Nothing all that spectacular happened the rest of the way home or doing afterschool stuff: peanut butter and banana sandwich for a snack, homework, spaghetti for dinner, watch some TV, brush teeth. Pippi did scold herself to get to bed on time, and woke just as the sun hit her feet on the pillow. Up, make bed, shower, eat cereal with fruit, brush teeth, go to school. School, regular old classes, lunch (Sloppy Joes), more classes, done. Nothing really great or awful or embarrassing happened that day. Pippi didn't mind the academic routine and went along with it. These days, she mostly looked forward to hitting the field.
*
Before football practice started, Pippi stopped at the equipment cage with the other new kids. They had to give their measurements for cleats, pants and jerseys. If they didn't know their sizes, the equipment manager measured them right then. He looked like a high school kid who was pretty bored with the whole thing, taking all the numbers down on a legal pad and not actually passing out any uniform items.
"When do we get our pads?!" asked one longhaired kid with excitement.
"You don't start hitting the first week, and we still need to see who's on the cut list," the equipment manager told everyone. "Don't get too excited just yet."
It was the sort of practical reminder that cooled everyone's jets a little. But if they were already getting measurements, maybe not too many more people would be getting cut. As it was, the Cougars would have a tough time filling out a second string with the number of people they had now.
Pippi went through warm-up and stretching, and then had to run a 40-yard dash. Coach Dryden was timing everyone on the sidelines with his stopwatch. Coach ran Pippi a few times more than the others, and she kept it relaxed, not overdoing it. She had consistent 4.4s, no slips to faster times. It was still enough to get Dryden talking to Pope, both of them looking at her.
After that, position drills. It was repetetive and not very interesting, but necessary to see how everyone's skillset could (or couldn't) be honed. Some of the guys who'd been there yesterday hadn't shown back up today, having already decided serious practice was too much of a pain next to the informal pick-up games they were used to back on the block. Pippi thought she could see a couple other guys who might be cut as well. After her impressive 40s, she didn't try to stand out and showboat at all, just kept her head down and did as instructed.
In watching the other players, Pippi could see they were grooming a guy named Raven Roque to be the quarterback. He had a rockstar sort of name, but had black hair in a Clark Kent cut and looked like he should probably be wearing glasses. He also seemed like an incredibly nervous guy, easily rattled... but he could also just as easily toss the ball forty yards and do so accurately, landing it anywhere he was directed. A decent arm, but he'd have to stay brave in a real game.
The longhaired kid who'd asked about pads earlier was Shon Tritt, and he was an easygoing guy who really wanted to play tight end. He seemed more like a proto-stoner who should have a Dagwood in hand rather than a football, leading his talking Great Dane around as he helped solve mysteries. He seemed pretty fast, but Pippi wondered if he could take a hit. His brown hair was almost over his eyes, so she also wondered if he could see much of anything.
Her special trial was one of the returning cornerbacks, a blond 'charmer' named Beau McCarron. Pippi had decided to say her mismatched socks were "for luck" when asked earlier by Coach Pope, and now Beau was bugging her a lot, saying he was feeling a little lucky, trying to poke at her bellybutton under her muscle shirt, and generally being a nuisance. He was smart enough not to bother her when the coaches were watching, and Pippi was also smart enough to shove him down hard and level a finger of warning at him when no one was paying attention.
The trouble was, Beau seemed to like that she was strong and could easily push him around. He kept trying to get open-hand slaps on her tummy, and she kept responding with quick jabs to his ribs that were just hard enough not to be mistaken as affectionate. He eventually waved off, starting to feel bruised, but Pippi sort of liked having someone to roughhouse with - if only it was someone else. So far, the others had treated her like one of the guys. Pippi figured she could handle Beau, but hoped she didn't have anyone else acting all mushy.
Some of the guys were cutting up a little bit too much, so Coach Pope made everyone run a few laps at the end of practice. Beau thought he could prove himself as an endurance runner, so Pippi messed with him, falling back to match his speed and then slowly running faster and faster until he fell back, unable to pace her. He tried to keep up with her accordion torture and finally had to surrender, though he laughed as he did. Maybe that would be the end of his messing with her.
Back in the girls' locker room, Pippi had raucous company for a change. Soccer tryouts had just started, and there were plenty of girls signing up. Pippi thought cheerleader tryouts might have started as well, since there were girls everywhere. It became official once a bunch of different girls asked if she was going for soccer or cheerleading - and Pippi had to tell them she was already playing football. That surprised a lot of the girls.
"They won't let you play football with socks like that!" one blonde girl with a Dutch-boy haircut blurted out, sounding astonished. Pippi had to laugh and tell her it hadn't been a problem yet.
"Those boys will beat you up, wait and see," said a black-haired girl. She wore glasses and looked nervous enough to be Raven Roque's kid sister. Pippi laughed again and said she could beat up any boy on the team, no sweat, but that they seemed mostly like nice guys and it wouldn't happen anyway.
A sort of uneasy celebrity began attaching to the pigtailed redhead with goofy socks, and Pippi could feel it taking hold... but she liked that she played a sport the other girls wouldn't want to try.
Although she didn't really need to, Pippi went in to take a shower. She figured the other girls would start calling her 'Stinky Pippi' if she didn't, since her playing football already made her kind of boyish to them. Even in a towel, the other girls could see she had good muscle tone and some chatter started.
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
