Broken (18+)

chapter 5 - tryouts

Veronicas POV

Waking up feeling refreshed and in a good mood, I feel like I can conquer the world. Its volleyball tryouts today. The way that Ridell does sports tryouts is a bit.. strange. They have a whole school day cut out for it, so no schoolwork today, yay! I change the bandages on my knuckles and throw on a pair of sports gloves to make it look less obvious that my hands are wrapped up in bandages. Everyone was told to wear their sports attire for the day, so I throw on my favorite pair of gym shark leggings and a sports bra with a loose hanging crop top over it. I tie my hair back in a high ponytail and dab on some light makeup. Satisfied with my sporty look for the day, I grab my backpack and head towards the school.

There are stands set up throughout the school grounds, showing off the sports achievements over the past few years, trying to get people to try out for the teams. Every student has to participate in at least 1 school sport as the school believes its crucial to the students health to be active. Even if its just 1 afternoon practice each week.

I meet up with Lynn before the day starts and we walk together through the stalls, looking at all the different options. Lynn gets excited as she sees the cheerleading stand. "Oooh come on, let's go look at that one!" She says, dragging me to the cheerleading stand. I laugh as I say to her, "Lynn, I'm going to go check out the volleyball stand, ill meet you at the cafeteria after tryouts okay?" She looks at me with puppydog eyes, asking me to stay with her. But her mind changes as she sees one of her cheerleading friends.

I laugh at her sudden mood changes and walk over to the volleyball stand. "Hi Veronica! I'm so glad to see that you've decided to sign up for volleyball tryouts! Remembering how you played that volleyball game against the boys in gym class, you'd for sure be a great asset to our team." Says coach as I start signing my name on the sign up sheet. I look up with a big smile, "thanks coach. Volleyball is really my favorite sport! Its just such an adrenaline rush. I cant wait for tryouts to start!" She beams with joy as I wave goodbye to her and walk along the rest of the stands.

I see Jace standing by himself next to one of the stands. "Hey Jace, why do you look so lonely?" I ask as he waves at me. "Oh I'm just waiting for the coach to arrive. He always takes his damn time for everything. I wanna sign up for Football tryouts." He says motioning to the stand next to him. I let out a low whistles as I take in the achievements of the past few years of football. "The school really does well with regards to sports don't they?" I ask him still looking at the various awards on the table. He chuckles, "yeah I guess we do, don't we."

"Listen Veronica, I know this is probably out of line. But Jason is really sorry for what he did and the way he did it. He wanted to come and explain yesterday at lunch after you walked off, but Griffen stopped him and the two were almost about to brawl in the cafeteria." He says with sadness for his brother. I look at him with confusion evident on my face, "wait, you said Griffen stopped him? Why would he do that?" He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know, the guy seems protective of you. Like he needs to be your knight in shining armor or something. Jason told me about what happened after homeroom too. Is there something between you and Griffen?" I scoff, "for fucks sake, this guy is fucking everywhere lately. He keeps 'coming to my rescue' when he thinks i need help. I'm getting sick of it."

He looks over my shoulder and rolls his eyes, "its about fucking time. Coach eventually decides to show up. 30 minutes late." I turn to see who he's talking about and I'm taken aback by who I see walking down the row of stands towards us. "No. Fucking. Way. Is he the football coach?" I ask Jace as I turn back to face him. He looks at me surprised, "yeah, he used to be one of the best players in the country. Its an honor that he is the coach at our school. Do you know him?" I sigh and roll my eyes trying to ignore how my heart beat increases, "unfortunately, I do. His dad does business with mine. I get a bad vibe from him though." Jace looks asif he's about to say something but someone speaks from behind me.