Seniority

Chapter 2: Fighting Back

I hear quacking and look for my phone. It's 5:30, and my alarm is the noise of ducks because... Actually, I don't know. I finally find it and start playing music. I decide to wear my US Women's soccer sweatshirt, black leggings, and my blazers. Today, we have morning practice from 7-9:30 and breakfast starts at 5:45. I check my watch. 5:39. Alright, might as well head over.
I open my door to see an assortment of candy and a bottle of soda with a note attached to it.
D,
On behalf of the team, (two words scratched out), we would like to welcome you to preseason with this junk food. Hopefully this will make it easier to get up in the morning. See you at practice.
-Janie, who's wonderful writing you see featured here, and the team.
I squint at the scribbled out words which seem to say "minus Kennedy". Right, I almost forgot about her.
The sun hasn't come up yet so I use my flashlight to get to the dining hall. While I was asleep, I got 5 worried texts from Blake, a text from WF that she had gotten my number, and been put in the "BA Soccer Preseason 👌🏼" group chat.
I scroll through the chat history and laugh because over the course of last night, Kennedy was kicked out of the group chat 5 times, which is ironically her number for soccer. When I go inside, I see all of the soccer players look up except for Parker. Everyone's looking at me.... Awesome.
I grab a small packet of peanut butter and a banana before going to sit with my team at the table.
"Are you okay," are the first words I hear when I get to my seat.
"What?"
"Y'know," Rachel says, "from what happened yesterday."
I chuckle, peeling my banana. Did they expect me to still be mad?
"Everyday is a new start," I say before taking a bite. I feel her eyes on me as soon as I look down and see Scarlett nudge her out of the corner of my eye.

I hear some background talking about Nala's dreams of being an all-star soccer goalie which keeps my attention until I feel someone nudge my arm.

