Spin the Bottle had already started.
The bottle still hadn't pointed at Andrew even once. Though it made sense, there were more than twenty people there, they had only played a few rounds so far, and it simply hadn't been his turn yet.
The one having an absurdly lucky night, however, was Howard.
The first time the bottle landed on him, he ended up kissing a girl he didn't know. But honestly, that didn't seem to bother him in the slightest.
She was gorgeous, she was at this VIP second-floor party, and she clearly belonged to the kind of "important" university social circle that fascinated Howard so much.
He practically started thanking God the moment the kiss ended. But the truly lucky part came two rounds later.
In a game like this, the odds of the bottle landing on him again so quickly were already low considering it wasn't even his turn anymore, and yet it still happened.
It was Raquelle's turn. She spun the bottle. Howard watched as it slowed more and more until it finally stopped on him.
Howard literally froze for a second before looking at Andrew, Steve, and Leonard as if he had just won the lottery.
Both of them moved closer toward the center, and Howard, probably fueled by alcohol and completely artificial confidence, decided to take a risk.
It wasn't just a quick peck.
The kiss lasted several seconds, and to Howard's absolute surprise, Raquelle actually kissed him back.
"That doesn't mean anything," Leonard immediately muttered, flat-out refusing to accept that this could possibly count toward the bet.
Though honestly, Raquelle's reaction was starting to worry him a little.
Because it could easily give Howard enough confidence to try something real later.
And if that happened, Leonard would officially be in trouble.
Meanwhile, Andrew couldn't help glancing toward Justin.
What caught his attention was how calm both he and Selena seemed to be about all of this.
"Doesn't this game bother you?" Andrew asked.
Justin, holding a red cup in one hand, barely turned his head toward him. "No. Why?"
Andrew made a small face as if the answer were pretty obvious. "Because… another guy could kiss Selena. Or you could kiss another girl and make her jealous."
Justin simply shrugged. "It's just a game."
He said it so naturally that he genuinely seemed to think there was nothing more to it.
"I see…" Andrew murmured, dropping the subject there.
If Justin was relaxed about it, Selena probably was too.
And Tyler had made it crystal clear before the game started that no phones were allowed inside that room.
No pictures. No videos.
Nothing that could end up leaked to the press or show up on TMZ the next morning, which made it perfect for Justin and Selena to relax more.
Still, if Andrew had a girlfriend, he probably wouldn't like playing something like this.
Even if technically it was "just a game," the idea of watching his girlfriend kiss another random guy didn't sit well with him.
And honestly, he didn't think one of his girlfriends would enjoy watching him kiss other girls right in front of her either.
Maybe it was a slightly old-fashioned view. Or maybe the kind of relationship he imagined was simply different.
More closed-off. The kind where both people would naturally understand that certain things just wouldn't interest them.
Then Haley's turn came. She grabbed the bottle and spun it hard across the carpet.
The glass spun while everyone watched closely.
Little by little, the speed started to slow. Conversations died out.
And silence settled over the room as the bottle finally came to a stop.
Everyone looked toward where it was pointing.
Justin.
Haley's eyes widened immediately.
Instinctively, she turned toward Rachel, who had made practically the exact same surprised expression.
Though both of them hid it quickly.
Around the circle, applause, whistles, and a few amused shouts immediately broke out.
Justin smiled too.
He briefly turned his head toward Selena, who was sitting on the opposite side of the circle with a fairly neutral expression, and gave her a small shrug as if to say: Not my fault. It was random.
Then he started moving closer to Haley.
She did the same, and the two of them ended up kissing.
From the side, Steve, Leonard, and Howard couldn't help glancing toward Andrew.
But Andrew didn't seem bothered in the slightest.
Yes, Haley was his cousin. But he had never been the overly protective or territorial type about things like that.
The problem was that the kiss stopped looking like a simple quick peck.
Haley even started pulling back slightly, as if the turn was already over.
But Justin leaned forward again, closing the distance once more and continuing the kiss for a few more seconds.
'Well… whatever. It's Justin Bieber,' Haley thought, letting herself get carried away by the moment a little.
The kiss continued until a small throat-clearing sound was heard from the other side of the circle.
