"By lap I MEANT RUN!!" The coach yelled. Coach Avis was getting to the age where her forgot that it wasn't easy to run with 20 pounds of football equipment on.
Jeremy pumped his legs, cursing the coach, his family and his happiness with every step. I –hate- football He continued panting. I detest it! I never know why I try-out…why I bother coming! I'm quitting right now! Jeremy didn't quit, he just kept threatening to. It was a tradition.
"Alright. Everyone c'mere." Coach Avis blew on the whistle loud enough to deafen the entire team. Thirty or so sweaty, tired and thoroughly annoyed high schoolers approached the hated source of the workout. "We got a big game tomorrow guys so rest up, relax and when you come in tomorrow…win!"
Wonderful strategy. Jeremy rolled his eyes and gave a half-hearted cheer with the rest of his team.
"That's not very spirited." The coach snapped, blowing on the infernal whistle again. "Another lap for spirit." The team moaned. "Two more laps if you grumble." The team cheered and began another lap.
I –hate- football.
Jeremy collapsed, exhausted onto his bed. He groaned, knowing that he'd be stiff in the morning.
"That you Jeremy?" His father called.
"No." Jeremy muttered.
"How was practice?"
"No."
"You okay?"
"No."
"How'd school go?"
"No."
Jeremy's father appeared in the doorway to his room, knowing that Jeremy was really only answering one question, the question his father should have asked in the first place. "Are you awake?"
Jeremy grinned, glad his father finally caught on. "No."
"I'll wake you for dinner."
"How'd practice go?" His mother was now pestering him over meatloaf.
Jeremy grunted. "I'm quitting."
His mother smiled. "You always say that."
"I think you should." His younger sister decided to add. "You never do anything but deck other people."
"That's the point of a block dumb bell." His younger brother smacked her sister.
"No fighting at the table." His father tried to restore order.
His comment, as usual was to no avail. The twelve year old boy and fifteen year old girl began a food fight. Jeremy ducked out to call Candy.
He got her answering machine. Makes sense… He thought as he listened to the message. She's probably still at detention…she'll check this as she head off to karate. "Hey love. Knew you'd get this message as you ran out the door. "Just thought maybe you’d give me a hint as to what you’re going as so we can go to match." He knew it had been his own idea to keep the costumes a secret…but his mind was running a blank.
He hung up the phone and listened to the sound of his fighting siblings. When a pile of potatoes entered his room, Jeremy decided to take action. He picked up the pile of offensive material and tossed it back into the fray. "You two drive me batty!" He stopped dead, remembering a costume from a school play a few years back. "That's it!"
Two food covered siblings looked at their brother, then back at each other. "He's crazy." Rachel said, pulling some potatoes out of her hair.
"Insane." Matthew agreed, removing sauce from his front.
Jeremy rolled his eyes.
Jeremy tried calling Candy again, but she must have been out later than expected…or Jeremy was boreder than expected and was tired of waiting for the time to pass.
He managed to get his costume finished pretty quickly, knowing exactly where to look for everything. He attempted his homework…gave up quickly considering his mind was telling him to go to bed. He fell asleep at his desk, waking to the sound of the phone.
"Wha?" He asked the receiver.
"Did I wake you up?" Candy was slightly sarcastic.
"Hey." He yawned. "Yes."
"Got your message earlier."
"So, gonna tell me your costume?"
C’mon Candy!" Jeremy pleaded. "Tell me...please..."
"It was your idea for it to be a surprise." Candy loved driving him crazy.
"I know, but I only meant a surprise for them."
"That’s cheating."
"And you’ve never cheated before?"
"Candy!" Her mother interrupted the phone call well into it’s third hour. "I need the internet for work. You’ll have to get off the phone."
"I gotta go." Candy passed the message on to Jeremy. "You’ll love my surprise."
"You drive me crazy."
"That’s the point. See ya tomorrow."
"Bye." Jeremy hung up the receiver. He took off his shirt before climbing into bed and falling asleep almost instantaneously. The only reason he'd planned on staying up anyways was to spite his coach.
