War of the Roses: Redux Edition

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djp73
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by djp73 » 23 Sep 2021, 20:35

Always nice to see another update on the old classic.
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 30 Sep 2021, 19:57

Battling

As the start of the season grew ever closer with each passing day, the intensity of Tulane’s practices grew. However, the team also grew more confident as they fine-tuned, tweaked and improved their craft for their season opener.

Starting the season in week two against lower tier opposition in the shape of Louisiana-Monroe would be considered by a warm-up game by most, including those who’d be hosting the Warhawks come that day in September. But Coach Shuman had been doing his damnedest to make sure that his team didn’t get caught looking ahead to their SEC schedule.

Darren vibed to music being pumped out of a speaker from one of the houses near the practice field. It was a common occurrence for Tulane’s practice to include the sights and sounds of Uptown being smack dab in the middle of the neighborhood.

He almost broke out his dance moves as he dropped back from a simulated snap for the next rep in a 7-on-7 drill between the first team offense and defense.

On the outside, Caesar ran a jerk route. The quick cuts had Omari grasping at Caesar’s jersey to avoid the embarrassment of his legs all but getting tangled up with one another. Wide open, Caesar easily hauled in the pass from Darren and jogged a few yards before letting Marcus wrap him up to end the rep.

There was a ripple of claps from the sidelines as Caesar beat Omari again, this time on a nine route, for an easy “touchdown.”

“You want to do a little less prancing around, Darren?” Coach Shuman asked as he walked by the quarterback. “Hard not to be toesy when you’re doing all that – whatever that is.”

Darren shrugged as he caught a ball Michael tossed to him. “I’m just in the zone, Coach. Just keeping things loose out here. You liked that bomb though?”

“Yeah, I liked it all right.” Shuman waved for Omari as he stepped toward the other side of the line of scrimmage.

The sophomore corner put his hands on his hips for a moment before jogging over, knowing he was about to get an earful for getting burned on those last two reps.

“Christian!” Shuman yelled across the field. “Can you show Omari how you’re supposed to play man coverage before he tears his ACL?” He turned to Omari. “You go over to the other side of the field for a little bit before you end up in the hospital biting on all those cuts.”

“Just waiting until we get pads on, coach,” Omari said as he started to jog to the opposite side of the field.

Caesar clapped in Omari’s direction. “Pads or no pads, I stay ready to cook corners! And I’m not afraid of a little contact!”

“Hey, hey. Cool that shit,” the head coach said, pointing to Caesar. He glanced at James Harley, the offensive coordinator, for help corralling any shit-talking going on between the players but the younger coach only shrugged.

Harley liked intensity from his players, even in practice. It was why he and Dutch Chavis got along so well. They wanted their players to have that mindset all the time whether you wear hitting someone wearing the same color or a different one.

Christian smacked the back of his helmet in support as the two corners jogged by one another.

“Save some of that roasting for the season, huh?” Junie said to Caesar as he knelt on the sideline. He held his fist out to Caesar and Caesar pounded his against the third-year receiver’s.

“We’re just getting started, bro.” Caesar said.

They lined up for the next rep after Darren relayed what they were running to the team. One glance at Christian, even before the snap, and Caesar knew he was leaps and bounds better than Omari. But that was no secret. Christian was All-SEC. Omari was fighting for his spot.

Caesar released to the inside off the snap and Christian was right on his hip. When he planted his foot and cut to the sideline, Christian was still matching him step for step and now he was on the inside and would easily break up any pass Caesar’s way.

Still, Caesar put his hand up for the ball. Darren looked him off and continued through his progressions.

Caesar reached the sideline and cut up then back toward the line of scrimmage and threw his hand up again with Christian still between him and the likely path of the ball.

Shuman put his whistle to his lips ready to blow the play dead as Darren would’ve long ago been sacked for holding onto the ball so long. The quarterback turned and lofted the ball almost as if he was throwing it out of bounds over Caesar’s head.

Caesar and Christian both jumped for it, only half-heartedly. With one hand, Caesar snatched the ball out of the air and came down with both heels inbounds before he rolled to the ground. The other receivers went wild, drawing a laugh from Coach Harley as some of them jumped on his back.

Christian only shrugged and helped Caesar back to his feet before jogging back for the next rep.

-*****-

Devin tossed his helmet between his hands as he waited on the sideline for his chance to get into the 7-on-7 drills. He had an itch to get back on the field in a competitive way after a few months without lacing them up. Seeing the jawing going on between the guys out there had only made him more eager to show what he could do.

It was a foreign feeling to him. He’d gone through so much of his high school football career almost sleepwalking and now he found himself in a position battle. The coaches didn’t mince words when they said the depth chart was wide open once you got beyond Christian at the top of it.

And he was coming in at a disadvantage having enrolled late.

He wanted to play as a freshman and he wanted to play often. He didn’t want to experience his first taste of those Saturday nights from the sidelines. He wanted to be right in the middle of cauldron when the season got started.

After what felt like an eternity, Coach Shuman called for the ones to make way for the twos.

Strapping his helmet on, Devin jogged onto the field. He listened as they were given their assignments before finding himself lined up across from another freshman, J.R. Randle – or Jacobi Remard Randle as his mother called him which was the joke around camp.

