F I V E
-practice-
After Louis heard the bell, he grabbed his stuff off the table and walked out of the classroom. It was Tuesday and he just finished his seventh period. That day would be the first day he would actually be in a gym. He was quite afraid of it. What if he couldn't keep control? That was why he made a deal with himself:
do not move more than necessary.
So he slowly walked through the busy hallways of the school, towards the place he would meet up with a boy named Harry. The only thing he wanted to do at that moment, is to cancel it. But he knew if he did, he would get questions about it. Questions he didn't want to answer.
Once he arrived at the spot, he didn't see the curly boy yet. He waited for a few minutes, but he started to lose hope. Why would he even show up? Never had anyone kept their promises towards him, so why would this random boy who he had seen just a few seconds show up. Eventually he started to shook his head for how stupid he had been, thinking he'd show up.
"Why are you shaking your head?" A sudden voice asked. Louis abruptly stopped and looked straight into a pair of green eyes. "So?" He asked again, after Louis still didn't answer.
"Because I can."
Harry smiled. "Have you been here for a long time?"
"It depends what you mean with a long time." Again, he smiled.
"Sorry I was late, I had to stay in class longer."
"What, you forgot your homework or something?" The smile again, which started to get on Louis' nerves.
"No, my history teacher is my father." Harry shrugged.
"Really? That's messed up."
He laughed. "Sometimes, but I actually quite like it." It stayed quiet for a second, mostly because Louis didn't want to say anything else.
But, Harry did like talking. "So how do you like this new school? I heard you were new here."
Louis shrugged slightly. "Don't you have practice?" He asked.
The smile.
"First of all, we have practice. Second of all, it's okay if you don't like this school, you can tell me."
"I don't want to like this school,' Louis said sincerely.
Harry frowned. "Not the answer I expected." Before he could even ask why he didn't want to like this school, Louis interrupted him.
"Shouldn't we go to practice?"
Harry smiled again. "Yeah, sure."
Once they opened the door to the dressing room, a lot of players were already there. They all started hollering. "Harry!" "Yes captain!" It amazed Louis how everyone liked and respected Harry in such a positive way. Frankly, to Louis it seemed hard not to like Harry. He really is sweet and nice to everyone. In that sense you could say he was the exact opposite of Louis. He probably was in a lot of ways different than Louis.
The kind sweet hearted boy and the damaged cold hearted boy.
Harry greeted them back happily and walked further into the room. "This is Louis, he's going to train with us today." They greeted him in different kinds of greetings, while Louis just stood there. Harry smiled and pointed to a bench to which he walked. Louis followed.
Harry reached into the bag and the moment he pulled out the pair of sport shorts and a sports shirt, he clumsily dropped them to the floor. Harry quickly grabbed them and handed them over to Louis with a warm smile. "I hope they fit."
"You know, you're quite clumsy for someone who plays basketball,' Louis stated while taking them.
"You know, most people say thank you when I give them something to borrow."
"Too bad I'm not one of them."
He smiled again, while Louis shifted the clothes a little uncomfortably from hand to hand. Harry raised an eyebrow and looked back and forth from the clothes to Louis. "You're not going to fit them?" He asked.
Louis looked around him. "What? Right here?"
"You know we're in a dressing room, don't you?"
Louis bit the inside of his cheek and looked around again. A lot of players were there. He saw some taking of their shirt or pants, only to put some other sporting clothes back on.
It made him uncomfortable. He would never do that.
He wasn't only ashamed of his body itself, but also the things that could be seen on them.
Memories.
So Louis grabbed the clothes and walked into the cubicle of the toilet. He immediately put the lock on the door and started to change. When he was done, he ran his fingertips over the fabric of the sportswear. He smiled. He always wondered what it would feel like.
As he stepped out of the booth, he saw that the locker room was empty except for one person. The green eyes looked at him. "That's one way to change. Are you ready to go?"
Louis nodded and put his regular clothes on the benge. "Where is everyone?"
"Are you kidding? They're already in the sports hall."
"Why aren't you there?"
"I waited for you. Come on." He opened the door to the hall.
So there was one thing he kept in mind, once he entered the sports hall: don't move more than necessary. How hard could it be? "Come on, let's start with laps around the hall!" Harry announced, after which everyone gathered.
"How many laps, captain?"
"Let's do four."
"Four? Do you want to make it that easy for the new one?" A boy asked, after which some players started to laugh.
Harry didn't laugh, but did smile. "You can do 12 if you really want to." Then more players started to laugh.
"Do we have a say in how many laps we run?" Louis suddenly asked. It stayed quiet for a bit, while some players looked at each other with some kind of expression. Maybe shocked or amused. Harry just frowned a bit.