Every bone in Jeremy's body hurt. He'd been bashed, stepped on, tripped over, fallen on and purposefully decked. He was bleeding from more than one cut and his uniform was in tatters. Still he held his position in the line, waiting for the other team to come charging at him. He could hear the crowd cheering, his coach yelling and the quarterback yelling numbers. At the word 'hike' all hell broke loose. Jeremy braced himself as two guys came running at him. God, I love football. The logical part of Jeremy's mind muttered something along the lines of 'changecoat'.
Jeremy ducked down, keeping his centre of gravity near the ground. That'd make him harder to knock over. He didn't close his eyes, but he did wince, preparing for the impact. It never came.
The person who'd been charging him was on the ground beside him, moaning in amazing pain, holding his shin. "Hey!" Jeremy called loudly, realizing something was wrong. "Hey!" He yelled loud enough to stop play. "I think this guy's hurt!" Jeremy might not be too eager to help if he'd known what the injured guy was going to say.
Well, going to say after a minute. The first words out of the player's mouth are not to be repeated. The ref asked what happened, and before Jeremy could say a word, the other player accused him. "He tripped me!" Enter a few inappropriate words. "He stuck his foot out in front of me and tripped me!" More profanity. "I think my shin's broken."
"Liar!" Jeremy yelled. "I did not. He fell over his shoelace or something." Jeremy couldn't believe that anyone would think that he'd do that.
"I wouldn't break my ankle just falling. And I don't trip over my shoelaces." A stretcher was brought and the swearing youth was placed on it. "Bastards have to revert to cheating to win."
"We're in the lead!" Jeremy felt himself loosing his temper. "And I didn't trip you. You just need to fall to get me out of the game so your lame ass team has a chance."
The 'injured' player proved that he wasn't nearly as injured as he pretended to be by jumping off the stretcher, knocking the two people carrying him over and throwing a punch at Jeremy.
Some part of his mind told him that this was a bad idea. The intelligent part of Jeremy's mind, the part that took over to let Jeremy pass tests and such, told him that the guy had just proved he dove. The male part of Jeremy's mind, the unfortunately dominant part, was infuriated. Jeremy ducked the swing and jabbed the guy in the stomach. He never listened to his smart half anyways.
"Ten games?!?" Jeremy uttered some words that would have made that dirty rotten diver proud. "Why not just throw me off the team?"
"You sent their guy to the hospital after he'd just proved that he didn't need to go to the hospital!" Coach Avis yelled back, choosing to ignore the profanity. "We're not cheaters! And I won't have anyone saying that I don't go down hard on my guys for screwing up."
"He tripped over his shoelace and blamed me! What did you expect me to do?" Jeremy tossed his helmet across the locker room.
"Laugh at his ass after he disproved his own story and got suspended for lying to an official!" The coach sighed, knowing that if he'd been in the same position, he'd have done the same thing.
Jeremy stood quietly for a moment, trying to gather his feelings. Eventually he just slammed his fist into a locker a few times before storming out. Guess he was quitting football after all.
Jeremy moped in his room for the rest of the day, refusing his mother's attempts at administering first-aid. Although he had walloped the other kid, Jeremy had taken a few punches himself. His eye was black and swollen and his lip was cut and bleeding still…mainly because Jeremy couldn't leave it alone.
"Jeremy?" Rachel knocked tentatively on his door. "Don't you have a Halloween party in a couple hours?"
"Not going."
"Just going to sit there and mope?"
Even though he still felt like crap, Jeremy couldn't hold back his smile. "Yes."
"I brought your wings. Just try them on."
"How do I look?" He asked his younger sister.
"Like a bat…that went through the blender."
"That's it! I'm staying home to mope."
"Wait! Give me a minute!" She ran into her room and grabbed a bag, returning to her brother with make-up. "I can fix that."
Within ten minutes all traces of a black eye and split lip were almost unnoticeable. "How?" Jeremy stood in awe at his sister's abilities with cover-up.
"I have a lot of fights with Matt." She grinned. "This should work, unless you have problems with wearing girls' make-up."
"Hey," He grinned, heading outside at the sound of Sammy's horn. "It's Halloween. See ya sis."
Off to the party... 
Backgrounds from All Hallow's Eve Backgrounds.
Pictures from Make Males.
