~ Football ~

Winter came hard and fast at Dalton. It did every year. It was almost a school tradition. One day, it's nice and brisk, and the next it is cold and dreary. Midterms had come and gone and Danny, Chris and Blaine had done pretty well on their first major college exams.

It was now the lull after the storm, where there wasn't anything majorly pressing due soon; where all the projects were assigned, but not taken seriously for at least four more weeks.

It was also a Saturday, and Danny, Blaine and Chris were out eating lunch at some cheap fast food place. Their conversation turned to their plans for the rest of the day.

"We have to go to the football game."

Chris and Blaine just looked at Danny like he had said something like "shoot space dinosaurs with gum drop bullets".

"No, I'm serious... This is the game to go to. We haven't won against this team since 1977, so it's become a huge rivalry between us and them. Also, the main quarterback is injured and one of the second strings is on probation and can't play. That means that Zane has a fairly decent shot of playing his first college football game."

"No offense, Danny, but when did you get interested in football?"

"When a friend of ours could be playing his first game ever. We need to be supportive."

"Oh, right. Because he'll be so supportive of us..." Chris said

"Look, I'm just trying to be nice to him, ok. And I'd rather not go sit at a football game by myself... I mean, we get in for free, we can drink hot chocolate and eat powdered cheese nachos, what's not to love?"

"Powdered cheese nachos..." Chris said and Blaine laughed.

"Ok, you know what... I'm calling out a solid you owe me. How many things have you dragged us to that were absolutely boring?"

"He has a point there, Chris..." Blaine said

"Traitor."

"What can I say? He had me at powdered cheese product."

"Fine. What time does it start?"

"7:30, but we don't have to be there right when it starts..."

They then went shopping at the shopping center in town. For a mostly small town, they had some pretty new stores. And they had three stores right in a row that catered to each one of them. They had a pattern for going to the stores. They would start with Blaine's computer store to get it out of the way quickly. Then on to Chris' art supply store. Finally, to Danny's entertainment kingdom. This store had everything; movies, music, games, books, you name it. They all really liked the store, but Danny could go and be in there for hours and not know any better. In fact, he'd done it a couple of times. His friends went with him to pull him out in case of emergency.

After being in there a while, Chris found Danny and Blaine and told them that if they were going to go to the game, they needed to leave so she could change into something warmer. So Danny drove them all back to the dorms, the changed, and met back at his car and were off to the game.

They could see the stadium lights on and could hear the crowd long before they got to the actual stadium. All three of them were in awe of the huge stadium. They were use to their small hometown field with bleachers, but this place was huge; especially for such a small school like Dalton. A fact that Chris pointed out as soon as the initial awe wore off.

They found a parking spot way out in the middle of nowhere and started the trek to the stadium. About half way through the parking lot, Chris stopped and realized and said she had no cash to get in.

"Do you have your student i.d. with you?"

"Uh, yeah."
"Then you get in for free."

"This is free?"
"Yes. Do you really think I'd make you pay to go to a football game?"

"For a minute there. Yeah. I really did."

Danny then started running to catch up with Blaine, who had wandered off because he had his head buried in his coat and couldn't hear the conversation. Anything stronger than a breeze made Blaine cold, so he was usually pretty bundled up. Chris caught up with them and the entered the stadium.

The game was already in full swing; almost halftime. They found some empty seats in the student section and sat down. And instantly Blaine got up and left. He came back a little while later with his arms full of wonderful stadium food goodness.

"Dude, we just ate, how are you hungry already?" Chris said, giving a disgusted look.

"I'm always hungry, you know this. Plus, anytime there's food like this, I have to partake. It's a tradition."
"A tradition that will make you fat."

A gob of cheese product was then flung at her.

Halftime came and went, and the band played and did a fairly decent job. For a smaller band, they could make a big noise. Then the second half of the game started, and Blaine went and got more food.

Blaine and Chris were sitting on either side of Danny, and Danny was mooching off of Blaine while they watched the game. Every so often, Chris would ask a football question, most of which Danny actually knew.

"When did you learn all this football stuff?"

"I am a boy from the south; it's kind of ingrained into us from a very young age."

"Yeah, but you never had to go."

"True, but every family gathering, football was discussed. And if I wanted to have any sort of conversation with anyone, I had to learn very quickly. Also, if I didn't want to get made fun of in my family..."

"Your dad doesn't really seem the type..."

"To like football or to make fun of me? Because I'm pretty sure that he does both..."

"Well, yeah, but not maliciously. Also, I'm pretty sure that he doesn't really care if you like football or not."

