The Elite

Chapter 2

"I learned a long time ago that reality was much weirder than anyone's imagination."- Hunter S. Thompson

Briarwood-Octavian Preparatory School

Calloway Auditorium, Row 3

Monday, September 2nd

9:32 A.M.

"Do you know what time tryouts are?" Cameron Fisher, his blue/green eyes desperately searching his phone screen with the school's website pulled up.

"Five." Derrick Harrington answered immediately from next to him, his brown eyes trained on the group of men and women talking amongst themselves on stage. On the left was a dark-haired man with a grey patch by his left temple. Unlike the other professionally dressed educators, Coach Brookfield, was wearing black soccer shorts and an official black and burgundy Nike sponsored Briarwood shirt. It was the same training t-shirt jersey that had been given to Derrick as part of his Briarwood athletics swag.

He had been one of three freshmen the previous year to claim one of the coveted spots on the varsity soccer team. But after his elation of discovering he had made it, Coach had announced that he was no longer a goalie. Now, he was a striker. In that one season Coach B had helped him become one of the top scorers on the team.

"Shit, I don't know if I can make it," Cam muttered, his face still down.

Derrick rolled his eyes. One of the other three had been Cam, and as the best central midfielder on the team. He was partly why the Briarwood Tomahawks had made it to the finals. But, once Cam formed his band, Key Failure, with his brother soccer had taken a back seat in his friend's life.

"Dude, we have to be there." He reminded Cam about Coach's number one rule: punctuality. They were only allowed to miss three practices in a season, or else they were kicked off unless it was for family emergencies or extreme illness.

"I have band practice!" Cam's one green eye turned towards him. "We're playing at a party in North Salem on Friday!"

"At the McKenzies'?" Josh Hotz, the third underclassman that had made it onto varsity asked, leaning forward in his seat. Derrick knew that the only reason he was interested, was because Alicia was guaranteed to be there. Ever since she had dumped him he had been desperately chasing after her, and it was honestly starting to look pathetic.

"Yeah, they're paying us in cash this time instead of Venmo-ing Harris all of it."

Derrick's eyes returned to the stage, watching as Coach talked with the head coach of the girls' varsity soccer team. No doubt, they were discussing how they both planned on beating Crestmore Academy, BOP's biggest rival and the team that had stolen the championship away from them last year. His teeth clenched at the memory of watching as Crestmore celebrated on the rain-soaked field.

"We're invited, right?" Josh asked.

"Yeah, all the guys from last year's team are."

"What about me?" Chris Plovert, one of their friends that hadn't been lucky enough to make varsity, asked. Plovert had only made JV but hopped to prove himself at tryouts this year. He pouted at the thought of missing out on a good time. "I'll have major FOMO."

"Dude, don't worry," Cam rolled his two different colored eyes in annoyance. Plovert never missed a party, invited or not. "You're the party prince of Briarwood, of course, you're invited."

Thanks to Plovert's out of control St. Patrick's Day party, he had become a legend virtually overnight. He had advertised it as the party of the year, and Plovert had miraculously delivered what he promised. His dad's mansion had looked like a scene from Project X and it had been a night that no one was going to forget anytime soon.