Change the Game

Freshmeat

"Reece come down, Brooks just pulled into our driveway!" my mother yelled across the house.

I grabbed my tennis bag, my backpack, and my wallet and took one last quick look at myself in the mirror. This is it, no more cutesy all-girls Catholic school where there was drama that took place in every nook and cranny, this will be different. Right?

I headed to the kitchen where I saw my mom set cantaloupe on the kitchen island in front of my neighbor Brooks. Brooks was a tall guy, 6'4 but in his head, he's 6'5. Nice brown wavy hair that he grew out over the summer ever since he thought beach boys were a "vibe". Childhood friend, nothing more nothing less. Never.

"Nice of you to join us, Reece, look at you, you'll make the two of you late for both your practices," mom said scolding me. Both Brooks and I have practices for our sports in both the morning and afternoon, he plays football while I do tennis.

Brooks swiveled himself around in the barstool to look at me and obviously approved by the smirk he gave off, which I rolled my eyes to. 

"You do know the girls usually change in the locker rooms before practice right?" Brooks said. Good for me I'm not trying to bend over show my ass like the other girls while the football jocks stare through the door whistling at them. I already had enough of that at summer workouts. If you couldn't tell yet, my teammates are literally desperate for male attention.

"I want extra practice before practice," I shrugged, no I don't but it's better than sitting in a room with Brooks and my mother.

"Practice is an hour long in the mornings and 2 hours practices also after school 3 times a week. I think you'll be okay," he said leaning back. 

"You know what let's go," I said nodding my head to the door grabbing a piece of cantaloupe.

"You two have fun! Here's your coffee, Gatorade, and water bottle, Reece!" my mom said handing me an entire yeti bag to go along with the 3 other bags I'm already carrying. Brooks gave me a funny look to which I shook off again until he grabbed the cooler from my hand when he saw I was struggling.

"Oh and picture time!" my mom said grabbing her phone out her pocket.

"Moooooom," I said groaning, just the yearly picture to go on the wall of shame.

"Come on Reece Cup," Brooks said snaking his arm around my waist and pulled me closer. I mustered up the fakest smile I could create while my mom spent three minutes taking pictures. 

We finally made it to Brooks' SUV when he said, "you're all decked out for practice, are you wearing that for the afternoon too?" 

"Nah I have like three changes of clothes," I said pointing to my full bags. He gave me a weird look, probably confused why I packed way too much especially for like nothing.

"Ahh, and what are your lunch plans?" he asked. Wait, what? I'm freshmeat in a new jungle, and a junior is asking for my lunch plans? Nah, he's not interested he'll just make fun of how lonely I am. 

"I know no one, remember? So I'll probably try and sit with some people I meet, and I'll just get a pb&j for lunch," I said as he pulled out of my driveway.

"The cafeteria food is nasty, no you're coming with me and my boys for our daily off-campus lunch. Trust me you'll like them our crew is elite," Brooks said very proudly. He made it very clear to me that he and his boys are the best people around. That's like me saying I will get every guy begging to be with me.

"Thank you?" I said confused whether or not it's a good thing.

"Anything for the freshmeat," he winked.

I sighed and laid my head on his window while we passed by the city until we pulled into the school parking lot. Brooks pulled into his spot where there were already 4 guys sitting in the back of their trucks talking.

"So where do I go?" I asked.

"Well if you're normal you'd be in the locker room gossiping since the courts aren't open, but you're not normal so you can hang with my guys for now I guess," Brooks said opening his door, "oh and feel free to leave anything here you can grab my keys after practice."

Why's he the sweetest? Nah it's not going to last he's gonna use me for the boy's attention and sweet talk me to make the girls jealous. 

I grabbed my tennis bag and my Gatorade bottle and walked to where Brooks was headed to and that happened to be the junior guys of the football team and his crew of "elite guys".

"Hey everyone this is Reece, she's a new freshman from Saint Anne's," Brooks said showing me off.

"Saint Anne's, the uptight all-girls school?" one guy with brown hair said, this is when I realized these boys are basically the same person with slightly different features.

"Yeah that's the one," I smiled holding onto my bags. And the guys just continued talking about who would be captains this year and eventually I got sick of hearing names I didn't even know so I decided to go to the back of Brooks' car to prop my phone up and use it as a mirror to fix my hair, which was already flying everywhere.

"Hey," a blonde headed tall kinda muscley guy said coming up to me.

"Hey!!" I said as I put on my headband, "I'm Reece which you probably know."

"Yeah, that's true I think I heard about you a few minutes ago, but anyway, I'm Rhett," he said extending his hand.

"Nice to meet you," I said smiling and giving his hand a shake.

"So what was it like going to Anne's?" he asked leaning on the back of the SUV near me.

"Your normal middle school, just a little more church focused, we went to church every Friday, and uh Pizza Lunch," I said picking my phone up.

"Tell me more, especially about the pizza lunch," he said right as his stomach growled.

I laughed and that's what I did, I told him everything there was to know about my old school, how I miss my friends, and how I was scared of starting here only knowing Brooks.

"Well hey you know me now," he smiled.

"I guess you're right," I smiled looking at my shoes.

"Hey love birds fields and courts are open, come on we gotta practice," the guy with brown hair called out to me and Rhett.

"Shoot all my stuff is still in my car," he said checking his watch.

"That doesn't sound very organized of you, but hey I'll come with you so we'll be late together," I said grabbing my bag.

We kept talking except this time about how he was threatened to be sent to boarding school and we walked to his car where he grabbed his bags out the trunk. The walk to the courts and field from the parking lot is quite the walk I'll admit but it was nice because unlike summer training where I walked with my head down, I now have someone to laugh with. When we rounded the corner to the tennis courts a bunch of girls from my team immediately turned their heads gawking at me and Rhett, scrap that. All the girls were staring.

"Wow you must be popular or something," I laughed opening the gate.

"Kind of but let's not talk about that you should know me for me, not by popularity standards. I'll see you at lunch," Rhett said as he closed the metal gate behind me and shook his head to the girls. Wow, he seemed really serious about that, I wonder what he's hiding. I walked over to the team and set my bags down but it didn't take long for the girls to swarm me, except they just stood there with their arms crossed and didn't say anything.

"So, Rhett?" Madison the team captain finally said raising an eyebrow. 

"Rhett," I nodded.