"True, but my extended family is a little less forgiving. They are your typical southern family. Go to church every Sunday, watch every football game, vote Republican, and make you feel guilty for not doing the same. So, in part, this is me being able to say that I went to at least one college game here."

"And in part to watch Zane in tight pants."

"And to watch a friend, who unfortunately has to wear tight pants."

"Who said unfortunately? This is great for me. Speaking of, where is Zane?"

"On the sideline. He's number 4."

"Oh, there he is! So when does he get to play?"

"Well, they're playing their 3rd string quarterback now, because first string got injured and second string failed something. So, the third string needs to either suck really badly or get hurt."

"So, suck more than he already is?"

"Or keep it up, and sooner or later, they'll send him in."
And then, almost as if on cue, the quarterback got sacked, and once the defense got off of him, he didn't get up. The crowd was silent and on their feet. The coach and the trainer ran out to him and were out there for a good little while before helping him to his feet. He needed both of them to hobble off the field. The crowd clapped for him.

It was at the end of the third quarter when Zane took the field. He only had time to run a few plays, and they were disastrous. Before too long, and before any real substantial damage could be done, the quarter was called. Dalton was down 45 to 21.

During the break, the coach was giving instructions and trying to get them all rallied to somehow pull out a miracle. During this, Zane looked up and started scanning the crowd. He caught Danny's eye and smiled. Danny smiled and waved a little, and Chris jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

Something happened to make them all click in between the quarters, because they were on fire. Very early on, Zane found a receiver open and threw for his first touchdown. The defense held them back, and they had to punt the ball, which their kicker couldn't hold on to the ball, so that set the offense up with great field position. Zane didn't even need four downs to score again. The scored the extra point and set up to kickoff.

Dalton did an on-side kick and regained possession of the ball, but couldn't quite score again, but they got the field goal to put them soundly one touchdown behind the other team.

The other team had a really good run that brought them to fourth and goal, and instead of kicking a field goal, they decided to go for a touchdown. But the defensive line held them, and they didn't get to score. With four minutes left in the game, Dalton has possession of the ball on the 1.

Slowly, they crept across the field with Zane at the helm. Their defense dug their heels in and put up a great fight, but Dalton got within scoring distance. When they got within the 30 yard line, Dalton was frantically trying to score. They got a burst of energy from somewhere; probably from being so close to a victory against their rivals.

They got within 20 yards with one minute to spare. Zane got a first down that brought them even closer. Then, with less than a minute remaining, Zane found an open man in the end zone and threw a touchdown. They were one point behind, with an extra point waiting for them. Dalton called a timeout.

They came out, and lined up, but not for a field goal. This threw the other team off, just a little. The play starts, the whole line basically collapses into a giant pile on the end zone. Zane hands the ball off to Thi who uses one of his teammates as a springboard and leaps over the pile and rolls into the end zone for the two point conversion.

The stands roared.

Dalton kicked off, but with less than a minute left, there wasn't a whole lot the other team could do. They tried a near-impossible field goal, but fell short. The crowd was going wild.

As the team was jumping around with excitement and moving towards the locker room, Zane looked into the crowd, found Danny, and gave a huge smile and waved. Danny, Chris, and Blaine waved back. Zane saw, but was being pushed away by a wave in the form of an excited football team.

The parking lot was a mess. People cheering and screaming and celebrating. Horns honking. People just being crazy. The three of them made it to their car and got to sit in traffic, but none of them really cared, they had had a good time.

Once they got back to campus, the realized an impromptu party had started on campus in celebration. Danny really wanted to go, but Chris was tired, and Blaine didn't want to be out in the cold any longer. That, and he had some work he needed to get done. So, he dropped off Chris and took Blaine back to the dorm and started walking around campus. It was pretty late when Danny got to the quad, and a lot of the people had left to do more serious partying off campus. But there were still enough people and music and beverages for a good time to be had. Someone had strung the small bulb string lights all around the trees in the quad.

The party started to fizzle out, but Danny wasn't ready to go back to the dorm yet, so he started walking around the campus. As he got further and further away from where the people were, it got colder and colder, and the wind picked up a bit. Danny turned up his collar and pressed on for a little while longer, but gave into the cold, and started heading back, but realized in the dark, he didn't really know where he was going. He didn't really care, though, he just kept roaming.

Then, in a fairly remote part of campus that Danny hadn't ever been to, he heard what sounded like a moan. It sounded like someone in pain, so Danny decided to go explore. What he found stopped his heart. He saw someone tied to a tree. He ran over a small hill to get to the person, to see if they were ok. It was a guy, and he wasn't wearing any clothes that Danny could see. His head was down, and there was blood everywhere.

