Once Upon A Rodeo

11: Homecoming

Homecoming

It was three weeks away from homecoming and the whole school was abuzz. Everyone was getting last minute dates and the football team was working extra hard. The practices were longer and the coaches were drilling the players harder. Which made us trainers job's harder and longer as well. Thankfully, the extra practice was paying off for our boys. They've been kicking butt the past two games and were doing the same tonight.

I was standing on the sidelines, cheering on the boys, a Gatorade water bottle in each hand, and a fanny pack across my waist. The bottle in my left hand was starting to get low, but I held on to it, not wanting to tear my eyes away from the game.

"Water?" A player asks me. I give him a bottle without looking away from the game. "Annie. Hit me up. Won't ya?" I heard a player ask me on my other side, and again I handed him the almost empty bottle without tearing my eyes away from the field. I jumped and clapped my now free hands together as one of our freshman made a touchdown. Just as the players were coming off and others replacing them, I had the bottles trusted back into my hands. I mumbled a bitter "you're welcome." They were both empty. I sighed and walked to the coolers to fill them back up, knowing that my little spot would be taken and I would have to fight my way through pads to find myself another opening.

"Hey." Callie said coming up from behind me. "You might not wanna look behind to your left. You're not gonna be happy," she sang.

I looked behind me and saw one of the freshman trainers, Evelyn, was very concentrated on wrapping Maddox's slightly scratched arm, a slight blush on her cheeks. He was looking down at her with a cute little smile on his face. "I think Lil' Bradshaw has a lil' crushy wushy."

I laughed. "It looks like he does. I'm pissed that I told them both that if he or Landon needs anything, they're mine. But I'm glad he's found somebody. She seems like a good girl, though I don't really know much about her. Do you think he'll ask her to homecomin'?"

"Oh, there's no doubt in my mind 'bout it. All the freshman have been teasin' her 'bout him for weeks. You should see her when they do. She has the deepest red blush I've ever seen. It's so cute."

"Why don't I know 'bout any of this?"

"'Cause ya spend all your time with Mr Helburn or the players. You don't really pay attention to the freshmen unless they have a question or they're doin' somethin' wrong. Plus, most of them are scared of ya."

"Oh." I hadn't realized that I wasn't paying any attention to my freshmen. I also didn't know that they were afraid of me. I don't want them to be. I want to be approachable and to be helpful. I would have start spending more time with them. Maybe I'll get in by making friends with Evelyn. But before I do that, "tell me more about our Lil' Miss Evelyn Stoval." I brought Callie to the sidelines with me. I knew that by the end of the night I would know everything about Maddox's crush. Callie was after all the trainer's biggest gossip.

Evelyn is fourteen years old. She isn't originally from here, she moved here from Virginia three years ago. Her father apparently works with my parents downtown at the hospital. Her mother is a stay at home mom. She has three younger sisters and is very good with them. Her family always come first in her book. Callie said that she's heard Evelyn refuse to do stuff with her friends because she already had plans with her siblings. She is also apparently very intelligent. She's helped many of the freshman trainers with their school work without feeding them the answers. And apparently she's had a crush on Maddox for a while.

"Oh, and she's very active in the church choir. I think that's all I can tell ya."

"That was plenty. Thank you, Callie. It's nice to hear only all good things. I'm glad that Maddox has set his eyes on her, she seems like a good girl and would do good for him. But, I can't believe that he would fall for such a goody goody. It doesn't really seem like him," I said watching a player dive for one of our players ankles and missing.