The New Kid

Chapter 12- Under The Lights

It was the final day of homecoming week. Jason and Preston were wearing their jerseys with their respective numbers for the homecoming game. Jason's number was 72; Preston's was 31. The jerseys were indigo, black and white with a picture of a purple colored pharaoh.

"Come to the game tonight. Everyone's gonna be there," Preston explained.

I nodded, "Why the hell not? It sounds fun."

A tall black kid with dreads came up to us. He wore a black shirt with the words hype. on it in multiple colors.

"Davonte Knight, the Hypeman! What's goin' on?" Jason said.

"Not much. This the kid that got choked?" Davonte said.

I smiled and shrugged, "The one and only. Scott Wynter's the name." He shook up with me, "Nice to meet you bro."

"You better make this game hype as hell," Preston said. Davonte gave him a funny look, "That's my job! I'm the Hypeman!"

He soon left. Preston looked at me, "This game's gonna be your opportunity to meet a lot of cool people. You'll be a lot happier when you're surrounded by a lot of people. Trust me."

"No worries. I'm going." Preston nodded, and they left.

The hours seemed to melt away that day. I managed to buy a Phoenix High Homecoming shirt before I left with Drake.

"You ready for this game bro?" Drake asked as we were heading to the field.

"Of course. I love Friday night football games," I replied.

The field was flooded with people. Most of the people on the home side were wearing the same shirt I was. Drake and I paid a $5 entry fee and we made the trek towards the home bleachers. A lot of people also had some form of indigo face paint or temporary hair dye. Everyone here was a lot more spiritual about school pride than Speedway, granted some people at Speedway did show their school spirit somehow.

"Scott! Drake! What's goin' on?" Davonte called.

Davonte still wore the hype. shirt and had indigo dye in his dreads.

"I'm just here to watch our team kick...whatever school this is' ass," I said.

Drake laughed, "La Flecha High is the other school."

I raised my eyebrow at that name, "The Arrow is a weird name for a high school in my opinion."

"That's what that means? I've always wondered," Drake said.

"You should stay in the front row with me. Scott, I'm gonna need you for the Pharaoh Toss," Davonte said.

Drake and Davonte laughed at the thought of it. I didn't bother asking what the Pharaoh Toss was, but it sounded kind of scary. Soon, Davonte hopped up on the railing of the front of the bleachers and grabbed an indigo colored megaphone.

"Make some noise, Pharaohs!" Davonte spoke. The crowd was sent into an uproar. He motioned for me to hop up onto the railing. He spoke again, "I'm pretty sure most y'all know who this guy is?" More cheers came from the crowd. "For those that don't know who this is, this is Scott Wynter. He's gonna be the guy for the Pharaoh Toss at halftime, alright?"

The crowd made utterances of 'oooh' and 'aw shit!'. I stood there, waving like a dumbass.

"Alright Pharaohs, let's get hyped!" Davonte said.

I looked at him, and he smiled. He shouted the "I believe that we will win!" chant, and the crowd jumped up in a semi-unison, chanting. In the distance, I could faintly hear La Flecha chanting. We all took our seats, and Preston kicked off the ball. Immediately, the guy who caught it got rushed and tackled. This went on for 5 minutes before Jason caught an interception and scored a 70-yard touchdown. We started chanting "Jason Card" after he scored. The first quarter ended with a 7-0 lead for us.

"It's close to halftime, Scott. Are you ready for this?" Davonte asked.

"Sure," I replied nervously.

The second quarter ended with us having 14 points, La Flecha had 6 and missed a field goal. Soon, we watched the homecoming court walk down the track. Jessica wore that same beautiful white dress. I then found myself getting picked up by Davonte and the whole student section followed him out onto the football field.

"Go Scott! Pharaoh Toss!" Savannah and Jessica cheered.

They brought out a plastic pharaoh headdress and put it on my head. Davonte went on the megaphone again.

"Alright, let's show Scott what a Pharaoh Toss is!" Davonte spoke.

With all his strength, he threw me on top of the crowd. Then the crowd started to toss me around; I landed on the hands of a different part of the crowd. The football team then caught me and tossed me to Davonte, who ended the ritual. Or so I thought...

"Wait y'all! We gotta get a picture of this moment. I'mma throw Scott back onto y'all and the cameraman'll take a picture of us all," Davonte said. He threw me back to the crowd and I was raised up high. I smiled, and the cameraman took a lot of pictures of us. I was let down and went back to the bleachers.

"You can keep that headdress bro. It's a keepsake," Davonte said.

In the end, we won 21-13. Drake, Davonte and I went out onto the field again.

"Scott, get in this picture with us!" Jason said. He grabbed me, and I posed with the entire football team. He tossed me over to Tara, Natalia, and Jessica and I posed with the cheerleaders as well. Drake and I walked back to our apartment while I wore the headdress the whole way back.