The Artist • Rosalie Hale

Break Them

Selena made her way down to the lunch room with Scarlett by her side, Scarlett who was rambling about her summer knowing that even if Selena wasn't responding she was listening.  The two walked in and made their way straight to line knowing if they didn't they wouldn't get up at all, a old habit of theirs. Once done they made their way to the table they've always inhabited, in a cliche way it was the popular table, overrun with jokes and cheerleaders.

"There you two are." Xander said as the two took their seats. "Worried you wouldn't show." Selena simply rolled her eyes and turned to Nova.

"How was chem?" She asked while poking at the salad she got, it was limp and unappetizing in her opinion.

"Boring you know first day of school things." Nova said shrugging, Selena nodded in understanding. "But it can only get better from here."

"Or worse." Selena said laughing lightly. "How's cheer looking this year?"

"Couple sophomores signed up and that's it, teams pretty set though unlike your team only one of ours graduated not half."

"Don't remind me I got tryouts all week." Selena said shaking her head. "Varsity today, JV tomorrow and then call backs all next week."

"Already talking sports Sel I expected better from you." Logan said as he sat down at the table across from her. "Besides you kinda asked for it being captain and all."

"Doesn't make it not annoying." Selena said which made Logan do that loud laugh that guys do.

"Look it's the new kids." Tyler said grabbing everyone's attention.

"So they're just people." Scarlett said shrugging and going back to eating.

"Honestly Tyler acting like you've never seen another human before." Nova said laughing at him.

"Not like this." Logan said looking over the three girls heads.

"They're just pretty now stop staring, it's creepy." Selena said shaking her head a little. "Besides you'll scare them away." She said arching her eyebrow and laughing at the boys.

"Yo Sel." She turned in her seat to see Kathrine walking towards her.

"Hey boo." She said in greeting as the girl came and hugged her.

"We have tryouts today?" She asked as she sat next to Scarlett.

"Yup, although according to the signup sheet it's going to be a piece of work." Selena said shaking her head.

"You're gonna crush their spirits aren't you." Selena nodded with a smirk on her face. "I pity their souls."

"As you should." Logan said shaking his head at the girls. "Making me want to quit the team."

"Quit on me and be ready to die." Selena Said pointing her fork at him.

"Sorry cap." He said holding his hands up, making everyone laugh. "Ty how's the football team looking?"

"Pretty good, need two new players though."

Selena nodded at him. "The new kids look like they have good prospects."

"Have you even seen them up close Ms I'm blind but I dislike things on my face and refuse to touch my eyes."

"I will end you. And yea I semi spoke to them this morning." Selena told him shrugging. "Coach made me give them their schedules."

"Are they are as pretty up close as they seem from here?" Matt asks leaning across half the table to get closer to Selena, who nods in response. "God as if it wasn't hard enough being average looking." The whole table laughs and continues to talk about the new year.

-

"Alright, let's get this over with. Hi I'm Selena, I'm captain and this is Logan, co captain." Selena says looking over the field of maybe 20 students. "Behind us are Kathrine, Xander, Marco, Kayla and Max." Selena saw the new kids walk and sit on the bleachers away from everyone else who was there.

"Today we're doing drills and other things to test the basics and see who has the stamina to actually play." Logan said.

"If you don't you get booted, if you do you get a call back and you come to actually be tested to see if you make the team." Selena said looking over the group, she only vaguely knew a couple of them despite most being in her own grade. "If your good but not good enough you might make JV and you can tryout again in spring or next year."

"Now everyone needs to run 5 laps." Logan told them. "You'll be timed and then we'll spilt you into groups to test other things, so follow me." He walked the group to the the track around the field.

"This is gonna be fun." Kayla said walking over to Selena. "Can't wait to make them do suicides."

"You're evil, I'm doing dribbling drills." Marco said as he started to stretch a little. "What are you doing Sel?"

"Hating this entire thing." Sel said watching the group do the laps. "I'll be back." She said handing Kayla the clipboard and jogging over to the group. "Let's go get a move on." She yelled at them. Not to aggressive but aggressive enough to make them speed up. "I want to see sweat when this is over." She watched them run faster and then jogged back to her friends.

"Don't break them yet Sel." Max said to her as they laid back in the grass.

"They need to be broken." She said to them as she took the board back. "Okay when they're done with this, Kay you'll take these 7. Marco take these 5. Xander take these 5 and Kat you'll take these 6." She said handing them post it's with the names of the students. "After 15 we'll rotate, and once they're done with that well do team building."

"Why do team building if we're not sure they'll be on the team?" Xander asked scratching his neck.

"To see if they can work on a team stupid." Max told him. "What are doing while we wait for that to finish."

"Walking around and seeing who looks good." Selena told them, Max nodded accepting the task. The group all looked up as they heard Logan telling the group they did good as they came back over.

"Okay listen up." Selena called out. "It's drill time." She said smirking at them. "One of these four will call your name. You will go with them and do whatever drill they give you, after that you'll move on to the next drill and so on. Once that's done you will get a breather while we discuss what happened and then we have a team exercise after that you go home and by later tonight you'll get a text telling you if you're coming back Monday." The group of tryouts just nodded their heads.

"Good now let's get started." Selena said and let Kayla start to call out names for her group. "This is gonna be a mess." She said to Logan and went to go see Nova and Scarlett in the bleachers.

"You seem to be in your element." Nova said and handed her a pack of gum.

"I am." Selena said popping a piece in her mouth.

"We should go get piercings." Scarlett said out of the blue, while Selena leaned against the gate watching the drills go down.

"I'd get a tongue piercing." Selena said watching Kayla make the teens do suicides, she could tell from where she was that she was getting far to much joy from it.

"I think I just get another ear one." Nova said. "Maybe my septum." Scarlett nodded an agreement and the trio had to stifle a laugh as Xander caught a soccer ball to the face. "I know that hurt."

"At least he blocked it." Selena said and looked up to the new kids. "Wonder how JV will look tomorrow." She mused and looked back out to the field, just in time to see Xander catch a ball to the groin. That time they laughed out loud.

-

"Alright I'll see you in the morning." Nova said as she walked across the lawn to her own house.

"Later Nova." Selena said as she walked into her own house, she made sure to lock the door before kicking off her shoes. "I'm home." She called out into the Empty house, before walking up to her room for the night.