The broadcast displayed Andrew's stat line.
ANDREW PRITCHETT-TUCKER vs. #8 USC TROJANS
Completions / attempts: 36 / 41 — 87.8%
Passing yards: 372
Rushing yards: 62
Total offensive yards: 434
Touchdowns: 4 (3 passing, 1 rushing)
Interceptions: 0
[Look at those numbers, people. Unbelievable,] Brent commented, almost laughing as he stared at the stats.
The game had already been over for several minutes, but no one would have guessed it from looking at the Rose Bowl.
Night had completely fallen over Pasadena, and the massive floodlights illuminated the field as though there were still another quarter left to play.
Tens of thousands of UCLA fans remained in their seats, chanting, taking pictures of the scoreboard, and hugging one another while the Bruins players were still scattered across the field.
Some ran toward the stands, others gathered with teammates and coaches, and several simply remained where they were, staring at the 67-17 that continued glowing across one of the giant screens.
Kirk studied Andrew's statistics for a few seconds. [And even those four touchdowns can be misleading if you're only looking at the stat sheet, Brent.]
[Why is that?] Brent asked.
[Because they don't show how much control he had over this game. UCLA scored sixty-seven points. Andrew is only credited with four touchdowns, but there were several drives that he took practically all the way to the goal line before Jonathan Franklin punched it in on the ground,] Kirk replied.
The broadcast then showed a sequence of clips: Andrew completing a pass over the middle, Franklin breaking through the line from a few yards out, another UCLA drive crossing back into USC territory.
Kirk continued, [And this matters too. We're not talking about a night where the defense scored three pick-sixes or constantly handed the offense the ball at the ten-yard line. USC threw two interceptions, yes, but UCLA had to build its scoring drives. The only two points that came directly from the defense were on that safety. The rest of the night, this offense had to move the football.]
Brent nodded before slightly changing the subject. [We've already talked about the UCLA and Pac-12 records that fell tonight, but there's something else. Because Pritchett also just rewrote the record books for this rivalry.]
The image changed.
A new graphic filled the screen.
QB RECORDS — UCLA vs. USC — SINGLE GAME
Most passing yards: Matt Barkley, USC — 2011 — 423
Most passing TDs: Matt Barkley, USC — 2011 — 6
Most total yards: Tommy Maddox, UCLA — 1990 — 445
Most completions: Matt Barkley, USC — 2011 — 35
Highest completion percentage: Matt Barkley, USC — 2011 — 83.3% (35/42)
[Those were the records when this game started,] Brent explained. [Now two of them have changed hands.]
NEW RECORDS — UCLA vs. USC
Most completions: Andrew Pritchett-Tucker, UCLA — 2012 — 36
Highest completion percentage: Andrew Pritchett-Tucker, UCLA — 2012 — 87.8% (36/41)
Kirk let out a small, disbelieving breath as he looked at the second number. [Completion percentage can be one of those stats that fools you if you didn't watch the game. Eighty-seven point eight percent makes it sound like he was throwing checkdowns all night.]
A checkdown in football is a short, safe pass a quarterback throws to a running back or tight end as his final option when his primary receivers are covered or defensive pressure prevents him from throwing deep.
[That definitely wasn't the case,] Brent said.
[Not even close,] Kirk shook his head. [UCLA doesn't play conservative offense. They attack downfield, challenge tight windows, and let Andrew extend plays when the protection breaks down.]
The screen once again showed the play they had already replayed several times throughout the night.
Andrew scrambling inside his own end zone with two defenders chasing him, before finally jumping and releasing the ball on a pass of more than thirty yards that connected with Steve.
From there, Steve did the rest and took it all the way for a touchdown.
[Look at this. This pass is going to be on every highlight reel in the country tonight. It was incredibly risky, and he still completed it. That's the point. When you see eighty-seven point eight percent, it sounds like conservative efficiency. But Andrew is maintaining that percentage inside one of the most aggressive and productive offenses in the country,] Kirk explained.
[But Andrew isn't the only UCLA player closing in on historic marks,] Brent added as a new graphic appeared on the screen. [Because his two trusted young receivers are also doing things this program has never seen before.]
STEVE RICE vs. #8 USC
8 receptions
142 yards
17.8 yards per reception
1 TD
AMARI COOPER vs. #8 USC
6 receptions
116 yards
19.3 yards per reception
1 TD
Shaq Evans had also put together a strong game and had come away with one of the flashiest touchdowns of the night thanks to that trick play, but among UCLA's receivers, it had been Steve who finished with the highest volume and the most yards.
