Page 2 of The Golden Receiver

Not that it would’ve been an issue if I weren’t. I’d grown up in that bar. I’d spent nights in middle school doing homework in one of the corner booths, drinking soda and eating greasy french fries for dinner. The locals all knew me, right down to the town’s small police force. They all knew that my dad didn’t have much choice. Late-night childcare was hard to find for an active elementary schooler whose mom had just died, and Pops did his best.

His best just meant having me sitting at a bar for a few hours after school and serving me dinner from the bar menu several nights a week. I’d thought it was pretty cool when I was a kid, and it had really helped me form a community. I’d probably been the only sixth grader who knew what beer the mayor had to drink every time he watched his favorite team play football.

I went to the familiar bar and wedged in between this older woman, Stacey, that always sat at the same spot and always made me cookies for my birthday, and my high school English teacher. They both greeted me with a smile and scooted over to make room for me.

I leaned against the sticky bar surface and flagged down one of the bartenders who nudged my dad. He came over quickly, a bright smile lighting up his dark blue eyes and highlighting the years of laugh lines around them. “What are you doing here, kiddo?” he asked as he grabbed a clear glass from behind the bar and started scooping ice cubes into it. “Thought you had a paper to write?”

“I do, but I needed to talk to you about something. You got a minute?”

My dad grabbed the soda gun and started filling the glass with club soda. He topped it off with some cherry syrup and gave it a mix, dropped a cherry in, and passed it over the bar to me. “Always got a minute for you, Kie.” He looked up and down the bar, and I knew he was making sure everyone was taken care of. Once he was done, he motioned for me to follow him.

I walked behind the bar and through the kitchen doors and straight back to his office. “You eat yet?” my dad asked once we were in the office.

“Plan on making a sandwich later.”

“Shit, get something hot here. How many miles did you do today?” When I didn’t answer, he just shook his head. “You’re not leaving ‘til I know you’ve had a real meal. Not just some sandwich you scarf down half of while you’re working and forget the other half.” He stuck his head out of the office door and called out for an order of wings and fries to the line cooks. I heard them shout something back before he closed the door and took a seat behind his cluttered desk.

I sat opposite him in the same chair I’d been sitting in for years: an old dining chair with cracked black vinyl from the remodel he did when I was ten. Pops looked at me expectantly, and I drew in a deep breath. “A recruiter came to campus today.”

“You’re not joining the military to avoid student loans,” he told me flatly. “We talked about this last year. The local school isn’t too expensive.”

“No, not that kind of recruiter.” The words spilled from my lips in a rush, slurring together in their hurry to reach my father’s ears and comfort him. “A football recruiter.”

My dad’s eyes widened. “That’s great! From what school? Was he there for you? Was he⁠—”

“Pops!” I interrupted with a laugh. “He’s from Creelin University. You know how they started letting humans in last year?” He nodded. “Well, apparently every team but the football team started getting humans joining.”

“So what? They want you to come be their token human?”

“They’re offering me a full scholarship.” I leaned back in my seat. Saying it out loud made the fact that I was waffling over this decision seem really stupid. A full ride could be life changing, and Creelin was a better college than the shit one I attended now. The information on their football team made it clear that they were a better team, too. They’d won a few championships in their league. The campus was nicer. I was sure the dorms would probably be nicer too, but I’d never been inside the dorms on my campus to compare. “Just don’t know.”

“Well, let’s talk it over.”

For the next hour, we did just that. My dad pulled up the school’s website on his slow office computer, and we looked through majors. We read a few articles about the football team and a few others about some of the humans who were on campus this year. We watched clips of the football team while we ate chicken wings and french fries.

The only thing we didn’t do was make my decision.

I spent the next week pondering what I should do.

I thought about it while I ran laps. I thought about it while I worked out in the poorly equipped campus weight room. I thought about it when I was supposed to be studying for a history exam. It was pretty much all I thought about.

Pops checked in on the process, but he trusted me to make my decision. At the end of the day, it was my life, after all. I was the one that was going to have to live with the decision.

In the end, the choice was obvious. Turning down a full ride and the chance to play football for a real team was too good to pass up.

I was going to Creelin University.

Chapter One

Kieran

Iwas starting to think I made a mistake coming to Creelin.

I’d been on campus for two weeks. Classes hadn’t started yet, and most everyone wasn’t moving in until the weekend. From my understanding, a lot of the monsters were moving in that day. They were probably all getting settled into their dorms while I was sweating buckets under the late summer sun with the rest of the football team.

I’d spent most of the first week alone, when I wasn’t training. I had the suite I’d been assigned to myself. It was quiet, and I liked it that way. I’d grown up with just me and Pops, and after I got old enough to be left on my own, I’d gotten used to a quiet apartment while Pops was working. One of my roommates, Teagan Dae, showed up last weekend. He got special permission from the campus to be there early. He was some kind of celebrity, but I didn’t know a thing about him before we got to talking. I’d never been that into pop culture, but from what he said, he was kind of a big deal.

Our other two roommates would be showing up the next day, so I had that to look forward to. I had a feeling it wasn’t going to stay quiet in the suite all that long.