Randle was a short receiver. Short but speedy. Standing no more than 5’8” with shoes on, he wasn’t going to win too many jump ball situations but he’d gotten his three-star designation from the recruiting services because of his route running ability. Some believed there were few freshmen in the country who had what J.R. had in his bag.

Mike Hammond snapped the ball and it was as if J.R. was shot out of a cannon as he burst from the line. Devin almost stumbled trying to keep up with the diminutive wideout.

He stopped in the middle of the field and turned toward the line of scrimmage for the ball. Mike threw it to him, but Devin was able to recover and bat it away just before it reached J.R.’s hands, earning him a ripple of applause and a few “atta boys” for not giving up on the play against a speedster who most would have trouble with.

Devin started to find his groove as they started to rack up the reps. He allowed a catch or two, but he was feeling it. Man or zone, he was there or thereabouts if the ball was anywhere in his vicinity.

He knew he was doing well when he started to become the target of some of the shit talking from the receivers that he was lined up against. He ignored it, but he couldn’t help but crack a smile when he and Junie caught a pass at the same time and he was able to rip it away from the receiver only for it to fall to the turf incomplete.

On the next rep, he was one-on-one with Arion. Man to man coverage. Arion was of a similar archetype of receiver to Caesar. Tall, lanky, good vertical. And if there was anything that Devin had done more defending of tall and lanky receivers than most thanks to the two years at Terrebonne practicing against Caesar.

Arion released to the outside and ran 10 yards down the field before planting his foot and cutting back. Devin stayed with him and looked back over his shoulder to see the ball was already in the air, coming in their direction.

Arion positioned himself in front of Devin and jumped for the ball. Devin came from the side, jumped and batted the ball away.

Unusually amped up, Devin shouted, “Let’s fucking go!”

He clapped his hands together with a bit of extra force then dapped up Christian and Omari before jogging back to the line of scrimmage.

Glancing toward the sideline, he saw Coach Chavis and Coach Major looking in his direction before returning to their conversation. Coach Chavis pointed to something on the tablet that Coach Major was holding before walking away. He gave a nod of approval to Devin before turning his attention to something else going on out on the field.

Adjusting the straps on his gloves, Devin got ready for the next rep.
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djp73
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by djp73 » 30 Sep 2021, 20:16

Devin headed for Canton
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 06 Oct 2021, 19:28

Crunch Time

Fall camp for college football teams was a rising action. Or at least it was supposed to be.

Every head coach in the country attempted to get their team to their peak right as their first game of the season arrived. For Tulane, without a game in the first week of the upcoming campaign, that first game was still a fair bit off, but they worked to remove the rust from their play all the same before that meeting with Louisiana-Monroe.

As the season grow closer, journalists and superfans began to descend on the Green Wave practice field, joining the sparse group that had been there since the beginning of fall camp. And with the extra eyes, the intensity on the field grew.

Halfway into the session and a number of scuffles already had to be broken up thanks to players going a little too hard.

Devin took a couple steps back into his zone assignment, scanning the turf in front of him for any receivers crossing the field. After a few seconds, Darren checked it down to Tyrone running out in the flat.

Devin ran forward to meet the diminutive running back. As the two of them approached, he glanced to his left and saw Tucker Beal, a tight end, had lined him up for the type of block you probably shouldn’t lay on a teammate in practice.

Tyrone planted his foot and cut to his right to follow his blocks. Devin stopped and spun to his left. Just as Tucker’s body glanced off his own. The motion put him in perfect position to make the tackle on Tyrone, and he did so, wrapping the junior up and bringing him down.

Jumping up to his feet, Devin helped Tyrone up before jogging back to the huddle for the next play.



Expectations had only grown since the start of camp as the team took shape. People began to shift Tulane from a middle of the pack team to a SEC championship contender, and in some circles, a dark horse to make the college football playoff.

A lot of eyes had gone to the end of the Green Wave’s schedule to find the make or break weeks. Away against Alabama and a trip to Baton Rouge to face their hated rivals for the Victory Flag with a potential trap game against Mississippi State sandwiched in between.

Would this team be good enough to win those games? That’s what the pundits wanted to know.

Caesar swung his arm up to bat away Christian’s attempts to jam him at the line and broke toward the middle of the field. Darren’s pass hit in stride as he crossed the hashmarks.

Jowayne Hatcher, a linebacker, tried to lower his shoulder on Caesar but Caesar juked out of the way. Then he juked back the opposite direction to dodge another tackle attempt. He stiff armed a third defender – but notably hadn’t moved upfield yet.

Feeling himself, he held the ball like a loaf of bread in one hand before shimmying as Marcus lined him up to make the tackle. He tried to spin around the safety but only succeeded in spinning right into the waiting arms of Christian who slung him to the ground.

The ball slipped out of Caesar’s hand on the way down, but he was able to snatch it back to his body before anyone thought to bend down and pick it up.

As he got up, he slapped Jowayne on the back of the helmet only to get shoved away by the sophomore who was shaking his head as everyone returned to the huddles.

-*****-

Devin tossed his dirt, sweat and grime covered jersey into one of the nearby bins for the team managers to wash. Leaning back into his locker, he reached into his bag for his phone as the rest of the guys got changed at the end of another long day of practice.

They’d convinced him to “brand” his social media pages better and he was already beginning to regret it as the number of notifications that he regularly received slowly increased. Most of them were from random people on the internet offering to do something for him in exchange for promotion or people just asking to be promoted.

