Tryouts - Part 1
Hey Gally!
We got your photos and OhMiNeptune you look AMAZING! You look soooooo cool in armour, all mighty and tough looking.
The others loved seeing it too, Smolder and Sandbar said you looked kinda dorky but you know deep down they liked what they saw.
Hope you don’t mind but I’ve also been showing them around the School of Friendship, some of the teachers are really happy to see you’re doing well. When you do get back though, you might have to deal with a few fans.
In other news, Smolder is working through the cheerleader tryouts, being one of the original members of the buckball cheer squad means that Professor Dash has a lot of trust in her to handle it.
Do you still play buckball at the academy? I remember watching all of your games for the school team last year, watching Smolder practising her routines remind me of those days.
I have to get back to work, look forward to your letter as always!
Silverstream
There was a mixture of emotions as Gallus read the latest letter from Silverstream; relief that the photos made it through in one piece, content that his friends got to see it, and mild concern, wondering who else may have seen it. However, the latter half of the letter reminded him of what was also on his mind.
It was finally happening, the day of the buckball tryouts had arrived. After morning inspections, breakfast, and morning classes, he would have nothing else to focus on, except getting past them. His focus had to be on buckball, what with all the effort it took to sign up, and having Captain Westland breathing down his neck to get into a club didn't help matters either.
Both Gallus and his buddy, Scythe, had left a class about battle formations and were making their way towards the dorms so they could get prepared for their tryouts. In a nice change of pace, Scythe was rather calm for once. Having a place of his own and being able to learn languages did a lot to lift his spirits, but that wasn’t all that he signed up for.
“So, why cross-country?” Gallus asked his smiling friend, “I mean, you weren’t forced to take a physical activity.”
“Well, I’m not into sports,” Scythe casually admitted, shrugging as he glanced away from Gallus, “but my older brother did cross-country runs while he was here, so it’s a good way for me to catch up.” He turned his head forward, a relaxed smile spreading across his face. While it was nice for Gallus to see him upbeat, the mood was short-lived.
“Oh look, it’s Mumbles! Fancy seeing you here!”
Both Gallus and Scythe’s ears pricked up at the sound of a familiar snooty voice. Recognition dawned on both their faces, but then the tall white unicorn trotted up to Scythe, who was dreading the encounter more than Gallus. “Oh, hey Coalstone.“ he remarked in a rough, yet faint tone. He bowed his head, the smile on his face giving way to a neutral look.
The unicorn smirked, lifting Scythe’s head. He forced the pegasus to lock eyes with him, the atmosphere suffocating Gallus, with Scythe suffering the worst of it. “Come on, speak up. Aren’t you happy to see me?” asked Coalstone, his hoof was pressed tightly against the underside of Scythe’s jaw, preventing the pegasus to speak–even if he wanted to. “It’s not like anything bad would happen, I’m here. Oh! You haven’t met my friends; this is Pruminant, and this is Crossroads''.
He let go of Scythe to gesture towards two other unicorns to the side of him. One was a mare with a pale violet coat and dark blue eyes. She had her garnet-purple mane tied up in a bun, probably to conceal its true length. The other stallion was a white-coated unicorn, who preferred to keep his brunette mane finely combed. “Our platoon has been working hard to ensure we’re the finest platoon this Academy will ever have the witness of training,” Coalstone bragged, his nose in the air and his hoof pressed against his chest. “What are your friends like?”
Although Scythe was able to speak, he felt heavily reluctant to do so. “I have a good friend…”
“Oh, that’s right. You are not the kind to make friends if I recall?” the unicorn interrupted, his sardonic rhetorical question earned a snicker from one of his friends, although it pushed Scythe further down. “I’m sure you brought your books, at least then you have something to talk to...”
Gallus had been glaring at Coalstone through the whole ordeal, knowing he was the same unicorn that had picked on Scythe in the past. Seeing the unicorn pick on him was enough for him to step in. “Hey, maybe you shouldn’t be a jerk and let Scythe speak for himself?”
The three unicorns shifted their attention to Gallus, though Coalstone reacted as if it was a mere annoyance as he rolled his eyes. “Can’t you see that I’m having a conversation with an old friend- “
“What I see is you picking on MY friend, either be nice or back off!”
