Chapter 2: Starting Strong

29 August 1983 – Hardwick Road, Enfield, Massachusetts

Jeff leaned into the opposing player as they fought for the soccer ball.

Sweat stung his eyes, and his lungs burned as they ran down the field. Jeff finally gained a step on his man and flicked the ball towards a player from his team. A whistle blew behind them, signaling the end of their turn, and both players returned to the back of the drill line.

“Nice job,” the other boy offered as they jogged back to the rest of the midfielders.

“Thanks,” Jeff answered.

“I’m Tom Jarrett.”

“Jeff Knox,” he replied as they stopped at the water cooler.

“‘Knox?’ Does your mom work here by any chance?”

“Yeah,” Jeff confirmed, nodding while they rejoined the line. “She teaches sixth-grade math.”

“Cool! She was my math teacher back then!” Tom exclaimed. “Hey, you’re a freshman, right? My brother will be in your class this year.”

“I’ll look for him next week.”

On offense, Jeff quickly pulled away from his defender in his next turn. He sprinted away from the boy, angled towards the goal, and blasted a shot at the net.

The goalie made the stop, but the defender should have prevented Jeff from shooting. His counterpart said nothing to him as they returned to the line.

Whatever, pal, Jeff thought. Some days, you eat the bear. Some days, the bear eats you.

Jeff gave one hundred percent on the field and was not timid. Timid players got bench time, not playing time. Whatever Jeff had been off the field was also going to change.

The second half of practice on Friday was all scrimmages. Jeff was always right on his man when defending and a step ahead on offense. The end of the final scrimmage approached when his defense cleared the ball. The ball sailed down the field rather than out towards the sideline. Jeff gauged the flight of the ball and broke for the opposing goal.

The ball appeared over his right shoulder, landing on the pitch before him. He advanced it down the field without breaking stride. He streaked by the other team’s midfielder before that player could react. He put the ball through the legs of their left fullback and cut around him. The sweeper came over to defend against him. The boy charged at him and attempted a hard slide tackle.

The ball was on Jeff’s foot when the sweeper slid towards him. Jeff popped it ahead of where the defender would be, leaped over him, and flew down the now-open field. The other team tried to catch up. The goalie and the boy playing stopper both closed in on him.

Perfect.

Jeff flicked the ball across the field, causing the stopper to slip and fall when he tried to reverse direction. The goalie tracked the ball’s new path, but it was hopeless.

Tom Jarrett ran flat-out down the opposite side of the field, angling towards the goal. He judged the speed of the ball and planted his foot in the proper place. The ball wasn’t near him when he began his kick, but it rolled into the right spot as Tom’s leg came forward. He launched a one-timer at the net. The goalie leaped for the shot, but it sailed past him and into the right post. Tom and Jeff high-fived as the whistle blew.

Hot damn! Coach Romanov thought as he smiled around his whistle. Those two are going to cut defenses apart!

All right. Deep breath. You can do this, Jeff coached himself while he pulled the door to his homeroom open. Head up, shoulders back, look people in the eye. Mrs. Elgin, his homeroom teacher, looked up at him as he entered.

“Jeff!” she greeted him with a smile as he approached her desk. “Welcome! How was your summer?”

“Too short as always, Mrs. E.,” he responded.

“Very true,” she said in agreement. “When did your mom start getting ready for the school year?”

“August 1st, same as every year,” he grinned. “Was it the same for you?”

“I’ve been teaching a few years longer than your mother, Jeff. I’ve learned how to put off preparations until at least the fifteenth of August.”

Alice Elgin laughed. She’d been teaching for over forty years.

“Do we have assigned seats in homeroom?” he asked.

“We most certainly do, young man!” she responded sternly, shaking a finger at him. “Why, chaos would reign should we let the ill-informed choose their seating!” Jeff laughed with her.

“Do you see that boy sitting there?” Jeff turned in the direction she pointed. He turned back and nodded. “Your seat is just to the left of him, his right if you’re facing the front of the room.”

“Thanks, Mrs. E. I’ll go and introduce myself if you’ll excuse me?”

Jeff turned for the indicated seat when she smiled and nodded. He noticed that the already-seated boy had studied a campus map and compared it to his class schedule. When Jeff approached, the boy looked up.

“You must be Tom Jarrett’s brother,” Jeff said.

“Yeah, I am!” the boy confirmed, holding his hand and smiling. “I’m Jack Jarrett.”

“Jeff Knox. Good to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too. How do you know Tom? Were you here for middle school?”

“No, I play soccer, so we met last week at practice. Tom told me he had my mother as his math teacher when he was in Sixth Grade.”

“Your mom’s a teacher here?” Jack asked as Jeff sat.

“Yep,” he confirmed. “She’s been teaching math here since I was three.”

“But you’re just starting Thompkins today?”

“Yeah, I was in Enfield’s public schools until last year.”

“So you’re from here?”