"I don't know if you've ever played basketball or football or any other sport, but there is a captain in the team who determines how we do things, such as how many laps we run,' a boy explains.
"But isn't basketball a teamsport? Shouldn't all the players have a say?" Louis continued.
"That will always take a long time and the whole team has voted for Harry as captain, so he makes decisions on behalf of the team."
"But what if I don't support the decisions?" After that, it stayed quiet for a few seconds, before the boy said:
"Then you probably don't belong in the team."
"Then I don't think so either,' Louis said firmly and just wanted to walk away from the hall to change again, before Harry stopped him.
"Wait, Louis,' he turned around again and crossed his arms.
"What, captain?" He knew the team didn't like him already, and the truth was, he didn't care.
"If you could choose for yourself, what would your choice be?" Harry asked.
He surprised Louis again. He had really disrespected Harry, the captain, and he was being really rude to him. Out of all people, Harry was the one who stayed nice, while he was the one Louis was being rude to. "None."
"You don't want to run laps?" Harry frowned, while some players started laughing. "You do know this is a sport, which means we have to build stamina?"
Louis crossed his arms again. "Does this mean I have a say or not?"
Harry slowly nodded. "Sure, we'll run four laps, and we'll see you afterwards. Okay?"
Louis frowned in surprise, then nodded. "Okay." As Harry gave his cue, the team followed him and started to run the laps, while Louis stood still in the middle of the hall.
"Okay,' Harry said, slightly exhausted by the run. He rested his hands on his knees, and gave a deep sigh, then stood up again. Louis had counted the laps, which were 11 and not 4. They even had sprinted the last 2 laps. Perhaps that meant that Harry had indeed given up fewer rounds because Louis was new. But since he didn't run anyway, the team ran more laps.
"So, are you ready to play?" Harry asked Louis. He nodded slowly.
Then Harry frowned. "What's that on your leg?"
Louis immediately moved his leg in such a way that the spot could barely be seen, so the fabric would fall over it.
"Is it a scar?" Harry asked.
"Nothing, maybe I fell or something." Harry nodded slowly, as if he didn't believe it. "Are we gonna play or what?" Louis asked then, making it seem like he really wanted to play, but at the same wat talking so coldly. However, he just didn't want further questions about it.
"Yeah,' Harry said smiling and then turned around, so he could face the hall. "Alright, play in pairs. We'll do this for about ten minutes." Then he took a short sprint and grabbed a basketball from the rack. "Catch!" He threw the ball at Louis. However Louis was too overwhelmed by everything: he actually stood in a sports hall, he wore sports wear, the smell of sport, the sight of a team. So the ball bounced right onto Louis's chest. He jumped up and quickly picked up the ball, then threw it back at Harry forcefully, right on his shoulder.
The team gasped, as if they couldn't believe what he had just done. Louis actually felt bad for Harry. It wasn't his intention to hit him that hard. To even hit him. He probably would've done it to every single person, but there was something about that boy that made him feel bad. Perhaps because he was so nice to him, so he didn't deserve it at all. But that is what made Louis angry after all. Why was Harry so nice to him? He didn't deserve it and in the end, Louis didn't want people to be nice to him.
Harry grabbed the ball off the floor and rubbed his aching shoulder. "You aimed pretty well for your first time,' Harry chuckled, which made Louis angry. He just wanted him to shout at him, this only made him feel more bad. Why was he still being nice? He then felt like he owed Harry something. And he didn't like the feeling.
So Louis spread his arms wide and looked straight at Harry. "Hit me,' he said. Harry laughed, but then stopped when he saw the smaller boy was serious. "Hit me,' he said again.
"What? Are you crazy?" Harry asked in confusion.
"Just do it."
"Why?"
"Because I hit you too."
"So because I was in pain, you have to be in pain too?" He laughed again in disbelief.
"Go on."
Louis started to lose his patience. Harry walked towards Louis, with the basketball in his hands. "Come on, let's play,' he said smiling. Louis frowned and lowered his arms. Harry started to explain how to throw the ball and how to catch it. Then he looked at Louis again. "Do you understand? I promise, it's way easier once you actually play it."
Louis nodded. "Sure, If you say so."
He laughed. "What do you mean?"
"Well, you're always right, aren't you? I mean, you're the captain and everyone seems to like you. You're probably a good student as well, and you seem pretty confident about yourself."
Harry looked at him in surprise. "That's what you think of me?"
Louis shrugged his shoulders. "Doesn't everybody?"
"I don't think so."
"So tell me, am I right?" Louis crossed his arms, waiting for his answer.