Coalstone was taken aback by the forceful tone and sharp glare directed at him. He sneered, annoyed at the nerve of the griffon that spoke back to him. He turned to Pruminant and Crossroads, who both looked on with wide eyes at the words before turning back to a nervous Scythe, regaining his smirk.
“Looks like I was mistaken when you arrived at the Academy, you brought your books…” his head then turned towards Gallus, who continued to glare at him, “and a pet.” The remark earned some more snickers from the pair of stuck-up unicorns and a seething hiss from Gallus.
“I’ll let you both have fun, I’ve got to get ready for tryouts, see you around, Mumbles.”
Without care or concern, Coalstone trotted away, pushing himself past the pair. The push had such a force that it pushed Gallus and Scythe to both ends of the corridors, opening the space between them to allow his friends to walk past with ease.
As frustrating as it was for Gallus to encounter that unicorn again, he could see that it was worse for Scythe, who no longer had his positive demeanour, the pegasus keeping his head down for the remainder of the trip back to the dorm. At least at that moment, he learned two things: that unicorn was more than just some stuck-up bully, and he had a name; Coalstone.
Having gotten out of his heavy coveralls, Gallus made his way out onto the field outside the gym. Fortunately, it wasn’t difficult to find where the tryouts were taking place, where several ponies stood around stretching and conversing with one another on a section of the field with four large rings. Each ring was painted to mark where the defence and goal assist players should be, with smaller rings inside for the offensive players. There were also two large wooden buckets on each pitch for the goals.
Almost every pony was either from another platoon or another company, the kind of passing faces that travel down hallways or gather around the tables in the dining hall, for none of the faces were recognisable, although Gallus wasn’t exactly given a choice of who to approach. “Bluebird, no way!” a voice of joyful surprise reached Gallus, and he turned around to see a cyan pegasus waving at him to come over.
It was Nicknames, Gallus remembered he had also signed up for the tryouts. He was also one of the more arrogant and ignorant cadets in the platoon Despite this, Gallus still felt compelled to be nice to him since Nicknames had lost his roommate only a few weeks ago. With an exasperated sigh, Gallus made his way over, forcing a smile on his face. “You’re trying out for the buckball team as well?” Nicknames quizzed Gallus upon his approach, “Didn’t even know griffons played it.”
As Gallus sat down on the grass to stretch his arms, he began to think about how to respond. Nicknames did have a point, buckball was one of the few sports that never made it beyond Equestria’s borders. Griffons do have at least one ball sport, where the ball is a small round furry creature being kicked and thrown around, but Gallus never liked rough sports like those.
“Well, I did at least,” asserted Gallus as he gently pulled one arm over his head and stretched as far as he could. “I played defence in the School of Friendship’s buckball team during my senior year, we even played against Princess Celestia’s Magic School a bunch of times.” From the corner of his eye, he could see Nicknames mull the idea over in his head, the image of Gallus stretching out to grab flying balls forming in his thoughts.
The pegasus gave a subtle nod and sound of agreement, how it made sense was indicated. “You play much?” Gallus followed up the discussion as he moved to stretch his wings.
Nicknames barely managed to shrug his own shoulders in the middle of stretching his forearms, “Meh, I’ve seen it, but Cloudsdale doesn’t play it,” he coolly confessed. “You can’t really have a team of just pegasus ponies, ya know?” The answer gave Gallus some relief, if the two of them were competing, Gallus assumed he’d easily win over somepony far less experienced.
For starters, he already played the game, not just that but trained under Ponyville’s best players, Professor Dash and Professor Fluttershy. Gallus could never figure out how his schoolteachers could find so much free time to be coaches and players in professional sports, not to mention the additional jobs on the side, and being regular heroes to friendship problems around Equestria. At that point, Gallus was willing to consider time travel, or some high-level time management set out by Princess Twilight or something…
BREET! The train of thought was derailed as Gallus and everypony around him turned their heads towards the sound of a loud whistle, blown by an exceptionally bulky earth pony in jogging attire and rectangular sunglasses that covered his eyes. One by one, ponies made their approach and line up at the edge of the nearest pitch and awaited the start of the tryouts.
“Alright ponies,” bellowed the coach, no different to any other sergeant as he marched down the line. “I’m gonna make this simple since there is a lot of you.” He began his explanation by showing off his clipboard, with a sheet of paper with six squares on it.
