Preath: Head In The Game [Complete]

8: This Is Hell, Harry

"Hello!" Ashlyn greeted her, reclining in her chair as if to undo the suspicion she brought on us by leaning in while she spoke.

"Hi..." Chris said cautiously. "Why did everyone stop talking?"

"I assure you it is nothing, my dear. We just wanted to know a little more about you."

"Okay." She sat down. "What do you want to know?"

"Ask her if she has a boyfriend," Allie whispered in my ear.

"No," I mouthed. Everyone made basic conversation with Chris while I wondered if I'd regret the girls finding out. At least it was only three of them; well, probably four since Ashlyn would certainly tell Ali... and then probably the other goalie gals... who am I kidding, pretty soon every teammate whose name begins with 'A' would know.

I loved the way Christen's eyes lit up as she spoke to everyone, like she was truly paying attention to all of the words of advice and stories. I could get used to seeing that every morning, too. I found my heart would start to race every time she turned her head in my direction, even if she was actually only looking at Allie.

Before I knew it, it was time to get on the bus. I grabbed some nutrition bars on the way out. I wanted to play soccer, but I wanted to go back to sleep. If only I could get into a real hard chill and play soccer while sleeping...

Christen sat in the window seat again and I collapsed into the seat next to her. I stared at the rips in the leather of the seat in front of me where the stuffing appeared to have cleat holes in it. I realized this was probably my fault since I liked to sit with my feet up.

"Hey," Christen poked me in the elbow. "Do you need more of my cream to wake you up?"

"You mean your new rejuvenating day-time coconut oil face cream?"

She chuckled, her eyes dropping down to her knees. "I thought you hated it when I said that."

"No," I said. She gave me the death stare. "Well, a little bit."

She smiled. "So..." she began, "my first game here is coming up."

"Yep. And then we have the World Cup to worry about."

"It's so insane."

"Sure is."

Then she put her earbuds in and began writing in her notepad again. Somehow, she managed to write neatly even though the bus ride was bumpy. Her shoulder looked like a comfortable place to sleep, but I tilted my head back instead. Coffee never really made me less tired, it just kept me from falling asleep. According to Allie, I was only hard to wake up because I was "too chill". As if a person can be too chill. I'm sure it also had something to do with Christen and me staying out so late, though.

I watched everyone's rituals unfold before me; Ashlyn taping her hands, Kelley having a nap, Allie taking selfies, Megan taking boomerang selfies, Sammy and Rose singing the same old songs I now knew every word of but couldn't name, and everyone else listening to their own pump-up music. Most of these things were typical on game days too. The main thing that kept the daily grind from getting tedious was definitely my team. The routine was the same without anything new or different... well, I guess Christen was still new.

Each string of my thoughts seemed to end with the thought of her. I wanted to light the end of the strings on fire, letting it spread like mononucleosis on a high-school sports team so I wouldn't think about how I sort of felt like kissing her.

But then again, maybe just the thought wouldn't do any harm.

Once we got onto the field, all the girls had woken up. It seemed that someone had formed a little cluster talking about some girl someone used to play with who could've been the sole reason behind the naming of the ponytail because her hair smelled as bad as an animal farm.