"Hey, are you ok?" Danny gently lifted up his head to see if he was conscious, and froze. It was Zane. He had a black eye and bruises all over his body. He was shivering violently. He coughed and his eyes rolled in his head a little.

"Oh God, we gotta get you down!"

Luckily, whoever tied the knots didn't know what they were doing, and Danny got them undone quickly. The ropes loosened, and Zane fell to the cold ground with a thud. Danny took off his coat and came around to him and put it on him. All he was wearing was a torn pair of underwear.

"Wh..what? Danny?"

"Hey, stay with me... Can you walk?"

"I th...think so..."

"Ok, let's get you some place warm."

Danny got under his arm and helped him to his feet. They made their way slowly back to the dorms. Zane shivered the whole time. His legs also gave out a few times, which Danny was unprepared for the sheer mass of the boy. They got back to the dorm, and tried getting into Zane's room, but the door was locked, and Thi wasn't there, so Danny helped him up the stairs to his room. He threw open the door, and scared Blaine, who jumped up to see what was going on.

"Oh my God... What happened?"

"I don't know, but we need to get him warm quickly!"

Danny put Zane down on the futon, and grabbed his blanket off his bed and wrapped it around Zane. He also grabbed a big blue plastic cup and tossed it to Blaine and gave him instructions to fill it up with water in the bathroom sink, and bring it back and microwave it for 90 seconds. Blaine nodded and left. Danny went over to their air conditioner/heater, and cranked it up to get it warmer in their room. He went back over to Zane, who had curled up in a ball on the futon to try and get warmer. Danny started to rub his limbs to get the blood flowing better. As soon as Danny touched him, Zane flinched. Zane looked at him with pain in his eyes. His eyes were also pretty bloodshot, probably from crying.

"Hey, stay with me, Zane... Are you ok?"

"I should be..."

He was still tense. Blaine came back and nuked the water.

"Hey Zane, coffee, tea, or cocoa?"

"Um... no, I'm good..."

"Not a choice. You need to get warm, and this will help."

"Then cocoa..."

Danny smiled and grabbed the mix and poured it all in his black coffee mug. He threw in some marshmallows and handed it to Zane, who looked in it, and then back to Danny, who was sitting down next to him.

"You put marshmallows in my cocoa..."

"Yeah, is that bad?"

"No... It's just... never mind..."

Danny and Zane sat in silence, and Blaine stood silently, leaning agaist their dressers that held thier television.

Zane finished his beverage and had stopped shivering. Danny was almost sweating with how warm their room was.

"You want another one?"

Zane thought about it, looked in the cup, but declined.

Danny turned to Blaine and asked him to get another cup full of water to nuke.

"I...didn't... want more?"

Danny smiled. "It's not for you to drink... I need to check out your injuries and get you cleaned up."

"Oh, Danny you really don't..."

Danny interrupted him. "Once again, this isn't up for discussion. The nurse is closed for the weekend, and you really don't want to go to the hospital, do you?"

Zane looked at the floor. "No."

Danny smiled at him, looking through drawers for a medium sized bowl and a clean hand towel. Luckily he had gotten one for graduation and hadn't yet found a use for it.

"Don't worry, my mom's a nurse, and I've learned a few things about cleaning wounds from her."

Blaine came back with the water and warmed it up, but not as much as he had for the cocoa. Danny poured it in the bowl, and put the end of the towel in it to let it soak. Zane looked at him, then looked at Blaine and looked nervous. Danny picked up on this, and turned to Blaine.

"Hey, Blaine, Thi wasn't in their room when we tried earlier, would you go down and check to see if he's there? We need to get him some clothes to wear..."

"What if he's not there?"

"Well, it's getting close to curfew, so he should be there soon. If you get impatient, you can try and find him."

"Alright."

And Blaine left, and Zane relaxed a bit.

"Ok, now let me see you..."

And Zane unwrapped himself from the blanket and took off Danny's jacket. He was a mess. There was dried blood, probably from his nose, and cuts and bruises all over him. At first, Danny washed the blood off of him. He could see where they had tied him to the tree; where the ropes had burned him when he was wrapped, and where they cut him as he struggled to get down. Zane winced as he cleaned his chest.

Danny, not looking at Zane's face, wondered aloud, "Who did this to you?"

Zane just looked away.

Danny looked up at the boy from his place on the floor in front of him.

"The older guys on the football team."

"What?"

"They... said that I needed to learn my place in this school. That it wasn't fair that I had stolen all the glory at the game today. That it should have been one of them that won the game. So, the dragged me out there, ripped off my clothes, beat me, and tied me to the tree."

