Read Brooks Berry In The Case Of The Stolen Season Page 11

  Chapter 11 Coaching Changes and Closing Doors

  Brooks had a hard time sleeping that night. He felt he had really made headway in solving this mystery. He woke up early and flipped on his computer. He was going to see if Brad was on Instant Message so he could let him know what he had deduced last night. The homepage on his internet browser was set to the Wauwatosa News-Times site. It was the local newspaper.

  As Brooks' instant message program opened, he glanced at the headlines. KENOSHA COACH HEADED TO STATE caught his eye. It said that after last night's game Coach Russell from Kenosha had announced that this was his last season there and that he would be heading to head the football team at State College - the Porcupines.

  Brooks cut and pasted that headline into an IM and sent it to Brad. Brad had already been online for about 1/2 hour. He had been researching new workout routines to do so he could build up some more upper body strength.

  Brad was already quite strong, but he knew that he'd have to compete with the older kids in just a few years as he went to the high school level of playing football. He wanted to be ready and he really took his job seriously - much more seriously than the average 12 year old.

  The headline was a surprise to Brad. Why would someone want to go and coach there? In a way it made sense - Coach Russell had been a high school coach for quite some time now, with a pretty good record. He'd won a few state championships in his long career. But Kenosha had struggled recently.

  Now he was taking over a second rate program at a second rate school. If you grew up in this state, you wanted to go to the University, but sometimes you ended up at State College if your grades weren't very good. State College's football team - the Porcupines - never quite seemed to pull it together over the years. Streaks of solid play spoiled by subpar performances were its trademark. In fact, they hadn't beaten the University’s football team in the past 24 years. They were really the butt of more jokes than anything else. If someone got a bad grade on a test they were mocked with taunts like "Can I come visit you at State College?" To make it worse, their football team was mocked during almost every high school football game in the state. If someone fumbled it was tradition for the fans to chant "GO STATE, GO!"

  "It would be a challenge for Coach Russell to do anything with that program, but as the next step in his career it sort of made sense," thought Brad.

  Brooks was already off that topic and going crazy on the IM, rapid fire typing out the entire theory he developed last night. Brad watched his computer screen as Brooks spelled it out how Marc’s Dad – Gunther - had the access to the school's computer system and was sabotaging the season in order to get his son a scholarship. It made a lot of sense to Brad. He was a little annoyed that he hadn't been able to put that together as quickly as Brooks had. Not many people were able to put things together as Brooks could, so Brad was just happy to have him as his best friend.

  Brad typed into the IM box - "So what do we do now?" Brooks responded, "Meet me at my house in 40 minutes - bring doughnuts :)"

  Brad smiled and typed back "see you then." He logged off his computer, brushed his teeth and changed his shirt. Then he headed downstairs.

  His mom had made doughnuts of course; it was almost a family tradition. Ever since Brad was young his mom had made doughnuts every Saturday morning.

  After Brooks and Brad had become friends she had actually changed her recipe a little. She used to use animal lard in the recipe. However, since she knew that Brooks was a vegetarian, she changed her recipe to one that used a substitute. It was healthier for her family anyways, and even though she wasn't a vegetarian, she felt good about using something that wasn't the result of an animal dying. She was about 5'9" with short blond hair and remarkably thin for someone who got up at the crack of dawn and made doughnuts every Saturday morning!

  Brad grabbed 4 doughnuts and headed towards the door. "Bye mom, I'm going to Brooks' house. I'll be home by dinner." "OK Brad, be safe please." "No mom, I'm going to be dangerous. I'll probably run through traffic while dribbling a basketball,” Brad teased. His mom smiled as he walked out the door.

  When he got to Brooks' house, he rang the doorbell. Ally answered the ring. "Hi Brad. Dork is upstairs."

  Brad headed up to Brooks' room and opened his door. "Hey buddy," said Brooks when he saw Brad appear in the doorway. "What's the plan?" asked Brad.

  "What do you think of my theory?" asked Brooks. "Genius. It all makes sense - Jeff's dad giving Tosa West the advantage so his kid can get a scholarship." Brooks nodded. "There has to be 2 sides though. Tosa West must be getting the information to help them win, and then whomever Tosa East is playing must be getting the information on how to beat them. It makes sense that it's Jeff's dad - he has the motivation. Scholarships are worth a ton of money. He also has the opportunity by having access to Tosa East's building. We just need a little more information, but I think we are almost there." Brooks said with a smile.

  "This morning, we are going to TOSA SMOKE SHOP to ask about Turkish Supremes. I want to see how easy they are to get. What I am hoping is that they are very rare, and nobody buys them except for Jeff’s dad - then if we can link that to Trojan Computers - I'll know we are on the right track."

  The boys headed downstairs to eat their doughnuts and have some orange juice. Brad had a crush on Brooks’ sister Ally. He didn't mean for it to show, but it was hard to help it sometimes. "You look nice today, Ally," said Brad when she walked by. "Gross,” said Ally. Brooks nearly fell off his chair laughing - not so much at his sister's rude comment but at how crushed Brad looked after she said it and kept on walking out of the room without missing a step.

  Brooks mocked Brad with a high-pitched voice, "YOU LOOK NICE TODAY ALLY. Now...wait for it....this is how your face looked..." Brooks' contorted his face to look like someone who had just seen the worst tragedy ever.

  Brooks kept on laughing at the embarrassed Brad. Brad grabbed Brooks in a headlock and wrapped his big arms around Brooks’ small head. Brooks' muffled voice shrieked, "You win, you win!"

  Brad let the headlock go and Brooks' smiling face was now crowned with messed up hair. "Let's go, loverboy,” taunted Brooks as he got chased out of the house by Brad.

  When the boys got to TOSA SMOKE SHOP they locked up their bikes to a bike rack that was set up outside the grouping of stores. They entered the store and were immediately overwhelmed by the smell of fresh tobacco.

  There was a glassed-in room in the back of the store and a sign that said CIGARS above the door. The walls near the front of the store were lined with cigarette cartons. There was also a section for pipes and chewing tobacco. Brooks hated the smell of smoking and it almost made him sick to his stomach, but fresh tobacco had a smell that was pleasant to him.

  Brad walked up to the counter and approached the older man behind it. "Hi sir, my dad asked me to stop in and see if you sold these. He said he thought they were called Turkish Supremes." Brooks held out his iPhone so the shopkeeper could see the picture of the cigarette butt with the colorful stripes. "I know we don't sell them. Let me take a look where you might be able to get some."

  He got on his computer and typed in a few words. "Looks like he was right, they are called Turkish Supremes. The distributor's website says that the only place in the state that sells them is STATE SMOKES.

  That's over in Collegetown. Hope those smokes are worth the drive to your dad." Collegetown was where State College was, about 90 miles away. Despite the fact the school was mocked, the college city that was surrounded it was pretty neat. Lots of people doing sports outside on the weekends and Brooks had a favorite restaurant there. It was a place that made hand tossed pizzas. The pizza chef twirled the dough right at your table and there was a pizza oven at the end of the table so you could cook it yourself. His family had been there a few times as there was a lake close by where they went boating sometimes.
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  Brooks and Brad thanked the man and walked out of the store. Brooks was disappointed. He had been hoping that this would lead to a clear link to the guy with the long hair and yellow hat and somehow back to Trojan Computers. Now it just muddied the waters and made things harder.