Mayhem in a PillChapter 58 Hiccups are Unexpected
- 3 years ago
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The coin flip at the start of the game was interesting. The Churchill Chargers sent their entire offensive line to the fifty-yard line to meet the captains for the Roosevelt Rough Riders. The five young men were not precisely marching, but it looked as if they walked in perfect step with each other. It wasn’t with the same timing as a military march, but the center would take action, then the guards on either side would step, followed by the tackles on the outside. It was almost hypnotic.
Frank Robinson, the starting middle linebacker and senior captain of the Rough Riders defense, saw this before he and his group began to walk up to meet them. He turned quickly and yelled down the sideline toward where Tim was, away from everyone else, deep in his thoughts about the upcoming game. “Mayhem! Mayhem!”
Tim didn’t hear the initial yelling of his name, but he did hear the fifteen-to-twenty other teammates and support staff yelling at him and pointing at Frank. Tim took his queue and jogged up, carrying his helmet, to join the captains before they walked to mid-field.
“Hey, check it out! They are using their whole o-line as captain. They wanna try playing mind games, well then, we can play. The way you’ve been playing this year and especially after what you said in the locker room before the game, well tonight, you’re damn sure a captain, too!” Frank exclaimed, and Troy Williams, the starting quarterback and offensive captain, just smiled, nodded, and slid his helmet atop his head. The three walked up to greet the opposing team.
“Gentlemen, it is my and my fellow officials’ privilege to serve in that capacity for tonight’s game. We wish you both the best of luck and that everyone on both teams gets to go home safely tonight, without any injuries. Now, I am the referee. I am going to try to do my job to the best of my abilities. This ultimately involves me controlling everyone and everything on this field. To help make my job and your jobs easier, I urge you, as captains, to take responsibility of your teams. If you listen to what I and the other officials say and your teammates listen to what you say, then we should have no problems. Sound fair? Any questions? None? Good.
“Churchill, you are the away team for tonight’s game – you call it in the air.” The referee flipped the coin high into the air, and both sides backed up so as not to have the coin hit them and cause embarrassment.
“Heads,” one of the Chargers called aloud.
“Heads it is. Rough Riders, which way do you want to kick?” the referee asked Troy. He then shuffled to face away from the large clubhouse on the northern side of the stadium and out toward a large swath of open land. There was plenty of room for the stadium to expand if ever necessary in the future.
Without saying anything, Frank and Troy started shifting to the side and looking toward the scoreboard at the other end of the field. “Excellent, men. Let’s play a game of the greatest sport ever! Shake hands, and let’s get started.”
The shaking of hands was usually a precursor to the attitudes of both teams for the game. Luckily, this meeting between the two sets of captains was professional and down to business.
After the final handshake, the center spoke up before turning to leave the field. “Mayhem, we have been looking forward to this all season. We can’t wait to be the first team to embarrass you. Hope you don’t break under the pressure.” There were four separate audible snickers under their breaths.
“Pressure. What pressure? You guys been playing together for what ... six or maybe like, seven years, and this is like the biggest game of your high school lives. I’m just a freshman playing in only my eighth-ever game of football. I hope I don’t embarrass y’all too much,” Tim taunted the five Charger players while snapping on his chin strap. The referee didn’t say anything, but he was wearing a big smile when he blew the whistle to end the coin toss ceremony.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about. Let’s go, fellas,” Frank added to his fellow captains as they returned to the sideline and the kickoff team took the field.
Juan Cano quickly booted the kickoff beyond the end zone, giving the Chargers the ball on their twenty-yard line.
For their first offensive play, the Chargers’ game plan was to lean on their excellent offensive line and give the newly-promoted JV skill position starters a chance to prove themselves against the highly-touted Roosevelt defense. The coaches developed a game plan for their new quarterback, running backs, and receivers which invoked simple alignments and schemes to give the new players a fighting chance.
The offense’s favorite play was a screen pass to the underside, away from the most blockers. In essence, the team put their wide receivers and tight end on their right side, opposite from Tim’s normal defensive-end position. This pre-snap positioning dictates the strength of the offense to be on their right side of the defense’s left side. Hopefully, with the offense moving more players to one side, the idea is to trick the defense away from the play.
