For the Love of the Game

June and the first half of July flew by way faster than I would have liked for them to and before I knew it, Farmer and me were flying back to Los Angeles to get ready for the start of football practice. As I got on the plane to leave the guys, I was secretly hoping that I didn’t make the football team so I could rejoin them for the rest of the summer. I had had a pretty big panic attack realizing that I wouldn’t have Nikki around for a pretty good while and that scared the hell out of me. I had never felt this weak and vulnerable in my life and I hated it. The fact that I wanted those feelings to go away was one of the main reasons that I forced myself to get on the jet. Nikki had taken me to a Best Buy in one of the towns we were in and bought us both ipads, solely for the purpose of keeping them on face time so that Nikki would always be close by. He promised to keep the ipad with him at all times unless he was busy doing band stuff. That brought a little comfort, but not much.

We returned home to find our room finished by the interior decorator and she had done an amazing job on both mine and Farmer’s rooms. All of my softball trophies and pictures were placed neatly and decoratively around my new room, something I would have never been able to do myself. My room was all blue and orange, with a huge very fluffy looking bed, a nice study area with a desk, and an awesome lounge area with my two bass guitars and three guitars all neatly hanging from hooks on the wall. The bathroom had been transformed into blue and orange as well. I loved it.

“Well, ready for your big debut tomorrow?” Farmer asked as we had a late night snack before bed.

“I guess. I miss the guys and being out on the road right now though.”

“Understandable. You know Nikki will be flying in every chance he gets though. I’m here too. You will get back into the swing of things.”

“I know. I meant no offense to you or anything, it’s just the last month and a half has been really rough. I don’t need to tell you that though.”

“I know, I understand. At least we are still together though. That could have been worse.”

“That’s true. Well, six a.m. is going to come fast so I’m gonna hit the bed.” I said finishing up the last of my tuna and boiled egg. I was trying to get back on a decent eating habit again.

“Yeah, same here.”

“Night, Farm.”

“Night, Olli.”

I climbed into my fluffy new bed and got comfortable before grabbing my ipad to talk to Nikki for a few minutes. They were out on the east coast somewhere so it was considerably later than it was here. I was hoping he hadn’t went to sleep yet. I felt a slight sense of panic and if I didn’t get to talk to him, the panic would have multiplied by ten. He kept his promise though. I logged in and found myself staring at him as he laid in his bunk reading a book. He had promised that we could leave the ipads close by us so that he would be right there and I could see him face to face if anything happened during the night. He was keeping his promise.

“Hey, Nik.”

“Hey, Olli! Did you guys get settled in?”

“Yeah. This room is freaking awesome! Thank you.”

“Yeah? Glad you like it. How’s it going?”

“Okay I guess. I miss you guys like crazy. Almost to the point of saying screw football so I can come back to you.”

“We miss you too. It will get better though. You can’t give up football because I’m looking forward to flying in for the games. I have never heard of Saturday mid- morning high school football games before, but hey, works for us.”

“You’re going to wear yourself down, Nik. It’s not worth it.”

He frowned. “Speak for yourself. I’ll decide what’s worth my energy and what’s not.”
Tommy appeared into the picture from behind Nikki as he leaned down from his bunk and flashed one of his famous Tommy Lee smiles. “Hey little fucker.”

“Hey Tommy. Isn’t it passed your bedtime?”

“Yes it is actually. Fuck I’m getting old.”

I laughed. “Well, I have a long morning in the a.m. so I’m going to call it a night. I’ll talk to you guys tomorrow after practice and let you know how it goes.”

“Okay, babe. Well, I’m going to leave the ipad right here, so if you need anything or have a bad dream, just yell and if that doesn’t wake me up, call me, okay?” Nikki said.

“Okay I will. Night, you guys. Love you both.”

“Night, Olli. We love you, too.”

I propped the ipad up on my bedside table and drifted off to sleep. I had a lot to prove in a couple of hours.

My alarm went off at five the next morning which was way too early after almost two months of being able to sleep in however long I wanted. I drug myself out of bed and put on some practice clothes which consisted of some under armour shorts and a long sleeve under armour shirt. California mornings had a tendency to be a bit nippy sometimes. I threw my other equipment into a bag and headed downstairs to meet Farmer who was busy eating breakfast. I wasn’t much of a breakfast person, so I waited patiently on him.

“Nervous?” He asked me

“Nope. Just ready to know if I made the team or not.”

“Just do what we do when we play around. You’ve got the speed and you played softball so you have that extra, keep your eye on the ball thing going on. As long as you don’t get hurt, you’re going to be awesome.”

“We shall see.”

Lucky for me we were the first two to arrive at the stadium where the coaches were already there making preparations for the morning’s practice. I had not met the coach when we came to get enrolled, so I stayed behind Farmer and followed him.

“Morning Coach.” Farmer said as we walked up

“Hey, good morning Farmer. You’re early.”

“I’m ready to get this season going.”

“We all are.”

“Good morning. I’m Collins.” I added to make my presence known.

“Good morning Collins. I’m Coach Sauder. Are you here to be our water girl this season?”

Ha. Not quite. “Uh, no sir. I would like to play this year.”

Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to look at us which I had halfway been expecting. I was also halfway expecting a ‘no we don’t allow girls to play on the team’ in which case my butt would be back on a plane headed to Nikki this afternoon.

“Yeah? Well, I don’t see why that would be a problem. I can’t guarantee you any playing time though, that will be up to you and your skill level. And there will be no special treatment because you’re a girl.”

“I understand. I wouldn’t be here if I expected special treatment or a place on the team if there was someone else that could play the position better.”

He looked at me curiously and gave us a small smile. “Well, we have a full morning planned so go ahead and be getting warmed up. First thing is physicals with the team doctor and then we will start with basic drills to see where everyone stands. We will build on that for the rest of the week and post first and second string positions at the end of the week.”

“Sounds good.” Farmer said.

Once the morning started, it flew by very quickly. Once physicals were passed the drills started. We were time running a 40 yard dash, did some basic conditioning and sprints and then broke off to practice things that pertained to the positions we were after, which for me was receiving. I ran route after route and caught ball after ball. I received many stares from the rest of the boys of the team, but I wasn’t worried about them. Before I knew it, we were back in the locker room getting a run down of the morning.

“You guys…and girl did a good job out there today. We saw a lot of good talent and a lot of potential talent. We will continue to build off of today for the rest of the week and we will make all decisions and have them posted for Friday morning’s practice. Go home and get some rest and get some good food in you and we will see you back here ready to go in the morning.”

I grabbed my stuff and followed Farmer back out to my truck, trying to hide my smile. I was extremely pleased with myself and how this morning had gone. I wasn’t out for attention, I just wanted to make the team and be good at playing and if the rest of the week went the way today had, I think I had more than a pretty good chance.