*Author Note: Hi readers, I am back here is another chapter. Hope that you enjoy! ~Potter-Wealsey-Granger1*

Will

I think that I might could actually like this psychology class. I wasn't sure if I would, but what we have gone over so far you know stuff about the brain and why people do different things. I think that it is a good class to have right before forensics. Derek and I are the last to enter the forensics classroom. Everyone else is already here. I had forgotten that Walker mentioned that we would be starting a project today, a project that would be a big part of our grade. As we come in and sit at our desk, I can hear J.J. and Emily discussing partners and J.J. looks unsure as Emily speaks, dominating the conversation. I understand, it can be tough to work with a friend, even a best friend, the distractions are stronger than the work effort.

Walker starts class explaining the elements that will be required of us in our presentation then giving us the last twenty minutes of class to discuss the project after assigning us partners. I would have never imagined in a million years that I would be paired with J.J. of all people, but I feel grateful to have a reason to get to know her better and spend time with her. I now even have her phone number. Sure, it's for a project but the awkwardness of having to ask for her number is out of the way.

The twenty minutes is over much too quickly, and we are off to our afternoon activities, Emily and J.J. to soccer conditioning while Derek, Hotch and I are headed to the football field. We go our separate ways when we get to the locker rooms. I quickly change into a dry fit short sleeve and black basketball shorts. I stick my socked feet in my slides. Then before leaving the locker room I grab a set of pads a helmet and a penny. I toss my duffle that housed my water bottle and cleats over my shoulder before heading out to the field. I'm not really sure where I am supposed to go so I follow Derek and Hotch out of the locker room and towards the field.

The field is situated inside a stadium with a blue rubber track circling it. Freshly painted lines adorn the field and the bench houses three bright orange ice coolers with blue Gatorade squeeze bottles. I follow Derek and Hotch down to the bench where three men wearing matching visors stand and boys crowded around wearing pennies.

"Alright, boys," one man says, "I am Coach Gideon. I am the head coach. This is Coach Rossi who is the offensive coach and Coach Cruz is the defensive coach. Pair up with the coach based on your position and we will start running drills after you warm up."

We split off into groups each coach having us warm up separately, arm stretches, leg stretches, jumping jacks, down and backs before putting on our pads and starting drills. I quickly learn that this is less of a try out and more of position placement as the coaches put different players in different spots to see where they work best. At one point Derek tells me that no one gets cut from the team and that coach is simply looking for a first and second string of players. Derek is a first string running back and Hotch is a pretty great wide receiver, coach leaves me at quarterback. We continue to practice drills setting the ball, throwing and running towards the end zone. Near the end of the 'tryout period' Coach Gideon puts the defense against our offense, and I learn that my offensive tackle on my left side will be my best friend during games. I am not sure of his name, but he is a big dude, and he has saved my life more than once and it's just tryouts. The other group, the kickers are practicing at the opposite goal. An hour and a half later I am fully exhausted, sweaty and relieved when the coach blows his whistle to announce that the tryouts were over.

He then has us remove our pennies and he begins to hand them out again. "If you are receiving a penny that means that you are on our second string, you are no less important. You will still be at every practice and every game. You will need to know every formation and drill. If you do not receive a penny, that means you are first string," Coach Gideon says.

You can imagine the joy I had not receiving a penny; all my hard work had paid off.

"Alright boys, see you on Monday," Coach Gideon shouts releasing us.

I gather my stuff wanting to leave my cleats and pads in my new football locker and go home to shower. The showers at school have always freaked me out. As I lift my bag to my shoulder, I see that the girls soccer team is also finishing up. I watch as J.J. shoves her sneakers into her bag and slides her feet into slides.

Then my shoulder is grabbed, and I turn to see Derek, "Man, that was amazing! I knew you had to be on the team. I think you might have been our missing piece that we needed to win the championship, now I think we might actually have a chance."

I smile chuckle for a moment and nod. He continues on to the locker room and by then I have lost sight of the girls, they are gone from the field. I leave the field, quickly putting away my pads, helmet and cleats then exiting towards my truck. I find myself discouraged, yet somehow relieved when I don't see her car in the parking lot. I mean, what would I have said to her? Nice job at practice, I tried my best to not be distracted by the blond girl with the high ponytail? I drive straight to the house thankful that I had bought enough foot at the store yesterday to not have to stop.

