3. Bailey
3
Bailey
A s we walked through the halls, Lachlan leaned into me now and then, working hard to avoid other people. It didn’t bother me, but eventually, I moved so he was between me and Nolan. He gave me a quick smile.
I had decided to join them in the cafeteria, and a certain amount of excitement overcame me. This was my first time eating in the cafeteria. Weird, right? Something about being accepted by Lachlan made the anxiety of this morning seep away.
I was nearly jumping from one foot to the other as I grabbed a tray of mac and cheese. Lachlan chose the same, while Nolan picked a grilled chicken salad. A girl came from the back of the kitchen and handed Lachlan a container of breadsticks and marinara sauce.
“What?! The menu says those are sold out.” I pouted.
Lachlan grinned. “I can’t share my secrets.”
We paid for our food, and I followed him and Nolan over to the table in the center of the room. This had to be the football table, since the guys sitting around it were huge. My eyes caught on Chase for a brief moment, Hadley sitting perched on his lap. Even though I felt his stare, I refused to look at him. If he wanted me to not exist, then I could pretend the same about him.
Nolan seemed like a social butterfly, slapping hands as he walked and smiling at everyone. “Nolan!” Hadley called out from her spot. Dang. She was ballsy. “Come sit here!”
“Oh, Lach saved me a spot, sorry!” He slid next to me, almost squishing me as he pushed me along the bench into Lachlan.
“What classes do you have next?” I asked Nolan.
“Gym and history,” he said as he pulled out a protein drink from his backpack. “You?”
“Same.” I grinned.
Lachlan raised an eyebrow. “You elected to take gym?”
“Yeah. I always wanted to take it, but everyone said it was reserved for athletes. Principal Leggie said I could take it if I wanted.” I shrugged.
“A lot of people take it, thinking it’s an easy A, but the elective one is physically demanding.”
“What do you have next?” I asked.
“Gym.” He grinned, the idiot. I rolled my eyes and smiled. I liked this. It was as if Lachlan and I had easily fallen back into being friends. As if three years of not communicating hadn’t passed between us. “Then I have AP Chem.”
“AP?” Nolan asked. “I used to be in AP classes at my old school but had to drop out. What classes are you taking?”
“This semester, only AP Chem, but next semester is going to suck. I’ll have calculus, English, and economics, all AP.” When Nolan wrinkled his nose, Lachlan explained, “They messed up my schedule and gave me my free period and both electives in the first semester.”
“That’s shitty. I thought about doing advanced placement, but that, on top of football and extra training last year, I just had no time to focus on the work, and my GPA was falling. I figured it was better to maintain my GPA in the mainstream classes than have a low one in AP.”
So, Nolan was smart. Lachlan was smart. I shrank a little in my seat. I mean, I wasn’t failing, but I sure wasn’t advanced-placement level.
I never knew Lachlan was in advanced placement, but I knew he was always ahead of us in elementary school, often doing our homework for us when we forgot it. He only got caught once before he changed his strategy, and they never caught him again. But Nolan…Nolan seemed just as passionate about it as Lachlan was.
When Nolan had walked through the hall, laughing and joking and slapping hands as he played the new quarterback part, he’d been tense. He exuded confidence well, but his eyes had looked exhausted, and this was after only knowing him for part of the day. But now, as he and Lachlan discussed university-level math, his eyes were relaxed, calm. He wasn’t forcing the confidence; he was confident.
I stared at Lachlan’s breadsticks. When we were kids, Lachlan would get busy talking, a bomb could go off near him, and he would continue his discussion. So, I wondered…
I grabbed a breadstick and pulled it slowly toward me until I was nibbling on it. Somehow, the topic of math turned to astronomy, and as Lachlan grew more verbose, he moved so he was straddling the bench, one leg alongside mine and the other behind me. It didn’t bother me, though. This was Lachlan. The more time I spent with him, it was like things started coming back and the more familiar I was with him. When we were kids, we used to have campouts in the living room and practically sleep on top of one another.
And, well…breadsticks. I got bold and dipped the next one in the marinara sauce and nearly moaned at how delicious it was. From now on, I was going to have to fight against people in the hall to be first in line, so I could get some before they sold out.
The bell rang and Lachlan looked down. “Ba-Bailey.” He shook his head. “I should’ve known my breadsticks weren’t safe around you.”
“Sorry, I’ll pay you back!” My cheeks heated as I realized there were only two left.
Lachlan winked at me. “Don’t worry about it.” He took one and offered the other to me, which…well…I wasn’t going to say no.
The elective gym class was coed for seniors. The juniors’ gym class was mandatory, so boys and girls were split up. Still, aside from me, there were only four other girls who chose this class. The rest were guys.
“Hello, seniors!” Coach stood in the crowd. We were already in our gym clothes and out on the school football field, which doubled as the track. “If you took this class looking for easy credit, you are in the wrong class. We will be going over physical fitness, body mechanics, body metabolism, as well as an introduction to different sports. This class is a great choice if you are interested in an athletic or fitness-related career.”
