Not Your Average Football Girl

Chapter Six

I stand there with my hand held out to them as I wait patiently for their laughter to die down. Seriously, what's so funny?

"You're kidding, right?" Cody turns to Coach.

"Nope." Coach crosses his arms in front of his chest and raises an eyebrow at them.

"Well, I don't wanna play if there's a girl on our team, and she's supposed to be our captain?" Austin questions.

"Do you have a problem with girls playing football?" Jay asks. She stands to her feet and pulls her helmet off.

"You have two girl players? Are there more you're hiding?" Austin asks with amusement.

"Nope. Just us, but we don't need you on our team if you don't want to be here. We're fine without you." I tell them.

"Kaeleah." Coach warns.

"I'm serious! If they don't wanna play they don't have to, and we don't need them. We won state three years in a row with Jay and I on this team. We can probably do it again without these three, right boys?" I turn to my team and the guys all whoop and holler in response.

"Guys, we can't not play. It's the only sport available, unless you wanna be cheerleaders." Lance puts his hand out to me and I shake it. "Playing with girls won't be a bad thing." He shrugs. Austin and Cody follow his lead and put their hands out.

"Well since you're gonna be on my team, you have to have respect and be responsible. Respect is earned. If you respect them, they'll respect you." I gesture from the team back to them.

" You respect and treat everyone on this team like family, because that's what we are, we're a family. You're responsible for any trouble you make. We have a zero tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol. Do them on your own time, but you do not bring it anywhere this team, this school or this field. If you do have any problems, come to me and we'll work it out. If I can't find a solution Coach will. Got it?"

Cody has a bored look on his face, and so does Austin. Lance looks happy that I'm accepting them. Maybe he and I will get along.

"Ok, so Lance is gonna be another wide receiver. Austin is gonna be forward back, Cody will be our running back and will also be our second string quarter back."

My jaw drops in surprise. I look to the guys and see they all have the same expression.

"Coach, are you sure about that?" Jay asks.

"100% positive." Coach flips through the pages on his clipboard and writes something down. "Do you have a problem with that?" He looks up at Jay and glances at me.

"Actually y-" Tyler starts, but I quickly cut him off.

"No, we don't."

"Alright then. Kae a word." Coach walks away from the guys so I follow behind.

"I know you're worried, but don't be, he's just second string in case something happens. I've seen his game play and I have a report from his previous coach. He's more of a running back than a QB."

"I'm not worried about that, but do you know how much the critics are gonna eat that up? They've been waiting years to have something on me. I can see the headline now,  'Kaeleah Anderson Caramel Heights Quarterback has a new second string after going three years without one'. They've been waiting years to have something on me."

Which is true. When you're a little kid, no one cares if you play a 'boys' sport, cause during that time it's cute. As you get older, it's a different story. It turns into 'She's just looking for attention', and 'She belongs on the cheer squad' and yada yada yada. A bunch of complete bullshit if you ask me.