Gladiators of the Gridiron

Ty tossed the game ball to the nearest official, his eyes never leaving Justin’s face, as they stood not even a foot apart.

‘Dammit. I was almost there haha.’ Justin still had a grin plastered across his face. ‘Man. But I guess onside kicks never really go the way of the kicking team.’ He held a hand out towards Ty. ‘Good game, you beat us fair and square—you’re the better man today.’

Ty didn’t even acknowledge the hand for a while before he reached out and clasped it in an uncomfortably tight grip. ‘When we meet next, I’m going to crush you even harder.’

Justin kept smiling, not retreating from the rough handshake. ‘Hah. I look forward to it. But next time. I’M gonna win.’

Ty snarled and let Justin’s hand go before shoving past him. As Ty made his way to the bench, he was showered by rageful boos from Justin’s cheer squad.

‘This is bullshit!’ ‘Justin deserved to win!’ ‘You all cheated!’

Even the umpires caught their fair share of abuse from the crying girls. Megan felt overjoyed and vindicated upon witnessing their outrage; she knew her brother was going to win—he always did.

She rushed down to the bench to congratulate Ty. ‘You did amazing, big bro!’

Ty looked up after draining the last dregs of his water bottle, tossing the empty container to her. ‘Mm, thanks. We’ll go in a sec, just need to grab our shit from the locker room and whatever.’

He turned but then stopped, turning back to her. ‘Actually, might be a little while if we’ve gotta wait for the coach and that.’

‘That’s okay. I’ll be right here.’ She sat down on the bench, smiling at him as he walked away.

The aftergame speech would be brief this time, once again the game ball was awarded to Ty. Coach Long was thrilled with the win and the effort from all involved. It was a hard-fought game, and he was glad they were able to grind out the win in the end.

Then, once all their gear and equipment were rounded back up, it was time for them to leave. Coach Long’s car was the last from the Dons’ team to pull out of the parking lot.

The drive back to Ty and Megan’s home was much more relaxed and felt much faster than the drive to the field had been.

Megan was situated in the middle of the backseat, clinging to Ty and leaning against him heavily. Bella kept her mouth shut this time, staring out the window as she replayed the key moments of both games in her head.

Two victories for the Dons was a successful day, but those wins were too close for her comfort.

Coach Long offered to stop at an ice cream shop to celebrate the wins, but Ty shot that idea down quickly.

‘Could you take us home first if you’re going to do that? You can do what you want after, but I’ve got nothing to celebrate. It’s not like you celebrate waking up in the morning.’

‘Hah. Yeah, I guess only one interception is a bad game by your standards, huh, Samuels?’ Luke turned to look back at Ty, smirking in response to the boy’s glare.

‘Alright, Tyrese,’ Coach Long said. ‘Fair enough. I’ll get ya home, you just have a nice, long sleep tonight. You’ve earned it.’

‘Thanks.’ Ty muttered before leaning his head back and staring up at the ceiling of the car.

When Ty and Megan arrived home, the house was dark. ‘See you at practice, Tyrese,’ Coach Long said after he dropped them off.

‘Thank you for driving us!’ Megan called out. Ty ignored them and went straight to the door, heading inside. The TV was the only light on within the house, their father passed out in his chair in front of it.

When both kids were inside, Coach Long peeled out of the driveway, the house darkening once again as the headlights turned away from it.

Ty’s room was empty, neither the twins nor Devon were home. The same could be said for Megan’s room as Vicky was also absent. Their mother, too, was nowhere to be seen.

‘The twins aren’t here?’ Megan asked Ty.

Ty had already kicked off his shoes, lying on his bed. He looked over and shrugged. ‘Guess not.’

Megan frowned and stepped back from the doorway. Ty closed his eyes, but she returned soon. ‘Mama isn’t answering her phone.’

‘You know what our mother is like… the twins are probably fine, they’re just having a sleepover I bet.’

‘But what if they aren’t? What if she just… took them to some man’s house or something.’

Ty sat up with a sigh. ‘You said it earlier, they were out for a playdate, they’re just staying over at that person’s house for the night. Not like we can do anything about it. You gonna call the cops and report them as missing? Like that’d do shit. They’re with their mother, cops won’t give a fuck.’

‘But…’

‘But nothing. Just wait ‘til tomorrow. If they don’t come back, then we’ll worry.’ Ty laid back down and turned his back to the door, but he didn’t hear Megan leave. ‘…Goodnight Megan.’ Still, she did not move.

‘Can I sleep with you tonight? I’m scared.’

Ty sighed heavily and turned his head to look at her. She was shaking and tearing up. He turned to face her fully and nodded. ‘Fine, whatever.’

She smiled and hurried over to his bed, crawling in with him and pressing close to her older brother. She wrapped her arms around him, and he did the same to her, both holding each other tight.

‘Just get some sleep, Meg. Everything will be alright in the morning. Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight … I love you.’

‘Love you too.’

In the morning, it was still just the three of them in the house. When their father woke up, Megan told him that she was worried about the twins and how they hadn’t come home last night.

But he was dismissive, telling her that they were with their mama and they’d be fine. Plus, he was too busy to worry about that right now, he had to get to work, and he’d deal with it later. Before he left, he told her to call Mama again, but this time the call went straight to voicemail.

Around midday, after Vicky had returned home, and just before Megan was going to call the police department about the missing kids, their mother returned, the twins in tow.

Other than being hungry, they looked to be fine, and when asked about where they’d been, they only said that they stayed at Mama’s friend’s house.

Later, when their father returned, an argument broke out between the parents regarding their mother’s whereabouts last night.

