Anger To Love; Theo Raeken [1]

36|Losing Control

Summer had been and gone and it was nearly time for Ava's senior year to begin, and also the time for Scott and the others to leave town to go to college. Which Ava was absolutely dreading. Hayden left town three months ago to keep her sister safe. The two girls parted on good terms but Ava was obviously devastated.

Scott was currently running drills for the lacrosse team and trying to encourage all the players.

"Hey! Nice work, Diaz." He praised one of the players as he scooped up the ball from the two players who just collided. "Nolan, you stay in there. You can take him. Nice work. That's the best shot of pre-season."

"Thanks, Coach."

"Assistant coach." Coach Finstock said loudly from behind Scott. "What exactly are you doing?"

"Drills." Scott said.

"You're giving them hope." Coach said disgusted. "When did I ever give you hope?"

"Never." Scott said grinning.

"Exactly. Nothing motivates more than withering criticism. Speaking of, um, losers, where's your, uh, where's your little protege?" Coach asked.

Scott looked around the field and he only just then realised Ava was running late again. "Um..."

"Um? Is... is um a location?" Coach asked him. "Is um behind me?"

"She'll be here. Okay? She's the backbone of this team. She's stepped it up in every way possible. A born leader who can handle anything that you throw at her." Scott said confidently.

•••

I can't handle this. Ava thought to herself as she was lay across the bench in the girls locker room completely doubting herself. She was meant to be at lacrosse practice but she knows she's screwing everything up.

Get your head in the game. She scolded herself.

Hayden's gone. But it's okay. She's protecting her sister. She's done the right thing.

You need to move on.

I can handle this.

Ava cleared her thoughts and started to get ready. The door opened and Mason and Corey peeked in to make sure she was decent.

"Are you finally getting ready?" Mason asked.

"Yeah." Ava nodded feeling optimistic all of a sudden, despite the pain of Hayden leaving her.

"See, I told you, you've handled worse than Hayden leaving. You're practically the Alpha now. Hurry up."  Mason said.

Ava quickly pulled her jersey over her body, she didn't mind getting dressed in front of the two boys, she'd been doing it with Mason since they were young, and she and Corey got on pretty well now.

"Okay, Scott says coach is losing it." Mason said after checking his phone.

"Scott's leaving too." Ava pointed out as Corey helped put the rest of the gear on over her jersey.

"Going to college isn't leaving." Mason said sternly. "It's called growing up. And we're all gonna be going to different colleges eventually."

"I thought we were both applying to UCLA." Corey said.

"What, you guys are going to the same college?" Ava asked feeling her mood dropping again.

"That is not the point." Mason said.

"What is the point?" Ava asked as Mason put her crosse in her hands and they left the locker room.

"The point is summers almost over, we're about to be seniors, this is about to be the best year of our entire lives, and you're still captain of the lacrosse team." Mason said and they made their way to the field.