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August 17–28. Five threads. Nobody in any of them fully understands what is happening, including him — and one of them ends at midnight with two adults finding out that their son has been doing this alone since June.

Mom
iMessage
Monday, Aug 17 · 7:12 AM
Did you eat before you left
yes
What did you eat
two eggs and toast
Good.
Your follow-up with Dr. Rehberg is not until October. If you have any flank pain — any — I want to know the same day. Not that night. The same day.
mom i'm cleared. you were in the room
I know precisely what I was in the room for. I also know what a re-injury looks like on a scan and you do not.
ok
i'll tell you
Thank you.
Wednesday, Aug 19 · 9:40 PM
hey random question
how much is central michigan a year
Why
no reason just wondering
Nicholas.
it's nothing. i was just clicking around
In state with room and board it is somewhere around thirty. We will figure it out. That is not something for you to be doing arithmetic about at nine at night.
ok
Your father and I have discussed this. You are going to university. That has been settled for years and it is not the thing you should be awake about.
i know. thanks
Read 9:44 PM
for what it's worth football pays for a lot of it sometimes
like a lot of it sometimes
Delivered 9:47 PM
We'll talk about it this weekend.
That weekend came and went and she never raised it.
Sunday, Aug 23 · 4:02 PM
I have swapped with Dana. I have Friday off. I am coming.
you don't have to move shifts for a clio game mom
The rota has cost me eleven of your games. I would like to be at this one.
And I would like to watch, myself, what happens the first time somebody puts you on the ground.
that is a genuinely horrible thing to say to me four days before a game
You'll be fine.
Ha ha
Friday, Aug 28 · 12:09 AM
sent
mom it's not a good spreadsheet. it's mostly a column that says no reply
Two minutes.
Send it anyway.
Attachment: outreach_2027.xlsx · 140 rows
Nineteen minutes.
Nicholas.
Go to sleep. You have a football game.
are you mad
No.
Four minutes.
I am not mad. Go to sleep.
She was awake until 2:40. He does not know that.
Dad
iMessage
Tuesday, Aug 18 · 11:52 AM
What is a preferred walk on
it means they let you on the team but they don't pay for it
So it is not an offer
not really no
Ok. There are 61 schools on this list I made. I color coded it
dad
Green is realistic, yellow is a stretch, red is a dream. There are 4 greens
what are the greens
I am not telling you the greens because I do not actually know how any of this works and I would rather not put a wrong idea in your head
Six minutes.
that's the smartest thing anyone has said to me about this
Well. First time for everything
Saturday, Aug 22 · 2:15 PM
Rick Lynch says his boy went to a camp in june. Says it was a saturday and a tank of gas
yeah
Did you know that
Eleven minutes.
i know it now
Ok
That one is on me and I am not going to make you say it isn't
dad it's genuinely not
Nick
ok
Thursday, Aug 27 · 6:44 PM
Grandpa is coming friday
he is??
He said "yep." One word. Your aunt has called me twice about it
😭
Yeah
NM
the actual siblings
Nick, Ari, Karenna
Tuesday, Aug 18 · 4:31 PM
Ari
i added the two new schools. we are at 140 rows
you don't have to keep doing that
Ari
i know
Ari
i'm doing it
Karenna
what are we doing
Ari
a spreadsheet
Karenna
gross
Wednesday, Aug 26 · 8:02 PM
Ari
two??
yeah. ball state and wyoming
Ari
NICK
it's not an offer. it's two coaches who answered an email. that's all it is
Ari
i am putting it in the sheet
put it in the sheet as "replied" not as "interest"
Ari
i know the difference. i built the sheet
sorry
Ari
are you telling mom and dad
Nine minutes.
not yet
Ari
ok
Ari
i won't either
Friday, Aug 28 · 12:14 AM
Ari
mom just texted me asking if the spreadsheet was mine
i told her
Ari
you TOLD her??
i left a comment on her doc that said 12
Ari
that is such a psychotic way to tell your mother something
yeah
Karenna
why is everyone awake
Ari
GO TO BED
Mansour Fam
Mom, Dad, Nick, Ari, Karenna
Monday, Aug 24 · 5:12 PM
Dad
Friday 7pm. Gates at 5:30. Wear orange, the students are doing an orange thing
Karenna
i don't own orange
Mom
You own orange. It is in the dryer.
Karenna
how do you know that
Mom
I put it there
Thursday, Aug 27 · 6:49 PM
Dad
GRANDPA IS COMING
Ari
WHAT
Karenna
WHAT
Mom
Jerry he said yep. He says yep to things and then does not come.