Harry looked down for a second, and tapped with his fingertips on the basketball. "I'm actually not that good of a student. I'm really bad at English and I'm afraid I'm going to fail this year. So I might not be that confident. At least not about my grades or anything like that, and I'm scared to tell my father." Louis stayed quiet, which made Harry chuckle silently.
"Didn't expect that, huh?"
Louis shrugged his shoulders. "I automatically have prejudices about everyone, I guess. Usually I'm right."
"Like what?" Louis stepped a little bit closer to Harry and then pointed to a boy in the team, discrete for the boy himself who was frowning and focused on the basketball.
"He is a good player, who also tries to do a lot for it, so also at home he practices. Probably trying to pretend that people like him as well." Harry frowned and then turned to another boy, who Louis had never seen before.
"What about him?" Harry asked silently.
"He is a good person, but pretends to be another person by putting on another attitude, because he's afraid others won't like him for himself."
Harry furrowed his eyebrows softly. "And him?"
"He?" Louis asked while looking at the person Harry looked at. He nodded. "Well, he's just a total dick."
Harry laughed loudly and quickly put his hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter. "I'm right, aren't I?" Louis asked in amusement, and then Harry shrugged his shoulders and nodded slowly, as he was ashamed to admit it.
"So if you could see yourself. What would you think of that person?" Harry asked curiously.
"I wouldn't want to be friends with him."
He frowned, shaking his head a little. "Why?"
"Because I'm not that type of person."
"To befriend?" He nodded. "Can I try?"
"To befriend me?" Louis asked confusedly.
"Yes?"
Louis grabbed the basketball from Harry's hands and took a few steps back. "Nope. Don't." He passed the ball back to a very confused Harry. Harry stood there with the ball in his hands, which he had just caught from Louis.
"Alright, come together for a second!" Harry announced to the players, after which they all gathered. "We're going to play a match. Brian and I choose the teams."
"I choose George,' Brian started.
"I choose Louis,' Harry said, and before Brian could say something, Louis interrupted. "I'm not going to play."
"What?" Harry asked in confusion.
"You heard me."
"It's okay, we'll go easy on you. Don't be scared."
"I'm not scared. I'm just not going to play."
A team player laughed. "You know you can't ever be in this team if you don't play the matches with us."
Louis turned to Harry. "I said he was a dick. I was right."
Harry quickly coughed his laughter away. "I'm going to help you okay?" Harry said to Louis.
"I said I'm not going to play."
"But we ca—"
"Just understand! Can you even listen or not?" And then Louis walked away to the dressing room.
Once he arrived in the dressing room - which was only a few meters away - he started breathing irregularly. Not because he couldn't believe anything he had just said, or because of his poor stamina, but because he couldn't handle the effort of basketball. He hadn't run or anything, but he had moved a lot. It was something he couldn't do. So his legs started to shake slightly. Slowly his vision grew dim and everything started circling around him.
"Louis?" Asked a voice that seemed away from Louis' world. "Louis, are you okay?" He felt how something was being pushed in his hands. "Drink."
So he did.
Slowly his sight came back and his heartbeat went normal again. He was glad that everything had turned out well and that it was nothing serious. He just had to make sure it didn't get any worse than that. He lowered his breathing and looked straight in the green eyes. The eyes smiled worryingly and made sure Louis would sit down at the benge. "Not quite used to much movement, right?" Louis slowly nodded, even though he knew that wasn't the reason. "It's totally normal. I mean, a practice can be quite tough for the first time." Louis just sat there, thinking about his actions.
"I'm gonna go,' he said eventually.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Would you care?" Louis asked.
"What? Of course I do. If I wouldn't, I wouldn't have asked."
"Sure. And yeah, I'm fine. What about you?" Louis asked sarcastically, without much interest.
"I'm okay, why?"
"First of all, I don't really care. Second of all, I wanted to know if you would lie or speak the truth." Harry bit his bottom lip. "And you lied."
Harry frowned. "What?"
"You lied. The truth is,' Louis then started, 'you're not really okay, but you still said so."
Harry stayed quiet for a moment. "What makes you think I'm not okay?" Harry then asked.
"You're failing English, and you don't even dare to say it to your parents."
Harry folded his hands together. "So when you said you're doing fine, were you speaking the truth or did you lie?" Harry asked.
"What do you think?" Louis challenged.
"I think you lied." He shrugged.
Louis narrowed his eyes. "Why so?"
"Because you make it seem like you don't care about anything and you pretend to be selfish, rude, and cold-hearted. But are you really?"
Louis's strong gaze softened and he cleared his throat before standing up, but only then realized he wore his clothes. So he grabbed his own clothes from the benge and changed in the bathroom stall again. When he finished, he didn't even look into Harry's eyes, as he gave the clothes back, and without saying anything, he left the dressing room.