The offense would flow with everyone blocking to the overloaded side, but this would be a diversion. If correctly done, the defense would naturally flow with the blocks, over-extending themselves away from where the actual play was heading. The running back could sneak out to the other side and catch the ball with plenty of open space to use his considerable athleticism to gain at least a first down. It is a simple misdirection play, ideal for a younger running back newly off the freshman football team.
Just before the snap of the ball, Tim noticed the running back’s left foot pointing slightly more toward the left. It was subtle, but it was true. Tim smiled to himself.
There are clues that defenders use to attempt to identify the tendencies of the players they are facing. There are some indications and intimations to read and react, even if these still-growing high school football players are usually already larger-than-normal humans. Subtlety is not a phrase generally used with these young men, but it is there. The amount of pressure a lineman puts on their hand in a three-point stance is a quick tip-off to what he will do. If their knuckles turn white, they’re leaning forward onto their extended hands and more than likely coming out at you straight away. If the color is normal, they are either straight pass-blocking or pulling – moving behind the line to block for a running back.
In a two-point stance, the lineman will sit back on his heels. They usually have better posture when they are pass-blocking or pulling. These offensive linemen are bigger than average fellows and, consequently, tend to look for as much rest as possible. It is in a big guys’ nature.
Another clue to what the offensive line will do is to watch how he is lined up compared to other blockers. If the offensive lineman lines up behind the other blocker’s heels on both his right and left, he is probably pulling and unconsciously creating space to do so.
A well-coached and disciplined lineman will not give you many hints before the snap. However, even the best and most disciplined will unconsciously give away their next move as they get tired or psychologically defeated.
Tells are best showcased while watching a lineman’s shoulders. Before the snap, see if his shoulders point inward or outward (from the center). If they are inward, then he is down-blocking you or the man inside of you. Then you can get your hands on him and take a hard step towards the ball. If the shoulders are pointed outward towards the sideline, he’ll reach for you or pull you to the outside. If he reaches, use a push-pull technique to get on his outside. If he pulls, follow the man and react to what you see. If his back is slightly bent backward and shoulders widened, then he may be pass-blocking.
You can find another clue by watching where the linemen look. Offensive linemen learn to look straight ahead when they get to the line, so they don’t accidentally let the defense know where they are going. However, some linemen tend to look at who they are blocking as they approach the line of scrimmage. If you realize your lineman does this, you have an advantage over him on every play.
If the player is bright, he will learn to fake all of these tells and get the competition guessing and unsure of themselves on every snap.
On the snap of the ball, the Charger offensive line did an admirable job pushing the defensive line to the right, just as designed. Rather than get pulled into the flow of the play, though, Tim did not immediately attack. Instead, he took a step back and began to float to his right. He then concentrated on the running back, who was coming out of the backfield. The offensive line continued concerning themselves with forcing the defense away from the play.
Being a nervous sophomore on his first varsity start, the new Chargers’ quarterback blindly threw the ball to the area where his running back should have been. The quarterback would never admit it to anyone, but he was frightened of being squashed by a tidal wave of pissed-off Rough Riders.
Meanwhile, his offensive line had successfully moved everyone away from the play, and they were quickly giving up ground and in danger of losing containment. Of course, the quarterback had seen the film of past games and read everything the other teams had said after playing the Rough Riders. Yet, even being afraid of getting hit, something that came with the job, he feared looking foolish more. If he could get the offense going, then he’d look like a hero, even in defeat. He just wanted to look good, and he would get better.
The interception was easy.
The Chargers running back turned his head and saw the ball take a seemingly meteoric route from somewhere behind the line of scrimmage toward where he was going to be. If he had been alone, it would have been a beautiful play for the Chargers. The running back was not alone, though, and the one player each Charger offensive player was well aware of also saw the ball coming down. The Rough Rider was in the best position to catch the ball.
The running back understood he would not be able to get to the ball before Mayhem, so he set up to do the only thing he could to make sure the interception went no further. He got himself tangled in Tim’s legs before he could start running for the end zone. With one play, the vaunted Roosevelt defense got the best of the Churchill offense – not by attacking and destroying the offensive blocking scheme, but by stepping back and waiting for the offense to make their first mistake.
The celebrating was loud and effusive, but the Roosevelt offense quickly took to the field. Using a play from Big John’s older playbook, they put the first touchdown on the board using a simple toss off the left side to senior running back Jimmy Holmes. The following extra point lifted the Rough Riders to a 7-0 lead.
