The Academy In My Head

Football Lessons

"Aggele Mou."

The sound of his voice washed over me and sent a shiver down my spine. "Hi." I grinned up at him. "Whatcha doin'?" I asked as he dropped down onto the step beside me.

He grinned at me. "I came to find my girlfriend. We have a date today."

"Lucky girl."

"Lucky me." He said, leaning down and brushing his lips gently against mine.

"I wasn't aware it was date day for us."

"Rock paper scissors champ right here..." He said, blowing on his knuckles and brushing them against the navy polo shirt he was wearing.

"Ah, my champion." I smiled, my gaze slipping away from his face to trail down his body, admiring the way his biceps filled out the sleeves of the polo shirt, making it seem as though the shirt was honestly too small for him. "And for sure a very lucky me."

He chuckled. "I suppose I can grant you a lucky you."

"And what if I was busy today?"

His dark eyes widened, and he blinked. "Are you busy today? I'm pretty sure that Kota said you weren't scheduled for anything today."

"Hmm, maybe I should check my phone. He's started to send me updates but I'm still not used to being glued to my phone for every last thing." I mused before he nodded. His eyes stayed on mine until I reached into my bra to retrieve my phone out of it's usual hiding spot. "Hey. My eyes are up here, Superman." I motioned upwards.

He rolled his eyes. "Best pockets ever." He said, shrugging and giving me a lazy grin before shifting in his seat on the steps.

I rolled my eyes back at him. "Whatever." I scrolled through my phone. "Ah, yes, here it is. A message from Kota. No assignments today, enjoy your date with Silas." I shrugged. "Very nice of him." I teased.

Silas nodded. "It took me ten rounds to beat him." He said, reaching for my hand. I let him tuck my hand inside his, enjoying the security of his hand around mine. "Any ideas of what you might want to do today?"

"Hmm. Good question. I mean, I'm not really a go to the mall chick and I guess we could go grab a bite to eat at some point, but I don't know. Do we want to go to a movie or out somewhere to watch boats go by?"

He tilted his head to look at me. "Those are things that I'd enjoy, yes. But what about you? Surely, if you're given a choice to do whatever you want with any of us, isn't there something that you want to do?"

"I just enjoy spending time with you guys." I said. "I don't mind doing things that you like to do."

He squeezed my hand. "But it shouldn't always be what we want to do. You get to say too. So, c'mon. what do you want to do on this lovely November day?"

I studied him. "You mean that...?"

"I do. Sang, anything you want to do, today's the day." He said. "And this is going to come up at our next family meeting. I suspect that the others are very aware of the fact that you'll do anything they like to do and don't ever ask you what you'd like to do."

"Oh, I don't know about that." I shrugged. "Kota and I figured out how many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop a couple weeks ago. And Victor, Jessica, Sean and I had a really amazing tea party with a 3-year-old princess at the hospital last week. Those were things I wanted to do."

"But that's not always the rule. Those are exceptions." He protested.

I shrugged again. "Still a lot of fun." I said softly.

"Sure." He smiled. "So, what is it going to be?"

"Can we go get gyros and baklava later?"

"Done. I'll even treat you to your baby coffee."

I beamed at him. "Okay, deal. So, what I want to do with the rest of our date then... is... I need to learn how to play football."

"Football?"

I nodded, eagerly. "Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I want to play this year. I'm even going to take a change of clothes so that I don't have to wear a skirt and play football this year."

His eyes lit up. "Aggele Mou, I'd love to give you football lessons. Do you want to learn how to throw, make sure you know how to catch or what?"

I reached up and touched his face. "I want to learn everything I can. I don't want to just be a distraction play. I want to make everyone realize they underestimate me when I get to play."

He chuckled, turning his head slightly to kiss my palm. "And if we manage to master throwing the football, no matter whose team you're on gets to have a trick play up their sleeve." He said.

"Oh, I like that a lot." I nodded. "Makes me want to be on North's team because Kota wouldn't want to use a trick play. He'd probably see it as my usual tricks or cheating." I wrinkled my nose.

"Maybe. He likes to win though just as much as North likes to play the grumpy yet lovable loser." He tapped me on the nose. "Go change. You'll want some sneakers and probably pants, maybe a sweatshirt, okay?"

"okay." I happily agreed. "You'll find a football?"

"Absolutely. I've got you covered, Aggele."

I stood up and bent over to kiss him, a fierce kiss that caught him by surprise. "Thank you, Silas.You always have my back." I said, running my hand over his hair before I headed into the house, going in search of some clean workout gear to wear for my football lesson date.