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“Good. Let’s be smart and extra cautious today, ladies.”
“Let’s go,” Shay said and motioned for everyone to join her on the practice field. “Frosh, you’re up front. Seniors, in the back.”
“What about grad students?” Layne asked.
“Do you want to lead the stretches with me, Layne?” she teased.
“No, I’ll go to the back with the seniors.”
Layne jogged about twenty yards away, turned around, and faced her, ready to start her stretches.
Shay led them through the usual routine, and despite working out her body as much as she could at home, she realized she hadn’t done much stretching over the summer, and it showed.
“Okay. We’re good,” Shay told their coach after they completed all the stretches.
“Everyone ready? We’re going to get our cardio in today,” Coach said as she walked over with the assistant coach. “And bands; strength training with bands today. No weights. We’ll split into two groups: seven over to the left and eight to the right.”
Everyone went one way or the other until they had two nearly even groups.
“Left group, go with Coach,” the assistant coach told the team. “You’re on bands first. Then, we’ll switch. Group on the right, you’re with me.”
Shay was on the left, but Layne had ended up on the right, so Shay made a mental note to tell her later to try to always get in the same group as her so that they could have a little more time together. Then, she followed Coach to where she’d laid out their resistance bands in the grass.
“We’re going to work on a few things today, so listen up,” Coach began.
Shay did listen, but she also watched. As she grabbed her band to work with, she caught sight of Layne, who was supposed to be running laps. The other players were way ahead of her on the track, and Layne already looked to be laboring when they were only on lap one. Shay wanted to go over and check on her, but she knew Layne wouldn’t want her to do that, so she focused on her band and following Coach’s instructions while she kept an eye on Layne from afar.
???
“Hi,” Layne said into the phone.
“Just back from the shower?” Shay asked.
“Yeah. I’m not blow-drying my hair. I’m lazy.”
“It’s okay. I like you just out of the shower,” Shay told her with a wink.
“You haven’t seen me just out of the shower,” Layne replied.
“Not fully, no, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Layne smiled at her, but it was her tired smile. Shay rolled onto her side and rested her phone against the wall she’d pushed her bed up against years ago to give her more space in the tiny room.
“You look tired.”
“I am tired. School is already kicking my ass.”
“So, it’s school?”
“I wasn’t exactly planning on getting my MBA. There’s so much reading and work to do for both of my classes.”
“You only have two classes?”
“It’s a graduate program. I have these two now, and then halfway through, I have some seminar thing I have to take. A D is not considered passing. I have to get Cs or above in everything, and it’s all virtual right now. I’ve always learned better in the classroom, so it’s extra hard. The sections I ended up in are all Monday, Wednesday, Friday. They just assigned them to me because I registered late. So, I have Tuesdays and Thursdays off, which, I guess, is good, but with all this reading, the weekly assignments on top of basketball starting up, and still worrying about my mom back home, it’s just a lot.”
“Is she okay?” Shay asked.
“Yeah. I asked her to check in with me every day to make sure. She sounded fine when I talked to her on the phone earlier. I just still worry.”