Selena.
She didn't look furious, but there was a faint frown on her face as she watched the scene.
And only then did Justin finally pull back as if nothing had happened, calmly returning to his spot beside Andrew.
Andrew watched him for a second, 'They definitely have relationship problems,' he thought, reaching that conclusion.
There had already been rumors about Justin and Selena fighting.
And some small comments and certain attitudes between them throughout the night started making those rumors feel a lot more real to Andrew.
After Haley, it was Rachel's turn.
She moved a little closer to the center of the circle and grabbed the bottle.
'Andrew, Andrew, Andrew…' she thought as she spun it.
Honestly, she didn't really want to kiss anyone else in that room.
It wasn't because she thought she was superior or anything like that. It was simply that kisses felt important to her.
She didn't naturally feel like giving them to some random college guy she didn't know who would probably brag about it later like he had unlocked an achievement.
The bottle spun several times across the carpet while everyone watched closely.
Until it finally stopped.
Tyler.
The SAE president slightly raised his eyebrows and smiled, clearly pleased. Rachel easily seemed like one of the most attractive girls at the entire party.
Mason even slapped Tyler on the back while several people around them made exaggerated sounds of approval.
Tyler started moving closer.
Rachel did too, though with a tiny almost imperceptible grimace.
Yes, Tyler was attractive, and athletic, but Rachel still had absolutely no real intention of kissing him.
And just before Tyler fully leaned in toward her, Rachel gently raised two fingers to her own lips.
Then she pressed those same fingers against Tyler's mouth.
Basically making him kiss her fingers instead of actually kissing her.
Tyler froze for a second, completely confused.
Meanwhile, Rachel casually pulled her hand away and smiled with that innocent, radiant expression of hers that made it very difficult to get angry at her.
"Sorry," Rachel said, sounding almost embarrassed. "I ate a ton of garlic today and I don't want to kill anyone."
There was a brief silence.
Then several people laughed.
Tyler still looked somewhat bewildered, though he ended up laughing too because honestly, Rachel had done it with such absurd naturalness that it was hard to react badly.
Rachel simply returned to her spot as if nothing had happened.
Haley and Selena looked at her thinking: 'Then why are you even playing?'
Monica let out a small sigh and shook her head.
A few seconds later, someone was already spinning the bottle again, and the energy in the room shifted toward the next turn.
"My turn," Selena said then as she moved closer to the center of the circle.
She grabbed the bottle with suspicious calmness. Almost as if she wanted a little revenge now.
The bottle began spinning while everyone watched closely.
Until it finally stopped on… Andrew.
'Oh, no…' Andrew immediately thought, caught in a strange mix of resignation and slight satisfaction.
Because on one hand it was still Selena Gomez.
And no matter how disciplined or focused he was, obviously he found her extremely attractive.
But on the other hand, this threw him directly into the weird little drama between Justin and Selena that had clearly been hanging in the air all night.
Around the circle, applause, whistles, and exaggerated shouting immediately broke out as if this were the main event of a reality show.
Selena smiled slightly and glanced at Justin, 'You kissed his cousin. I can kiss your friend,' she thought.
Justin let out the faintest trace of exasperation, though he didn't say anything.
Andrew and Selena moved closer.
The kiss wasn't just a quick peck. But it wasn't especially intense either.
Andrew didn't let himself get too carried away.
Especially once he noticed Selena seemed like she wanted to continue a little longer. He preferred to avoid unnecessary problems.
When they finally pulled apart, Selena slowly returned to her spot while the applause and whistles around them continued.
'He kisses pretty well,' Selena thought. Part of her had wanted it to last longer.
The round continued.
Until it became Evelyn's turn. The spin she made looked far too calculated.
Andrew noticed the exact amount of force she used on the bottle and slightly raised an eyebrow while it spun. That didn't look completely random.
The bottle spun and landed on him.
Rules were rules.
Andrew moved closer again.
And unlike Selena, Evelyn clearly had no intention of keeping it as a normal kiss.
She intensified it pretty quickly. Even using tongue while several people around them started clapping, whistling, and reacting like animals watching premium college drama.
