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“Or how about I tell her ‘Houston, we have a problem’…in my pants!” Wilks suggestively boasts his way forward, and now, the remaining boys are howling with laughter, some crutched over themselves, while others are practically on the ground.
My blood boils, and before I know it, I shout, “Enough!”
The room turns silent as my voice echoes on, but that doesn’t appease me one bit.
“I don’t want to hear you talking about Delaney like that, you hear me? Not another word.”
The boys stare at each other in mutual confusion, visibly weighing up the ulterior meaning behind my words—at the same time as I am.
“Why? What’s wrong, Coach?” Wilks is the first to push his luck as the sides of his mouth lift up in a grin. “You want her all to yourself, or what?”
The sheer weight of his words falls onto my shoulders as quickly as I brush them off. They’re meaningless, change-room talk. The boys will do anything to taunt and push my buttons. I’m convinced that testing just how far they can push me is one of their favorite pastimes.
I take a firm step forward, prompting Wilks to cower back subtly. “What I want,” I begin, “is for you lot to stop fawning over every bird that walks in here and start worrying about the fact that your season opener is in two weeks. And if you don’t get your heads out of your arses, the only thing that’s going south is our ranking in the league. Understood?”
This time, the silence remains as slowly, but surely, they all give me an agreeable nod—clearly afraid to push the boundaries any more than they already have.
“Right then.” I turn to walk out of the room—this time, too emotionally drained to wonder what’s going to transpire amidst my exit. All I can do is seek refuge in my office, close the blinds, and remind myself that this is only day one.
There is still so much left to come.
D E L A N E Y
Soccer for dummies.
Football* for dummies.
I let out a sigh as I stare down at my laptop screen. It’s the only source of light illuminating my dark room. Since leaving thestadium earlier today, all I’ve done is go on an internet deep-dive in an attempt to learn anything and everything about football. That, and replay Warren’s “word of advice” on loop in my mind right before he’d left me alone on the field.
The search has proved to be somewhat beneficial. I’ve learned a few things.
Offside is when the player is ahead of the ball when they aren’t supposed to be.
Eleven players are allowed to be on the field at once.
Crawfield FC is in serious need of help.
Today’s a bittoowarming of an introduction has left me wondering exactly what that “help” looks like.
Warren said that in order to earn my way onto the team, I need to pass the “tryout.” The word “tryout” scares me.Immensely. Delaney Matthews doesn’t “try out” for teams. Why? Because Delaney Matthews doesn’t play on any teams.Duh.
I tried once—yes, just once. It was when I attempted to try out for our high school’s volleyball team. With full transparency, I only did it to get closer to the captain of the boy’s team, but when it came to the actual volleying part of the game, I seemed to have missed the memo, and the ball ended up hitting me square in my face.
I can choke back tears, trust me, I can. But when pools of blood, followed by the words “ew” and “gross” come out of the mouth of the so-called “love of your life,” let’s just say it’s humbling.
I never spoke to the captain of the boy’s team again. After that, I decided that tryouts just aren’t my thing.
