SVH Senior Year #27: Playing Dirty
I'd like to begin with the blurb from the back of the book:
Maybe Ken thinks I wasn't paying attention when he took my position on the football team, my college scholarship, my girlfriend... my whole, ENTIRE life.
Guess what, Ken? I was.
In short, it's time for crazy stalker Will! Yaaay!
In this one, the A plot and the B plot (the Will story and the Ken story) are pretty well intermingled, so I'm gonna have to recap those two together.
The A/B plot:
Will is feeling sorry for himself as he overhears football practice going on. His injury took his whoooole life away, don't we all feel so sorry for him? I really don't think I have to feel sorry for him, actually, cuz he's got enough self pity going on to make up for my apathy. All of a sudden, someone shouts "All right, Matthews!" and Will loses it, ranting to himself about how Ken doesn't deserve the life Will has been working towards for years. But Will's not crazy, no.
Meanwhile, in the actual practice, Ken's game is falling apart. He just can't get his head in it, and everyone is noticing, especially the coach. He gets chewed out after practice, and has to figure out how to get his game together before the big game tomorrow.
Will is there in the locker room to see everyone coming out from practice, his buddies more than happy to see him. But Will barely sees them; all he sees is Ken walking past him without so much as a glance. I love how subtly this obsessive stalker thing is presenting itself. Will hobbles over to confront Ken, and the result is a little scary and rather a lot unbalanced. "What makes you think you can walk past me like I'm nothing? You think you're better than me now? You think you can just sit on your butt all season and then suddenly take over the team?" Ken is understandably confused, which makes Will rant some more. When Ken defends his position calmly and rationally, Will tries to swing a punch at him, but his injured knee buckles in pain and he ends up writhing on the floor. The resulting mental image makes me giggle. Will's buddies pick him up and carry him out of the locker room, where he gripes some more about how unfair it is that Ken stole his life. Clearly, it's all a sinister plot against Will. If only he could enact a little revenge against Ken... I love the subtlety of the foreshadowing.
That night, Ken is stressing out over the lousy practice, especially in light of the upcoming game. The pressure is all on him! If he chokes at tomorrow's game... bad things will happen, I guess. Melissa calls, and she is ticked. This conversation is hilarious, I have to share it.
"Where were you today?"
"Huh?"
She sighed--loudly. "I said, where were you? Why didn't you meet me after practice?"
"Umm..." Meet her after practice? He searched his memory for a reference but came up completely blank. "Did we have plans?" he asked.
"No," she said. "But it's sort of a given, don't you think? Being a couple, it should be understood that we'll hang out after our practices."
Wow. Yeah, good thing she's not totally unreasonable on top of being manipulative, vindictive, and scheming. Ken makes some pathetic excuse instead of standing up for himself, and gets off the phone with her. His girlfriend is totally helping his stress levels.
Meanwhile, Will sits at home and watches some tv show about the world's most dangerous tackles, watching football players get seriously injured again and again. You'd think he'd have enough of that in real life, but apparently wallowing is good, too. He's still angry, and wishes it was Ken getting piled under all those tackles, never to play football again. Seriously, he thinks it would only be fair if Ken had a career-ending injury. I think this is where we cross the line from obsessive into the realm of insanity.
At school, Ken is still stressing. He sees Maria heading for him, looking concerned, and for a moment he thinks she might say something that would help him feel better, the way she used to when they were dating. But Melissa pops up just then, and Maria flees the scene. Melissa starts freaking out on Ken about the game, talking about how their entire future depends on this night, yadda yadda yadda. In short, not what Ken needs to be hearing, considering he's done nothing but stress over the game for the entire book. Then, in a moment of awesomeness, he DUMPS HER right there in the middle of the hallway. Oh, Ken. Do you hear the cheering? That's me, because of your awesomeness. He's surprised how good he feels about the breakup. I can sympathize. I'd feel good too if I'd just cut Melissa out of my life.
In the cafeteria, Will sits with Josh and Matt, his lackies and the quarterback's defense on the football field. The two meatheads are going on about football tactics for the upcoming big game, and Will once again goes off the deep end. He comes up with an evil scheme: Josh and Matt should leave Ken unprotected for a play, letting their quarterback get creamed. Despite their loyalty to Will, the lackeys are less than enthused about this plan; they're hoping for football scholarships too, and they don't want to look like they screwed up in front of the scouters. In his desperation, Will comes up with a solution: the two of them mess up on the snap by staying in their stances for an extra count, making it look like Ken's goof. I keep expecting the three of them to burst out into sinister cackling.