The trickle of messages he wasn’t anticipating were the few that he got from girls – and some older women -- inquiring about his relationship status.

He didn’t answer any of the messages, but he especially ignored those. That was not a minefield that he wanted to get tangled up in.

But he did respond to the couple of pictures that Carla sent him and reminded her that he was, in fact, going to be helping her move into her dorm room in a couple weeks. He wasn’t sure how he was going to swing the time commitment but it probably wouldn’t be the best way to reignite their relationship after a few months of few visits if he flaked out on that.

Christian sat down at his locker across from Devin’s and slipped his feet out of the slides that he wore before grabbing a pair of loafers out of his bag. As he did so, he looked up at Devin and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Devin asked.

“You look beat, man. Looks like you haven’t slept in weeks. You have to get your rest when you can or this grind is going to eat you alive,” Christian said.

“I got a shit roommate.”

Christian shrugged. “All roommates are bad at first, but you just have to break down to them that you need your rest or you’re going to start pissing in their cereal before they wake up every morning.”

Devin briefly considered pissing in Caesar’s cereal every morning but he wasn’t sure that Caesar had any food in their room to be tampered with. The only time he ever saw evidence of him eating in the room is if Kaley left something in a container on his desk. So, he shook the thought off.

After a few months rooming with Caesar, he did, however, come to the conclusion that Caesar Jenkins had more than a few screws loose given his atypical cleanliness.

“I don’t think we’re going to be coming to any agreements with my roommate,” Devin said, shaking his head.

Christian reached into his bag, pulled out a bottle of what looked like pills and tossed it to Devin. “Pop a couple of those in water at night and you’ll get all eight of the hours you need. I try to get it in whenever I can but it’s tough between school and football, you know?”

Devin rolled the bottle around and read the label. “What is this?”

“Not what you think,” the junior laughed. “It’s these soluble tea capsules that basically brew when they hit water. Like that sleepy time tea stuff from back in the day but in a capsule form and some new age science.”

“You’re right. That’s not what I thought this was.”

“The body’s a temple, lil’ bro. Everyone in here does something different to make it through these dog days of camp or the ass end of the season. For me, I like my tea before I go to bed. That’s all I need. Maybe a couple cookies to go with it.”

Devin nodded. He was quickly coming to greatly respect Christian as a leader both on and off the field and the season hadn’t even begun yet. He was the type of student that you would expect to be headed for some 30 under 30 list. He just so happened to also be one of the best cover corners in the nation.

Devin held the bottle of tea capsules out to Christian but he waved his hand and shook his head.

“You can keep those. I get them in bulk because I have a deal with them. Back in my freshman year, I said that I used them and they were straight into my DMs to get me to do some promotion for them,” Christian said.

Christian stood up and stuffed some stuff into his bag before throwing it over his shoulder. He held his fist out to Devin and Devin tapped his own against Christian’s.

“You settled in quick, man, and you haven’t let it go to your head. That’s going to serve you well when the semester starts and there are a bunch of people trying to get your attention for this reason or that,” Chistian said. He gestured to the locker room around them. “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with living it up while you’re in college. That’s what everyone else here is doing, right? We just have to be a little more careful because we have a little more riding on what we do every night, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I got you,” Devin said.

Christian nodded and pointed at Devin with that presidential point. “You’re alright, man. I’m going to see you around. Try that tea. It’s like a grab bag so there are all kinds of brews in there.”

Devin shook the bottle and made a show of putting it in his bag as Christian headed for the door.

Devin took a few minutes to let his muscles rest some more before he too got up and headed back to his room. He hoped to get some quality video chat time in with Carla before Caesar got back.

Better yet... he hoped Kaley would keep Caesar occupied in her room. It made him wonder if she had a roommate that could help with that given Caesar’s predilections when it came to women and relationships.

-*****-

“Man, I can’t fucking wait for the season to start,” Junie said as he, Caesar, Darren and Kendall walked toward the res halls after practice. The sound of slides scrapping against the pavement almost marked them out better than police sirens on a squad car.

“You just want the season to start so all the jersey chasing sorority girls are back on campus trying to latch on to whoever got that NIL scratch,” Kendall said.

“Isn’t that what everyone in that locker room is looking forward to?” Darren asked, laughing. “Everyone except me that is.”

“That’s a lie,” Junie said. “You be wilding with the rest of us. Speaking of, where Tyrone at? That dude owe me $20 and I’m trying to get some good grub delivered tonight.”

“Tyrone owes all of us $20,” Caesar said as he responded to some messages he got on his social media pages over the last couple of hours.

While he was looking down at his phone, he received a text from one of the tech bros that read: ’Check your account. We sent you a little bonus. Business is booming.’

He swiped over to his banking app and pulled up the account that he had to set up solely for the money that he had rolling in from NIL deals – in other words, bank accounts that he’d set up after he became old enough to do so without having a joint-account holder.

A cool $15,000 had been deposited into the account.

Kendall looked over Caesar’s shoulder and whistled. “Considering you’re the frosh of the bunch, maybe you should be spotting Tyrone’s money and paying us back with that bag you just got.”

“Tyrone would have money if y’all would stop going to the strip club with him so he can throw it at old, fat women,” Caesar said, putting his phone in his pocket. “I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s where he was right now.”

“Nah. I know where he is and it ain’t a strip club,” Darren said.

