Friday Night Midnights

Friday Night Lights

*** Joel's POV ***

Waking up Friday morning to the sounds of screams being heard from the basement. Running into Lisa's room like I do every time I hear screams. Even though I'm 17 and she's 22, we still hide in her closet with pillows around our ears waiting for the screaming to stop. No one knows about these days. The days when my mom and dad can't look at each other, the day when Lisa is quite literally the best sister on the planet. I know I trash Lisa every time I get but the last thing I want is for the guys to know what goes on at home. And if I'm nice to Lisa at football, they'll know something goes on that makes us so close. They're not idiots no matter how much I call em that. I don't want the looks of pity we all give Ryder on his dads birthday.

Slowly, the screaming quiets enough for me to get up, open the closet door, put the pillow back on Lisa's bed and head back to my room to get ready for school. It's already 7:45 and I've missed the bus but being late to school is the last of my worries. A few extra suicides at practice is nothing compared to what I often wake up to. Running out the door after pulling on jeans and a sweater, I sprint to school hoping I'll do the 15 minute bus ride in a 20 minute run. Running always gets me thinking and somehow my mind never wanders to home. Today, I'm thinking about the game. And yes, even though it's game day coach will still make me do suicides after the game if I'm late to school.

I run into first class just as the late bell goes. Mr Duncan looks at me with a smirk.
"Nice to see you this morning Joel" he chuckles.
"You too teach!"
"You guys gonna win the game tonight?"
"Of course. Wouldn't have it any other way!" I reassure Mr Duncan as I walk to the back of the classroom and take my seat next to Ryder.
"Ur lucky as fuck we have Duncan first block."
"I know man. I know."
The day passes by without much excitement. Before I know it, I'm in the locker room putting on my shoulder pads waiting for coach to walk in saying the bus is here. No clue why but it's one of our team traditions to always put on the gear in the home locker room. We never do it in another schools room.
"WHOS GONNA WIN?!" Ryder shouts.
"COYOTES!" The team yells back. Then we start barking like we imagine coyotes do. We sound absolutely crazy but within seconds we're all laughing and smiling, ready for the game ahead. And that's the reason Ryder's the best captain a team could ask for. He always knows when we need a little pump up.

The bus shows up and we all pile in, laughing and conversation coming from every row and bench on this bus. Heading to the field didn't take long. Within what seemed like minutes, we were all piling out and walking to the visiting teams locker room. We dropped out bags and listened to coach review the plays we practiced all week. Ryder gives us one last pump up shaking out all our nerves and getting us laughing again.

Heading out onto the field, you can see our nerves come rushing back into us. Even Ryder looks a little nervous for the game ahead. Normally, we're not fazed by the idea of a Friday night under the fluorescent lights in front of hundreds of fans, facing off against a rival school. Tonight was a little different. Tonight, instead of wide receiver, I'm a guard. I've never played guard other than in this week's practices so this game will be fun. Ahaha not.

I'm still thinking about how the game will go when I feel and hear someone banging on my helmet.
"What?!" Kinda annoyed here. I was quite happy in my own head.
"Coin toss. Let's go." Oh. My bad. My fellow captain, Ryder, was just trying to get the game started.
"Sorry man." I get up and hand in hand, we walk to centre field with the only actual good senior, James.
"Let's have a good game boys. Coyotes, call it." Ref instructs.
"Tails." Ryder chooses as we always do. Coyote tails. We watch as the coin is tossed and lands on the green turf with a light thud, heads on top. The referee looks at our rivals, the other Seattle team, Lakers. "We choose to receive." No surprise there. Haven't met a team who's chosen to kick first. We shake hands with the Lakers' captains then head to our bench so the kicking team can head onto the field. Oh wait. I'm on that team. This game is going to suck.

End of first quarter and we're down 7-20. If you can't tell, we're getting killed. We haven't played this bad of a game since... well ever. Coach is pissed. Ryder is pissed. The whole team is pissed. At this point, we're all just waiting for coach to tell us to play our normal positions. The only reason we have that one TD is because somehow I got open, Ryder passed me the ball right before he got sacked and I ran. I guess I missed the guy I was supposed to block. The ref calls us back out and we all look at coach. Waiting. "What are you guys waiting for? Get back out on the damn field and fix this!" So... we're keeping our positions. Fan-fuckin-tastic.

