First day of junior year is here, the past year wasn't anything to write home about. Got good grades, played the same as I did my freshman maybe a little better according to the stats I looked up, team missed the playoffs and I apparently got some more offers from bigger schools like USC, Oregon, Texas and Washington. Overall I'll say this life has been just as I expected, but time is going by fast with only these last two years remaining and that's if I don't jump forward again. As I'm getting ready for the first day I decide to check the schedule for this year and see who we're playing the first game against. I look up the schedule and see who's the first game against… Citrus High School, this is going to be interesting.
I head to school and everything is going good so far for the first day, the last period of the day comes which is just us lifting and relaxing before football practice. We're all in the film room just chilling until practice when Dre speaks up.
"Ayooo yall got to check this out! Let me project it onto the screen"
We all look at the screen and it's a video of citrus high school talking about the upcoming game. A few guys I know are in the video and they're just talking about the upcoming season and other basic stuff until the last few minutes the interviewer asks a specific question.
"So as you know you're playing against an old teammate, Jay Sanchez, in the first game. What do you have to say about that?"
"Jay is a traitor, he couldn't handle playing for us so he ran to that shit hole school to make himself look better"
Everyone turns to look at me and Dre pauses the video before saying something
"Didn't you win MVP as a freshman?"
"Yeah I did"
"What the fuck is this guy talking about then?"
"Just some shit talking before the game to hype it up, no big deal"
Dre continues the video
"A traitor? But didn't he move?"
"He probably forced his parents to move, it's alright though because come Friday we're going to run through him and Eden just like how the baseball team ran through his ex"
Everyone goes silent and everyone looks at me with their mouths open. I just laugh
"Damn that's wild"
Dre speaks up
"Bro… that's not cool, you have to respond back"
"I let my play do the talking"
"Yeah but still that's lowkey disrespectful, we have to help you respond"
All my teammates nod, a lot of them saying yeah and getting hyped up until I calm them down
"Relax… I'll respond with something. Let me hop in the seat real quick and type something up"
I log onto the website and write out a comment
"Letting a bench player talk for the team is crazy to me… see yall Friday though 😘"
I send the post and Dre speaks up
"Wait that guy doesn't even start?"
"Nope he's dog shit, he's probably mad that I used to beat his ass every day at practice"
"So what's next"
"We get ready for Friday. We run up the score and send those bitches home, after the game we repost this video with the final score."
"Sounds good to me bruh"
Friday comes and we're getting ready to take the field when coach Mike comes over to me
"Hey Sanchez you good?"
"Yeah why?"
"You're playing your old school and there's been a lot of talk over social media, things could get ugly"
"I'll be alright coach"
He nods and pats me on the shoulder before he walks out the locker room. I follow him out shortly after and head to the sideline ready for the game to start. On citrus' first offensive possession, a familiar face lines up across from me, Sean. I just smile at him and get ready for the play, I blow right past him and sack the quarterback. I get up and just stare down the bench and as I walk past Sean I hear him say something.
"I didn't have anything to do with that video"
"I know you didn't…"
As the game goes on we put on a sizable lead where Citrus can't comeback from it and it's not even halftime yet. Once the final seconds go by to signal halftime we head back to the sidelines to get ready to head for the locker room when we see coach will call over coach Mike. Soon after we see them shake hands and Coach comes over with a smile and just shrugs his shoulders before opening his mouth
"They want to forfeit the rest of the game"
Everyone just looks at each other in shock that this really happened in a high school game. We all see the players walking off the field to the visitor locker room and just stare at them laughing after all the shit they were talking leading up to the game. Dre comes up to me
"We should record this and post it with the final score"
"Oh yeah definitely"
Someone takes out their phone and records the citrus team walking off the field before panning to the scoreboard to the show the score… 56-0 heading into half time. Then they point it to me
"Jay what do you have to say?"
"The talking is done on the field not social media"
As I'm heading to the locker room I'm pulled to the side by coach Mike.
"Sanchez!"
"What's up coach?"
"Good game"
"Thanks coach"
"Someone here wants to talk to you"
A man in walks up and he's wearing some apparel from a college… Alabama. He shakes my hand
"Jay Sanchez, Jon Davis head of scouting at the university of Alabama"
"Uhh how are you doing sir?"
"Doing fine, I'm not going to take up too much of your time I know you want to get home and get some rest. Coach Saban and the rest of us up at Tuscaloosa are impressed and like what we see from you."
"Wow it's an honor to hear that"
"We want to get you out for a visit soon, maybe talk about extending an offer for you"
"I would love that sir"
"Alright we'll be in touch, have a goodnight Jay"
"You too sir"
I walk back to the locker room in shock at what just happened, I'm the last one in there when buddy appears
"Yooooo…"
"Right?!?!"
"Alabama knocking on your door… you're about to blow up"
"Oh I'm prepared already… this is crazy, one day I'm driving around kicking homeless people off and the next I'm getting recruited by Alabama"
"Yeah you're taking advantage of this new life, but you still have a whole year left"
"Yeah I know I'm just enjoying the moment"
"It's good that you are, anyways call me if you need me"
He disappears as I just sit at my locker just smiling at everything that's happening, at this point it's going to be a hard decision to make.