Andrew stayed in it a little longer this time, since she didn't have a boyfriend and theoretically wouldn't bring him any drama.
When he finally sat back down, Steve and Howard practically welcomed him like he had just won Super Bowl MVP.
"Dude, she wants something!" Steve immediately whispered, leaning toward him.
"Yeah! You could definitely… you know," Howard added with an overly libertine grin.
Andrew let out a laugh while lightly shaking his head.
The round continued for a few more minutes.
Until it finally became Andrew's turn.
He grabbed the bottle and spun it across the carpet while everyone watched.
The bottle ended up pointing at Rachel, who immediately straightened up, completely caught off guard.
"Garlic breath girl!" someone blurted out between laughs.
That instantly made Rachel frown.
Both because of the nickname and because now she wasn't entirely sure how to escape the situation without looking suspiciously obvious.
If she kissed him normally, everyone would notice, which meant she had to keep up her act.
Meanwhile, Andrew simply smiled with mild amusement.
At this point, he was practically expecting Rachel to make him kiss her fingers too.
Rachel slowly started moving closer.
Andrew did the same.
But right at that moment, the room's door suddenly slammed open.
Everyone turned their heads.
Two SAE members practically burst into the room looking excited.
"There's a fight downstairs!" one of them shouted enthusiastically.
The reaction was instant.
"WHAT!?"
"Let's go!"
"Holy shit!"
"Finally!" Steve exclaimed, jumping to his feet immediately.
Practically the entire room started getting up at the same time.
If there was one universal thing about huge college parties, it was that absolutely nobody wanted to miss a fight.
Especially at a fraternity.
Tyler, on the other hand, reacted completely differently. He immediately stood up with an exasperated expression.
"I swear to God, they better not break anything…" he muttered, dragging a hand down his face while already walking toward the door.
Everyone started rushing into the hallway trying to figure out what the hell was happening downstairs.
And just like that, within seconds, Spin the Bottle was completely abandoned.
Andrew was practically dragged away by Steve, Justin, and Howard, who clearly had no intention whatsoever of missing the fight.
Leonard followed behind them, unable to understand why everyone was so excited about two drunk idiots punching each other.
Rachel watched Andrew disappear into the crowd and then slowly turned her head toward Monica.
The expression on her face looked like that of a little girl who had just had her candy taken away.
"My opportunity!"
"Opportunity for what?" Monica asked while slowly standing up, her movements sluggish from the alcohol. "For your fingers to touch Andrew's lips?" she added teasingly.
Rachel stayed silent for a second before finally nodding in defeat.
"Yeah…" she murmured. "At least it would've been something."
Monica instantly laughed. "You're starting to sound just like Howard."
Rachel turned toward her looking deeply offended, "I am not a pervert like that degenerate gremlin!" she exclaimed indignantly.
As the two of them started walking toward the stairs, Monica casually spoke again.
"If it helps… I think I saw Andrew frown a little when you were about to kiss Tyler."
"Really?" Rachel said, and a smile immediately began forming on her face.
Monica then stopped and thought for a second, "I don't know," she admitted before suddenly laughing to herself. "I'm way too drunk to remember things from less than five minutes ago."
Then she raised her red cup.
"This is my fifth one."
Five cups of roughly two hundred milliliters each already added up to nearly an entire liter of beer.
More than enough for Monica to be officially drunk.
Rachel sighed, though she didn't get angry. She snatched the cup away from her, "No more alcohol for you."
Now Monica complained like a child herself, but Rachel didn't give the cup back.
After witnessing the fight, which ended up being far less epic than everyone had hoped, Andrew, Steve, and Leonard eventually ended up sitting on stools near one of the fraternity's indoor bars.
From there, they had a direct view of an improvised dance floor that had formed in one of the interior rooms.
More specifically, they were watching Howard, who was now dancing with Raquelle.
And not just dancing.
Howard was completely loose.
Moving with ridiculous confidence, pulling exaggerated and absurd dance moves that somehow actually seemed to work.
Raquelle was even laughing while dancing with him, clearly surprised by the completely unexpected energy Howard had developed thanks to a dangerous mix of alcohol, ego, and statistical miracles.
Steve watched the scene almost in disbelief, "That son of a bitch actually did it."
