Farren looked up at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, splashing his face with cold water.
His green eyes stared back at him, his dark brown hair shining under the low battery lights their school insisted on using in order to save energy or some bullshit like that that Farren didn't care about.
He took in the bags under his eyes, sighing before making his way out of the bathroom and to his locker. He chewed his lip nervously as he pushed in his locker combination.
Much as he tried not to let it show, he was super worried about today's meeting. He needed football, it was his ticket to a scholarship.
Everything was riding on this meeting. If the coaches decided to pull out of State Championships, Farren could all but rule out the chance of a scholarship.
University was expensive, so if there was anyway he could minimise the cost for his aunt and her partner with whom he lived, he would try.
He had been living with them for the past ten years, since his parents untimely death when he was seven. They had done so much for him, supporting him financially all these years. He didn't want them to have to take out big loans for him to go to college. He had savings, of course, and his parents had left him quite a sum. But it wasn't enough for four years of university.
Sighing, he pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind when he heard the sound of familiar footsteps coming up behind him.
He turned around and came face to face with his best friend, Jesse.
And as nervous as Farren looked, he couldn't deny that Jesse seemed a lot worse for wear. He was always such a worrier.
"Hey," Jesse said, and Farren could clearly hear the nerves coming through his voice, as much as the other boy tried to hide it.
"Hey J how's it going," Farren replied with a forced smile. If one of them was to be the supportive one, it would have to be him.
Farren and Jesse had been best friends since Farren had moved to Sinclair to his aunt's house. Jesse used to live in the house next door but after his younger twin sisters, Ada and Lauren, were born they relocated to a bigger house about five or ten minutes away.
Like Farren, Jesse was also on the football team and Farren could tell from the way Jesse was nervously rubbing his neck he too was worried about the meeting.
"Oh you know, okay I suppose," Jesse replied, unable to keep the worry out of his tone.
Farren understood why Jesse was worried. He needed a scholarship even more than Farren did. Jesse's family was by no means poor, just big. He had two older brothers who is parents were already paying for to go though college.
The thing with Jesse though was that he didn't just want the scholarship for himself, he wanted it so his parents could afford to put his younger sisters through college.
He was selfless like that, Jesse was.
"Hey, I'm sure it'll be fine Jess," he said, trying to reassure himself just as much as the other boy. "I mean, if worse comes to worse there's always baseball. Or academic decathlon. Or even show choir. Though I'm not sure how well that'll go over with the rest of the team." He said, making a feeble attempt at a joke. It was weak, but he knew Jesse appreciated it, as he shot him a grateful smile.
The boys made their way towards the social area, which was like the entrance hall of the school and the place where students hung out before classes began.
In reality, it was just a big hall filled with students nattering on about the happenings of the school and the ins and outs of their weekends.
Farren rarely hung out there, but the team had been instructed to wait there when first period started and wait for further information.
As more of their friends from the team joined them in the social area, the conversation changed to last weekends party. The other boys were anxious too, Farren could easily see that from the strained conversations and forced enthusiasm, but he was glad of the distraction.
The upcoming meeting was like the elephant in the room, and the boys skirted around mentioning it, as if by not talking about it they could pretend for a moment that nothing was wrong. Farren couldn't blame them though, a lot of them had been counting on football scholarships like him, so he knew how they felt.
The sudden shrill screech of the school bell brought them all back to reality. The other students left to go to class and soon it was just Farren and the team left in the social area, looking around at each other with determination. They weren't going to give up easily.
It was as if that bell had made everything more real. This was it. The moment the boys found out whether or not their football season was over.
Farren began to feel sick. As he looked around at his teammates he could tell they were the same. Flynn Evans looked practically green.
The sound of heels clicking on the marble floor approaching the social area was the only sound to be heard. Farren and the other boys looked up and saw the school secretary, Noel
"Hi boys," she said softly, "Coach Carter is waiting for you all in resource room three down to the left. Redwood's team is there as well with their coach, Coach Patel."
At the mention of Redwood some of the boys tensed up. Farren knew they were itching to fight, but he was sure they probably wouldn't. Probably. They knew how important this meeting was.
Still, as captain he still felt a certain obligation to say something. The boys needed a leader, and if there was ever a time for him to use that caption badge, it was now. He turned around to face the boys as he heard Noelle's heels click clack away.
