Chapter 6: Boys, Boys, and More Boys
“Boys, boys, boys
We like boys in cars
Boys, boys, boys
Buy us drinks in bars
Boys, boys, boys
With hairspray and denim
Boys, boys, boys
We love them!”
-Boys, Boys, Boys Lady Gaga
Dinner was utterly uneventful. There was good ‘manly’ food, not my words; they were Eli’s actually. We talked. We ate. We listened to the coaches go on and on about the rules as they tried to enforce them with an iron fist. Silly stuff like curfews, how you should treat everyone the way you wanted to be treated, and any fighting would result in a very, very painful and immediate punishment. I hope he knows he was preaching a lost cause; I mean these are boys. And like the saying goes; boys will be boys. I have never really understood it, but I guess it has something to do with the fact that you can’t exactly tame them. They are like rogue wilder beast or something like that.
I don’t really know the finer details of what Coach Avery was talking about because I was just too darn distracted. Now, you need to understand that I am not some boy crazy girl who obsesses about any walking being with a stick between its legs. I am not one to gush about ‘boys this’ or ‘boys that’ like Drew is known to do. However, from the moment that I stepped into the mess hall for diner I became a drooling idiot.
Granted not all the males sitting in the room were drool worthy, some had uni-brows, some had teeth missing, and others were just plain unfortunate looking (it was mean, but true). Even though some were a sight for sore eyes, they were definitely doing something right here at Mac. I mean the boys at Madison couldn’t hold a candle to how amazingly god like these boys appeared to be. Rippling muscles, defined faces, sexy scruff, and deep voices seemed to emanate through the hall as I sat down with my plate.
But I had to admit that although the room was filled with a variety of gorgeous specimen, I was sitting across the cutest one. Blaine would, without a doubt, be the first one on my top 100 cutest boys list which is a feat not many could surpass seeing as the original number one was sexy man Alex Pettyfer and he has a British accent. British accents immediately make the top ten on any girls list of hot guys- because we all know that even though it may not be written down we still keep track of who we think is cuter. I wouldn’t be surprised if Blaine had a fan club, even if he didn’t know about it (note to self, check if that’s true and ask to join).
But don’t worry my dear fans, I have complete control of the situation and have composed myself. Okay, fine, that’s a lie I was staring at him half the time we were at diner, but can you blame me? He was just so… so good looking. Not only that but he has proved to be funny, charming, smart, and an all around nice guy. That is hard to find in any guy!
My mind might have been playing tricks on me throughout the night because I was so tired, but I could have sworn that he was staring at me about as much as I was staring at him. Is that crazy, or have I gone insane? One minute my head is turned toward the mini stage located at the front of the hall, trying to tune myself into the coaches ‘welcome back’ speech. Then when I turn to take a sip of my Gatorade, our gazes would lock for a mere second, if not less. Seeing that I had noticed he would turn away with – what was possibly – a pink flush forming on his face. I could have been wrong (not like it would be the first time), but with all the blushing and staring, I would think that Blaine was… gay. I don’t know he just didn’t scream gay- no I do not mean that he has a squeaky voice and girly tendencies, I know a lot of straight males who have squeaky voices and who are very in touch with their feminine side and complete comfortable with their sexuality- and it’s not like he was checking other guys out either. It was like that mothers intuition that all girls have, you know when a girl just knows there is something wrong with you, or she seems to read you like a book, it’s all embedded into us at a young age and may seem annoying to some males, but it’s what helps us distinguish bad people from good and other things.
One of these special talents that we females have is knowing whether a guy is homosexual or not (although some may be a little bit dense of you know what I mean). Not that there would be anything wrong with him if he did swing for the other team, but man a lot of girls would be seriously disappointed. Heck, I would be disappointed. It would be a sad day for every girl on the planet to learn that Blaine Morgan was gay. But Blaine just didn’t set off my intuition, however Eli may have been in the closet, but I digress.
After dinner we all headed back to the cabin, debating the opinions of those who chose Tony Romo to be in the Top 100 best players of 2011. I mean seriously the guy was okay, and I love the Cowboys (Americas team baby!), but his 2011 season? Not exactly the best of his career. We walked into the cabin with the intent on getting ready for a good night’s sleep for tomorrows workout day. I was dreading tomorrow, but if there was one thing I was dreading even more than that, it would be the restroom scheduling amongst my cabin mates and I. Although there is no set schedule of when someone can use the restroom (hello, they are guys!) I still didn’t exactly know how I was going to cope with sharing two bathrooms with three grown up boys.