“There will only be six places available on the team, three on the pitch, and three substitutes,” the coach explained, considering the several dozen cadets in attendance, the fact seemed bleak. “Others will also be selected for reserves where they can be called up to join or replace the team in sudden circumstances,” he added as some form of reassurance.
“Selections will be based on your performance in these here tryouts. How it’s gonna work is that you’ll be competing against each other in teams, with each team playing four games.” Gallus looked to his left and right, he could see why activities like this were good at encouraging cadets like him to work with other kinds of ponies, in buckball he would need to work with one earth pony and one unicorn. “Also, to make it fair, the teams will be random. You can’t be a good player if your picky with your teammates.”
Even better, he didn’t have to choose or ask. Each cadet waited in line to be given a tag, detailing when they’d play, what pitch, and which side to play on. Luckily for Gallus, his tag told him he’d be one of the teams playing first, he just needed to make his move towards the correct circle on the field.
He made his way over, flying low as his sanguine face focused on the circles, eyeing the earth pony and unicorn in a casual discussion. In his head, he remained adamant that he would get along fine, sure all his previous encounters with the non-pegasus ponies ranged from confused oglers to blatant jerks, but this is sports and teamwork. At the School of Friendship, he got along with End Zone and Citrine Spark, the Earth and Unicorn ponies from his senior team in training and matches, how hard could this be?
When Gallus made his way to the pair, he prepared to find out. “Hey, I’m Gallus” he called to them both, giving a relaxed smirk as he raised his clawed hand in greeting. The two turned their heads to see the blue griffon next to them, raising an eyebrow at each other. The first to respond was the earth pony, a bright yellow stallion with a scruffy short mane.
“Uh, howdy, Eastwood” he responded cautiously, slowly offering a hoof to be shaken. His voice had a farmland drawl that reminded Gallus of one of his other teachers, Professor Applejack. “Looks like y’all on our team?” his outreached hoof bobbed up and down slowly, although there was no compelling to recede. It gave Gallus some optimism that at least one of them was willing to be friendly.
“Guess so” answered Gallus, as he revealed his tag with the corresponding pitch and side.
Then there was the unicorn, a pink mare with a strawberry mane tied in a bun, before Gallus could find out what her name was though, she let out an exasperated sigh, one that even surprised her earth pony companion. “Just what we need…” she uttered, before trotting off, only looking back to give a dirty look.
As he frowned and crossed his arms, Gallus’ anticipation of teamwork was beginning to depart from his mind, “Nice to meet you too…” he uttered, not that the unicorn with no name would be able to hear it. At least he had the credence that Eastwood stayed with him, Gallus figured he could use some time before the first game to do some sports talk.
“So, since we are playing together, you have any tactics or strategies? When I played in the School of Friendship-”
“Ya know how ta catch an’ throw a ball?” Eastwood abruptly asked, his head snapped towards Gallus, cutting into the griffon’s talk.
“Uh, yeah… like I was about to say, I-”
“Good enough for me,” responded Eastwood with a shrug and a grin, cutting Gallus off, again. “Now, ah don’t like to brag but back in Appleloosa, ah was the offence on tha high school team that got to the championship earleh this year,” he bragged with a smug grin, before laying a hoof on Gallus’ shoulder. “Don’ be afraid ta ask if you need any explanations on how ta play since y’all griffons don’t play buckball.” If Eastwood didn’t have his haughty eyes shut, he’d be looking into the fire igniting in Gallus’ retinas. “Now since y’all be on defence, all you need to do is use dem wings ‘n claws of yours to fly up and stop the ball from gettin’ into them team’s basket and pass it to me, all clear?”
“I’ll keep that in mind…” Gallus recalled with bated breath, glaring a hole into Eastwood’s chest as he made his way to centre court. Yep, he was getting along fine…
With all the players ready on the pitch, the first set of matches begun at the sound of the coach’s whistle. Each game started with the two earth ponies of each team at the centre of the pitch, as the ball is chucked in the air ready to be kicked or bucked. Their aim as the offence is to get the ball into their goal, a large bucket handled by the unicorn of their team, who is only allowed to move the bucket around the outside of the pitch. The one thing preventing them from this is the pegasus pony, who flies around their side of the pitch as the defence, blocking the ball from reaching the goal, and passing it to their offence.