We're doing a little better this quarter. It's now 10-20. And we just got that field goal to make it 10. Ryder, Aaron, and I just hit the field again. As we were taking our positions I heard Ryder yelling at us. "Coyotes. Get over here." Confused, the whole line got up and walked over to Ryder. "I wanna win. Don't know about you guys but I think coach is being stupid for not switching us back to normal. You guys agree?" There were mumbles of agreement. "Ok. Aaron and Joel switch up. Dave, you're gonna run a 9. Straight down. Joel run a mid post. Everyone keep me covered, all other receivers, run to distract. Dave and Joel are the main options. Got it?" "Ya"'s were heard throughout the team. "Alright. Hit your position." We all ran to the scrimmage line and waited for Ryders 'hut' call.

"HUT!" Ryder called. And that was my cue to run. God this felt good. Standing on that line the whole first quarter was causing my legs to cramp up. I'm wide open as I look back up field to where Ryder just let go of the ball. It was a perfect spiral heading directly where I was going. Actually, it was a little ahead. Putting on the gas, I sprinted until I was right under the trajectory of the ball. It landed right in my arms and I took a few steps back to get in the end zone. 16-20. The team comes running down field jumping and yelling at the hope that seems to be coming back. We run off for the kicker to come on the field and get us up to 17.

I see Ryder and coach having a heated discussion out of the corner of my eye. I walk over just in time to hear Coach yell. "—my choice. I'm the coach. There was a point to my plays to the switch up!"
"Coach. I'm sorry. We want to win and that wasn't going to happen with the positions we were in. Joel can't block for the life of him and Aaron can't catch. I was getting sacked every play. There was no way the ball was going to get down field."
"That's the point Hill." Huh? "We can't rely on the same players game after game. What happens when you, Joel, and Aaron graduate? The younger guys don't get ball time."
"Coach. We still got next year to train em up. We're good. We just want to win." Coach isn't having it.
"I'm coach. I call the positions and recommend plays. You call the plays. Play your position or you're off."
"Yes coach." Through that conversation, the Lakers got the score to 17-27. We head back out in our this week positions and play our hearts out.

After half isn't much better. There was no more switching up positions. We played what coach wanted. Game over with a score of 24-30 Lakers. We head off the field and get back on the bus in silence. The ride home was silent. There was no joking. There was no stupid comments. Silence. Kinda freaky being on a bus with 30 6 foot guys and not have there be any noise.

When we got back to the school we headed to the locker room, got changed and headed home. Once home, I had a quick shower before making scrambled eggs and toast for a semi-dinner. Mom and dad were somewhere and I didn't have the energy to make anything else. I sat on the couch and ate until the plate was practically licked clean. After cleaning up the kitchen from my mess, I head upstairs. Once laying in bed, I pull out my phone to see a stream of messages. Quickly scrolling through, I'm looking for one person. Found it.
H: good game Joel. I think ;)
Me: haha thanks. Hows ur bro?
H: he's fine. Outside again but fine
Me: that's good. I'll text him later
H: thanks Joel
Me: ya anytime
Me: hang this weekend?
H: ya I think so. Maybe Ryder and mom will go see Kaylie again
Me: lemme know. See ya later
H: see ya. Night
Me: night H
H: night J
Swiping out of that chat, I click onto Ryder.
Me: go to bed man
Ryder: how'd you know I wasn't
Me: I know you
Ryder: coach is stupid. We coulda won
Me: ya but not if Martinez was in
Ryder: ya alright
Ryder: I'm gonna head up. Tmr? Herman?
Me: ya I'll text Aaron
Ryder: Alright. See ya
Me: see ya
Eh. I'll text Aaron tomorrow. Tonight, I plug in my phone and go to sleep. Hopefully next weeks game will be better.