I watched as he made his way down the aisle and found an empty seat near the front. He stood out, not just because he was a new face, but because of how tall he was. He towered over everyone sitting around him, and his bright red hair was a beacon in the auditorium. I was vaguely aware of Liam and Jonesy talking next to me, but my eyes were trained on Rowan. He’d chosen a seat near some other defensive players. I wondered if that had been Coach Cal’s idea.
I kept watching Rowan until Coach Cal and our coordinators, Coaches Jones, North, and Lohan, filed into the front of the room. Coach Cal clapped his hands twice and the entire room fell silent.
The next few hours were spent listening to our coaches go over film of our preseason opponent, plays they wanted to try out, and our plans of attack for the week. It was pretty standard stuff, and if it weren’t for Jonesy poking me every ten minutes, I probably would’ve zoned out completely.
Once we started physical practices the next day, I was able to stop stealing glances at Rowan every few minutes. The only times I had to interact with him were in team drills when defense and offense went against one another to practice some of theplays our coordinators dreamed up. Most of the time, I was paired up with Drew Jeffries while Rowan was paired up with our tight end, Wendell West.
I was kind of jealous about it. I wanted to see what the new guy was working with. I’d watched a few of his tackles, and he had speed. He moved like poetry in motion, and I noticed that his eyes moved a lot before he jumped. Jonesy had pointed out a few other things about his play style, and every word he said made me want to experience it for myself.
I finally got my chance in the last practice of the week. Coach Cal called for one-on-ones, and we all filed over to the sidelines. He called out names, and I heard mine called out with Rangecroft. I was practically bouncing when we ran over to do our drills.
We lined up facing each other, and I got a real moment to study him. I got to see what our opponents would see when they lined up across from him. His hazel eyes were hard as they stared me down, his brow furrowed. His big body gave off the impression of a tightly coiled spring. A shiver of anticipation raced down my spine as Coach Cal blew the whistle for the first round.
I took off, spinning around Rowan just as he went for the tackle. Once I made it past him, I broke away and ran a few yards before turning around and running back. The next round, he tried a different move, and I managed to escape again. He didn’t even manage to touch me on rounds three or four.
He was just too slow.
3
Notes
So, I planned on writing this chapter last week. Or the week before… But life happened. And by life happened, I mean I got really busy at work. There are whispers that we might be lacking in the job security department soon, so I’m a little stressed. It’s fine. It’ll ALL be fine. I’m just going to distract myself with Rowan and Milo’s antics. Also, we’re not going off the Scorpions’ actual season for anything other than schedule, because I am not trying to make this take a whole football season to write a story.
We’ll see how that actually works out.
Rowan
The sound of Coach Cal’s whistle ending the last practice before our first game was too loud.
It had been a shitty practice. I’d missed tackles. I’d started running the wrong play during one of our scrimmages. I’d slipped and fell at one point, letting the tight end slip right past me and score. If it were any indication of how the first game would go in two days, we were screwed.
It wasn’t just me that had a shitty practice either. Liam had overthrown several balls. Jonesy had missed a few easy catches that had been thrown his way. Milo had forgotten to brake and ended up running into a player on the sidelines. It had resulted in a dominoes effect of several players falling. He’d ended up getting dressed down by Coach Lohan for causing two special teams players to get hurt. There was a chance they’d be starting the season on the injured list. Even our kicker had a bad practice.
I was in a shit mood when I made my way back to the locker room. It seemed like most people were.
Except Milo Tobitt.
He was bouncing around like he hadn’t personally taken two members of the team out of commission. He kept saying things like “bad rehearsal, good opening night” and “we’ve had worse practices!” I couldn’t imagine how the team could have had aworse practice, and I doubted that rules of the theater applied to football.
I couldn’t wait to get out of the locker room, to get away from our running back bouncing around spouting trite cliches in an attempt to boost team morale. I didn’t think team morale needed boosting, honestly. I thought we maybe needed to sit in that bad practice for a while, turn it over in our minds, and figure out how to fix it before the game on Sunday. I know that I needed to do that.
There was no way I could make my Scorpion debut playing the way I had during that practice. Their fan base would never let me live it down. I would be booed out of Stinger Stadium, and I wouldn’t be surprised. The fans would want to pack me back up and send me to the Foxes, except they’d traded me away.
I had never been so grateful to leave a practice facility in my life.
It turned out that sitting in the suck wasn’t helping. Every time I thought about the terrible practice, my heart started pounding. In the middle of the night, I found myself looking for plane tickets back to Fayetteville. I wondered what the team would say if I just didn’t show up on Sunday. I wondered what Troy and Raina would say if I showed up on their doorstep instead.
I actually had an idea of what they’d do. My sister would turn my ass around, put me back in the car, and have me on a plane before anyone even noticed I was gone.
The mental image of my sister’s face made me smile. I missed her. I missed Troy. Maybe that was the source of my nerves. This would be the first game without one or both of them sitting inthe stands since I’d joined the ALF. Unless they traveled, they wouldn’t see me play at all this season. The Scorpions didn’t play the Foxes in the regular season, and after practicing with the team for a few weeks, I knew we had a snowflake’s chance in hell of making it to the Championship game.
I didn’t even think we had a chance to make it to the playoffs. Not if our games were like our practice today.
I was still thinking about the terrible practice and wallowing in my nerves the next day. There was just over twenty-four hours until my Scorpions debut, and I needed to figure out a way to stop stressing. I tried reading a book. I tried watching movies and TV shows. I tried cleaning my apartment, but I didn’t have enough belongings to make a real mess of it. Nothing was working.
In the end, I found myself back down in the condo’s gym. I climbed onto the treadmill and started to run. After a few minutes, my worries and anxieties began to dull around the edges. My thoughts softened and quieted. The burn in my legs superseded the knot in my stomach. Nothing existed beyond the sound of my feet hitting the running pad and the sound of my breathing.
It was as close to a zen state as I could reach.