I shifted on my feet where I stood between Lachlan and Nolan. Chase stood on the other side of the crowd, his arms crossed as he focused on the coach.
“Also, if anyone is interested, the senior football team is looking for more players. We do have a game coming next week; however, it is not too late to join. If you or someone you know is interested in joining, just come to me and we will get you set up.”
As the words flowed out of the coach’s mouth, they became a worm in my head. While I wasn’t as passionate about football as Lachlan, it was still something I had fun doing. And all this change was about being myself again, right?
“I could do that,” I found myself whispering.
“What?” Lachlan raised an eyebrow.
“I could play football. I used to play with you guys.” Actually…the more I thought about it, the more fun it sounded. I’d always wanted to be on a sport’s team. I should do it , the voice in my head egged on.
“Yeah, we were like eight, and it was tyke football,” Lachlan said. “This is different. We aren’t little kids, just pushing each other around anymore.”
“You should try it,” Nolan said. I fought a laugh. Lachlan was like the angel on my shoulder, and Nolan was the devil, telling me to push the button. “We had two girls on my team last year. Mind you, the team had nearly ninety players, so there was a lot of rotation.”
“Holy crap, ninety!” My mouth dropped. “That’s like the size of our entire elementary school.”
“Yeah, it’s one of the reasons I chose this school. I needed more playing time, and I wasn’t getting it there.”
Coach was explaining what we would be doing today, running the track and keeping our times. We would be comparing our time in a week, to check for improvement. I was only half paying attention. Most of my thoughts were consumed by the idea of joining the team… I looked around the crowd, almost waiting for Ed to appear and tell me this was a bad idea, but he wasn’t there, his voice silent in my head. “Do it, Bailey,” Nolan whispered.
I’d watched games before—since my dad was a fan of football—I was fairly athletic, and I sort of knew the sport. I could do this…right? Coach said they needed players. I was just trying to come up with reasons why I should join the team, and I knew my mind wouldn’t settle until I did it. “I’m going to do it,” I said with more conviction.
The group disbanded as everyone grabbed stopwatches and began their assignment. I walked right up to Coach. “Hey,” I said. “So, I was wondering what is needed to join the football team.”
Coach looked me up and down for a moment. I knew he was looking at my physique as an athlete—at least, that’s what it seemed—but I still found myself shying away.
“Have you played before?” he asked.
I reminded myself of my purpose and summoned some of that younger Bailey strength to step up. “Just in tykes when I was younger,” I answered him.
He didn’t seem impressed by this. “How were your grades last year?”
Damn. They weren’t horrible, but I had struggled with some subjects. “I was a solid B student.” Okay, maybe I had some C’s, but overall, I was fairly average in my classes. If I’d been able to focus more on what was being taught, instead of what had been waiting for me at home, then I probably could’ve done better.
“And you’ve never played any other sports?”
I lit up at this. “I used to compete in horseback riding. Most of my childhood, until the past year.”
He seemed interested now. “Showmanship?”
I shook my head. “Barrel racing, roping, and cutting.” I wasn’t sure how extensive his knowledge was on the subject. “Cutting is like separating the cow from the herd and keeping it away. Moving my horse and anticipating the cow’s movements.”
“How did you do?”
“Well enough to win first in provincials and second in nationals,” I boasted.
Coach nodded, seeming to consider me a bit more. “There’s a lot of physical contact involved. I need players that can take a hit, as well as give it. Being a girl, you could be more vulnerable to being targeted, regardless of where you are on the field.”
“That’s fine.”
“If I told you to hit that guy right there, would you do it?” He pointed across the field to Ethan—forgotten friend number three. The last of our group. How had I not seen him in this class yet?
Ethan had always been a big kid when we were growing up, despite where he came from. He was frequently made fun of for being trailer trash because he was one of the few kids that lived in the mobile home complex in town. He used to be a bully, until, one day, he’d tried to go after Lachlan, so Chase and I made him eat sand. I’d been ready to go after him more, just to drive the message home.
It wasn’t until later, after something else happened, that I changed my mind about Ethan. I still remembered the shock and disbelief on Chase’s and Lachlan’s faces when I walked up to Ethan and demanded he become one of our friends. He refused, of course—he had always been stubborn—but I didn’t give him a choice. Little Bailey, she didn’t take no for an answer. He finally relented, and from then on, he had completed our group…until the group no longer existed.
I’d watched Chase and Lachlan change over the years. I’d watched Chase with his girlfriend and Lachlan with random girls here and there but nothing solid. I’d seen them grow from the boys I’d known to the guys they were now, and I’d always remained a bystander, on the outside.
Ethan, though, I’d rarely seen. He went from the big kid in school to, I swear, a giant overnight. Students talked about the fact he could likely crush skulls with his bare hands. He was the largest lineman the school had, and no one could get through him.
Unfortunately for me, the few times I’d bumped into him in the hallways or shared a class with him, all I’d gotten were glares and grunts. I was absolutely, one-hundred-percent certain that Ethan wanted nothing, nada, zilch to do with me. If he could have me transferred to a different school, I was positive he would have made it happen. It was one of the reasons I wouldn’t even try to reach out to him, like I had Chase and Lachlan.
