voicemail ~ ai

c.8

***

February 15, 2013

Ashton

Drills upon drills. That's exactly what varsity soccer tryouts were. Junior varsity seemed like a cake walk compared to what my new coach had us doing. I couldn't imagine ever playing in college thanks to this. It was already hot enough and Coach Tony had all of the future varsity boys constantly moving. He claimed stopping would make us tired, and that made us weak. 

"Are you feeling okay little sophomore?" One of the seniors patted me on the back, I think his name was Nick. I could tell he didn't actually care how I felt, he's a senior. "Don't worry it gets harder. But if you're really good at the game it won't matter. Will it?" Noah chuckled and jogged off to be with his other senior teammates. 

I felt a wave of anger and frustration come over me. I couldn't stand how cocky some of these people were. I kicked the nearest ball I found, putting all my anger into it. I didn't pay much attention to where it went, even though in my mind I was aiming for Nick. 

"Hey!" A girl called out. I looked to my right to see a girl sitting on the bleachers. I looked around to see if she was talking to anyone else. "Yes you." Her stare was pointing directly at me. "Come here." I jogged to the front of the bleachers. "You almost hit me."

"Oh shit I'm sorry. I-"

"Save it." The girl cut me off. She closed the binder that she was writing in, focusing all her attention on me. "I just wanted to let you know to control your shot. It sucks."

"Gee, thanks." That made me feel better. Not. "Who are you anyways?"  I questioned. "Do you just like sitting and watching the boys practice?"  

"You couldn't pay me to watch soccer." She scoffed, there was still a slight hint of bitterness in her voice. I raised an eyebrow, finding it strange that she was here if she hated soccer. "My brother is on the team and he's my ride home." I mouthed a silent 'oh' feeling quite stupid. "You should probably get back. You do want to be on the team don't you?" That was a good question. 

"Right." I nodded, pressing my lips together. "Sorry for almost hitting you." The girl shrugged and returned to writing in her binder. I jogged back to practice where it seemed nobody really noticed that I had left. 

After practice all I wanted to do was go home and take a shower for two hours. I was beyond tired and sore; something I knew would only be worse tomorrow. I, along with the rest of the JV boys, stuffed all of my things into my practice bag. 

"Good practice today little sophomore." Nick said from behind me, his hand yet again patting me on the back. "Between you and me," he lowered his voice so nobody else would hear, "you may beat Noah." Noah Donahue was the weakest link on the JV team. He sat on the bench most of the time and only played when someone was sick or injured. It surprised me he was actually going for varsity this year. Nick smiled and walked off, leaving me angry yet again. 

I finished packing up my bag when I saw Nick out of the corner of my eye. He was talking to that girl who I saw earlier. I quickly assumed that Nick was that girls brother, the one she needed a ride from. It made sense that they could be related. They both had the deep blue eyes and similar jaw structure. 

I slung my bag across my shoulder with my cleats in hand. I walked past the entrance of the bleachers where Nick had just finished telling his sister that he'd meet her at the car. The girl tried to gather all her belongings as quickly as possible, so she could catch up with her brother. She ran down the steps and past me. 

"Hey!" I called to her. Her pace slowed down as she glanced back in my direction. "What's your name anyway?"

"It's May!" She called back, continuing to run. May ran across the parking lot to where Nick's Jeep was parked. She threw her things into the open back seat and climbed into the passenger seat. Nick waited no time for his sister to put on her seat-belt before he sped off.