"Yeah…" Andrew murmured, still somewhat surprised himself.
Right at that moment, after dancing for a few more seconds, Howard and Raquelle ended up moving closer and kissing.
Leonard watched the entire scene with an expression of absolute annoyance.
Andrew and Steve slowly turned their heads toward him.
"Looks like you've got a new father," Andrew said with an amused smile.
Leonard remained silent for a few seconds while watching Howard kiss Raquelle in the middle of the dance floor.
Then he sighed in resignation, "I suppose that, statistically speaking, even highly improbable anomalies eventually occur from time to time."
Andrew and Steve laughed while the music continued pounding through the fraternity walls and colored lights constantly flashed across the room.
Shortly afterward, the two of them went back to talking about the gym.
Leonard, meanwhile, simply kept taking small sips from his cup with a defeated expression, knowing that for the foreseeable future he would have to call Howard dad.
When Steve finally noticed, he decided to intervene.
He threw an arm over Leonard's shoulder and practically started dragging him away from the bar with the very clear intention of making him forget about the whole thing.
Or at least getting Leonard some kind of female interaction that would make him forget about it for the rest of the night.
Andrew watched the two of them disappear into the crowd and decided to start looking for some of the football guys.
As he moved through the people, he eventually spotted Rachel near one of the room's walls.
A guy was leaning toward her, talking nonstop with way too much intensity, one hand pressed against the wall while he practically monopolized all of Rachel's personal space.
She didn't seem to be enjoying the situation very much.
She had that awkward, polite smile people use when they don't really know how to get out of a conversation without feeling guilty for cutting someone off.
Then Rachel slightly turned her head and saw Andrew.
Their eyes met, and words weren't necessary.
Rachel's expression practically screamed: Please rescue me.
Andrew understood the situation instantly and started walking over.
He barely even had to do anything. Just greet them, say he wanted to talk to Rachel, and the guy recognized him immediately.
The confident posture disappeared, and after mumbling something quickly, he stepped aside and walked away almost at once.
Rachel let out a quiet breath once she was finally free.
"Thanks," she said.
"No problem. You should've told him to go to hell earlier," Andrew said.
"I know. I'm not very good at those things…" Rachel sighed.
Then she changed the subject.
"Can you help me look for Monica?" she asked. "I lost track of her a while ago and she's pretty drunk. She's probably still trying to drink more," she added, sounding worried.
Andrew slightly raised his eyebrows, "How drunk are we talking?"
"She told me she already had five cups."
"Oh…"
He himself had barely had four cups, and he already felt way more relaxed and cheerful than usual.
Almost a full liter of beer was no small amount.
Especially for someone who really wasn't used to drinking often.
In fact, he was even starting to feel a little guilty now for making Evelyn drink ten entire cups during Beer Pong.
That was enough to get a lot of people completely wasted.
Which was probably why the kiss she gave him earlier had been so intense.
"Sure. Let's go," Andrew finally said.
The two of them started walking through the mansion looking for Monica, but she was nowhere to be found.
Eventually, they ended up sitting down on a pair of couches that had become free.
"Where the hell did she go?" Rachel murmured while checking her phone again.
She had already tried calling Monica several times.
But honestly, it was pretty obvious she wasn't going to answer in the middle of a party like this and at her current level of drunkenness.
"She's probably fine," Andrew said, sitting beside her. "It's Monica."
That actually helped Rachel relax a little.
If some guy tried getting too close to Monica or invading her personal space, she would probably tell him to go to hell without the slightest effort.
Especially while drunk.
Monica had exactly zero patience for that kind of thing.
Rachel let out a small sigh while putting her phone away, and that was when she noticed Andrew staring at her.
"What?" she asked shyly while looking back at him.
"Nothing…" Andrew replied with an amused smile. "I was just remembering the nickname 'garlic breath girl.'"
Rachel looked at him for a few seconds before finally laughing.
"That definitely wasn't my proudest moment," she admitted. "But hey, at least I avoided kissing a stranger. And by the way, I didn't eat any garlic. It was just an excuse."
Andrew slightly frowned, looking at her with genuine curiosity, "Then why were you playing if you didn't want to kiss strangers?"
