The Guy Named Harrison: Book Two

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Harrison was so thankful for Carrie and everything that she did for him. When she wasn't around and he faced the reality of caring for their daughter while being gone at practice all morning, he realized he was pretty damn lucky to have Carrie.

Today's practice was going to be so much fun. Harrison got to meet Ben, a 10-year old that survived multiple surgeries throughout his life. When he was just three, his doctors discovered he had a brain tumor. After a surgery, they discovered the tumor moved to another part of his body. It just kept moving, surgery after surgery. His wish was to meet Harrison and the Panthers.

He was forbidden into the locker room by his wife for only five more minutes as they got ready to bring Harrison in to meet Ben. After Carrie's mom temporarily moved in with them as she looked for a house, Carrie went back to work and was sent to Tennessee to interview Ben and his family for ESPN's newest 30 for 30 film.

Harrison was in the trainers room talking with Ryan when Carrie came and got him. "You ready hotshot?"

Carrie leaned against the door wearing her white ESPN polo shirt with black pants. He quickly said goodbye to Ryan and met her out in the hallway.

"I missed you."

It was the first time he'd seen her since Monday when she left for Tennessee. "I missed you too."

Harrison wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest. He leaned down and pressed a quick kiss to her lips. "Damn I missed you."

Carrie kissed him back. The quick kiss turned into a passionate one and she had to push him away to keep herself from losing her mind so early in the day. "We have time for that later."

He nodded. "Come on, you have somebody who really wants to meet you."

Harrison happily followed her down the hallway to the locker room. Shooting him a smile, she gently opened the door and let him step in first.

Ben and his family didn't notice him right away. Harrison and Carrie quietly snuck towards the other end of the locker room where Ben's temporary locker was set up next to Harrison's temporary one. The couple stopped behind them.

"Hey Ben."

The little boy turned around and immediately his face went white as his hands shot to cover his mouth. "What's up?"

He didn't answer right away, but Harrison didn't mind. The reaction from kids like Ben were adorable. "I hear you're a big Panthers fan."

He nodded with his hands still clamped over his mouth. Harrison held out his hand in a fist. "Gimme some."

Ben did. "There you go."

Harrison stepped around the chair and to his locker. "I have something for you."

Ben walked over to stand beside Harrison. He dug through his locker to find the small pair of gloves he found earlier this week. At last he found them. The gloves were exactly like Harrison's, that formed the Panthers logo.

He handed them to Ben. "You're going to need these if you're gonna practice with us."

Ben took the gloves with a huge smile across his face. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome. Now how about we get you geared up?"

➄➈

It wasn't long before Ben was warming up with Harrison on the practice field. Today's practice wasn't padded so Ben and Harrison played catch in their practice jerseys, shorts, and helmets. Practice was coordinated today so Ben could participate in almost all of the activities.

"Right here."

Ben through a perfect pass and hit Harrison where he held his hands in front of his chest. "You got an arm. Maybe you better show Cam how it's done."

The smile under Ben's helmet made Harrison smile as well. They continued to play catch until the rest of the team came out to the practice field to start warmups.

Harrison went and found Luke with Ben at his side. He introduced his new friend to everyone they walked by.

"Hey Cam!"

"What's up?"

He patted Ben on the shoulder. "Go ahead."

"Harrison says I have a better arm than you," he told Cam.

"Did he now? Let's see it."

Harrison handed him a ball and Ben threw Cam a perfect pass. After catching the pass, Cam fell back on the turf. "Man you got a cannon!"

Ben smiled and kept walking at Harrison's side. Luke was stretching when they came up on Luke. "Hi Mr. Kuechly."

"Hey Ben. You can call me Luke."

➄➈

Ben was running a basic version of the linebacker drills with Harrison, Luke, and the rest of the guys. As they waited for their turn, Harrison got to know Ben some more.

"What's your favorite color?"

"Blue."

He gave Ben a high five. "That's a good choice. What's your favorite subject?"

"Math."

"Awesome. Mine was history. I wanted to be a lawyer."

"I think you would be a good lawyer."

"You do?"

He nodded with a smile. "Yeah."

Then Ben asked him a question. "Were you always a linebacker?"

Harrison shook his head. "I didn't start playing linebacker until my senior year of high school. I was a receiver before that."

"That's why they put you at tight end sometimes. Because you can catch."

He gave Ben another high five. "You got it."

➄➈

The offense and defense scrimmaged each other to end practice. The last play, they brought Ben in. Harrison shifted to outside linebacker to let Ben take his position at middle linebacker.

Cam caught the snap and threw a pass in the direction of Kelvin. But it was short for Ben. He caught the pass as Harrison ran alongside of him to block. Together they fended off everybody until Ben ran into the end zone. He spiked the ball.

"You know what you gotta do."

Ben flexed, getting Harrison to do it back. He and Ben did their handshake. "THAT'S HOW ITS DONE!"

We're doing this project in my AP English class where we get to decide the new bells since the bell system broke at the beginning of the year and we got a new one a few weeks ago that everybody hates. It goes like 8 times and it's so annoying. My English teacher has three AP classes and we're all competing against each other. The other two classes are doing something similar to the old bell from last year, that doesn't even sound like the old bell, and one that sounds like a doorbell.

My class is doing an air horn. We call it the roast bell. And so far, a lot of people seem to like it. There's this thing where people like to make the teachers mad in almost every school so it's getting a lot of support. Today we finished filming our commercial for the announcements. And it is hilarious. It's going to get annoying if it wins, but it's totally going to be worth it because the commercial is hilarious.