Page 32 of Everything's Better With You
Joe
“It’s time to put your thinking cap on, Ms. Simmons. We’ve got work to do.”
Joe had left the meeting and immediately called Marti. She’d met him at his apartment. She took one look at his new accommodations and once more offered their spare room.
“It’s fine. It’s bigger than my Hollywood place. We have more serious things to discuss. We are going to out-fundraise the other teams and I have just the idea how to do it.”
He and Marti had been huddled around his laptop ever since, creating spreadsheets, emailing a number of useful people, and scheduling social media posts.
“Okay great! Now, we have a start. What do we have by way of a team?”
“I got the list of students from Barry and did some digging. We’ve got a solid six girls and two boys. Only two of thekids are returning. The others tried out in spring, more than half are incoming freshmen, including my son.”
“So you’re saying we need ten to twelve kids. Easy peasy. Don’t make plans for Friday night.”
Marti frowned at Joe. “What do you mean?”
“We’re going out, hon. Flyers will be open and we’re going scouting. Now—”
“Whoa, Flyers? Scouting? At the club for the college kids?”
“Yes, ma’am. I have a plan. We’re not looking for cheerleaders necessarily, Marti. You’ve seen what I can do with the untrained. I kind of got famous for it.”
No longer was Joe limited by choosing the qualified candidates for a team like he’d done for three years as captain here at Greenvale. No, he’d spent the last twelve years associated on and off with TV’s longest-running dance reality show, first as a contestant and then as a coach and choreographer. He’d learned all the styles from the best in their fields, and then he taught B-boys, ballerinas, and bebop dancers how to dance whatever style he wanted them to. The fans and producers loved him. The dancers thought he was a hard-ass. They cringed when they were assigned to work with him because they all knew how hard he pushed himself and that he pushed everyone to dance as hard as he did.
“Hold up. So you plan for us to go…dancing?”
“Is there a problem, Coach Simmons?”
She burst out laughing. “Oh, well, I don’t have a problem with it. Terrell isn’t going to like it. His mama at the club?”
“Hmmm, you’re right. Well, we can stick to the shadows. Maybe we should wear disguises.”
The two of them laughed at their options until they were out of breath. Then Marti got serious.
“Am I out of line to ask you about a certain football coach?”
Marti knew they’d kept in touch over the years, but he hadn’t come clean with her about his feelings for Leslie.
“What do you want to know?” She raised her eyebrows and he laughed. “We were going to kind of see what would happen, you know, if we were in the same place.”
“And now?”
Joe shrugged and wrinkled his nose. “The only thing happening now is that we’re going to beat him at fundraising. He’s promised not to use any of his own funds, I’ve agreed to do the same, and if I win, cheer gets Spring Fling.”
“That’s great!” she said, clapping her hands. “Remember we had it my senior year. So much fun.”
“It was. So that’s our wager. As for anything else between us…”
“I see. Okay then. Let me get to work on this list. I’ll get a few things scheduled. The rest of the kids move in Thursday and Friday and we have our first meeting with the team on Monday.”
“I’ll also recruit kids for the team through my dance classes. Also, I’m going to be teaching a PE class.”
Marti clapped her hands together again and laughed. “I love it. Joe Judd goes legit. This is epic.”
“Hush, now. I’m going to teach some alternative strength-building workouts including barre, Pilates, and light weights. If anything, it will help keepmein shape.”
“Like that’s a concern. Speaking of, what shape is your kitchen in?”