[That's right,] Kirk said as he studied the graphic carefully. [And with this, they're getting closer and closer to breaking some of the best marks ever set by true freshman receivers in the Pac-12.]
It was another storyline that had developed alongside the Andrew phenomenon throughout the entire season.
Steve and Amari were both true freshmen, and by this point, UCLA's records for a first-year receiver had been left far behind.
After the game against USC, their season numbers stood at:
STEVE RICE
67 receptions — 897 yards — 9 TD
AMARI COOPER
54 receptions — 1,020 yards — 12 TD
Before the season began, UCLA's record for receiving touchdowns by a freshman had been just 3, set by Raymond Burks in 1973.
As for overall production, Taylor Embree held UCLA's best freshman marks with 40 receptions and 531 yards in a season, although he had not recorded a touchdown.
Steve and Amari had shattered those numbers several weeks earlier.
It also wasn't particularly surprising that the gap had become so wide. Historically, UCLA had been much more conservative when it came to using true freshmen in major offensive roles. Steve and Amari, on the other hand, had been starters practically from the beginning and had quickly become central pieces of one of the most productive offenses in the country.
Andrew trusted both of them in particular.
Steve was his volume receiver most of the time, especially because he had also shown the ability to turn ordinary plays into huge gains, just as he had against USC.
Amari offered something different.
His intermediate routes were more explosive, and his vertical production was much greater. He didn't need as many receptions to generate yards or touchdowns, because a large portion of his opportunities came from attacking deeper areas of the field.
That was why, even though both of them were chasing the same kind of historic season, each was closing in on different records.
The standard within the Pac-12 belonged to a USC player.
Mike Williams — USC, 2002
81 receptions — 1,265 yards — 14 TD
That season remained the standard for a true freshman in the conference.
His 1,265 yards and 14 touchdowns also remained NCAA records for a true freshman wide receiver.
In receptions, however, the national record was slightly higher.
Sammy Watkins — Clemson, 2011 — 82 receptions
That was where things became interesting.
Steve had 67 receptions.
He needed fourteen more to tie Mike Williams' 81 within the Pac-12, fifteen to tie Watkins' 82, and sixteen to take sole possession of the national record.
Amari, meanwhile, was much closer to the other two marks.
With 1,020 yards, he was 245 away from Williams' 1,265, and with 12 touchdowns, he was only two away from tying the record of 14.
So while Steve was primarily chasing the volume and receptions record, Amari was moving directly toward the yardage and touchdown marks.
Two players who, just like Andrew, had already stopped competing against UCLA's standards.
Now they were chasing the standards of the entire conference and, in some cases, the entire country.
[Brent, Kirk, can you hear me?] a female voice suddenly came through the broadcast.
Brent and Kirk set the statistics aside.
[Yes, Heather, we hear you loud and clear,] Brent replied.
[I'm here with Coach Jim Mora,] Heather announced.
Heather Cox was standing on the Rose Bowl field, holding the black microphone with the ABC logo.
Around her, UCLA players were still celebrating while the stands remained packed with fans who still didn't seem ready to leave the stadium.
Once she received confirmation from the booth, Heather turned back toward Mora with a warm smile. [Coach, congratulations on the win. UCLA ends a wait of nearly six years, takes back this rivalry, takes back the Victory Bell, and does it by fifty points. What does a night like this mean to you and to this program?]
Mora smiled and shook his head slightly, still clearly affected by the emotion of the moment. [It means a tremendous amount. First because of our players, because you can see them out there celebrating and feel what this means to them.]
He paused briefly to catch his breath and continued, [Then for our university, our students, our alumni, everyone who has supported this program for so long. I'm very proud of this entire team. And especially happy for our seniors, because they finally got to finish their last game against USC with a win.]
Heather nodded before continuing. [I want to ask you about Pritchett. Tonight he breaks two historic conference records, also sets new marks within this rivalry, and moves to just one touchdown away from reaching fifty on the season. What else can you even say about a performance like that?]
A small smile formed on Heather's face as she finished asking the question.
Fifty touchdowns in a season already belonged to that statistical territory reserved for some of the most extraordinary offensive campaigns in college football history.
Other quarterbacks, in other conferences and other eras, had managed to surpass that barrier.
But never one from the Pac-12.
Before that season, the conference benchmark had remained well below it. Matt Barkley had reached forty-one total touchdowns in 2011, a number that had already been considered extraordinary.