"Oh my God..." Danny said in disbelief.

"Danny, you can't tell anyone about this."

"What? Why?"

"I don't want any more trouble. And... I don't want to hurt the team..."

"Zane, they beat you. They left you to freeze tied naked to a tree. They need to be punished!"

Zane looked down at Danny with sad eyes.

"Danny... please..."

Danny thought about it. "Ok. But I don't like this."

Zane gave a small smile. "Understood."

Danny finished cleaning up the blood and started checking wounds next. None were too deep, but a few would probably scar up. He got some hydrogen peroxide and used the dry end of the towel to clean them. Zane winced again, but didn't complain.

Danny then started to press gently on his ribs, and he winced more.

"Your cuts aren't too deep, so they should heal fine. And your ribs don't feel broken, but they're probably bruised. You should probably take it easy on them for a few weeks to let them heal up."

"Danny... I'm really sorry..."

"For what?"

"For all the crap I put you and your friends through in high school."

"What?"

Zane didn't even look at Danny, but continued talking.

"I... know now what I put you guys through. You, especially." Zane looked at Danny with new tears in his eyes. "Danny, I was wrong. I was so wrong to you..."

"Hey... what you did to us pales in comparison... You never got this violent with me..."

"Yeah, but what I did..."

"Zane..."

"No. Danny, what I did was inexcusable. I never should have treated anyone like that." Then he spoke much quieter. "Least of all you..."

Danny sat silently for a moment before speaking. "Yes. What you did to us, to me, was terrible. But being picked on kinda is par for the course with me. And I have a thicker skin that you realize."

"Yeah, because of me!"

"Probably a little."

Zane just looked at Danny, so Danny continued.

"Look, Zane, I'm not going to lie. Some of what you did really hurt, but I got through it with the help of Chris and Blaine. And really, I don't even give it a second thought anymore. You've changed; you're different now than when you were in high school. I know it's only been like six months, but still."

Zane still looked at Danny, but this time he spoke.

"How can you be so forgiving?"

Danny smiled. "It kinda comes with the territory... Oh, and if you ever bully someone again, I will seriously kick your butt, got it?"

Zane smiled with his bloodshot eyes. "Yeah, got it."

Danny reached up and dried his eyes, and the door opened and in rushed Blaine and Thiago, who was holding a nicely folded set of clothes for Zane. Thi rushed to the side of his friend, and Danny stood up.

"Oh my God! Are you ok? What happened??"

Zane smiled, "I'm fine. Really. Danny cleaned me up real good."

"Ok, let's let him get dressed in private." Danny said, grabbing the clothes from Thi and pushing Blaine and Thiago into the hallway. Danny handed Zane the clothes. "We'll be outside, if you need us."

Zane smiled again, "Thank you, Danny."

Danny smiled as he backed out of the door and shut it in front of him.

He turned around to a two concerned faces.

"Danny, what happened to him?"

"He got the crap kicked out of him by your football friends, Thi." Danny said, more indignantly than he intended, but it got the point across.

It took a minute to process with Thiago.

"Wh...what?"

"The juniors and seniors decided that they didn't like him doing so well today at the game, so the stripped him, beat him up, and tied him to a tree in the freezing night. And that's how I found him. Mostly naked, and tied to a tree. Great team you got there..."

"Danny..." Blaine said, trying to get him to ease up. Danny just gave him a look of "what?" that Thiago didn't notice.

He let all the information sink in, then he punched the cinderblock wall.

"I can't believe..." Then he uttered something in Portuguese that neither of them understood, but got the meaning. He then turned to leave, but Danny caught his arm and pulled him back.

"Zane doesn't want any more trouble, so he's not pursuing this. I probably shouldn't have even told you that much..."

"WHAT??" Blaine and Thi said at the same time.

"He doesn't want THEM to get in trouble?"

Danny just nodded. "That's what he said..."

"What is he thinking??"

At this point, the door opened, and a smiling and sore Zane stood, fully dressed.

"Hey, I'm really tired, I think I'm gonna go to bed now..."

"Yeah, I bet... Thi, you wanna help him?"

"Oh, sure!" Thi rushed over and got under his arm, and they were off down the hall towards the stairs.

"Oh, Thi, you might want to stop off at the ice machine for a baggie of ice for his eye. And take tylenol for any pain tomorrow, Zane..."

Thi waved at them without turning around. Blaine and Danny turned and went back into their room. Danny looked, and saw that Zane had put his blanket neatly back on his bed, and folded up his jacket and laid it out on the edge of the bed for him.

Danny smiled as he and Blaine cleaned up the various bowls, cups, and towels that were on the floor.