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“Field trip?” I repeated. Pretty sure he didn’t mean the dairy farm or that trip to DC in eighth grade I couldn’t afford. “What does that mean?”
“Means we wanna do a practical application run.”
Well, I didn’t know what that meant either, but I followed him out of the library and down to the basement until we got to one of the empty study rooms. I walked in and looked around, not sure what I was supposed to be doing.
“Where do you usually sit?” he asked me. “In Mendleton’s class.”
“Uh… Over there somewhere,” I told him, pointing toward the middle of the last row on the left.
“Okay, go sit down.”
I went over and slid into one of the desks, squirming around.
“Sit still, young man. Don’t disrupt my classroom.”
I smirked. “So is this like roleplay? I’m the bad student, and you’re the sexy substitute teacher?”
“It could be. In fact, pass this test and I’ll make sure that happens. But today, you’re going to take another practice test.”
I groaned, the complainy kind of groan, not the good kind. “Another one? I like playing with the cards.”
“Tonight, we’re going to order pizza and play the match game all night.”
“Really?” I sat up, wincing when my bruises drug across the seat.
“Yeah. But I think it would be good to practice taking the test in a classroom environment. We’ve done it in the library and at home, you’re confident there, if you know you can do it here, it’s going to make tomorrow even easier.”
I nodded. Made sense I guess. Of course, promise me pizza and some student teacher roleplay, I guess you could get me to agree to just about anything.
“Okay. Bring it on.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
There was no miracle turnaround at practice.
It was tense as hell, and nerves spread through the team like a fucking virus, not to mention no one was very happy to be getting put through the paces again when you were used to Thursday being your early, easy day. But no one’s attention was on their own drills, it was all on Walker and Ellis.
Honestly, it looked like a summer session, when guys showed up either worn down from working a nine to five to save college money or out of shape from drinking at the lake, and everybody just looked like a vague idea of what they were gonna be in the fall.
But Ellis caught four passes and then a fifth, and after the week they’d had, thatfeltlike a fucking miracle. Was enough to piss off Howser and to make Coach forget about the dropped balls and go all in, putting all his energy into those two, letting the rest of us get off running routine plays instead of suicides, which was okay with me— I didn’t have the energy to kill myself.
Thursday practice was generally pretty empty— gawkers were used to it being short and lowkey, not much excitement to show up for. But Caleb was there, getting to be a regular fixture. He was watching from the bleachers this time, and god, when he sprawled out, leaning back, stretching his legs, soaking up all the sun in the sky, he was a hell of a sight. I had no fucking idea how I ever could have missed him watching me before, how a guy like that could ever make himself invisible, would ever want to.
Between him watching me and me watching Walker and Ellis slowly get their Chemistry back, it was one of the best practices I’d had in a long ass time, no matter how much my ass hurt every time I got knocked down.
Okay, maybe that made it better. Whatever.
* * *
“Yo, Press, wait up a sec,”Ellis shouted, just as I finally climbed up the bleachers toward Caleb, ready to grab him and go home. He jogged over from where he and Walker were still cleaning up cones, and stomped up the bleachers toward us. “Stick around awhile, play catch. We can use some extra hands, get a round going. You too, Beast. You must have some bullets in these guns.” Ellis punched him hard in the arm and then rubbed the spot, frowning and punched it again. “Alright, yeah.”
“Knock it off,” I told him, not sure if I was feeling protective or jealous. I guess both.
“Just play, just playing,” Ellis said, lifting his hands, taking a step back. “What do you say?”
“I have to study,” I told him, glaring, daring him to say something, but it was Caleb that spoke up.
“We can stay a little while. Unwind a little before we hit the books one more time. I’m not very good at football though,” he warned Ellis.
