In for the win

Chapter 4

ETHAN

I swear having twelve boys cohabitating together in the same house is an absolute nightmare. I mean, of course I love them and all, but sometimes it's just, well, you'll see. It's only 4PM when I come back from my jog around the block when I arrive to the hut. The hut is what we call the house me and the team live in because, well TJ named it thinking it was funny. Anyways, I walked in and saw cans of beers everywhere. On the counter, on the table, on the couch, on the floor. On the floor? "What the hell?"I call out to the guys in the house. "What happened in there? Guys you know the rules no partying inside practice hours, without any special occasions!" I try to get the guys attention but that just like talking to a wall. I walk towards my team and gently smack Lucas on the back of the head. "Hey, you heard me back there?"he turns to me looking anything but sober "Hudson just got accepted at BCLU, so we're celebrating. We figured that, given the circumstances, we considered this fits into the box special occasion, we weren't technically breaking any rules" he winks at me. « Well if that's the case » I huff snagging a beer can from Hudson held out hand. I have a sip and chat with my teammates. We-I mean-I established the rule that we weren't allowed to drink anything alcoholic on practice or matches day, for many reasons. Firstly, because most of the team handles alcohol like young toddlers, that means very badly, and throw the hell up after like four drinks, leading to the second reason, what we like to call the Brooklyn-Incident. It happened about a year ago, and we had a party at a girl's house on campus. Even though we had a match across the country the next day, we still decided to go. Everything was going fine, everyone was drunk, honestly it was fun. But when we had to go back to the hut, that's when things started getting complicated. The guy TJ, Lucas, Jeremiah and Noah came with, had left early, so they didn't have a ride back. We tried ordering an Uber, but on Friday nights, catching an Uber on campus is like finding a needle in a haystack. We even tried calling up a regular state Taxi, but that didn't work out either. So, Vinnie got that brilliant idea, all the boys, that means the nine of us that had come, could squeeze in my dad's truck and drive home. Under normal circumstances, that is to say, not being completely drunk, I would never have approved, but with alcohol, this idea seemed terribly funny to me so I agreed. Big mistake. During the ride home, Jeremiah passed out, and we had to rush him to the hospital. Of course, that wasn't the worse part. We got stopped by the cops on the way there, and how to say that seeing 9 guys drunk in a 4X4 did not please them at all. We all got our asses fined, and called an ambulance for Jeremiah. Turns out Jeremiah was on the verge of a coma, and couldn't come home for another week. It was like 4am when we came back to the hut. Lucas had stayed with him. We didn't sleep at all, most from the alcohol, for me, I was worried sick for Jere. We woke up with difficulty the next morning at 7 to go to the airport, remember that match across the country? When we met coach there, he was not happy, at all. He did not greet us, he just told us to hurry up. The flight was tense. When we arrived at the arena, we were treated the shouting match of the century. Coach was mad, like next-level max and was absolutely ashamed of us. Half of us couldn't keep our eyes opened, others were throwing up, it was honestly a disaster. Being captain, I took the blame, and cashed the defeat in. We had no chance of winning, having our goalie in the hospital. Noah was the most sober, so he took Jere's place, but he was no match for our star goalkeeper. We shamefully lost 6-1, and coach left at halftime. I can't blame him. Since this incident, I don't allow the team, but most of all I don't allow myself, to let the same mistake happen again.

—

I woke up early to go to the library this morning. I was slacking back in most of the subjects, and if I wished to stay on the team, I had to keep good grades. I was failing in history and chemistry, so I decided to sign myself up for tutoring. I was meeting my tutor in about 10minutes and I still wasn't ready. I had a shower, got dressed and left. The hut wasn't far away from the school area, so I decided to walk. I was ten minutes late, so I decided to hurry a bit up. I climbed up the 4 sets of stair leading to the library and led myself to the "tutoring spot". There I saw a girl, turning her back from me, wearing her hair in a small bun, on the top of her head, with bits of it going everywhere. When she turned around, I immediately recognised her. "Well who do we have here? We must stop bumping into each-other like that. Glad that you're wearing something else than a towel, which wouldn't have bothered me by the way" I smirk. She rolls her eyes. "You're late". I know she's trying to keep her I'm mad at you because you couldn't be assed to get here in time, but I know for the fact that the little "towel-incident", didn't totally leave untouched, because I could see her cheeks turning pink.

It had been two hours I was trying to understand what Amara was trying to explain to me, and I was really getting annoyed of it. "No! North and South Vietnam were merged in 1976, not 1965!" I groaned. I really couldn't care less about what or who started the Vietnam war, but I still tried, seeing Amara was trying so hard to make me understand. "Come on Crawford, we've been over this" she throws a pencil to my head. "Concentrate!" "I am!" "Concentrate harder then!" "Preston we've been at it for an eternity" I whine "Please let me take a break!" "We won't stop till you get it, and don't call me by my last name!" "But you do!" She mockingly smiles and gets back to her reading. She's really pretty when she's working., and I've been admiring her for the past 3 minutes. "Stop staring at me" she mumbles barely lifting her head. "I wasn't" I lie and I could swear a small smile drew on her face. After what seems like forever, she closes her book and looks up to me. "Same time next week?" "Sorry I've got a match next week. But how about Thursday at my house?" "If you're trying to get me to come over to your house, this is really the wrong way to go mate"she snickers "7 o'clock. Don't be late" I joke with a big smile on my face. She laughs and nods her head. Guess I'll be seeing a lot more of Amara Preston than I thought I would. Not so unpleasant.