3. Lennon's POV

7 years old

Lennon knew that he was in trouble the Moment he entered the dressing room and saw his father staring at him. Only God knew what Danny must have told his father.

Out there in the field, his father was the greatest of all times, Jacob Shepherd, six times Superbowl champion and other titles that he bagged. But when he left the field, he was just like every other father, strict, caring and affectionate when you listened to him.

His father was talking to uncle Michael when he entered the room, “ It was an easy win here…I wonder if they were scared of playing against us or something”, Uncle Michael muttered, throwing his stuffs inside his bag.

Yeah, Lennon noted that it was an easy win. He had been watching the game with uncle Chase and Danny at the VIP area in the stadium and noticed many flaws in their strategies that made them lose the match. Most of all, they were scared of playing against the Vikings.

Lennon looked around the room, he saw many of his father’s teammates packing up or chatting with each other in the room and Danny who was laughing with them, excited that he had their attention.

He decided to chose peace over Chaos and moved to where Enzo was sitting and scrolling through his phone, rather than towards his father and uncle. He knew his father’s eyes was following him and yet he still did not stop to acknowledge the man.

“ Woah young man!, What happened to your leg?, Why are you hopping?”, Enzo asked immediately when he saw the boy. Lennon sighed as he sat on the bench in front of Enzo’s dressing stall.

“ I fell…”, he murmured, leaving it at that. If was better that they believed that he fell than something else.

Enzo arched an eyebrow, “really?, Just like that, you fall and boom!, Sprain your ankle because if you are hopping, then you’ve sprained something”, he summarize, not believing what Lennon had told him.

“ yeah…”, Lennon agreed.

Enzo sighed and turned to look for the boy’s father. Before Lennon could stop him, “ Jacob!”, he called.

Lennon swore that he shrinked down a bit. Contrary to what people think, his father was a strict and disciplined man. Quite alright, he spoiled him at times but most of the times, he was strict and giving out instructions and he had just defiled one of those instructions.

He heard his father’s footsteps approach before he stopped behind him.

“ yeah?”, his father’s voice boomed Startling Lennon.

Lennon closed his eyes, waiting for the scolding that was about to come. He hated it when his father scolded him or was disappointed in him. Two weeks ago, he had been injured while he was playing with some kids on the playground. Kids that his father had told him to stay away from.

Apparently, they had thought that it would be a good idea to push him down the slide, so he could roll down quickly and it had ended up in disaster with him scrapping his forearm. His father had been so mad at him even as he rushed him to the hospital.

The case before that, had been Danny’s fault entirely. The boy had no filter in his mouth and had ended up picking a fight with someone who was bigger than him when he couldn’t fight for the love of God. He had called the big boy, an empty vessel who only ate to fill up his belly and forgot to load his brain with knowledge. The big boy had been so angry and had tried to punch Danny.

Well Lennon would be damned if anybody laid their hands on Danny when he was there. So before Danny could run to get more help from the crew as they called themselves, Lennon had received more blows and beating than he could count.

The other boy looked worse than him by the way. The school had suspended him for one week and had asked him to write an apology letter.

Danny had refused to go to school that week, so they instead had fun following his mother for those events that she attended and Danny was glad that he got to be babied by many people.

“ I think your son sprained his ankle or something”, Enzo ratted him out.

Lennon huffed, “ it wasn’t my fault this time, I swear dad.” He explained, turning to face his father.

His father arched his brow and crossed his arms in front of his chest, taking his notorious big daddy stance that only worked on Danny and the girls.

“ Really?... And who’s fault is it?”, he asked Lennon.

Lennon cleared his throat, preparing to defend himself, “ a boy, he ran into me at the hallway when we were coming here. He wasn’t looking at where he was going to and then bumped into me. We both fell on the floor at the same time, it just happened dad”, he explained.

Jacob shook his head, bending down and turning his son to face him. He squatted in front of the boy and raised Lennon’s leg to examine the injury. He frowned his face in concern.

“ Ahh!, “ Lennon yelled in pain when his father touched his ankle.

“ It hurts here?” , his father asked touching the painful spot.

Lennon nodded his head, biting his lips. His father sighed and stood up from his position, placing his hands on his waist.

Uncle Michael patted his father’s shoulders, “ take him to the hospital and get the ankle checked out. I’m off, have an appointment with Zara’s tutor. Take care of that Jacob”, he said turning to carry his bag.

His father nodded his head at what uncle Michael had told him.

“ where is Chase by the way”, he muttered. His father shrugged, “ dunno…”

Danny jumped from his side, “ he was talking with a big man”, he told them.

Lennon rolled his eyes, uncle Chase was talking business with a man and told them to head over to see his dad instead of waiting for him.

Uncle Michael nodded and left the room his father turned to face him.

“ who is this person that even bumped into you by the way”, Jacob asked his son but before the boy could say a word, Danny started talking.