"Right boys," he said. "This is it. I know how you feel, and I feel the same. Trust me I want nothing more than to go in there and show them what we're made of but I won't. I can't do that. We can't do that. We have to stand strong and take what we get as a team. We need to go to State this year, we have too much scholarships riding on this to throw it all away over them. But no matter what happens, we'll always be a team. Who's with me?"
There was a collective noise of agreement from the boys, and with that they made their way down the block to resource room three.
They walked together with their heads held high and powerful strides.
They walked as a team. Farren leading the group, just like he led them out on to the field for every game. This was a matter of life and death to the boys and they knew it too.
Farren pushed the door of the resource room open and was met with the sight of the Redwood Lions sitting on one side of the room.
They looked just as nervous as Farren's teammates but they were trying not to let it show.
Farren could see that the coaches were not in the room, so they were probably in the adjoining office.
As he scanned the team his eyes landed on one player in particular and he subconsciously narrowed his eyes at him.
His own personal rival, with his blonde hair, sparking blue eyes and an air of danger about him;
Kaden Rivers.
XXXXX
Kaden leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling.
He was tired after partying a little too hard over the weekend and his friends were all annoying him.
They often annoyed him, his friends, what with their never ending praising him like he was some god. It got tiresome, them sucking up to him all the time, sugar coating everything. Even thinking about it made Kaden want to roll his eyes.
So here he found himself, sitting in an uncomfortable plastic char that slightly wobbled to the left in some random classroom at Jefferson High.
His rival team sat on the right hand side of the room and his team, the Redwood High Lions, sat on the left.
The other boys had entered the room about ten minutes ago and apart from telling them to take a seat, none of the coaches had said anything.
Neither of the teams said anything to eachother, they would be stupid to do so and they all knew it. But if looks could kill they'd all be six feet under.
The coaches had been in the adjoining room for the past twenty minutes making phone calls. There was six of them in there, and we could see them through the large glass window that spread horizontally across the wall, but we couldn't hear what they were saying.
Kaden rolled his eyes and checked his watch. If they didn't come out soon, he was going to up and leave. None of his teammates would have the balls to stop him anyway. Except maybe Luke, the only boy on the team he could actually stand to be around for longer than an hour.
After what seemed like forever, the six adults eventually making their way out of the office and into the room where the boys sat. Two of the adults, who appeared not to actually be involved with the teams left the room, just leaving the two coaches and their assistant coaches.
For a minute none of the coaches said anything, then after an eternity Coach Carter, who was Jefferson's coach, began to speak. "I don't even know where to start," he began.
Well don't then.
"Never. Never in my life have I been so ashamed of my team," he said, and Kaden could see his opponents squirm uneasily in their seats.
"How dare you all. How dare. I hope you know the damage you have caused," he turned to face Kaden's team. "You too boys. The county board does not take lightly to spray paint."
Kaden could see Coach Patel nodding along with what Carter was saying as he continued. God that man didn't have an original thought in that weirdly shaped head of his, he thought to himself as he fought back yet another eye roll.
"Why are you all like this with each other? Heck most of you grew up together for crying out loud! You live in the same town.. why not try to at least respect each other if you can't be friends? A bit of friendly pranking is fine, but you took things too far, both teams did. We don't know who exactly was responsible for the vandalisms, and frankly, we don't give a shit. The last thing we want is teammates throwing each other under the bus and turning on each other. So as a punishment were giving you all two options."
Kaden's interest peeked up at this. An ultimatum. That meant they might still have a chance at State Championships. It's not like he even needed football for college. His parents were filthy rich as they liked to let everyone know, but he liked football.
Football was just something that he simply enjoyed. And he was good at it too, there was no point in denying that. His quarterback and captains statuses told him as much.
Much as his teammates got on his nerves they were still his team, and deep down- very, very, deep down, he felt a sense of pride about them.
Coach Carter's voice brought shook him out on his mind's wanderings.
"Myself and Coach Patel here spoke with the county board and the sheriff's department and we all agree that in order for things to improve around here, we need things to change and fast. So we're giving you a choice."
Kaden looked around the room, his icy blue eyes flitting from side to side. Everyone was waiting with bated breath to hear what the coach had to say. He smirked to himself as he saw that golden boy captain Farren Milton looked just as nervous as the rest. Twat.
"So you have two options," Coach Carter continued, "option number one is that both teams will be pulled from competing in State effective immediately, and football season will be over for the year."
While the boys had been silent before now a collective noise of disapproval went up in the air.
"No Coach you can't"
"There has to be something else"
"Coach I need that scholarship"
"Coach Patel you can't be on board with this?"