Juan Cano, once again, put the kickoff out the back of the end zone. The Chargers got the ball for their second offensive series, again from their twenty-yard line.
They had already thrown their new, young players into the deep end of the pool and a stupid mistake from their young quarterback forced them to retry their strategy. The Churchill coaches decided to simplify their game plans even further for the younger players. They would rely on their superior offensive line to punch some holes in the Rough Rider defense. An inside trap play in the middle of the offensive line was to be the next test. If the o-line could push open a hole for the running game, maybe the Chargers could grind out a few first downs and possibly even some points. Maybe.
According to the recruiting experts, at six feet, four inches tall, and weighing just under three hundred pounds, the Churchill senior left tackle Garrett Williams had the highest upside of the five well-recruited offensive linemen. He was a four-star-rated recruit with offers from all the large football schools across the country. His technique was not perfect, but his superior strength and long reach helped him against everyone he had faced, so far, across the line of scrimmage.
The senior left tackle had earned himself a reputation for playing angry. He never did anything illegal, but his reputation was to play until he heard the whistle indicating the end of the play. Williams’ highlight reel featured many blocks of poor defensive linemen getting abused yards away, play after play. His highlights focused on the multitude of pancake blocks. A pancake block is an apt description – simply knock the opposing player to the ground, then squash him flat by just laying atop him until the whistle blew.
The highlights often featured Williams smiling as he rammed his forearm into the helmeted face of the pancaked defender, attempting to drive his head into the ground. Williams would frequently giggle when jogging back to the huddle and rejoining his team.
Like Tim, Garrett Williams would also taunt the defense. It was all psychological games on Williams’ part. Throughout the highlight reel, the defenders regularly tried to regain their pride, wanting payback, by going outside the rules and attempting fighting or dirty plays. Williams would knock him to the floor again and complete another pancake block. He was known to add insult to injury by loudly calling out after a pancake block, “Damn, all outta syrup. Best bring some more!” That particular taunt started many fights.
The quarterback had successfully convinced himself the interception was a fluke and just his nerves getting the better of him. He was now ready to play and was not worrying about what might or might not happen to him. “Set. Hut!”
Tim lined up in his usual end position, once again across from Garrett Williams. Neither had, as of yet, had a chance to test each other. The right guard pulled out of his stance on the first down snap and made a mad dash to attack Jeff Smith, the senior defensive tackle just inside of Tim’s position on the outer edge. Jeff was ready for the oncoming block and held his ground, keeping his eyes up and watching what the quarterback was going to do.
The offense lined up in their normal positions but with two tight ends on the right-hand side. One tight end was outside the right tackle, and the other tight end set up behind the line of scrimmage, in a fullback position, between the running back and the quarterback.
The right guard and tackle, rather than attacking the two defenders directly in front of them, stepped back and fired out to the opposite side of the offensive line. The right guard aimed himself at Jeff Smith, who had trouble with the left guard as the two linemen fought for dominant positioning. Jeff kept his attention on the backfield and was looking for where the football was going. The left guard was doing an excellent job against Jeff, slowly moving him out of the way.
Jeff instinctively knew the play was aimed at his defensive area – Jeff’s defensive tackle position was the focus of the inner offensive line. The guards were quickly getting leverage on Jeff, and he could feel himself being shoved out of his position. That was when he saw the quarterback hand the ball off to the running back, who was now ready to shoot through the hole in the defense his body used to occupy. That was when the right guard collided with him and, with a solid blow, was able to move Jeff Smith out of position to make the tackle with the other guard.
On the snap, Tim, using his considerable speed, fired out and made first contact with the left tackle, Williams. Seeing examples of Tim’s speed on film was one thing; encountering it on the field, though, was an entirely different experience. Even if he could react quick enough to block against Tim’s initial speed attack, the strength of Tim’s next move set would still throw the offensive lineman for a loop.
He could get the offensive lineman off balance and beat any attempted block by moving faster and hitting harder than they could have prepared themselves. Tim was pleasantly surprised to find this left tackle reacting just quickly enough to counter for Tim’s speed off the snap, so Tim put a little bit more effort into fighting off Williams’ extended arms.
