Girl Posing As A Boy

Chapter 17: Laura/Nick

"You guys have a 'regular' order here?", I ask, raising an eyebrow. I wasn't expecting this.

"Of course, we do.", Archie responds.

"We always order four cheese pizzas, four pepperoni, and two vegitarians.", Kane continues.

My eyes bug out of my head, "Seriously?! That's a lot of pizza!".

"Not really when you think about it.". Jake begins explaining, "Four cheese pizzas, four pepperoni, and two veggies. That's ten pizzas altogether. Each pizza has eight slices. Eighty slices in total. There are twenty of us here. Eighty divided by twenty means that we each can have four slices. Four slices per person isn't too bad. Especially since we are all big, kind of rowdy, hockey-playing men who have just come straight from a game.".

"Yeah, okay, four slices per head doesn't sound as much as those ten pizzas.", I agree.

"Of course, not everyone eats four slices. Sometimes, people only eat three. Other times, we end up having to order more. When we order more, there are always guaranteed leftovers.", Kane adds. "The player of the game gets to take those leftovers home as takeout.".

He looks at me with that last sentence. Suddenly, I realize that the entire table is silent and waiting for me to address that comment. I nervously look at Will. Under the table, he puts his hand on mine as a comforting gesture. Then, he gives me a soft smile.

"Nick, you are the player of the game. You scored that first goal for Kensingburg in the game and in the season. Don't overthink it, just accept it.", Will explains.

I don't know why, but I don't like Will calling me 'Nick'. My name is Laura, not Nick. With a start, I realize that I don't like any of my teammates calling me 'Nick'. But, the thing is, I need to trust them a little more for me to tell them my secret. I know that Will trusts them all with his life, but I'm not quite there yet.

Around the table, everyone is agreeing with what Will said. Choruses of "yes"s and "he's right"s come from everyone. I smile and look down. I didn't expect this when I came to Kensingburg. Everyone here is so... nice.

"Thanks, you guys.", I start. "But, I think that this victory is not only because of me. I might have scored that first goal, but those other five were all Will and Archie. And, Kane and Eli did good defending. Jake is also an awesome goalie. So, this victory is not only mine -- it belongs to all of us.".

"Cheers to that!", Eli grins.

He lifts his glass of whatever is in it. Everyone copies his gesture. Under the table, Will's hand holds mine tighter. My heart is about to burst with happiness. Yep, I'm totally in love with Will. My Will. My Willy boy. I love him.

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So, as it turns out, we ended up ordering one more cheese pizza after those other ten. Some of us were still hungry and in the mood of celebrating. There were two slices of pizza left after we were all stuffed, so me and Will took them back to our dorm room to save them for later. I still wanted someone else to take them, but Will managed to smuggle them into our dorm room and I couldn't say no after that.

In our dorm room, I go to the bathroom and change into sweatpants and a hoodie. I decide not to put my wrap or wig on because I've been wearing them all day anyway. And, we had the game. When I come out, I see that Will has crashed on the bed, still dressed in his dark green button down and black pants. I narrow my eyes. He's still dressed in his "good" clothes and he hasn't changed. Something's up. I sit on the bed beside him.

"What are you thinking?", I ask.

"Nothing.", Will responds.

"Yeah... no.", I reply. "Try again.".