"The Novatim Year"
With Brooklyn garnering some respect from her teammates in the second week of camp, things started to get a little smoother. She still had a lot of work to do in hitting her metrics, but at least she quieted most of the derision and gained a little respect among her fellow novatim and several upperclassmen.
After that, what more can you ask of a novatim in their first season? Isaac Hext was a senior, and he was going to be the man for his final season. Not like he was a particularly convincing man, but he’d been starting games on-and-off behind Anderson Fox for the last couple seasons. Even if he were to go down with injury, the freshman Jimmy Chapman was going to be the next man up. Brooklyn would only get a chance to start if the sky started falling.
Brooklyn, in all honesty, preferred the sky stay in its normal configuration. She was picking up the playbook pretty well, getting a good feel of the Skyhawk system under Brand Manlio, but in her action on the practice field and part of the scout team, she was thoroughly uninterested in getting laid out by college upperclassmen until she got a little more bulk on.
So Brooklyn bided her time, played her snaps on the practice field, and sat on the sidelines that DOCA season. Sadeg State didn’t do great, but she was making strides in the background. Every week she was improving her steps, throwing the ball a little further, zipping it a little quicker.
The NSCF came and went, and though it appeared Sadeg State was dead to rights halfway through the conference slate, Hext woke up and put some wins together, including ripping the Starlight title from Logan Oakley and the Cavsar Gladiators on the final week of conference play. A couple clutch out-of-conference wins, and the Skyhawks snuck into the playoffs over a Cavsar team people called vastly superior just a month prior that summer. All the while, Brooklyn sat with a tablet studying all she could. She also studied for classes, when she remembered to.
There was only a month of time between the conclusion of the NSCF season and the beginning of next year’s football camp. Sadeg State got dumped out by Raynor in the first round of the playoffs, of course, so that bought Brooklyn an extra three weeks of time to prepare for her freshman season.
Summer was also an interesting change of pace. Even though Brooklyn and Grace were set to keep the same dorm suite for the next year, there was nobody and no reason to remain on campus over the summer. It was all paid for anyway, so Brooklyn took her necessities back to her parent’s house for the break. It was surreal, it felt similar to high school and yet there was an air of change.
“Brookie, do you want to try traveling somewhere while you have a little break in the action?” Elie Beck asked her daughter the week after Sadeg State’s exit from NSCF 30.
“Nah,” Brooklyn replied simply between bites of scrambled egg.
“No?” Dustin Beck asked curiously, sitting down with his own breakfast. “We haven’t had a family vacation all year. We gotta go somewhere.”
“You guys are free to go without me,” Brooklyn shrugged. “I can’t afford to take any time off.”
“Sure you can,” Dustin replied immediately. “A week off won’t kill your progress.”
“Yeah right,” Brooklyn chuckled. “I’ll be eating like shi- crap. I guess I’d gain some weight on it, but not the kind I want.”
“Come on,” Dustin continued. “The BB I know would never pass up the chance to visit a new place.”
“I’ve seen plenty of new places this year!” Brooklyn sniffed. “Valanora, in particular, I’d like to never visit again.”
“Still salty about the loss, huh?” Elie propped her chin against her hand, regarding her daughter carefully.
“Trust me, just getting to spend a few weeks straight at home without having to worry about class is the only vacation I need.” Brooklyn looked up from her plate to look both her parents in the eyes. “Honestly.”
“What about … Quebec?” Dustin floated the word out there, trying as hard as he could to be casual about it.
“What about it?” Brooklyn looked back up at her dad, eyes narrowed.
“What if there happened to be an event happening in that particular nation, a couple weeks before your camp started?” Dustin leaned back in his chair, arms crossed.
“You mean the World Bowl?” Brooklyn asked, putting the pieces together. “Like, the playoffs?”
“In a way, yes.” Dustin nodded slowly.
“I dunno, it would probably be tough to take too long of a break right before camp.”
“Are you sure? Like are you really, really sure-”
“What your father is trying to say,” Elie interrupted, “is that he may have volunteered you for something on that particular date.”
