Break of Dawn

16 | texas blues

THE GAME AGAINST TEXAS had been painful to watch. With the final score of 19-7, the Huskies had left the field with their first L of the season and a lot of things to be fixed up.

Rory had been so frustrated throughout the whole thing, that by third quarter she had actually considered turning off the TV to spare herself, but still had gone through with it until the end.

The defense had played a good game - not their best performance and very far from their true potential - but they had managed to keep the Red Devils at bay, making it pretty hard for them to score their 19 points.

The offense, however, now that had been a great shit-show.

Actually, Dexter Fayaz' performance had been the greatest shit-show on earth.

Rory had noticed for a long time a few things that were off about the quarterback's playing - for one thing, he relied too much on his first string receivers, he was also painfully slow in decision making in the pocket, and Rory was under the impression he couldn't run a ball to save his life. He normally managed to balance out those weaknesses with his strong traits, but not this time around. This time, when faced against the highest ranked defense of their conference, Fayaz had faltered and showed only his worst.

Luckily for Lochlan, the rest of the guys in the offense hadn't been half bad. Even Damien had managed to get some field time and ran a decent amount of yards after catching one of Fayaz' sloppy passes. Rory had FaceTimed him after the game, and the fact that he was obviously elated to finally have his moment in the sun had lifted her spirits.

Walking into The Grant on Monday, on the other hand, had quite the opposite effect.

The halls were oddly silent and everyone looked slightly gloomy. Losing was part of the game, sure, but losing that early in the season was terrible for morale.

Rory worked all afternoon without any interference. There were no guys showing up at her doorstep asking for things or looking for a place to hang out - and that made time drag on slowly. By the time five o'clock hit, she was dying for a change of scenery.

The sky was turning a pretty orange color when she settled on the bleachers at the training camp. The fresh air was definitely a nice change after spending all day stuck in classrooms and at the office - and the view didn't hurt either.

Down on the green, a few guys were warming up and running drills. From her place on the third row, she was close enough that she could recognize some faces - and it didn't even take a full minute for her eyes to be drawn to a very specific one.

Now that she had finally noticed Collin Whitaker, it seemed impossibly difficult not to notice him. Not when his pictures kept popping up on her Instagram feed, or when his pretty face popped on her mind while she did her laundry - that damn t-shirt -, and definitely not when he looked completely sexy doing lunges a couple of yards down.

"Hiya" Ariella said as she flopped down on the bench. Rory snapped out of her trance, looking at her new company.

Ariella had her Thermos on one hand and two paper bags on the other. Yasmin, the cafeteria lady, had baked Turkish almond cookies and Ari had practically bought a full batch of them - which had prompted their meet-up. She handed Rory one of the paper bags before opening her own "It's really refreshing to see a face that's not scowling around here"

"You noticed that too?" Rory asked before biting one of her cookies. She could definitely get used to those sweet treats every week.

"Hard not to, everyone is walking around like it's a funeral." Ari huffed out, pouring herself some tea "They usually take Ls better, you know, but this one seems to have taken a toll on everyone"