Rachel made a small face while trying to figure out how to explain it.
"You know…" she murmured, lightly moving one hand. "So I wouldn't look like a social outcast. I literally would've been the only person in the entire room not playing."
Andrew slowly nodded, "That makes sense."
There was a brief silence before Andrew casually added, "The game got interrupted right when I spun the bottle and it landed on you. Kinda unfortunate."
Rachel looked at him without knowing what to say, feeling her heart suddenly start beating much faster.
'Kinda unfortunate?' she repeated in her head.
Her brain instantly started going a thousand miles per hour.
'Is he saying he wanted to kiss me?'
'Does he want us to continue the game?'
'Was that flirting?'
'Am I reading too much into this because I'm kind of drunk?'
"Yeah…" Rachel managed to say, trying to sound normal. "Kinda unfortunate."
Andrew looked at her for a few seconds before adding, "But I'm not a stranger."
Rachel felt like she literally stopped processing oxygen.
"So would you have made me kiss your fingers or…?" Andrew said, leaving the sentence unfinished.
At that point, Rachel's brain completely short-circuited. She slightly opened her mouth, then closed it again.
Luckily for her, a voice appeared at that exact moment, completely interrupting the moment.
"Guys, come here!"
Both of them automatically turned their heads, leaving the conversation hanging, and were surprised to see who was approaching them so enthusiastically.
"Monica?" they said almost in unison while quickly standing up from the couch.
Rachel reached her first, "Are you okay? Where were you?" she immediately asked.
Andrew stepped closer too, "How many fingers do you see?" he asked, holding up four fingers in front of her. "Do you feel like throwing up? We can take you upstairs to the bathroom."
Monica frowned in confusion at the level of concern.
They looked like two parents who had just reunited with a lost child in a supermarket.
"I'm fine," she replied, still somewhat bewildered.
Then she looked at both of them, remembering why she had come over in the first place.
"Come on! You guys are missing it!"
Before either of them could ask what was happening, Monica grabbed Rachel by one hand and Andrew by the other.
Then she practically started dragging them through the crowd.
"Mon, where are you taking us?" Rachel asked, raising her voice over the music.
Monica didn't even turn around, "You'll see," she replied simply.
She guided them through several packed rooms until they finally reached an area that was far more crowded than the others.
There was literally a huge crowd all staring toward one specific point at the front.
Monica started pushing through the people while dragging Rachel and Andrew behind her.
The fact that Andrew was there helped a lot. Several people recognized him immediately and moved aside to let him through.
Little by little, they managed to make it to a fairly clear spot where they could finally see what was going on.
The moment Rachel saw the scene, she covered her mouth with one hand and started laughing.
Andrew looked confused.
Because there were Steve and Howard doing karaoke.
Howard was completely committed to the performance.
He was singing sideways toward the audience while staring intensely at Steve as if the two of them were acting out the most dramatic breakup in human history.
Steve, meanwhile, stared straight ahead without really focusing on anyone.
Completely stiff, with a slight frown on his face.
He looked like someone being forced against his will to participate in all of this.
🎶 Now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over… 🎶 Howard sang.
🎶 But had me believing it was always something that I'd done… 🎶
The crowd started clapping.
And then Howard decided to turn up the intensity.
🎶 And I don't wanna live that waaaay… 🎶
🎶 Reading into every word you saaaay! 🎶
🎶 You said that you could let it go and I wouldn't catch you hung up on somebody that you used to knoooow… 🎶
He kept dragging out the last word dramatically, and right then Steve finally came in.
🎶 But you didn't have to cut me off! 🎶
His voice came out much louder and far more on-key than anyone expected.
🎶 Make out like it never happened and that we were nothing! 🎶
Now even Steve seemed to be genuinely getting into the song.
🎶 And I don't even need your love! 🎶
🎶 But you treat me like a stranger and that feels so rough! 🎶
The crowd cheered them on and even started singing along.
Rachel covered her mouth while laughing.
"It's Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye…" she said between laughs.
Andrew nodded. He was completely past the initial confusion by now.
Now he was laughing too while recording the entire performance on his phone.
And that was how the party finally came to an end.