That didn’t stop the fluttering in my chest when my eyes fell upon him. His thick, dark hair had grown out, soft curls now covering the tops of his ears and falling above his eyes.
I cleared my throat and looked back at the coach. Could I tackle Ethan if I had to? “Growing up on the farm, if a job needs to get done, we don’t say no just because it’s a strenuous job. No matter how tired we get or how heavy the lift, we get it done. If I had to tackle him, I would give it everything I had. I can’t guarantee I could take him, but I would give it my all because that’s what needs to be done.”
Coach’s lips twitched as he fought a smirk. “I like it. What was your name?”
“Bailey. Bailey McCormick.”
“Okay, take an easy jog around the track to warm up, and then come back to me.”
With a quick nod, I turned around and started my jog. Nolan fell into step next to me. “Well?” he asked.
“He wants me to warm up and then go back.”
“He’s going to test you,” Lachlan said as he appeared on my other side. “Look.”
I glanced over to the center of the field, where the coach was now setting up pylons.
Ethan stood at the one in the middle of three, looking grumpy as ever, and another guy stood at the one farthest away, both with stopwatches in their hands.
“All right, Bailey,” Coach said as I finished my jog, “I want you to run past the second pylon. Don’t slow down or stop. Ethan is going to take your time at twenty yards, and Greg will get your time at forty yards.”
“Okay.” I lined up at the first pylon and waited for the Coach's signal before I took off running.
When I made it past the third pylon, I turned around and jogged over to Coach as he looked at the stopwatches with a smile. He didn’t say anything to me when he stepped back, blew his whistle, then called Lachlan, Nolan, and another guy, Mark, over.
“We’re going again, forty-yard dash on my go.”
I lined up with the three guys, Nolan grinning from ear to ear. “Four point six,” he said to Lachlan.
Lachlan scoffed. “Four point four.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
Mark groaned. “They are betting on their times. They always do that.”
Coach gave the signal, and we took off. I had to push myself harder than my first run to keep up with Lachlan and Nolan. Mark was behind me, Nolan in front, only by a couple steps, but Lachlan had a larger gap for the lead. This time, I was out of breath.
Coach gave a low whistle as he looked at the stopwatch.
“What did I get?” Lachlan asked.
Greg rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t timing you.”
“Boo.” Nolan frowned.
“One more time,” Coach said.
This time, I was ready for it. Lachlan was faster than I had anticipated, but if I just pushed myself a bit harder, I was sure I could outrun him. Coach gave the signal, and I pushed forward. “Shit,” Lachlan said as I got a lead on him right out of the gate, though it wasn’t long before he pulled ahead, laughing at me. Nolan and I finished neck and neck; I wasn’t sure which one of us made it first.
“For a female at a competitive level, I expect to see five to five-point-two seconds for the forty-yard dash. Bailey, your time was four point seven. That’s amazing and highly unusual for someone just starting. I’m sure we can hone in on that. Lachlan”—Coach turned to him—“your start is sloppy. Bailey beat you by nearly half a second.”
Lachlan frowned. “What was her start time?”
“One point nine six,” Coach said. “Okay, boys—and Bailey. I want to see the three cone drill, and then we will switch to the pop pass drill.”
“I thought we signed up for gym class, not another practice,” Mark grumbled.
Coach laughed. “Young man, you are on the team. Every moment of being at school is a practice. Make sure you are ready for that, Bailey. Practices every morning, weightlifting, games every Friday, and review days every Saturday. If you are on the team, there is no time for friends and other activities. Football and schoolwork is your life.”
I nodded. I didn’t have any friends, and I had no activities, aside from chores and farm work, but I could work that out with Dad, I was sure. “I can do it,” I promised Coach before he turned away to set up the next drill.
“I won.” Lachlan grinned.
“Didn’t count,” Nolan protested, folding his impressive arms across his chest. “They didn’t time us, only Bailey.”
Lachlan waved him away. “I was clearly ahead of you both. You don’t need a stopwatch to have seen that.”
“You may have won at the forty yard, but I beat you both on the twenty.” I grinned. “By fifty-three tenths of a second.” I bumped a very surprised Lachlan as I walked by, his mouth slightly open in disbelief. Nolan howled with laughter behind me.
Lachlan and Nolan were highly competitive with one another, and I was all for it. No matter the drill Coach put us through, I made sure I pushed myself to be ahead of them, though, most times, I ended up slightly behind. Ethan, Mark, and Greg completed the drills as well, but Mark and Greg weren’t as competitive. Greg made a comment about how annoying practices would get with a girl on the team, so I chose silence and stayed out of his way. Ethan remained quiet the whole time, aside from an annoyed sigh here and there. He refused to look at me, and every time my eyes drifted to him, I found a disapproving frown on his face.
Mark was fun. He seemed bored with having to complete drills, but he went along with it all the same. He didn’t mind a girl trying out to join the team.
At the end of class, Coach approached me, telling me he wanted me at the practice tomorrow morning to watch how it ran…if I was still interested. Spoiler alert: I was.