Fitness Crimes

Chapter 1- The First One

River's P.O.V

"Good morning team. I would like to introduce you to your new fitness instructor, River Jones. I expect you to listen to her and respect her like you respect me," I stood beside the coach as he explained my new title to the guys.

"Hey guys, so I'm River Johnson. I will be your new fitness instructor. I played first team for the West Wood Tigers since my freshmen here and now I am here," I said with a soft smile. All of them gave me blank faces except Gary and Hein who both gave me small, enthusiastic waves.

"Ok boys, now I am going to be in my office while Ms. Johnson,sorry my mistake, will start your fitness. Please do not cause a ruckus," with that the coach gave me his whistle and walked towards the locker room.

"Ok now listen up. I am pretty pissed here, I've been playing against boys ever since I can remember and this is probably the first place where they are too stuck-up to let me be part of the team. Therefore I will be your fitness coach and trust me it will be hell,"

"Yeah right, a girl like you can't even hit a ball properly," a voice in the back states and I felt my anger start to boil deep inside.

"Trust me, that's not the only ball that I will hit. Now go and run 5 kilometres ," I stated calmly, but was met with several blank faces. It seemed only Hein and Gary were eager to go and run, but that was because they stayed fit over the holiday,"Now!"I watched as guys jumped at the volume of my voice before starting their jog.

A few stayed behind looking at me hesitantly and it was only when I met those piercing green eyes that I registered who the one was thst taunted me a few minutes back.

"Well well well, Ryder Evans. I never thought we'd be stuck in a world where we had to work together," I stated while crossing my arms over my chest and cocking my hip to one side.

"Trust me we won't. You'll be gone by the end of the week, just like in primary school," he sneered before started his jog and getting the last few to follow him as well.

I released a breath before sitting down against the wall and slowly sliding down until my bum hits the ground. It was quite frustrating when I found out that the girls weren't allowed to play in the boys' team and then they also didn't have a hockey programme for girls here. Hein and Gary tried comforting me the whole holiday, but nothing helped.

I refused to tell any of my old teammates about this and it was the main reason I never spoke about my college years ahead. Not even Tyler knew about this and we tell each other almost everything.

The problem wasn't with the Coach though, apparently the Principal of this place thinks it's absolutely preposterous for girls to play such an aggressive sport and he is very obdurate. I, of course, rebelled against this and went to tryouts anyways. The coach acknowledged that I had skill stronger than several of the guys here, but he cannot risk allowing me play. That is how we came to the conclusion that the only way for me to be a part of this team is to play a role of authority, like the fitness instructor. He had to call my old coach in order to determine how well of an instructor I would be and he talked to Hein and Gary to hear about my brutal fitness sessions as captain.

After that he simply told me I was the fitness instructor. I don't get paid nor do I want to. The coach made a deal with me that if I do fitness on Mondays, Thursdays and occasional Saturdays I will be allowed to do skill training with the team eventhough I won't be allowed to play.

~•~

By the time they finally showed up as a group, I knew that there was a lot of work to do. Most of the guys probably could've been back much quicker, but it seems the followed the Coach's advice to start working as a team from day one already.