Finally, the big game rolls around. Ken gets himself pumped up, managing to get his head in the game, not bothered at all by Melissa's blatant attempts to ignore his existence. The first half of the game goes exceptionally well, and everyone is thrilled. Even Will, who knows a horrible tackle is coming up in the second half. The game commentators are praising Ken so much that even I find it annoying, in spite of his earlier awesomeness. But something they say sticks out to Will: "For most of the season Matthews cheered his team on from the bench until a knee injurty forced Simmons out and put Matthews back in as the starter. Still, it was Matthews's unwavering support as a sideliner and his loyalty to the team that earned him this year's Spirit Award. You've got to admire dedication like this." And suddenly, Will grows a conscience! When Ken couldn't play he was supportive, and now that Will's the one unable to play, he's just a big fat jerk! Now he's desperately hoping Ken won't call the play that'll get him trounced. Oddly, I'm kind of disappointed this is all it takes for Will to do a turnaround.
Predictably, Ken does call the trouncing play. And he gets trounced. Will is caught up in guilt! How could he have come up with such a fiendish scheme? Ken is down for a long time, but finally he gets up. He's okay, just winded. He'll have to sit down for the next bit and let the third-string quarterback take over the next part of the game. Ken is confused, though, as to why neither of Will's lackeys were there to cover him. They both claim he messed up on the count, but Trusty Old Todd backs Ken up, and the rest of the team is miffed to discover Josh and Matt set their quarterback up like that. A huge fight breaks out, but Will comes down to break it up! He gives Ken some advice about facing the opposing team, since he's played against them before and Ken hasn't. Yeah, that totally makes them even now. Will tries his hardest to get Ken seriously injured, but when it doesn't work, he tells him how to get the best of the opposing quarterback. Totally makes up for it.
Finally, Ken goes back out on the field, and takes Will's advice, winning the game. Hurray. Everyone is happy, and the Coach gives both Will and Ken credit for their victory. How touching.
Now that she's broken up with Ken, Melissa totally goes back to hit on Will. It only takes him a second to figure out what she's up to, and he SHOOTS HER DOWN! Twice in one day! This book is awesome, if only for the parts dealing with Melissa.
The C Plot:
Jade has decided she really likes Evan. Now that her daddy issues have been resolved, she can concentrate on flirting. But much to her dismay, Evan doesn't seem to be terribly interested. Frustrated, she goes to her girlfriends for advice, and they suggest he's afraid of getting involved with another rebound girl (her breakup with Jeremy wasn't long ago), considering his recent involvement with Jessica and Elizabeth. She decides to try showing him how she's gotten over Jeremy, but her efforts actually just convince him more than ever she's still hung up on her ex-boyfriend. (In Evan's defence, she's very clumsy about it; repeatedly changing the subject back to your ex-boyfriend, no matter how many times you mention you don't miss him, seems a little obsessive.) Finally, Jade invites him to come watch her cheer at the football game, and he agrees, but brings a couple of friends with him. And one of those friends is female! A gorgeous, flirty blonde sits with him the entire game, completely blowing Jade's concentration. (Is this blonde perchance one of the lost Wakefields?) Jade gets mad and storms out, leaving Evan totally baffled. When he goes after her, trying to figure out what her problem is, she can't believe how clueless he is. Finally, she kisses him in a desperate, last-ditch effort to show him she's not thinking about Jeremy any more. Evan grins, cuz he likes her too. And everyone has a good laugh at the hilarity of the misunderstanding.