Tim noticed Jeff bracketed in a combo block by both offensive guards. He also simultaneously saw the quarterback and running back hand-off. Tim knew the defense now had a massive hole in the line, and the Chargers were going to run right through it.
Tim grabbed Williams’ extended arm by the wrist, and instead of pushing it off of him, he pulled the arm violently with him as he stepped down hard to spin himself around. Tim let go of the arm in mid-spin and felt Williams’ continued falling momentum, leaving him off balance. Tim then caught onto Williams’ shoulder and pushed it down to the ground to help continue his fall.
With his swim move complete, Tim looked for the running back but could not see him right away. That was when he felt a perfectly-timed block from the right tackle who had pulled right after the right guard. His target was Tim on the end of the line of scrimmage. The bulldozing offensive tackle perfectly timed his hit when Tim’s arm was still pulling Williams off-balance and made complete contact on his torso. The Charger offensive line used the right guard and tackle to attack Jeff on the inside and Tim outside and open a hole behind them. Tim now felt himself being pushed out of the hole the Charger offense had worked so hard to open.
Using a burst of strength, Tim kept himself from being knocked down and spotted the running back about to burst through the now-open hole in the defensive line. Tim punched the rampaging offensive tackle smack in the middle of his chest to push him off. Tim could see the Charger tackle desperately gasping for breath. He was able to get his balance again and had a clear shot at the scat-back running back as he ran to the formerly wide-open hole. To the runner’s respect, he was able to avoid a clean hit from Tim but was not able to break out from his grasp, taken down for a hard-fought two-yard gain.
One by one, players from both sides slowly peeled themselves up off the field after the whistles signaled the end of the play and made their separate ways to their huddles. The difference in attitudes was readily apparent. Gone was the vitriolic trash talk usually hurled at one another, replaced by an instant appreciation between the competitors.
“Okay! Okay! Huddle up,” the Chargers’ center called for his teammates to get ready for the next play.
The majority of the Churchill offensive line took a little longer to get into a huddle than usual. The center didn’t appreciate their outward show of weakness. “What the fuck, guys! Let’s go huddle up!” He yelled at the others, who slowly jogged into their proper positions in the huddle. “You guys are acting like you’ve played a whole game already. What the fuck?”
Everyone in the huddle could hear the right tackle gasping to recover his breath. They could also see he was heavily leaning on a couple of teammates. Their concerns grew, but he quickly regained his breath by taking full advantage of the lull in the action. He eventually set himself up for the next play right before the quarterback rejoined the huddle.
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Rodney Valentine’s throat was sore from his screaming. His knuckles were scratched and bruised from pounding on that poor, unsuspecting asshole who didn’t know any better. Rodney was especially pissed because no one could figure out why he was so pissed off in the first place. Valentine and his posse of teammates arrived at the house party a little bit later than everyone else, as usual. It was an unwritten rule that the host of the party would have the game highlights from that weekend’s...
Tim, Troy, Rob, Frank, and Jeff were quiet most of the way on the drive to the address included with their multi-colored cards found in their lockers after the beating the Rough Riders had given to the Johnson Jaguars. The five young men crammed into Jeff’s GTO were mostly quiet, daydreaming about the story Troy had told them. “I think I know what this is. You guys feel like having an experience?” Troy asked with a strange, tilted smile. “My dad told me a story that he said I could never...
A Messy Situation Once Tim Murphy closed his bedroom door and turned on the bedroom lamp, he blew a quick kiss to his one-and-only Cindy, taped up on the wall, and collapsed on the bed with the biggest smile of his life. Tim was quietly reliving what had happened to him after the game. When he laughed to himself, he realized he didn’t even think about the game when the great time he had that night ran through his mind. The quiet knock on the bedroom door alerted him to the here and now. The...
Tim Murphy and the nanites in his body had already written the two reports – one for his English class and the other for his US History class. It was just a matter of typing and formatting the report in the proper sets. All in all, the two assignments only took a few minutes to type, save, and email to their respective teachers. When he sent his English paper, he had a flash of remembrance of his short relationship with his English teacher, Julianne Holmes, considered one of the hot teachers...
