Only Girl On The Team

Chapter Three

_-_Three_-_ 

        It didn't take long for Coach Fallow to realize I couldn't catch or throw a football to save my life. When I was beginning to get discouraged, he came up behind me and squeezed my shoulder. "Don't worry, Archer. Why don't you go over with Chantz and a few other of the linemen? We'll see if you can block again."

I nodded my head a little and looked around for Chantz. It was easy to spot him among the other boys, his blonde hair was nearly white in the sunlight, and I jogged over to where he and a few others were trying to run through a line of broad-shouldered boys. I stopped a few feet away when Chantz and the other boys with him surged forward, pressing against the arms of the others who meant to stop them. Chantz's arm went up and over one of the other boy's head and he pushed past the arm blocking him, his elbow then snapping into the back of the other boy. The elbow hit the other boy squarely between his shoulder blades and he fell down, the defensive line dissolving and Chantz and his boys easily making their way through.

The boy on the ground got up and flexed his back muscles briefly, trying to alleviate some of the pain. After dusting off his shirt front a little bit, he looked up and saw me standing there watching all of them. "What?" he snapped at me, aware of my eyes on him.

"Coach Fallow sent me over. To practice." I had to resist rolling my eyes at him as more of the other boys took notice to me. Chantz was the first to approach me, his dark eyes looking me over. "Can I help you with something?" I asked rudely.

"Sorry, still a little stunned is all." When I rolled my weight from my right foot to my left Chantz continued. "It's just... You're so tiny." My eyebrows shot up and I squared my shoulders, those were fighting words.

Sensing my rising anger, one of the other boys rushed over and pushed Chantz back with his elbow lightly and laughted to ease the tension. "He didn't mean that in a bad way," He laughed nervously again. "Did you Chantz? He just meant comparitively."

I took a deep breath through my nose and looked at this other boy. He was smaller than Chantz but was still a head taller than myself. "Whatever. Can we just do something already?" I nodded my head to the other boys, signaling my intent to all of them.

"Yeah, we should get back to practice." The other boys all nodded their assent, some of them grumbling a bit as they did but started to queue up again nonetheless. "My name is Sam, I'm Chantz's younger brother."

"Lovely," I replied back, a bit sarcastically. "I'm Annabel but I have a feeling you already knew that." He nodded his head and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. It was with that action that I realized how rude I'd been. It was my turn to be sheepish as I smiled at him a little. "Sorry about that. I've just had better days before."

"It's alright. I've actually been in your English class since you moved here. I sit in the same row as you, two seats back." I grimaced at his words and Sam was quick to speak up again. "No, don't feel bad! I'm really quiet in class, it's easy to overlook me."

I eyed his tall, broad frame but said nothing about it and instead nodded my head towards where the other boys were huddled together, listening to Chantz talk about blocking. "Should we go?" Sam nodded and I followed him over to the group of boys.

They were all taller than me and, because Sam and I had been talking, we were stuck behind them all unable to see. I could hear Chantz talking though, going through the procedure of planting your feet and keeping your center of gravity low. As he talked, I tried my best to keep focused and absorb his every instruction.

After he was finished, we split into two groups and got into our lines. I was defense first and found myself facing off against the boy who had previously fallen in the dirt after recieving an elbow from Chantz. On either side of me, I could feel the boys getting themselves into position, hunkering down and placing a single hand on the ground or just hovering above the uniformly cut grass. I mimicked the position and could feel the tension as Chantz stood off to the side, ready to tell the offense to charge.