Counting Stars // nerrie au

♡ Chapter 6-Tryouts

"Nice job Niall!" Louis clapped me on the back after I scored a goal on Mark, who I now don't like too much since he interrupted my almost-kiss with Perrie.

I smiled wide before hustling back to trap the ball so I could quickly dribble up the field and hopefully score again. If I can't be captain, might as well be one of the best players.

I trapped the ball but saw a defender, Ryan, rushing over to me and quickly passed the ball to Louis then rushed to get open.

As Louis passed the ball back to me, someone slammed into me and basically knocked me to the ground a few feet away. The coach blew the whistle and rushed over to me.

"You okay, son?" Coach Green kneeled next to me as all the other people trying out kneeled too as a sign of respect.

"I think, I'll just shake it off." I jumped up, ignoring the pain shooting up the side of my leg. That'll probably bruise later.

"You sure? You went down pretty hard." Coach Green examined my leg. "It's swelling a bit."

I nodded sharply and went back to playing, ignoring the looks that many other boys gave me. Yeah, maybe I should've sat out but I can't. I have to make this team.

So, we went on like this for a while. I scored a few more goals and Coach Green applauded my playing, which made me feel a bit better than before. But my leg was still hurting like a bitch.

"Alright, that's all for today! The results will be posted in the locker room tomorrow!" Coach Green clapped his hands together, thus dismissing us all from try-outs.

I walked over to Louis, a bit painfully, and started talking to him about the team and other stuff. Or at least I tried to.

"Niall, your knee!" Louis exclaimed while he stared at my leg. I glanced down to and it was not a pretty sight at all.

My knee was intensely swollen, it looked like a softball. Some parts were purple, some yellow, and some blue. There was also a big gash with some dried blood near it. It definitely did not look like that when I fell.

"I don't know if you should be playing in the condition, it's bigger than my fist!" Louis looked at me seriously.

"But I gotta make the team Louis, I promise to get it checked out once tryouts are over."

"I don't know Niall..."

"Please!" I gave him my famous puppy face, which caused him to eventually groan and cave.

"Fine, right after tryouts are over. Okay?"

I nodded eagerly and hugged him happily, ignoring the fact that we were both completely sweaty and in desperate need of a shower.

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"So girls, how'd your tryouts go?" I asked as I sat down in the courtyard.

"Mine were lovely." Leigh said as she plopped into Zayn's lap and nuzzled into his neck.

"There are literally no good fockey players this year. They all just decided to try out to be with their friends. Looks like we can kiss our 9 years undefeated record goodbye." Perrie groaned as she sat down between Zayn and I.

Maybe we should talk about what happened in that closet. It was pretty close to being something. But you know, it's good that we didn't. I'd rather not have her holding anything else over my head.

"Dance was great, the instructors really hot. He even winked at me!" Jesy squealed as she sat down.

"He's 25 years old Jesy, you're not even 17 yet." Jade rolled her eyes and sat in my lap. I guess this is now a regular thing.

I proceeded to count the polka dots on her dress. I mean, how could I not? There's just too many, it would be impossible to not count them.

Jade shifted right as I counted the 147th dot, the final dot to be exact. As she shifted, her weight went onto my knee a bit too much and I winced, quite noticeably.

"You okay Niall?" Jade asked, turning to face me.

"Yeah, just hurt my knee a bit during tryouts today. I'll be fine." I shrugged it off with ease.

"Sure you will..." Louis scoffed quietly, and of course I shot him a subtle glare which he chose to ignore.

"Alright. Just be careful." Jade murmured as she buried her face in my neck and wrapped her slim arms around my waist, after sending a smirk to Perrie who rolled her eyes in response.

"So, what are our plans for this weekend?" Jesy asked as she looked around the circle to see all of us.

"I say we go to Niall's house and meet the family." Perrie offered as she smirked at me. And of course everyone had to agree.

"Well I'll have to check with my parents, but I'm sure it'll be fine." I shrugged as I traced my 23rd shape on Jade's hip.

I guess I'll be having some friends over this weekend.
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Yet another filler chapter! Sorry but they're necessary to get to the good stuff! Don't be mad! I'm also awful at updating on time, sorry sorry sorry!

Stay tuned for Monday!