Deviating from the Norm (A "Freaks and Geeks" Fanfic)

Chapter 24 - Fredricks' way or the highway

Practice was making the days fly by and we were only just starting the easy part of it. I will admit that I was getting a little agitated as each day ended and Coach still hadn't placed me in any definite spot while other guys were being given positions left, right and center. We had hour-long practices out on the field for the first two weeks, mainly to get a feel for positions and see what ones best suited the new guys. They were not full contact or anything like that, those only came towards the end of the training season when everyone knew what they were doing and were more confident in their roles.

I felt aimless out on the field without knowing exactly what I was practicing for. The fact that I knew it wouldn't be in my comfort zone didn't help matters either. Brett was a wide receiver and Alex was a cornerback and they knew they were carrying over their spots from last year. Taylor, in all of his smarminess, had somehow moved up the power rankings and landed himself the running back position. He may have been an asshole, but he was at least very fast and deserving of the title. At the rate things were going, I was almost sure I was going to end up on the reserves. Even going back to something that was supposed to be easy wasn't easy.

Some of my teammates were not making it a stress-free event, either, with their constant ribbing at the fact that I was friends with a group of burnouts and the 'allegations' that I was a pothead (which I vehemently denied, even using my clean drug test as proof, though I knew over half of the team did some kind of drug anyway). It was all fun and games at first and I could roll with the punches, but once they started to get more volatile with their words, I began to put my foot down. The only one who didn't get the message (or refused to, rather) was Seidleman. He was nearly five-hundred pounds, if not over that, and used his massive size as a means of intimidation so he could act however he wanted and say anything he wanted to any of his peers without fear of retaliation.

Finally, when he warned everyone to keep their girlfriends away from me or I would screw them, I lost my temper and confronted him, stopping in my advance only when I bumped into his extended gut. As I reached him, I sent out a warning of my own.

"If you don't shut up about my friends and what happened between us, I'll clip the back of your fucking knees and watch you roll around on the ground like a turtle on its shell."

I made sure to say it loud enough for the entire occupancy of the locker room to hear, as a bit of showboating of my own and to float the message that the joke was over as far as I was concerned. Seidleman seemed cocky and confident when I first checked him, and I'm certain he could have squashed me under his girth if he really wanted to, but there was a slight sense of satisfaction when beads of sweat begin to form on his broad forehead after my threat was out there.

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"Donovan! Get your butt over here!" Fredricks yelled from across the field.

It was hot outside and damn near boiling under all of our gear. I was pleased that it was Friday and we would have the next two hundred-degree days off to somewhat relax. It wasn't just the heat that was getting to me; practice was simply kicking my ass as well. Quitting at the start of last season and not keeping up with my specific workout routines had left me severely unprepared for the massive strain that practice put us through, both physically and mentally. If the old adage 'seven days without football makes one weak' held any validity to it, I was suffering from it at least forty-times over with the amount of time I had been away. Looking at it from another angle though, it was a nice change of pace. When I was in practice, I didn't have time to think about anything or anyone else. My mind wasn't inundated with worrying thoughts or working overtime to think up solutions for problems that weren't even mine. It was just me and the game; nothing else existed outside of it while I was playing. There were no distractions because everything was centered around football and getting prepped for the season.