Dad
He said yep about the christening and he came to the christening
Mom
That was 2011
Dad
And he CAME
😂 4
is somebody going to tell me what is happening
Ari
grandpa is coming to your game
Two minutes.
oh
ok
Karenna
"oh. ok." he says. as if
Jerry & Furhut
He is not in this one
This thread is between his parents. He is not in it and does not know it exists.
Tuesday, Aug 25 · 7:04 PM
Jerry
I spent about 25 minutes with Chase Lynch's father at the scrimmage
They drove to Ypsilanti in June. Left at 6am. Eastern gave them a tour, he threw for 40 minutes with 3 other kids, they ate at a Panera, home by 4
It cost them one tank of petrol and one Saturday. That is the whole bill. That is the process everyone acts like is a process
Furhut
A tank of gas
Jerry
A tank of petrol, and knowing that emailing somebody was a thing you were permitted to do
Rick has done this before with his older boy. That is the actual difference. He has done it before
Read 7:22 PM
Six minutes.
Furhut
I am going to say this badly. Hear the whole thing before you answer
I have spent a lot of this year feeling stupid and I am not a stupid person and I do not like it
Jerry
I know
Me too. For what it is worth
Wednesday, Aug 26 · 9:40 PM
Furhut
I found four camps in June we could have driven to. Bowling Green, Central, Toledo, and a multi school thing in Ann Arbor
The sixth, the thirteenth, the twentieth and the twenty-seventh of June. Jerry I have my calendar open. He was in this house for every one of those Saturdays
He was HOME. He worked a closing shift on two of them and he was in the house on the other two
Jerry
Don't
Furhut
I am not doing anything. I am reading a screen
Jerry
You are doing the thing where you build the case against yourself and then present it to the room
Nobody told us. In March I did not know the phrase "prospect camp." That is not a character flaw
Read 9:58 PM
Twenty-two minutes.
Furhut
He was also four months out from a lacerated kidney and I was not putting him in a stadium full of strangers in June. I would make that call again
Jerry
I know you would
I did not agree with it in June and I did not say so, and that one is mine
Delivered
No reply that night. It picks up again the following morning, about a dentist appointment for Karenna.
Thursday, Aug 27 · 6:11 PM
Jerry
Do we tell him about the placemat or not
Furhut
We already did. He said he does not want to be on a placemat
Jerry
That is not a no though
Furhut
No. It is a Nick answer
He will say yes in October when he decides it would hurt Dennis's feelings if he didn't
Jerry
Yeah
That is exactly what is going to happen isn't it
Thursday, Aug 27 · 11:58 PM
Furhut
Jerry are you awake
Jerry
Yeah what's wrong
Furhut
He commented on the document
Jerry
What document
Furhut
Mine. The one I started in July. I gave him access on Sunday
There is a line in it that says schools we have contacted, zero
He commented "12"
Four minutes.
Jerry
12 what
Furhut
Twelve schools. He has been emailing college coaches since June 30. Ball State and Wyoming wrote back. He has a spreadsheet
He said, and I am quoting him exactly, "i didn't want it to be a thing before it was a thing"
Eleven minutes.
Jerry
I don't know what to do with that
Furhut
Neither do I
Jerry
Furhut I have been sitting here trying to decide whether I am proud or whether I want to be sick and it keeps switching
Furhut
Both. It is both. It is going to be both for a while
Friday, Aug 28 · 12:31 AM
Furhut
He sent me the spreadsheet
Jerry it is a column of dates and a column that says no reply
He kept doing it anyway. Twelve times. Every week. By himself
Nine minutes.
Jerry
Where did he get that from
Furhut
Don't
Jerry
I am not doing the thing. I am genuinely asking. Neither of us is like that
Furhut
I texted a coach three times when I was fourteen
Sorry. He did. He did that. I am not sleeping
Jerry
Go to bed
We will do it Saturday. Both of us. We sit down, we ask him what he needs, we write it down, and then we actually do it
Furhut
Okay
Jerry he has a game tonight
Jerry
I know
Neither of them mentioned the spreadsheet to him before kickoff.
The shape of this page. He tells his mother the medical truth, his father almost nothing, his sisters everything except the part that matters, and the family group chat a running joke. The only people with the whole picture are two adults in a thread he cannot see, at midnight, twelve hours before a football game, deciding not to say anything until Saturday.
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