Silver's Touchdown

8. Lennon's POV

(16 years old)

“ one two south west!”, Asher called, as he threw the ball into the waiting hands of Danny who almost missed the catch but still gripped the ball running before the right tackle could intercept the ball. He wasn’t as fast as he used to be, he was tired and any minute now, he would start acting up. Lennon was grateful that he was not the one throwing the ball right now.

Though football in middle school was a bit on the easy side, well football in high school was a bit competitive and tough, challenging even and he was wondering every time why he wanted to play ball in the first place.

Considering they were playing ball under the hot morning sun before classes. Because they had messed up in their last game, coach had declared early morning training  and that was why they were here playing ball thirty minutes before school started for the day, though they had been running in the field for almost three hours, since five thirty that morning.

Danny fell into the end zone, scoring one for his team. They should have rejoiced over the touch down, but at the moment, nobody had the strength to jump up and rejoice. They were all exhausted to the bone.

“ Lennon step in there and show Asher how to throw a ball!”, coach shouted. His coach could be very insensitive at times, if he had not noticed, they were all tired. He looked at Liam who was panting in the ground and the other guys in the field. 

Lennon groaned, running into the field to replace Asher who whispered to him as he passed.

“ Danny would kill you if you throw a curve ball at him…”, Asher told him, leaving the field. 

Now he understood why Asher had not thrown the ball well. He was thinking that Danny still had some strength left in him, but the guy was already acting up, too late Lennon.

He took his position, getting ready to make the call.

“ west wing!, Brighton!”, he called according to the playbook and threw the ball. 

He was playing in the quarterback position of the team and even though playing in this position came very natural to him, since he had watched his father playing in this position all his life.

Well, Quinton, uncle Frank’s son, caught the ball, not Danny and before he could turn to run, the left tackle caught him, pushing him down with the ball.

Lennon winced at the impact, hearing the groan from Quinton. 

“ what the fuck was that Danny!”, coach shouted. “ why the hell didn’t you catch the ball!”, he yelled.

Danny removed his helmet and glared at Lennon, his eyes held anger. He was probably mad at Lennon for throwing a curve ball. Danny had told him severally not to throw a curve ball whenever they were practicing, to him, especially when he was tired, he just didn’t know how not to throw one. He was a quarterback for crying out loud. 

“ I’m sorry coach, I missed…”, Danny apologized.

Well, the thing was that Danny played in the wide receiver position, he would sometimes play the running back and he never missed. He would always catch the ball, the problem was getting it to the end zone. Quinton though had the problem of catching the ball and running with it, and since he was not as fast and stealth as Danny, he would sometimes get tackled.

“ you missed?! The ball was right in front of you when you moved out for Quinton to catch it…”, one of their team mates accused Danny.

Lennon could see Danny’s jaw clenched, he was pissed and if care wasn’t taken, he would say something very annoying.

“ shut up idiot…how about you take my place then since you are so damn good…” Danny retorted.

Before Lennon would move, Liam was already moving and pulling Danny out of the way before the guy’s fist would connect with Danny’s face.

Lennon shook his head, he just didn’t know when to shut up.

“ hey!, Cut it out! Before I bench you two…”, coach warned. That helped to calm the two guys for a moment.

Coach gave his long awful speech about playing as a team and winning games not acting like a bunch of girls running around the field, before he told them to get the fuck out of the field and head for class.

The locker room was as tensed as the field, Danny was giving everyone death glares.

“ are you going to stop looking at everyone that way anytime soon…”, he asked, wearing his white uniform.

“ get out of my way Len…”, Danny fired at him. He heard Quinton chuckle behind him and shook his head. Whatever Danny was made of, there was no tolerance material in it.

“ sorry I threw a curve ball”, Lennon apologized since it would finally come down to this, the reason Danny was angry.

“ Oh!, You knew you threw a curve ball…!” , Danny retorted.

Lennon rolled his eyes, telling him not to throw a curve ball was like telling him to sit on the bench and not play the game. He was a quarterback for fucks sake. He would always throw one.

“ Well I’m apologizing for playing the game well, that’s a bit hypocritical, don’t you think…”, he muttered, buttoning his shirt and ticking it into his black uniform slacks.

Danny scoffed, “ it’s practice dude, you don’t have to throw that hard. It is practice… and besides, you know we were all tired, no need using all your strength”, he complained.

He wasn’t even using half of the strength he used while playing in the field with another team, he didn’t throw that hard, he wanted to say, but stopped when Liam touched his shoulders.

“ we need to get to class, the bell went off minutes ago…”, Liam told them.

Liam was a year higher than them and was set to graduate that year while they would go on for one final year before leaving high school.

Danny sighed, leaving the locker room alone.

“ Does he ever get tired of sulking?” , Quinton asked him.

He shook his head, “ nope… how is Sarah, I heard she wasn’t feeling too well…”, he asked Quinton.

“ Ask Mr. Lover boy over there…”, Quinton replied pointing at Liam who suddenly started scrolling through his phone. Lennon snorted as they left the locker room, heading for class.

He knew Liam had a thing for Sarah, but the guy was probably waiting or something since he had not confessed his feelings to her. When they were younger, he would say that he wanted to focus on his studies and it wasn’t yet time, now, Lennon didn’t know what was keeping him back, it’s not like it’s a secret anymore.

He had biology that morning with Mr. Goofball, he shared the class with only Zara, uncle Michael’s daughter. 

“ I’ll see you guys at lunch…”, he told them, walking down the opposite hallway to his class.

He was lucky when he entered, the teacher just started calling the roll call. He quickly took his seat behind Zara’s seat. He saw his teacher lift up his eyes, staring at him.

“ nice of you to join us, Lennon…”, the man commented.

Lennon winced, “ I’m sorry sir… practice ran late…”, he replied.

His teacher nodded and continued with the roll call. The teachers were a bit lenient on football players, so long as you made it to class and you did well in their subject. They knew how demanding the sport was and he was grateful for that.

“ hey…”, she greeted, turning to face him.

He smiled, the exhaustion from that morning, fading away, seeing her smile.

“ Hey…” he said with a tired voice.

She tsk, shaking her head, “ coach Austin drilled the energy off you guys, I’m guessing…”, she said. 

He rolled his eyes at her comment, he had learnt never to talk about football with Zara, she would report anything she heard from him because she was part of the school’s editorial team, tell her no secret, that was an unspoken rule.

“ something like that…”, he replied.

She stared at him before scoffing and turning around. She got the memo clearly, that would save him trying to mind his words.

The class went on as normal, same as his other classes until the bell for lunch went off. He groaned, standing from his seat and following Quinton out of the class, he was tired and needed food right now.

They both rounded the corner and the crowd there caused them to stop.

“ what’s happening?”, Quinton asked, standing on his toes to see what was happening.

Lennon didn’t need to be told when he heard the voice, yeah, Danny was at it again, who knows what he must have said this time.

“ it’s Danny…”, he replied, pushing his way over to the front of the crowd. What he saw was not good at all. Some guy was pulling Danny’s hair while he locked the other guy’s arm in a headlock.

Lennon cleared his throat, tapping the guy who was pulling Danny’s hair.

“hey!, That’s wrong!”, he told the guy who wasn’t listening to him.