I finished the school year with a 3.5 GPA, I was extremely pleased considering the limitations on my time. On the last day on campus before summer vacation, I checked in with Coach Ray before leaving. He urged me to work hard during the next few months, he promised me I would definitely get serious playing time next year. He begged me not to give up on him or the program, he promised it would get better. I thanked him and reassured him I would work hard during the summer.
I arrived back at home on a Friday, Ashley still had two weeks of classes left before the summer vacation. She had followed Courtney to the bus station the night before and dropped off my truck, so I would have a ride. The bus pulled in about twelve-thirty that afternoon. I decided to stop in at the high school on my way home, to see Ashley and Coach Mike again. I parked in the student lot and made my way to the front door, I pulled it open and immediately was confronted by Ms. Carter.
"Hold on young man, just where do you think you're going ?", she asked with a smile.
"Uh, I wanted to see Ash… I mean Ms. Thompson and Coach Mike.", I responded quickly.
"Not before you come give me a big hug mister.", she answered, extending her arms.
I walked over, bent down and gave her a big hug. She squeezed me tightly, kissing my cheek. She pulled away and looked me up and down.
"My Lord Brian, when will you ever stop growing children ?", she asked.
"I'm still the same size as when I left here Ms. Carter.", I stated.
"No way, No way.", she said laughing, shaking her head.
While in fact that was the truth, my appearance had changed drastically. I was close to two hundred ninety pounds when I left for school last year, standing six foot six inches tall. I had only gained about a half inch in height, and my weight was currently two hundred eighty nine pounds. But I had lost most of the fat on my body and replaced it with muscle mass. Even though my weight was down about a pound, I looked a lot bigger than I had a year ago. I thanked Ms. Carter for the warm welcome and made my way to Ashley's class. I rounded the hall and looked inside the back door to her class. Everyone was seated, she had her back to the class and was writing on the blackboard. A couple of students looked up and saw my face in the class. I lifted a finger to my lips telling them to be quiet and slipped inside the back door, sitting quickly in the last empty desk in the far right hand row. By now everyone had seen me sneak in, several students were chuckling aloud. Ashley stopped writing and turned, facing the class. I had scooted down so far in the desk she could not see me from where she was at.
"So does anyone want to tell me what's so amusing today ?", she said in a stern manner.
Again everyone cracked up, causing her to lose a bit more of her patience. She turned and walked over to the blackboard and began to write the day's notes again. I leaned over in the aisle to make sure she heard my voice, but I made sure to disguise it slightly.
"Do we really have to write all this crap down ?", I said in a low pitched voice.
I quickly hid behind the student in front of me as she whirled around and faced the class. You could see she was not amused.
"Ok that's it. Who said that ? Someone is going to the office, now.", she sternly ordered.
I slowly raised my hand up just above the head of the student in front of me. Ashley got up on her tiptoes trying to see over the kid in front of me.
"Who is that back there ?", she asked, extremely annoyed.
I knew it was time to give it up, I slowly leaned into the aisle so she could see my face. Her look of perturbation slowly gave way to a huge smile. I got up and walked over to her, giving her a huge hug.
"Hey Honey, it's so good to see you.", she said, "Oh my God, look at how big you have gotten."
We talked for a second then I knew it was time to bail, Ashley was all business at school. I told her I was going to see Coach Mike, then head home. She told me she would see me there later. I exited her class and walked towards the gym area and Coach Mike's office. I passed several faculty members and former teachers, all greeting me warmly. I finally arrived at Coach Mike's office, knocking on the door loudly.
"Come in.", he shouted.
I opened the door to see a friendly face looking up from the desk, he immediately jumped from his seat.
"Hey Brian, good to see you buddy. Man you're looking good.", he said, extending his hand to mine.
"Thanks Coach, it's nice to be home.", I answered.
We sat down and talked for close to an hour about his team this coming year, and my situation up at school. He told me that he would make a call to Coach Ray in a few weeks to make sure that everything was going forward for me to complete the following season. I thanked him for the concern, told him I would see him again soon and left for home.
Upon arriving home, I loaded my clean clothes into my locker, took the dirty clothes to the laundry room and started a load in the washer. The one good thing about being away at school was you did learn to take care of yourself. By the time Ashley had gotten home, I had washed all of the clothes, her's included, cleaned the kitchen and straightened up the rest of the house. I was sitting down watching TV when she came into the family room.
"Hey hotshot, thank you so much for cleaning up. I have been swamped with exams and everything this week. I really appreciate it darling.", she said, patting the top of my head.
"No problem Ashley, glad to help out.", I answered.
She went to her room and changed clothes coming back out in shorts and a tee shirt, no shoes. She was scurrying around the kitchen when she yelled out to me.
"What do you want to eat this evening ?", she asked.
"It doesn't matter to me.", I responded.
"I have to hurry, I have finals to grade.", she said.
"You want me to grab some takeout then ? It would make things easy on you.", I offered.
"You know, that's a great idea.", she said, smiling.
I jumped up, put on my shoes and drove into town picking up burgers, fries and shakes at the local diner. I was back in less than thirty minutes, Ashley was already grading papers. I sat with her and ate as she continued to work, I cleaned up after we were done. I told her I was going to watch a bit of TV then probably go to bed early. I had a meeting at the gym with Carl early in the morning about my training schedule for the next three months.