Switching Sides | A Jamie Johnson FanFiction

• Part 8

"Rubyyyyyyy!" I exclaimed excitedly, sidling up to her the next morning, my PE bag dangling at my side. "Guess what."

"What?" she responded, both of them walking up towards the school.

"No, you have to guess!" I said, and Ruby raised her eyebrows, not sharing my enthusiasm.

"Um...is it something to do with Jethro?"

"No. Well, yes, kind of." I paused for suspense. "I made the football team!"

"Wow." Callum said, joining them. "The standard must have really dropped."

"Callum!" Ruby exclaimed, but I could tell there was a hint of a smile on her lips and I rolled my eyes.

"Thanks." I said sarcastically.

"I didn't mean it like that, I just meant if they're letting people with no football experience whatsoever in then maybe it's not as hard to get in as it used to be."

"What, have you tried?" I said jokingly.

"No. I'd never willingly put myself in the same room as Jethro Stevenson, let alone be on a team with him." he remarked.

"And you can't play football." Ruby added.

"Well you can relax about the standard dropping Callum; i'm only a reserve." I said, slightly disappointed that I wasn't actually apart of Jethro's team.

"Well i'm sure you'll be great, Bella." Ruby said just as the bell rang.

____________________________

After a day of more exams, I made my way to the sports hall as most of the rest of the students headed for the gates to go home for the evening. Instead, I had to survive a whole hour and a half at a football practice with Jethro.

I opened the door slowly, nearly trapping my foot in the process when the heavy wood swung back, but I caught it just in time before I embarrassed myself in front of everyone. I set my things down on an empty bench and did that thing where you pretend to be messaging someone on your phone in order to not look lonely. Having a phone out in school was strange, but at Thornlake it seemed to be normal; everyone had them out.

"Who're you messaging?" a voice said and I looked up to see another girl peeking over the top of the screen, and I quickly put my phone away so she wouldn't see that I'd just been typing random letters in my notes app.

"Oh, um. Just a friend." I replied with a tiny laugh that probably seemed forced.

"Well, turns out practice is cancelled today."

"What? Why?!" I said, probably sounding way too over the top; I was just excited about the team, and plus, my mum wasn't coming for another hour or so.

"Coach isn't here today, which if you ask me is a good thing, he's not the easiest man to get along with, but whenever that happens we're just supposed to get on with a practice match ourselves."

"So why'd you say it's cancelled?"

"Because Jethro cancelled it." she paused, looking around at the boys in the room packing their things away.

"So if Jethro doesn't want to practice, we all have to go home?"

"Oh, we're not going home. We're going to go to some of the other teams' games to scout out the competition."

"What?"

"For the inter school cup next term. We know who's signed up for it so we're gonna go scout them out, see what they're like." She said, gesturing me to follow her as we made our way out the door. "I'm Lili, by the way."

"Bella." I replied with a smile.

"Good to have another girl on the team."

"Do you actually play?"

"What, d'you mean am I not a sub? Nope. I am. Occasionally I get to play but the coach is pretty old-fashioned when it comes to girls and football." She sighed. "Like most coaches round here."

We made our way out of the school and onto the public footpath which I knew led to some pitches I knew of on the other side of town. Jethro and Alex were walking a few yards in front of us.

Eventually, we reached the pitches and the sound of shouts reached our ears as the players came into view.