The Boy in the Bleachers

Fabi trudged into her school’s chilly gym, her black hair tied in a tight ponytail and her nervous brown eyes scanning the busy room uneasily for the coach. She slung her heavy gym bag up higher on her shoulder and took a deep breath, puffing up her cheeks anxiously and exhaling loudly, crossing the gym quickly, trying her best to avoid the whizzing volleyballs that were shooting by her thin frame.

She spotted the coach standing by the bleachers, a bright orange safety whistle hanging out of the corner of her mouth lazily.

“Fabi.” She noted as Fabi got closer, the strap of her gym back digging in painfully to her shoulder. “You’re late for practice.” Her small, beady, hawk eyes scanned Fabi’s frame judgingly.

“I know,” Fabi said quickly, a little nervous around the stern Coach Leslie. “My car broke down, so I had to walk, and then I forgot my knee pads in the trunk, so I had to go back, and then I needed to stop by the seven eleven to buy a water bottle-”

Coach Leslie held up her hand, an un-amused smile present on her thin, warn lips. “Get changed.” She ordered, giving Fabi a push towards the change rooms, “And hurry out. You’re on the blue team for this practice. Grab a pinny and get on the court.”

Fabi just nodded frantically and nearly sprinted towards the change rooms. Once inside she slipped on her old school tank top and black shorts, then frantically strapped her shiny, new knee pads onto her legs, flexing them slightly, loving the feeling. It was like they belonged there.

The week before Fabi had tried out for her school’s senior volleyball team; she had been nervous beyond belief when she had entered the gym. She had never played on a real team before- and most of the girl’s senior team had been on it since their freshman year. After a nerve wracking tryout, Fabi waited days for the list of the new members of the team to be posted. The Friday after the try out, a single piece of electric blue notice paper appeared, stapled on the wall beside the girl’s change room.

Fabi- and about thirteen other girls- rushed towards the bulletin board, their anxious eyes scanning the blindingly bright paper, hoping and praying for their name to appear in the daunting typeface on the page.

Fabi’s name was written clearly at the top of the page, the only name. The other girls glided away from the notice, their faces plastered with expressions of unhappiness. Fabi, however, was in shock. Her mouth hung agape as she looked at her name clearly written on the new team’s line up.

Coach Leslie came out of her office and smiled inwardly as she saw the astonished Fabi staring at her name.

“I’m a little worried about your height, honestly,” The coach said, pointing out Fabi’s short frame, “Prove me wrong. You’ve got skill kid.”

Fabi snapped out of her daydream and hurried out of the change room, running to take her place on the court. To be honest, Fabi still felt a little out of place around all these girls. They had known each other for years, she was just the newcomer. Fabi only felt really comfortable around one of them- the slightly cynical, extremely opinionated Lou. Lou was tall, like all the other girls on the team, with cat-like blue eyes, a mass of curly, uncontrollable light brown hair and an unwavering smirk always glued to her lips.

“Yo Fabi!” Lou called as soon as she spotted Fabi emerge from the change room. “You’re beside me today fucker!”

“Hell yeah!” Fabi called back, pumping her fist in the air and jumping, earning odd looks from the rest of the team. They both paid the scoffing girls no notice.

Fabi took her place beside Lou, bouncing on the heels of her feet, feeling the energy fuelling from her love of the game course through her.

“All right ladies,” Coach Leslie called, “Now that Fabi has decided to grace us with her presence, we can finally start practice.” A hot blush flared up Fabi’s neck. “Remember, work as a team, call the ball, and stay focused.” Coach Leslie sat back down in her lawn chair at the side of the court and blew her whistle, marking the start of another uneventful practice.

The girls volleyed, bumped, and served for thirty minutes without flaw- Coach Leslie occasionally shouting guidance from the sidelines.

Suddenly a loud cat call echoed through the gym, and all heads turned in its direction.

“Damn!” A tall, gangly boy called from the bleachers, his eyes raking up and down Lou’s body. “Looking good Louise!”

Lou’s expression darkened, her entire body tensing. “Go fuck yourself O’Callaghan!” She shouted, flipping him the bird.

“Girls.” Coach Leslie called, her voice stern, “Focus. Ignore the idiots in the stands.” She cast a backwards glance at the boys now populating the uppermost seats of the bleachers. “If you boys want to stay here, no antagonizing my team, okay?” She pointed an accusing finger, “Can you idiots keep quiet for forty minutes until your basketball practice starts? Thanks.” She turned back around, motioning for her team to continue with practice.

No matter how much Fabi tried to concentrate on the rapidly moving white ball that was bouncing back and forth around her, her eyes kept darting back to the bleachers. Well, not the bleachers exactly, Fabi couldn’t keep her eyes of a certain boy sitting in the bleachers.

His red brown hair was sitting messily atop his head and his roving brown eyes scanned all the girls on the court eagerly. His lanky frame was splayed all over the seats- his long legs clad in baggy basketball shorts rested up on the seats in front of him, and his arms were propping his torso up- his black and blue basketball jersey about three sizes too big for him. She tried to catch his drifting gaze, but it never stuck.

“Fabi.” She heard Lou call to her, but her gaze was still fixed on the boy in the bleachers.

“Fabi.” Her voice sounded again, urgent this time.