Ty went for a run to get away from the shouting, whilst Megan tried to distract the twins in the front yard, though even out there, the shouting could still be heard. Ty could still hear it four houses down.

Practice couldn’t come soon enough.

When the next session of team practice finally came around, Ty was annoyed but curious to see Ricky already there, talking with JJ. Of course, Rabbit was also listening in from close by, but he was still in the midst of his stretches.

‘That brat is already here? For fuck’s sake,’ Ty grumbled. ‘What does he want.’

‘Samuels. Focus on yourself,’ Coach Hoang said. ‘Get warmed up.’

Ty shot the DC a quick glare before he shrugged off his bag and got his cleats on. He kept his eyes on Ricky and JJ, and though they both glanced over in his direction, their conversation didn’t stop, nor did either of them come to say hello—he was thankful for that at least.

When the rest of the team eventually arrived, they were called together in a huddle at the centre of the field. ‘Listen up!’ Coach Long’s voice boomed out. ‘This week is going to be our toughest challenge yet. We’re going up against a serious contender, a team most of you will be familiar with ‘cause of the way they kicked our asses and sent us home last year.’

Ty’s brow furrowed and he looked around the huddle of players. Other freshmen looked around in a state of confusion as well. Every single one of the senior players were silent, their jaws clenched tight. JJ’s fists were shaking.

‘After they beat us they went on to win Regionals as a whole and even made it all the way to the State Championship. I’d be lying if I said they weren’t the favourites to do that again and actually win State this year.’

‘Not if we can help it,’ Bella said, drawing a chuckle and a smile from her dad.

‘You all know the drill then,’ Coach Long said. ‘We’ve got to focus on our run defence, and offensively, we’re going to have to rely on our passing game this week. Offence and defence, split up and go to your coordinators.’

As the teams split into two large groups and huddled around either their OC or DC, Ty moved closer to the captains Deshaun and JJ. ‘Hey. What’s that all about? Who are we going up against?’

Deshaun looked down at him. ‘We’ll explain later, Freshy.’

Ty frowned but didn’t pry further. He went through the motions of practice quietly. This time, the DBs had a major focus on tackling as did every part of the defence.

Along with that, the DBs had a specific drill where they had to quickly recognise whether the offensive play was play-action or an actual run, and had to decide between sticking to their man, or shedding away from them to focus on the RB.

If someone made the wrong choice, they’d have to do a lap of the field. Ty himself ended up running a few laps, as did almost everyone.

All throughout practice, Ricky was keeping a close eye on everything while waiting by the sidelines.

It was only when the main practice was done, and things moved into the gym for weights training that Ricky moved in, following them into the building.

‘Yo, Ty. Over here, hermano,’ JJ called Ty over. JJ was surrounded by the DL, Deshaun was there as well, and so was young, tiny Ricky.

‘Why’s he here?’ Ty scowled down at the kid.

‘You wanna see tape of the guy that’s gonna kick your asses or not?’ Ricky said, phone in hand.

Ty continued to scowl.

‘Go on and show us the video, Ricky,’ JJ said.

Everyone gathered there crowded around Ricky’s phone screen as he brought up a video. He pressed play and the screen showed a sideline view of a football game between the Warren Bears and the Norwalk Lancers that the Dons had only just defeated.

‘This is from the second week, and who you’re going up against. Watch the HB,’ Ricky said.

The footage zoomed in on the lone RB in the backfield. He was damn huge. Almost the biggest player out there, bigger than even a FB let alone a HB. The offence was set up at the 25-yard line. It looked like the game had only just started.

The ball was snapped and it was a handoff to the outside. The HB was on a collision course with number 55 of the Lancers, the same guy that had just been terrorising the Dons’ offence.

The two met head-on, the thud of their collision was audible through the phone. A collective wince and chorus of “ooo’s” came from the crowd at the game and the group watching the video.

The clash was brief; over in an instant. Ty’s eyes widened as that same 55 who was so imposing against the Dons had been flattened. The HB steamrolled over him and continued down the field, sprinting away faster than anyone else on the field and making it all the way to the endzone.

‘What the fuck…?’ Ty was stunned, but no one else in the group looked surprised, only concerned.

The video continued, showing more monstrous runs and highlights of that beast in the backfield as he decimated the staunch Lancers' defence, running all over them. He was practically unstoppable.

There were two other long touchdown runs of note. In one, he got into the secondary and stiff-armed a Safety so hard the defender bounced off the grass like a basketball as he was tossed aside.

And in the other, three defenders had him wrapped up, tackling him all at one, draped over his shoulders and clinging to his legs. Even that wasn’t enough to stop him. He shrugged them off and broke away from their grasps with relative ease.

The end of the video zoomed in on the final scoreboard, with the Bears winning 42–0. The HB stood before his crowd, basking in their praise and cheers as they chanted the same word over and over:

King.

When the video faded, Ricky put his phone away. ‘Just so you know. He’s better than he was last year. “The King” is averaging over 250 rushing yards a game, with 4 touchdowns to go with it. He seems pretty pissed that he didn’t win State last year.’

JJ moved away from the group, his face dark as he strode over to the nearest piece of equipment and quickly got to work, loading up the bar excessively.

‘That fucking guy is not normal… what the fuck. And I thought he was bad last year. How the hell are we meant to stop that?’ Deshaun said. He turned his head away and spat on the ground. ‘I’m going home. You guys figure out something, he’s your problem.’

Ty looked to the Linemen gathered before him. All of them had the same downtrodden, defeated look on their faces. He shuddered, a chill running down his spine.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do against a RB? That’s not my job…” He was reminded of his duel against Harry—the situation may have been vastly different, but it gave him that same feeling of helplessness.