Living with Brothers

Dreaded Practice

My brothers, the kind ones at least, were absolutely furious with Jacob and Logan.
Kyle had called and filled them in over lunchtime and from what Kyle texted me, Cole and Nathan were livid. I could tell Kyle was trying to keep his composure around me, but he too was astounded by what Logan and Jacob had done.

Walking towards the locker room I saw Kyle's true feelings on the matter. I was slowly dragging my feet towards the sports wing, there was nothing in the world I would rather be doing at the moment. I could make out the shape of my two least favourite brothers in front of me. Logan was at least 20 metres ahead, approaching the boy's locker room with Jacob in tow. Kyle was drinking from the water fountain when both of his brothers approached.

"What'd you think of our stunt?", Jacob smiled, ruffling Kyle's hair as his head was bowed down next to the fountain.

Kyle avoided eye contact, wiped his mouth on his sleeve and turned to pick up his soccer bag.

"Earth to Kyle? What's wrong? Upset this is out of your control now?"

I slowed down, knowing that a confrontation between all 4 of us would not be good. I could see Kyle slow his breath as he turned around to approach the locker room.

"Damn, Kylie must be pissed."

Kyle rolled his eyes but I could tell he had had enough. Quickly scanning the hallway to make sure no other players were coming, he turned on his brothers in a low voice.

"What you did was pathetic. She's 14 for Christ's sake. Don't talk to me, don't look at me, and don't you dare do anything to her this practice, am I understood?"

Jacob and Logan were stunned. Despite being younger than Jacob, Kyle clearly showed his dominance and intolerance with the situation. My brothers nodded and looked at each other, their mouths still hanging slightly ajar.

I followed behind him, pushing into the girls locker room, not even making eye contact with my brothers. They didn't say a word and followed after Kyle.

As normal, I was the only girl in the locker room. I changed quickly, tied my hair in a ponytail and said a quick prayer before pushing open the door to the field and jogging out. The field was wet and damp, and rain was thundering down hard. How poetic.

I was one of the last to come in. I could see Cole and Nathan look at me pityingly, not knowing whether to pull me aside or ignore the event. Jacob and Logan came in last, playfully shoving each other onto the field. They were a rainy blur of laughter and shouts. I could feel my blood boil even in the torrential downpour.

"You're late.", Nathan barked. "Laps, now."

Jacob scrunched his brows. "No we're not, practice doesn't even start for another 5 minutes."

"5 laps for talking back, now." Cole shouted through the storm.

Logan glared. "Don't think we don't know what you're doing."

"Picking sides in this war, aren't you?", Jacob grinned.

"7 laps, one for each retort.", Nathan declared. "Do them now or you'll be on the bench for the next 3 games."

Jacob and Logan knew he wasn't joking. Presented with an ultimatum, they chose to not test my oldest brothers. Turning to the field to start their run they made eye contact with me. I firmly didn't look away.

While my brothers were doing laps, I could see Josh push the field door open and sprint towards the team. I desperately looked at Kyle and he observed the scene quickly. Beckoning me over, he called me to practice shots on net with him so I wouldn't have to face Josh.

"Sorry coach, I had a meeting with a teacher. It won't happen again. I'll start my laps now.", Josh said approaching my oldest brothers.

"No worries, Josh. Go and warm up.", Cole smiled.

Josh was taken aback. "You mean no laps? Are you okay, coach? I was late."

Nathan nodded. "Warm up, Josh. It's no problem."

Josh nodded but quickly turned away to warm up before my brothers could change their minds.

"Stop staring at him, it'll be okay.", Kyle said quietly as he retrieved my shot on net and rolled it back to me.

"That's unlikely. I practically started a fanpage for him. A wikipedia site if you will."

"Relax, he'll understand."

I lined my shot up again and with my head down propelled it straight into the net. Kyle tried to catch it with his stomach but it sent him into the back of the net landing in a jeep.

"Jeez, when did you learn to shoot so hard?", he muttered rubbing his abs.

I rolled my eyes. "Stop complimenting me just because of what happened. It's weird."

He shrugged. "I was being serious, but okay. The less awkward compliments the better."

I smiled on the inside. Josh had by this point finished warming up. We caught eyesight and he waved his hand, jogging towards me.

"Kyle."

"Don't worry."

He jogged up to meet Josh halfway.

"Sorry, Em wants practice on net."

Josh nodded. "I can help, I play striker too."

Kyle sighed awkwardly. "She wants solo practice cause she uh, just wants more time for shots."

Josh looked past my brother to see me, awkwardly staring at the ground kicking at the field.

"You don't have to avoid me. I don't care about that stupid prank your brothers did. Besides, I've been telling everyone it's about Josh Douek. No one thinks it's you, Em. And I don't care that it was."

Kyle turned back towards me with a huge grin plastered onto his face. I could tell Nathan and Cole were eavesdropping by the way they had mysteriously made their way all the way across the field towards us. When I looked at them they awkwardly dropped their eyes to their clipboard and made up random topics to talk about.

I started to smile softly. "I'm really sorry." I didn't know what else to say.

"Sorry? For what? For being honest? If I kept a diary I would write much more embarrassing stuff about you."

Me and Kyle laughed. Even Cole and Nathan who pretended not to be listening cracked a smile.

"Now are we gonna play or what?", he grinned thrusting the soccer ball into me and running past to play goalie.

I turned to Kyle and he shrugged.

"Protect your balls, she kicks hard."