For as arrogant and condescending as Eastwood was, Gallus had to give him credit for being honest at selling himself up as an offensive player. The earth stallion was fast at getting his hooves to the ball and kicking it far, no matter what angle he approached the ball from, he was able to buck it towards the goal.
Not to mention, Eastwood would sometimes buck the ball with such velocity, it was hard for the unicorn to catch up to catch the ball. The mare was given a workout from how fast she had to run from one side of the edge to the other, all while levitating the bucket. Gallus counted all the missed points from each time the ball bounced off the edge of the bucket, the thought of the lanky orange foal constantly in meditation and teaching to not think about it came to his mind.
Whenever the opposing team got the ball, that was where Gallus got to shine. The rules of buckball allow the defence to block and catch the ball with any body part, hooves, wings, flank, body, even Professor Fluttershy could catch the ball with her tail. For Gallus, his advantage was his wings, which were near twice the breadth of pegasus wings. The griffon would stop the ball in its trajectory with them, before catching the ball with his talons and throwing it back towards Eastwood.
As a result, the first game ended with five points to his team, the opposing team unable to get a single ball into their bucket. For any pony that thought this was a fluke, the teams moved and were off to face new opponents. Despite the varying level of exhaustion from both teams, in the rare moments the opponents got a hold of the ball, they couldn’t get past either Eastwood or Gallus, the scores were nearly identical, six points against zero.
Then the third game happened straight afterwards, and despite even further exhaustion against a fresh team, even they couldn’t get a single point. Eastwood was desperate for a break, buckets of sweat poured down his body, and yet he was able to buck in three points.
Finally, the team could catch a break as they were called off the pitch to allow other teams to play. They could watch as the coach walked around the perimeter of each game, and jotted notes into his clipboard, evaluating the players to see which were doing good or not. Gallus felt pleased with himself as he regained his breath and holding himself up by his arms, although no one felt more satisfied with the tryouts than the stallion who had passed out with his back laying on the soft cool grass.
“Hoo nelly! Ahm likin’ the streak we got goin’” cheered Eastwood as he punched the air with his hooves. He used what strength he had regained to push himself back up to a sitting position, before turning to the unnamed mare to his right. “With gettin’ the ball in that basket to get us points, we’d make a great team,” he declared proudly, then there was a pause, one that felt longer the more Gallus sat on the other side.
The griffon’s brows drew together, the only one who would notice Gallus’ growing impatience was the unicorn, playing coy to his exclusion. Gallus didn’t expect much praise just for being a good defender, but Eastwood’s bliss didn’t help him feel like he should be acknowledged for his hard work. After having enough, he brought his clenched claws to the tip of his beak and cleared his throat.
That was when Eastwood’s ears pricked up, realising who else was on HIS team. “Oh, and I woul’n’t be able to buck dem balls if big wings over ‘ere didn’t block and send ‘em mah way, right?” he followed in his prideful tone, the mare still in his line of sight like he’s trying his hardest to impress her.
He then turned to the teammate his hoof was gesturing towards, “Y’know, it’s fun actually playin’ with you, it’s good to know there’s a griffon whosa real good team player for once.” As sincere as he sounded, Gallus could feel unease from the implications of his statement. Guess Eastwood had no qualms referring to griffon stereotypes, much to Gallus’ chagrin.
“Well, it’s also good to know there are ponies aren’t all patronizing,” Gallus remarked, putting on a fake smile.
Eastwood missed the sarcasm and laughed, “Heh, well keep this up and we’ll be pardners in the Academy buckball games in no time!” he put it optimistically and provided a friendly punch in the arm. The game the three watched ended with a score of four points against three, rather close considering it all it took was the ball to land in one bucket to decide the game. The coach’s whistle was blown, and Gallus’ team was called up for their final game of the tryouts.
The team approached the pitch, and Gallus flew up to his defence position above the outer ring. Although he had not paid any interest in who the other teams were in the previous games, he found a reason to when he looked across. Nicknames was flying at the same level at the other end of the pitch, even from a distance, Gallus could catch Nicknames giving an eager smirk and salute in his direction.
So, Nicknames was the defender of the opposing team, but that was the worst of it. Out of the corner of his eye, a white unicorn stallion with a blond mane had trotted his way behind Gallus. “Hello, bird. Ready for a good game?” asked Coalstone in his usual snooty voice, presenting his smug grin with his nose pointed above the griffon’s place in flight.