Kaden himself just sat there waiting to hear the other option, he knew that arguing was pointless.
After a mere minute the coach put up a hand, silencing the boys. "Would y'all ever just shut up. You haven't even heard the other option yet."
The room fell silent, waiting for him to begin speaking again.
"As I said before you all lost it, we have one more option. And you're not going to like it. First match of State Championship is eight weeks from Friday. Myself and Coach Patel have decided that, unless you decide to pull out of State, you will be living together for the ne-"
It was as if a bomb had been dropped.
As soon as the boys heard the words "living together" there was uproar. The complaints about pulling out of State was nothing compared to this.
The boys went wild, shouting and pointing. Kaden himself didn't hold back this time, there was no way in hell that he was living with one of them.
"No way!"
"Forget it! Forget State! I am not sharing a house with THEM!"
"This will never work!"
"Coach! Why? What the fu-"
But their protests were swiftly cut off. "Enough!" Coach Carter bellowed, silencing the boys instantly. "I don't want to hear it!"
The room fell silent but the all the boys still had looks of disbelief and disgust on their faces.
"Save it boys. We've given you an option so it's up to you. You need to make this decision as a team. You should consider yourselves lucky that we are not investigating this more. Honestly you brought this on yourselves. If you can't learn to respect one another from a distance maybe you can from closer up."
"We," he gestured to the other teachers and coaches in the room, "have been on the phone to your parents and guardians all morning and they have all agreed. This is the only way boys and I am not apologising for it. The way all of you acted was disgraceful."
He looked around the room again but instead of being met with guilt like earlier, he was met with annoyance and anger. Lots and lots of anger.
"So anyway as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," he continued with a glare, "my boys from Jefferson will be hosting the boys from Redwood first for three weeks, and then vice versa. The school busses go to both of the schools anyway so you will have no problems getting to and from. And if any of y'all even think of trying to get out of this, don't bother. We will be keeping tabs on you and any players not participating will have not only themselves, but their entire team banned from State. No excuses."
Kaden felt his stomach drop. The coaches had them there and they knew it. But six weeks? How in the world was he going to manage being stuck with someone for six weeks. Hell, he couldn't stick most of his friends for longer than half an hour.
Groaning, he shut his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose in frustration, before yet another pressing question came to mind.
Who would he be sharing with?
His eyes scanned the other team. He knew all of them of course, not all personally but he knew what they were like.
He looked at Jefferson's wide receiver, Darren Nelson. Kaden thought he wouldn't mind living with him. Darren was known to be pretty chill and Kaden knew he had a pretty big house, so they probably wouldn't have to share a room.
His eyes then moved to Leo Slatskov. No, far too loud for his own good and not half a brain in his head.
James Lansworth. Kaden definitely wouldn't mind sharing with him. Lansworth had a sister a year older than them and she was hot, he thought with a smirk. James was an okay guy as well from what he knew.
Kaden's eyes landed next on Farren Milton, sitting side by side, talking in a low voice with his trusty sidekick Jesse Ronan. Kaden's nose scrunched up at the though. He had never really liked Farren. He didn't know what it was, there was just something about Farren that got to him. Maybe it was just the fact that they were rival quarterbacks and captains, or because they both were the "it boys" of the town, but there had always been some sort of tension between them. They had never spoke personally but when they saw each other around the town they were quick to throw glares.
Kaden was snapped out of his thoughts when a guy on his own team, Finn Carson, spoke up
"Who decides who lives with who?" he asked, and all the eyes in the room turned to him and then to the coaches expectantly, waiting for an answer to what they were all wondering.
"Oh yes, arrangements, of course. Well we've decided that this will be a one on one situation, as in one you will be paired off and you will be living with the same person for the entire six weeks. As for who with who, we've decided that in the spirit of really getting rid of this rivalry.." he paused for a moment and looked up with a smirk, "you will be partnered with the player on the other team who plays opposite you. Quarterback with quarterback, kicker with kicker, left wide receiver with left wide receiver etcetera etcetera."
Kaden felt his stomach drop.
"Quarterback with quarterback"
No fucking way.
He groaned internally and felt like smashing his head off the wall.
He looked to his right, and was met with a pair of eyes looking right back at him, annoyance and disbelief written over the other boy's features.
Farren Milton.
And as the two made eye contact, Kaden could tell that they were both sharing the exact same thought;
Oh shit.
XXXXX
Well.. chapter one is up! Hope you all enjoy, please spread this story around if you do!! XXX
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-A