Stuck On You

chapter 33: weisz's team has tension

chapter 33: weisz's team has tension

~weisz~

       I'm starting to really hate team practices. Don't get me wrong, I still love surfing and I'm so glad I'm able to surf competitively again, but Kyle still takes every chance he gets to try to tear me down. He nitpicks every single thing I do, claiming that he's just trying to help out.

       He definitely isn't. He even told me that I was sitting on my surfboard wrong while waiting for a wave. I don't know if he's doing this because he feels superior to me or if he's trying to get under my skin so I end up doing poorly. If it's the latter, then it's stupid because me doing poorly will just drag the whole time down.

       I had just finished riding a wave, so I get out of the ocean. Kyle is standing by the edge and says, "Your form was all wrong. You would have scored very poorly if this was a comp."

       "Oh my God, can you please leave me alone?" I ask. "I don't need your unnecessary comments. It's Freida's job to tell me what I need to do to improve, not yours."

       "I'm just trying to help," Kyle says. "Clearly you need it since you scored low during the qualifier. That's what you get for taking a year off of surfing and thinking you can just jump right back into it."

       "I took a year off because--" I cut myself off. I know I don't need to keep my cancer a secret since it's not some sort of scandalous thing. It's just health issues, but it's personal enough to make it hard to talk about. Besides, Kyle just might be a big enough jerk to use my health against me somehow. "Forget it. It's none of your business."

       I take my surfboard and start to head back to where everyone else is, but Kyle chooses to follow me, not wanting to end the conversation. "I bet it's something that's going to drag us all down in the end."

       I sigh heavily, feeling very frustrated with this guy. He's not the coach. He's not even the team captain. Freida hasn't chosen one yet. She said she'll have one chosen soon, definitely before our first actually competition now that we qualified. I hope to God it's not Kyle. "Again, it's none of your business. If it was something that would only bring down the team, I wouldn't have made the team. I wouldn't have even auditioned." I may push myself during practices, but I know my limits. If I was genuinely not well enough to surf, I wouldn't be doing it. "You just really need to keep your comments about me to yourself."

       "We're teammates," Kyle says. "It's my duty to make sure all my teammates perform the best they can."

       "That's Frieda's duty. Your duty is to mind your business and leave me alone. You're only throwing me off."

       "You're the one who threw me off by saying you have a boyfriend right as a wave was coming."

       "How does that throw you off?" I ask, though truthfully, I did say it to kind of throw him off, just so he wouldn't cut me off. He said he wouldn't during a competition, but I couldn't take the risk.

       "It just did."

       "That sounds like a you problem." I try to walk off but again, Kyle won't stop nagging me about whatever it is he wants to complain about.

       "I don't know why you're giving me attitude when I'm just trying to help you from the goodness of my heart." Right. Normally when someone says that, it's sarcastic. He's clearly not trying to help me. "It's no wonder that friend of yours has a lot of attitude. Birds of a feather flock together."

       "What friend?" 

       "Red hair. Piercings. The one that kept taking your drinks at the party."

       "Reno? Yeah, he tends to give people he doesn't like attitude."

       "He doesn't even know me. Why wouldn't he like me?"

       "Gee, I have no idea." This guy can't be completely oblivious to how he constantly treats me. Or he does know and he's just trying to make himself seem like an innocent person who can do no wrong.

       "Weisz! Kyle!" Frieda calls. "Get over here, please!"

       I glare at Kyle for holding me up before I walk over to Freida and the rest of the team. Kyle, thankfully, has taken our coach's demand as an end to the conversation as he walks over as well. At least we're at the end of practice. Frieda just wants to talk to us for a bit but afterwards, I can get away from Kyle.

       "You all did great today," Frieda says. "I've compiled a list of notes for everyone, so I'll email them all out individually. Please read them over and take them into consideration for next practice. There is one more thing I want to talk about, though. Surfing may be an individual sport, but you're all a team. You should be lifting each other up so you all can perform the best you could. Instead, I sense there's too much tension on the team."

       She's for sure talking about me and Kyle. I do keep to myself, so maybe there's some tension between my other teammates that I don't know about. Whatever it is, I'm glad Freida is not calling us out in front of everyone. Though considering Kyle and I were just arguing not too long ago, I'm sure everyone figured out Frieda is talking about us.

       "I have a solution," Frieda says. "Next week, we'll have a weekend long training camp. My sister has a beach house further down the beach that she's willing to let us borrow for the weekend. I'll set out the details and send them all to you. Talk to your parents to see if you're allowed to go."

       I can already tell how the conversation with my parents is going to go. It's going to take a lot of convincing, even if I'm not going to be too far away from home.

       Freida lets us all leave, though I hang back so I could talk to Freida about my concerns. "Freida, I'm a bit worried my parents won't let me go to the weekend training camp."

       "Oh? Why not?" Freida asks.

       "They're just really concerned about my health," I say. "Even though I'm recovering well, they're worried something will happen to me and no one will know how to handle it. They barely let me go on a week-long school trip until my boyfriend reminded them that he'll be there and knows how to take care of me. I think they'd just prefer someone is keeping an eye on me at all times." It sucks that I feel like I can't be alone, but it's also for the best. And at least it's not my parents hovering over me twenty-four-seven. As long as one of my friends is with me, they're okay.

       "I understand," Freida asks. "Do you think your parents will let you go if you bring along your boyfriend or a friend?"

       "I think so," I say. "My boyfriend is really good at convincing them to let me do things as long as he's there. Would it really be okay for me to bring him?"

       Freida nods. "Of course. I know he's always nearby during training and never disturbs it, so having him as a guest won't disturb the training camp. And I know you have concerns about the rest of the team feeling like I'm favouring you, so I'll let others bring a guest if they want."

       "Thank you," I say. The last thing I want is for Kyle and Karla to complain about me getting special privileges again.

       "Just let me know what your parents say about it," Frieda says. "If you're boyfriend coming along still isn't enough to convince them, I'll try talking to them." I nod, though I'm sure that won't be necessary. If Reno can convince my parents to let me go to Paris, he can convince them to let me go to a weekend training camp.

       I grab my surfboard and walk over to wear Reno is waiting for me. "So Freida wants to have a training camp next weekend. She said I can bring you, if you want to come?"

       Reno smiles. "Sure."

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i'm glad i'm updating this more frequently woo. there definitely isn't going to be a long break between chapters (at least for a few chapters lol)