I: The Tryout
It's kind of funny how fast time passes when you don't want it to. I spent the past three years of my life surrounded by my favorite people in the whole entire world (mostly), and now I only had one more year left. They say that high school kind of sucks, but I don't think that's true. Life is what you make of it, and I had certainly made the most of -
"Sydney!" My head jolted up, and I dropped my pen, quickly snapping the little journal I had been writing in shut as I heard a faint feminine voice call from my bathroom. It was probably the sixth outfit my friend Lilly had put on this morning. She was trying to find the perfect outfit to wear for our last first day of high school.
We were finally seniors, and if I knew anything about Lilly, I knew she was going to pull out all the stops for her last first day outfit. She walked out of my bathroom, "Syd, you're still writing in that journal? You need to get ready" she shrieked. She picked up one of the throw pillows on my bed that my mom insisted I have, something about routine or looking fancy, and threw it at my head.
"Hey, hey, hey I'm almost ready!" I defended, easily catching the pillow and throwing it back on the bed, "and maybe you should take some notes and get a journal too. It might be something you wanna look back on one day."
Lilly's head tilted as her big blue doe eyes widened in consideration, "You're so right, Syd, I am totally gonna get one- I can't believe I didn't think of that soon- wait, hold on, you are so not gonna distract me on our first day. Now, what do you think of my outfit?"
She was wearing a black romper with mini lilies on it which I thought was very fitting for her. She had worn, battered white sneakers on which I had to admit was a fashion trend I never really quite understood. Given that I was a soccer player and had been playing since, well- ever- I always took care of my sneakers, however, I could admit that Lilly pulled them off.
"I think you look amazing as always-"
"Syd, you know that is so not helpful-"
"Well if you'd let me finish," I rolled my eyes and with a small laugh said, "you would know that this one is my favorite."
Lilly rolled her eyes at me and let a small smile creep onto her face, "Get dressed you loser, we're gonna be late."
I walked into the bathroom and splashed some cold water on my face. I normally wasn't one for makeup, but I'd been up into the late hours of the night outside in my backyard practicing drills and kicking goals and my eyebags totally betrayed that. I was trying out to be a representative from my school for the elite 2 v 2 championship games of Michigan.
Every participating school in the state sent their two
soccer players to compete in bracket determined games and tournaments that all led up to the final championship game. It wasn't very often that a girl was selected for a 2 v 2 team, and it was even more rare that a team with a girl won the championship, in fact, it hadn't been done in the past thirteen years, and I felt like it was maybe time for that to change.
I quickly concealed the bags under my eyes, and put on a quick swipe of mascara for the special occasion, there were no doubts in my mind that Lilly would make us take at least a couple hundred pictures throughout the day.
My first day outfit was simple. A pair of ripped denim shorts and a Glenview High soccer t-shirt. I knew Lilly was gonna yell at me for not wearing something a little more glamorous for the first day, but that just wasn't my style. I let my stick straight blonde hair out of its loosely tied bun, and I was ready to go. I had always wished my hair had been more curly like my moms was, and she always assured me that it would probably change as I got older, just as hers had.
I walked out of the bathroom, and Lilly gave me a slight look of disapproval but otherwise held her tongue. She knew by now that it was hopeless to try and argue with me, but I heard her mutter under her breath rather fondly, "Some things never change."
I sometimes found it rather odd how well Lilly and I got along considering we were so different. If it weren't for her boyfriend, and one of my best friends, Reid, I don't think we ever would have met, much less liked each other. In fact, we didn't really even like each other at first. It wasn't until we realized that for all of our differences, we still had the very same core values, one of which being family, blood and chosen, above comes before anything else.
I barely managed to grab my backpack and my keys before she was yanking me out the door. "Lilly, slow down!" I laughed as she shoved me into the driver's seat.
She rolled her eyes at me, took the keys from my hand, and stuck them in the ignition. "Chop chop, let's go. Every second we waste is a chance to make something great happen."
I backed out of my driveway, rolling my eyes and mumbling to myself something along the lines of 'some things truly never change'' and shot off.
She gave me a warning glare as she swiped a light glossy pink over her lips. "Keep doing that and your eyes will get stuck that way."
"Whatever, mom." I laughed and we flew down the road in my silver Toyota Rav4. Lucky for us, school was only five minutes away from my house, and we made it with fifteen minutes to spare.
Lilly and I pulled up our schedules on our school portal as we walked up the steps that were painted red with a silver G for Glenview.
"First class?" She asked me as she waved to a couple people. Lilly was friends with most everyone in our grade, which was partly why she was so concerned with her first day outfit. She had confided in me that sometimes it's overwhelming to feel like everyone's watching you.