“Volunteered for what?” Brooklyn asked flatly. She raised an eyebrow.
“Vincent wanted to run a ‘futures’ sort of meetup for the first round of the World Bowl playoffs,” Dustin explained quickly, referring to the general manager of the Grid Corps. “Wanted to match up some past, present, and potential future national team members together as a marketing thing.”
“Future national teamer, huh?” Brooklyn broke into a smirk.
“Of course!” Dustin replied quickly, a little too much so. “I felt that it was a perfect way to show the past and future of the Corps. Vince agreed, which is why he asked me to participate. It was only natural to invite you.”
“Uh huh.” Brooklyn nodded, trying her best to not read too much into it. “Who else is gonna be there?”
“Some GLD rookies and Corps retirees,” Dustin said vaguely, avoiding Brooklyn’s glance. “Lots of college guys. We’ll see about getting some other Sadeg State guys to come so you’ll have some company.”
“Any other quarterback prospects?” Brooklyn dropped each word carefully.
“Um, well, there may be.” Dustin shrugged. “I guess I haven’t really spoken to Vince about it yet-”
“Oakley’s gonna be there, isn’t he.”
“He might be …”
“Do I have to go?” Brooklyn’s lip twisted in disgust. She didn’t exactly hate Logan Oakley, but him being the QB for Cavsar and perhaps the most hyped college recruit since her dad, there was an element of disdain.
“Not technically, no. I only confirmed myself so far.” Dustin leaned forward, making direct eye contact with Brooklyn for the first time in a couple minutes. “BB, please. You can’t leave me with those two for the whole event. I have to look good for the cameras, and if I spend too much time unprotected around Cavsar grads, I might start breaking out in hives.”
“Why don’t you hang out with Jack and Leo?” Brooklyn stuck her tongue out. “Or any of the other retired Corps guys that you said would be there?”
“They want us to hang out by position group for the photo ops and everything,” Dustin groaned. “Dakota and Brock are pretty good players but they’re not enough to keep me from wanting to strangle that particular Gladiator.”
“He’s a pushover,” Brooklyn scoffed, then realized the implication. “So I’ve heard from Jack, anyway.”
“Right.” Dustin frowned, deciding to ignore that comment for now. “Doesn’t make me want to sock him any less. Embarrassing that we let our national team get led by such a clown.”
“Can we not have the Proudfoot rant today? It’s not even noon yet!” Elie groaned.
“Fine.”
“Okay,” Brooklyn broke the awkward silence that followed. She had turned the idea over in her head. And though she didn’t like the idea of breaking her workout routine, she did always enjoy the time she spent with the Grid Corps players. Plus, she’d gained former Skyhawk Paul Gore as a sort of mentor, and hadn’t seen him since the beginning of the NSCF season. He would certainly be at such an event.
“Okay what?” Dustin asked.
“Okay, I’ll come with you.” Brooklyn crossed her arms and smirked. “You’re gonna owe me, though.”
“Wonderful,” Dustin smiled, seemingly satisfied. “I can count that against the ledger of all the money I’ve spent raising you. You’ll break even after another hundred favors, I reckon.”
“No, bad!” Elie lightly smacked Dustin on the arm. “We talked about this.”
“What, I’m not allowed to make jokes in my own home now?” Dustin rolled his eyes. “Fine. Really though, thank you BB. I know we’ll make the trip worth it. And hopefully that idiot behind center won’t embarrass us on the field the day after.”
“What did I say about ranting at the table?” Elie replied immediately.
“Right. Brooklyn, if you’d follow me to the porch, I’d like to outline every reason why Lane Proudfoot is a horrible quarterback and person.”
“Have any of the reasons changed since the last time you delivered that rant?” Brooklyn looked up at the ceiling in thought. “What was that, four days ago?”
“No!” Dustin said spitefully. “Doesn’t make them any less true.”
“If I hear one more word about Lane Proudfoot today, you’re sleeping on the couch.” Elie blew a raspberry. “Get new material, babe.”
“Jokes on you, the couch is super comfortable. Firstly, let’s discuss how he has less mobility in the pocket than my grandmother, rest her soul-”