“Well, if you know where he at, call him and tell him to answer my texts and send me my money. The rest of these fools going to be alright without that $20 but I’m not balling like the rest of y’all,” Junie said before adding. “Yet.”

“I told you last year that you should’ve crossed over and let the bros connect you with some frats who have businesses who support the community,” Kendall said. A senior receiver, Kendall was also an Alpha and spent a good bit of time trying to get the younger guys on the team to go through the process as well. Especially given he said it was one of the only reasons he had any NIL deals.

“I’m not trying to get hazed by you niggas. Y’all just like them whites with that shit. No offense, Caesar.”

Caesar waved off the comment. “Mixed race, my guy.”

“Right, right.”

“K.D. has a point, though. The only reason that Tucker, Sam, Greyson and all them can hang with us is because they got money from no-show jobs through some frat connections,” Darren said. “You wouldn’t be chasing behind no one for two punk ass tens anymore.”

“I don’t think not worrying about niggas not paying me back is worth some motherfucker telling me to eat a donut off his dick,” Junie said.

Kendall shook his head. “We don’t do that shit. It’s 2052. If some man interested in men and he wants his dick sucked, he gonna just ask you. Don’t need to be hiding that shit behind hazing like it’s fifty years ago.”

“He got a point,” Darren said.

“What about you, Caesar? I know you already connected but—”

Caesar snorted. “Y’all might not haze people but you definitely tell people where to be and when to be there and I don’t do well with people telling me what to do. If the parties are right, I’ll kick it with ya but don’t expect me to go through any kind of initiations for that shit.”

“Fair enough.”

Junie took his phone out of his pocket and checked his bank account. He sighed and shoved Darren. “Seriously, bruh. Tell that nigga Tyrone to answer my texts and send me my damn money.”

“Motherfucker out here like a bill collector. Didn’t they pass some shit to stop that predatory lending stuff back in the day?” Darren asked, laughing. Darren swiped his thumb across the screen of his phone before a notification pinged on Junie’s phone. “There, now when Tyrone gives you your $20 back you can give me my $20 back. Hell, I’ll just get it from him.”

“If he hasn’t used it to go swimming through a FUPA to find some fat bitch pussy,” Caesar said.

“Nah, he’ll have it.”

“You’d think this man was out here moving weight with how Darren knows where he is but is refusing to tell us where the motherfucker is,” Kendall said.

Darren shrugged. “That’s that motherfucker business.”

As the conversation moved to something else, Caesar pulled his phone back out of his pocket and shot a text to Kaley to ask what she was up to. Part of him wanted to just go back to his room and go to sleep.

Another part of him was more interested in putting something else to sleep.
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 10 Oct 2021, 16:58

College Days

After weeks of the ho-hum atmosphere of the summer, Tulane’s campus came back to life all at once as students descended on it to move back into its dorms and start their college careers or prepare for another semester of hitting the books.

Caesar and Kaley dodged students and parents lugging bags and boxes across the campus as they headed back to her room.

Caesar gestured at the people around them, struggling to balance four or five duffel bags on their shoulders to make fewer trips back to their car and hopefully beat the aggressive New Orleans meter maids before they received a ticket. “Remember when you were complaining because instead of moving all kinds of shit, I just bought us both new shit?”

“We just got lucky that they didn’t move either of us to a new room because we would’ve been doing the same thing, new shit or not,” Kaley said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m still pissed off that I didn’t get a new room. I shouldn’t have to have a fucking roommate. If I went to Oklahoma State, they would’ve put me in an off-campus apartment. Here? I’m in a fucking dorm like the rest of y’all.”

“Do you not want to be in a dorm, or do you not want Devin to be your roommate?”

“Both. That motherfucker’s so dirty that I’m going to end up getting MRSA or meningitis or fucking hepatitis.”

Kaley hit Caesar’s shoulder. “You should try being nicer. Everyone doesn’t have undiagnosed OCD like your ass. And rich fuckers like you are the rest there has been a housing crisis in New Orleans for the last 60 years with all the short-term rentals.”

“Okay, Mandie Landry.”

She shook her head at Caesar’s comment but didn’t say anything.

The two of them walked into the res hall where it seemed like even more people were packed into the halls than there were outside of it. Fortunately, Caesar’s large frame – and lack of care at barging into people – meant that most people shifted out of their way instead of the other way around.

“Kaley!”

The two of them stopped at the bank of elevators as Gia waved to get their attention, excusing her way through those who were moving their stuff into the rooms. Gia was also one of the lucky few who weren’t re-assigned to another room for the fall semester.

Another girl trailed behind her, hair up in a messy bun and a few strands of hair stuck to her forehead with sweat.

“I’ve been texting you! You’re a hard woman to get a hold of when you’re with that man of yours,” Gia said, teasing, when she came to a stop in front of Kaley and Caesar.

Kaley pointed to the floor above them. “I left my phone in the room because it was charging too slow and someone was in a rush.”

“Yes. You were. Because you were hungry,” Caesar said.

“Oh, no worries. I’ll just have to get Caesar’s number later so that I can text him to find you whenever I’m looking for ya,” Gia said. She turned to the girl who was with her. “This is Kaley, my roommate that I was telling you about. And the tall, dark and handsome guy with her is her boyfriend, Caesar.”

Gia looked at Caesar and laughed.

“But I guess, saying that he’s tall is an understatement, isn’t it?” she added.