The week of practice started with a few announcements from Big John on Monday morning. Big John had canceled morning practice with a sign written on the giant dry erase board along the long wall in the locker room. He didn’t cancel all practice, but it would be just no helmets or pads. That meant a full hour of lifting weights rather than working out on the practice fields in full pads – a day off for sure. Before practice would have typically begun, the Roosevelt football teams met in the...
Going into downtown San Antonio for evening dinner was rare for the Murphy family. Of course, they went out to dinner occasionally but not very far from their neighborhood. Raymond had ordered the women in his life to a day of indulgence at their favorite beauty spa to get pampered and eventually have their makeup done. While the womenfolk were enjoying their day of pampering, the men folk went to fill a glaring hole in the younger Murphy man’s life: the lack of a nice suit. Tim had never...
As they did so often, the Murphy family sang along with the music on the radio. The Murphy parents both enjoyed all genres and encouraged their children to listen to all types of music. Juanita had her favorites and listened to them with the specialized music channels through the cable provider. She preferred the popular hits from the 1980s and 1990s, while Raymond also preferred that and rock music from the 1970s. The patriarch of the family steered into a parking lot nearby the...
The next day was moving day. I've heard how being out on tour with an entertainer can seem a little like riding a tornado without a safety belt but you couldn't tell that by me. I've heard how some tours play twenty cities in twenty days but that isn't how things are done in Ireland. Time seems less important and venues aren't always open when you want them to be. We were doing 25 shows in three months and that included a two-week break in the middle to "relax." Not exactly an arduous...
The next few weeks were just plain work. It probably seems like touring with a popular band would be great fun and endless adventure but mostly it was a lot like combat: endless hours of boredom interrupted by moments of shear terror. Well, terror is probably a bit of an overstatement, maybe agitation and concern would be more appropriate. Anytime the girls were heading into a large crowd there was a concern; happily we hadn't had anything like the clusterfuck we'd seen in Clonakilty but...
-Tech City Spire- With 4 days left until the auction, things had been quickly ramping up in the city. More and more powerful cultivators were entering the city and with that influx was the increase of people taking advantage of the cities services. Namely, a lot of people were trying their hand at the Spire or at the Arena. On this day, James had been busy trying to ascend to the 22nd level of the tower when he got a coms from Jasmine. “James, it would appear that a new contender has...
“Oh, my God,” he moaned. “It’s so big!” Writhing, Michael twisted his hips, adjusted the curve of his spine, drew his knees closer together and then spread them farther apart. Nothing helped. The monster up his ass had his breathing labored, his heart pounding against his rib cage. “Fuck, David! Why’d I let you talk me into this?” Laughing, David patted his shoulder. “Relax. I told you you’d like it. And you’re done now.” Michael gazed up at him, disbelieving. “It doesn’t feel done! The...
Super-Woman's Escape Challenge THE TRAP At the police station "I am sorry Super-Woman, we can't still send Belinda into prison, we don't have enough proofs yet" "But captain I know for sure she robbed the bank, I just couldn't catch her. I almost got her in the middle of the robbery. Damn!! This is so frustrating!" Then another policeman came into the office with a smile on his face holding a poster and showing it to them: "I guess being a super-heroine is not enough well-paid and so you need...
Kelly looked at the ninety nine keys in the box. If she went through with this, there would be a hundred, and she would be confined until she found the right one with which to release herIf she carried this through, she would put the last key in the box, and then deliberately knock the box to the floor, scattering the keys everywhere, no knowledge of which was her key, or in which direction it had gone. It would be her severest challenge, and one no-one could help her with. She had been into...
The Ultimate Spells-R-Us Combat Challenge by Mr. Duck The Spells-R-Us Universe, was, of course, created by Bill Hart. This story may be posted on any site as long as you don't make money of it or alter it in any way. ************************************** "Dude, you are the worst driver I have ever seen." "Shut up, man. Just cause I look where I'm going." "It was still yellow! You're not gonna get pulled over if it's still yellow. The cops go through it when it's...
Quite likely just about every guy has at some point or other thought about eating or at least tasting his own cum, but a good many never have. If they are honest about it, most guys out there find it a turn on to fantasize about being made to eat their own cum or perhaps even the semen of another guy under the right set of circumstances. If that describes you, then this task is something you might enjoy. Especially you guys who do enjoy fantasizing about cum eating but who wouldn’t dare to ever...
