The hallway steadily empties throughout their conversation, and by the time Dan and Phil establish their relationship only a couple other stragglers are left on the opposite end of the hallway. Phil finally closes his locker, and the two turn to see the nearly empty corridor. "Oh! Guess we talked for a while, huh?" Dan says. "Eh, that was my fault for being late. Oh, wait - shit! I have practice after school today!" Phil pulls his phone from his pocket and turns it on to view the time. "Damn it! I should be in the locker room by now," Phil groans as he puts on his backpack. "What? They should give you more time to get there." "They do - normally after school ends, we have 20 minutes to change and get on the field. I've never had a problem with it before, but then Mulligan kept us late, I was talking to Paige on the way here - from literally across the entire school, may I add - and then I was talking to you." "Damn, well, I won't keep you. I'll talk to you later, alright?" Dan says, and Phil starts walking away from him, calling over his shoulder, "Yep! Bye!" Dan waves goodbye and mutters a faint "see ya".
Phil quickly walks through the school towards the locker room (of course it was on the other side of the school again), and he gets there at the time he should've been at practice already. He hurriedly pushes the door open and strides through the empty room to his locker. The locker room was simply a large, square space, with lockers on every wall. There were benches lining the room as well, so people could sit on the benches as they got ready for practice if they wanted. Phil steps over one of theses benches, unlocks his locker, then strips down and quickly slips into his football uniform. Phil exits through the door on the opposite wall to the one with the main entrance which led outside, almost directly to the practice field. All you had to do was walk a short ways, cross a small street, and you were at the field. Phil carries his bag of equipment (water bottle, helmet, energy bars, etc.) to where the rest of the team had put their things, on the bench the coach was standing near, before heading into the field to warm up.
"Oh, hello, Phil. Decided to join us, have you?" Coach Stuart says as Phil nears the bench, not looking away from the team doing warm up drills. "Hello, I'm very sorry, coach. I got held up after class," Phil says, putting his things on a free area of bench. "Doing what?" "Well, Mr. Mulligan wanted to talk to me after class.." "And that took twenty minutes?" Stuart presses further. "Well, no, but I was.. erm.." Phil trails off. He couldn't exactly tell his coach the reason he was late to practice was because he was talking to his friends, could he?
"That's what I thought. Now go join the rest of your team. And I want five extra laps for being late," Stuart says. "What?! Five extra?!" Phil objects. "Just think of it as one lap for each minute you were late." The coach gives him a glare and Phil hurriedly joins the rest of the team on the field.
Phil falls into line next to two guys he didn't know very well and joins in on the quickness exercise. The two say nothing and just let Phil in. The team continues with their warm-ups (everyone knew the order from summer training), and finally they finish. "Alright, guys, good hustle!" Jack calls from farther down the line. "Let's get some water and Stuart will start practice." The team follows Jack off the field. But not Phil.
Reluctantly, he discreetly walks to the edge of the field and begins his five laps around the track. "Hey, what's Phil doing?" Andrew whispers to Ryan as they walk off. "Hm?" Andrew gestures to Phil jogging around the edge. "Is that Phil? I didn't see him in the locker room," Ryan muses. "Oh, do you think he was late? You know how Stuart always has people run laps when they come after practice starts."
The team arrives at the bench, and each boy grabs their water bottles and take a few sips as Stuart praises them on a successful warm up. "Hey, Coach, what's Phil doing?" Ryan calls once Stuart finishes. The coach rounds on him. "He got here late," Stuart replies icily. Every football player understood, and most look down in sympathy - it seemed everyone had been late at one point and had had to run laps.
The team waits for Phil to run his laps and chat to each other for the next few minutes as Coach Stuart scribbles on his clipboard, making adjustments to what he had planned for practice today. Once Phil is done, he jogs over to the bench with the rest of the team. "I'm done," he says breathlessly to the coach. "Alright, let's start with a new play. Remember, our first game is in 3 weeks! We still have a couple new plays I want us to get down, which shouldn't be an issue given the amount of time we practice, but you still need to focus and give 110 percent. Alright?" The team murmurs in agreement, and Stuart starts explaining the new play.
About a half hour later, the team has learned the new play and drilled it a couple times. "Ok, that's enough," Stuart calls after they finish running through the play again. "It's not great yet, but we have time to get it damn near perfect. Take another water break and I'll let Jack run a few more plays."
A couple minutes later, after their water break, Jack calls the team back onto the field. They take their positions on the line of scrimmage and wait for Jack's cue. Phil, as a wide receiver, takes his place on the very edge of the line. "Alright, guys, let's just run a couple simple plays first," Jack says. "Why don't we start with a flag play. So, Luke will snap me the ball, and our linemen will block the opposing team. Then Phil will run straight down the - oh, I'm sorry, Phil. Is that going to be a problem for you?" He taunts.
"Hey. Not cool, man," Luke says in a low, warning voice. "Alright, sorry!" Jack puts his hands up in mock resignation. "I was just kidding," he says with a smirk in that arrogant, drawling voice, shooting a look at Phil which clearly meant he was not 'just kidding'. Phil glares at him and clenches his jaw, but Andrew catches his eye and gives a little shake of his head. It's not worth it, the movement said. "So, Phil'll run down the field, cut out to the corner, I'll pass to him, and hopefully we'll get a touchdown," Jack finishes. "You all should remember this..."