Luckily though, that there were two bathrooms so there wouldn’t really be any problems if I was taking long. Of course at first I was curious as to why our cabin had two bathrooms, actually why did a cabin have a bathroom at all. I mean it seemed really luxurious for us being outside the city limits and on the country side. I just assumed there was one restroom we all used. They cleared that up for me during dinner.
“Hey guys, I know this isn’t exactly a topic to talk over while we are eating, but why are there two bathrooms in our cabin?” I asked while playing with my mash potatoes not really wanting to eat anything.
“Why not?” Blaine asked as he literally inhaled his food.
“I don’t know it just seems weird,” I replied. It was weird to have two bathrooms, wasn’t one enough?
“Our cabin is the best one in the camp,” Jared said- more like slurred- while stuffing his face with macaroni and cheese. I scrunched my face in disgust as he spoke. Seriously chew before you speak.
“As we mentioned earlier cabin one is for the coaches favorites,” Eli said.
“So naturally the cabin is nicer to accommodate for the favorites needs,” I nodded motioning for Jared to continue his explanation.
“Exactly, we are the best so we deserve the best,” Blaine added while taking a bite of his brisket. Then it all seemed to click.
“Oh so the fact that our cabins is refurbished nicely is like a bribe? Play good and keep kissing butt and you get things other players don’t.”
“And the newbie is catching on,” Eli exclaimed, accidently flicking his fork of potato salad towards Jared’s face. Jared wiped off the salad and glared at Eli who was sheepishly grinning.
“Not only do we get two restrooms, two couch chairs, and a cabin closer to the field but we also have an insight to everything on this camp. And to ensure that the favorites aren’t lazing around they have specially set, annoyingly loud alarm clocks to wake us up earlier than everyone else!” He said in fake excitement accidently throwing more potato salad in Jared’s face. Jared’s tan face turned a nice shade of red, in anger, as he once again swiped his hand over his face. Scraping off the yellow gunk and slapping it to the empty plate on his tray.
“Dude! Stop hitting me with your damn potatoes!” Jared yelled across the table.
Great how did I end up being put into this cabin? It was going to be difficult waking up an extra early especially since I am not a morning person. I don’t even wake up that early for school! Seriously, why in Voldemort’s name was I put into this cabin? It was like the overachievers of football cabin. Granted, I was a bit overly passionate about football. However, not enough to wake up at ungodly hours for football practices.
I laid myself down on my bed, staring at my ceiling, waiting for the boys to finish their shower rounds. Once each boy had showered and was headed to get some shut eye, I grabbed all the essentials and made my way to the bathroom only to be stopped by Jared.
“Hey, why did you wait this long to use the shower? You know there are two of them.”
“O-oh well, I just wanted to make sure that you guys got your showers first. You know.” Like hell, if I had a choice I would have booked it over here right after diner; I reeked from compulsively sweating due to the tight medical wrap. He nodded, yawning while scratching his crotch-cue gag reflex- and obviously was not concerned in the matter as he went back to his bed. While he was walking away from me, I snuck into the dark bathroom, locked the door and switched on the lights. After undressing I went under the shower head and soothed all the knots from my muscles. We hadn’t even started practice yet and I was tensing up and starting to feel the beginnings of soreness. It was ridiculous.
After a nice long, hot shower, where I had to substitute my warm vanilla sugar scent for some axe shampoo that made my nose itch, I leaped out and wrapped a towel around me.
Before I had stepped into the shower I took off my wig to reveal my dark chocolate short hair. It felt good to let it loose while lathering out all the sweat and grass that managed to find its way under my wig, but now I had confined it again. Towel drying my hair I pulled the wig over my head making sure the sticky stuff was along my hairline. Testing its durability I shook my head like a rock star. After the mosh pit shake I looked into the mirror to see a face of contempt staring back at me. The wig had stayed on. It would seriously take the worst tornado in all of mankind to blow my cover. Get it blow my cover, because it’s a tornado and its wind- just, never mind; tough freaking crowd.