Preface For almost a century no one was able to overcome it. Many remarkable men had been beaten at some point by the ultimate sex contest: The Challenge. In a remote southern China village, you could find Yuan, the last shrine of the Xing jiao (the act of sex) cult, ancient creed based on the practice of sex. Its masters were considered authorities and were politically influent. Worshipped by roughly 100,000 devotees, lived a life of sexual plenitude since it was stated that followers had to...
SupernaturalFeb 12, 2011 10:24 Am You were supposed to have checked out of the hotel by 11 am. The bags were packed but you had needs that must be tended to before leaving. A long flight awaited you at the airport and knowing you couldn't stand to be this horny all the way home you decided to take matters into your own hands one more time before leaving. I had been given the key to your room from the hotel manger. This was a room that was scheduled for remodeling and my contracting firm was putting in a...
A by product of time travel that no one knew about was the momentary blindness and nausea brought on from the rapid assault to your senses immediately after travel. But for some reason only on your return. When he re-materialized in the time travel chamber, Tim Murphy needed to shield his eyes from the suddenly ultra bright lights. He also needed to make a concerted effort to control his nausea. Nausea controlled and his sensitivity to light diminishing, Tim decided it was time to see how...
The drive to the hospital was uneventful and easy enough. Tim’s mother, Juanita, parked the family SUV in a General’s parking spot, right outside the front entrance to the emergency room. Tim’s father, Raymond, who was standing just inside the ER doors, knew from the frantic sound of his wife’s voice on the phone that she would not obey the parking rules and would take the first available space she found. Raymond quickly reached the SUV before Juanita could turn off the engine. He stuck his...
Summer two-a-day practices are a rite of passage for the Texas high school football player. The players arrived at their new high school, two weeks before the start of the new school year. Sure, they were only going to the football locker room, the football practice fields and also the weight room; but the psychological advantage of being able to GO to high school, earlier, was a definite positive feeling for the young soon to be high schooler. Freshmen did not have their own cars ... yet....
To say Tim was excited, would be a major understatement. “It was sooo cool, Mom,” Tim was almost jumping up and down in the front seat of the SUV while his mother was driving them home. “I was sitting there reading, and the librarian came up to me. I didn’t even hear her, as I was paying attention to what I was reading. She actually scared me when she touched my shoulder to get my attention. Standing with her was Coach Barrett, her husband. He’d come all the way to the library to just meet...
The lights turned on in the cell at half past six, every morning since Tim got back from his trip to the past. About a week after returning from the past, his nanites confirmed his hypothesis that no one he had met, yet, had any nanites of their own. Tim theorized to himself the interrogators did not have any nanite improvements since they constantly made mistakes in their questioning and also in their answers to his questions. Oh, they answered the questions as he believed they would but...
A good hundred or so young men full of testosterone and desperate to show they were not afraid, were indeed afraid. Afraid of not fitting in. Afraid of being shown they were not good enough to make it on the freshman football team. Afraid they were good enough to make it on the freshman football team. Afraid of the high school girls. Afraid of the high school guys. Afraid of the work their new teachers were preparing to pile on them. Afraid they would not be able to finish the work their new...
With the day’s drama complete after finishing with their equipment, they began leaving the locker area to try and enjoy their final day of relaxation before the two-a-days started. Tim and his friends crossed a very busy Walzem Road, right in front of the high school. Walzem Road’s three lanes headed northeast and three lanes going southwest were divided by a median island running the length of the high school. Once beyond the high school, the divider island changed into a turning lane....
The tacos were just great. Tim was still not doing anything to jeopardize the loss of the twice-a-week breakfast tacos treats. George was still bringing in the savory, artery-clogging breakfast tacos from everyone's favorite family restaurant. In fact, George was now adding an extra taco, since he understood the body's instant response once it smelled one of Yolanda's tacos. Whether breakfast tacos dripping in the grease of the Mexican sausage and fluffy egg combination, or the...
First day of school for both Murphy kids saw a return of a family tradition: Mom fixed a full breakfast for everyone. Pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, fruits and all kinds of baked goods. She generally cooks for the family, then the mothers from the neighborhood carpool come and enjoy a wonderful meal at their own pace. There were usually a few empty bottles of wine in the trash when the kids returned home from the first day of school. Rumor has it the same carpoolers also got together toward...