Don't Push Me I'll Fight It

As soon as Edison had sauntered up to Coach Davies and the rest of the team, the older man shot him a smug glance. That glance and the smirk on the coach’s face told Edison all that he needed to know: Edison’s captaincy wasn’t set in stone. The position could easily go to anyone else, and for the first time in his life, Edison wasn’t certain that his hard work was going to pay off. Maybe he shouldn’t have pranked the coach last year on April Fool’s Day… 

Who else could the captaincy go to, though? The obvious second choice was Nicole (ugh), but surely the coach would see that she simply had too prickly of a personality to actually work with or lead? Maybe Drew, with his popularity and decent pitch skills, would be a candidate, but Edison wasn’t sure…

“Alright, guys,” Coach Davies said. Edison’s heart leapt in his chest, unable to contain his nervousness. Please, please, please. “I know this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for, so what we’re going to do is… take four laps around the field for warmup.” 

Edison found himself groaning with the rest of the team, though he was one of the first to get his feet pounding across the ground. Fuck Coach Davies, fuck his masochist ways, fuck this suspense.

Cursing everything and everyone he had ever had problem with quickly became a chant inside his head as he ran. Fuck school, fuck college admissions, fuck that bird that shat on my car…

So caught up in his cursing he was that he wasn’t able to completely dodge someone, his skin brushing against theirs. “Sor-” He cut off once he saw whom he had brushed. Out of all people, of course it had to be Nicole. “Nevermind,” he said curtly before focusing and pulling ahead.

Cole heard the rest of the team groan at the coach’s announcement, but she merely ground her teeth. Maybe this was another test. Maybe he was using this to decide who would actually deserve the captaincy, in which case, she wasn’t going to act disappointed. 

It was just that she wanted to know. The waiting was almost worse. But he’d given a task, and she always worked better as long as there was something specific she was trying to do. It wasn’t like he was asking them to fill out paperwork. So as soon as he told them to go, she started to run. 

It didn’t take her long to pull ahead of the rest of the team, and she let herself smile in delight. She so loved to run. It was what made her one of the best forwards on the team, and it meant that the track and field coach always pulled her in for events whenever he could - but he knew he couldn’t compete with soccer for her attention. Even that was just to keep in shape for the rest of her sports, it wasn’t something real on it’s own. Now it was just her, and the four laps.

Except someone brushed her. She glared out of habit, hating anyone who interrupted this time meant for settling herself. The tension only ratcheted up when she saw who it was. And the fact that he had stopped his apology. So the words came out of her mouth before she could think more about them. “What? Too good to bush shoulders with the likes of me?”

{@mynameisvictory}

The first week of senior year couldn’t pass by quickly enough. Classes blurred by in introductory classes, course syllabi, and greeting people Edison hadn’t talked to since the end of last semester. He was pretty sure that he hadn’t been this popular before, though he knew he was relatively well-known in their small school; he only really knew half of the people who were saying hi to him in the hallways, and even then, he wasn’t technically friends with the half he knew.

Friday’s last period found Edison finding it hard to focus in AP Spanish, as the first soccer practice of the year, where the team captain would be announced, was right after school. He impatiently listened through what Señora Cara called one of first review sessions of all that they should know before learning more advanced material, praying to God that the bell would ring sooner. 

Prayers soon answered, Edison raced to the changing rooms, where he exchanged high fives and greetings with the other guys on the team. Together, the small group bounced out to the field to meet the group of girls already waiting there.

It wasn’t that the school was underfunded; it just had a small class size, and a small class size meant having less people who were both eager to play soccer and were good at it. Edison knew he was one of the best; he had been playing since he was a toddler, and had been to all sorts of camps for blossoming athletes. He also knew he was a strategic little shit, and more or less expected the captaincy to go to him.

As the coach walked onto the pitch and waved for all the players to come to him, Edison spotted Nicole and scowled immediately. It was an automatic reaction; for some reason, he found it immensely difficult to get along with her, though he suspected it was because they were both competitive as hell with stubborn streaks to match. 

As much as Nicole enjoyed the time off from school, summer had felt endless this year. She’d tried to distract herself by playing with her siblings and taking the dogs out for exercise at every opportunity (besides the job she’d also managed to snag, but it wasn’t difficult so it didn’t require a lot of attention), but nothing had worked for long. So it was with a distinct feeling of relief that school had started again today. 

Cole didn’t have a lot of friends, but it was nice to see the few she did have. Most of her friends were from the soccer team though, so she could see the same tense excitement on their faces that she knew was on her own. After school, coach would announce who the knew captain was going to be. 

She knew a lot of people assumed it would be Edison (she mentally sneered the name out of habit), because he was one of the best players and his family was involved in the community. But nothing was set in stone. She was the other top player of the team, and she worked her ass off in practice every single day. She had earned that spot as well as he had, without the family to match. And she wanted it. 

Finding herself trapped in the same argument she’d been having with herself all summer, Cole forced herself to focus back on Mr. Hunt going over the physics syllabus. And as soon as the bell rang, she bolted out the door and to the changing room so she could meet with the rest of the soccer team. She was the first one out there, but the other girls weren’t far behind, the boys only a few minutes after them. 

She forced herself to ignore Edison as she trotted over to Coach Davies, although she could feel his scowl. She wasn’t going to acknowledge it. She was going to be above it. Also she liked to imagine that would piss him off more, so that was worth not looking at him. As they all arrived, the coach smirked at them. And then he waited as if he knew exactly what they were all waiting for, and was enjoying this. He probably was.