Chapter 1
The Move
Today I start my first day at a new place. There are multiple reasons for that, but the main one is my dad got a new job in a new town. Now we weren’t in a rich city, but this new town was very different from my old city.
Well I told you one of the reasons I had moved, but there is another one. I will tell you later, but for now it will be a surprise.
I’m currently a junior. I have played all sports. I was okay in basketball and soccer. I was good at football and the best in baseball. I was the quarterback in football. I played every position in baseball, for my glove hand was the best. At this new school I would only try out for football and baseball.
I had a little sister of age seven. She was in second grade. She had me in a spot where I could not deny her anything. Her name was Olivia.
My mom and dad both lived with me, and as far as I could tell we're happy. I loved all of my family dearly. If someone tried to mess with them they would have to go through me.
Anyways, my mom was signing me into my new school. As she was doing that the principle was sizing me up. He could tell I played sports, so he said, “The football team is on the field for tryouts. I'm sure they would let you play.”
I smiled and said, “Thank you sir. I will do just that if my mom here is okay with it.”
My mom said, “Of course I'm okay with it. I always want you away from me. You pester me too much.”
We all laughed before I hustled down towards the football field. When I got there I saw some cheerleaders practicing and the football team. Since I couldn't see the coach I looked lost.
A girl walked up to me and said “Are you a little lost?”
I laughed nervously, “Is it that easy to tell?”
“You look like you’re new. And yeah it is that easy to tell. If you tell me what, or who you are looking for I can probably help. My name is Jasmine,” the girl said, putting out her hand in greeting.
“Thank you Jasmine. My name is Jason. And I was looking for the football coach,” I say, shaking her hand.
On a second look I could tell this girl was beautiful. She was five foot and two inches tall. She had some pretty blue eyes that had a little twinkle in them that made her look mischievous. She had long blonde hair that went down to her waist. I was actually surprised she wasn't practicing with the cheerleaders, for she had an athletic build to her.
I must have been staring pretty long, for she smiled and asked, “Like what you see?”
“Uh ...I'm sorry. Where was the coach again,” I say nervous that I messed up a chance to make a friend.
I was no eyesore myself. I was six feet and two inches tall. I had about half of my neck length covered in dark brown hair with some slight curls. I also had blue eyes and the athlete build.
Jasmine laughed, “I’m just playing with you Jason. You know you aren’t a bad guy compared to some of the jocks. The coach is over there. The one that is constantly looking back and forth from his notebook to his players.” She pointed to the coach while she said it.
“Well it was nice meeting you Jasmine. Hopefully I will see you around,” I say.
“So I can help you to your classes maybe,” She smiles. And yes that was part of the reason, but there were also two other facts. One of them was that she was cute. The other was I actually wanted her to be my friend.
When she said that I ran over to the coach. “What do you want,” the coach asked gruffly.
I put my hand out in greetings and say, ”I’m Jason, and I would like a chance at playing quarterback this year.
The coach shakes my hand and says, “I’m coach Wade, and if you are even half as decent as you were last year I will gladly let you try out. Get out there and give me five laps. When that’s done grab a ball and head over to the group over there on the left. They are our defense team, so we would like to give them a challenge. The coach over there is named coach Lane. If he has any problems tell him I sent you."
“Sir yes sir,” I say as I run my laps. I finish the five laps in under twelve minutes. When I finish I go over to the defense team and talk to coach Lane.
“You any good kid,” coach Lane asks in a joking voice. It doesn’t surprise me that he knows I’m good, for I played his team a lot of times in the past.
I ran over to where the second and third stringers for offense are running plays and asked for the ball. The kids don’t argue, but the quarterback doesn’t look happy.
“Okay guys you may not trust me yet, but let’s try a shotgun play. I want the wide receivers to give me post corner routes. Tight end I want you to run to the first down line, so we can get an easy first down just in case,” I say in the huddle.
The coach waits for my nod that I’m ready and counts down, “1....2….3 go.”
The ball is snapped back to me and I await for my team to get open. I see the tight end lose his defender so I pass him the ball. It was just in time, for someone came crashing down on me a second after I released the ball.
The pass was perfect. It hit the tight end on the run. He caught it and took off down the field. He made it to the defense's ten yard line before he got dropped.
Once back in the huddle the tight end said, “Great call. My name is Antwan by the way.”
“Nice to meet you Antwan I”m Jason, and that was a nice catch, though I did expect you to be tackled before you got here,” I said.
“Well you caught the defense slacking,” one of the wide receivers said. “I’m Dave.”
The other wide receiver said, “I’m Drake and let’s catch them on their toes again.”
I called a running play. The boys all agreed and I nodded my head signalling we were ready. The coach counted down again. The second he said go the ball was snapped back to me. I made it look like I handed it over to the halfback, but actually gave it to the full back. The full back ran beside the tight end and I followed a little behind and off to the left in case a lateral was needed.
The play worked and got us a touchdown. When we did another hour's worth of plays like that the coaches called out positions. They said I would be the starting quarterback, and the guy that was the starting quarterback gave me a glare as he got the position of backup quarterback.
When that was done all of the guys ran to the showers except for me, for I had not brought extra clothes because I didn’t know tryouts would be today. I walked back towards the bleechers and sat down. Some of the cheerleaders walked over to me and I could tell they were going to start flirting. I was still polite and said “Hey ladies I’m Jason.”
They introduced themselves as Haleigh, Kayla, Jennifer, Taylor, Christie, Alexis, and Abbie. Kayla was the head cheerleader and also the head flirter.
I didn’t mind of course, but earlier this year I said I would focus on my work instead of girls. I only said that because I was hurting from a breakup, but I also really needed to.
I must have looked uncomfortable because a familiar voice said, “Why don’t you stop Kayla. Can’t you tell he is not in the mood for flirting?”
Kayla laughed, “And what are you going to do you wuss? You gonna kick a ball in my face, spike a ball in my face, or splash me. You are such a loser Jasmine.”
That was what got me mad. The fact that someone talks down on another person always ticked me off. I’m sure that Jasmine was actually pretty cool too, so I probably made the biggest mistake. I jumped to my feet and said loudly, “Why don’t you shut your mouth and leave.”