I spun my wrap loosely around my breast, since I was just going to sleep, placed an oversized t-shirt over my head and slipped on a pair of flannel pajama pants. Looking through the door and into darkness, I stepped out of the restroom. My plan had worked, by the time I came out the boys were entangled in their bed sheets in a deep sleep. Tip toeing to my bed I slipped under my covers and fell fast asleep.
Ring!
Ring!
Ring!
What is that god awful noise interrupting my peaceful sleep?
Ring!
Seriously that needed to stop!
Ring!
My eyes fluttered open to see that the alarm clock on the drawer, that sat parallel to my bed,was blinking a horrible red that said 6:00 am. I groaned, smashing my pillow to my ears in an attempt to try and block out the horrific noise that had interrupted my sleep. Something I cherish deeply.
To my right I heard shuffling. Then, what sounded like, feet being dragged across the wooden floor. All this noise was only making it harder for me to get my well deserved beauty rest. Although, I had fallen asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow, that didn’t exactly mean I slept like a rock. Throughout the night I found myself thrashing and rolling around trying to get comfortable in the bed. I wasn’t having any bad dreams I just found it hard to stay asleep in a bed that I wasn’t familiar with. I was surprised that none of the boys had woken up.
“You are supposed to turn it off stupid, not let it bust our eardrums,” Blaine’s said. His voice was hoarse with sleep, something that set off an avalanche of shivers, running up and down my spine. There was always something extremely attractive about a male when he woke up. I still don’t know exactly what it was, but boy did I like it. I huffed, picking myself up from my bed-sad because I was finally able to get comfortable- to turn it off, but he had already beaten me to it. He went, rubbing his eyes wearily, to turn on the lights to wake up the other boys, in that time I grabbed my clothes (that like the genius I am stashed under my bed) and headed to the bathroom before anyone else could claim it.
I locked the door and placed my stuff on the counter. I looked up at the mirror to see that I had bags under my eyes. Just my luck. I quickly stripped my t-shirt and pajama pants off, tightening the wrap and put on my work out clothes. I pulled on a white tank top (so that the shirt would look like it actually fit me) and then a yellow Steelers t-shirt with a pair of black basketball shorts. I fixed my hair trying to make it look messy, but not the tamed messy that you could tell was styled to look messy…that didn’t make any sense. Think Chace Crawford hair, but redder and messier and not as sexy looking. Yeah, he is number three on my hot list.
After finally just running my fingers through the wig I stepped out of the restroom and walked to my bed and put on my black Nike running shoes.
“Why did you change in the restroom?” Eli asked me. I looked up to answer him when I noticed that he was only wearing a pair of Green Lantern boxers that sported a nice little tent at the front. Talk about awkward. I tried really hard to fight back the flush that was threatening to appear on my face as I answered him. Instead I opted for looking down and finishing with my laces even though they wear already tied.
“Well I had to go pee and I needed to change so I killed two birds with one stone,” I stated coolly hoping he didn’t notice my now slightly pink cheeks.
He shrugged it off and started pulling on his shorts and fixing himself, thank god. Luckily for me he was the only one who wasn’t dressed and seemed to be particularly excited this morning. If I had seen Blaine in only his boxers, well let’s just say I might have fainted a little. Okay, maybe a lot. Can you even put a limitation on fainting?
Once everyone was dressed we headed out to the track conveniently located to the right of the cabins. I guess now there is no excuse for being late since it literally takes two steps to get to the track and field. I looked down the rows of cabins and just couldn’t comprehend the need for the numbering system and the players’ hierarchy here. In Powder-puff, if you showed up to practices and worked to the best of your abilities you would play, if you didn’t show up and didn’t practice hard, you had to come to the game but sit sidelines. Boy sports are just so weird.
Since it only took us about two seconds to get to the track we sat on the bleachers and just chilled in the humid summer morning. Now, it was about 6:45 in the morning and practice didn’t start for another 15 minutes so I decided to kill time and jog a lap.
“Hey, I am just going to get warmed up and jog a lap, I will be back in like 2 minutes,” I told the boys as I got up from my spot on the bleachers and started to jog along the maroon track.
“Overachiever,” I heard Jared mumble as he laid flat on his stomach with his hands under his head trying to take a nap on the silver bleachers.
