Airball

Chapter 5 - Exercise Is Fun, Change My Mind

November 11, 2019.

Before I knew it, it was Monday morning. Time for tryouts. From what I'd heard, South Miami High held their tryouts after school. Everyone, from Freshman to Senior, who wanted to play would show up try out. Then, after the tryouts, the coaches would decide where to place everyone, either JV or Varsity. A year ago, I might have been training hours on end to be placed on the varsity team. But I knew better now. I would be lucky if there was even a place for be on the junior varsity team.

Besides, I didn't want to leave my former teammates to play on varsity. The plan had been for all of us to play JV until we were all good enough to move up to varsity. That way we would stay together, like a team should. So I had my eyes fully focused on making the junior varsity team. I was ready to give it my all, no matter what happened.

I wasn't really nervous or anything, but I had a feeling that I probably should be. After last year, with a whole championship game heaved on the back of the "star player", nothing really stressed me out. If I could come through with all those people watching pretty much me alone, nothing else seemed too bad. And these were just tryouts. I tried to get myself back into the overconfident swagger that I had put on for my previous tryouts, I knew it wasn't the same. My playing wasn't the same. I wasn't the same. All of these thoughts were lost on me, though, as I flew through my daily routine and jogged to school.

The day went be pretty quickly, actually, all things considered. For the first time in probably the whole school year, I could talk openly with all my friends. I avoided and kept secrets from no one. It was refreshing.

"I told you coming clean would make you feel better," Austin said at lunch.

"Uh-huh," I replied. "And how can you tell I'm feeling better?"

"Dude, you're back to yourself again," Austin said.

"Back to myself?"

"Definitely," Max said.

Austin, Cam, Nathan, and Max all have the same lunch as me. Second lunch. I had been skipping lunch for tutoring in biology for awhile. Not that I cared much about being better at biology, but it had been easier than lunch with friends that didn't know I was planning on betraying my promise to them. I no longer had to worry about that, which was yet another relief this week was bringing.

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"Oh," Cam started, explaining to everyone else at the table. "So in biology, right, our teacher was giving us a lecture. Well, during the lecture, she asked us all what the fastest way to determine the sex of a chromosome," Cam paused to laugh a little. "And Blake here goes, 'Pull down his genes?'"

This got a faint reaction from Austin, Nathan, and Max, not at all what Cam had hoped for.

"Get it?" Cam asked. "Like genes, but like jeans?"

I nudged him in the shoulder to save him from more embarrassment. "I think they got it, man."

"Ah, well," Cam resigned. "You had to be there."

"We get what you're saying, though," said Austin. "In middle school, he used to make remarks like that in the middle of class all the time."

"I remember that," Nathan said. "Had the whole class rolling in laughter. Every time."

I didn't know what to say to any of this, but thankfully the bell came to the rescue. I threw my trash away and headed to fourth block, which came and went just as quickly as the rest of the day had. I felt alive in the classes, woke with anticipation. I hadn't slept through math class or biology or any of them today. It was the same feeling as when I used to have games that night. I was mentally preparing myself hours before the game so that my head would be clear during the game itself.