"AP Euro, with Mr. Munoz." I replied to her as I lifted my backpack strap back upon my shoulder. "You?"
"AP Chem, with Ms. Max." She mimed a shudder. "One, I hate that woman, and two? Chemistry sucks, like really bad."
"That's my fourth period." I told her with a slight laugh, "And why did you sign up for AP if you hate it?"
"Just because." She replied giving me a lazy grin, but we both knew she'd be fine. As much as she might hate Chemistry, she was good at everything, chemistry included. "Give me that." She said, taking my phone and scrolling through my schedule.
I rolled my eyes, and waited for her assessment of my classes.
"Well, we have lunch in the fifth period and study hall during the sixth, so you know what that means. Other than that, you officially suck for taking five AP classes senior year." She said with an accusing look as she handed me back my phone.
Since we had study hall right after lunch and because we were seniors, that meant we could go somewhere for lunch and not have to worry about rushing back.
"Hey look! It's Paul and Reid!" Lilly exclaimed, pointing inside the lobby of the school before grabbing my arm and dragging me toward them, not that I put up much of a fight.
Paul was telling Reid something very animatedly with his hands when Reid pointed behind him and he turned around, spotting us immediately. "Lilly! Syd!" He yelled before running over to hug Lilly and then me. "God, I've missed you two so much!" It was pretty funny and elicited a laugh from both me and Lilly considering that fact that we had seen him just two days ago hanging out in his basement.
Lilly fit easily right under Reid's arm and he placed a kiss on her head, slinging his other arm around me for a one armed hug, "What's up, kid?" He asked. I couldn't help the wide grin that spread across my face. It started as a nickname I intensely despised, 'Syd the Kid' which he affectionately shortened to 'kid', and I eventually grew to love it.
Lilly began talking a mile a minute about the decorations and the themes for the back-to-school pool party she was throwing on Friday, letting the three of us know that we would be arriving at her house promptly after school to help her set up. She was in the middle of telling us about the signature senior year punch she was planning to make, when I made eye contact with the devil himself.
Jason Warren.
He shot me a quick smirk, and finished up his conversation with one of his friends, patting the guy on the back with a smile that should be way more charming than humanly possible. I knew he wanted to talk, of course he would want to talk.
I turned to Paul, Reid, and Lilly, "I'll be right back, guys. Gotta go deal with Warren."
Paul laughed and ruffled my hair resulting in a sharp glare from me to him, "Good luck with that one, Syd."
I turned and walked toward Jason Warren, meeting him halfway and the noise in the hallway seemed to cease around us as we stood face to face.
"Well hey there, Palmer." He greeted with a mock salute, "it's been awhile, last time I saw you was..." he pretended to think, "Oh! That's right, when my team beat your team at the Regional Qualifiers, successfully knocking you out of the bracket, dashing your hopes at the Michigan Club Soccer Championship, and proving yet again that we're the better team."
I took it all with a tight lipped smile, not too keen about having my team's shortcomings thrown in my face but unwilling to give him the satisfaction of a bigger reaction. "What do you want, Warren?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and challenging him, daring him to keep it up.
"Alright, Sydney Palmer, I'll cut the crap." he said quietly, the smirk dropping off of his face as he spoke, "People are saying it's gonna be you and me in the 2 v 2 this year, and maybe I was just coming to remind you who the better player is."
"What makes you so sure you're gonna be in it with me?" I asked him defiantly, but he simply rolled his eyes.
"Come on, Palmer," he said almost as if he were bored, "We both know it's gonna be me."
"Remind me, Warren" I replied, a smirk of my own appearing on my face, "How many goals did you score at the Regional Qualifier?"
For the first time in our conversation, it seemed as though I had gained the upper hand as a look of annoyance passed over Jason's face. "I was being double guarded the whole time-"
"And you scored how many goals?"
He gave me a flat look, "One."
"And I scored how many?" I asked, The smirk on my face growing even wider as Jason scoffed.
"Two, but-"
"Exactly." I finished with a self satisfied look on my face.
My win didn't last long.
"Sydney, you wanna know why you scored those goals?" Jason asked, and without waiting for my response he continued, "Because you're a girl. Nobody was guarding you because you weren't a threat, and we fixed that in the second half. And remind me, how many goals did you score once you had a guard?" He waited for a moment while my mouth dropped open and my mind scrambled to find an answer, "I thought so." He replied cockily with his signature devil may care smirk painting his face.
The first bell rang, signaling that we had to head to class, and Jason slowly backed away from me, maintaining eye contact the whole time, "See you at tryouts, Palmer." And with that he spun around, turning the corner and off to what must have been his first class.
I felt a hand on my shoulder, "That dude sucks." It was Paul, my best friend since birth and total other half.
