Lab Partners (Wattpad Books Edition)

CONCUSSION

"Oh come on, Mr. Mason," Cole complained. I looked over and saw him standing with his arms crossed over his chest. "Can't I have a different partner?"

"No, Mr. Decker. You will be Elliot's teammate, and you will like it."

Cole sent me a murderous glare as Nate and Morgan snickered at him. The teacher walked off to pair up more people. I was just grateful that we were playing on the field today, where there was nice green grass to break my fall.

I shrank a bit as Cole approached me. "If you make me look like an idiot out there, I will personally kill you," he said, scowling at me.

You already look like an idiot, I thought. At least this time, I had the common sense to keep my mouth shut.

"All right, everyone," Mr. Mason called out once the class was situated. "As I said, today we are facing off, tournament style. There will be two games going at all times. One on this field, and one on the field over there," he said, pointing to the adjacent field. "The rules are pretty simple: try not to foul, and the first team to three points wins."

I sighed at the notion that I had to stay out there until three points were scored.

"First up, I want Decker and Goldman against Anderson and Hughes!"

Cole and Nate? Now I was definitely going to die.

Cole and Jordan stepped up to fight for the ball while I stayed back and tried to ignore the smirk on Nate's face when he glanced my way. I had a bad feeling about this and cursed myself as the game began. I wasn't watching, so I quickly fell a couple of steps behind as Cole did his best to dribble past both of the opposing teammates on his own. Not that he'd actually pass me the ball or anything.

As it turned out, Jordan was a pretty aggressive and skilled soccer player. His fancy footwork allowed him to steal the ball from Cole a couple of times, only for Cole to steal it right back. I decided to run toward the goal in case Cole decided to shoot for it and missed, but unfortunately, Nate saw what I was doing and ran forward to trip me. He snickered as I fell to the ground, but my fall was enough to distract Jordan, allowing Cole to take a clear shot at the goal.

Since we'd gotten the first point, Nate now started off with the ball, with Cole attempting to block him. I took it upon myself to stand near Jordan in case Nate tried to make a pass. I wasn't at all surprised when the ball came flying toward us.

Jordan easily caught the ball by bouncing it off his chest and immediately started dribbling toward our goal. I rushed forward and was able to snag the ball from him when he accidentally bumped it out of his reach. I turned around and started toward the other end of the field. Jordan was on my heels, and I saw both Cole and Nate running toward the goal—and beyond them, a clear shot. I took it. The thud of the ball against my foot was satisfying. I watched as it soared straight into the goal without any resistance.

Cole pursed his lips, probably upset that I took away some of his glory. Nate looked positively murderous.

"Nice shot," Jordan said, praising me as he jogged around with the ball. I hung back as Cole moved to guard him, but at the last minute changed his mind and went to guard Nate instead. Frowning, I stepped forward.

Jordan smirked as he bounced the ball between his feet. He passed it quickly to his teammate. There wasn't enough time for me to block it, but I did my best to keep up with him as he ran down the field. It didn't take long for Cole to steal the ball from Nate; as soon as he did, I followed Jordan back to the other end of the field, where he was running to take position as goalie.

However, on the way there, something hard hit me in the back of the head. I lurched forward. In a panic, I reached out to grab hold of something. The closest thing happened to be Jordan, who was only a few steps in front of me. I got a fistful of his sleeve as I went down, but it was enough for him to turn around in surprise and try and help me.

Cole, of course, smugly caught the rebound and easily made another point while Jordan was distracted.

I hit the ground hard, wincing as the wind was knocked out of me, which left me sputtering like a fish in front of the entire class. It took a couple of seconds for my lungs to release. Once they did, I sucked in air greedily and started to cough.

"Hey. You're okay," Jordan said, comforting me by placing a hand on my shoulder. "Just breathe."

"What do you think I'm doing?" I snapped, irritated, though it didn't seem to have much effect on him. I clutched my head and groaned, engulfed by sudden pain, thinking I might've hit it on the way down as well.

Mr. Mason saw me on the ground and made his way over. He knelt down in front of me and asked me a few questions, like my name and where I was. He also made me follow his finger with my eyes before frowning and saying, "I don't think it's a concussion, but you should still go to the nurse's office to make sure."

Great.

"I'll help him there," Jordan said before I could object. "Thank you, Mr. Hughes," Mr. Mason said. He stood back up and tried to settle down the class again.

"Come on," Jordan said, and held out his hand for me.

Still holding my thundering head with one hand, I took his with my other and slowly got to my feet. If nothing else, at least I'd scored a point.