In Her Shoes

Chapter 14: Black Out

The rest of the day passed without incident, and I felt a routine forming: Enter class first like a nerd, sit in back, get teased during passing, go to next class early, sit in back, get teased during passing...so on and so forth.  

When the bell rang and I was finally free I was contemplating on heading straight for the bus to get to my crap shaq of a house when I heard the familiar sounds of football practice. They can't host practice without me! I'm the captain! Wary of the rules about only girlfriends or cheerleaders able to watch practice I snuck around beneath the bleachers to watch. 

That bastard. 

Of course Aaron was captain now that I was gone. The idiot probably feels like king of the jungle. Everyone ran and scurried around to do his every bidding. There was even a point when he had the whole team tackle little Andrew for no reason! Don't get me wrong, the guy's a pain in the ass but he's only about 4"11! What happens when he gets hurt and we're out of a kicker? What a freakin' dumbass.. 

Practice was disastrous to watch but I found myself glued to the gravel, shouting demands and advice in my head. Damn that stupid witch!! Near the end of practice everyone headed to the showers slumped and near exhausted from the unnecessary extras Aaron had them do. I beamed with pride.  

Well at least the guys will miss me and be glad to have me back. 

As they passed by my hiding place I overheard their conversation: "Man, practice was brutal today." 

"Yeah I know, Aaron's one hard ass coach, man." 

"Hey but who would you rather have, though? Jesse or Aaron?" 

I smiled..Isn't it obvious? I only worked them that hard when necessary. 

"Whoa, that's easy: Aaron for sure." 

What? 

The other dude laughed, "I know, me too bro. Aaron's tough and all but at least I didn't hear one joke about how much "better" he is than us. I'm so freakin' tired of Jesse always talking about himself." 

"Yeah I know and he'll go all hard on us but then treat Aiden like a little baby." 

Laughter. "I know, they're probably lovers or something..." the laughter died as they all walked into the lockers, and I was standing there speechless. I don't only talk about myself! Well..maybe a little.. But I never say how much better I am...Well...only sometimes.. But I definitely don't go easy on Aiden! Except for that one time...or that other time...shit. I'm a bad coach!!! 

Suddenly I heard a new chorus of voices: cheerleaders. I hid even deeper. 

"So when is Jesse gonna be out of the hospital?" Jenni asked. 

"Who knows?" that was Shenise, "but he needs to hurry up 'cause I needs my rides home." 

That bitch... the only ride I'll ever give her again will be one that takes her straight back to he- 

"Shenise that's not nice. I think he really cares about you."

I heard her scoff, "And why wouldn't he? Besides did you hear what he did to Maria?" 

"Yeah I heard he asked her on a date to this beautiful restaurant and stood her up," another girl threw in; Briaunna by the sounds of it. 

"He's such an ass wipe," someone else with a high-pitched voice added; Meaghan. Geez, did I really know all these girls by their voice?! I was as bad as Andrew! Then again I did date some of them...most of them....all of them? Damn! I hope Anna never finds out about this..