J.J.

I assumed that conditioning today would be a breeze, I have been training all summer, but coach really pushed us. After our stretching and warm up laps, we were doing sprints, hills, and ending with core in the means of abs workouts- planks, crunches, and six inches. By the end I am aching. It didn't help that I was also trying to not allow myself to be distracted by one impressive quarterback that happened to have a southern accent. Every time I felt like I was doing really well, my eyes would wander to the field, I would loose my concentration and I'd fall from my planking position and need to start over. This conditioning thing is going to be a lot harder if the football team is going to be out here every day. I'm thankful when Coach Strauss blows her whistle releasing us from conditioning. The boys are also done. I do my best to not look over, I'm gross right now and I need no one to see me like this. When I think that he can't possibly be watching after I put on my slides, I look at him. His medium length brown hair sticking up in places and stuck to his forehead from sweat. Derek puts his arm around him saying something with a huge smile.

I follow Emily and the others up the hill to our cars. The soccer team doesn't technically have lockers, we can leave our stuff in, just lockers that we can use during school hours, so we leave from the field with our bags. I say goodbye to Emily and remind her that we had planned a sleepover with Penelope and Haley and the girl that I don't know yet, Kate. She nods in remembrance stating that she would go home to shower, grab her stuff for tonight and come over after. We then go our separate ways. I then text Penelope and Haley letting them know that I was headed home, and they could come over in the next hour.

After a lavash shower to rid myself of the layers of sweat I set up the space we will sleep in for five instead of four. Usually, we take turns on who orders the pizza and everyone else brings snacks, we try to coordinate so we don't have four bags of Doritos and nothing else. Don't get me wrong we love Doritos, but you know other things are good too. Today I have two sodas, Mountain Dew and Dr. Pepper (my favorite) and popcorn (butter and caramel) it is Penelope's turn to bring the pizza. Usually when she is to bring a snack, Emily brings nacho cheese Doritos and tortilla chips with salsa and her favorite pull apart Twizzlers. Haley says that the Twizzlers taste like cherry flavored plastic.

I finish setting stuff out and place my phone on the arm of the couch wondering when he would message me. I acknowledge the fact that he needs to get home and shower and whatever else. I dismiss it as there is a knock on the door and Emily enters after. Emily and I basically live at each other's homes, well I guess we all basically live together. None of us wait for the door to be answered, we simply knock and walk in. Emily and I even have keys to each other's houses if we ever really needed something.

"Hey J.J.," Emily shouts as she enters my view holding her usual contribution and heading towards the kitchen.

A few moments later as Emily and I are scrolling through movie possibilities there

is another knock on the door followed by the door opening and the last three people in our party join.

"Hey J.J. I got the goods," shouts Penelope and I can hear the smile in her voice. She enters the room headed for the kitchen followed by Haley who carries cookies and icecream and Kate who holds in her hands five different bags of candy.

"I wasn't sure what to bring so I brought five different kinds," she states shrugging.

That doesn't bother me in the least. After the food is in the kitchen, we gather around to make plates and return to the living room to watch a movie.

"What are we gonna watch," questions Penelope.

"Not sure," I reply, "Em and I were looking, any suggestions?"

Haley then pipes up, "Anything, but the Titanic. We watch it too often. If we can quote it we should take a break."

Kate giggles, "What about the Notebook?"

I don't even know this girl, but I glare, "No, not the Notebook. We have also seen that too many times."

"Oh, I got it," Emily says nearly shouting and causing me to jump, "Let's watch 'The Princess Diaries'. We can watch one and two."

We all agree and get settled in with our snacks. I've seen the movies before, so I let my mind wander. I wander to conditioning and home my calves and abs are sore. I wander to Emily and Derek and how I find it interesting that she picked a movie where the girl ends up with the guy friend. I wander and see Kate sneak looks at her phone and she smiles as she sends off messages. I make a note to ask her about it later. I wander to Will questioning once again why he has yet to message me.

*Author Note: Hi readers, I hope that you enjoy this chapter. It is a little shorter, but there is more to come I promise. Please let me know what you thought! ~Potter-Wealsey-Granger1*