One of the Boys

Is it any surprise that all moments with Chris would be awkward from that moment on. Well, I assumed, so I made sure to have as little of them as possible. And it was easy since we left the next morning and I had to stay home all weekend to finish my makeup work. I brought it with me to the tournament, just didn't do it. I was dreading school for fear of a chance run in, but when Monday came around i was inevitable. I had to go to school.

I walked in and walked straight to my locker, but that was actually normal for me. I threw in the stack of books I had because of all the make up work and kept only what I needed for the first class. "Rea," Dana ran down the hall panting a bit from exhaustion, "what's wrong, what happened, how come you've been ignoring my calls all weekend."

I bit my lip, "I just had lots of makeup work."

I turned and started walking down the hall, I knew she was following me only because in the mornings we hang out. She came up on my side, "I don't buy it, something else happened, tell me, tell me, tell me please." She kept whining and then I got tired of it.

"Would you shut up," I turned to her, "after the game our coach talked to us about it, no intra-team dating. Makes sense and we both agreed." I shrugged and sat down at the bottom of the stairs where we usually sit.

"But," she said eyebrows raised suggestively.

"But then on our way back up to our room," I sighed, "he ruined it and kissed me again."

"Again," her eyes bright and surprised. I nodded. "Details, was it good, please tell me you didn't make that pathetic face afterwards this time."

"No, no face, this time I bit his lip and made him bleed," I smiled triumphantly as she looked at me like I was crazy, "what's done is done."

"Why would you bite him," she said still shocked.

"I told you the story," I shrugged, "now the topic is changing to how was your week. Anything interesting?" She shook her head disappointed. I just shrugged and stared down at whatever book I had in front of me, for no reason, but pure boredom.

Then De's face lit up like a Christmas tree, "Homecoming's in like two weeks, it's okay that you skipped the welcome dance, because this is going to be bomb." I rolled my eyes, I'm not the wear dresses and dance kind of girl.

I shook my head, "I'm going to take a rain check."

"Uh, you can't," she gave me a half blank half shocked expression, "It's mandatory for the football team, and it's mandatory for them to have dates. It would be so cute if you and Chris went together."

I gave a disgusted look, "it would not be cute, besides what part of no intra-team dating don't you understand."

"I've always been a little confused with the difference between intra and inter," she said sarcastically thinking about it.

I laughed and shook my head, "seriously though, I'll find a way out of it."

"You ca..."

"I can always find a way out of things De," I started, "do not underestimate my far superior persuasion skills."

"Hello bed buddy," Hayden said as he walked by. I just laughed and then he turned around and yelled, "yes it's true, I slept with that girl all last week." I threw a pencil at him, but it would have been hard to believe since he was cracking up the entire time. "That hurt," he said pouting and then turned back to the none existent crowd of listeners and yelled, "don't worry though, we are also happily engaged."

"Dork," I said sticking out my tongue.

"Are you having second thoughts," he said eyes wide as if shocked. He got down on his knees in front of me and grabbed my hand and looked me in the eye, "it's that adulterous Christopher Mills isn't it."

"Try as he might to win my affection," I said looking away dramatically and then turned back smiling, "you, Hayden, are the only one for me."

"Yay," he jumped up, "so the wedding is still on, excuse me ladies I must call the caterer." And with that Hayden disappeared into the sea of kids that was the school.

"You guys are weird," De said looking off at where he went and then she turned to me, "do you think he's gay?"

I shrugged, "sometimes I get the vibes, but I'm not sure."

The rest of the day was whatever, that is until after practice. After coach left the locker room, our captains held an extra meeting afterwards. One of the senior captains stepped forward to talk first, "alright so we all know homecoming is right around the corner." Everyone nodded so he continued, "now it's tradition that all members of the team at least walk in with dates. So you guys have until next Friday."

I rose my hand and they pointed to me, "is there any possible way to get out of going to the dance?"

"It's mandatory," Mike, the other senior captain, said, "the homecoming dance is an event that specifically profits the football team, so it's mandatory."

"One more question," I rose my hand, "since we are supposed to bring dates, mine doesn't have to be interrogated again, right."

"We'll make that decision later, Tanner," Mike said looking at me and then turned his attention on the entire team, "on to our second matter of business, initiation." All the boys started cheering.

I rose my hand one more time, "what's initiation." I was a little nervous as to what this answer would be.

"Good question," the other senior captain said, "initiation is like hazing for the new members of the team, usually this ritual is done over the summer training season, but Tanner you joined late. So you get your very own initiation. We almost forgot, but Mills reminded us."

"Of course he did," I mumbled under my breath. I looked up and he gave me a sinister look.

"The initiation will take place after practice on Friday," Mike said. That was the extent of the meeting. I don't like this idea one bit though, initiation.