Kaley glanced over at Caesar who only shrugged. It wasn’t hard for him to see that Kaley was a little annoyed about Gia’s description, but she was too proud to say anything about it.

“Hey, I’m Janelle,” the girl said, introducing herself.

“My best friend! We went to high school together at Cabrini,” Gia said. She looked at Kaley. “She’s going to rush with us.”

“Rush?” Caesar asked Kaley. “Since when were you into paying for your friends? Greek life seems a little beneath you.”

“Just getting the full college experience,” Kaley said, shrugging.

“Just make sure you don’t start getting gangbanged by frat bros.”

Janelle raised an eyebrow. “That seems like more of a football player thing to do, don’t you think? From what I understand about what y’all do anyway.”

“Oh, so you already know who I am, huh?”

“I’m a legacy. We’re season ticket holders.”

Gia reached out and touched Caesar’s arm. “As if this perfect guy would go around doing that type of shit. Especially when he’s already with someone?! I’ve seen how he looks at Kaley. In love!”

“So, what were you looking for me for?” Kaley asked, shifting the conversation – and subtly moving so Caesar also had to move and put some space between he and Gia.

“We needed an extra set of hands moving all of Janelle’s stuff into her room, but we got it taken care of. I just paid a couple of random kids hanging around her building and they were more than happy to help,” Gia said.

You paid them?” Caesar asked.

“That’s what I said,” Gia said, winking at him.

“We were just heading up for Gia to grab some stuff and then we were going to grab a bite. Y’all are welcome to come with us. But I guess y’all already ate?” Janelle asked.

“I had other things on my mind,” Caesar said.

“Oh, c’mon. You can’t keep Kaley all to yourself, mister,” Gia said. “You can even pay for us.”

Kaley shrugged. “Sounds fine to me. It should be fun.”

“Yep, so much more fun,” Caesar said, taking his phone out of his pocket and all but willing some impromptu meeting to be called since he wasn’t going to get what he was looking for when he made the walk across campus.

Kaley hit the elevator call button and the doors soon slid open. The four of them squeezed onto the elevator with a family all holding comforter sets and what looked like sleeping bags.

“So, Cabrini, huh?” Kaley asked Janelle. “All girls school, right? I couldn’t imagine that.”

“It’s not so bad,” Janelle said.

“Oh, yes it was,” Gia said, laughing. “I’m just glad we’re out of there.”

“Probably had motherfucking dildos in every locker,” Caesar said. “And daisy chains at every function.”

What looked to be the parents of the family on the elevator both gasped and hurried their children off it as soon as the doors slid open.

-*****-
“Make sure that you don’t drop that.”

Devin glanced up from the pile of throw pillows that he held, using his chin to keep them steady as he walked. “I said it when you bought all of these, but I’m going to say it again. I don’t know why you felt the need to not only buy fifteen pillows you aren’t going to sleep on but bring all fifteen of the damn pillows with you.”

“I have seven pillows. Not fifteen,” Carla said, adjusting the backpack she had on her shoulder as she fished through her purse for the key to get into her dorm room. “I already told you that you don’t have to have a dorm room look like a prison cell.”

“Never been in a prison cell for comparison.”

He was only giving a hard time because he didn’t expect to be as tired as he was when he agreed to help her move in a couple weeks ago. Despite having had time to settle in to the college football fall camp grind, his body still protested any exertion outside of what happened on the field.

And that was likely only due to the adrenaline.

She didn’t look up before she answered. “If you keep complaining about my pillows then I’ll find out if a cell is the same as this room.”

“Hey, hey. No need for threats. I’m here helping you, aren’t I?”

She sighed, turned around and took a couple of the throw pillows from Devin before standing on the tips of her toes to kiss him. “Yes, thank you. I’m just frustrated because this would’ve been a lot easier if my parents would’ve come to help us, too. I don’t know why they figured this would be a good time to go to Cabo on a fucking vacation.”

“I guess they figured since their kid was going off to college, there was no time like now to finally that in,” Devin said, shrugging.

“And leave my brother at home with my aunt?”

“I don’t know. I think an out-of-country getaway with my wife would be a million times better if I didn’t have to bring my grown ass kids with me.”

Carla finally found the key in her purse and turned back to the door. “I didn’t know that 16 was considered a ‘grown ass kid.’ My aunt’s probably not even there. She spends all of her time at the damn casino trying to pick up truckers.”

“Which aunt is this?”

“Neveah. I never introduced you because she’s a mess and it’s a little embarrassing.”

“Gotcha.”

Unlocking the door, Carla led the way as the two of the stepped into the room. It was a little brighter than the one Tulane had given to Devin, likely because UNO was situated on Lake Pontchartrain meaning it had a better view. He also thought it was a little bigger but with another person in it, that wouldn’t matter.

The other person was a girl standing behind an easel that was set up in front of the window. She looked back at Carla and Devin and smiled.

“Hey, Carla,” she said, wiping paint from her hands on the overalls she wore. She brushed blonde hair out of her face, haphazardly wiping paint on her forehead.

Devin had forgotten that the two of them had already met as he stepped around Carla and dumped the pillows on the empty bed on one side of the room.

“Misty, this is my boyfriend, Devin,” Carla said as she put down all of the stuff she carried on her side of the room.

Misty held up her hands and shrugged. “I’d shake your hand, but they’re covered in paint.”

