This choice: 2nd Day of Practice. What does Julia have planned? • Go Back...Chapter #82nd Day of Practice. What does Julia have plan... by: Kirafair   Thursday. Julia and her friends took a seat in the Cafeteria at one of the standard rectangular tables for their Lunch period. With room for three to sit on each side, they could have chosen any number of combinations to sit while eating. But as was their custom, they sat side by side with Julia in the middle. This was quite proper as she was their leader.
Chris, Jake, and Simon joined them soon after. Chris had assumed the leadership of his little group but in truth he wasn’t the natural leader that Julia was.
Chris took the middle seat opposite Julia and took in the image in front of him. With her shoulder length slightly wavy Sandy colored hair and trim figure, she was one of the prettiest girls in 10th grade. Today she was wearing a red sleeveless blouse, tight white denim jeans, and white sandals. He was having a difficult time picturing Julia, his girlfriend for almost a year now, wearing his football uniform.
The battle of wills was about to commence. Chris made no effort to engage in any subtle word play as the engagement began.
“Ready to concede that football is harder?”
Julia nodded to her friends to show their solidarity “Not at all. We feel pretty good about how we are doing” she said indifferently.
Whether it was her nonchalant attitude or that Jessica and Tammy appeared to be in full agreement caused Chris to pause, unsure how to proceed next. It was little wonder that Chris was not on the School’s Debate team. Julia took the resulting silence as an opportunity to take the initiative.
“It’s funny that you asked about quitting. I heard that you three put in very little effort yesterday. Was Cheer practice too hard for you?” she said with a clear condescending tone.
“No it wasn’t that” he muttered defensively.
Knowing full well that Coach Bosley had chewed the boys out after practice, she pressed her verbal attack. “Coach Forsythe was very complimentary to us after practice yesterday.”
“He sure was” chimed in Jessica. Looking directly at Jake she added “He said I can catch a pass about as good as you.”
Jake said nothing but his body stiffened as if he was being directly challenged to a fight.
“We’re going to do better today” Chris vowed.
“You’re going to try as hard as the other girls on the squad?”
“Yes”
“So then you’re going to move like the other girls, look like them, sound like them?”
“We sure are” he vowed, clearly not realizing the trap he had just stepped into.
Julia gave a knowing nod to one of her Cheerleader friends, Maria Ruiz, who was listening to the conversation at a nearby table.
‘Gotcha!’ she thought with glee.
*****
Later that day the two groups changed for their respective practice in silence. No friendly chatter amongst themselves or teasing the other group today. Each teen was determined to put out their best effort.
The boys entered the school gym to find that the JV squad was already present in a tight circle near one of the bleachers. As Chris lead the boys toward them, he offered a friendly greeting “Hello ladies”
Maria Ruiz separated from the circle and approached the boys, her hands curiously hidden behind her back.
“Hi boys!” she said warmly “I couldn’t help but overhear you at Lunch say you want to do your best to fit in with the squad”
“Yeah, definitely going to give a 100% effort today” Chris said sheepishly.
“Great!” she said excitedly “Please take a seat on the bleachers here.” With little resistance, the boys were helped to spots in the front row of seating.
Maria continued “Besides some hair ties, we also wear a team Head Band to keep our hair in place during practice and games.” She then revealed that she was holding three Green Head Bands behind her back. “If you truly want to fit in, you should wear a Head Band also”
“But my hair isn’t that long” Chris protested. Compared to the girls in the squad his statement was true. But it was a fact that the boys, whose hair length reached past their ears, were definitely due for a haircut.
After some pleading the boys relented and the girls went to work. ‘Everything I’m already wearing is Julia’s. I guess adding her Head Band can’t hurt” Chris thought.
The Head Bands matched the school’s official Green color and were about 2 inches at their widest narrowing to a point above the ear. Each boy had his hair carefully brushed back and the band pushed onto the crown of their head. The shortness of their hair made it somewhat difficult to hold it all back. Some hairs along the hairline inevitably escaped from under the band but the girls worked with this by brushing them into some bangs.
As Maria worked on Chris’ hair, she said “I see you’re dealing with some acne breakouts.” Like almost all adolescents, his facial skin was prone to blackheads and occasional blemishes. Jake and Simon were also experiencing the same issue.
“Yeah” he said trying to hide his embarrassment.
“It’s okay Chris, me too” Maria said sympathetically. Several other girls added their agreement to her disclosure.
He looked at them in disbelief “No way, your skin looks perfect!”
“I’ll let you in on a secret. We’re all hiding the blemishes with concealer and foundation makeup.”
As Chris pondered this revelation, Maria asked “Would you like to see what it can do for you?”
“What? No, I’m good thanks” he stammered.
“Come on, aren’t you curious? Also you did say you want to fit in with the team. This would be a good way”
After some further prodding Chris reluctantly agreed. The makeup job couldn’t be perfect since there wasn’t a lot of time but Maria was able to smooth out his complexion and even added a subtle hint of blush under his cheekbones. Seeing Chris agree to this transformation, Jake and Simon let the squad apply makeup to their faces as well.
Maria let Chris take a look at his newly made up face on a compact mirror. ‘Amazing’ he thought, clearly taken with his new look as he moved the mirror back and forth to get better looks.
One of the squad whispered in Maria’s ear “Do you want to see if we can go further?”
Maria shook her head “That’s enough for today. Julia said not to push them too fast”
*****
Julia, Jessica, and Tammy spent the first hour of practice as they had yesterday. Now that they knew what to expect, the physically demanding drills actually seemed a bit more tolerable.
During a stretching exercise, Coach Forsythe was walking around chatting with various players. He paused in front of Tammy “You’re really flexible Duncan.” She seemed self-conscious about his compliment.
Nearby Julia added some encouragement “Show him your Advanced Bow and Arrow.” Tammy stood and lifted her left leg almost directly over her head.
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John Forsythe was suitably impressed. As Tammy returned to her stretching, the spark of an idea began to form in his mind.
When it came time to break into groups by position, Coach Forsythe called Julia and Tammy over for a private conversation. He didn’t want a repeat of yesterday where the two took a beating in the Running Back drills.
“Munroe, I want you to practice with the Defensive Backs.” Julia gave him a blank look “Oh right. I didn’t explain the Defensive positions yet. Their job is to defend the Wide Receivers when the other team has the ball. Just keep in mind the Defensive Back cannot touch or tackle the Receiver until they catch the ball. Not an easy task but watch closely how the other Backs play.”
As Julia ran off, he turned to Tammy “Are you familiar with the Punter position?” Tammy said she was so Coach Forsythe continued
“A skill few players try to master. Sometimes it’s not wise to try to get the necessary yardage to reset the downs. So on that 4th down try, I send in the punter to kick the ball to the other team. Hopefully the kick goes far and the other team cannot run it back at all. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen as much as I’d like. You remind me of a famous Professional player named Ray Guy. He is in the Hall of Fame for being the best punter in history and he was renowned for how flexible he was. Still, he was not quite as flexible as you. If you want, look him up on the Internet later. For now I’d like to see how well you can punt the ball.”
Tammy did indeed perform a search for Ray Guy later that night. She could see why Coach Forsythe thought she could be a punter. She was also very grateful to him for finding a role on the team that wouldn’t get her mauled.
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*****
The day ended with each group of teens feeling somewhat more comfortable with their new teams. Chris was still convinced that it wouldn’t take long for Julia to admit she was wrong and want to return to Cheerleading,
Of course he had no way of knowing his prediction would rank right up there with the opinion of the Decca Record Company when they declined to sign the Beatles in 1963.
“We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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