The Maturation of J Reed: Vol. 6

One of the people I respected most in high school was Antonio Pixley. Tony P was probably the most well-known and respected person in the school. He was very athletic and like myself, he played every sport that you were allowed to play in our high school (except one lol).
One of the reasons why Tony was well respected, was because his mom worked at the school. Now that’s not a knock on him, but more of a testament to how much everybody loved Mrs. Pixley. Mrs. Pixley was like a mom away from home at Coolidge. She was one of the people that you knew genuinely cared about you. She could always see when something was wrong, and knew when to lay into you for things you did, that you had no business doing. Mrs. Pixley showed this kind of love to everybody around Coolidge. For this very reason, I had no problem helping her with whatever she asked of me. However, one thing she asked of me my 10th grade year would challenge my previous statement.Along with working in the book room, Mrs. P was also the coach of the cheerleading team. She had a solid resume of 2nd place finishes in competitions but wanted something that would put her over the top. One day, while a few of my football teammates and I were chilling in her room, she asked us a question that would take a lot of thought to answer. Mrs. P asked us if we would help her in the cheerleading competition. Basically, she wanted us to be the base to her stunts so that routines would be more exciting. I mean a few football players could throw a person higher in the air than a few cheerleaders. I want to say that I accepted without hesitation, but that would be a bold face lie. I had mixed feelings because I knew that Mrs. P would have done anything for me. However, I also knew that this would be just the ammunition people needed to start a whole new comedy routine at my expense. In the end, I felt that my loyalty to Mrs. P for the love she showed me far outweighed the ridicule that I would receive for my participation in the cheerleading competition. Don’t get me wrong, it was tough, but I knew my decision was the right one.