on the REBOUND (On Hold)

Chapter 9

Fair point. Girls are unpredictable little gremlins who look and smell good but suddenly go savage and steal your food. There's never telling what goes on in a woman's mind.

"Things will work out."

"Thanks Logan." Ty-ty mutters quietly and morosely follows his orientation group to lunch. "Help me look out for her won't you?"

==

Haywood joins Hershey 08 2 hours later when we're exploring the school activities fair. Her face is blankly inscrutable, I can't tell if she's cried or not, but her whole demeanour has changed drastically. Head bowed, shoulders slouched. It's as if someone sucked her soul out and replaced it with a new one. She still LOOKS like her but... she's not really her? That cheeky glint she's had in her eyes the whole day is non-existent. She starts talking to Chad and Tim.

Gosh she even sounds like herself. But her words are devoid of emotion.

Girls are so weird. Ah, whatever.

"MCDOUGALL!" Someone barks.

Ah, it's Coach Landon. SHUCKS! I completely forgot I'm on duty with Scottie to recruit floorball girls. 

"Coach?"

"McDougall, what are you still loitering around for? You already have an after school activity. Go help Hodgkins and the boys out at the floorball booth." Coach snarls.

"And get me 20 girls who fit at least three of these criteria!" He adds, stuffing a list into my hand and shoving me in the direction of the floorball booth.

Criteria for floorball girls

Fast

Aggressive

Game sense

Skilful

Damn coach. Three? Talented girls don't just drop from the sky you know.

I trudge over to Scott Hodgkins, my handsome vice-captain, who can barely be seen under the throng of girls surrounding the floorball booth.

"Scottie?"

Wrong move.

In a flurry, a bunch of girls turn around and envelope me like pesky little flies.

Gosh, we need some order around here.

Also, did some girlie just pinch my butt?

Annoyed, I grab the loudhailer from behind the booth, which crackles with static as I switch it on.

"HI EVERYBODY! WILL THOSE ACTUALLY INTERESTED IN TRYING OUT FOR THE FLOORBALL GIRLS TEAM PLEASE FORM A LINE HERE? KEY YOUR PARTICULARS INTO THE EXCEL SHEET!" I chuck Scottie two orange neon cones to demarcate the queue on the left of the booth. "AS FOR THE REST, PLEASE CLEAR THE BOOTH!"

About forty make their way to the cones while the rest of the girls giggle and move to the side, winking and trying to catch either Scottie or my eye.

After registration, I get the ice hockey boys to distribute the girls their number tags and bring them for a light warm up jog around the track.

This is terrible. Some can't even keep up though my boys practically walking. Where the hell am I going to find girls who hit three criteria?

==

STATION 1 - SPEED

"LADIES! LISTEN UP! THE TASK IS SIMPLE ENOUGH. JUST SPRINT 100 METRES AND WE'LL TAKE YOUR TIMINGS!" Scottie bellows.

He motions for the girls with number tags 1 to 5 to race.

"ON MY WHISTLE!" The girls take their positions.

BEEEEEEEPPPPP!

The girls shoot off. The first batch isn't that great. They average 15.5 seconds.

The next couple of batches give us some great finds. Number 13 and 26 smashed it in at 13.8 seconds. Found a few who can do 14.3 seconds, which is decent.

The last batch take their places. As the whistle goes off, one figure hurtles down the track, much, much faster than the rest. Maybe she's in a slow batch so she appears so fast.

My phone vibrates.

36 - 13.4

37 - 15.6

38 - 13.6

39 - 12.8

40 - 14.0

What the hell? This was a very fast batch.

And the fuck??? 12.8? That's almost regional standard!!!

I can't quite see Number 39's face from the spectator stands.

Overcome with excitement, I pull out the Excel sheet they filled in during registration. I know I'm not supposed to to maintain my neutrality, but I HAVE to know who this girl is.

Number 39... Renn Lewis

Hmm, never heard of her. But now I know the name of the legend.

As I minimize the sheet on my Mac, my eyes fall on a familiar name.

Number 36... Betts Haywood

WHAT THE HELL??

I quickly check my phone.

No shit, crazy brunette just ran the second fastest out of all the girls trying out for the team.

***

How was it reading from Logan's POV?

Did you expect Haywood to try out for floorball instead of Band and/or CSC?

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