The Constellation

Chapter Four : An Old Foe

   Ash sprinted down the field with the football snugly tucked in her arm, knowing if she slowed down for even a second, she'd be tackled to the ground by Jayden. Kamden was slowly catching up to her, and if she didn't manage to shake him off in time, she'd be just short of the end zone.

Pax, the skinniest and shortest member on the team, who matched her own height of five feet even, called out her name as a warning. That's when she made her move, using the last of her energy to speed forward for a second, then she jumped to the right and spun around Jayden, as he stumbled to change his direction of speed. Kamden, was now on the other side of Jayden, and for the second of confusion, he too stumbled and crashed into Jayden. Ash wasn't far enough away from the two boys, so that their collision wouldn't affect her, so Jayden's sprawled arms got caught up in her legs, and the three of them crashed onto the field's grass. When she fell, her hands slipped and her head was the unfortunate candidate to break her fall, however through that confusion, the football still managed to land on the endzone side of the white line.

"Touchdown!" both Ash and Pax yelled, as she spiked the ball high into the air.

"Every time." Jayden shook his head in disappointment at himself, and awe for Ash. "You okay there Stafford?"

Kamden offered his hand to Jayden. "She's fine dude." And when Ash was helped up, she agreed.

"Alright Stafford, that's enough." Coach Watts called out from the fifty yard line, with his clipboard being held in the bend of his arm. "Go get the ball, and join the team in your cool-down laps."

Ash ran to get the ball as the team passed her, she was able to fall in the front of the group.

"Get to the back Stafford!" Jayden teased.

"She just wants all the boys chasing her!" one of the new boys yelled. Most of the others who had been on the team with Ash before, looked hesitant at her, ready to dodge her swing, or back up her roast.

Her sly face shined through her eyes, as she flipped her braid over her shoulder. "It's a shame you little boys can't keep up." A round of "ooh!" and "burn!" spread through the team, motivating everyone to run slightly faster.

When they finished their laps, Ash bid her farewells and walked further down the plain hallway to the girls' locker room. She passed through the empty rows of lockers that no one was currently using, until she came to one of the last rows that almost no one even bothered to use. Even though as awkward as it was to use the locker room full of girls, Ash couldn't help but feel even more awkward as she peeled off her sweaty uniform and pads, in a large and empty locker room.

In front of the small and vandalized mirrors, Ash tried to fix the several frizzes of hair that had come loose from her braid, and were now standing up like antlers on top of her head. However, when she finally threw her hands down in frustration with her hair, and instead simply fixed the top of her tank top, a sudden wave of nauseousness came over her. Her heart started to pound in her head, becoming increasingly louder and harder to think straight, as the moments passed. Her skin turned a sickly green pale, while she slowly reached out to open the door to one of the stalls.

She braced herself against the frame of the stall, with one hand over her mouth, still debating on whether she was actually going to throw up or not. Though when the second wave hit more fiercely than the last one, she dropped her gym bag and wrapped her arms around her waist, while leaning over the toilet.

Once she was positive that she had just upturned her entire day's worth of meals, Ash used the rest of the water in her bottle to rinse her mouth out, and shoved four Tic-Tacs into her mouth, hoping Michael wouldn't notice the foul taste that was left lingering in her mouth.