Melody In The Locker Room

Chapter 4

Harry’s number burned a hole in Louis’s pocket as he tried to distract himself from his excitement of seeing his curly haired team mate after school.

When the bell rang, Louis ran down the front steps and sprinted toward his dorm room. Once he got there, he quickly changed into his gym clothes and pulled on his converse. He hustled to the field and Harry waved him over to join the group.

“You’re late.” Liam barked at him, scowling. He was in his usual lovely mood.

“Sorry, Liam, I had to get back to my dorm room and change.” Louis explained, meekly.

“That’s what the showers are for, Tomlinson.” Liam responded and most of the team rolled their eyes at Louis’s rookie mistake. Harry gave him a supportive clap on the back.

Louis felt like an idiot, and his cheeks grew hot with embarrassment. Great way to make a first impression at his first official practice. He really knew how to screw things up when they came his way…

“Don’t worry, mate, he’s just on his rag.” A bloke with darker skin whispered to Louis.

Louis had to cover his mouth to stifle his laughter. But he appreciated the camaraderie of the kind stranger.

“Keep your smart ass comments to yourself, Zayn.” Liam called out and Zayn just shrugged innocently.

Louis noticed that the guy was wearing a different outfit than the rest of the team, and then it hit Louis: Zayn was the team’s goalie.

“Alright, now that everyone’s here, let’s get started. Welcome to Stanborough’s Senior Varsity team. You have earned your spot but now, you have to keep the good work up, or you will be cut. If you miss a practice, without a valid reason, you are cut. If you are late, you are cut. If you talk back to me, I will not hesitate to kick you ass to the grass.  Now that everything’s clear, let’s do this boys!” Liam announced and Louis paled at the reality of how serious the team actually was.

“I promise his bark his bigger than his bite.” Harry assured him as they took off into a sequence of conditioning drills.

Louis noticed that every so often Harry would look over to the bleachers, where Sophie was sitting and wave to her. She would wave back encouragingly and return back to her schoolwork. It was disgustingly adorable. It just fueled Louis’s fire to work harder.

Halfway through practice, Sophie was joined on the bleachers by nothing other than Niall Horan. He didn’t actually sit with her but he did make his presence known. He had a bag of chips in one hand and in the other waved a ‘let’s go stanborough’ flag.

“Let’s go Louis, let’s go!” Niall cheered from the stands and Louis just wanted to go die in a hole.

He tried to wave Niall off, but Louis’s number one fan was relentless.

“Looks like we both have our own personal cheerleaders.” Harry teased, as he ran past Louis during a scrimmage.

Louis decided to accept the fact that Niall wasn’t going anywhere, and soon was used to hearing Niall’s chants of encouragement.

“Oi! Louis! Who’s that?” Zayn asked, his eyebrow arched in interest.

Louis almost ran into the goal post in surprise. Zayn knew his name without Louis even introducing himself. Louis smiled at the idea that he was no longer a ‘nobody’.

“Lou?” Zayn called him back into reality with his new nickname.

“Oh, uh, sorry mate! That’s Niall. He’s my roommate and best friend. It’s a bit embarrassing, really.” Louis explained, looking over at Niall who was waving frantically from the bleachers.

Zayn and Louis both waved back but when Niall saw a stranger waving back, he ducked his head and skittered away.

“Sorry about that, he’s a bit shy…” Louis excused the blonde of his odd habits.

“Understandable. If I had someone cheering me on like that, I would always be in the zone. I don’t think it’s embarrassing at all.” Zayn expressed. Louis could see that some sort of wheels were turning in the goalie’s head.

“Zayn! Louis! For Christ’s sake, this is not a social gathering! Let’s go!” Liam screamed from across the field.

Louis really didn’t know how Liam didn’t burst a blood vessel with the amount that he yelled.

“See yah later.” Louis greeted as he ran back to the side of the field that actually had the ball.

“Making friends with Zayn, are we?” Harry asked as Louis ran over to where the ball was.

“He’s a cool guy. Why, you jealous?” Louis teased, kicking at the football that Harry was currently passing between his own feet.

“I can’t have someone stealing my new best mate.” Harry retorted, winking at Louis.

Louis laughed but then it was back to business. He kicked the ball from between Harry’s legs, and began to dribble it down the field.

Harry watched, dumfounded, as Louis rocketed down the field. The bloke really could move. Louis passed it to another player on his team and the guy scored.

The rest of Louis’s half of the team ran toward him and congratulated him on his steal and breakaway. Harry just smiled proudly.

“Good move, Tomlinson, that might just make up for you tardiness from earlier today.” Liam called to him encouragingly.

Louis felt like he was walking on air again. He was playing football and playing it well. Harry gave him a thumbs up from across and Louis was glad that the distance between them masked the stupidly gleeful face that he sported because of the gesture.

As the practice progressed, Louis’s feet began to hurt more and more. The converse really weren’t doing the trick. When Liam blew his whistle to signal the end of the practice, Louis limped over to the bleachers where he had left things while the of the team headed toward the locker room.

Harry turned and stopped to see Louis collapse on the bleachers, clearly in a lot of pain. He hesitated for a moment, wondering whether he should go over and help or not. He looked up to Sophie who impatiently tapped on her watch to signal that they were, indeed, on a schedule. They had a student council meeting to get to. Harry sighed, feeling guilty leaving his friend alone to deal with his hurt feet but he turned and ran toward the locker room anyway.

Louis pulled off his converse and saw that blood had seeped through his socks. When he peeled them off, his feet were covered in blisters. They ached immensely. He got to his feet and found Niall hiding behind the bleachers.

“You ok?” Niall asked, looking at his friend’s swollen and bloody feet.

“Better than you look.” Louis teased. Niall scowled before throwing at arm around Louis to help his friend back to the their dorm room.

The next morning…

“Louis! There’s a package out here for you!” Niall announced and Louis just pulled the covers further over his head.

Niall, ever spritely, pounced on his friend’s bed and placed a package in front of him. Niall tickled Louis until he finally gave in to waking up. Louis sat up, rubbed his eyes and then let them focus on the odd thing in front of him.

“What’s this…?” Louis asked, poking at the wrapped box.

“OPEN IT!” Niall squealed, like an excited child on Christmas. He was literally bouncing up and down with excitement.

Louis tore the simple brown wrapping back to reveal a box of football cleats.

“Wow…” Niall murmured, peering over at the unwrapped gift. “Who’s it from?” He asked Louis.

“All it says is ‘from someone who’s thinking of you’.” Louis said, reading the card.

Louis Tomlinson had a secret admirer…