Michael and Mel

Chapter Nine: Michael

I knew that having Danny Logan back on the team would have a major impact on all of our practices, just as it had from the start six months ago, but I would have at least thought that he would have the decency to show up to his first practice since his absence focused and ready to get to work. But apparently not. Presently, Danny was off at the other end of the field talking with a group of his friends about who knows what. Which as the rest of the team knows is one rule in which Coach does not allow anyone to break. Except for Danny apparently. "Logan's dad must have bribed Coach or something." My friend Charlie said to me as we both stared with annoyance toward Danny and his friends. "Otherwise, he would never have let him back on the team. And look at that slacker now! Talking to his friends during a practice like it's no big deal while Coach does absolutely nothing about it!"

I nodded but didn't say anything, despite the fact that it was nearly impossible to do so. But standing around talking about what seemed completely unfair made me feel like a little kid who pouted about anything and everything. "Let's just hope that some way and somehow Danny will be different this time around. Although I highly doubt he will be." "Well? What are you men doing standing around looking lost for?" Coach yelled at all of us. "Get over here and get practicing!" As soon as we were all standing around Coach, he took a good long look at each of us before narrowing his eyes and saying very seriously, "All right. In just a couple of weeks, we play against USC." He paused for a minute to let that sink in. It wasn't necessary. We'd all been thinking about that game for months. It was huge. And we could not afford to lose. Coach continued. "And so far I have seen zero improvement from any of you! But let's hope that by some miracle, we can attempt to change that today. Now let's get started!"

It wasn't long before our much-needed practice turned out to be a very big disaster. Everybody was off today and Coach was just not having it. Passes were dropped, we were all missing our cues, and whenever Tim, our running back, caught a pass from me, he would only make it about ten feet down the field before getting tackled. And Charlie, who was our fullback, could not make a single block for anything. I can't even count how many times I got run down by the rest of the guys. And by the time practice was finally over, my back actually hurt from getting tackled so many times. But believe it or not, all of those things didn't even compare to what happened during the last five minutes of practice. We were just starting to finish up for the day when Coach excused himself to go and get a drink of water. But before he left, he told us not to stop practicing until he came back. And that was where the trouble started.

I had just told Tim to get into position so that I could throw one last pass to him for today. He'd hardly caught one all day and I figured that one more try might do him some good. So, he ran down the field and watched the ball carefully as I threw it as hard as I could to him, determined now more than ever to finally catch it. But as soon as the ball was almost in his hands, one of Danny's friends came running onto the field with two more people with him. The three of them were trying to get his attention but ended up causing Tim to get distracted and not only miss the catch, but also run headlong into one of Danny's friends. Danny's friend, I think his name was Jeremy, got knocked completely off his feet and down onto the grass.

Tim immediately got up and offered a hand out to Jeremy in apology, trying to help him up. It was then when me and the rest of the team ran over to better see what had happened. A few of the guys on the team started laughing, mainly because of the utterly shocked look on the guy's face. But just as luck would have it, Jeremy did not find anything even remotely funny about the whole situation. He got up and dusted himself off, glaring at both Tim and the rest of us the whole time. "Glad you think this is so funny." He grumbled. My friend Charlie stifled another laugh as he said, "Come on man, it was just an accident. No harm no foul." That only made Jeremy even more upset. "Not yet. But you'd better tell your friend here that this better not happen again." That was when our tight end, Cody, stepped forward and glared right back at Jeremy. "Yeah? Or what?"

Now the rest of the guys were beginning to sense the arising trouble and figured that we should do something to avoid it. Coach had always told us that if anybody on the team picked a fight with anyone at all, then he would make sure that their punishment was severe. "All right ladies," Charlie said as he got between the two. "Just cool it." Jeremy scoffed and shrugged. "Fine. Whatever. Come on, Danny. The rest of the guys are waiting." Danny nodded then and began to take off his helmet. "Yeah, coming." I looked at the rest of the guys and I could tell that we were all thinking the same thing. And when Danny began to walk away, I finally spoke up. "Woah, woah, woah." I said. "Where are you going?" Danny turned around and lifted an eyebrow at me. "What are you, my mother?" I ignored that and instead said, "We're not done practicing." He rolled his eyes. "Says who?" "Coach. We're supposed to keep practicing until he comes back." "Lighten up, dude!" Danny said as he clamped a hand down onto my shoulder. "Practice is pretty much over anyway." He began to walk away again. Reaching out an arm to stop him, he turned around as soon as I touched his shoulder. And then, while giving me the deadliest glare I have ever seen, he leaned in close and said, "Don't. Touch me." Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I simply glared back at him and said, "That macho attitude of yours may have worked on some of us in the past, but not anymore. Now stop fooling around and let's get back to practice, otherwise we'll never be able to beat USC." I turned away then but stopped when I heard Danny scoff. "Well, we certainly won't with you on the team. Don't think we forgot about what happened during the last big game we played together, Kassidy."

When I gave him a confused look, Danny smiled knowingly. "You know, three months ago. It was another big game, much like this upcoming one. There were two minutes left and it was up to you to score the last few points. Barry signaled to you to make sure you would catch the ball. And to be completely honest, I thought you would. But then...what happened?" He waited for my reply but I remained silent, not wanting to remember anything about that awful night. Danny sighed. "Come on, you remember! You did catch the ball...but then you somehow fumbled it. Which not only caused us to lose the entire game in the end, but also caused a huge rift in the team after that. Remember?" Looking at the rest of the guys, I saw that half of them were staring at the ground and the other half looked very uncomfortable.

Turning back to Danny, I tried my best to keep my calm as I said, "That was a long time ago. And I've worked as hard as I possibly could to improve my skills in the game since then. And what happened between the team was not my fault." Danny shrugged and gestured to the rest of the guys. "That's not what some of your friends here said. Isn't that right...Charlie?" I really didn't want to listen to anything that Danny Logan ever said, but still, something about this particular comment began to make me wonder. Turning to look at Charlie, I could see by the guilty look on his face that Danny had spoken the truth. For once. But deciding to just shrug it off and focus on the rest of practice, I turned away from Charlie and shook my head at Danny. "Whatever. Let's just finish practicing so that we can all get out of here." And right at that moment, Danny grabbed the football from Tim and threw it at my back.

"Good call." He said. "We all know that you need all the practice you can get." In that moment, I strongly considered whether or not I should forget all of my good sportsmanship and just full on tackle this sorry excuse for a teammate. And to be completely honest, I hate to admit that I probably would have tackled him too. If it weren't for Coach coming back right at that very moment, a look of sheer anger on his face as he came closer to us and blew his extremely loud whistle. All of us went silent and he gave each of us a stern warning look. "Trouble?" He asked. Danny turned to me with a smug look on his face and waited for me to speak.

Finally, I turned to Coach and shook my head. "No, Sir. No trouble." Coach nodded. I doubted he believed us but seeing as though we were already one hour over our normal practice time, I think he, along with the rest of us, was more than ready to just call it a day and go home. "All right then. All of you, get on out of here and get some rest for tomorrow! It will be harder than today. Because from this moment on, we do not spare any effort in these practices until we are absolutely certain that we will beat our rivals in this upcoming game!"