Devin looked over her shoulder at what she was painting. Not much of an art connoisseur, he had no idea what he was looking at, but he imagined that most people would refer to it as “abstract.” It just looked like paint splattered all over the place to him.

“All good,” Devin said. “Nice to meet you.”

She smiled again then turned back to Carla. “Sorry about the mess. I like to paint when I’m stressed, and I don’t know about you but moving to a new city and all that really has my brain all frazzled. I promise I won’t get paint on any of your stuff.”

“Your good, girl,” Carla said. She jabbed a thumb in Devin’s direction. “We’re going to finish getting the rest of my stuff so he can get back across town.”

“Oh, that’s right! You go to Tulane, right?”

Devin nodded. “Yeah.”

“I could never go to a private university. It’s too stuffy. Everyone there is probably trying to work for some Fortune 500 company, stepping on the necks of everyone else,” Misty said. “Well, don’t let me keep y’all. I’ll just be in here finishing this.”

She turned back to the easel and swung the paintbrush at the canvas putting a streak of orange paint across the face of it.

Devin followed Carla as she walked back out of the room and headed down the hall.

“She’s nice,” Devin said as they reached the elevators.

“She’s from Oregon,” Carla said. “It’s crazy that people still come from all over the country just to live in New Orleans. But yes, she is. I definitely could’ve done a lot worse on the roommate lottery.”

“You know that I have the rest of the day free, right? I’m not in any rush to get back to the campus,” Devin said. “I figured that we could go out to an early dinner or something and go pretend that we’re tourists in a city 45 minutes away from where we grow up.”

Carla stepped onto the elevator as the doors slid open. “Oh, I remembered that you didn’t have anything to do for the rest of the day. But we do need to get back across town because you have some making up to do after not coming to see me for three fucking months, and I just texted Kaley and Caesar’s with her, so you have a room all to yourself.”

Devin raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“And yes, you also owe me a couple dozen dinners.”
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Caesar
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 16 Oct 2021, 13:30

Opening the Books

After weeks of only needing to focus on football after his summer courses had ended, Devin felt as if he’d been plucked out of one dimension and dropped into another as he sat in a classroom with a few dozen other students.

At the front of the room, a TA droned on about the syllabus for a college algebra course that no one was particularly interested in. Or at least, Devin knew he wasn’t interested in it. It was just one of those requirements to get to another requirement to graduate.

No amount of effort was going to get him interested in the Pythagorean Theorem.

Glancing back at his laptop – his university-issued laptop that came outfitted with all of the bells and whistles and latest software that he would never need to ensure that he was well-equipped for the semester – he pulled up ESPN’s website to browse their college football articles. Never being one to watch headlines before, he didn’t know how he was meant to feel that all of the SEC-related preseason pieces were about LSU, Florida, Alabama and Georgia.

It wasn’t as if Tulane was the worst SEC program. Respectable, not elite at that moment. But certainly, not the worst.

“Alright, that’s it for today. Remember to get your mathLAB credentials set up so you can do the lab time early and not fall behind. It won’t be fun trying to cram 50 hours of labs into a couple days before finals,” the TA said.

Devin shut the laptop and dropped it into his backpack.

“You looked like you clocked out on the first day, bro,” the guy who was sitting next to him said. He held out his hand to Devin. “Name’s Kwame.”

Kwame stood about half a head shorter than Devin and wore the old school college student garb of a t-shirt, a pair of basketball shorts and a pair of slides – with socks. It was slmost as if he’d stepped right out of the ‘10s and ‘20s.

But it was an early morning class, so Devin was willing to let any state of dress slide and it wasn’t as if he was wearing a suit.

Devin dapped him up as he stood and slung his back over his shoulder. “Devin. Yeah, math’s never really been my strong suit. Hell, school’s never really been my strong suit.”

Kwame tapped Devin on the chest with his knuckles where “Tulane Football” was emblazoned on the hoodie he wore. “I’m not shocked, but shit, that’s why they got all them ways for y’all to get a little ‘help’ with your studies to stay eligible.”

“You’d be surprised. This is Tulane after all. There are guys on the team trying to get master’s degrees and shit before they hit 22,” Devin said, referring to Christian but assuming that there were more guys on the team who were pursuing advanced degrees.

“True, true.”

A girl walking down the row of seats one step down, stopped and turned toward the two of them. “You two look like the type that would be confused enough about a class that you would benefit from a study group.”

“Shit, we could link,” Kwame said, eyeing her. “Name’s Kwame, but you can call me whatever.”

She was pretty, but Devin wasn’t so sure that he’d have that type of reaction to her. Granted, Devin never considered himself to be particularly adept at “spitting game” to women so he would probably never have that type of reaction.

“Devin,” Devin said, feeling as if he was having to do one of those dread icebreakers without it being demanded of him.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m Ella. I’m just not looking forward to trying not to struggle through my first semester of college. I heard study groups were the way to go so here I am, and like I said, y’all look like you won’t be so much smarter than me that you’ll confuse me.”

“That’s a little insulting, don’t you think?” Devin asked.

“If you take it as an insult. But at the end of the day, no one thinks being a mathematician is a prestige job so I think we’re all okay with not being that,” she said. She held out her hand to Kwame. “Here, give me your phone and I’ll put my number in and text myself.”

