Junior Year Box Set

“What’s up with you and Zoe? I saw you making arrangements so she’d go to Lincoln.”

“You saw how much they hate homeschooling. I was only trying to help them out. Plus, Roc was always a good athlete. I think he’d enjoy playing freshman football,” I said.

Pam gave me a look, one that told me I better come clean.

“You saw her in those shorts,” I whined.

“Are you telling me she has a better butt than I do?” Pam asked as her eyebrows climbed into her hairline.

“Pam, you have a world-class butt. I would pull over for you any time, any place,” I assured her.

Pam looked at me skeptically. I prayed I had dodged that bullet. Then she gave me a serious look.

“David, we’re friends, right?” she asked, and I nodded to her. “Tell me what’s going on. I can tell you’re not happy. Talk to me.”

“Honestly, I’m a mess, but I’ll get over it. Growing up I had three best friends: Alan, Jeff, and Tami. In only a couple of weeks I lost Jeff and Tami broke my heart. Jeff was always the quiet one who steadied us. You know Alan, he’s a spaz on steroids sometimes. Tami was our den mother, and I was, well, you know me. Without Jeff and Tami around, I might actually end up killing Alan,” I said as Pam just shook her head.

“We all grew up together,” I continued. “I never imagined having to face life without them. I could always count on the four of us being together.”

I suddenly found I couldn’t talk. My throat seemed to tighten up, and I was on the verge of breaking down when a voice in the back of my head said, ‘oh, grow a pair and move on.’ The voice was right. I would always remember Jeff and honor his life. Tami I loved enough to let go. I wished her the best in whatever she did, but quite frankly I needed to move the hell on. Then something funny happened after I gave myself a mental beatdown: I felt myself relax.

My new reality needed to be me moving forward. I had a lot to accomplish this year. We would win our second State Championship in football. I would continue to get good grades and do what was needed to be prepared for college. The SAT test could be taken in the spring. I planned on being ready to do well on that.

I also wanted to explore baseball seriously. That had been my game growing up, and I needed to see if I could play it at a high level. I’d always dreamed of playing shortstop for the Chicago Cubs, and when I helped them win a World Series, that would really be something. Of course, Tami had explained that it would only happen if she played second base and carried my lousy butt.

If my boyhood dream of playing baseball didn’t pan out, I would get serious about football. Not that I hadn’t been developing my skills, but I had neglected the next step: figuring out where to go to college. I’d formulated a plan to tackle that. The key was that I wanted it to be fun, too. I wanted to play ball in college with Tim, Ty, Jim, and Wolf. If the planets aligned, I would like to play with Bill at USC. My idea to include Tami in my decision was now abandoned. If she planned on moving on, I would let her.

My movie would be out around Christmastime. The studio had been in touch with Kendal to block off my time right before and after the release. They wanted me to go to both LA and New York City and do the talk-show circuit and press tour. Range Sports wanted me at the same time, but Kendal told me Sandy understood I had other commitments.

Kent, Craig Wild’s publicist/agent, had been in touch with Kendal about the next two movies in the Star Academy series. All the agents for the four main characters had agreed to let Kent negotiate for all of us. He said we’d all sit down in LA before the film’s release and firm up a summer shoot.

Some of the numbers they had bandied around made me nervous. Kent had explained that Sandra Bullock had received $20 million up front for her film Gravity. She also had made more on the back end with the ten points she negotiated. The film earned an estimated $710 million worldwide, so she’d made close to $90 million for that film. Kent didn’t expect that kind of money. However, if he could get us points on the back end of our contracts, it would assure us a big payday if the trilogy ended up making crazy money. Gravity wasn’t a big success in the US, but worldwide it had rocked.

The downside was that if it were a flop, points wouldn’t help very much. John Travolta made a movie called Battlefield Earth for which he would have been paid $20 million. He agreed to a $10 million salary and an extra $15 million if the movie surpassed $55 million in ticket sales. Battlefield Earth foundered at the box office and only totaled $21.5 million. Travolta ‘only’ made the original $10 million on the deal.