The Rugby Player and Me

1. Cancelled Detentions and Pillow Barriers

Only to find that the bus had left. Caleb had managed to make it on board so that was a win. If he had missed his audition I would never have heard the end of it.

Half-way on the walk to school, it had begun showering. I had had to go at a fast jog towards the classroom block, hoping the downpour wouldnt start until I was safely under cover. I vaguely remembered sprinting into school, lugging my bag and taking off my outer jacket which had been slightly damp. Making it to first period chemistry, I had thrown my bag on the floor before slumping into a desk and muttering Here before promptly passing out.

I was nudged in the ribs again, and I turned to Kate again.

"Sorry." She mouthed, and I shrugged in response, pretending that the detention was no big deal, even though it was – especially if that meant getting home late.

I tried to focus back on what Mrs Scott was saying at the front of the classroom. She wasn't the most avid presenter, so my attention had begun to wander. My eyes landed on Mark who was still shooting me a smug smirk. I rolled my eyes.

Arrogant prat.

~+++~

Mrs Scott had cancelled my detention, saying something about how she had far better things to do than deal with a delinquent like me – or something like that. This obviously wasn't the real reason. I thought she had realised that forcing me into detention would be just as painful for her as it was for me. At least this way, she would also be able to go home and watch the rugby tournament that was the talk of the student body, and probably the staff as well. Not that I was complaining about missing detention. That meant I could make it home for the rugby tournament too.

Every year, our school – like many other schools across the country – sent a team to a televised tournament that was held in Wellington, our capital city. Every year, students and teachers alike talked it up. The reason the tournament was such a big deal was because there were scouts there from many of the universities in our country, and some international scouts as well, ready to hand out scholarships that could alter the course of someone's life drastically.

At our school, this tournament was extremely important to our players. The town that we lived in, Sainsbury, wasn't overly rich. In fact, many of the families living here struggled. For our kids, these scholarships were their tickets out of here, their tickets to bigger and better things.

Naturally, this made the tournament a big event in our town. People would talk about it for weeks before the first kick-off. The atmosphere around tournament week was energetic and entirely different to the rest of the year which was monotonous and dreary. It was almost like the school got dropped into an alternate reality for a month.

I hurried home with my back-pack weighing me down, and once again just missed the downpour of rain. Walking inside, I went up to my bedroom and changed into some comfy leggings and a baggy t-shirt.

As I walked passed Caleb's room, I poked my head in the door. Caleb was sitting on his bed in only his boxers (not unusual), with some earphones in (also not unusual), while reading a book (very unusual indeed).

"How was your audition?" I asked, ignoring his odd behaviour.

Caleb looked up from his book, which I could only now see was titled: Tips and Tricks of Decorating Cupcakes For Any Occasion.

"I got in!" he said, grinning from ear to ear. It was obvious he was pretty pleased with himself, even though there had been no doubt in my mind that he would make it.

"That's awesome, Little Dude!" I exclaimed.

Caleb frowned at me, obviously not happy with being called Little Dude. He let it slide.