Just Throw the Damn Ball- ON HOLD

Chapter 3

The teacher put his hand to his ear saying “what” I may have mumbled my words a bit.

But since no one heard the first time I decided to just leave it and not tell them as a plan formulated into my head. “Look I was just busy okay.” Trev Finally stopped laughing and gave me a questioning look. I just gave him the finger.

After that class went on kind of uneventful though I didn’t miss the evil glances the teacher gave me. My bet is that he is the soccer coach.

English was boring as always. Turns out we are reading Gilgamesh which both me and Trev read last year. At least it meant we didn’t really have to pay much attention to class.

For free period Trev said he was going to the weight room but I was too nervous at this point so I decided I would go take a nap.

Yes I said a nap. I went to the truck threw my stuff in the back and climbed in the back seat. I set and alarm on my phone for ten minutes before the last bell.

All too soon I was waking up to the sounds of call me maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen. Dammit that means Trev got to my phone again. You see we have this little game going where we steal each others phones and change the ringtones to annoyingly catchy songs. That way you have the song stuck in your head for the rest of the day. Its evil really.

So now with the song replying in my head I got up to go change into my gear. So heres my master plan, since the first tryouts is full gear I’m going to have all mine on including my helmet before I go out there. That way they won’t know I’m a girl right away. I’m hoping this way once they see my skills first they will have no choice but to  put me on the team.

By the time I got out to the field (I had changed in my truck) the boys were just starting to come out of the locker room.

The coach had us line up and shout out the positions we were trying out for. Growing up  with seven brothers, I had no problem sounding like a guy as I said “Wide Receiver” then it went down the rest of the line.

The coaches split us up between defense and offense. On my side there was this extremely cocky guy named Aiden, apparently he was the quarterback last year when the won states so he thinks he is hot shit.

What he doesn’t know is that I scored the winning touchdown for my team at nationals last year. So honestly that means jackshit to me.

We ran some easy plays, where I made no mistakes. I swear I’m not trying to be cocky I’m just good is all. Anyway throughout all practice no one noticed I was a girl. Mainly because I never let anyone get close enough to see my face.

“Number 22 (thats me) good job, you're new here right? (I nodded yes) You are also a senior right? (another nod yes) Alright now I want to see if you can block and throw, I like our players to be well rounded.”

I took the ball he handed to me and looked down the field. I saw mister hotshot QB down almost a full football field from where I was standing. So I call out to him in a manly voice “Hey 43 (his number) catch.”

Everyone around thought I was crazy, positive that I could not throw that far. But I ignored them, bringing my arm back and launching it forward, releasing the ball at just the right moment to where is soared right into pretty boys hands. I was good.

The Coach let out a long whistle “Well I think you got the throwing part down, I’m surprised you didn’t tryout for QB (I just shrugged my shoulders) Well either way you’re good, ready to try out some tackling? (again a nod of my head) You don’t talk much do you (a shake no of my head this time, he chuckled) Alright follow me.”

We headed over to the defense and he spoke to the main coach over there. They looked at the group, my guess to figure out who I should go against. They picked out one fairly large guy, definitely a whole lot bigger than me. They set everything up and a circle formed around us.

As we got into position I took a deep calming breath. I tensed my muscles ready for the whistle. Sweat was pouring off my face from the intense heat.

The other guys face was less than a foot away from mine I just hope he didn’t look too close. I gritted my teeth grinding into my mouth guard. The whistle went off.

Everything went in slow motion as I released the tension in my muscles like a coil, slamming my body into his. Because I was smaller than him I stayed closer to ground trying to get better leverage.

He was not budging! The guy had to be pure muscle or something because usually I can lay a guy out flat onto his back. My guess is he is the left tackle, they are always the biggest.

Only seconds had passed by but with the pressure he was putting on me it felt like hours. My legs were shaking, knees threatening to give out, but still I pressed on.

I lifted up my back foot trying to take another step to get more leverage but he was too powerful. I went down, knees buckling underneath me, falling back, hard, and to top it all off he fell on top of me. It was a damn good thing I was flexible.

There was a mad scramble to get the guy off of me, to make sure I wasn’t hurt. The coaches had all the guys back up to give me room to breathe. The coach kneeled by my head trying to get me to take my helmet off but I just shook him off.

I stuck my hand out and the guy who tackled me stepped up and took it helping me up. I thanked him and turned to the coaches saying I was fine. They both broke out into wide grins, having me utterly confused.

The offence coach. Coach Ben spoke up “That right there” pointing to the guy who both knocked me down and helped me up “is the best damn left tackle this state has ever seen, hell maybe even sport. And you” pointing at me “just held your own against him for longer than anyone else on this team ever has.”

Okay so now I had a huge ass grin on my face too. Everyone around congratulated me even the big guy himself who I just noticed was number 53.

Coach Ben blew his whistle getting everyone's attention. “Alright everyone thats enough of that. We just have one more thing to do that’s a tradition with the first day of football tryouts.” Groans and protests were heard from throughout the crowd, well this can’t be good. “Seems like those who have done this before remember. So I’ll get straight to the point, it’s suicides down the whole length of the field.”

Holy shit you have got to be kidding me. I could understand if it was at the beginning of practice but this is the end of a long, hard, grueling, and exhausting practice. You have got to be kidding me.

Coach Ben got everyone’s attention again “Now, now don’t be so excited about this” I think this guy thought he was actually funny. “So take off all your excess pads that can at the moment, don’t want anyone passing out from heat exhaustion.” I’m pretty sure half of these guys were already on their way there anyway.

So it looks like my little jig is up. I turned my back to the group slowly taking off my helmet and shaking out my hair. I could hear the whispers starting. I took off my jersey taking of my pads then put my jersey back on because all I had on underneath was a sports bra.

When I turned around everyone’s eyes were on me, great, just great.