Highschool Clichés

~Chapter 23~

Seth's POV

"Muller! Get your head out of your ass and focus!" Coach Hemming shouts from across the field. 

I girth my teeth, getting back into position behind Quincy, the center. I crouch down, looking around me before deciding on a play. "53 has the Mic, Green 32, Green 32, hut hut!" Quincy shoots the ball under his legs passing it to me, I look around fast for Everett before passing the ball to him, watching him hightail it down the field. I run after him, going on the outside, looking for a free pass so I can get it. I signal Everett once I catch up to him, and when he sees me, he throws the ball to me, going down as a Crawshaw Heights player tackles him. I catch the ball, holding it to my chest as I run like hell down the field, and just when I see the distance between me and the goal line getting shorter, I feel the breath get knocked out of me when I'm tackled to the ground by multiple Crawshaw players.

The referee blows the whistle, signaling the fuckers to get off me, and when they do, I take a huge breath, feeling like I can finally breathe again. I lay there for a few more seconds trying to catch my breath, before Everett comes into my line of vision, stretching out his hand for me to take. "You good, man?" Despite the helmet hiding half of his face, I could see the raw concern shining in his dark, brown eyes. "Yeah, I'm good." I take his hand and get up, hearing the roar of the New Hampton High supporters going wild when the see that I'm fine. I take that moment to look around the bleachers, feeling a stab of disappointment when I don't see my girl.

My girl...

Everett claps me on the back, bringing my attention back to him, and from the look on his face, I could tell that he knew exactly why I'm so down. "Don't worry, man I'm sure she's here." I force a smile on my face shrugging it off like it was nothing, but it wasn't. I didn't have the time to go pick Raven up from her house for the game, not when coach was up my ass about how important this game was. I wanted to see her before I went out to play, but I haven't seen her since the starting of the game forty-five minutes ago, and it was obviously taking a toll on me. 

Our team is five points behind with fifteen minutes left in the game, and the Crawshaw fuckers are smug as hell about it. We need a touchdown if we wanna win this game, but my mind keeps going back to Raven, wondering if she's okay or if Dimitri has done something to her. I swear if that was the case, mob boss or not, I'd fucking kill him. 

Everett and I make our way back to the other players, lining up to play again when the referee blows his whistle, "Time out, New Hampton Lions!" I hear the Crawshaw players snigger as we make our way over to coach on the sidelines with his face unbelievable red. Through all the time I've been playing football under coach Hemming, I've never heard him call a timeout, simply because we've never needed to. 

Fuck, I'm in for a heartful... 

"The hell is your head at Muller?! We need this win if you all want to make it to the semi for the scouts to look at you! I need tighter defenses, I need a wall around Muller when he passes to Young, and I need a line of offenses after him when he has that ball so he's clear for a touchdown. Now go out there and show those piece of shits why we're champions!" 

We grin like idiots before taking off back on the field. Coach rarely cusses, but when he do, he means business.