“FABI! DUCK!” Suddenly Fabi felt the cold smack of the volleyball collide with the side of her face and she crumpled to the ground, the back of her head hitting the cold linoleum tiling of the gym. The last thing she saw before the edges of her vision faded into white was the shocked face of the boy, his eyes wide and mouth agape.

Well at least he noticed her.

***

She woke up with a pounding headache. Fabi let a soft groan slip out from between her chapped lips and she tried to sit up, intense vertigo hitting her like a wave. She was lying on a lumpy cot in the school’s cool, dark nurse’s office.

“Easy there.” Fabi’s eyes focused slowly, and soon the kind face of the school’s on site registered nurse swam into her line of vision.

“How’d I get here?” Fabi said, her voice scratchy.

“Some nice boy carried you in.” The nurse explained, handing her an icepack and instructing her to press it gingerly to her swollen head, “Good thing too, you were out like a light!”

“What?” Fabi asked, “What happened?”

The nurse sent her a gentle smile. “You seemed to have gotten a severe knock to the head dear.”

The events of practice slowly came back to Fabi, and her cheeks flushed crimson in embarrassment. She had been knocked out because she was too busy checking out that boy in the stands.

“Wait, you said someone carried me in?” Fabi asked the nurse, slightly confused. It couldn’t have been Lou; the nurse said it was a boy.

“Yes.” The nurse sent her a playful wink. “A handsome young man in a basketball uniform. He said his name was... Garrett? Or something like that. I’ll be back to check on you in about an hour. Don’t leave.” She shot Fabi a stern look, “I want to make sure you’re not concussed.” She bustled out of the room, her hands full of trash bags.

Fabi just rolled her eyes, but lay down again none the less, the freezing icepack pressed tightly against her aching head. The silence was nice- it soothed her pounding migraine and almost lulled her into a peaceful sleep.

Suddenly the door to her room burst open, and Fabi shot upwards, the icepack sliding off her forehead.

“Sorry,” The person said quietly, apologies laced in his voice.

“Who are you?” Fabi groaned, trying to make the pain in her head go away.

“Garrett.” The boy bounced into the dull light provided by the small cot side table. Fabi’s breath caught in her throat when his face came into view- it was the boy from the bleachers, a sly smirk decorating his slips.

“You were the one who brought me here?” Fabi asked uncertainly, a hot blush creeping up her cheeks.

“Yeah.” Garrett smiled at her, sitting down tentatively at the end of her cot. “You were unconscious for pretty long. The nurse wanted to transport you to the hospital, talking about a coma or something.”

“Thanks.” Fabi said softly, leaning against the wall and placing the icepack to her head once again. The frostiness of it bit into the tender skin of her forehead. “Wait- how long was I out?”

Garrett looked at the clock situated above her bed, his eyes widening a bit. “About an hour I’d say.”

“Fuck.” Fabi groaned, “That long? Are you kidding me?”

Garrett just shot her an apologetic smile, “You got hit pretty hard.”

Fabi groaned and buried her face in her hands, overcome by extreme embarrassment. This boy, this incredibly hot boy, had seen her make a complete ass of herself! Now she was positive that she didn’t stand a chance.

“Well,” Garrett stood up stiffly, patting Fabi’s leg awkwardly, “I actually better get to the last half hour of practice. The coach said I could stay here till you woke up.”

“You stayed?” Fabi asked in complete shock, “For an hour?”

“Well yeah,” Garrett said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, “I had to make sure you weren’t like, dead or something.”

“Oh,” Fabi was taken aback at his kindness. “Well, thanks then. You’re kinda like, my knight in shining armour or something.” She inwardly groaned at the stupidly of her weak joke. Garrett laughed anyways, a brilliant smile lighting up his childish face.

“The pleasures all mine, my lady.” He bent over in an elaborate bow, “I always enjoy rescuing damsels in distress.”

Fabi laughed until her sides ached. “Well then thank you Sir Garrett.” She shot him a cheeky grin, “For proving to me that chivalry’s not completely dead.”

Garrett gave her one last grin before standing to exit. He stopped at the door however, pulling a small plastic bag out of his pocket. “Before I forget,” He said, walking over to the small sink and filling a small, clear Dixie cup with water, “Nurse Julie said I should give you these one you woke up.”

He walked over to Fabi and handed her two small aspirins, and the cup of lukewarm water.

“Well,” He gave her one last small smile, his hands nervously fluttering to his sides. “I guess I better go then. I’ve already missed more than half of practice. Nice meeting you.” He left her room, and Fabi couldn’t help but feel a small pang of disappointment as the door clicked shut behind him.

She glanced down at the pills in her hand and then tossed them into her mouth, quickly chugging down the water, smiling to herself a little proudly as they went down flawlessly.

Fabi was about to toss the now empty Dixie cup into the overflowing trash bin when she noticed the slightly smudged, blocky message that was scrawled on the side of her cup.

‘I hear that head injuries can lead to severe physiological problems. J If you ever need someone to talk to, or just want to hang out, call me- 480-345-6771. Garrett N.’

A grin leached its way onto Fabi’s face; her pounding headache letting up. She wasn’t sure whether it was due to the aspirin or the fact that she’d might actually have a chance with the boy in the bleachers.