Becoming Flynn - a kissing booth fan fiction

Fifteen

A/N - sorry it's taken me so long to get this chapter out...I basically had to write all the remaining chapters to make sure all the timeline worked. Anyway, this chapter includes references to underage kids doing the kinds of things that underage kids do in real life at parties, and while I am not in any way condoning such behaviour, I am trying to be realistic.

"Flynn!" Elliott's voice reached me over the usual noise in the hallway.

"What's up, Jones?"

"They've posted the team lists, bro, come on!"

I rolled my eyes, but followed my friend down the hall, pushing past the multitudes of students flooding towards the cafeteria. There was no way Elliot hadn't made the JV basketball team, and I was fairly confident that I would be safely onto the list for football. When we reached the notice board, I let Elliot wind his way through the crowd. After a couple of seconds scanning the sheets of paper pinned on the board, he turned to me, a triumphant smile on his face.

"Hell yeah! I made it! And so did you!"

"Was there ever any doubt?" I smirked at him, hoping I sounded like I cared less than I actually did.

Inside I was pumped.

I was excited to actually compete now we were in high school. I listened to Elliot ramble on about the basketball team and who else was on it until the knot of other hopefuls dispersed before I stepped forward to look at the full football team lists. They'd named me and another guy I knew from camp as quarterbacks, which wasn't unusual, most teams would have a reserve QB, but as for which of us would be starting, well that was still up for grabs. I resolved then and there to make that starting spot mine.

It didn't matter that Connor was a sophomore, he was only six months older than me and I was bigger than him. He wasn't a starter last year, and if I had my way, he wasn't going to be this year, either. I didn't have anything against the guy personally, but I was not about to train my butt off just to sit on the bench for most of every game. I wanted to play.

Of course Mom and Dad were happy that I made the team when I told them that night at the dinner table. And of course they had to make a point about keeping my grades up.

"Yeah, I know. Coach made it very clear that any player wanting to make the starting side needs to keep an A- average," I said quietly.

"Do you see that being a problem?" Dad asked.

"No, I don't think it will be a problem," I sighed.

I'd finished eighth grade with mostly A's and just one B+, and so far this year the work hadn't been all that much harder. One of the upsides to having to maintain good grades for football was that there was no need to pretend that I wasn't smart and nobody would be calling me a nerd. Football provided a good deal of  protection from the kind of idiots that fancied themselves bullies, because picking on one member of a team was a bad idea. Of course, that didn't stop bullying within the team, as I experienced a few weeks later after practice.

A few of the sophomore guys were making a lot of noise in the locker room about which cheerleaders they were interested in dating and it seemed like their most important criteria for a girlfriend was how likely it was that they would sleep with them. I was minding my own business, packing my gear into my bag, but I couldn't help but snort in disbelief at some of the claims these idiots were making about what they'd done with this girl or that girl. As if.

And of course they noticed. And then they started in on me, teasing me, saying I was a virgin and didn't know what I was talking about and so on... They were still in my face when the varsity team came in after finishing their practice, which turned out to be lucky for me. Matt Bennett was a junior and the quarterback for the varsity side. He also happened to be a nice guy, who I'd met and been paired up with for a bunch of drills at camp this summer. He'd even invited me to a party at his house at the end of the break, and of course I'd gone. It had been my first high school party and was memorable for a few reasons.