Chapter 10 - Tryouts
AN: Well well, Grad school happened, COVID happened, life. Here's a long one for you guys. Share your thoughts. Stay safe xx
General POV
Today is the day that Callie, Arizona, Teddy and Addison have worked towards not only the last two weeks but the last four years during their collegiate careers. The tryouts are being held at the Tacoma Convention Center which is about 40 minutes south of Seattle for the girls. The tryouts start at 11 AM with check in starting at 10:30.
Back at Arizona's apartment, she and Callie just woke up. Callie is in the shower and has barely said a word to Arizona this morning and she knows exactly why...nerves. She decides to take matters into her own hands in order to settle her girlfriends nerves as well as settling her own as she strips down and joins her girlfriend in the shower. Naked Callie is such a sight to see to her. Her curves and long brown hair, her nice ass as the water soaks down her body, she knew exactly what to do to help them both.
Turning her around in the shower, Arizona wraps her arms around Callie's neck, "Good morning sweetheart, looks like you need to relax a little bit." as she takes her hair into her hands and wrings out the water.
Callie takes a deep breath in, visibly relaxing and says, "I'm just so nervous, I hope we are all ready.", and she tilts her head back under the water with the thoughts swirling around in her head about everything that will happen in the next two days.
Arizona takes this opportunity to kiss the expense of her neck, nibbling from her collar bone to her ear. Callie lets out a whimper and Arizona says, "Well let me help you relax before our big day. Don't think about anything else except about how I'm going to make you feel.", all while palming her breast and pressing her hands above her head against the glass of the shower. She continues to kiss her neck teasingly until Callie finally gets her to bring her lips connected to her own in a searing kiss. You can already see that Callie's mind is definitely off volleyball and completely entranced by her blonde girlfriend.
Arizona releases Callies hands and guides her hand down to a hot core that is begging for her attention. She strokes her up and down, around her clit, dipping inside of her with two fingers and making her squirm a little bit. Finally, she slips her fingers into her soaking center and starts pumping. She can tell Callie needs this to relax, and she knows she won't stop until Callie can't stand anymore. She pumps in and out furiously until she gets the queue of Callie no longer being able to kiss her properly so that she knows that her girlfriend is close to an orgasm. She brings her lips by her ear and asks, "Do you want to come baby?"
Callie moans and replies a struggling, "Ye- Yes Yes Yes I do, please keep going, do- don't stop Zona", she knows she is close.
Arizona gives it all she's got for the next 5 pumps and she receives all of Callie's weight after she feels her let go. She loves the feeling of making Callie have an orgasm because she knows how to make her feel good as well as being able to give her what she needs, whether Callie knew she needed that or not.
As soon as Callie can regain function and catches her breath, she goes to spin Arizona, but the blonde swiftly rinses herself and exits the shower and says, "Oh don't worry Calliope, after we make the team you can return the favor.", with a wink knowing she's leaving the brunette frustrated. She wants to fuck Arizona but she complies and gets out of the shower as well, "That's just cruel you know that right?", with Arizona leaving the bathroom saying, "All in good time sweetheart.", and Callie thinks 'God I love that woman'.
The girls get dressed and pack their bags for tryouts before Teddy and Addison meet them at the apartment so they can ride together. They leave at 9:30 to allow enough time to get to Tacoma in case there is traffic. They play music and sing the entire way, and chat a little bit about how they are feeling that morning. Teddy said that Addison got up at 6 oclock that morning because she couldn't sleep because she was excited. Addison says, "Guys do you not realize we are about to live out our dreams? Even having the opportunity to try out for the Olympic team is amazing. I have a really good feeling about this." Everyone agrees and they are all lost in their own thoughts about preparation for the upcoming two days until they arrive at the Convention center.
After they arrive and get checked in, they are brought to the gym where there are four courts set up. They have about 5 minutes until introductions start and the tryouts get underway. The four girls are among about 50 people that were asked or selected to try out for the team. Arizona and Addison are talking about people they recognize while Callie and Teddy are finishing getting ready, a way that looks a lot like how they prepared for their last college game.
10:50 hits and a woman, and three men come through the side doors with clip boards in hand. The woman blows her whistle and tells everyone to gather around, "Good Morning ladies and thank you for being here today. My name is Catherine Fox and I am the Head Coach of the Olympic team. I have with me today my assistant coach and two volunteer assistant coaches that will be our staff for this season. A little bit about me before we get into it, this is my 8th year being head coach after playing 6 years professionally overseas for Italy, and I graduated from UCLA with one national championship and 3 time First-Team Pac 10 awards. I don't say this to brag, but I want you to know that if you are on my team, I am a winner. I hate to lose more than I love to win, and I hope to instill that into my future players. To everyone, good luck these next two days. Now to my volunteer coaches."
The two handsome men introduce themselves as Derek Shepherd who played Beach Volleyball at Stanford and Owen Hunt who played men's indoor at Baylor as well as competitively in the Army while he served.