“Bet.” He reached into his pocket and handed her the device after unlocking it.

She handed him back his phone then held her hand out to Devin. “And you?”

Devin gave her his phone.

Ella looked at the screen then tilted it down so that Devin could see it as well. The background was a picture of him and Carla from graduation. “That your girlfriend?”

“Yep.”

“I can appreciate a man who kept up with the times in terms of dating,” she said as she navigated to the contacts and put her number in.

“Are you trying to say his girl is trans?” Kwame asked.

“I think she meant interracial dating,” Devin said.

“Either or. It’s 2052 after all,” Ella said as she gave Devin back his phone. “I already texted myself from your phone, Devin. I’ll make it a group chat. Y’all better be ready to hit those books so ‘freshman 15’ doesn’t mean what our scores are in this class.”

“Can’t promise I’ll be too much help or that I’ll be available all that often.”

“I guess you better find us someone who can take exams for us then. But I know some upperclassmen and I can get some tips on time management if you need them. Anyway. See y’all around,” she said before walking toward the door.

“She bad, bro,” Kwame said, slapping Devin on the arm with the back of his hand.

“Kinda on the plain side,” Devin said as he started to head out of the room as well.

“That be the freakiest ones.”

“I’ll take your word for it. Nice meeting you though, man. I’ll see you around. Gotta get to my next class.”

Kwame dapped Devin up as the two parted ways.

Devin rubbed at his temple, already dreading sitting through another class and unfortunately for him, class was only a part of what would be consuming his time that day. Being a college athlete was hard and it was only day one.

-*****-
“You know you’re always eating?” Darren asked Caesar as he set his bag down in one of the empty chairs around the table and sat in another.

“Gotta hit my macros and all. It takes a lot to keep this well-oiled machine running and I don’t have our family cook here to make sure that everything’s the right proportion,” Caesar said as tore a chunk of chicken breast in half and popped one bit into his mouth.

“You grew up with a cook living in your house? Y’all that rich?”

Caesar shook his head. “Pierre lived somewhere else in town. One of the luxury apartment complexes, I think. Now, I don’t know if that’s because we couldn’t afford for him to live there or if he didn’t want to or if my parents didn’t want him to. He’d just come a few times throughout the day, cook and then go home.”

Darren whistled and leaned back in his chair. “Man, y’all were living that life for real, for real. We were lucky that we didn’t have to eat government cheese, grits and Kablamo cereal.”

“Ka-what now?”

“One of those brands that come in a bag,” Darren said, holding his hands as if they were on opposite ends of a package. “That’s the stuff that they have on food assistance vouchers and shit.”

“I know. I went through a grocery store cashier phase. I just never heard of that brand.”

“Damn, they had you working even though y’all rich as hell?”

“Not working as a cashier. Fucking them,” Caesar said before taking a swig from the water bottle sitting on the table.

“That boy a heathen. I seen your girl. Out here in New Orleans, high school sweethearts and shit. When you had time to be doing all that?”

“Life’s wild when you’re young, bro.”

Darren laughed at the quip before picking up his phone and scrolling through something on the screen.

Caesar had grown close with the quarterback, as well as many of the others on the offensive side of things, over the past few weeks. He likely wouldn’t be as close to Darren as he had been to Ron, but it would bode well for the Green Wave’s season that their quarterback and new top receiver were already forming the early parts of a connection.

“Yo, Luke!” Darren shouted to someone walking through the student center. “Come here right quick.”

Out of the crowd popped what most people would describe as an All-American rich kid. Being one himself, Caesar knew the type. But whereas most people only knew Caesar was rich because of his notoriety of being who he was, this guy just dressed like he was rich.

He walked over to the table, taking Darren’s bag out of the chair it was in and setting it on the table. Darren dapped him up as he sat down.

“Another semester, huh?” he asked Darren.

Darren slapped the guy on his shoulder. “Caesar, this is our guy, Luke. Always coming in clutch when you need a paper or some shit done at the last minute. The motherfucker makes a killing on the whole athletics program, though.”

“Hey, if you don’t want to pay then you could just do your shit yourself,” Luke said, laughing. He turned to Caesar. “He’s exaggerating about me making a ‘killing.’ I charge by the word or something else if it’s not a paper. I value my time, you know?”

“Maybe you should scale your business and bring in a couple other people if you’re doing shit for a good three hundred, four hundred people,” Caesar said.

“And trust them not to get too greedy and blow the whole thing up? I’m going to have to pass on that.” He stood up and dapped up Darren. “I have to head out. Just shoot me a text and the cash if you need something done.”

“Definitely, bro,” Darren said.

Caesar waited until Luke had merged back into the crowd of people milling about before speaking again. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just fuck some smart bitch and convince her to do your shit for you than to pay him to do it?”

“I’m sure but you gotta move smart. Luke’s not going to get pissed off if you don’t tell him you love him and stop doing shit for us because he’s doing it for the money. First problem with your scenario is that we’d need like forty smart bitches and they’d only do shit for the, at most, hundred athletes they fucking. Second thing is that dude’s fucking Elon Musk reincarnated. I don’t know how he does it but he turns that shit around in an hour tops.”

“I guess that makes sense.”

“Of course, it does. Luke been making sure Tulane athletes stay eligible for two, three years now. You better lock that man’s number in. You gonna see.”

Caesar chuckled as he finished off his chicken. “I think I’m going to be alright.”