[What else can I say about him that I haven't already said? He's phenomenal. The numbers he's putting up are incredible, he keeps breaking record after record and, honestly, we were very fortunate that he decided to do all of that wearing UCLA colors,] Mora replied with a slight smile.
Heather smiled and added, [I have to ask. After Oregon, after everything he's done all season, and now this against USC... do you think tonight finally settles the Heisman discussion?]
Mora let out a small laugh before answering. [I don't know if a discussion like that is ever settled early. There are still games left, and there are still extraordinary players competing for that award.]
[But if what Andrew has already done up to this point isn't enough to put him in that position, then I don't know what else he would have to do,] he added.
[Andrew isn't the only one breaking records tonight, Coach,] Heather said with a smile.
Mora raised his eyebrows slightly.
Heather continued, [With this win, you've reached ten victories. That's already the best mark ever for a first-year head coach at UCLA. And you've also tied the program's all-time record for wins in a season. You're one victory away from becoming the first eleven-win team in Bruins history. What does that mean to you?]
Mora let out a small, almost disbelieving laugh. [It means we've done a lot of things right so far.]
The smile remained on his face for a moment before turning more serious.
[But it also means we still have work to do. Ten wins is fantastic. I'm proud of these guys and of the entire staff. But nobody in that locker room came here thinking about getting to ten and stopping there,] he added.
For Mora, it was still difficult to put all of it into perspective.
He had come to UCLA to rebuild a program that had gone through years of inconsistency, and by November of his first season, he was already one win away from accomplishing something no Bruins team had ever done before.
For a moment, a scene from months earlier came back to him.
An office filled with coaches and recruiters, overlapping conversations, ringing cell phones, and then, at one point, Derek, one of the recruiters, walking in with a huge smile before even saying a word.
Andrew chose us.
That day had changed something inside the program. Not because one signature guaranteed victories.
But because, for the first time in a long time, UCLA had convinced the most coveted player in the country that Westwood could be the place where something great was built.
Now that something was happening much faster than anyone had anticipated.
Heather raised the microphone again. [You've already clinched the South Division. No matter what happens next week, you're going to play for the Pac-12 championship. Does that change the way you approach the game against Stanford?]
Mora shook his head almost immediately. [No. Not at all. We have the division, yes. But we're still playing for much more than that. Our ranking matters, and Stanford just showed today exactly what kind of team it is.]
There was no need to explain much further.
Hours earlier, Stanford had walked into Autzen Stadium and defeated Oregon 17-14 in overtime.
Another loss for the Ducks in Eugene and another massive upset.
And one that directly affected UCLA.
The following Saturday, the Bruins would host Stanford to close out the regular season.
If everything finished the way the North Division standings seemed to indicate, they would face each other again one week later.
This time for the Pac-12 championship.
So they could end up playing Stanford two weeks in a row. That made the first game even more important to Mora.
[Thank you, Coach. Enjoy it,] Heather said.
Mora nodded, said goodbye with a smile, and stepped out of the camera frame.
A few seconds later, Heather already had Johnathan Franklin standing in front of her.
The UCLA running back was still sweaty, breathing a little heavily, and wearing a huge smile he didn't seem interested in hiding.
[Johnathan, congratulations. Three touchdowns tonight and a great performance in a huge win. How do you feel?]
[It's incredible. Really. I've been here four years, I've experienced this rivalry from the other side plenty of times, and to be able to finish my final year like this... to finally beat them, to do it with my teammates and with all these seniors... it's something I'm never going to forget,] Franklin replied.
His gaze drifted toward the stands for a moment, [I'm not the only senior who's been waiting years for this. To be able to give this win back to UCLA and bring the Bell back... it's special.]
The Victory Bell is the trophy that is awarded to the winner of the UCLA–USC football rivalry game.
For decades, the bell had served as one of the great symbols of the rivalry between UCLA and USC. The winner of the game earned the right to keep it for the following year, and its frame was painted in the colors of the victorious university.
For nearly six years, it had remained on USC's side.
Now it would return to Westwood.
Heather nodded and then asked, [What did you think of Pritchett's game?]
Franklin smiled almost immediately, as if he had been waiting for the question.
It was inevitable.
[Incredible, as always,] Franklin replied. [And I don't mean just because of the numbers.]
His expression became a little more serious. [There were drives tonight where he easily could've tried to keep the play for himself. Run it, look for another pass, try to add another touchdown. But if the read told him to hand me the ball because there was space, that's what he did.]
