She's the Man / Roy Kent

Chapter six.

"I told you to go to the bathroom before we started, Pheebs."

Phoebe blinked at her. "Training ended ten minutes ago."

"Shit!"

And so that was how Ada Tartt ended up missing the press conference. After taking all the girls to the bathroom and apologising for the lack of football played during their first ever little league training session, Ada was made to wait for their parents to come pick them up.

Apparently, many of the adults were under the assumption that it was a meet and greet. They forced their daughters to pose with Ada, and then went on to ask her questions – the topics of which varied from her personal life to her career to what she ate on a daily basis.

Thankfully, by the time the subject of today's training finally came up, Phoebe had already rounded up the other girls and had convinced them to lie about what occurred.

"We had a lot of fun! Coach Ada taught us how to run with the ball!"

Ada didn't bother correcting their terminology, and didn't bother reminding them that she wasn't actually their coach. She just gave the girls a wink, silently promising to make it up to them soon.

Maybe after she made it up to Ted.

"Sorry!" Ada gasped, running into the coaches' office through the side door. "I missed the conference, I know, but I was fucking babysitting."

Beard raised a brow, taking a sip of tea from his Union Jack mug. "Modelling money running low?"

He and Nate were sat at his desk, going over drills and such. A glance at the clipboard told her that they were going to be focusing on the basics today.

"You fucking wish," She scoffed, turning to face Ted. "I said I'd be there and I wasn't, and I apologise, alright? I sort of promised Phoebe that I'd be the substitute coach for their first day of little league. And it was total shit."

Ted tried to hide how surprised he was at the sound of her desperate apology. And at her need to throughly explain herself. It wasn't like Ada had to attend the conference. Or training. She had no legal obligation.

But, here she was. Panting and sorry and ranting about her own coaching experience from that morning.

He placed his hands on her shoulder, smiling gently. "It's alright, sweetie."

Ada eyed him strangely. "What did you just call me?"

"Oh," Nate chuckled awkwardly. "He's trying out pet names."

"Michelle?" She guessed.

Beard nodded. "Michelle."

Ada sympathetically pat Ted's shoulder and moved around him, seating herself on his unoccupied chair. Once comfortable, she reached over and snatched the clipboard from the other desk, ignoring Beard's sounds of protest.

"So, what's the plan?"

"Plan. Plan. Plan."

Her eyes slowly dragged up from the drafted schedule to stare at Ted. "Are you having a fucking stroke?"

"Semantic sensation." He sighed.

Beard shook his head, taking another gulp of his tea. "Semantic satiation," He corrected before turning to Ada. "It's when you say a word a bunch of times and it starts to lose all meaning."

"Right," Ted pointed to him. "Correct."

"Okay, well, can you satiate yourself after you tell me about today's drills?"