their abilities, whether newly learned or remembered from long ago, "who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat."
"Good words to live by Jake," John said to Jake, already in his sleeping lacrosse shorts and ready to slide into bed.
Emma waited at the doorway to Jake's room as Jake slid into bed and John sat on the edge of it, hearing Jake ask, "think it would be alright if I said that to the team before we play?"
"Might have to edit it down a little, I don't know how many of your team mates can sit through a speech like that before taking the field," said John with a smile as Emma wandered in to the room and stood next to her husband.
`How are you and Will doing honey," Emma asked.
"We're fine, we're going to the Valentine's dance together but not on a date together, just as friends," Jake explained to his parents now both sitting on his bed.
"Well, your father is taking me on a quick romantic getaway to New York City for dinner and a show," gushed Emma as she clung to John, "so, we are going to have to miss your game against Northeast on Friday."
Jake was glad to see his parents still clinging affectionately to each other like some of his class mates do in the halls of Severn, "Yeah, I'll give you two lovebirds a pass. May I ask a favor, please?"
"You can ask anything you want," John replied, "but you may not like the answer."
Jake steeled himself and boldly asked, "after the dance, could Will spend the night? I promise we will be responsible."
Both parents looked at each other and pondered the options almost as fast as Jake can set-up a scoring play on the lacrosse field in his head and communicate it to his team mates through unspoken words. With a quick look to her husband, Emma replied, "Let your father and I talk it over, we'll give you an answer tomorrow."
It wouldn't be the first time Jake ever had a boy sleep over; after all, Evan had slept many nights on the trundle bed that pulled out from under Jake's right up until Jake came out to his parents the year before. But Emma and John Grimke were smart enough to know that if Will spent the night, the trundle would stay rolled under their jock son's bed amidst the dust bunnies. Neither parent was really against the idea, teenagers being teenagers were going to engage in sexual exploration whether they had permission or not; it was more of how to approach giving their permission without seeming like they were throwing parental values, duties and cautions into the wind.
A few hours later, Captain Grimke stepped into his son's room as usual just before he left for his day shift on Rescue 1 in time to wake Jake to start getting ready for school. "Hey, your mom and I talked over this Will sleep-over thing last night," he said, sitting on the edge of the bed, "and, we're okay with this but the responsibility for what happens is on both of you. The only caveat your mother has is that both of Will's parents have to be in agreement on this. You know Em is going to call his mother so make sure everybody is singing from the same sheet of music. Your mother and I won't stand for any sneaking around and you know that."
"I know Dad, that's why I asked and I'll tell Will the same thing" Jake said with a smile, "have a good day Dad, see you at dinner. I love you. Be safe."
"I love you too, see you at dinner Mr. Roosevelt," John said as Jake started another day.