Darren smacked the table. “Fuck, I almost forgot. This weekend, we’re hitting Bourbon for real. Still got a couple more weeks before our first game so we have to get in those Saturdays doing heathen shit in now before the season gets going and we have to start wilding on Sundays and Thursdays. I’m not taking no for an answer.”

“I had no intention of saying no. I’ve been waiting for y’all. I kept hearing about how wild shit gets around here but the wildest thing we’ve done was go to a titty bar that doubles as a nursing home.”

“You not letting that go, bruh?”

“Not until we stop going to such establishments.”

Darren laughed. “Good luck getting Tyrone to do that.”
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Captain Canada » 17 Oct 2021, 13:32

You been churning out some world-building shit, bruh. You know I'm with it.

Keep it coming.
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Agent
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Agent » 17 Oct 2021, 13:56

I want to catch up on this but it’s a ton of reading. Anyway I can get a quick summary to catch up?

No offense. I’m trying to follow :lol:
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Caesar » 17 Oct 2021, 22:19

Agent wrote:
17 Oct 2021, 13:56
I want to catch up on this but it’s a ton of reading. Anyway I can get a quick summary to catch up?

No offense. I’m trying to follow :lol:
Not gonna lie to you, brudda. I have no idea how to summarize this, but I'll give it a whack and if you need more context I can just link you to specific updates. :pgdead:

The story is about two players, Caesar Jenkins and Devin King, IV. It's set in the year 2052 and begins during the two players' sophomore year in high school. We're now at the beginning of their freshman year in college at Tulane in New Orleans.

Both of these characters are in some way related to previous RTGs I've done during my time chising.

Caesar Jenkins is the son of Deion Jenkins (who I did an RTG with) and the grandson of Marcus Jenkins (who I also did an RTG with). As the third generation product of a footballing family, football was the only option for young Caesar Jenkins. Basically, he's one of those kids who was forced into football but you have to remove the "parent living through his child" bit of that story as Deion Jenkins is a Hall of Fame quarterback with a national championship win and multiple Super Bowls and an extremely successful post-playing career so there isn't much he needs to live through his child for. Caesar was the #1 recruit coming out of high school at wideout. Already pegged to be a top 10 pick in the 2054 NFL Draft if his fast living doesn't kill him first.

Devin King, IV is the grandson of Devin King, Jr. (obviously, but who I did an RTG with). Devin's the complete opposite of Caesar. The son of educators, football was just something he did to pass the time in high school. He had a little something something going on in the talent department, but he wasn't going to be popping up at the Alabamas of the world. Until a series of events forced our two protagonists into the same school and a new coach unlocked his potential in his senior year. He shot up from preferred walk-on at South Dakota State to four-star prospect in one year. Devin's mild-mannered and quiet off the field, but handles his business on the field.

A family rivalry exists between the Kings and the Jenkinses dating back to the time Marcus Jenkins, a cornerback, and Devin King, Jr., a quarterback, in the NFL in the early 2000s. Mr. King, Jr. was a bust in the league after a rocky college career. In one of his few starts in a short, journeyman career, he was picked off twice by Marcus Jenkins. Post-game comments by Jenkins, who had a solid professional career, sparked the rivalry. Caesar is all-in on continuing it. The youngest Devin, not so much.

To sum it up, it is the story of two young men who have existed in each other's "seven degrees of separation" orbit for decades and the stark contrast between the two, their personalities, their journeys and the lifestyles they've led owing to the families they were raised in (the Kings being upper middle class with "regular jobs" while the Jenkinses are knocking on the door of the 1% and famous).

These characters grew up in the same place and, eventually, went to the same high school and now same college so a lot of the secondary characters related to them overlap. Here are the most important secondary characters (so far):

Obviously, their parents and grandparents. Marcus and Cassie Jenkins are Caesar's grandparents. Deion and Candice Jenkins are his parents. Devin King, Jr. and Janice King are Devin's grandparents. Devin King, III and Lisa King are his parents. Caesar is significantly closer to his family than Devin is to his.

Ron DeRossi is Caesar's childhood best friend. Ron was the guy throwing the rock to Caesar for three years in high school. The two of them are extremely close, brothers more than just a couple of high school chums. Ron is now the quarterback at TCU where he led the team to a national championship as a freshman.

Hasan Santiago is Devin's best friend from high school. A transfer from Miami, Devin and Hasan grew close over their final two years of high school. Hasan is now enrolled at LSU where he is a running back.

Kaley and Carla Parfait. This is probably somewhere you might have to be linked to further posts on, but to summarize... These two young ladies are cousins. Caesar met Carla first and had a brief fling with her before meeting her cousin, Kaley, while in Texas to evacuate from a hurricane. Caesar and Kaley are now dating, and this is likely the reason for Caesar's college choice of Tulane which was Kaley's dream school. Devin met Carla through a co-worker, Gina (who also has history with Caesar but it is a bit different), after Caesar fucked his then-girlfriend, Scarlett. Devin and Carla are now dating. Carla's a freshman at UNO.

Of course, there is an entire football team of additional characters plus some others that I'm intentionally not including to not spoil future plot points. The story's at an inflection point as well so all of the high school secondaries are being shed for college secondaries.
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War of the Roses: Redux Edition

Post by Agent » 17 Oct 2021, 23:12

Dope. Thanks a lot.
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