“Tell me how many records you’ve broken, and then you can judge me,” I retorted while getting farther from the boys. I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear the string of profanities coming from his mouth. Austin-1: Cruel World and its inhabitants-0.
While coming to the first half of my lap around the track, I heard the sounds of another pair of shoes behind me. Intrigued to see which of the lazy boys decided to join me I looked back and saw that Eli was trying to catch up to me.
“Hey wait up man, you said you were jogging not sprinting!” he laughed waving his hand for me to slow down so he could get in step with me. I slowed down my pace a bit realizing that I actually had been sprinting. Whoops.
“So Blaine told us that you went to Madison, how does it feel to be on enemy turf?” he asked keeping pace with me.
I laughed, “Refreshing.”
“So why did you move?” he asked.
“My mom had to move because she got sacked and had to find a new job.” I stated looking in front of me to be sure that he couldn’t tell through my lie that Nik helped me create in case someone decided to stick their nose in my business.
“What about your sister? Is she going to go to Mac too?” there was a hopeful gleam that shined in his eyes. I hope he knows that although he is very attractive that I probably wouldn’t date him. Same goes to Jared and Blaine. I might praise and drool over their godly bodies and looks, but even if they asked, dating them was completely out of the question. Heck, befriending them is probably out of the question. I only need them as teammates. Nothing more. If I were to get attached it would make the whole unveiling more difficult than it already seems like it is going to be.
“She is staying with my dad so that she doesn’t have to leave Madison; she has friends and teammates there that she doesn’t want to leave.”
“What about your friends and teammates?” he pried. To be quite honest I didn’t mind talking about this sort of thing, but I knew at some point these little white lies were going to bite me in the butt. Knowing me, I would forget a detail and god knows that one of them will notice and I will blow my cover. Nik might be a master liar, but there was only so much you could lie about before you realize that you’ve dug your grave to china.
“Not to be rude or anything, but a lot of this is very personal stuff. And besides we are done with our lap,” We both came to a halt as we saw a group of boys forming where we had left Blaine and Jared.
He patted my shoulder while catching his breath. “Sorry man I didn’t mean to seem nosy, just curious.” I nodded in understanding and walked with him into the group. It seems that hell was nearing. And fast.
“Okay boys, you listen ‘ere and you listen good ‘cause I ain’t goin’ to repeat myself. My name is Coach Stanton, I am one of your assistant coaches, and I’ll be leading these ‘no-gear’ try-outs.” Coach Stanton didn’t seem like the kind of guy you wanted to mess with. He was a whopping 6’6 (possibly, I didn’t exactly have measuring tape with me) and was bulky and wrinkled with age. He wore a permanent scowl on his face and his receding hairline was covered with a Mac baseball cap. I am pretty sure if he would smile he might seem a bit friendlier…not likely. He might just look scarier if he tried to smile.
“Now y’all will be divided into Offense and Defense, a kicking team will be developed after further analysis by the coaches. Offense will begin with a timed mile and Defense will ‘ead down to the Weight room and to max out. Your coaches will lead you to your next station. Now GIT!”
We all scrambled to form two big groups of about 40 people. You could clearly tell the difference between the defense and offense. Although both of the groups were very muscular and fit (besides me of course), the defense was more bulky and the Offensive had leaner built. Another thing I noticed was that I was the shortest one. What a great ego booster.
Coach had all of us lined up at the starting line and then yelled for us to go. I noticed right off the bat that the boys had the wrong idea when it came to running this mile. They were just trying to go through it quickly instead of pacing themselves. While the boys had more quick feet steps like sprinters, I took long strides pacing myself out like someone who ran cross country. Soon each one of the boys would grow tired and be worn out before they finish.
On the third lap I noticed that some of the boys that had been up in the front leading the group were slowing down. All I can say-in my head that is- is I told you so.
I came around to my fourth lap picking up my speed and elongating my stride. My feet were hitting the ground with more force as I pushed myself to go faster. My legs protested, but I kept going anyways. Finally coming into the last 100 yard stretch my steps became more repetitive and my stride became a quick stepped sprint.
The coach looked at the timer and yelled 5.02. I had run my mile in five minutes and 2 seconds and I was the first to finish. It felt good to see the awe faces on the coaches and the boys that were slowly starting to cross the finish line. I might be short, but I was fast. You shall call me Speedy Rodriguez!