Franklin shook his head, already used to it, though not completely, because you wouldn't normally expect that kind of team-first mentality from a freshman under so many spotlights.
[That's one of the things we respect most about him. He's breaking every individual record put in front of him, but he never plays thinking about that. If the best decision for the team is to give the ball to someone else, he does it. His priority is always winning.]
He paused briefly before finishing his answer. [When your quarterback plays like that, when you know he's not chasing stats but wins, it's very easy to trust him.]
[Thank you, Johnathan. Congratulations again,] Heather said with a smile and a nod.
[Thank you,] Franklin said, raising a hand in farewell before walking away.
[Let's go find Pritchett. He's always hard to catch after games,] Heather said, turning back toward the camera.
She made a small gesture to the cameraman, and the two of them began moving across the field, weaving around players, assistants, and staff members who were still circulating through the celebration.
It didn't take them long to find him.
Andrew was walking without his helmet, his damp hair partially stuck to his forehead.
[Andrew! Andrew!] Heather called out to get his attention. [Got a minute for ABC?]
Andrew turned when he recognized the voice and, when he saw her approaching with the microphone, a small smile escaped him. [Hey, Heather...]
There was a hint of familiarity in the greeting. It certainly wasn't the first time they had ended a game in front of a camera.
Heather smiled. [Hey. Great game. I think I always end up telling you the same thing.]
[You just beat a Top 10 rival by fifty points, take back the rivalry, clinch the South Division, and on top of that you break several records. How do you process all of that right now?] Heather asked.
[I'm happy. Obviously because of the win, also because of the records, but the most important thing is that we keep winning. We clinched the division, which was one of our goals, and now we know we're going to play for the Pac-12 championship,] Andrew replied.
His answer was almost exactly what Heather had expected.
Not because she had prepared for it, but because Andrew had been talking like that all season.
[But did you imagine something like this back in August?] Heather asked.
The question made sense. Before the season began, there had been excitement around UCLA.
A lot of it.
Andrew's arrival had completely changed the perception of the recruiting class, and that class had ultimately been considered one of the best in the country.
There was also a new staff, new schemes, and a clear sense that the program was trying to leave several mediocre years behind.
That was why UCLA had started the season ranked #17.
It was a high ranking for a team that still had so much to prove.
But expecting a good season was one thing.
Being in November among the best teams in the country, with the South Division already clinched and a real chance to play for the national championship, was something very different.
[I said it after Nebraska,] Andrew replied quickly.
Heather raised her eyebrows slightly.
She remembered.
After that early loss, when a lot of people had started wondering whether all the excitement around UCLA had been exaggerated, Andrew had insisted that the team could compete for important things and that the fans needed to trust them.
At the time, it had sounded like the kind of statement you would expect from a quarterback trying to keep his team together after a loss.
Now it sounded different.
Because it had not been an empty statement.
[I remember that,] Heather said.
After a few more questions, Andrew raised a hand in farewell and started walking back toward his teammates.
The broadcast did not last much longer.
After a few final shots of the scoreboard, the players celebrating, and the stands still filled with blue and gold, ABC began wrapping up its coverage.
Inside the Rose Bowl, the atmosphere was beginning to change as well.
The players had already started making their way toward the locker rooms and, little by little, tens of thousands of people began leaving their seats. The stairways and concourses filled with a steady tide of still-euphoric fans.
Mitch, Cam, Jay, and the rest of the family also began heading out with the crowd.
Cam walked animatedly, still going over moments from the game while carrying Lily. At one point, however, his gaze drifted ahead.
Paige was a few steps in front of them, talking with Sam.
Cam stared at her for a second. Then he turned back toward Mitchell. "Take her for a second..."
Before Mitch could ask anything, Cam was already handing Lily over to him.
"Cam..." Mitchell murmured as he adjusted her in his arms.
But Cam had already started walking faster.
Mitch followed him with his eyes and immediately knew what was happening.
His patience had run out.
Throughout the entire game, he had actually held himself back pretty well. He had not interrogated Paige, had not tried to bring up her date with Andrew and, surprisingly, had not made any awkward comments either.
Apparently, that restraint had reached its limit.
Mitch let out a breath through his nose and started walking a little faster too.
He did not particularly approve of the idea.
But if Cam was going to start asking questions, he preferred to be close enough to hear them and, if necessary, stop him before he turned a casual conversation into a family interview.
"Paige, right?" Cam said when he caught up to her.
Paige stopped talking to Sam and turned her head.
She immediately recognized Andrew's father, whom Andrew himself had described several times as dramatic, expressive, and completely incapable of hiding what he was feeling.
