Contronym

Chapter 24

"Finn get your ass up, we're leaving in ten minutes!" I called from the bathroom while putting my hair up in a bun. It was easier if it was out of the way completely. I slipped into my Team USA training shorts and dry fit muscle tank top. Everyone was dressed in the dark navy with red stripes down the side and our last names in white. The track and field trials were on television so I wouldn't be surprised if these were too.

The events for today included various dumb bell exercises for our arms and bench presses. There were some leg exercises but not many. I was confident that those were the ones I would excel at though. Finn and I did arm work outs but mine were not nearly as intense. I bursted out of the bathroom and Finn slipped past me to get in. I downed my protein shake and slipped my sneakers on. Depending on the exercises I might have to change into my weight shoes.

Chris and Al had facetimed us yesterday to ask how the travel day was. We told them that it was truthfully boring and that we had met two of the pros. I still couldn't tell if that last comment was meant to be intimidating or reassuring.

Finn took a fraction of the time I did in the bathroom. He was out in seconds and his shoes were thrown on. We were told we didn't need to bring any of our gear with us except for things we would need to do weights.

This wasn't the NFL but I had a feeling there would defiantly be some form of tackling dummies, even if we couldn't tackle. Tackling was all about strength and form and that's what today was about. There wouldn't be any actual combine events today, though. Most of them would be on day two and three.

We slung our bags over our shoulders and we were out the door.

When we got to the stadium there were about 20 players there already, including David and Devin. I don't know how they knew each other, considering they were on different teams, but they seemed attached at the hip. Finn and I had blank faces the entire time. We couldn't seem cocky but we needed to seem confident enough to belong. The best option was to stay quiet and stand out through the events, not our words.

We placed our bags on the ground near some other peoples, but we ultimately kept to ourselves. We watched as the other players filtered it. Most of them listened to music through their earbuds but some were talking. The Pros seemed to have formed a group as well as the different colleges. It seemed like the standard groups were here. South Carolina, Syracuse, Notre Dame, and some random kids from schools like Yale and Virginia.

We wouldn't be meeting the coaches today, we would only be bossed around by trainers running events. Finn and I were already getting looks for our appearances. They probably thought I was transgender, not that there was anything wrong with that. They were looking at Finn because of his pro football player muscles that usually aren't seen on lacrosse players.

I'm pretty sure someone from the North Carolina team was about to call something out when the trainer interrupted by speaking into a mega phone. "Players! Can I have your attention? Thank you." He paused before continuing. He was a shorter man with a Team USA windbreaker on. He held a clipboard in his left hand. "Trainers like myself will be running today's events. I would like to call attention to some...unique aspects of this years try outs."

Great. Here it comes.

"We do have a biological woman here today. No she is not transitioning and she does  identify as a woman. She has played her whole career with men and beat out thousands of them to get to this point. Any player not seen respecting or treating her as everyone else will be automatically rejected, as this does not support our values as Team USA. Moving on. Today we have 18 Pro players, 17 college players and 2 high school athletes. The events for today are doing the 200lb bench press, 250lb dead lift, 80lb barbell curls, then we have Clean and Jerks as well as Snatches and Power Cleans set to a weight that is normal for your training. The first three listed are about endurance and are counted with more points. The last three are shows of strength and are not worth as much."