The Best Days

Chapter 8

It was quickly becoming apparent that I'd made the wrong choice. As I stood there on the stadium lit football field in the spot assigned to me by Strauss, I was all too aware that this was a bad, bad idea.

The ref blew his whistle and I jumped in fright. "Line set!"

Huh? What did that mean?! I looked to Gavin for some kind of guidance but he wasn't paying me any attention. He had a serious expression on his face. One I only saw when he played games like Call of Duty or World of Warcraft. It was actually kind of scary.

I had invited the girls to our first game and they had come of course. Not just to cheer me on, but because there would be boys. They'd primped and gotten a little too, but not obviously so, dressed up for an intramural flag football game. So, we had a little bit of a crowd on the sidelines. There were other girls there as well but I'm almost positive they hadn't come to see me play.

I made sure that the flag around my waist was secure and glanced around from side to side. There was another girl on our team and three guys, all of whom I had met previously. It was Strauss, Ryan (the guy with the afro), and Patrick (Gavin's cousin). The girl's name was Stephanie but I hadn't actually had a chance to formally introduce myself because Gavin insisted that we practice catching when we got out to the intramural fields. A lot of good that would do me on game day...

Okay, he also tried to brief me on what I was supposed to do a few minutes before the game. But Gavin was trying to use all kinds of sports terminology that went completely over my head. I'd only nodded and pretended to understand.

And so I was lost.

Well, not completely lost. I struggled to recall what he had said about defense. I looked at the non-athletic looking girl in front of me. She was on the opposing team. To be honest, she looked to be just as lost as I was. The poor thing had probably been suckered into playing as well.

But, oh yeah, I was supposed to be remembering what Gavin had said. It was something about making sure that she didn't catch the ball if one of her team members threw it to her. So when the ref blew his whistle and the play was in motion I took off after the girl with a determined look on my face that I'm sure bore an uncanny resemblance to one of Strauss's COD faces.

Don't let her catch the ball, I repeated to myself. I looked up in the air and sure enough there was the brown Wilson football sailing in our direction. I knew I wasn't supposed to let her catch it.

In fact, if possible I should catch it instead.

That would be called a....what had he called it...

"Interception," the ref yelled out just as the ball fell right into my outstretched hands. I nervously glanced at Non-athletic Girl and she seemed to want nothing to do with the ball as she inched away from me.

Huh? What did that mean? I stood there holding the ball in a strange stupor.

"Run!" Ryan screamed at me from across the field.

I was so startled I almost dropped it. But I had my wits enough to start running in the direction I hoped was correct. A surge of adrenaline coursed through me and I ran faster than I thought I could. I could hear the sounds of feet hitting grass as the members of the opposite team gave chase. But I didn't dare look back.

Then suddenly I'd made it to the end of the field and I came to a halt and turned around to the sound of cheering from my team.

"Touchdown Tequila!" the ref yelled.