After they run the play a couple times, Coach Stuart calls Jack over to him. "Ugh, Coach wants me. Wait here," Jack instructs the team, and he jogs over to Stuart. The football players form into their friend groups within the team and begin to chat between themselves. Phil migrates toward Andrew, and Ryan and Erik join them, forming a circle a little ways away from the other groups of people all spread out. "Hey, guys," Phil says as Ryan and Erik join him and Andrew. "Hey. Are you doing ok, Phil?" Erik asks him. "Kind of. It's just - god, Jack can piss me off sometimes!" "Yeah, he can have that affect on people," Erik laughs dryly. "Why do you guys put up with him?" "He's the quarterback," Andrew replies. "We kind of have to do everything he says. But he's really not a bad guy once you get to know him."
"Really?" Phil asks incredulously. "What about what happened today at lunch?" "Okay, you do have a point there..." Ryan agrees. "Speaking of which, we all wanted to talk to you. Well, I did," Andrew starts. "So.. you're really gay?" "Um, yeah." "Ok, just making sure." He shrugs. "I just wanted to tell you, I'm ok with it. Really." Ryan and Erik chime in, agreeing. "Oh, thanks guys. That really means a lot to me, since you're some of my closest friends," Phil says.
"Are the rest of the guys ok with it?" Phil gnaws on his lip. "Well, for the most part. I was talking to some of the guys in the locker room about you - sorry, Phil - and they're.. kind of uncomfortable with the whole thing," Andrew says. "What? Why?" But Jack stops Andrew from replying. "Alright, guys, back to work!" He calls, jogging over. "We'll sort this out in the locker room, after practice," Andrew says, and the boys settle back into their positions to start the play.
"Stuart wants me to run this play with you.."
Soon practice is over, and Coach Stuart calls them in. "Ok, guys, great work today! You all are done for the day. See you tomorrow," the coach dismisses them. The team start to grab their things and head into the locker room. "Oh, wait, Phil. I need to talk to you." Phil stops short, sighs, and reluctantly walks back to Stuart. "Yes, coach?" "I heard about what happened at lunch. Now, you seemed to get on well enough with the team during practice, so I won't pry for details. But if you're ever having real trouble with the rest of the boys, you can talk to me and I'll help sort things out. Remember, we all have to be a team if we want to win games." "Understood, sir." "Good. You're free to go. But - I never want to see you come late again, alright?" Phil nods, then grabs his things and walks across the field and street into the locker room.
The second Phil pushes open the door, he feels very out of place. Everyone just kind of stops what they're doing and looks at him. Phil awkwardly walks to his locker, between Andrew's and Luke's lockers, steps over the bench while tossing his bag on it, and unlocks the locker. Phil then turns back to put his things away, and finds everyone still awkwardly staring at him. "What?" He questions the room.
"Er, Phil? I was talking to the guys before you came, and they had some.. concerns. About... yeah." Andrew says. "What do you mean?" "Well, it's just... we change together nearly every day, and, well.. you.. you're.." Andrew trails off awkwardly. Clearly the team had nominated Andrew to bring up their 'concerns' to Phil. "Gay? You can say it, you know," Phil turns up the side of his mouth slightly. "And.. what? Are you worried I'll be staring at you all while you change?" He glances around the room, his reassuring nature gone. "Cause believe me, you have nothing to worry about." Phil turns and starts shoving his equipment roughly into his locker.
"Yeah, probably cause you already have a boyfriend to stare at," a voice mutters. Phil whirls around. "Excuse me?" He addresses the room again. Some people look up at him from the benches, but most just continue changing like nothing happened. It seemed as if they were trying not to look at anyone lest their glances give away who said it.
"First, no, it's because you all are my friends, and there's no way in hell I would ever be attracted to one of you - no offense - and, second, if you're talking about Dan, you couldn't be more wrong," Phil says hotly, continuing to shove things in his locker. "I mean, sure, we're very close, and I feel like I can talk to him about anything.. not to mention he's very attractive.. with his sweet brown eyes and the way his hair falls in soft curls-" Phil stops speaking abruptly at the look Andrew gives him. "But we're definitely not dating!" He quickly exclaims. "Whatever you say, man.."
A/N: Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I had to do some research on football to write this update (i'm sure you're all very surprised to hear i know nothing about football) and damn, football is confusing! I was surprised at how much strategy goes into the game. It's not actually just an over-glorified game of fetch. Well, it is, but that's beside the point. Also, i tried to keep their practice as simple as possible and use mostly common knowledge of the game, so hopefully you understood what was going on. Anyway, I hope you all are having a good break! I go back to school next week and i'm NOT READY. I'm really glad I finished this chapter though - what has it been, a little over a week since I published the last one? Yay me :D. Omg I just got suite life of zach and cody flashbacks. london tipton anyone? no? ok. anyway, hope you liked this chapter! remember to follow, favorite, and review! xoxo, ~l