Andrew’s senior year: Prologue

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Andrew Pearson of Orillia, Ontario, Canada was a normal-sized kid for his first 10 years. He was even a bit on the small side, even though his father was 6 foot 3 and 230 pounds. His father Chad was one of the vice-presidents of a big sports company: Harrington's Sports Suppliers. Chad promised to provide Andrew with a complete home gym when he started growing, which occurred around his 11th birthday(October of 1998), when Andrew was in Grade Five. So Chad kept his promise and bought Andrew a bunch of gym equipment for his 11th birthday. He also got Andrew a guest pass to his company gym and began training Andrew in the proper weight-lifting techniques. Andrew wanted to be an NFL Player one day, so he wanted to get big for high school.

By Grade Eight(Fall of 2001), Andrew had dedicated almost three years to his weight-lifting. The diet his father gave him, combined with puberty, helped Andrew enter Grade Eight weighing 200 pounds and standing six feet tall. He was the biggest kid in school, and his friend Steve Peterson was almost his size. Steve had been weight-training as well, with his own father, Ron. Andrew and Steve both got top marks in gym class and the gym teachers were very impressed. His gym teachers had the high school football coaches come to scout Andrew at recess, when he played football with his friends outside. The high school coaches were very impressed with Andrew and Steve’s performance. They arranged for both Andrew and Steve to be put on the junior football team at ODCVI when they entered Grade Nine.
In high school, Andrew and Steve were the biggest kids in Grade Nine. They were the only Grade Nine students to join the Orillia District Junior Football Team in the fall of 2002. Andrew now had regular access to the school gym, and his home gym as well. His father had constantly updated his gym every birthday with the latest equipment. Andrew’s mother, Susan, had made a lot of money in a home-based computer business, and both his parents were millionaires. They wanted the best for Andrew and his sister Sarah. So instead of buying a big fancy house in an exclusive neighborhood, they invested heavily in their kids’ education. Andrew wanted to go to one of the big football schools in the States, and so did Sarah, so their parents started the RESP investing early, to make sure they could finance their kid’s education with no trouble, if necessary. Chad and Susan also bought Andrew and Sarah cars for their 17th birthdays.
By Grade Eleven(Fall of 2004), Andrew was the biggest person in the school, weighing in at 275 pounds, with a height of 6 feet 7 inches. His friend Steve was a close second at 6 foot 6 and 260 pounds. They had been put on the front line of the Senior football team by Coach Everson. Andrew regularly broke through the opposing team’s front line in football games, sacking the quarterback before he could throw the ball. Then he showed great sportsmanship, helping the players up with an outstretched hand after he had knocked them down. Andrew also jumped to intercept the ball, and smashed through the opposing players to score touchdowns. He simply ran over anyone who tried to stop him. Many opposing players left the field on stretchers that season thanks to Andrew.
Andrew had a major shy streak however, which became evident whenever anyone praised him for his athletic achievements. He was tremendously admired and respected for his athletic gifts and sportsmanship. He was truly the ‘Big Man’ at his high school. Andrew felt guilty about all the people he had accidentally hurt on the field, so he visited them in the hospital to make sure they were all right. No one except the players he hurt knew he felt guilty, so to help him out, they told everyone about him helping them up off the field instead. Andrew worked slowly on ways to control his strength so that he would not cause anyone any further injuries. By the end of the 2004 football season, he managed to get through the last few games without knocking anyone out.
Andrew was respected for his academic gifts as well. He took a school IQ tests in Grade Seven and the results came out to 150. Andrew didn’t want everyone to think of him as some kind of genius, so he begged his parents to keep the results quiet. They agreed, but told him that he would need great marks to qualify for a full athletic scholarship to an American football school. So Andrew studied hard, even when he didn’t need to, and regularly got 90s in the last years of public school. He even won a math award at Grade Eight Graduation.
In high school Andrew's academic excellence continued, and he won at least one academic award every year. He also tutored a lot of football players in math and science, subjects he regularly got 90s in. Andrew also acted like a sort of mentor to the kids who were just starting to work out. Some of those kids helped him in return by tutoring him in subjects he found difficult, like Physics.
Andrew also got a part-time job in his father’s company, using his great strength to lift heavy boxes and skids. He managed to get his bench-press to 700 pounds by the time he entered Grade Eleven; it had increased by about 100 pounds each school year. Andrew’s coworkers were amazed by Andrew’s awesome strength and how he always helped them when they needed it. Andrew acted mostly out of shyness or guilt, but everyone assumed he was just being helpful and kind.
The only person who knew Andrew’s hidden feelings of shyness was his girlfriend, Carrie Peterson. She was Steve’s sister, but because Steve was Andrew’s best friend, he did not mind Andrew being Carrie’s boyfriend since Grade Eight. He knew Andrew would treat her like a lady. Carrie knew how shy Andrew was and how he overcompensated with the jock act. She also knew how guilty Andrew felt whenever he hurt people on the football field, even though it was just part of the game. She was the one who helped Andrew control his own strength, by advising him to treat people as respectfully and gently as he treated her.
So Andrew followed her advice and began helping up the people he knocked down, and visiting them in the hospital, if he had knocked them out. Later he managed to knock them down more gently, so that they could actually get up and play again. Most people saw Andrew as just a big jock, but Carrie knew better.