Love in the Crisis Mode

The fourth book in the five-part Sorghum series of novels begins soon after Sorghum High graduation with pregnant cheerleader Kara Dowd marrying former quarterback Don Bader and pregnant cheerleader Connie Drake marrying former football coach Rudy Tripp. Rudy owes debts of gratitude to all three students for their heroic efforts to make the discussion club he created at Sorghum High so successful, it was copied and spread across America and beyond into much of the world. While Rudy was being praised for starting these clubs, Kara, Connie and Don were suffering from rejection problems Principal Horace Dowd thought were created by Rudy. As seniors, Kara and Connie were excellent students who applied for admission to three prestigious universities and were rejected by all three. Their attempts to apply for late admission failed because acceptance depended on spring semester grades that fell badly because of Rudy's discussion club expansion demands. As the finesse-loving Sorghum High head football coach, Rudy resigned in mid-season and was replaced by a "guts football" head coach using methods that made Don play like a robot, killing talent scout interest in offering him the scholarship he needed to go to college. Sorghum High Principal Horace Dowd, Kara's very large and influential father, was convinced Rudy prevented his son-in-law from getting a scholarship by resigning in mid-season. During a student only panel discussion at Connie's home on how to escape from all three rejections, Horace broke in uninvited, charged away from the panel to build up momentum, then charged toward Rudy, threw a roundhouse right punch that smashed into and disfigured Rudy's face. Connie called the Sorghum police who took Horace away, booked him and settled him down in a single prisoner cell. The next morning, he was found face down in a large pool of blood.