Andrew, who had planned on going home much earlier, ended up staying until almost sunrise.
…
On Sunday, after waking up with a slight hangover from the party, Andrew was finally able to see all the noise his debut had generated across television and the internet.
Up until Saturday night, he had still been "the greatest high school prospect in history," the most anticipated quarterback to arrive in college football in a very long time. But college football had one very simple rule:
Until you actually played, nobody truly vouched for you.
And Andrew hadn't just played well.
He had completely shattered the national conversation of Week 1.
On Twitter, he was already trending nationally:
-Andrew Pritchett-Tucker
-UCLA
-Pritchett
-Rice
-Heisman
-Matt Barkley
-Mariota
-Best debut ever
The comparison to Matt Barkley was inevitable.
A lot of tweets repeated phrases like: "Matt Barkley was supposed to own LA this year. Andrew Pritchett just crashed the party."
Of course, there were still more cautious voices too.
Some people kept pointing out that it was only Rice, and that it still remained to be seen whether Andrew could sustain that level week after week. Others insisted that Barkley was still the real Heisman favorite and that Geno Smith had also posted absurd numbers.
But on Monday, something important changed.
The official institutions validated the debut.
The Pac-12 Conference announced its Week 1 standout players, and Andrew was named Offensive Player of the Week over Barkley without much debate.
Almost simultaneously, even bigger news arrived:
Andrew had also won the Walter Camp National Offensive Player of the Week.
At that point, the conversation stopped being just media hype.
Now it was officially recognized statistical history.
That gave even more weight to the entire debate surrounding his debut.
It was no longer just an exaggerated internet reaction or ESPN overreacting after one spectacular game.
Now there was a genuine feeling that people had witnessed one of the greatest debuts in college football history, and probably the greatest true freshman debut ever recorded.
What made it even more shocking was the context.
NCAA Week 1 was always filled with quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers exploding statistically everywhere:
Seniors. Hyper-fast offensive systems. Heisman contenders. Top-10 teams. Giant programs used to dominating offensively.
And yet the best offensive player in the entire country had ended up being a true freshman at UCLA Bruins football making his debut for a program that was still technically rebuilding.
That completely broke the normal logic of college football.
On Monday, practically every major sports show opened by talking about UCLA and Andrew.
ESPN, Fox Sports, and CBS Sports all dedicated entire segments to the debut.
And the tone had already shifted.
Now people were saying things like:
"Legendary debut."
"Best freshman opener we've ever seen."
"College football's next superstar."
And as if that weren't enough, the AP Poll reacted too.
Throughout Saturday night after all the games ended and during Sunday, journalists submitted their votes for the updated rankings.
When the official AP Poll Week 2 rankings were released Monday morning, the UCLA Bruins football had climbed all the way to #13, four spots above their original ranking.
Part of that came from the comfortable, dominant victory.
But another reason was that the country already believed UCLA had an enormous ceiling because of the elite recruiting, Jim Mora, Norm Chow, the offensive talent, and above all, the Andrew phenomenon.
The debut had simply confirmed that all the hype surrounding UCLA was real.
And with all of this, the pressure on Andrew and the rest of his teammates only continued to rise to massive levels.
Especially on Andrew.
His debut hadn't reduced the hype.
It multiplied it.
Up until the game against Rice Owls football, there had still been a small mental barrier surrounding Andrew.
He was still the greatest high school prospect in history, a prodigy, a sort of chosen one of modern American football, but he still hadn't officially played at the college level.
Now that had changed.
And what shocked the country most was that Andrew hadn't merely lived up to the expectations.
He had exceeded them.
Throughout Sunday and Monday, Andrew watched as the internet, ESPN, and practically every major sports show began talking about him as the future face of college football, a future national superstar, a potential number-one Draft pick, and possibly the most impressive freshman quarterback anyone had ever seen.
All of this after just one game.
But what came next would be even bigger.
The next opponent would be the Nebraska Cornhuskers football, one of the most historic and respected programs in all of college football.
Nebraska was no longer in the golden era that had dominated the sport from the 1970s through the 1990s, but it was still a massive program. A national top-25 team, physically brutal, with an enormous football culture.
