The Red Room

𝔼𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥

Morgan shook his head and laughed.

The next drill was one that coach thought would surely get me. It was a tackling drill of some sort. He put me up against the biggest guy there, and I smiled when he did so. The big dude stood in front of me, having direct orders from coach to make me never want to come back. He charged at me and I side stepped, then I put my arms around his waist and pulled  him to the ground. We rolled over once and I was on top of him. I had to resist the instinct to punch him in the face, as that is what you would do in a normal combat situation. Instead I stood up and looked at the pathetic senior on the ground.

Coach walked over to me and whispered, "Impossible."  In complete disbelief.

"Do you have anyone, I don't know, better I could practice on, coach?" I smiled.

"That was our best tackler." Coach said in awe.

"Not anymore." I shook my head. Man, I love football.

He growled.

At the end of practice he had us all line up. If coach said your name you made the team. Morgan made it, of course, but I did not.

"Coach, that's not fair." Morgan said after coach finished.

"What's not fair?"

"Iz! She isn't on the team! She is better than everyone here, you promised to judge her fairly."

"And I did, to my standards."

"Fine, if she can't play, then I'm out too." He crosses his arms. There were collective gasps.

"Morgan, you don't have to do that, it's okay." I told him.

"No it's not. He can't just not have you on the team because your a girl, it's not fair."

Coach's eyes were shifting around as if he was trying to make an important decision. "Park." He announced finally. "You play a good hand, but think what will happen if we let a girl on the team, we will be the laughing stock of football."

"Until they see what she can do, then they won't be laughing, they'll be scared." Morgan responded.

"Fine! The stupid girl can be on the team." He grumbled.

"Yay!" I cheered as Morgan and I embraced.

When I told the girls the news, they were shocked. "You on the football team? That's...so cool!"

When I told Madame, it did not go over as smoothly. She called me (she does once a week for updates) and I told her the news. "Why?" She said, "Why did you do that? You could expose your secret, girl. If you expose yourself, I think you know what happens." I did. I nodded and shut off the call.

The team had our first game on a Friday night. Apparently that's when all of the high school football games are.

I was so excited to play my first actual football game. It made it even better that I got to do it with Morgan.

Coach refused to let me play.

I sat on the bench the whole night and watched Morgan lead the team. By the time there was ten minuets left of the game we were down fourteen points and we had a timeout.

"Put her in coach, she's our only hope." Morgan told the coach.

"No. I said she could be in the team but I will not have a girl play on my field." Coach yelled.

"So you would make us loose because of your pride? I don't think so. Iz, your in. Chad, take a seat." He ordered.

I got up but Coach pushed me back down. "You don't make the calls around here, I do!" He growled.

"As team captain I am going to make the executive decision to leave you out of this one." The whole team nodded behind him.

"Fine, whatever, but if anything happens it's on you, Park!" He threw his clipboard.

I got up and joined my team. The crowd cheered as we jogged onto the field and assumed our positions. Morgan called out a play and I got ready.

The large guy in front of me snarled, "I think you're lost, sweetie, go join your friends on the cheerleading squad where a pretty face like yours belongs."

"Are you sure? Yours is a lot prettier than mine, maybe you should join them." I gave a pretty girl smile. "It might be less painful for you to just quit now."

"Dream on, Princess."

The referee blew his whistle and the guy charged me. I charged back and easily bowled him over. I then kept running, once I got close to the infield I opened my hands, motioning for Morgan to throw me the ball. He did and I caught it just as I dove into red painted grass.

"TOUCHDOWN RIDERS!" The announcer boomed through the loud speakers.

The crowd cheered and rang their bells while the cheer leaders (mostly my friends) erupted in giggles and pep.

I scored two more touch downs after that.

We won the game and Morgan picked me up and hoisted me to his shoulders chanting "Iz!Iz! Iz!" The chanted sounded odd with my short name but I enjoyed it all the same.

The crowd finally cleared out and Morgan and I walked home together.

"I can't believe you've never played football before this." He smiled and shook his head.

"I told you I'm a fast learner." I poked his arm playfully.

"And I told you you're just extreme." He chuckled.

We made it to our houses and parted with a fist bump like normal.

Everything was turning out to be pretty perfect.