Coming Together

Chap. 1

Colby's POV

“Are you coming?” Hunter asked.

“Nah man, I can’t,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ve got football.”

“Screw football.”

“Shut up.”

He laughed. “Alright, well I’ll catch you later then.”

I threw my backpack over my shoulder and headed down to the locker rooms, not wanting to be late for practice.

“Vote for Aaron,” Marissa, a cheerleader, said, stepping into my path.

“What?” I asked.

“Vote for Aaron for school president!” She handed me a flyer, a smile plastered on her face.

“Would you like to know what I think of Aaron?” I crumpled up the flyer and threw it in the trash.

She rolled her eyes at me. “Come on Colby, he’s your brother.”

“He’s not my brother.”

She rolled her eyes before going to track down her next victim.

I went inside the locker rooms and greeted a couple of fellow defenders before changing out into a pair of gym shorts and a football Nike dry-fit.

“Time to get swole!” Calvin, the kicker, called, getting the locker room riled up for Weight Room Day.

“Ain’t nobody as swole as you!” I called back, earning a laugh from the team.

Calvin laughed and slapped me on the back before heading out of the locker room.

I couldn’t help but notice the piles of “Vote For Aaron” flyers around the locker room.

“What’s all this?” I asked Paul, a fellow linebacker.

“A few of the guys are handing out flyers for Aaron’s campaign,” Paul answered, with a shrug. “He is the team Quarterback Colby, and a shoe-in for Captain.”

I rolled my eyes, shoving my stuff into my locker.

“No way,” Jason said, coming over to join us. “I’ve totally got Colby’s back for Captain.”

“Don’t waste your breath,” I said, heading towards the locker room doors. “Quarterbacks always get Captain.”

I headed towards the weight room, a few defenders joining me.

“Our first game is this Friday,” Michael said. “Do you think we’ve got it?”

“We’re the worst team in the state,” Terrence said, laughing. “Of course we don’t have it.”

“We’re the comeback team,” I argued. “We’ve got it this year.”

“With Aaron back and healthy, we should kill the season,” Paul agreed.

“He was never unhealthy,” I argued. “He just babied an old shoulder injury.”

We entered the weight room, where Aaron and a couple of receivers and running backs were already getting warmed up.

“Way to wait for the team,” I said.

“Way to show up on time,” Aaron retorted.

“We’re still early,” Paul said. “But it’s cool man. You do your own thing and we’ll do ours, everyone’s got their own pace.”

This is why our team sucked. We didn’t have any chemistry on, or off, the field. We could truly care less what happened to each other, which eventually ended up leading to the team caring less whether we won or lost.