“ It’s a boy that’s around our age, so he wasn’t bigger that he could push Len down and he has a silver color hair. You needed to see his hair dad, it was so clear and the silver was almost glittering and he looked sorry too that he bumped into Len dad…but Lennon was also at fault dad because he was running down the hallway”, Danny relayed, exposing him.

Lennon winced.

“ he was running down the hallway?”, his father asked, obviously catching that part of Danny’s explanation.

Lennon heard Enzo Chuckled, as well as some other teammates of his dad who were still changing in the dressing room. Like he had said earlier, Danny had no filter, he didn’t know when to stop and shut up his mouth. He was way too blunt for someone who looked that innocent and kind.

Danny nodded, “ Yes dad, he was running and I kept on calling him, but he wouldn’t stop dad”, Danny answered.

Lennon rolled his eyes and palmed his face, “ he wasn’t talking to you Danny, shut up…”, Lennon stated.

Danny pouted his lips and stuck his tongue out at him, “ you were going to lie about it, I know”, he accused.

Lennon’s eyes bugged out. How in heaven’s name did Danny know about that. Of course he was going to lie about it. There was no way he would tell his dad that he was running down the hallway and bumped into someone. There was no harm in his father believing that it wasn’t his fault.

“ I wasn’t….”, he mumbled, hoping that his father would believe him.

Instead of his father reacting to the information that he also caused the accident, he asked something else.

“ wait a minute!, Did you just say the boy had a silver colored hair”, his father rasped.

Lennon paused to stare at his dad, wondering why he was asking. He had a distant look in his eyes like he was trying to remember a memory.

His uncle Chase entered the dressing room then and walked over to them.

“ Daddy!...” , Danny shouted running over to his father. He would sometimes call Jacob dad too.

Uncle Chase smiled at Danny “ hey kiddo…what’s up?”, he said patting his head. “ you miss me..”

“yes, Lennon is injured again.” Danny informed his father.

Uncle Chase paused and then looked pointedly at Lennon , “ you were running through the hall right?”, he asked knowingly.

Lennon frowned, why did every one always find fault in him when something bad happened. It was always Lennon’s fault.

“ Where’s this boy with the silver hair?”, His father asked.

“ which silver hair?”, Chase mumbled looking at Jacob. Lennon knew that look, the look that his father gave his uncle told him that there was something that they knew about, that others were not aware of. His father and uncle Chase has been best friends and very close, so it definitely was an inside secret, he deduced.

Lennon was grateful that the color of a boy’s hair was enough to distract his dad from focusing on him but the hair was a fake and Danny should have known that.

“ It’s a fake dad, he dyed his hair…”, Lennon snorted.

His father blinked at him, “ really?, It’s not natural?”, he blurted out.

Lennon scoffed, “ it’s definitely not natural dad”, he confirmed. Danny opened his mouth to say something but Lennon clamped his hands on the boy’s mouth before he could say something bad.

Danny licked his palm, causing him to jerk his hand away, “ Eww.. dude, that’s gross”, Lennon grimaced.

Danny laughed running away from his reach. If his leg was in good form, he would have chased Danny round the room.

Jacob sighed in relief, focusing on him, “ I think you need to see a doctor for that, probably sprained more than a muscle” he hinted walking over to his dressing stall to pack his things up.

Lennon winced, he hated going to the hospital especially when it concerns him. His mother was not going to be happy and would fuss over him for days. He didn’t like worrying her, she had a lot’ on her plate, work and all.

Uncle Chase ruffled his wavy hair, “ seriously kid, how do you get yourself in so much trouble everyday”, he pointed out sitting down on the bench beside him.

He was a growing and healthy boy, he was bound to encounter some mishaps and accidents that wasn’t really his fault. Instead of answering his uncle Chase, he huddled into the man’s arm and was contented when his uncle pulled him close.

Uncle Chase was his godfather and if there was any one he admired and cherished more than his parents, it was uncle Chase. He would always buy nice things for them and take them out to have fun. If uncle Chase was there, his father would scold him less.

“ You’re spoiling the kids Chase and that’s why they don’t listen”, his father said coming up to them with his bag on his shoulders.

Uncle Chase snorted, “ They are still kids and these things will happen whether we like it or not”, he retorted.

Lennon smiled up to his father, giving him the puppy eyes that always does the trick. His father’s eyes softened when he looked at his son who was under Chase’s arm.

“ fine…”, his father, Jacob released a soft sigh. “ you’re coming to the hospital buddy and I know how much you hate the place”, he said picking Lennon up.

Lennon laid his head on his father’s shoulder. So long as he was with his father, his hero, he was okay and would bear whatever he was going to face at the hospital. Well that was until his uncle Chase called the only person he was really truly scared of, Liam’s mommy, his aunt Brianna.

“ I’ll call Brianna and tell her that you guys are coming in”, uncle Chase offered.

“ I want to go with them to the hospital daddy, I want to see aunty Bree”, Danny insisted.

“ oh, oh!”, Lennon thought. “ not aunt Bree…”