Contronym

Chapter 40

I realized that Coach knew about the Olympic news when I walked into the Senior lounge after school. He had called a meeting before practice and what Coach had going on was a shock. My jaw dropped and my eyes bulged out of my head when I saw the bright smile on his face and the two boxes behind him. There was even a fucking cake. My health freak Coach bought a fucking cake. This was huge.

He turned around from the table with the two cardboard boxes and multiple stacks of paper to pull me into a hug. I almost forgot how to react. "Congratulations, Sylvia! You made it! I'm so proud of you two." He praised. I thanked him and turned my head when I heard someone else enter the senior lounge.

My boyfriends emerald eyes landed on the cake and his brows furrowed before looking behind him to see if this was a practical joke. I would have laughed at him but I felt the same way. "Wilson! Did you hit your head?" Finn asked as he approached us.

"No, my boy! I'm just excited for you two. You worked so hard for this!"

My boy?

Finn furrowed his brows even more as we both moved to take a seat at one of the tables. "Is Coach high?" He whispered in my ear.

"I thinks that's more PCP than weed." I commented under my breath. "Maybe meth."

Finn raised his eyebrow at me and crossed his arms. "Are you know this because?" He teased me.

I rolled my eyes. "Because I pay attention in health and science unlike someone I know." I gave him a pointed look. It's a miracle that he has A's in all his classes. Honestly. When I first saw him doing homework I thought hell had frozen over, turns out he is actually a conscientious student.

As long as he isn't in class.

The other players filed in throughout the next five minutes, all of them shooting Finn and I incredulous looks after glancing at Coach. I don't think anyone's ever seen him this happy and peppy.

Like ever.

My table ended up being the usual five. Sam sat on my right while Finn sat on my left. Jameson and Chris sat on Finn's right. By now everyone was here and waiting for Coach to get on with it. Once he managed to pull himself together, he started the meeting.

"So. I'm sure you've all noticed I'm a little happy today." I think Luke and Aiden snorted in the back and Coach glared at them for a moment. "Anyways. Finn and Sylvia have both been given a spot on the Men's Olympic Lacrosse team! We are in the presence of Olympians, baby!" He shouted at the end.

Every one besides Chris and Sam seemed to have a collective moment of silence while the processed the information before the room erupted in cheers as high fives were given as well as hugs. We were a rowdy group but we could be sentimental.

Coach watched like a proud father. It was starting to creep me out. Is it too late for him to return to old and grumpy again?

Once we all started to settle down, he spoke up again. "We have our first shipment of Olympic merch." Wilson mentioned while picking up one of the boxes and sliding it across the table to Finn. The other cardboard box was slid to me. Our names were printed on the top of the box in blue ink next to the Team USA flag. I placed the box on the ground in front of me. It was heavier than I expected but nothing I couldn't handle. I would open it later with Finn or my father depending on which one was around.

"But that is not why I called of the meeting today. We are having a pre season tournament in Jersey in two weeks. I need to go over the trip information as well as hand out the permission slips. The school is funding the whole trip seeing as you all pay to play sports. It's two people to a room. I have taken the liberty to assign certain rooms to avoid issues as the PTA mom's call it." I didn't miss the glance I got when that was said.

"There will be about five teams per state. The states attending are Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, New York, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. The high ranking schools going are selected biased on last years official rankings and this years scrimmage record. For Connecticut we are going, obviously, in addition to Ridgefield, Wilton, Darian, and New Canaan."

Coach didn't plan this speech well because he left New Canaan hanging in the air as he passed out packets. Everyone grew eerily stif and a few casted subconscious glances at me. I felt a lump in my throat and I tensed ever so slightly. Those three asshats would be there. They made bail after all and the trial wasn't for another six months. Finn must have felt my unease because he put his hand on my thigh and rubbed back and forth with his thumb. That always seemed to calm me down, as stupid as it might seem.

Finn leaned in and whispered in my ear "It will be fine. I'll be right behind you the whole time." All three of my other friends shot me a quick comforting look before turning back to Coach, who had reached our table with the packets.

"We shouldn't be playing them, so don't worry about it." He said under his breath so only we could hear him. At least he could be discrete about my issues, not that it mattered anymore. Everyone already knew what happened anyway.

I sent him a thankful look and picked up the paper packet before quickly flipping through it.

"Obviously the administration doesn't know the chemistry of the team but regardless there are some....doubts per say about the rooming situation and I assured them there would be no issue if I picked the groups so here they are; Sam and Chris, Aiden and Jameson, Luke and Jake, Josh and Owen, Alex and Smith, Sean and Adrian, Ethan and Will, Jaxon and Liam and last but not least, Finn and Sylvia. It seems that despite your disciplinary issues, the two of you would be a good pair because you won't go near each other with a ten foot stick." Coach muttered. I'm sure he thought we were going to get into an explosive fight any day now. I don't blame him. We were constantly in the Principles office but the school didn't care about that. They just didn't want anyone to get pregnant under their watch. They'd rather have us murder each other than have sex. I almost rolled my eyes.

Chris snorted and Finn kicked the leg of his chair for good measure. Jackass. "Why do they get to be together? You know all there going to do it fu-" I cut Sam off by stomping on his foot, effectively shutting him up before he said something stupid too loud. "-fight." Sam corrected himself to my relief.

"Tell me about it." Coach muttered while giving  us both a look. "You've both made it almost a month without ending up in the office. Let's keep it this way, alright?"

The two of us nodded seemingly hesitantly but the hand slowly moving up my leg told me otherwise.

This trip might be fun after all.