Chapter 108: The Mom Squad

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That kind of run did something to a crowd.

It was too simple to explain away and too violent to ignore. Nolan came out of the wreckage with the ball tucked tight, sideline players sprinting along the boundary as if they could push him forward by screaming.

The last defender left was a safety.

He crouched low, quick feet chopping into the turf, but fear had already entered his body. Nolan could see it in the angle of his shoulders.

The result was decided before contact.

“Move,” Nolan growled.

He turned his shoulder through the safety and sent the boy skidding backward onto the grass.

Then he walked into the end zone.

The ball dropped from his hand.

The sideline exploded around him.

“That is the signature Barbarian Collision!” the announcer shouted over the noise. “That is the T-Rex showing the whole building his teeth!”

Even Leo jumped from his seat.

He did not understand every football rule. He did not fully appreciate the precision of Nolan’s passing. But this, he understood. A man carrying half a defense downfield was a language too old and too clear to need explanation.

He shouted until his face went red.

He was not alone. The student section was losing its mind. Sarah beat the air with her pom-poms. Charlize roared without caring who saw. Katherine could not find anything to hold, so she simply stamped her feet and laughed.

The sound took nearly half a minute to settle.

Nolan had spent most of the game refusing to be baited into hero football. When he finally chose violence, he ignited the field.

It also marked another shift in the Normans’ offense.

Like rock, paper, scissors, Nolan kept finding the shape that beat whatever an opponent showed him. Targeted play-calling, stronger teammates, a defensive unit led by Alberto, and a quarterback who could pass cleanly or become the central weapon himself: all of it combined into something Bishop Gorman could not answer.

Beverly Hills pulled away in the fourth quarter and finished the Nevada power without needing another miracle ending.

The previous big game had announced Nolan’s individual style.

This one announced that the team around him had caught up.

That difference showed in the postgame interviews. Reporters did not only circle Nolan anymore. Flea, Cooper, Monster, Alberto, Mont, and Coach Thomas all drew cameras and microphones.

“I watched Nolan come onto this team,” Flea said, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. “He started at wide receiver. First practice I ran routes with him, I knew he was going to be special.”

Cooper corrected his own story with visible seriousness. “I had just come back to the team when I met him. The handshake almost crushed my hand, yeah, but I need to be clear: I was not at my best that day.”

Monster leaned toward the microphone and tapped his temple. “Strength, technique, body, sure. But the real scary part is in here. He sees it before you see it. By the time you feel safe, he already moved the board.”

Alberto was less cooperative.

“Can we skip the questions about teammates’ mothers?” he asked, palms up. “What station are you with? Why are you asking me that?”

There were some subjects he had no desire to touch. His own arrival at BHHS had more family complications behind it than most people knew.

Coach Thomas faced the cameras too.

“The camp?” He gave a helpless little laugh. “That was Nolan. I asked him to share how he trained, and he turned it into something bigger than I expected. He connected the people, found the money, made the schedule work. Some days I feel like I am winning from the couch.”

After the teammates and coaches came Nolan.

Penny Webb, old friend of the program and current face of the Prime Ticket package, reached him first.

“First question,” she said, microphone raised. “How much of tonight’s result came from the training camp?”

It was exactly the kind of question they had arranged beforehand. Mention the camp. Lead the audience toward the documentary. Let curiosity do the work.

Nolan played his part.

“A lot of the details will be in Thirty Days with the Normans,” he said. “But yes, the camp mattered. We got stronger. We got closer. We stopped playing like a team waiting for one player to save it.”

Penny nodded, then sharpened her smile. “Coach Thomas just said you pushed the camp from start to finish. Did you create it because you were unhappy with your teammates?”

Nolan’s expression did not change.

“No. I have never been unhappy with anyone willing to step onto the field with me. Once the game starts, we are brothers-in-arms. We fight together.”

His hand rested briefly at the small of Penny’s back where the camera could not see.

Her smile tightened by a fraction.

She understood the message. There would be payment later, in private, inside the dangerous little rules she had chosen to keep playing.

The Los Angeles Times wanted a full-team feature next. Nolan agreed. A male sports reporter from CBS-2 tried to get a few extra quotes, but Nolan kept those answers short. He was in the middle of a Fox Sports honeymoon, and he had no reason to hand a rival network his best lines for free.

Before entering the tunnel, Nolan spotted the women waiting near the exit and told them to meet him outside.

Inside the locker room, the celebration looked too wild even for a win.

“The road just opened!” someone shouted.

Nolan asked, and the answer came from half the room at once.

In a regional showcase game running at the same time, Del Sol Prep, the top seed on the West Coast side of the race, had stumbled badly enough to fall out of the national-bowl picture and turn its focus back to California postseason play.

That meant one of the biggest obstacles to a national slot had vanished.

Coach Thomas came in a few minutes later and pulled Nolan aside.

“I just spoke with Murphy. BHHS moved to the second-shortest odds.”

“Someone is still ahead of us?”

“Desert Ridge Catholic. Arizona powerhouse. They won the big showcase two years ago in this circuit, and people think this roster is even better.”

Arizona was not California or Texas when it came to football culture, but a private school that gathered enough regional talent could become its own strange machine. Desert Ridge had done exactly that.

“Different half of the bracket,” Thomas added. “We do not see them next.”

“Who is next?”

“St. Louis School in Honolulu.”

That made several players turn.

Hawaii.

The school would cover flights and lodging for the team. St. Louis was a strong local program with pride and discipline, but the odds now ranked BHHS ahead of them.

Nolan’s mind moved immediately.

Mia and Katherine could come. Lisa might make time, and if Lisa came, Susan might follow. Charlize would beg if she heard about it. Penny would travel with the broadcast crew. The cheer squad would be there. Jennifer might be willing if the invitation was framed carefully, appropriate for a classmate and harmless.

It could become a real trip.

If the women got along, it might also be the right place to test the edges of his strange family arrangement. Not the crude fantasy outsiders would imagine. Something older in spirit, more private, and more difficult to keep balanced.

If it failed, they could win the game and fly home.

Two preparations. One chance.

…

After showering and changing, Nolan stepped out of the tunnel and found the group waiting.

Mia, Lisa, Susan, Katherine, Charlize.

And, unexpectedly, Leo with Irmelin.

“Nolan, you were incredible out there,” Irmelin said.

“He is talented and works hard,” Leo cut in quickly. “Of course he is good.”

He was much more sensitive than Rice. He had noticed, almost instantly, that his mother was paying Nolan too much attention.

That made him decide, with great seriousness, that he should never bring her to see Nolan again.

“You two are about the same age,” Lisa said, cheerful and dangerous. “You met by coincidence, but you should keep in touch.”

“Exactly,” Irmelin said. “Leo is always around young actors who are half trouble. It would be good for him to spend time with someone still connected to school.”

Then she turned to Mia. “Nolan’s mother, right? You are beautiful. Where do you work?”

Mia answered politely, and somehow the conversation moved from children to schedules to Los Angeles traffic to the strange difficulty of raising sons with too much ambition.

“We should meet outside games,” Irmelin said.

“Of course,” Mia said. “Lisa, you should come too.”

“If work allows,” Lisa said. “What do we call this? The BHHS Mom Squad?”

Irmelin clapped once. “Perfect.”

Nolan’s eyebrow twitched.

Leo’s face looked as if he wanted to disappear through the concrete.

That was when Nolan saw a familiar figure slipping away at the edge of the crowd.

Jennifer Love Hewitt.

He went after her.

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I hope this chapter drew you further into the story. Stick around, because there’s still a lot waiting just ahead.