Chapter 25. Football Tryouts

August 23, 2004

Two months had passed. According to a newsletter sent by Mt. Si H.S. in the mail to Inuyasha and Amanda, tryouts for fall sports would begin that day, Monday. They would be held at Mt. Si for volleyball and football.

Amanda was going to participate in volleyball, having one year of experience from eighth grade. Inuyasha would be on the football field with a bunch of padded, sweaty teenage guys almost seven centuries younger than himself. Misan, meanwhile, would be keeping an eye on Inuyasha, predicting the trouble with the lack of a physical. Volleyball tryouts at the middle school wouldn't start until the first day of school. Michelle had offered to buy their school supplies for them if given the money. Inuyasha gladly agreed, knowing Misan wouldn't go as far as stepping into a store and buy school supplies.

Inuyasha had dressed in a pair of guys' black sport shorts, a gray T-shirt, and his sneakers. No one so far had seemed to bother him about his long, silver hair probably because it actually looked good on him and was bridging on bleached white. His dog ears were still perched atop his head, Misan only doing her "magic" with their appearances in the day and changing them back to normal at night, then doing it all over again in the morning. She fixed the problem by flicking his ears one after the other.

Misan, not wishing to draw all the attention of almost a hundred teenage football players, chose to wear a long, loose and flowing brown skirt, a white hooded sweatshirt, her sunglasses, and a scarf lightly wrapped around her neck, chin, mouth, and nose. This made it almost impossible to see any of her face, figure, hair, eyes, or anything that could be thought of as attractive or abnormal. It was doubtful that she wouldn't be heeded, though. Misan would have to convince the coaches much the same way they did at the dojo with Mr. Fauntes. Preparing for just that, she wore some black spandex shorts she had gotten a couple of weeks ago, the same kind volleyball players wear, and her black muscle tank-top.

Michelle drove the three to the large hight school at four. She would be back at 9:30, when the two-part tryouts would be over. There were girls and guys standing out front and chatting away with their friends. About half of them were relaxed having done it before. The other half of people were nervous and wanted tryouts to be over. Inuyasha was grumpy, having been forced into this by his niece.

Amanda was about to drag Inuyasha over to her friends to show him off. She had developed a crush on him over the summer and she had good reason. Inuyasha is an attractive guy, is nice, strong, and has other good attributes. Misan shook her head 'no' to the girl shorter than her. So, instead, Amanda went over to her friends, warmly greeting them, then talking and pointing, the girls occasionally directing their eyes and heads to Inuyasha.

Misan ignored it and walked to the football field where the other guys were gathering. Inuyasha followed having gotten the picture of what she was doing. As Misan had guessed, there were more or less a hundred boys in football gear. The coaches appeared to be gathering them all together.

Inuyasha ran over to one of the men and asked if he could tryout. The man told Inuyasha to get suited-up and first show him his physical. Inuyasha said that he didn't have one which sent them right into an argument.

While this occurred, Misan positioned herself on the concrete platform in front of the bleachers and behind the grassy sidelines and fence. A tall 13-year-old boy not in gear strolled to a group of 15-year-old guys that looked as though they were trying out.

"Hey! What're ya doin' here, Joe?" one guy asked the younger one.

"Ah, my sister's got soccer tryouts so I came here to watch the football tryouts," the boy, Joe, answered.

Then they got onto the subject of Misan when they glanced over at her.

"Hey, do you see that girl over there? Wonder what she's trying to hide—" on started but Inuyasha's high-temper from being defeated in the argument stopped him as he stomped over.

"MISAN! How am I supposed to get on this team if that bastard coach refuses to let me tryout because I don't have a freaking physical?! I didn't even want to play in the first place!" Inuyasha yelled in her face.

"Inuyasha, I am playing sports, so if I am playing sports, then you have to play, too. As for your problem, we may need to show them you are capable of playing," she coldly stated under her scarf.

"Hey, what are you trying to hide under all those clothes in the middle of summer?!" one of the guys rudely joked.

"Maybe she's so ugly and hideous, she always has to cover herself!" another suggested.

Inuyasha shot a sharp glare over to the laughing boys. Joe didn't seem to like the others insulting the girl but couldn't help but laugh. And yet they all regretted it as all eyes turned to Misan.

"Let's go, Inuyasha," she simply said as she peeled away her scarf, sunglasses, and hood to show an extraordinarily pretty face./ Then she unzipped her zip-up hooded sweatshirt, her black muscle tank-top displaying almost every curve to her upper body. Finally, she slipped off her skirt, not giving any heed to the many guys' eyes widen as it revealed slender, smooth, cream colored, shapely legs and her mid-thigh reaching black spandex.

She strode steadily over to the same coach Inuyasha had failed with minutes ago. He looked over Misan carefully. Trying to find words, he opened his mouth but Misan never gave him the chance.

"The two of us will play against some of your best players in a team. It will be a game of ten where each touchdown is a point. We win and Inuyasha gets to tryout without a physical," Misan bet in a firm voice. Once more, she had proven to be able to leave a person incapable of arguing with her for the hidden threat her voice held.

"O—kay."

He gathered together a team of seniors, juniors, and one sophomore; a black guy named Matt, supposedly the fastest kid in school. Misan and Inuyasha took their place on the field. They were against ten guys that were mostly muscular or big.

The opposing side kicked-off, them thinking Inuyasha or Misan would be unable to catch it. How wrong they were! MIsan ran to the point it was falling and caught it in her arms. She nodded for Inuyasha to go to the opposite end of the field right before the touchdown zone. Giving a simple swing of her arm and the oblong ball went flying straight to Inuyasha. It was about 3 feet above his head when he jumped high enough into the air so caught it near his stomach. He turned in mid-air and managed to land in the touchdown zone with nothing to propel his body except a powerful swing of his legs.

It kept going somewhat like that. At one point, Misan had Inuyasha actually run slowly enough for the guys to try and tackle him down. Five guys dove for Inuyasha, attempting to drag him down. Even when they were grabbing at him and clinging onto his body, he stood stiff and ran off again.

The final score was ten to zero, Misan and Inuyasha being the winners.

"There. So do I get to tryout now?" Inuyasha asked the coaches.

"Uh, yeah—heck, we'd let that girl tryout, even!"

"Not interested," Misan blandly stated.

"Alright, well . . . go get suited up . . ." the man had been looking for a name but remembered he never got it.

"Inuyasha Higurashi and my niece, Misan Higurashi."

"Niece? You two could pass for brother and sister—"

"Yeah, well, we aren't! The only way we're related is my old man was her grandfather. That's all!" Inuyasha said irately.

"Okay, okay! Just go get ready!" the coach backed down from Inuyasha's quick-temper.

Inuyasha was allowed to tryout for that week. Each day, for five hours, Inuyasha and Misan trained with their swords in the back yard, front yard, or the empty racket ball court. Once tryouts were over, all freshman were placed in C-team; the tenth through twelfth graders which weren't that good were put in junior varsity; and all the better sophomores, juniors, and seniors including Inuyasha, got varsity.