Hat-fields and McCoys

[I didn't get a blog post up last week. School and homework are sucking up more of my free time than I anticipated, and I'm still working on recalibrating how I spend my time to make sure blogging doesn't fall by the wayside. To make up for my slacking, and in anticipation of this weekend's "Holy War" matchup (last one for a few years--you'd better win it, Cougars!), here's a piece I wrote for my creative writing class. The assignment was to write about someone rebelling against something. I'm still a newbie when it comes to fiction writing, and the ending is a little sloppy because I ran out of time and had to get it turned in, but the story is certainly not without it's merits.]

            Josh walked past the storefront for the third time, still unable to actually cross the threshold. He found a nearby bench and sat down, hoping to steel his resolve by the time he had finished his Orange Julius.

            It shouldn’t be this hard, he thought. It’s just a hat. People buy hats at the mall every day—this shouldn’t be the scary part. No, the scary part would be the reactions of his father and brothers when they learned Josh had brought a BYU hat into their home.

            The four oldest men in the Bateman home were obsessed with University of Utah sports, especially the football and basketball teams. Josh’s father was always going on about Mike McCoy, Scott Mitchell, and Keith Van Horn; his three older brothers spoke of Alex Smith, Andrew Bogut, and Eric Weddle in reverential tones.

            Josh didn’t know whether these people played basketball or football; in fact, he cared little for sports at all. He’d join his family in front of the TV on Saturday afternoons and pretend to be interested in the football games, but he’d usually find an excuse to leave the room before halftime.

            Coming out as a BYU fan could cause a lot of problems for Josh at home. He wasn’t too worried about his brothers—they already teased and tormented him pretty consistently, this would just be something new for them to give him a hard time about. His dad was a different story.

            Josh’s two oldest brothers were now in college, living on their own. They were close by and still came over a lot, but it wasn’t the same—Josh’s father clearly missed them terribly. And the third son was a senior in high school, just one year away from heading off to college himself. Soon Josh would be the only child left at home, and Mr. Bateman wasn’t shy about letting everyone know how much less enjoyable game days would be if it was just the two of them watching. And this was just how Josh’s dad reacted to his youngest son being ambivalent about sports. Who knows how sad or mad (or both) he would get if he learned Josh was siding with the enemy?

            But Josh was determined to buy the hat anyway. It was the best way he could think of to get close to Whitney.

            He had first seen Whitney two weeks ago, on their first day of high school. She had come from the other junior high that fed into the school. They had four classes together, and even sat next to each other in 3^rd period English. Josh may not have liked sports, but he loved assigned seating!

            The school year was still young, and at this point Josh only knew a few things about Whitney: she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen, and she was a HUGE BYU fan.

            He also knew that the big BYU-Utah football game was coming up soon. It was impossible to ignore—his dad talked about little else at home, and Whitney and many of their other classmates were also getting worked up about it.

            Josh would watch the big game with Whitney. It was his self-appointed destiny. But he needed to pass himself off as a fellow Cougar fan first. He needed that hat.

            He took a final sip of his smoothie and tossed the cup in the trash. He willed himself to stand up, and walked quickly into Fanzz before he could lose his nerve again. Fanzz. What a ridiculous name. It sounded like something you would call an imitation sports fan. Josh instantly realized that’s exactly what he was, and a grin spread across his face. A store employee asked if he could help him find anything.

            “Just looking,” Josh said, doing his best to avoid making eye contact.

            But he wasn’t just looking. Josh knew exactly what he wanted. He had spent an hour the night before Googling information on hat sizes, and another 30 minutes on the Fanzz site picking the style from among the 30-plus options that would make him look most like a long-time fan. He found his chosen hat and was relieved to see they had it in size 6 7/8. He carried his new headgear to the register and paid for it with money left over from his birthday in July. He thanked the clerk and walked back out to his bench. Josh had been in Fanzz a grand total of 4 minutes.

            He had done it. For better or worse, he had done it. He removed the cap from the shopping bag and examined it.

            “Nice hat, Josh,” a passerby said.

            It was Erika, another girl with whom Josh had several classes. She was also a friend of Whitney’s—he had seen them eating lunch together. His plan was off to a great start.

            “Thanks!” Josh called after her. As he began walking in the opposite direction, he pulled the cap over his head for the first time. It was too tight. Why didn’t he just buy a t-shirt?