Afterwards she gave me a hug as I choked back my tears. I dropped Zoe off at her class and then headed to my Algebra Two class.My heart leapt out of m...y chest when I saw Peyton sitting at her desk when we got to class. I knew if there was going to be a confrontation, it would be now, because I sat right next to her in class. We were either going to talk, or her silence would signal her ultimate rejection of me.I sat down at my seat and looked over at Peyton. She was looking away from me. Her. After most practices, I showered and changed, and met up with Roxanne. She was taking minimum classes to be able to be with me as much as possible.Two weeks later, official Wildcat practices began in earnest. There were 19 guys in total working for 13 roster spots.Our 13-roster team from the previous year was down to 11, one guy left for a family death, and we had one Wildcat get on the Washington Wizard’s Practice squad. I think it pays, but not much!With classes in place, we practiced four. A man sitting behind a desk, stood up as I entered and walked over to me and took my hand. "Welcome to my farm. I hope you will be happy here. You are very lovely and I'm sure you are going to be very popular. What would you like to do first, shower, walk around the farm, or have something to eat? You are just in time for lunch."I realized that I was actually starving. I had been to tense to eat the food on the airplane, and hadn't had anything since. He took me to the mess hall that I had seen. ‘Two things made me give it up. First, our team disbanded when they didn’t need us anymore. I ended up in the motor pool. You have to understand I was a trained killer, my mind thought differently. The second reason was my mom died and I went home for the funeral. I had one year left to serve when I returned after the funeral. I spent it in the States.’ ‘I remember your mom’s funeral. I’m so sorry, she was a wonderful lady.’ ‘Thanks for coming to the services Joe. Even though we didn’t talk.