I let out a frustrated scream, consequently drawing the attention of some wide eyed freshman who hurried past us. "I hate him."
Jason had been my rival ever since he moved here the summer before my freshman year of high school. He had tried out with my club soccer team, Allstars, but had ultimately chosen our rival club, Michigan Soccer Club, MSC for short. Creative, right?
We hadn't always... despised each other, but a few unfortunate circumstances had led us to the place we are now, which is a place where we can't ever really be friends.
In freshman year, my best friend, Mac, who goes to our rival high school, Johnson Creek, had started going out with a girl named Claire from MSC. Let's just say that things ended very poorly. Then we beat them in the regional qualifier sophomore year for the first time in five years because Jason, their star player, was out with a minor ankle sprain from playing us the previous night in a totally unofficial game that we all could have gotten into major trouble for on a dirt field in the rain... rivalries make people do crazy things. Honestly, it was his own fault for being so reckless, but it didn't matter. MSC blamed us for that ever since that day for maybe sort of goading them into playing us.
I think the last straw was junior year. We don't talk about what happened junior year.
But yeah, ever since then, Jason and I had gone from mild dislike to somewhere a step above extreme hatred. Jason was a shoo in for a spot in the 2 v 2 game, everybody knew that. He was like the seventeenth top national recruit with offers from over fifteen division 1 colleges, but it didn't really matter. He had verbally committed to play for the University of Michigan two years ago, and he would make it official in November. I was good, really good, but it's hard for girls to compete with the guys. I had my own bunch of authors from d1 colleges around the country, but I had yet to decide on one. Unlike Jason, my spot wasn't guaranteed. I was going to have to earn it, but I had been preparing for this moment literally since I was three years old when I started playing soccer, and if there was one thing I wasn't going to let Jason Warren do, it was get the best of me.
+++
The school day passed by quickly, and before I knew it, I was sitting on the hard metal bleachers, lacing up my cleats. School policy stated that any senior on the girls or boys Varsity team could try out for the 2 v 2 team. Most of the boys' Varsity team was on the field warming up, but I was the only girl. A few of the girls were sitting in the stands behind me, there to cheer me on and ogle the shirtless boys, but they all knew that I was the best and that if a girl was going to be chosen, it would be me.
Coach blew his whistle and we began to run through a couple passing and technique drills to warm up. It was just like the standard tryout for the Varsity soccer team, one that I had only participated in my freshman year. Since then, I helped Coach run tryouts.
Coach called us in for a huddle, there were about ten of us trying out in total. Despite his big show earlier, Jason Warren paid me no attention now, completely and totally focused on the tryout. That was one respectable thing about him, he knew that his spot on the team was all but guaranteed and yet still, he gave 100% in the tryout. Coach explained we were going to be running some complex partner drills and began rattling off pairings that he had made on a notepad. I was paired with a guy shorter than me, and to be fair I was 5'9, but I knew better than to underestimate anyone by size. Short guys are quick. We nodded to each other and quickly began Coach's drills.
After the drills, Coach split us into two teams to scrimmage, and of course I was on the same team as Jason. The five of us on the team formed a circle as Jason, taking charge, rattled off the game plan. "Devens, Cruz, you two play defense, Haller, you're up front with me, and Palmer, take the middle and for Christ's sake, don't fuck anything up."
I rolled my eyes at his call out. It was cheap and unnecessary trash talk and we both knew it, but I was too focused to let it get to me. I had been preparing for this for so long, and I wasn't going to let Jason Warren take it away from me. We took the field, facing off against the skins team. Obviously with me on the team, we were gonna be shirts. The other team had chosen a slightly different formation than Jason had laid out. Instead of a 2-1-2, they had a 2-2-1 with the 1 being on defense meaning I had two guys.
Jason and I made eye contact as he noticed our differing formations, but he simply raised his fist, signaling for Devens and Cruz to hold their positions. I couldn't tell if Jason was trying to do me a massive favor or royally screw me, but I decided thinking too hard about it would simply distract me so I pushed it out of my mind.
Coach blew the whistle and the game began. The first few minutes were pretty uneventful. There were some easy passes as we all got used to playing with each other, trying to feel out the other team's strategy. The action began when Devens passed me the ball. The 2 players from the opposite team in the midfield with me charged. I managed to evade one of them using some fancy footwork but the other one slide tackled me to get the ball to his buddy. It was a cheap shot, but Coach didn't call it. He shouldn't have either. The refs for the 2 v 2 were known to turn a bit of a blind eye to player's roughness.
I sat up angrily as they broke away, abandoning their posts in the midfield to attack on Devens and Cruz along with the 2 offensive players that were already down there. They scored within seconds.