With no intent on giving him attention, Gallus just looked ahead as Eastwood and the opposing Earth pony stood in the middle of the pitch, awaiting the ball to be thrown in the air. “Tch, typical griffon…” was all he heard from behind, a low jeering voice before a loud BREET from the whistle bellowed towards him, and the game began.
Having regained their energy, Gallus and Eastwood were back on form and gave the opposing team a workout while preventing their chances at scoring a point. Nicknames struggled to keep up, his attempts to catch the ball fumbled when it bounced off the ends of his hooves and body.
That didn’t mean there was no hope that they could score, their offence was a mare with a pale harlequin coat, and she had a mean kick to her. Gallus had to move fast whenever she bucked the ball, but even at high velocity, the ball couldn’t get past Gallus’ wings.
After his team was in the lead with four to nothing, the harlequin mare had the bucket in her line of sight and bucked it high. Gallus lined himself up, seeing the ball coming his way, he was ready to catch it. Then suddenly, he felt a shock run up his spine causing his body to spasm, his wings froze in place as he fell to the ground. Unable to block the ball, it landed directly into Coalstone’s floating bucket.
As Gallus got up, he saw the score change to be four points against one and turned around to see a coy Coalstone looking away. He knew something was up. “Hey, that was a foul!” he called out towards the coach.
The coach rolled his eyes, as he was jotting notes into his clipboard. “No foul, the team got the point” he replied, nonchalantly dismissing the claim and stuck his nose back into the clipboard. The others on the pitch having not seen what had happened, all looked towards Gallus with raised eyebrows.
But Gallus was insistent that he didn’t just fall so easily, as he flew over to the coach and argued his case. “In the rules, unicorns are only allowed to use levitation magic on their baskets, and yet I was zapped in the back.” There was no response, the coach just continued writing on his notes. “HE CHEATED!” he called out sharply right in front of the coach, pointing his talons at Coalstone.
The coach just rolled his eyes once more, “If I saw a foul, I would have called it, Griffon,” he snapped back, glowering towards Gallus. “Your teams winning, so go back to your position and continue play, unless you want to get your team disqualified.”
Coalstone in the moment of cheek shouted from his spot on the pitch, “Yeah bird, either you be nice, or back off!” the remark caused Gallus to turn his head back and glared at Coalstone, who continued the cheek of using Gallus’ line from earlier that day with a sardonic smirk.
None of his team moved from their spots, with Eastwood giving a stern look towards Gallus, insinuating a demand to get back on the pitch and not ruin the game for him. Nicknames had a look of confliction, switching glances between Coalstone and Gallus while biting his lip. Although Gallus wanted to argue further, he flew back to his position on the pitch in a humph.
After a minute of play, the coach blew his whistle. The game ended, Gallus team won with four points, against Coalstone’s team who only scored one point.
None of the cadets found out the results of the tryouts until the following day when the coach put up the full list on the noticeboard outside the Academy gymnasium. Gallus and Scythe made their way over to the board during their lunch break to find out. It was by pure coincidence that the pair also bumped into another friendly face…
“Hey, you here to see who made the team?” summoned Nicknames, he casually leaned into Gallus, resting a forearm on his back with no concern of the griffon’s comfort as he peered at the list on the board. “Let’s see… there’s Eastwood, Jet Wash, Coalstone…”
“Of course, he’s there…” Scythe muttered words under bated breath.
Then Nicknames’ face brightened, “I made the team! That is awesome!” he elated, pointing directly at the list, the word “Nick” was definitely present in the reserves section of the list. “Sure, I’m in the reserves but that means I’m in the team!” His excitement was short-lived, as he looked back at the three names on the team and three names in the substitutes. Neither of them had Gallus’ name on them, the disappointment on his face was clear as day.
“Sucks that you didn’t make the team Bluebird, you did pretty well” Nicknames reassured Gallus as he patted him on the back, “At least in the reserves, we can play buckball together with some other ponies and…”
“I’m not even in the reserves…”
Gallus’ blunt statement threw Nicknames off guard, he returned to the list and scanned through every name. “That can’t be right…” he uttered to himself in his dumbfounded state, he saw how well Gallus played in the tryouts, the couch would be an idiot not to put him somewhere on the buckball team. But after scanning the list twice, Gallus was correct, he wasn’t on the list at all.