The D Plot:
Tia is a little discouraged at how much her life has changed over the past year. She misses the old days and the old crowd. In a fit of nostalgia, she calls up Rebecca, an old friend from El Carro who ended up going to (where else?) Big Mesa instead of SVH. They catch up, and Tia winds up breaking the news that Andy's gay. Rebecca is surprised for about a millisecond, then she has a great idea. Her cousin recently came out of the closet, too! Wouldn't it be great to set the two of them up? They're both gay, so of course they'll be attracted to each other. It's not like there are other factors involved or anything. Tia thinks this is awesome, so she calls Andy, who balks at the idea of a blind date. I'm with Andy on this one; Tia hasn't even met the guy she's trying to set him up with. Tia doesn't let a little thing like Andy's refusal stop her, though, and so she and Rebecca set up a seemingly innocent group trek to the big football game, where Rebecca's cousin just happens to show up with her. Andy plays along, and the two guys get along fine, but there are no sparks, much to Tia's disappointment. Andy tells her he appreciates the thought, but next time he'd like to find his own date. Ha! I love Andy.
The E Plot:
Maria is working hard to convince everyone she's totally over Ken. Except that he still pops up in her head all the time. So she tries to keep herself incredibly busy all the time, figuring she'll have less time for thinking about her ex-boyfriend. She agrees to take on an extra article for the Oracle, since one of the writers is currently sick. But irony of ironies! The assignment she's taken on is to cover the big football game! The article has to be done, and she's already committed to writing it, so she reluctantly shows up at the game with Tia, Andy, and that crowd. Next time I suspect Maria will find out what the assignment is before promising to cover it. Also, I kind of wonder why Saint Elizabeth doesn't volunteer to take the article; she writes for the Oracle, she's there when Maria finds out what it is she'll have to write, and she's planning to show up at the game anyway. Hmm. At any rate, Maria is there to witness Ken getting flattened by the opposing team, and she panics, running down to the field to see if he's okay. She's relieved when he starts moving, and she catches his eye as the Coach helps him off the field. She feels like an idiot for her reaction after everything that's happened between them, and now has to come to terms with the fact that she still really cares about Ken.
The F Plot:
Is it just me, or do these books just get more and more fragmented? Anyway, this is more a setup for future books than a real plot, but Conner sends a rather lengthy letter to his friends, complete with apologies. He's coming home from rehab next week, and thanks them for their interference. The whole last page is about Elizabeth, about how much he misses her and how she was really good for him, even when he was at his worst. Everyone is excited about Conner's return, although Elizabeth is conflicted. She's not sure what to expect, but part of her really wants to get back together again. Oh, good. There just hasn't been enough of Elizabeth angsting over Conner in Senior Year.
Maybe Ken thinks I wasn't paying attention when he took my position on the football team, my college scholarship, my girlfriend... my whole, ENTIRE life.
Guess what, Ken? I was.
In short, it's time for crazy stalker Will! Yaaay!
In this one, the A plot and the B plot (the Will story and the Ken story) are pretty well intermingled, so I'm gonna have to recap those two together.
The A/B plot:
Will is feeling sorry for himself as he overhears football practice going on. His injury took his whoooole life away, don't we all feel so sorry for him? I really don't think I have to feel sorry for him, actually, cuz he's got enough self pity going on to make up for my apathy. All of a sudden, someone shouts "All right, Matthews!" and Will loses it, ranting to himself about how Ken doesn't deserve the life Will has been working towards for years. But Will's not crazy, no.
Meanwhile, in the actual practice, Ken's game is falling apart. He just can't get his head in it, and everyone is noticing, especially the coach. He gets chewed out after practice, and has to figure out how to get his game together before the big game tomorrow.
Will is there in the locker room to see everyone coming out from practice, his buddies more than happy to see him. But Will barely sees them; all he sees is Ken walking past him without so much as a glance. I love how subtly this obsessive stalker thing is presenting itself. Will hobbles over to confront Ken, and the result is a little scary and rather a lot unbalanced. "What makes you think you can walk past me like I'm nothing? You think you're better than me now? You think you can just sit on your butt all season and then suddenly take over the team?" Ken is understandably confused, which makes Will rant some more. When Ken defends his position calmly and rationally, Will tries to swing a punch at him, but his injured knee buckles in pain and he ends up writhing on the floor. The resulting mental image makes me giggle. Will's buddies pick him up and carry him out of the locker room, where he gripes some more about how unfair it is that Ken stole his life. Clearly, it's all a sinister plot against Will. If only he could enact a little revenge against Ken... I love the subtlety of the foreshadowing.
That night, Ken is stressing out over the lousy practice, especially in light of the upcoming game. The pressure is all on him! If he chokes at tomorrow's game... bad things will happen, I guess. Melissa calls, and she is ticked. This conversation is hilarious, I have to share it.
