Fragile

The rest of the school day went by pretty quickly. Once I had gotten back to gym class from the nurse’s office, I found out that I had only ten minutes left in gym. I wasn’t complaining or anything, I hate gym anyway. Who would want to be sweaty before their next class? Apparently the school wasn’t ready for the first day back to school. It had taken the nurse twenty minutes to go and find me an aspirin. The good thing about it taking so much time was that I got to look at Mr. Haner.

Great. Now I am acting like every other girl who had Mr. Haner. Even at lunch, all of the girls who had Mr. Haner were still talking about him. It was like they were obsessed about him, like Mary had been. Thankfully, I had told Mary to stop drooling over him, which she had kept to the rest of the day. Mary was still wondering what was wrong with me, but I never told her. I didn’t feel like explaining everything to her. I know that she would make me eat my pride. I am such a hypocrite. I acted like I didn’t think of Mr. Haner as anything more than a teacher, but in reality, I wanted me and him to be more than teacher and student. I wanted him to touch me, kiss me, and tell me that he loves me.

God, I have problems. Even if something does happen between us, it would be hard to keep us a secret. We won’t be able to go out in public together without someone from school popping up out of nowhere. That would be a turn off for me, and I would probably end it if that would happen. He would also be called a pedophile for the rest of his life, and I couldn’t ruin his reputation. From what I hear, he hasn’t ever had a bad mark on his record.

After I had gotten rid of Mary after school had ended, I made my way towards the girl’s locker room. I saw other girls running into the locker room, hoping to get ready for softball tryouts and get in some extra practice. Since I had been on the team for four years already, I was guaranteed a spot on the team. I was one of the senior players who had to help pick other girls that were freshman and sophomores for the team. The coach would have the overall vote on who got in, but the coach liked to hear our opinion on who we think should make it. Softball was probably the only sport that I don’t mind getting sweaty for. I actually like sliding in the dirt and getting all sweaty, I don’t know why though. Yeah, I’m messed up.

“Hey, Leah. Ready to judge some freshmen and sophomores?” a voice asked me.

I turned to meet gazes with Carly, the other senior player who would help try out the lower grade players. She and I got along, but we weren’t best friends like Mary and I. She had long blond hair that was pulled into a ponytail to help keep her cool outside. Her green eyes glanced around the room, looking at the possible candidates for the team.

I gave her a smile, pulling on my uniform, and answered, “You know it! Something funny is bound to happen.”

“Do you know who that assistant coach is supposed to be?” she asked me. She glared at her hair when a stray piece fell from the ponytail.

“I didn’t know that we were getting an assistant coach. I thought it was only supposed to be Coach Smith,” I said, a little confused. I never knew that we were getting an assistant coach for the softball team. Usually, the school doesn’t even care about the softball team. I guess they changed their minds over the summer.

“I guess we’ll wait and see,” she commented, as we started to walk outside and towards the softball field. A long table had four chairs sitting by it, showing that Carly, Coach Smith, the assistant coach, and I had a place to sit and talk about the candidates without being bothered. Carly took the seat farthest to the edge, and I sat down beside her. Girls were pouring out of the locker room, talking amongst themselves with people they already knew and were friends with.

Suddenly, the seats beside us pulled out from beneath the table, and two people sat down. I looked over and gave Coach Smith a smile. He had always been like a second father to me, and my parents had known him for a long time, which was a bonus. My eyes widened when I saw Mr. Haner sit beside him. He looked down at the small stack of papers that lay under his large hands. I never knew that he knew anything about softball. Well, I had just met him today, so nothing would surprise me about him.

“I think you two know Mr. Haner, right?” Coach Smith asked Carly and I, leaning over a little bit so he could look at Carly.

We both nodded our heads like idiots, which made Mr. Haner smile. Damn! He had such a beautiful smile. I’m jealous of him, right now.

“Carly, Leah, always nice to see you both,” Mr. Haner spoke in his silky voice.

“You too Mr. Haner,” Carly and I spoke in unison. We both looked at each other for a moment, before bursting into laughter. I guess we think alike.

“Okay, ladies! Gather around!” Coach Smith called to the other girls. Once they heard his voice crackle through the air, they huddled around the long table that we sat at. Some of these girls didn’t even look like they belonged in high school. They looked way too young. Now I’m jealous of them too!

“As you may know by now, I’m Coach Smith. None of you have met me until now because I teach twelfth grade Science. This big fellow over here,” he said, pointing in Mr. Haner’s direction, “is Coach Haner, also known as Mr. Haner, who teaches twelfth grade English. Over here,” he pointed to Carly and then me, “is the captain of the softball team, Carly Martin. Beside her is Co-captain Leah Campbell. I want you all to treat them and myself with respect. This year, I hope to get the softball to team to win the championship.”

All of the girls’ eyes glowed with excitement about winning the championship. We had almost made it to the finals, but we lost by two points. We had all been really disappointed, but we eventually had gotten over it.

“Now, I want you all to do your best. We don’t just look for people who play well, but we look for people who have good sportsmanship and have a positive attitude towards the game, alright?” Coach Smith said in a deep voice.

“Okay. We want you guys to go and stretch, and then we’ll tell you what to do next,” Mr. Haner told them. I could hear some of the girls talking about how cute Mr. Haner was, as they walked away. I just rolled my eyes and turned towards Carly. She was looking at her nails, chipping at her old nail polish.

“Old nail polish?” I asked, leaning back in my chair.

She nodded her head, making her ponytail bob up and down in the air. “I guess I spent so much time practicing for softball that I forgot to repaint my nails, before the first day of school,” she told me.

“Tell me about it,” I said, showing her my nails. She just laughed and turned her attention towards the girls that were now huddled around Coach Smith and Mr. Haner. Mr. Haner was showing a couple of the girls how to pitch the ball. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of his ass, which was in a pair of baseball pants that showed his toned legs off. This is going to be a tough year.