“Sure am. I was born at the Greenwich hospital and have lived in the valley my whole life. What about you and Tom?”

“We grew up in Williamstown. We were born in Burlington, Vermont, before Mom and Dad decided to move south to Massachusetts. I wasn’t old enough to remember it.”

They chatted back and forth until the first bell rang. Both gathered their things and rose to head to their first class. Jeff noted that Jack walked with a pronounced limp but kept his eyes on his new friend’s eyes and said nothing about it.

“I’ll grab a couple of seats for us at lunch, okay?” Jeff asked.

“Sounds good, thanks.”

See? Jeff asked himself. That wasn’t so hard, was it?

Jeff entered the cafeteria and grabbed a couple of seats at the end of a still-empty table. He looked around the large room but didn’t see Jack, so he sat and opened the brown bag he brought to school. He looked up every so often to see if Jack was there.

Jeff spotted Jack a few minutes later while the other freshman moved through the lunch line. He checked again a few minutes later and saw Jack at the checkout station. He also noticed that Jack didn’t look happy.

Jack looked around the lunch room, so Jeff waved until Jack caught sight of him and nodded. Jeff also noticed another student following Jack to the table. Jeff guessed the other boy was the source of Jack’s displeasure.

Jeff rose from the table as Jack approached. He nodded toward the table and stepped between it and the other student when Jack passed him.

“Table’s full,” Jeff said in a brusque manner.

“Bullshit!” the other boy spat. “Nobody else is sitting here!”

“Tough, you won’t be either.”

“Fuck you!” the boy spat, trying to get past Jeff, who continued to block him.

“Let me make it clearer!– You’re not welcome here. You’re bothering my friend, so find another place to sit.” Jeff felt movement behind him. He shifted position and saw that other freshmen from the soccer team now occupied the seats at the table ... They’d filled it up.

Jeff turned back to the other boy, saying, “See? Table’s full.”

“Up yours, asshole!” the boy spat again. “You’ll get yours!”

“Like you’re gonna be the one giving it to me?” Jeff snorted in reply.

“You’d best bring help if you try anything, Cosgrove,” Jeff heard from behind him.

When he looked again, he saw many varsity and junior high soccer teams behind his table. None of the players looked happy.

“You give Jeff or his friend any crap, and you’ll be explaining yourself to all of us,” one of them said.

The boy named Cosgrove snorted and walked away. Jeff turned to his teammates.

“Thanks for the backup, guys.”

“Keep your head on a swivel, Jeff,” Nick Ansonia cautioned him. Nick was a junior who played defense on the varsity. He was also the one who’d warned the other boy off. “Bryan Cosgrove, his older brother Jeremy, and their friends are major jerks. We’ve got your back, but be aware of when you’re not covered.”

“Got it, Nick.” Jeff’s teammates nodded and headed off while Jeff sat back down and introduced the other frosh to Jack.

“Thanks, Jeff,” Jack muttered across the table after the introductions. “That kid wouldn’t let up on me.”

“Anytime, man.”

“It was a car accident.”

“What was?”

“I got hit by a car while riding my bike when I was eight. That’s why I walk like I do,” Jack explained. “I broke my hip and shattered my femur ... that’s the thigh bone. The femur healed fine, except it’s about an inch shorter than the other one, and my hip sticks a little.”

“Jack, are you a dickhead?”

“What? No! At least I try not to be,” Jack responded, confused.

“Dude, that’s all I care about,” Jeff told his new friend. “You didn’t come across as one in homeroom, so I don’t need to worry about anything else after that.”

“Thanks, man.”

Bryan Cosgrove didn’t learn his lessons too well.

Later that same day, Jeff shook his head when he saw Cosgrove and a few of his buddies cornering two freshmen girls. Jeff pushed past the henchmen, forming the outer ring of containment, and stepped up to Cosgrove. He was alone, but he felt that he could handle this group. He shoved Bryan, causing him to turn.

“Did you think I’d forgotten about that nonsense in the cafeteria?” Jeff asked in a quiet voice. “I don’t like bullies. I despise them.”

“Fuck you, pal!” Cosgrove spat back. “There’s only one of you now, and there’s four of us!” The girls Bryan had been terrorizing kept flicking their gaze back and forth. It was like they were watching a tennis match.

Jeff stepped closer and asked, “Oh, do you wanna dance with me? Because I’ll be sure that I take you out first! Whatever happens, I will ruin your day before I’m done. Whatever you used to pull at whatever school you were at last year isn’t gonna fly here. Anything happens to these girls or anyone else in this school, I will be looking for you first.” Jeff then gave him a hard stare. Cosgrove stepped back.

“Whatever, pal,” he scoffed, trying to look tough for his accomplices. “Come on!” he ordered the others as he walked away from Jeff.

Jeff wasn’t sure where his new backbone came from, but he figured it had developed when he decided to take charge of his life. He watched Cosgrove and his buddies leave while he shook his head once more.