"Where were you today?"
"Huh?"
She sighed--loudly. "I said, where were you? Why didn't you meet me after practice?"
"Umm..." Meet her after practice? He searched his memory for a reference but came up completely blank. "Did we have plans?" he asked.
"No," she said. "But it's sort of a given, don't you think? Being a couple, it should be understood that we'll hang out after our practices."
Wow. Yeah, good thing she's not totally unreasonable on top of being manipulative, vindictive, and scheming. Ken makes some pathetic excuse instead of standing up for himself, and gets off the phone with her. His girlfriend is totally helping his stress levels.
Meanwhile, Will sits at home and watches some tv show about the world's most dangerous tackles, watching football players get seriously injured again and again. You'd think he'd have enough of that in real life, but apparently wallowing is good, too. He's still angry, and wishes it was Ken getting piled under all those tackles, never to play football again. Seriously, he thinks it would only be fair if Ken had a career-ending injury. I think this is where we cross the line from obsessive into the realm of insanity.
At school, Ken is still stressing. He sees Maria heading for him, looking concerned, and for a moment he thinks she might say something that would help him feel better, the way she used to when they were dating. But Melissa pops up just then, and Maria flees the scene. Melissa starts freaking out on Ken about the game, talking about how their entire future depends on this night, yadda yadda yadda. In short, not what Ken needs to be hearing, considering he's done nothing but stress over the game for the entire book. Then, in a moment of awesomeness, he DUMPS HER right there in the middle of the hallway. Oh, Ken. Do you hear the cheering? That's me, because of your awesomeness. He's surprised how good he feels about the breakup. I can sympathize. I'd feel good too if I'd just cut Melissa out of my life.
In the cafeteria, Will sits with Josh and Matt, his lackies and the quarterback's defense on the football field. The two meatheads are going on about football tactics for the upcoming big game, and Will once again goes off the deep end. He comes up with an evil scheme: Josh and Matt should leave Ken unprotected for a play, letting their quarterback get creamed. Despite their loyalty to Will, the lackeys are less than enthused about this plan; they're hoping for football scholarships too, and they don't want to look like they screwed up in front of the scouters. In his desperation, Will comes up with a solution: the two of them mess up on the snap by staying in their stances for an extra count, making it look like Ken's goof. I keep expecting the three of them to burst out into sinister cackling.
Finally, the big game rolls around. Ken gets himself pumped up, managing to get his head in the game, not bothered at all by Melissa's blatant attempts to ignore his existence. The first half of the game goes exceptionally well, and everyone is thrilled. Even Will, who knows a horrible tackle is coming up in the second half. The game commentators are praising Ken so much that even I find it annoying, in spite of his earlier awesomeness. But something they say sticks out to Will: "For most of the season Matthews cheered his team on from the bench until a knee injurty forced Simmons out and put Matthews back in as the starter. Still, it was Matthews's unwavering support as a sideliner and his loyalty to the team that earned him this year's Spirit Award. You've got to admire dedication like this." And suddenly, Will grows a conscience! When Ken couldn't play he was supportive, and now that Will's the one unable to play, he's just a big fat jerk! Now he's desperately hoping Ken won't call the play that'll get him trounced. Oddly, I'm kind of disappointed this is all it takes for Will to do a turnaround.
Predictably, Ken does call the trouncing play. And he gets trounced. Will is caught up in guilt! How could he have come up with such a fiendish scheme? Ken is down for a long time, but finally he gets up. He's okay, just winded. He'll have to sit down for the next bit and let the third-string quarterback take over the next part of the game. Ken is confused, though, as to why neither of Will's lackeys were there to cover him. They both claim he messed up on the count, but Trusty Old Todd backs Ken up, and the rest of the team is miffed to discover Josh and Matt set their quarterback up like that. A huge fight breaks out, but Will comes down to break it up! He gives Ken some advice about facing the opposing team, since he's played against them before and Ken hasn't. Yeah, that totally makes them even now. Will tries his hardest to get Ken seriously injured, but when it doesn't work, he tells him how to get the best of the opposing quarterback. Totally makes up for it.
Finally, Ken goes back out on the field, and takes Will's advice, winning the game. Hurray. Everyone is happy, and the Coach gives both Will and Ken credit for their victory. How touching.
