Perennial

Chapter 2

Liam and Tessa made it the rest of the way through the school day without any more weird incidents. Now all they had to do was make it through lacrosse tryouts. And hopefully, they would do well enough to get on the team.

Tessa was told to meet in the boys locker room, as she was the only girl trying out for the team. So she joined her brother in the smelly room, wincing when the coach blew his whistle loudly as he entered.

"As a reminder, it's an open tryout today. All positions available," the coach announced. "This is a rebuilding season, people. Jackson's gone, Lahey's gone. Greenberg, the one guy I actually wanted gone, was held back. Again."

A few snickers went around the room. Tessa smiled. She had heard about this Greenberg guy. Apparently he was the worst at everything, including making people like him seeing as everyone seemed to hate his guts.

"Get your asses on the field!"

Everyone rushed to follow the coach's instructions. Tessa lost Liam in the crowd so she waited for him on the field.

"Hey, you ready?" she asked as Liam reached her side.

"Never been more ready in my life," he answered.

"That's the spirit!" she cheered, pulling her hair up into a ponytail.

They did their pre-game—or in this case pre-tryout—handshake that consisted of knocking their lacrosse sticks together twice and ended with a chest bump.

Tessa groaned, holding her chest as they stumbled onto the field. Liam laughed.

"You know, we can always change that part if you want," he chuckled.

"Never," she scowled. "We've been doing this since we were eight and we're not stopping now. I will not let boobs get in the way of our awesomeness."

"Your choice," he grimaced as they jogged onto the field.

They did warmups first, Liam and Tessa easily lapping the rest of the team as they ran around the field. They had been practicing for this for so long. The two of them laughed as they watched Stiles come in last, panting as he fell to the ground. Scott pulled him up, supporting him as his face turned paler than usual.

The siblings started doing push-ups as Scott held up his best friend. Tessa could see them watching them as they continued doing the exercise among all the other resting lacrosse players. The two of them may be a little over competitive but that's just who they were. And Tessa enjoyed seeing the look of disgust on the Stilisnki boy's face as he watched.

Everyone finally gathered on the field, creating a line to practice shooting into the goal. Tessa wasn't sure who the goalie was but he wasn't bad. He managed to catch Stiles' ball easily as the rest of the boys chuckled.

Tessa was up next, easily scooping up a ball and sending it flying past the goalie's net. The coach and a few other people cheered and she high-fived Liam as she passed him to go to the back of the line.

She could hear Scott and Stiles talking in front of her.

"Okay, well obviously I was wrong about her. But maybe he's only good in goal. You know, just totally useless on the rest of the field."

Tessa laughed and Stiles shot her a dirty look. They were in for a big surprise if they thought the only thing Liam could do was play goal.

She watched the boys' reactions as Liam threw the ball. It soared right past the goalie and hit the net behind him.

"Yes!" Coach cheered.