Next is the Assistant Coach who is an older gentleman named Richard Webber, "Good Morning ladies, my name is Richard Weber and I am the assistant coach this year and I could not be anymore excited for the raw talent I hope to see today and tomorrow. Let's see, I didn't play in college, but I was the former head coach at University of Florida for 16 years before retiring. I took my girls to 12 SEC Championships making it to the championship of the NCAA tournament 8 times after. I know winning as well, but I like to show how I teach a winning culture rather than talk about it. Now let's get into the tryout. We will be splitting you all into the two main courts. On Court 1, we will mix in defense as well as seeing what kind of power and precision you guys have up close to the net. You will be split up based on position and work in a rotation. We want to see what everyone has to offer, so if you play full rotation, D.S, or are a setter, we know. Court 2 will be majority of serving and receiving, show up what kind of spin you have as well as placement, and receivers will give us your best pass to set up for the play. ", Richard explains the rotations and splits the girls into their respective courts. He continues to explain that Court 1 has 5 front row hitters at each spot with 2 rotating setters, he says balls will be flying but if everyone is efficient the rotation should go smoothly. The defensive side comes from the blockers who rotated under after hitting to set up blocks for the opposing hitters, he stressed hard on being able to get a full block up. The defense are the three back row positions, with 3 people rotating at each position to dig a hit. Court 2 has 4 groups of 6, two groups receiving serves, and 2 groups serving. They will be told when to rotate from serving to receiving.
As everyone gets into the swing of things you can see nothing but passion on these courts. Callie is blocking balls left and right while getting good reads on the defense and pounding balls down the line or cross court. She is in the zone, getting full blocks or enough tips on the ball for a defender to get the ball back up. Arizona is having beautiful sets, but you can tell that when she sets Callie, or Teddy right now that there is just a chemistry of knowing how the hitter works or how Arizona is going to set the ball. The coaches definitely take good notice to that. These girls are working damn hard and the results are showing. Addie is digging balls, moving her feet like she never has before and getting a decent amount of blocks in. She has an advantage that all but one other right side hitter doesn't have in that she's left handed. The defense can't tell which way she is going to slam the ball.
The next ball that is set up to Addison from Arizona, Teddy happens to be blocking. This is the icing on the cake for the group. The coaches are all watching when the set goes up. Teddy watches Addison's eyes and knows exactly where she wants to put this ball. As Addison goes up, so does Teddy. Teddy gets all of the ball in the block that seems to be a given block, when Callie comes out of nowhere, pancakes the ball up enough from Arizona to get under it, setting to Addie again and this ball stood no chance. Cross court at the ten foot line, easy kill with no one around to touch it. The girls are on fire, absolute fire.
When the rotation comes to Court 2, the returning D.S Christina Yang is passing balls beautifully. She catches all of Callie's top spin deep balls with grace, this girl can play. She's fierce. She received MVP at the 2000 Olympics, being the youngest player in the entire Olympic volleyball world. She was a natural. Seeing her, Callie, and Addison in the back row, all receiving was a coach's dream. Floaters, top spin, crease balls, nothing was getting past them. Arizona was able to sneak a few floaters that tipped off the net in for an ace, but that was perfect precision placement.
Not only were Addison, Teddy, Callie and Arizona doing fantastic, so was the majority of everyone else. All of these girls knew the volleyball like the back of their hand.
After 4 hours, that seemed to pass by in minutes, the coaches called everyone in to end the day's tryout. They gave their pleasantries, wished everyone a safe ride home, and said they hoped to see everyone back again tomorrow, same time. Ready to give everything they had on the last day. No one knew what to expect for the second day, but they were all ready.
They girls grab all of their stuff and head home. On the drive home Teddy is the first to bring up anything about the tryout, "I don't know about you guys but I feel damn good. Cal, I've never seen you get up and over the net like you did tonight. Zona, you were setting the perfect sets and Adds, well darling, you hit every damn spot serving. I was perfect of course" this gets a jab from her girlfriend and a laugh from Callie and Arizona, "I don't know about you guys but damn, we have really good chances."
Arizona says, "Yeah and did you see how well Cristina Yang did? That girl is a monster in the back line, I've never seen someone with so many unimaginable digs, the girl just gets them up. Anyways, I have a good feeling about it too, we just need to lock it in tomorrow.", she finishes by putting her hand on Callie's leg who is driving. She couldn't imagine a more perfect day, filled with volleyball, her wonderful and badass girlfriend who did amazing today and her best friends who did just as well.
They all get home and grab a quick bite to eat after retiring to their rooms after an exhausting day.
Callie is the first to wake the next morning, surprisingly, and wakes her sleeping girlfriend with the softest kisses. "Wake up beautiful, we have to kick ass in a few hours.", she says in a sing-song voice which gets a giggle from the blonde who is now rousing from her sleep.
"I just want to kill it today so we can relax for a bit afterwards. I wonder what today is going to bring.", Arizona says as she yawns and stretches after she sits up in bed. They make sure that Addison and Teddy are up, grab their cups of coffee and bags packed for day two of tryouts. The girls are all a little sore from yesterday, but no amount of soreness could tire them out enough to bring them down for the last day of tryouts.
