Stolen Jerseys / ✓

3.02: chapter thirty-one

S C O T T

The next week went by fairly quickly.

I had time to grab Connor a gift for our best friend anniversary, and I basically spent everyday thanking him for the present he got me. I tried to visit Elle one day (she really was sick), but her dad caught me in her room a half-hour later and kicked me out, claiming that I couldn't, "get sick a week before practice".

So, honestly, my week was lonely and boring.

I sighed and hoisted my gym bag further up my shoulder. Today was the first day of official practice, and while I was insanely excited, I was also insanely nervous. Tryouts had been a practice compared to this; this was going to be everyone doing their absolute best to prove to Coach Monroe that they belonged on the team. This was something completely different.

I bit my lip and walked through the stadium doors, heart thumping in my chest. I knew I didn't have a reason to be nervous - I did make the team for a reason, but I couldn't help it. I'd be playing with new guys, and a few originals from the team. I'd be going up against everyone to show Coach Monroe that he hadn't made a mistake - to show that I was good enough to play on the team.

The second I walked in, I saw Jay and Edi. I stopped for a second, laughing when Jay sat down, only to shoot back up, an excited grin on his face. Edi's face was flushed red and he kept kicking Jay, and I guessed he was saying something along the lines of, "sit the fuck down." (I didn't actually have to guess, I could hear him from where I stood).

I walked up the bleachers, a wide grin on my face. I recognized a good amount of the guys there, but I couldn't help but grin at them. These were my teammates, and I loved them all.

I dropped my bag on the bleacher and sat down in front of Jay and Edi. Coach had told us to bring our gear to practice, but not get in it until he got there. That made sense; we didn't even have our jersey, yet.

"I'm gonna have a heart attack," Jay stated, brown eyes wide. He ruffled his dark hair and grinned at me, "I'm gonna have a heart attack and, you know what? I don't even care, 'cause I can say I died a Marlie."

Edi snorted, "Actually, you couldn't say anything. 'Cause you'd be dead."

Jay spun towards Edi and narrowed his eyes, but the wide grin on his face stayed, "Fuck you, Edi. I'll make sure to haunt the shit out of you when I'm a ghost."

I grinned and elbowed Jay in the ribs, wiggling my eyebrows, "A Marlie ghost."

Jay laughed and sat down in his seat, continuing his speech about how absolutely pumped he was for our first practice. Despite my nerves, I agreed one-hundred percent with Jay. There was nothing better than getting to sit in the Marlies' stadium and get ready for practice. There was no better feeling than to be able to think, I made it.

Jay's speech was cut off by Coach Monroe walking onto the bleachers. He grinned, gave us a, 'congratulations!', and then told us to follow him to the locker room. I grinned and walked next to Edi - Jay was right behind Coach Monroe, practically stepping on his heels.

We all filed into the locker room and I walked into the middle, stepping around the Marlies' symbol on the floor. My eyes flew to a dark blue locker in the middle, 'Wilson' written across it in white. Jay's locker was across the floor from mine, and he grinned at me as we both walked towards our lockers. I had a locker in the official Marlies stadium. Holy shit.

The whole room was filled with chatter as we all tossed our bags inside our lockers and plopped down on the bench. The room smelled like the typical locker room, and the walls where painted white and blue. But I wasn't focused on that; I was more focused on the fact that I had a locker inside the official Marlies stadium.