Take One For The Team

Chapter 5

As the bell rang to signify the end of the school day, I walked with Kirsty to the girls locker rooms. They all had softball practice, and I had soccer. 

After the lunch incident I'd managed to make it through the rest of the day unscathed, and now just had to get through an hour of practice. 

"So what's the deal with Zack?" I asked casually as we changed. 

Kirsty raised an eyebrow.

"You mean why is he such a jerk?" She enquired.

"Question of the century." Anna commented as she wiggled into her softball pants. 

Kirsty sighed. 

"He honestly used to be cool, and we used to hang out."

"What happened?" I asked, intrigued. 

She shrugged, "I don't know all the details, but his dad had an affair when we were in middle school, and then there was a pretty messy divorce. After that Zack was like a different person. He stopped being fun, and the only thing he cared about was soccer."

"And cheerleaders." Becca added, rolling her eyes. 

Kirsty nodded, "It was like this bad boy, macho jock persona he put on, but then he's just never taken it back off."

"Which is why he's got such a problem with you," Becca added. "Soccer has always been his domain and a pretty girl has just barged in. He's clearly threatened."

I thought about it as I put on my shin guards. It made sense, I guess. I thought about how I'd felt after Mom died, and how I'd bottled all my feelings up and put all of my energy into soccer. Well,  soccer was a team sport, so he'd just have to get over it. My scholarship dreams were more important than his damaged ego. 

"What about Chelsea?" I asked the group. 

"Oh, isn't she just a joy?" Anna remarked with more than a hint of sarcasm, and they snickered. 

"Now she's always had a giant stick up her butt." Rachel contributed. 

"Is she Zack's girlfriend?" I queried.

Kirsty snorted, "She wishes. Adam told me Zack hooked up with her a couple of times last year, but that's it. She likes people to think they're an item, though."

Becca pretended to throw up into her softball mitt. 

"It's so cliché. The cheer captain and the soccer captain? Gross."

I wrinkled my nose at the thought of the two of them together as I laced up my cleats. 

We walked out of the locker room and towards the sports field together, just as the soccer team were emerging from the boys locker room. Jake spotted me and waved. 

The girls nudged me and giggled. I swatted them off.

"Stop being weird." I warned as I jogged away from them and towards my team. They wolf-whistled as they watched me leave. 

"Sup dude," I greeted him, "Ready to lose that bet?"

He snorted, "You wish!"

We wandered over to the pitch together. Adam, Ryan and Jake were still the only guys on the team who'd made any effort to be nice to me. The rest of the team seemed to be too worried about pissing Zack off. I wasn't that bothered - it was their problem, not mine. I just hoped it wouldn't affect my chances of making the team. 

"Let's get warmed up!" Coach bellowed once we were all present. 

We jogged laps of the pitch as a group, Zack taking the lead.