Life in Search ✔️

3 ~ Interesting

I'm still mildly in shock as I walk into the gym.

God, if I had known she would've been that difficult I wouldn't have waisted the time on the thought. Although, I hate to admit it but despite the bad attitude she's really good looking.

"McClain, you're here!" A voice shouts, knocking me from my thoughts.

I turn to find the coach from Friday jogging towards me, a wide smile on his face. Right, I forgot about him. Football.

"Hello, Coach." I extend my hand, slightly grossed out by how sweaty his is.

"Football here is pretty simple. Our athletes are limited but the ones we have are decent. Practice is every day after school till six. Friday's are always game day and the weekends are yours." He rambles as a helmet, pads, and practice jersey is placed in my hands.

He continues about expectations, the same ones I've already heard a thousand times today. No acting out in school, good grades, being respectful– the usual. At this point the words should just be tattooed inside my eyelids, not like it really matters.

I want to go along with whatever he says but a small, nagging part of me feels the need to be honest. "Coach." I say but he leads me towards the locker room. "Coach."

He stops mid-sentence, "Yes, Son?"

It's difficult to not cringe at that word but I clear my throat. "I don't possess the cleanest track record when it comes to being on a team."

"What do you mean?"

Shame tinges my cheeks, "I fought a lot. The first time I got kicked off was for fighting a kid on the opposing team. It was my fifth one of the season and we were in game four. The second time was thirty minutes after I was let back on, the team captain pissed me off."

He's silent for a moment and I'm expecting him to take all the things back, but he grips my shoulders. "Where was that?"

"In Atlanta, sir."

"Well, last I checked you aren't in Atlanta anymore. Tempers are good as long as they're kept in check." He adds, slapping my shoulders before continuing on his way.

I stand there, completely taken back by his actions. He's the first person in this building to be genuinely nice to me, even if it's just because he wants me on the team. At least it's something.

Following him into the locker room, I brace for a terrible smell but it's surprisingly not bad. After showing me a locker, a fat book is slapped into my arms, "What's this?" I ask his retreating figure.

"A playbook, learn it." He says and before I can protest, he clears his throat. "Here's one of our star players now, show him our top three plays."

A kid takes his place in the doorway, skinny and long limbed. His skin is tan, almost darker than Dads, a Nike headband holding back brown hair that would probably fall into his eyes.

He takes me in, a goofy grin on his face as he walks up to me. "What's up, man, my name's Sage."

It takes me a second to shake his hand as I take in his height. Holy hell, he's a giant. The guy's a solid three inches taller than me, making him 6'7 at the smallest, "Ashton."

To distract myself from his terrifying height I focus on his flamingo embroidered shirt. "Nice to meet you, I take it you're the new QB?" He asks, opening a locker.

"Yeah, anything I should be prepared for?"

He rummages through his belongings, pulling out a plastic bag. What's he doing with his lunch in second period? "We're not a bad team, state is an actual possibility, so I hope you're ready."