If I Could Turn Back Time

This School Year Is Gonna Be Different

"MCCALL! STILINSKI!" Coach Finstock yelled as he stalked toward the two boys.

"Yes, Coach?" Stiles replied.

"I need you and McCall as goalies," the older man ordered.

Stiles and Scott looked at each other in shock before turning back to the coach. "But we've never played," Scott voiced. "Yeah, and, and, we are nowhere near as big as the rest of these guys," Stiles stammered. "I mean, look at them, then look at us."

"Yeah, I know, Stilinski, but scoring some shots will give the boys a confidence boost," Finstock remarked, as he started walking away back to the sidelines. "It's a first day back thing. Get 'em energized, fired up!"

"Wait! What about us?" Scott asked.

"Try not to take any in the face," Coach smirked. Then he barked orders at the rest of the team to form up in a line.

"Well, Scotty, we lived with honor, and we'll die, hopefully, with some of our dignity intact," Stiles exhaled. Scott glared at his friend to which Stiles responded with, "What? Look, man, we've been over this, I'm 147 pounds of pale skin and fragile bone. Sarcasm is my only defense." Scott looked out warily at the long line of bulky Lacrosse players that seemed to go on forever and gulped. "Well, can your sarcasm save us from that?"

"Scott, my sarcasm is a very powerful weapon that can do many things, but saving us from getting our asses kicked is not one of them," Stiles retorted. As they got into their positions, the boys overheard Allison and Lydia talking about them from across the field. Stiles was about to ask Scott if he heard what the girls were saying when the loud blaring of the Coach's whistle pierced his ears. Scott, apparently, felt it, too, as they were soon doubling over in pain at the harsh audio abuse on their eardrums.

Stiles and Scott dropped their sticks and rushed to cover their ears, and they were so disoriented by what was happening, that they couldn't see the ball incoming toward them until it was too late. Everyone laughed as the boy fell down, especially Coach Finstock. "Way to take the ball in the face, McCall!" one of the spectators jeered. After the ball made impact with Scott's helmet and knocked him forcefully to the ground, Stiles, ever the loyal friend, tried to shake himself out of his dizzy spell and scrambled to help Scott to his feet.

"You okay?" Stiles asked.

"Yeah," Scott nodded, narrowing his eyes in determination. "Let's do this!"

The next shot was for Stiles, who braced himself to be hit by the ball. However, at the last minute, something took over him and his instincts kicked in, and he caught the ball in his net, seconds before it entered the goal. Everyone on the Lacrosse team was shocked, including Scott and Stiles. "Did- Did you just-" Scott stammered. Stiles brought his lacrosse stick closer to his face as though giving it a full examination would somehow explain what he had just done.

"I... I caught it," Stiles gaped. "You caught it," Scott repeated, excitement seeping into his voice. Stiles's face broke out into a toothy grin, as he yelled, "I CAUGHT IT!" Scott whooped and hollered right along with him, while everyone was still dumbstruck by what just happened.

Getting back into focus, and with renewed spirits, Stiles let Scott take the forefront, believing that he would do even better than Stiles's lucky shot since he had been practicing all summer long. And sure enough, when the next ball came at them, Scott's new instincts took over as the teen swooped in to catch the ball. Stiles cheered for his friend and gave him a high-five, as they swapped places again.

As he readied himself for the next throw, in the back of Stiles's mind, he thought that maybe, just maybe, Scott was right. This year was going to be different.

The next five throws came fast as lightning, and each time they came either Scott or Stiles was there to catch them with, dare I say, inhuman reflexes, eliciting an uproar of cheers from the considerably large crowd that had gathered out on the field. Out on the stands, Lydia and Allison praised the boys for their athletic prowess, causing Stiles to nearly melt out of his jersey when he heard Lydia acknowledge him.

However, before he could bask in the wonderful bliss of this new development, Scott pulled him back into the game and pointed at Jackson who was now gearing up to take them on. Stiles smirked wolfishly (no pun intended), before turning to his friend and saying, "Don't worry, buddy. I got this one."

"Stiles," Scott said anxiously.

"Relax, Scotty."

Not wanting to get caught in the crossfire, Scott nearly dove out of the way of the goal post, as the captain of the Lacrosse team charged toward Stiles at top speed, and launched the ball at him. However, Stiles was not backing down. He knew that if he could catch this shot, he would definitely get Lydia's attention.

And that's exactly what he did.

The crowd went wild! Everyone stood up and cheered, and even Coach Finstock had to applaud the boy. Scott was of course the loudest in the crowd, but Stiles could still make out the distinct voice of Lydia cheering him on. When he turned to look into the crowd, his heart swelled at the vision of that strawberry blonde goddess smiling in his direction. Deciding to milk this for everything it was worth, Stiles winked at Lydia as he tossed the ball at the assistant coach's lacrosse stick while still keeping his eyes trained on her, and the crowd erupted in cheers once again as the ball landed perfectly in the net.

She bit her lip flirtatiously and smirked, completely ignoring the petulant scowl of her boyfriend, who watched the scene unfold.

Yeah, this year was definitely going to be different.