Now that she's broken up with Ken, Melissa totally goes back to hit on Will. It only takes him a second to figure out what she's up to, and he SHOOTS HER DOWN! Twice in one day! This book is awesome, if only for the parts dealing with Melissa.
The C Plot:
Jade has decided she really likes Evan. Now that her daddy issues have been resolved, she can concentrate on flirting. But much to her dismay, Evan doesn't seem to be terribly interested. Frustrated, she goes to her girlfriends for advice, and they suggest he's afraid of getting involved with another rebound girl (her breakup with Jeremy wasn't long ago), considering his recent involvement with Jessica and Elizabeth. She decides to try showing him how she's gotten over Jeremy, but her efforts actually just convince him more than ever she's still hung up on her ex-boyfriend. (In Evan's defence, she's very clumsy about it; repeatedly changing the subject back to your ex-boyfriend, no matter how many times you mention you don't miss him, seems a little obsessive.) Finally, Jade invites him to come watch her cheer at the football game, and he agrees, but brings a couple of friends with him. And one of those friends is female! A gorgeous, flirty blonde sits with him the entire game, completely blowing Jade's concentration. (Is this blonde perchance one of the lost Wakefields?) Jade gets mad and storms out, leaving Evan totally baffled. When he goes after her, trying to figure out what her problem is, she can't believe how clueless he is. Finally, she kisses him in a desperate, last-ditch effort to show him she's not thinking about Jeremy any more. Evan grins, cuz he likes her too. And everyone has a good laugh at the hilarity of the misunderstanding.
The D Plot:
Tia is a little discouraged at how much her life has changed over the past year. She misses the old days and the old crowd. In a fit of nostalgia, she calls up Rebecca, an old friend from El Carro who ended up going to (where else?) Big Mesa instead of SVH. They catch up, and Tia winds up breaking the news that Andy's gay. Rebecca is surprised for about a millisecond, then she has a great idea. Her cousin recently came out of the closet, too! Wouldn't it be great to set the two of them up? They're both gay, so of course they'll be attracted to each other. It's not like there are other factors involved or anything. Tia thinks this is awesome, so she calls Andy, who balks at the idea of a blind date. I'm with Andy on this one; Tia hasn't even met the guy she's trying to set him up with. Tia doesn't let a little thing like Andy's refusal stop her, though, and so she and Rebecca set up a seemingly innocent group trek to the big football game, where Rebecca's cousin just happens to show up with her. Andy plays along, and the two guys get along fine, but there are no sparks, much to Tia's disappointment. Andy tells her he appreciates the thought, but next time he'd like to find his own date. Ha! I love Andy.
The E Plot:
Maria is working hard to convince everyone she's totally over Ken. Except that he still pops up in her head all the time. So she tries to keep herself incredibly busy all the time, figuring she'll have less time for thinking about her ex-boyfriend. She agrees to take on an extra article for the Oracle, since one of the writers is currently sick. But irony of ironies! The assignment she's taken on is to cover the big football game! The article has to be done, and she's already committed to writing it, so she reluctantly shows up at the game with Tia, Andy, and that crowd. Next time I suspect Maria will find out what the assignment is before promising to cover it. Also, I kind of wonder why Saint Elizabeth doesn't volunteer to take the article; she writes for the Oracle, she's there when Maria finds out what it is she'll have to write, and she's planning to show up at the game anyway. Hmm. At any rate, Maria is there to witness Ken getting flattened by the opposing team, and she panics, running down to the field to see if he's okay. She's relieved when he starts moving, and she catches his eye as the Coach helps him off the field. She feels like an idiot for her reaction after everything that's happened between them, and now has to come to terms with the fact that she still really cares about Ken.
The F Plot:
Is it just me, or do these books just get more and more fragmented? Anyway, this is more a setup for future books than a real plot, but Conner sends a rather lengthy letter to his friends, complete with apologies. He's coming home from rehab next week, and thanks them for their interference. The whole last page is about Elizabeth, about how much he misses her and how she was really good for him, even when he was at his worst. Everyone is excited about Conner's return, although Elizabeth is conflicted. She's not sure what to expect, but part of her really wants to get back together again. Oh, good. There just hasn't been enough of Elizabeth angsting over Conner in Senior Year.