Complications

9|captain

Walker Prince

Alls forgotten when standing on this field. The conflicts, the silly rivalry's, the dislike, the tension, it's all gone the minute I'm on this field. For me it's just me and the game.

Friday night lights set a glow on the field and in the distance the outline of the mountains are accentuated by the setting sun. My eyes wander to the white and yellow lines drawn on the field and the smell of grass in my nose. In the background is the faint chatter of the crowd, the grunting and running of players warming up. I could stay in this place, this moment, forever.

"Walker!"

I turn my head, pulling my eyes away from the field goal and looking towards the sound of my name. Dad stood on the sidelines in tan khaki shorts and a white polo shirt with our school name scrawled on one side. He had on his old ball cap from when he went to school here. It's green with the emblem in yellow. He wears it to every game and it's old. The fins starting to tear and it has a sweat mark where the fin reaches the hat. But he refuses to switch. 'It's tradition,' he'd say. I can always point him out in the crowd though so I don't pressure him too much to trade up.

"Line up, time for the coin toss."

The noise of the bleachers reaches my ears and I smirk, this is the best day of the year, game day. I love that sound, the smells, freshly cut grass and a football landing in my hands with a response from the crowd. The first game day of the season. So much anticipation and practice had gone into this first game. Now we show how far we've come and what we've learned from last season. We set up the rest of the season tonight, right now.

My dad didn't mention any scouts but I'm sure there are some here today. He likes to do that, keep silent about it and then critique me after the game while slyly bringing up the fact that there are scouts. Thankfully a lot of scouts reach out to me personally or else I'd be taken off guard too much. I'm a shoe in, already have a couple offers. Tonight's about making Alex look good! I roll my shoulder, grip the helmet in my hand and nod to my dad.

He claps his hands, turning and yelling, "huddle up boys!"

The hooting and hollering starts as we all gather up around my dad. I slip my helmet on and join the fray. My adrenaline is spiking up as the excitement of the team rises. I smack guys on the helmet as I push through to the front and let out a load roar, pounding my chest as I do so.

Our mascot are silverback gorillas, which we often incorporate and act out. I used to feel silly doing the pregame ritual but now, as captain, it gets me so hyped up. I have to lead it now and make sure all the guys get into it. We all do a silly gorilla dance, personal to each of us and overly obnoxious. Always gets the crowd laughing! After I shush everyone and look around at the team.

"Game one boys, let's whoop their butts!"

My dad cuts in and makes some last minute shifts to the offense and my eyes shift to Alex. He's got the starting position and even through his helmet I can see his grin. All throughout the week he'd been mopping around. Finally I got dad to pull him aside yesterdays practice and remind him he's the starter. With Alex having this competition loom over his head seems to really be messing with his head. Once he knows your confident he proves himself worth your vote.

"Let's go!" We all scream as we break apart and the captains line up.

"Walker!" I turn again to my dad and he motions me over.

"What's up old man?"

"Silvers a new captain, don't for..."

"Wait what?!" He can't be serious? He's messing with me, he has to be. I scan my dads face for any tell but he's just frowning, probably cause I interrupted him.