I Somehow Fumble My Way Onto a Football Team

“Are you gonna go watch the football practice today? It starts a bit after this class ends.”

“Yeah, I’ll do it,” I said. “Why not?”

I was concerned at the beginning of the day I would have no idea where I was going, but fortunately and coincidentally I had every single class with Ms. Mia Karlsson. I say ‘fortunately’, but I suspected by the next week I would know where my classes were- by that point she would be back to an absolute nuisance, especially taking into account that she sat right in front of me in EVERY class, due to our last name proximity.

“Got a position you want to play? Like I said, OT is good for your build.”

“I have something in mind, but you’d laugh, so I might just play OT.” No way they’d even let me try that position. And I’d never let her know that I wanted to play it.

“Well, what’s your 40 split? With your height it might actually work out. Wideout, I mean. Don’t hide it, literally everyone has wanted to play it before.”

“Haaaaah…” I sighed in sorrow, realizing that she had guessed it from the beginning. “Well, I haven’t run a 40-yard dash in a loooong time. If the coaches let me, I could try.”

“I would go ahead and get it out of the way before you’re stuck at O-Line for the rest of your life. No doubt Coach K would want to get his hands on you.” That’s kind of creepy.

“How do you know this much about the football program, anyway? I didn’t take you for the type of person to be in the know about this stuff.” Mia blinked and stared into space for a second before responding.

“I can tell you pretty much anything about this school. Of course, I’ve been here for its immense three-running-on-four-year history, so that’s a given. It’s not that hard-”

Ding. Ding. Ding.

“Oh. I should go to that practice now, huh?”

“Yeah, you do that. I’ll see you later.”

“You too,” I said as I walked out of the room.

Crap, where’s the stadium?

“Stadium’s to your left. Just keep going.” Mia smirked and waved, believing herself to be superior to me in intellect, which, to be fair, yeah, she was.

I walked up to what I presumed was the coach’s office. I had (somehow) made my way over to the field house without help, which was a miracle in and of itself. I knocked, hoping for a response from the head coach, who Mia had conveniently described the appearance of earlier.

“He’s got a big nose, a big gut, and big eyebrows. His beard’s pretty big. You’ll know him once you see him.” Man, I hope so, Mia.

“Come in?” I opened the door, and at the desk was the man Mia had described to me. For being such a vague description, it was immaculate- I would have described him the same way.

“Hi, uh, I just moved here. Is there some form I need to sign to join the team?”

“You’re interested?” The man smiled. “Yeah, it’s on the school website. We’ll get you situated if you could just do that for us.”

“G-Great. Uh, can I watch practice? I’m still considering my position, and I’d love to see my options and where I’d fit in.” Pretend you didn’t practice those lines last night.

“Absolutely. You’ll see a few coaches out there once the practice starts? O-Line is Coach K- tall black guy with the goatee. DBs is Coach Sanders, the short round dude, and D-Line is Coach Anderson. Pale, lanky, and wears a red hat. Receivers are with Coach Norman- Chinese guy with white streaks in his hair. …dang, kid, you’re prepared!” He laughed heartily as I jotted down the appearance of every coach.

“Well, I’m new here, but I have seen Coach Norman already, so that helps.”

“Where? He’s normally off in his own wing of the school.”

“Oh, he’s my homeroom.”

“Well, damn! Looks like you’ve got the brains and the brawn. Last thing- I didn’t quite catch your name?”

“Seiro Katsume, sir.”

“Eh, I’ll learn how to spell it once you turn in that form. The players should be on the field by now, and I should be too, so get a move on.”

“Yes, sir.” I closed the door, left the field house, and walked onto the field, immediately locking onto Coach Norman. Sweet! Someone I already know as my coach! This should help loads. I walked across the field, trying to avoid the drills that were going on. As I approached the receivers, who were doing some sort of box drill, Coach Norman saw me and started toward me.

“Hey, Katsume, right? You’re gonna be out here?”

“Yes, sir. Karlsson sort of pressured me into it.”

“She would, wouldn’t she…? Well, that’s great! Are you trying to be a receiver?”

“Mhm. She said I had the height for it, but said I’d need to test my speed.”

“Is Karlsson your mom or something? But she’s right. Receiving isn’t all about height, though yours is impressive. How about I run you with the twos in no defense drills and we can see your speed?”

“That’d be great, sir.”

Yeah, so I was a lot faster than I thought I was.

I don’t know if it came from running from my cousins in Sapporo or just genetics, but within a matter of reps I was with the ones. I felt really good about myself- the mental part would be harder than this, but I was sure I had the physical capacity to play receiver. I went home feeling amazing, though I hadn’t played against a defense yet, so for all I knew I could be trash.

I opened my apartment door and walked into my bedroom, flopping on my mattress even though I knew taking a shower first would’ve kept the bed clean. Despite the good practice, I was tired.

And so, as tired as I was, you could imagine my frustration when I heard a knock on my balcony door.

“You already stole my school life from me, Mia! Let me have my home life to myself!”

“I was just wanting to ask how practice went!” I heard her yell through the glass.

“Counterpoint- that’s actually really creepy! You’re not my mom!” I heard scuttling outside, and all of the sudden my threat was gone. Phew. Finally, some peace. I don’t have to deal with her ass anymore.

…

“It went well,” I muttered, knowing she wouldn’t hear me. “Really well.”