I won’t go into all my dealings with Wheat after school but you can bet I didn’t hit her in the arm like Big Jim Guffie did to his crazy sister. She told me she hadn’t told Laurie about my crush on her and I believed her. We let it drop. We had a meet to get ready for. I didn’t even tell her about my big prom news.
I was still about a pound heavy when Ric drove us back to school after we did our homework up in our room and passed on any supper. I knew a couple of miles around the gym in a sweat suit would take at least a pound off.
At the weigh-in, we found out that our 119-pounder, Benny Goodchild, had the flu. Coach Mathews decided to jump me up to that spot on the varsity since we don’t have another wrestler at that weight. Great, I thought. All that sweating for nothing.
“You’re every bit as good as Benny,” Wheat told me.
“Yeah, but he’s only won four matches this year — and one was a forfeit,” I said.
While we warmed up, I tried to figure out who was the Adams’ 119-pounder. I finally realized he was the squatty little dude, hardly five-foot-even and built something like a fireplug. That’s usually not the kind of opponent you want in wrestling.
When Wheat looked over at him, she said, “Who shaved that little gorilla?”
“Thanks for the encouragement,” I said. And then I almost gagged. “Geez, Wheat, you got enough of that perfume on?”
“Midnight Breeze,” she said. “Just applied it. I’m sure it will tone down in a few minutes.”
She barely had a few minutes. Billy Thurston got flopped on his back in the first 20 seconds of his 103-pound match and was pinned in less than a minute. Then he headed for the drinking fountain, of course, as if he had just been through some long ordeal.
Then the Adams 112-pounder, a guy named Terry Dibbits, stared at Wheat like that big Russian guy in Creed 2 during their handshake. I don’t know if he was smelling anything at all but his own hormones, but I noticed that the official said a few words to Wheat and chuckled.
Wheat ended up having to come back from a 5-3 deficit to win in a pin late in the third period. Dibbits wouldn’t shake her hand afterwards and was escorted back to his team by the referee. There was some boos from the crowd. I looked over at my parents in the stands and Ric just shrugged before giving me a thumbs-up.
I don’t mind Ric being at meets. Mom is a different story. She knows absolutely nothing about wrestling but it doesn’t keep her from shouting out encouragements and some really dumb stuff. Lake may know more than she does. He can say “win” and “pin,” mainly for Wheat, but he has not yet added “trounced” to his vocabulary, which is probably good for me.
So it was my turn. Magilla Gorilla, real name “Something” Spenser, quickly slammed my pretty face down on the mat and then I spent the whole first period underneath him, barely avoiding a pin. But then about halfway through the second period, he seemed to hit the wall. By the third period, I was in control and actually won the match, 10-8. First — and maybe last — varsity win.
Wheat grabbed me when I came off the mat and gave me a big hug and then the rest of the team sort of enveloped me. Nice feeling. When we broke, I could hear my mom yelling my name and I noticed that I smelled a little like Midnight Breeze myself after Wheat’s embrace.
I knew my left eye was stinging from the first-period takedown and by the time I got home, I saw I had the makings of a pretty impressive black eye.
“You not only win but now you get to look tough as well,” Wheat giggled.
Mom was all upset by it but Ric thought it was pretty neat, too. I think they had a few words later about their differences of opinion. Truthfully, I was just glad that Magilla Gorilla hadn’t broken my nose when he took me down. A black eye was fine with me. I guess it showed that I was doing something.
Later when Wheat and I got in bed, I asked again about her perfume. “I used enough, I guess, because the official smelled it,” she said. “He thought that was funny. But Dibbits, he didn’t say anything. He can’t stand losing to me. I can understand that to a point. I’ve barely beaten him twice so far this year. But not shaking hands, that’s pretty bad.
“Ric said he saw Dibbits’ dad really getting on him out in the hallway — not about the poor sportsmanship but about losing to a girl,” she continued. “I feel a little sorry for him. ”
I didn’t. I know what it’s like getting beat by a girl, too, and all you can do is suck it up and not worry about it if you did your best. I started to tell Wheat about Laurie asking me to the prom but she seemed like she was done talking. That was OK with me. I didn’t think she would mind, but I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t completely figured out girls yet, Wheat included.
CHAPTER 5
Next morning in Big Jim’s car, Sally looked back at me and said, “Nice shiner, little man. Did Kelly Carson give you that?”
“He got it wrestling which