They arrive at the Tacoma Convention center and go through their warm up as they did the day before. The coaches come out again, this time with a bracket on a white board with them. Coach Fox gathers everyone around and welcomes them back for the second day of tryouts. "Good Morning ladies, I hope everyone is well rested and ready for the last day of tryouts. The first portion of today's tryout will be times for speed and agility training. We will examine ladder work and foot work on the court as well as time trials for a 5-10-5 yd shuttle and 20 yard sprint. We will do 5 groups of 10, so you will have some down time to pass around or warm up more until we will get into the second part of the day.". With that being said, Teddy, Addison, Callie and Arizona are all in the second group along with Cristina Yang, Meredith Grey, Maggie Pierce, Miranda Bailey, Stephanie Edwards, and Eliza Minnick.
The girls get one practice run before the next run is timed and recorded. If their first run is a good time they can choose to keep that time too. The 5-10-5 is the first run. Arizona is up first, she sets up in the middle and on her go she immediately bolts to the left, since that is her dominant side, ground touch as she hauls 10 yards back and then back to the middle. Time. The coaches are impressed, 4.23, she'll take it. Teddy and Addison are next. Teddy takes her second time of 4.4 and Addison takes her first time of 4.35. The adrenaline is moving them like no other. Callie is the last of the group to go and is watching everyone and being tedious like always, she knows her turns need to be quick. She's a big girl, she knows this. But she also knows that she can do this. On her move, down, quick turn, back down, plant and go, back through the line. 4.6. She knows she can do better. Her next time is 4.45, damn she's good. The group they are in is a fast group. They all hauled. For the 20 yard sprints, Arizona got a 2.9, Callie with a 3.1 and Addison and Teddy with 3-flat. The last two weeks are paying off.
After all the groups ran, it took about an hour and the girls were just passing balls around while still staying warm. They all gather up again with the white board included this time. Coach Webber is the one to talk this time explaining how the afternoon will go, "All right ladies, we know this is a tryout but we also love to have some competitive fun. We are going to play a tournament style with doubles. We have paired you up with your teammate. Now don't take this lightly, this is where true talent a grit shows. How much ground can you cover? How well can you communicate with a stranger or friend you are partnered with? How bad do you want it?" Everyone is beyond pumped for this, they all want to win. Just what the coaches like to see, fire and desire to win.
The four girls are unfortunately not paired together, but they don't let that stop them. Every girl on the court knows how to communicate well, so they are up for the challenge. Arizona is paired with Miranda Bailey, a Defensive Specialist. Addison is paired with Olivia Pope, a small outside hitter. Callie is paired with Maggie Pierce, and Teddy is paired with Christina Yang, another Defensive Specialist.
Arizona and Miranda are up first in the bracket on the first court against two other competitors. They work so well together, covering so much of the court and being able to utilize their size and agility to win the first to 10 match easily. On the opposite court, Teddy and Christina win a nail biter 13-11. Addison and Olivia ended up playing Callie and Maggie with Callie's duo coming out on top.
About an hour later, the last match is between Callie and Maggie versus Teddy and Christina. These are four fierce players the coaches have seen duke it out all afternoon with strategy and skill. This is the longest game, with never ending rallies and neither team is giving up without a fight. Teddy is on her A-game, knowing that Callie knows how she works. How can she outsmart her incredibly talented and decisive friend? Well that is with her partner Maggie Pierce. Teddy can see how well Maggie can read the opposite side, even better than she can, she admits to herself.
It comes down to the final point. Teddy and Maggie are ahead 9-8. They are battling hard, covering ground and aren't going down without a fight. Callie can see the way that they are reading them and just can't seem to get a hit down without one of them being in her line of fire. It's Miranda's serve, perfect top spin jumper, Maggie receives effortlessly. Teddy sets her up and Maggie delivers a rocket to the opposite side of the court to Miranda. Miranda with the dig that only allows Callie to tip in back over being passed up too close to the net. Maggie passes to Teddy, Teddy with the set, Maggie going up for a rock- TIP inside the 10-foot line to win it!
Callie and Miranda tip their hats and shake their opponents hands, with Callie giving a friendly shoulder nudge to Teddy; she got her on that one. "Your partner was one hell of a strategist, nice job Maggie." she says to Teddy and Maggie. "Thank you Callie, I weighed my options correctly I suppose", Maggie says with a laugh.
All of the girls at the tryout gather back into center court for the closing announcements from the coaches.
"Well ladies, the past few days have been fantastic. Some of the best talent I have seen in a long time, which makes me super excited." Coach Fox says with an enamor for the game. "Be on the lookout in a week via Email where we will email out the list." says Coach Webber. "Ladies, it has been an absolute pleasure, and thank you all so much. You are all very talented and I am excited for what this season will bring. Safe travels, and thank you to everyone for coming out.", says Coach Fox. With that, everyone breaks off, going their separate ways, only to wait a week to see who makes the team.