Escaping Reality...With My Enemy

Part IX ~ Replaced?

Sam shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows for a second. "If you say so." He took a  drag of his vape. "I'm worried about you, Dream. You seem unbothered by this whole thing, but it could potentially ruin your chances getting into a college you really like."

"It's fine, Sam. Drop it," I snapped.

He shrugged again. "Okay."

"What's going on with you?" I asked after a while of being uncomfortable in the silence.

Without any hesitation or remorse he answered, "I was the replacement captain of the team while you were gone." It was like he was expecting me to ask.

"Oh," was all I said.

"Yeah." Sam remained looking away from me. It didn't necessarily seem like he was guilty, but it was slightly unsettling that he wasn't looking at me.

"Well," I said after an uncomfortable silence, "I guess you did well carrying us through playoffs cause we're going to state." I chuckled because I didn't know what else to do or say.

He just nodded, then looked at me, piercing my eyes with his stare. "Coach Wilkens thinks it'll be better if we were co-captains.

I blinked, not understanding the unfamiliar words leaving his mouth. "What?"

"What do you mean, 'what?'"

I tried to calm myself down, but it didn't happen."I mean, what the hell?" My voice had a tinge of anger and annoyance in it and that spark was only growing.

"Is it really that bad?" Sam's nose scrunched up.
"Well, kinda! Yeah! Being co-captain is worse than losing my position all together!"

He crossed his arms, unconvinced. "Yeah? How? How is it that bad?"

"Being co-captains in the middle of the term looks like I couldn't handle it by myself. If I lost my position at least I could play it off as me stepping down. No one actually needs a co-captain."

"So would you rather step down?"

I thought for a second. "Do you think I could convince Coach otherwise?"

He seemed to think about my question deeply, considering every possibility. "Honestly, you could convince him to do a re-election after a few practices."

He handed me his vape, but I shooed it away. I had enough.

"I'm going to get ready. See you in the locker room," I said with too much annoyance and anger.

I almost didn't catch him say, "Yeah, you're probably right. I'll meet you in there in a few minutes," before I stormed off.

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Me? Replaced?? Sam? My replacement?? So many thoughts around that stupid subject flooded my mind endlessly. How could Coach think this was okay? Did the team vote without me? I thought they liked me...fuck! This is so stupid!

I slammed my locker shut after pulling my jersey over my pads. Sapnap glanced over at me and meekly asked "You good?"

"I'm fine," I snapped, not looking at him. I put my arm on the locker and threw my head on my arm, shielding my eyes.

"So Sam told you then?"

My head snapped up towards him. "You-what? Why didn't...you knew and didn't tell me?"

"I-well, actually, we thought it would be better if it came from him."

I scoffed and slumped down on the bench. I didn't feel like fighting with any more of my friends.

"Yo, Dream," Punz called from the other side of the locker room.

"Yeah?"

"We're missing people...again."

"I noticed. Seniors once again."

"They really think they can just ditch practice whenever they want? Do they even care about not getting any playing time?" Sapnap asked rhetorically.

I answered despite the nature of the question. "I really don't know...I don't even know where they go when they ditch. All I know is I will not be ditching school or practice as a senior."

A few heads turned towards me.

"You already ditch, Dream, you're saying you're gonna clean up your act next year?" Sapnap said, chuckling with a few other boys.

"I ditch classes, not full days. There's a difference snapmap," I taunted.

Our small group stood up and walked out the door to the entrance of the field while Punz, Sapnap, and I went on about how we hated the seniors and how that definitely would not be us under any circumstances next year.

During practice, I almost stopped thinking about George for the first time in more than 72 hours. Almost.