The description was pretty accurate.
Cam was looking at her with slightly bright eyes and a smile that was far too interested for this to be a completely casual conversation.
Sam noticed it too. She smiled and slowed down a little, giving Paige some space.
"Yeah... Cameron. What's up?" Paige asked.
They did not need formal introductions. They had already exchanged a few words before.
"Nothing important," Cam replied immediately. "I just wanted to talk for a bit. And you can call me Cam."
Paige nodded. "Okay."
Then there was a brief silence.
Paige was not exactly the most sociable person in the world in situations like this, much less when the person standing in front of her was the father of the guy she saw as a potential boyfriend.
Fortunately, Cam seemed more than willing to carry the entire conversation himself. "What's your last name?" he asked curiously.
"Swanson."
Cam nodded slowly. "Mm. That's nice."
Paige blinked. She wasn't sure what kind of response he expected from her. She fell silent again, but it did not seem to matter much. Cam was already looking for his next question.
"And how's college life treating you? Was it hard to adjust? Does your family live nearby?"
"Good," Paige replied. "It wasn't too difficult. And no, my parents are pretty far away. They live in Texas."
Cam's eyes widened slightly. A few steps behind them, Mitch also repeated the state in his head. 'Texas.'
He had not expected that.
Neither had Cam.
For some reason, based on the way Paige talked, dressed, and carried herself, he had assumed she was from California. Maybe from some city farther away from Los Angeles, something similar to Sam, with a family close enough that she could go home on some weekends.
But no.
Texas was much farther away.
"Texas?" Cam repeated. "That's pretty far. Did you come out here by yourself?"
"Yeah. My parents let me study wherever I wanted, so I chose UCLA," Paige replied.
"I see... and what are you studying?" Cam fired off his next question.
"Astrophysics," Paige replied.
Cam nodded with interest. "And how did you do on your midterms?"
Paige raised an eyebrow.
The question itself was not strange. By that point in the quarter, any freshman had already gone through their first round of midterms, and even a second one in some classes. Andrew had gone through them too, and Cam knew he had done well.
The strange part was something else.
Paige had been showing up to games for weeks, sitting near them and spending time with the group.
And Cam had never shown this much interest in her life.
Until today.
"Why are you suddenly so interested in me?" Paige asked.
Cam blinked. "Me?"
Paige stared at him in silence.
Cam raised both hands and quickly said, "I just want to get to know one of my son's friends who keeps coming to his games..."
Paige kept looking at him without saying a word.
Cam sighed. Those light-colored eyes were starting to feel uncomfortably inquisitive. "Fine. Andrew told me you two went on a date last week."
"I see..." Paige replied with complete normalcy.
Cam waited, but she did not add anything. "That's it?"
"Andrew also told me he'd told you. So I already knew why you were acting differently around me," Paige replied.
Cam stopped for a moment. "What!?"
Mitch, walking only a few steps behind them with Lily in his arms, had to suppress a smile.
"Then why did you act like you didn't know anything?" Cam asked, genuinely confused.
Paige gave a small shrug and replied, "I wanted to see how long it would take you to admit that you knew about the date and that was why you'd suddenly decided to ask me so many questions about my life."
Cam fell silent.
Mitch lowered his gaze for a second to hide his smile.
Paige, meanwhile, seemed to remember something. "And my midterms went well, by the way."
Then she slightly quickened her pace and moved back beside Sam, leaving the interrogation behind before Cam could come up with another question.
Cam watched her go. He looked like he was about to call after her again.
Mitch placed a hand on his shoulder. "That's enough. Leave her alone."
Cam turned toward him and gave him sad puppy-dog eyes. "But I didn't even ask her how the date went."
"Which is exactly why I'm stopping you," Mitch replied.
Cam eventually accepted it with a small nod. Then he noticed something. He turned his head and caught several looks.
Claire and Jay looked away almost at the same time.
Claire suddenly pretended to be interested in something Phil was enthusiastically saying about the game.
Jay simply kept walking with his hands in his pockets, as if he had not been listening to a single word.
Cam narrowed his eyes.
Of course.
He was not the only curious one. If they had heard that Andrew had gone on a date with Paige, then their ears had definitely picked it up and they had started paying attention.
Jay could act uninterested all he wanted, but Andrew was still his grandson and he did not exactly feel indifferent about who he dated.
Claire was even worse.
With the fame Andrew had accumulated since high school, the cameras, the girls, the interviews, and everything that had surrounded his life for years, she had spent far too long watching that side of things with almost maternal attention.
