Fitness Crimes

Chapter 17- Fitness sessions, Cassie days and Questions

"Morning gentlemen, and lady." Coach said happily at practise. A big smile was plastered on his face as he spoke and I could see a sense of excitement lurking in his features. "Since class has started today our practises will now only be in the afternoon, if you cannot come due to class inform me now and I will email the program to you daily. I expect you all to follow that program if you are not at practise. If you want to practise at your own time please inform River or I about this and we will gladly open the astro to you. Now your first league match will be next week Friday, it will be against our rival Callaway. I expect you all to be there and we better win that game. River has informed me that you all are starting to do better with the fitness and I hope today goes well, so with that said I will leave you to my office and see you at our next practise," he waved his hand and walked away to his office. Eyes followed him until he was inside and then all the attention was on me.

"So today we are once again starting with a 5K run and then I will tell you the rest." The guys groaned at this, but started walking to the start apprehensively, my footsteps were slow as I followed behind them. "Three, two, one and Go!" I yelled and took off alongside the group. They all looked at me shocked, but I merely picked up speed until I was in front of the group. I could hear them panting as they increased their pace to meet mine and I felt a sense of achievement flow through me.

"This some new tactic or something?" Ryder panted as he started jogging beside me. He wasn't as out of breath as the rest of the group and he easily competed with my steady steps.

"True legends don't give up, even when the spotlight is turned on someone else," I stated, reciting the quote from my last game as Captain.

"What?" He asked confused. I knew that Gary and Hein weren't far behind us and it intrigued me why they haven't come up to us yet. I turned my head slightly and indeed the two of them were jogging comfortably behind us. Hein was chatting away about some girl he had met at a bar over the weekend and I could clearly see the irritation lurking on Gary's face. Gary hated talking about things like that, especially with Hein.

"That was the last thing I said to my team before the Championship. I went to them last week and that quote was up in the locker room. It motivated me, if Coach doesn't want a girl to play then I will just show him what he is missing out on," my confidence increase instantly and I once again picked up pace. Ryder groaned behind me, but he effortlessly increased his pace and stayed beside me.

°~°

After the jog, I had forced the guys to do half of a bowtie and a few cardio exercises afterwards. I had of course joined them with these wonderful exercises and I could feel my muscles aching softly. Coach had gone home halfway through and I was currently putting on my shin pads while waiting for Ryder to return.

It was odd how I had become accustomed to having him here when I practised and now it just felt wrong to start without him being here. He was picking up Cassie now since he didn't want to leave her in the clubhouse during fitness.

Once my shoes and everything were on, I grabbed a ball and my stick and started walking towards the goal. I placed the ball at the edge of the circle surrounding the goal, deciding if I should hit a few balls until he came. I raised my stick and was about to swing when a small voice started yelling.

"River! River! River, I'm here." I spun around, joyfully watching as Cassie came sprinting towards me. A small hockey stick was clutched in her hands and her short shins were covered by small shin pads. She looked absolutely adorable.

"Hi Sweetie," I kneeled down to her leave and gave her a tight hug. A toothy grin was plastered on her face and she looked truly excited about today.

"Ready," Ryder's deep voice speaks from above us, I lift my head towards him. His eyes were swimming with amusement as he looked down at the two of us, his stick was clutched tightly in his hand and he was also wearing his shin pads.