“Ladies, do you need an escort to class?” he asked, returning to the two freshmen.

There was nobody there. Jeff looked down the hall and saw them running away from the scene. He simply shrugged and turned to get to his class.

Jeff burned off the anger from his confrontations with Bryan Cosgrove at soccer practice.

Jeff looked around for Jack Jarrett when he entered the cafeteria for lunch the following Monday but didn’t see him immediately. There was a pretty brunette sitting at their usual table with someone else. That person turned around, and Jeff saw that it was Jack. Jack saw his new friend, smiled, and waved him over.

“Hey, Jeff!” Jack called when Jeff drew closer.

“Hey,” Jeff answered, putting his lunch on the table next to Jack.

“Hi, I’m Jeff Knox,” he said, smiling at the girl across the table. The girl smiled back and held out her hand, which Jeff shook.

“Hi, I’m Kathy Stein,” she said. Jeff sat.

“Are you in our class?” he asked. “A freshman?”

“I am,” she confirmed with a nod.

“Welcome. How come you didn’t start the year with us last week?” Kathy smiled.

“My dad’s a cardiologist and just started at GVMC. We moved here from L.A. at the beginning of August, but my folks wanted to make sure our family got at least part of a summer. We’ve been packing and unpacking for months.

“We’ve been up in Scarborough for the last month in Maine. Mom found this gorgeous place right on the water when Dad talked about moving us out of Southern California before last summer. She rented it for a month, centered around Labor Day.” Kathy sighed.

“It was wonderful! It was so much different after school started up there, too!”

Jeff liked Kathy right away. She seemed very genuine and honest. During lunch, he also noticed that she seemed to have developed a strong interest in his friend.

“It might not be so wonderful when we get our first foot of snow,” Jeff cautioned.

“Hey, Tom says you’ve been turning heads at soccer,” Jack commented.

“‘Take no prisoners,’ that’s my motto, Jack,” Jeff grinned.

“Does that apply to Bryan Cosgrove and his buddies, too?” Jack asked back with a knowing smile. Jeff rolled his eyes.

“That dickhead,” he muttered. “Why? What have you heard?”

“Only that you promised to take him apart at the seams if you catch him bothering anyone.”

“That lardass doesn’t have any seams. He’s a solid piece of excrement.”

“Who’s Bryan Cosgrove?” asked Kathy, who was still meeting the rest of her classmates.

“The member of the Class of 1987 who is in the early lead for the ‘Biggest Dickhead’ award at our graduation,” Jeff said.

“He is, at that,” Jack laughed. He looked around the cafeteria and spotted the dickhead in question, pointing him out to Kathy. “Him. Avoid him at all costs.”

“I will, thanks.”

“‘All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray... ‘“ Jeff sang to himself two months later while he put his books away in his locker.

No leaves were visible on the trees or the ground since Mother Nature blessed them with a foot of snow over the weekend. However, as the lyrics indicated, the sky was the color of lead.

Jeff thought it might be warmer on the ice today, as the outside temperature was an unusual twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit. It was usually in the high forties near the end of October. All that stood between Jeff and a good workout now was a last-period study hall.

Jeff saw movement to his right as he closed his locker. When he looked closer, he discovered it was his two best friends, Kathy and Jack. He was about to call out to them when he saw them step closer and kiss each other quickly.

Whoa! Jeff thought. When did that happen?

Jeff was by no means upset. He thought the two would make a good couple. He was just startled by the sight. Jeff couldn’t remember seeing anything out of the ordinary over the last two months despite the three having lunch together since the start of school.

Kathy and Jack broke their clinch after another quick kiss. Kathy turned away from Jeff and Jack and walked to her last-period class.

Jack also had a study hall and had to pass Jeff. Jeff closed his locker silently and leaned against it while waiting for his friend. Jack watched Kathy walk away until she rounded a corner and disappeared.

He then turned to head to study hall but noticed his friend leaning against his locker with a bemused smile. Jack shook his head as he walked down the hall and came alongside Jeff.

“No wise-ass comments from you, fella,” Jack warned him. Jeff looked hurt.

“Who, me?” he asked.

“Yes, you, you jerk,” Jack grumbled back. Jeff threw an arm around his friend’s shoulders as they continued down the hall.

“Hey, bud, I’m happy for you two, really,” Jeff told Jack in a serious tone. “You know you two are my best friends, right?”

“Yeah,” Jack admitted. “Thanks, Jeff. I was worried you might be upset. That I was blocking you or something.”

“Hey, I think Kathy’s great and very pretty, but I’m not interested in her that way,” Jeff admitted to Jack.

“So you’re not gonna move in on my girlfriend?”

“Who, me?” Jeff repeated. The two laughed as they made their way to study hall.

“You guys will get ‘em next year,” Phil D’Etremont sighed.

He was captain of the hockey team and a senior. The team sat in the visitor’s locker room at Amherst High School’s rink, having just lost their final game.