Cam slowly smiled. He was not the only meddler.
Once they found out about the date, they were definitely going to become much more inquisitive about the whole thing.
Paige, Sam, Haley, Monica, Rachel, Ross, Leonard, Howard, and Chandler finally reached the parking lot where they had left the cars more than six hours earlier.
By that point in the night, anyone would have expected the exhaustion to start kicking in.
That was not the case.
"All right, so what now? Are we going straight to the party or what?" Howard asked, without having lost even a shred of energy.
He had arrived at the Rose Bowl around eleven in the morning and had been awake since close to six, but the result seemed to have completely revitalized him.
"Yes, sir! Party, party, party!" Haley exclaimed, raising one arm.
Rachel immediately joined in. "Party!"
"I second the motion," Sam said with a smile.
She knew perfectly well that after a win like this, Steve was not going to want to end the night at some quiet gathering. And honestly, she did not mind the idea of a fraternity house with music way too loud and hundreds of people celebrating either.
"I'm going too," Ross said.
His tone was a little more restrained than everyone else's, although the idea excited him far more than he wanted to admit.
He had flown in from New York to watch a college football game and had ended up witnessing a historic one. Now he was going to finish the night celebrating with UCLA players at a college party in Los Angeles.
It was not exactly an everyday experience.
Monica nodded and then turned toward Chandler.
He had not said a single word. He was walking with his head lowered, completely absorbed in his phone. "What about you, Prophet? Say something."
Chandler suddenly looked up and replied, "Of course I'm going to a party, Geller! Did you not see what it was like the whole way out here?"
Monica raised an eyebrow.
Chandler started counting on his fingers. "They chanted my name, asked me for pictures, invited me to like twenty different parties, and there were girls looking at me like they wanted to personally verify whether I have divine powers."
Howard burst out laughing.
Chandler looked back down at his phone. "And look at this!"
He turned the screen so everyone could see it.
On Twitter, his profile picture had already changed.
It was the photo of Chandler appearing on the Rose Bowl's giant screen with his head tilted toward the sky and both arms extended upward while thousands of people chanted his name.
Haley let out a laugh. "That was fast."
"Ever since I was on College GameDay, I've been gaining hundreds of followers," Chandler said, still scrolling through the screen. "But now it's insane. Even Justin Bieber just followed me a few minutes ago!"
"What?" Haley and Rachel murmured in disbelief.
"Justin Bieber followed me, god damn it!" Chandler repeated.
That was different.
Chandler nodded, satisfied with their reaction, put his phone away, and spread his arms. "So yes. I'm going to that party, I'm going to have the best drunken night of my life, and tomorrow I'm not going to remember a single thing that happened tonight."
"I like that attitude!" Howard said, pointing at him.
Leonard looked at him in confusion. "Remember nothing? That would include the game."
Chandler froze. He thought for a second. Then he snapped his fingers. "Exactly. Forget the game."
Leonard blinked. "What?"
"Because then I could watch the replay tomorrow and experience the whole thing all over again," Chandler explained as if it were the smartest thing anyone could possibly do.
"So, are we going straight there or what?" Sam asked, trying to get the group moving again before they ended up standing around by the cars talking for another twenty minutes.
"We have to go with Andrew and Steve," Haley replied.
Everyone nodded.
"Does anyone know what they're doing?" Ross asked. "Are they meeting up at someone's place first, or are they going straight to the party?"
He looked at Haley because she was Andrew's cousin.
She shook her head.
Then he looked at Leonard and Howard, who were Andrew's closest friends after Steve.
Both of them did the same.
Finally, Ross turned his attention to Sam.
She shook her head too.
She had not talked to Steve about what exactly they were doing after the game. She knew they would end up at some fraternity party, like they almost always did after a big win, but they had not agreed to meet there directly or to gather at the apartment first.
"I'll text him, but he'll probably take a while to answer..." Sam began as she pulled out her phone.
Paige spoke before she could start typing. "I talked to Andrew earlier. They're going to the apartment first. He said we should wait for them there, and then we'll all go to the party together."
That settled it.
The group finally began splitting up between the cars.
Chandler opened one of the doors and, before getting in, raised a finger as if he had just realized something. "The Prophet walking into a party alongside the Jesus Christ of football after calling a 67-17 score..."
Howard had already started laughing.
Chandler slowly shook his head as he imagined the scene. "This is going to be legendary," he added with absolute conviction before getting into the car and shutting the door.
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