Top Notch

Verse Two of the Metzgerhund Retreat series is for anyone who insists on competing at the absolute top of their game, in whatever it is they do.

It's also a story for those who aren't concerned with results, but simply want to do whatever it is they do for fun. Only for only.

Although…Billy Mecklenburg would recommend you not mix the performance junkies with the participation trophy participants.

Billy had a difficult enough time creating events for Rhoden Woods Youth Center's Olympic-style competition where all the teams could compete in equally, especially since his involvement with music and baseball pushed him into the performance junkie range. Billy knew that, by combining the two disparate groups, he would have to deal with the complainers, the slackers, the excuse makers, and those who were excluded because they weren't good enough to compete.

It didn't help that his lead singer and resident two-sport athlete, Reggie, was doing most of the complaining.

To add to the unnecessary noise and frustration, his bass player, Sam, began excluding potential fans from a jam session because they couldn't play the same passages he could play.

Yet, it was Sam's behavior that awoke inside Billy an ambition he'd kept hidden the last two years, one that he made excuses about rather than do something about it. And the last thing Billy wanted was to be lumped into the participation trophy group. He had work to do.