"How'd you sleep?"
"Just dandy," I say, replying to Scarlett. I realize then that Janie is sitting next to me so I take this as the chance to thank her for the candy.
"Thank you," I whisper into her ear while the others are talking.
"Anything for my favorite freshman," she says smirking as she is cutting her waffle. I notice she is making a house from the delicious substance and I feel myself starting to smirk as well.
"50 First Dates?"
"It's my favorite movie," she says, turning to face me.
"It's my favorite movie too," I whisper excitedly, causing me to almost fall out of my chair.
"I'm such a sucker for cheesy rom coms," I admit after regaining my balance.
"Yeah," she agrees, and I notice that some of the people have taken interest in the fact that Janie's talking to me. I see some judgmental stares directed towards her from juniors like Stacy but Janie doesn't give a shit. It's one of the great qualities we share.
"Who's your lockscreen?" She directs my attention to my phone which has lit up due to my tumblr notifications.
"Oh, that's a photo of me and my girl friend." I feel Kennedy's eyes on me once again but I decide to ignore it rather than meet her eyes.
"Lovely," she says, allowing her eyes to scan the photo, "how long have you been dating?"
"Oh, nonononono," I say, realizing how those words came out (AN: purposeful pun), "I meant my friend whom is a girl."
"Oh," she nods.
Don't get me wrong with the way I say things. I'm the most open bro you'll probably ever meet. I've definitely dated my fair share of both girls and guys, hell, I almost dated the girl on my lockscreen, but I've found that avoiding any more-than-platonic ties helps you have less drama in your life. So, I tend to stay strictly platonic with everyone... But that doesn't stop me from flirting with them.
I finish my breakfast and get up from the table.
"Where are you going?"
"To dress out early."
"I'll come with you. I need to go in advance to see the trainers." I nod, waiting for Janie to get up.
"See you guys on the field," I say which most of them nod or respond to.
Once we get outside, Janie says, "I think I know why Kennedy is being all 'douche'y around you."
"Why?"
"Because you two are too alike and her weird ass friends, aka the people who will try to make your life miserable for the first two months of school, influence her. When they get here when everyone else does, she's gonna be an asshole to most freshmen." I kick a small piece of gravel across the street and, for a second, agree with her.
"But she doesn't hate the other freshmen on the team," I point out.
"Yeah, I found that weird. Out of all the freshmen she could hate on this team, she chose the best one." I blush when she says this, and turn away so she doesn't see my grin.
"But hey, if they give you any shit, tell me and I'll fight them." I laugh at this and turn to see her with a stern expression on her face.
"Seriously though."
"Thanks Gaye," I say. She smiles and we enter into the building.
"Speaking of gay-"
"No labels, no problem," I interrupt her, and she nods.
"That's a good way of going about it." We walk down the corridor and turn into a room filled with basic med supplies.
"Delilah, this is Chris, our head athletic trainer." I am suddenly introduced to a tall grisly man. He has raven black hair that is slicked to the side, green eyes, and major stubble. If I had read Twilight, I would think that he looks like one of the werewolves.
I shake his hand, and he greets me warmly. "So, this is the first-string freshman I've heard about. Well, if you ever need any thing looked at, I'm your guy."
I smile and thank him before heading to the locker room.
"Hey D?"
"Yeah?" I respond.
"'Make sure to wear your first-string practice jersey to practice!"
"Okay. Thanks love!"
I head over to the locker room where a note is has been taped to my locker.
Delilah-
Since you are now officially on Varsity, you can now move your equipment into the varsity locker room which is across from the general locker room. In your new locker, you will find issued socks, a varsity bag, a varsity soccer rain jacket for when we play in foul weather, your jersey (someone told me 28 was your number), sweatpants, custom team cleats, and some sports snacks since the large energy-drink company, Energrink, is sponsoring our preseason.
-Coach B.
P.S. The door code is 767837
"Holy hell," I breath out. That's a shit ton of stuff. I grab my cleats and the rest of my stuff to bring to the locker room. Once I enter the code in, I open the door and step inside. The lights flicker on automatically and I am again surprised. The locker room has sofas, a TV, a whiteboard, lockers (duh), and a sound system. I knew the school was loaded, but not this loaded. I see a sign above a locker that is engraved: Delilah Hart, #28. When the fuck? When did they have time to engrave my name onto my locker? I place my cleats gingerly into the bottom compartment and examine the contents of my locker. Forgot to mention, they have a fully-stocked fridge in here as well.
I check my watch and see that I've already wasted half an hour looking around the room so I decide to change into my practice gear before exploring the room any further.
"It's pretty nice, yeah?" I fall over a bench and onto the floor as I am startled by a person walking in. Oh, only Janie. Janie whips out her phone and takes a photo of me.
"Your new contact photo," she explains, and I laugh.
"Don't worry if it's blurry. You'll have plenty of more opportunities to see me trip." She laughs and offers me a hand to help me up.
"Seriously though," I say, getting pulled up, "it's v nice here."
"Yeah, the rules are very strict around here so a lot of people get kicked out but if the parent can pay the right price, the kid gets re-enrolled for the next year." That makes a lot of sense.
I lace up my own cleats (I have no intention on breaking in my new ones at the moment), grab my Energrink energy bursts to eat before practice and sit on the bench.
"Aren't you ready?"
"I can't leave without you, stupid." She gasps in mock surprise and hits my head with her jersey.
"I would be bitter but you just reminded me to put my hair up so thank you."
Now, I don't know how to braid hair so I just put my hair in a high ponytail and make a prewrap headband. She quickly gets dressed and we head out to warm up before practice. We end up sitting on the turf and contemplating on life since we get there so early. Finally, everyone gets to the field and Coach calls us in to meet as a group.
"Alright, as some of you know, I selected some people for varsity yesterday. This does not mean that there are no more additions from now on. These were just the people who stood out to me yesterday. I will announce everyone but first I want to announce the first two people I have decided to put for first string. These people are Janie Gaye and Delilah Hart." I'm sick of saying this but I feel Kennedy's gaze on me again when he calls my name. I high-five my new friend and decide to be ballsy and stare straight back at Kennedy with my "mess with me and I'll mess you up" look.
"The other people I have decided for varsity are Scarlett, Kennedy, Blake, Nala, Keegan, and Stacy."