All of the sudden I was sitting in the shade and a hand reached down. I took it and stood up, coming face to face with Jason. His eyes said nothing and everything at the same time. "You okay?" He asked.
"Fine," I grumbled, "I'd like to see them try and pull that shit again."
Jason nodded and sprinted back to forward before the next point started.
They did try it again, but this time I was ready. I evaded the slide tackle and broke away down the field toward Jason and Haller. With a strong pass, I put the ball right at Jason's feet and he took the shot. After that, they rearranged their formation so that they had another player on defense to guard Jason, and I honestly didn't really understand why they didn't do that in the first place. I guess they were banking on me not being able to get the ball to the strikers, but they were sorely mistaken.
We scored point after point, and for as much as Jason and I despised each other off the pitch, we worked well on a team together. The final score was 7-2.
We finished the tryouts in a huddle and Coach clapped his hands together, "I want to thank you all for coming out today. This is the best batch we've had in a while, and though it'll be a tough decision, I have no doubt you will represent us well." He said some other inspirational things but most of it went in one ear and out the other. I was simply exhausted, anxious, and every other emotion in the book knowing that now the decision was all up to fate. He dismissed us and I sat down on the bleachers to undo my cleats and put on regular running shoes.
My heavy breathing began to slow and I chugged the bottle of water that I had sitting in the bleachers when I saw Paul running up to me. He was sweaty and dirty and still in his football uniform but he picked me up off the bleachers and spun me around. Football practice must have just ended and he had sprinted over here from the football field next to the soccer pitch. "Congrats on tryouts, Syd!"
"I haven't made the team yet, P" I told him, laughing as I spun through the air.
"Well yeah, but you will." He replied with a wink. "I snuck a couple glances over here during our water breaks and you looked great."
"You're the best." I told him with a smile. "Are we still on for fro-yo?" I asked.
"Yeah, Reid and I will meet you at your car after we finish changing... see you in 10?." Paul replied with a grin as he ran toward the locker room.
I grabbed my bag and headed to the locker rooms to shower and change back into my clothes from school today.
I took a hot shower, washing off all of the dirt and sweat that had accumulated throughout the practice. I had done well, really well. I don't think I could've done better. And I had worked well with Jason, which I knew had to be a plus. But still, I was nervous.
I finished brushing the last of the slight tangles from my still wet hair, threw it up in a bun, and walked out of the locker rooms. There was a narrow little alley on the way to the parking lot in between two buildings, and I saw the silhouette of a guy leaning against the wall at the end. Jason.
I nodded to him as I squeezed past him, "Warren." I acknowledged.
"Palmer." He replied with a nod. He had some look in his eyes, and I could tell there was more that he wanted to say.
I stopped, "What?"
He opened his mouth, but before he could say anything a pair of arms wrapped around my waist and tossed me into the air. I let out a little squeal of elation. "What's up, kid? How were tryouts? Heard you killed it." Though Paul, a wide receiver, had a bit of time to look over and watch me here and there, I didn't imagine Reid, the qb, had any spare time at all to spare more than a glance, especially with the first game of the season coming up next Friday.
"They went pretty well, I'll tell you about it in the car!" I replied as he set me down and patted me on the head, messing my hair up. Him and Paul had to stop doing that. I turned back to see that Jason was nowhere in sight, not that I cared. I shrugged and walked to the car with him, detailing how tryouts had gone.
Once we made it to the car, I threw my bag in the trunk and got into the front seat, immediately turning my car on along with the air conditioning for the boys. Reid sat down in the passenger's seat with a mischievous look in his eyes. He told me Paul had taken an extra long shower, allowing him to sneak out to be able to steal the passenger's seat from Paul.
When Paul reached the car and saw Reid in the front seat, he let out an extremely loud, extremely dramatic sigh, slowly opening the car door to the back seat to let us know he was not happy about this. Reid and I both laughed at him as I slowly backed out of my spot and started driving toward our favorite frozen yogurt spot.
Paul and Reid kept up the conversation while I concentrated on driving and before I knew it, I was turning into the parking lot. I parked, and Reid ran out of the car to greet Lilly who was already inside while Paul and I took our time.
"Senior year, Sydney... pretty crazy, huh?" He asked.
I nodded my head in agreement. "Hard to believe." And it was.
I couldn't believe that next year, we would all be off at college, probably in different places, living new lives, making new friends, and becoming the people we were meant to be.
We ordered and sat in a booth near the back of the restaurant. We talked about our first day, laughing and sharing stories. Lilly recounted all of the rumors she had heard about who had broken up and who started dating who this summer. Paul and Reid vowed to cross examine and verify through locker room gossip for her. And me? A part of me wished I could immortalize this moment, right here, right now, with my best friends in our favorite place and never leave it.