treacherous • alan bosley

recruited

in maisie's eyes, she had practically been recruited to join the football team. she pulled up to the school and found a parking spot, because she had been told there was a "team meeting" happening before camp took place. they may as well have given her a jersey and a seat on the bench.

though she hadn't always been the most popular, the football boys had been somewhat kind to her in the past. she found some of them to be attractive, so she was equally both anticipatory and anxious. she figured they were like all the other boys in her town: boring, looking for a yes-man instead of a companion, but they were at least nice for her to look at. sports had never been something she chose to comment on, but social and systemic changes were something she had plenty of progressive opinions about.

she got of the car, shouldering her purse and carrying along a notebook. she figured now was as good a time as any to get cracking on her story. she wasn't sure of any deadlines coming up or if she needed to write with a certain intention, so she decided to take down everything she saw.

maisie quickly made her way to the gym, not wanting to be late. she had always prided herself on punctuality and today would not be the exception. she had only been in the gym a handful of times, but she knew exactly where she was going.

when she opened the doors, the room went quiet. what had once been filled with laughter and chatter was now just confused stares and head tilting. the only guys in there were black, and maisie figured the other guys had boycotted. she heard rumors from some of her friends that coach yoast had been tossed aside, in favor of a head coach who was black. with all the evidence faced before her, she knew those rumors were true.

"um...hi," she started, giving a smile to the boys in the room, "i'm maisie."

a cocky boy grinned, striding up to her like he hadn't been gawking just moments before, "maisie, huh? and what are you doing here, miss maisie?"

maisie chucked at the boy's confidence, holding up her notebook, "writing an exclusive. and you are?"

"petey," he answered, looking down at the empty pages of the girl's book, "that's p-e-t-e-y. you know, if you wanna make me your headline."

before maisie could reply, a piercing whistle was blown. she plugged her ears, jerking her head over to see who had come in so aggressively. when she saw the new coach, accompanied by what she would assume was another coach, she immediately felt uneasy. he looked almost incredibly unhappy by the mindless conversation that had been going on just seconds before.

he walked over to petey, who had been standing their smiling with his hand up in a fist.

"put your hand down," he spoke sternly, staring at the boy with narrow eyes, "you're smiling."

maisie watched with her brows knit, wondering exactly where this conversation was going.

"yes." petey said hesitantly, unsure if that was the correct answer or not. it was true, but that didn't necessarily make it right.

"yes, sir!" he corrects the boy, continuing to borderline berate him as they kept talking. they continued a back and forth that made every party in the room watch with wide eyes. petey was attempting to stutter his way to a favorable answer, none of which the coach was having.

by the end of it, maisie wasn't sure she even wanted to be in the room. if this was how players got talked to, she could only imagine how she might be treated. it wasn't that the coach was mean, it was just a strict authority she had never really seen before.

satisfied with petey's newly crushed spirit, the coach turned away from him and went straight to maisie.

"and what are you doing here?" he asked, looking down at the girl.