The Swap

White Lies

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It was Thursday afternoon and I was sitting in the bleachers on the side of the soccer field, waiting for the last day of tryouts to end.

Rhea had dragged me down here after our class so that she could watch the shirts vs skins match and I only agreed to come so that I could hear first hand who had made it onto the teams. I'd helped a lot of these people practice, so I was extremely interested in whose hard work paid off.

My decision to come had nothing to do with the shirtless guys running around with their abs on display.

It turned out that Rhea and I weren't the only ones here. A lot of girls, and even some guys occupied the seats around me.

My ankle was doing nicely and it was only slightly sore the day after my little fall. That night, Jaxon had texted to remind me to ice it and not to walk on it, which I thought was incredibly sweet and thoughtful.

Now I was sitting in the chilled weather, waiting for the team to he announced. Everyone played really well, give or take a few slackers, and I knew that the final cuts would be extremely difficult for the coach to make.

Coach Meyer blew a whistle and everyone halted in their actions.

"Everyone gather around and I'll announce our junior and varsity teams." He said loudly.

The masses surrounded him, some of the short people squeezing to the front, as he started his speech about everyone being a winner. He droned on about how well everyone had done and encouraged those who wouldn't be called to come back next year.

I breathed a relieved sigh at the thought of finally getting out of the cold and pulled my jacket tighter around me when he finally started calling names out.

He started with varsity then went with JV. Obviously Jaxon, Cameron, Alex, and a few other guys that I knew got onto the varsity team, since they were returners, and there were also a few that I didn't know.

There were separate girl and guy varsity teams, and separate teams for JV too. It took about five minutes for the coach to finish naming off everyone before he finished. He made a few more announcements about first practices and dismissed everyone.

I looked around at all the faces, watching the variety of emotions on everyone's faces. There were a lot of happy faces, some disappointed, and there were even some tears shed.

Jaxon, Alex, and Cameron walked over to the side of the bleachers that I was on with smiling faces. They had yet to put their shirts on. With every step that they took, another girl in the bleachers stopped breathing. They all froze in anticipation, I could see their teenage hormones going wild.

"We're going out to celebrate, are you coming, Mel?" Cameron called to me.

Every head snapped over to me. The girls were giving me confused, and shocked looks when Cameron had addressed me.

I understood that they were shirtless and hot, but people have seen me talk to them before. It wasn't exactly a shock, really; or I didn't think it was at least.

I ignored the stares and turned my attention back to the guys.

"What are you guys celebrating? You already knew you were making the team." I said in amusement.

"We're celebrating for Alex. We weren't sure about him yet." Jaxon said with a joking tone, I laughed along with Cameron and Alex punched Jaxon in the arm.

"We celebrate every year, even after every game." Cameron explained.

I nodded in understanding. "That makes sense. Alright I'll come." I stood up but stopped to glance at Rhea.