Pass Me the Ball

Chapter 1 - Try Outs

"Pass me the ball!"

I groaned as I watched Danny, the quarterback, throw the ball to Chris, the wide reciever. I sucked in air through my teeth as I felt the chill of the steel bleachers touched the back of my unclothed thighs. These shorts were too short for my liking, but they were required.

"This is horseshit" I muttered to myself, quiet enough so nobody could hear me.

I threw the shiny, ridiculous pom poms on the ground infront of my feet and took a quick sip of my gatorade. Football season had just started and just like the last two years I was stuck on the bleachers watching the team practice. 

"Alright, five minutes is up. Let's go our first game is in two weeks!" the cheer captain, Abigail, yelled.

I let out another groan, grabbed my pom poms, and went back into cheer formation.

"Now, Samantha, stay in step with the beat this time. Once you can handle that, you'll be nailing it."

Of course the only complaint was directed at me. I was putting no effort into this bullshit. The only reason I join the team each year is to be able to watch the football games. I love football, always have, but do you really think my girlie girl of a mother would allow her 17 year old daughter to compete on the football team? 

The music to our routine started and I took a deep breath before putting on the fakest smile I could handle and began the ridiculous movements they considered cheering. We finished the routine and I let out a deep breath I had been holding in. Abby clapped her hands.

"Alright that was perfect, good practice girls, see you tommorrow!"

I internally cheered, I was tired of this. I walked back to where I had my bag and gatorade sitting and took a quick sip before hearing someone across the field scream.

"Look out!"

I turned quick enough to see a football flying in the air, aimed at Rebecca, one of the flyers on the squad. Before I had time to even think my body was moving toward her. I hadn't realized what was happening, it was just an instinct. I was moving faster than I felt I ever had. I quickly realized running wasn't going to get me to the needed area quick enough. I jumped forward hoping to atleast block her from the blow. Reaching my arms out as far as they could go, I felt the rough texture of the football hitting my finger tips. I quickly snagged the football to my chest and held on for dear life. I spun my body around making sure I landed on my side, but made sure to clutch the football. I hit the ground and waited until my mind came back to me before lifting my head. Once I stood up I could see the entire football team, including the coach, and my squad staring at me in disbelief. I looked at the object in my hands and it hit me. I had actually dove for the football, caught it, and kept it in my posession.

"Throw it here" Chris said.

He was only about five feet from me. I looked in the distance to see Danny at least 50 yards out. This was my shot to show them what I had always wanted to. I smiled and switched my hold on the football to my right hand. I took a step back before throwing my weight foward allowing my arm to reach out and the football to fly flawlessly through the air, hitting Daniel in his left shoulder pad. It bounced off his shoulder and landed directly in his hands. I sucked in air. A little too far to the right.

"Or not" Chris continued as he looked back at Danny.

"Adams!" Coach Carson yelled from across the field where he was seating on the visiting team's bleachers.

"Where did you learn to throw like that?" he asked.

I didn't really know how to answer that. I wasn't taught, nor was I really shown how. I just would watch and replicate the players I saw on TV every game. I shook my head at him and answered the best way I could.

"I didn't learn sir! I watched!"

"Meet me outside the locker rooms! Boys good practice hit the showers!"

The team was dismissed and I made my way to the girls' locker room with the rest of the squad.

"Sam, why don't you just play football?" Rebecca asked me as I sat my gym bag on the benches in front of the lockers.

I shrugged.

"Never thought about it."

"Oh, bullshit. That's all you ever talk about. I see the way you watch the practices everyday, and not in the way we do" she finished as she wiggled her eyebrows.

I smirked.

"Becca it's not that simple. My mom would kill me. All she wants is to see her precious little girl holding that trophy from nationals." I rolled my eyes as I took off my sweaty tank top and replaced it with an old college football shirt of my dad's.

"Yeah, but all you want to see is that football landing in someone's hands in the end zone" she whispered as passed by me, exiting the locker room.

I sighed and sat down on the bench. Maybe she was right, maybe I needed to forget about my mom's dream and follow my own. I finished changing, sprayed myself with perfume to hide my smell, and slipped on my Nike slides. I threw my half empty gatorade into my bag before closing my locker and exiting the same way as Rebecca. I saw coach Carson leaning against the brick wall of the schools gym as I walked out to my Ford ranger that sat in the same spot it always does.

"Alright so talk with me Sam."

I threw my bag into the back of my truck and looked at him.

"About what coach?"

"How you can throw like that? How you should be throwing footballs through the air rather than girls? Or maybe about how you want to play football more than anything and belong on this team?"

I smiled.

"Coach, trust me when I say I'd kill for a chance to be on the field, but unfortunately as a player is not option."

"Welp, you're gonna make it one. Meet me on the field tommorrow at 2:45" he said as he began to walk to his Chevy Tahoe across the parking lot.

"Cheer starts at 5" I called after him.

He smiled over his shoulder "you'll be a quarterback by then Adams, no doubt."

My eyes widened. Quarterback? Was he serious? A player maybe, but quarterback?

 Danny's going to kill me.