After the mile we went onto doing agilities like tires, ladders, boxes, then maxing out in the weight room. Finally we ended the day with abs and other cool down workouts. To be quite honest I was pooped. I could barely lift my legs and arms, but seeing as most the guys got up with ease I did my best to do the same, trying to mask the pain burning through my aching muscles. I took a moment to glance around the group. I spotted Eli and Jared whispering animatedly, looking like they hadn’t even broken a sweat.
Then I felt this weird prickly sensation on the back of my neck. I put my hand on my neck and rubbed it, but the feeling was still there, almost like someone was watching me. I turned my head frantically trying to find the source when my gaze stopped on a guy. He had spiky brown hair and beautiful hazel eyes. He was built and was a good 6 inches taller than myself. What was sad is that he was actually shorter than most the guys, besides myself of course. Even though it was clear that I had noticed him, he boldly kept staring like he knew something. It was extremely unnerving.
“Okay O-line, good work today. Before dinner there will be a list posted of whose 1st string and whose 2nd. Now nothing is set in stone, we haven’t even seen most of y’all play so we don’t exactly know what kind of talents you are hiding outside of conditioning. So please don’t cry if you didn’t make 1st string.” He said amusedly.
“After this week we will have a final roster with names, positions, numbers, the whole 9 yards. So if you thought today was hard? You are in for hell tomorrow. Now, leave and take a shower you all stink! Brahmas on 3 ready 1…2…3… Brahmas.” We broke and headed for our cabins.
Once stepping inside the air conditioned cabin (yeah we got air conditioning too, be jealous) I ran and jumped on my bed not even caring that I reeked of sweat. I had only been here a day and these boys were rubbing off on me. Granted I was a tomboy, but I lived with my mother. So I had this habit that although I didn’t mind getting dirty or breaking a finger nail I couldn’t stand being stinky. If I thought I smelt I took a shower because no one likes someone who spells like B.O.
Finally feeling like I had reached my limit for stickiness I hoped of my bed and grabbed my clothes heading towards the bathroom. Noticing that the boys had left so it was the perfect opportunity to sneak a quick shower, wait when did they leave? Did they even come into the cabin? I could have sworn they were behind me. Shrugging it off I walked into the restroom that had the door wide open with my head down. Little did I know was that the shower had been occupied. Raising my eyes from the hardwood floors my eyes became wide as I gawked at the image in front of me.
Blaine was standing in nothing but a towel in front of the mirror. Water dripping from his hair, down to his cheek, then it sided down his chest toward his… umm…anyways. I quickly averted my admiring eyes, glad that he had been too fixated on shaving to notice me, and turned around heading for the other bathroom that wasn’t occupied.
Note to self do not assume an open door indicates a vacant restroom when living with boys. Primarily if they are under the impression that you are a boy, when in fact you are a girl. Let’s just say I could now die happy after seeing that.
I left the restroom feeling a thousand times better. I turned to the clock to see that it was already 6:30 and the boys were probably headed to the dining hall for dinner. I made my way towards the large building in my oversize sweats and Pink Floyd shirt to see that a mass of testosterone ridden boys were cramming against the window of the dining hall. What is this all about?
“Coaches posted the strings list. You might want to wait though, I am afraid they will trample you,” someone laughed next to me.
I looked up to see that I had accidently said that out loud and to Jared no less. I sent him a glare and asked, “So what string d’you make?”
“Starting first string of course, I don’t need to see that stupid list to know that I am a beast.”
“Cocky much?”
“No, just confident…” I raised my eyebrow challenging him. “Well that and I am a bit cocky. Also when you are in cabin 1 there is nowhere else to be but in the number one spot.” He turned to try and get inside the hall for dinner. After standing for a good ten minutes the crowd finally dispersed. Obviously nothing could keep them distracted long enough from getting food in their stomachs. Like mom said the way to man’s heart is through his stomach.
Leisurely, I walked to the window trying to appear aloof to what the list may say. I had a feeling that Jared wasn’t lying about the whole cabin one thing, but this was one of those things that no matter how many times someone tells you the great news; you have to physically get up and see it for yourself. My finger slowly glided down the page until I came to my name. it read:
Rodriguez, Skye- Cabin 1- First String-Starting.
P.A Zaragoza