Its five national championships, 1970, 1971, 1994, 1995, and 1997, were still embedded in the program's DNA. And the teams coached by the legendary Tom Osborne, especially the 1995 squad, were still considered by many analysts to be among the greatest teams in college football history.
At the moment, Nebraska was ranked #16 in the AP Poll, and the game would be played at their home stadium.
That meant something completely different for Andrew.
He would no longer be surrounded by UCLA fans.
Now he would have to make his first road trip as the starting quarterback and step into one of the most historic and intimidating environments in the country:
Memorial Stadium.
The stadium officially held more than 85,000 people, practically all dressed in red. An absolute sea of red that made every Nebraska home game visually overwhelming even on television.
And there was another detail even more impressive.
Nebraska possessed one of the most absurd streaks in all of American sports: more than sixty consecutive years of sold-out home games.
Since November 3, 1962, every single game played at Memorial Stadium had sold 100% of its tickets.
More than 400 straight sellouts.
Something almost impossible to find in any other sports franchise in the United States.
The combination of this opponent and this new UCLA team led by Andrew made the matchup feel enormous even by NCAA standards.
Now the entire country wanted to find out something else:
What happens when Andrew plays in a hostile, fully road-game environment for the first time?
And even though Memorial Stadium was considered one of the toughest places in the country to play, it also had a very particular reputation within college football.
Unlike other stadiums famous for being aggressive or outright hostile toward visiting teams, Nebraska was known for something almost unique: the sportsmanship of its fans.
The crowd was intense, loud, and absolutely obsessed with its team, but there was also a very strong tradition of respecting the opponent.
That was why so many players and coaches repeated the same thing about Nebraska it was probably the most polite and respectful fanbase among the country's major programs.
That didn't mean the environment was easy.
Not even close.
The noise was still deafening. The pressure was still enormous. And the sea of red was still visually overwhelming from the very first second.
Throughout Monday and Tuesday, Andrew practiced while feeling a different kind of weight on his shoulders.
It wasn't that he was suddenly discovering pressure for the first time.
Andrew had lived with it for years.
Ever since his junior year at Mater Dei High School, the entire country had been watching him constantly.
Especially after the game against St. John Bosco High School and the moment when he publicly promised they were going to destroy them.
From that point on, the phenomenon surrounding him had only continued growing.
By senior year, the pressure had already become absurd:
expectations of perfection, constant fear of losing, historical comparisons, viral highlights, nonstop analysis, national debates, and games televised across the entire United States.
And outside of football, he didn't live a normal life either.
Thanks to his YouTube fame, Andrew had already become used to dealing with massive public opinions, criticism, fandoms, constant scrutiny, and millions of people reacting to his videos ever since he was sixteen years old.
That was precisely part of what had allowed him to have such an incredible debut.
Pressure didn't paralyze him.
He had already learned how to function inside that pressure. And it also helped that he knew the stage from his first life.
Though this had clearly already surpassed the pressure he used to feel in Texas.
After Rice, something changed.
The difference wasn't the noise.
It was the nature of the noise.
Before, even as the greatest high school prospect in history, there had still been a certain layer of protection around him.
He was still "the future," a young player developing, a generational talent who still had time to grow.
Now he wasn't.
After that debut, Andrew started to feel like the present. Because people were no longer talking about what he could become.
Now they were talking about him as a real college football superstar.
Analysts were already mentioning him in early Heisman Trophy conversations if he managed to maintain that level.
ESPN constantly replayed his highlights.
Sports shows debated whether people had just witnessed the greatest debut in history.
Before, the country expected potential. Now it expected immediate results and Nebraska Cornhuskers football was not Rice.
They were a historic top-20 team, physically brutal, and completely accustomed to massive stages.
On top of that, the game would once again be played in prime time.
This time on ABC, with even more reach than ESPN since it was a broadcast television network.
That was why Andrew felt something different that week.
Not fear exactly.
Which was why, on Wednesday, when he was sitting inside Sean's office, his psychologist's office, Andrew felt calmer.
Just someone he could talk to without all the outside noise weighing on him.
"So…" Sean said in his usual calm, warm tone, "how'd the week go, chief?"
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