Gallus was left feeling vacant, his arms folded tight, and his forehead creased as his eyes glared deeply at the list. The two ponies imagined how disheartened he was at the rejection. “Sorry Gallus…” said Scythe to comfort Gallus.
“Bullcrap!” yelled Gallus, the suddenness of such language caused both Scythe and Nicknames to project backwards away from him. “Coalstone cheated in that last game in the tryouts and acted like a smug jerk throughout, and he’s on the team,” he ranted, his two comrades witnessing his arms wildly gesticulating and fire in his eyes as he switched his sights between them. “I caught almost every ball in those tryouts, got that pompous pony from Appleloosa a near-perfect game streak, and I don’t even get in the reserves…”
“Hey, look I don’t get it either…” Nicknames hastily replied, repeatedly crossing his arms in a slight retreat. “Maybe there was some other reason you didn’t get in…”
“Yeah… some other reason...”
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Of course things did not go very well as usual especially Cold Stone is at agonizing Scythe and gallus what makes things worse is when Gallus met up with his new teammates which they're not a friendly group here but they are pretty good players let's go with that but unfortunately Cold Stone and his teammate basically cheated when gallus got zapped by one of the unicorns but of course in very coincidental they didn't see it so they continue the game despite they won but after the tryouts gallus did not make it and something tells me there's a lot of conspiracy going around here and I wonder why I guess we'll find out next time
yeah, it's a six-letter word for douchery
Oh. You again.
Well, why not? Just because they're the ones with the wings doesn't mean they can't play the other positions if needed. They've got legs, they can buck too. The bucket holder role I suppose is a bit complicated by the lack of unicorn magic...but honestly? Letting the unicorns manipulate the goals with their magic so is probably OP, so I'd think sticking it instead to a pony who has to use their hooves instead would just add a unique challenge to the game.
Yeah, we're still trying to puzzle it out ourselves, Gallus.
In Eastwood's defense, at least his case isn't so much one involving speciesism (at least not intentionally) but rather he's just full of himself on his own skills. Rather deal with that than Miss Unicorn over yonder, who's quite clearly a whole different matter.
You ready for a ball bucked into your face?
Two balls bucked into the face, then.
And a ball bucked into your face too, for good measure.
And that's three balls now...
Yeah, speciesism issues aside, I knew that bit with the rock-climbing club wasn't just a red herring...
Honestly? It was probably the talking back to the coach and giving the overall appearance of being unwilling to "play nice" with the other players. Don't get me wrong, the coach was totally in the wrong here about his "no foul" call, but he's also seems like the type who expects unquestioned following of his commands, right or wrong. As Gallus was unwilling to do that, that was a bad mark against him.
Of course, we also know there's some "upper management" meddling going on too, so maybe that connects to this somehow too.
It is a bit of a pity, though. Eastwood may have been full of himself, but he still recognized Gallus's skill and seemed more than willing to let him have a chance to prove himself--get him to learn a little humility, and they might have learned to get along.
But in all honesty, it might also be for the better. Prolonged association with Coalstone is only going to get his face punched in, so best keep a distance when possible for now. Coalstone might totally deserve it (and I fully expect him to get some overdue comeuppance before the story's over), but picking a fight with him isn't going to help Gallus much in the long run, unfortunately. The best way to rise above the speciesism and prove himself to the doubters is to not fall for the antagonism of the speciest and instead rise above it and prevail anyway--that's what's gotten Gallus this far, it's what will get him to the finish line in the end too.
This story is ah...heavy with the "hate griffons" aspect...hoping that changes?
10931458
Eastwood probably changed his mind about Griffions. Still got chapters left to see if more ponies will do the same and change thier opinions and not prejudge. Though I am surprised no other Friendship School Grads picked the guard, bet they would be much more open.
your new name is now Fuck Face #2
This must be what it was like to be a black athlete in America in the early to mid twentieth century. Or black in nearly any profession. Whether hostile or patronizing, they never treat you right, and many in authority are willing to screw you over or hold you to an unrealistic standard.
It's frustrating. But we know he'll overcome, since it's canon to the show. He got that shiny armor to wear. Now we get to see how he got there, and all the bumps in the road along the way.