Chapter One: I Lost my (Foot)balls
"And that's the first half, ladies and gents. The Wolverines lead with 29 points and the Hounds are trailing with 18."
Annabeth sits on the bench lost in thought, calculating the results of potential plays and scrutinizing her opponent's weaknesses. She doesn't notice Coach Hedge getting up and leading the team to the locker room until Jason comes up to her.
"C'mon, Coach won't be too happy if we're late," Jason says, startling Annabeth. She nods and follows after him.
They walk in as Hedge slams his clipboard onto the bench closest to him.
"What the HELL WAS THAT? They got 14 points in the first six minutes. It's like you just sat on your asses and said 'here, go right ahead, we don't mind.' WELL THIS ISN'T A FUCKING TEA PARTY! IF YOU WANT TO BE A GENTLEMAN GO JOIN THE GOLF TEAM. For everyone else, GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME, unless you want to lose to a team like Northwood, who is fucking awful. If any of you ever want to make it anywhere, you have to GET IT TOGETHER. WE CAN'T WIN ANY GAME IF WE KEEP PLAYING LIKE THIS." Hedge finishes his rant with a huff, picks up his clipboard, and storms out of the locker room, leaving the boys and Annabeth alone.
Jason stands up and turns to his teammates. "You heard what Coach said, we've got to get it together. We can't let a team like Northwood push us around on our first game, in our house. We've got the skill, we just need to put it into play." Jason nods to Annabeth and she rises from her spot next to him.
"I remember when I first joined the football team, and so many people said that I would be useless because I'm a girl, and girls are weaker than boys, and that I could never really be part of the team. But I came here and I proved them wrong, with your guys' help and support. And that's exactly what we need to do now; go out there together and show all those people who want us to lose that we're not giving up, and that we're stronger than they think." Annabeth finishes with a steady tone to her voice and Beckendorf begins to speak.
"We need to play our game" Beckendorf says, and Frank gives a firm nod in response.
"Let's go out there and finish what we started!" Jason says, putting his hand out. Everyone else puts their fist on top of his hand.
"HELL HOUNDS ON THREE! ONE, TWO, THREE!"
"HELL HOUNDS!" The team roars, bringing their fists up simultaneously. Annabeth leads the team back out onto the field.
"I've never seen Coach look so angry before," whispers Leo loudly, receiving a death stare from Annabeth.
"You weren't there when we stole the state championship trophy last year," says Travis.
"You mean misplaced the trophy," replies Connor. "Coach wouldn't speak to us for weeks."
"Which we actually didn't mind," ends Travis with a grin which turns into a grimace after Beckendorf slaps him on the back of the head.
The team jogs over to where Coach Hedge is waiting by the bench. Loud booing from the opposing bleachers blocks out the half-hearted cheers from the Hounds. After Hedge calls some plays, Annabeth, Jason, Frank, and the rest of the starters assemble on the field, illuminated by the harsh fluorescent lights. As the ball leaves the center's hands, every player starts moving and the second half begins.
Within the first half of the quarter, Annabeth scores a touchdown and the kicker makes the extra point, hyping up the crowd in the process. Combining the locker room pep talk with the crowd's rising energy, the team finishes the quarter strong with another touchdown and extra point, and stops the other team from scoring. Yet, something is off with the team, and as soon as Annabeth sits on the bench at the start of the fourth quarter, she could see it. Jason, who is in the best shape out of the team, looks tired; Frank, who can tackle a full grown elephant, can't stop someone the size of Leo. Overall there are a lot of fumbles and bad passes and after a couple more grueling minutes of this, the game is over.
"And with that, ladies and gents, the game has come to an end! The Wolverines won, 34-43! Please be sure to-"
The team grabs all their gear, Leo grabs the water, and they head into the locker room, heads hung low. Everyone takes a seat in silence, not even Leo has anything to say. Hedge walks in after everyone settles down.
"I don't think I need to say anything. Grab your stuff and get out, practice starts at 7 tomorrow." Hedge leaves without another word. Jason turns to Annabeth, who shakes her head and gets up to leave. Disheartened, the team trails out of the locker room after her.
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Annabeth begrudgingly opens her eyes to the sound of her alarm after a long night of tossing and turning. She had gone over every detail of last night's game, analyzing every mistake, barely able to sleep. Getting up, she french braids her hair, gets dressed, grabs a quick breakfast, and heads to practice.
As she steps into the field, Annabeth can tell that yesterday's performance still weighs on everyone's shoulders. Jason and Annabeth talk to the team before practice, pointing out what could have been done to make yesterday's game better and what needs to be done from here on out to make sure it doesn't repeat itself further in the season, yet still encouraging everyone so that they have the motivation needed to have a good practice. After warming up, Hedge sends everyone to do more individual drills, bringing everyone together to run every once in a while. By the end of the first hour, everyone is sweating buckets and Leo has to run to the school to get more water.
At the end of practice, Hedge calls the team together on the sideline.
"As you guys know, you played like crap last night. And after some thinking, and rewatching the film, I have decided that you guys need to work on your technique. You will be getting some special help. From here on out, for the second half of every Wednesday practice you will be heading to Strathmore Center for ballet lessons."