Football is King

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I poured over the laminated papers, flipping through each page. I heard someone sit down across from me, "Umm, Tripp?"

I looked up from my notebook for a second to see Ben staring at me with a concerned face, "Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

I gave him the short answer, hopefully he'd leave me to myself, "Studying."

 "I can see that, but, Buddy, it's the first day of school. We haven't even gone to first period yet. There's nothing to study."

I sighed, "It's our play book for football. I have to know all of these plays by Friday's game. It's crucial that I play well on the season opener."

Ben grabbed for the book, "You are the only one on the team who knows all the plays backwards and forwards. Give me that and come sit with us. We are scouting out the freshman girls. Come on, Buddy, take a break."

I held tightly onto the booklet, "No. I have to study." I pulled on the book as he was pulling to take it away from me.

"You can take a break for five minutes." We were playing a miniature game of tug-o-war with the play book.

"You don't understand, Ben. I have to study."

He shook his head, "No, you don't. You will be fine."

I shook my head, "No, I won't. ACU is going to be at the game. I have to do well."

The book slipped from his hands and hit me in the face. He huffed, "Fine, whatever." He got up from the chair and walked back to the other table all the guys were sitting at.

I opened my book back open and started studying once again. They didn't understand. They were fine with staying here, working at the local timber yard. I however was not. I wanted to leave this stupid town behind. The only thing that I was ever good at was football. It was my one and only ticket out of here, and I'd be damned if I didn't take it. I was going to do everything in my power to get a scholarship and leave this place behind.

I heard someone else sit down, I didn't even bother looking up, "Ben, you better get up and turn around because nothing you say will make me stop studying."

"Wow, I can't believe you'd mistake me for Ben Southerland. I know I quit volleyball, but have I really gained that much weight over the summer?"

I looked up to see Connor Montgomery sitting on the other side of the table. Her soft brown hair fell past her shoulders and I could see the playfulness in her brown eyes. "Oh, sorry, Connor. I thought you were Ben. He came over here earlier."

"It's okay. We get mixed up all the time. Someone even asked if we were twins."

"I'm sorry."

She smiled, "It's okay. I just wanted to stop by and observe the amazing phenomenon."

I gave her a quizzical look, "What?"

"Phenomenon is like an atypical occurrence."

"I know what it means. I was wondering what the phenomenon is."

She smiled, "Sorry. You never know, football players have such a limited vocabulary." I rolled my eyes at her jab. "Anyways, it's you."

"Oh yeah? And what makes me the phenomenon?"

She laughed, "The fact that you are a stereotypically stupid person, studying before class has even started."

I lifted the play book, "It's for the game on Friday."

She nodded, "Oh. See that make much more sense. I was beginning to think that this was backwards day or something."

"Haha, very funny."

She smiled again, "So, how was your summer?"

I eyed her suspiciously, "What do you want, Connor?"

She shrugged, "I don't know what you are talking about."

"You have barely said three words to me since freshman year and now you come up and are being all buddy buddy with me. There's got to be a reason for your aberrant behavior."

She laughed, "Kudos on the vocab word, you are smarter than I give you credit for."

I shrugged, "I've been studying, and you didn't answer the question."

She sighed and picked at a thread on her purse that was sprawled across the table, "I need your help with something."

"And what is that?"

She nervously flipped her hair over her shoulder, "Well, it's something that I don't feel comfortable saying out right."

"If you're not going to spill the beans, I'm going to go back to studying plays." I buried my head back down in the book.

I heard her huff, "Fine. But I swear to God, if you tell another living soul about this I will personally murder you. I'm smart and watch crime shows, I can make it an accident."

I shiver ran down my spine, for some odd reason I knew she hadn't been joking. "Okay, yeah. I promise I won't tell."

She fidgeted with her sleeve, "I know this is weird and totally random and such an odd request, but would you kiss me in the hall later?"

I laughed, "Excuse me?"

She stared back at me with the most serious expression I'd ever seen. "I'm not kidding."

"I didn't say you were. It's kind of an outrageous request, don't you think?"

She sighed, "Okay, well, what do you want for it?"

 I shook my head, "I don't want anything except for an explanation."

She rolled her eyes, "Okay, so Jake and I broke up over the summer."

"Weren't y'all going out for like 6 months?"

She nodded, "Yeah, and he got together with Mallory McCauley, and out of stupidity and jealousy, I kind of told him that I was dating someone else."

2 and 2 was now making 4. "Me."

She nodded without looked at me, "Yeah. I'm so sorry, but it just came out."

I laughed, "Why did you chose me?"

"You are the one person that Jake absolutely hates. So I figured that if I was dating you, that it would piss him off the most."

"Why does he hate me? I've barely spoken to the guy."

She shrugged, "I have no idea. All I know is that he hates how perfect you are." She rolled her eyes, "He prattled on about it for all 6 months we were going out."

"Okay, sure."

"Sure what?"

"I'll kiss you later. Isn't that what you wanted?"

Her brown eyes lit up as a smile spread across her face, "You will?"

I nodded, "Yeah, sure, why not?" I paused, "Can I go back to studying now?"

"What? Oh yeah. Okay. Thanks so much, Tripp. I owe you." She jumped up from her seat and ran off.