Courageous
It was Monday afternoon, and like every Monday afternoon for the past two months, I’m getting down to my favorite pastime: watching the boys practice on the soccer field, well, watching Thomas practice.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a silly girl thing, it’s a commando mission, even a suicide mission, if we were to know my true intentions, I’d be busted, and that would only be the beginning of the end.
Only Christina, my best friend, knows about it, at the same time, Thomas is her brother’s best friend, so in order not to get caught, I pretend to attend the practices of the cheerleaders of which she is the captain, then we go back home together.
It’s 5:30 p.m., it’s getting cold and I forgot my uniform jacket in the driver’s car this morning, it’s my luck !
I try to warm up as best I can by rubbing my arms, I start looking in Christina’s gym bag for a jacket or a sweater, but nothing ; she finishes in fifteen short minutes. I’m not going to go around the school to look in my locker if I possibly left a sweater in it.
It’s 5:32 p.m. and this practice doesn’t seem to be over, Sarah Jeffries is doing several cartwheels in a row, nothing seems to stop her, Melissa Hopkins has just done a double somersault, and 5 of the other girls are in the process of making a pyramid but they are missing a girl, and they realize it only now ?
Christina is arguing with Meg, the co -captain, a real bitch. But not a superficial silly type bitch, terror of complexed girls and in full emotional malaise, but more of a raw and stupid bitch who pushes others around and jumps at the first opportunity to make fun of someone or be mean for nothing.
Meanwhile, the boys are doing laps, some are shirtless, the only one I spot is Eric. How does Eric find a way to take off his t-shirt, what is it made of?
In fact nobody seems to be cold except me, maybe I’m too chilly, or I’m brooding something? I try to spot Thomas but I don’t see him, usually he’s always in the lead, he’s the fastest of them, he and Eric are always in competition. Ryan, Christina’s brother, is behind Eric, but where is Thomas?
Too busy not freezing to death and not sniffling too hard -that’s for sure I’m sick- I barely notice anyone on the bleachers next to me, so when I turn the head and see Coach Johnson I scream and he screams in turn:
- Why are you screaming like that, I almost had a heart attack you know and at my age it’s fatal? he asks, handing me a high school team jersey.
- Thank you I was freezing to death and you surprised me, and then you’re not 35 are you?
He sits down next to me, pensive and says to me with a serious look:
- You’re nice to cheer me up, but I’m just an ancestor, a fossil, since my career is over I feel like I’m 75.
- I understand you but you know it’s not so..I started to say before being cut off by screams coming from the side of the cheerleaders ; Sarah cartwheeled so much that she crashed into the finally complete pyramid, but the screams are those of Meg and Christina pulling each other's hair.
Am I dreaming ? I run down to separate them but I’m not fast enough, because almost at their level, I see Eric and Ryan pulling each one to one side, I hasten to go see if Christina is fine, Ryan is talking to her while Eric calms Meg who keeps yelling insults:
- ENOUGH, yells Coach Johnson. In a single file with an outstretched arm, hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you, everyone, right away!
Faced with our hesitation, he yells: Execution !
I don’t know if his orders also concern me and I don’t want to discuss them for the moment, I stand behind Christina and in front of Olivia, he commands us to walk in time raising our knees, I haven’t signed for that, I’m about to speak but I meet his gaze and swallow my thoughts.
- In case you forgot, Mrs. Whitmore has just taken her maternity leave, which should normally be 12 weeks, which means 3 months, so I am your coach for all, I thought that just supervise the cheerleaders would be enough, I thought you were more disciplined than the savages of the football team, and know well ladies that you disappoint me, your behavior is shameful, terrible! Raising his voice, making us all jump, I’m sure it amuses him.
The boys look very amused, they hold back laughter, whoever laughs last will have a good laugh, I’m absolutely not concerned by what he says, I’m no longer part of the cheerleading team for a while now, but I feel bad for my friend, she’s going to drool over him.
- I expect you now, ladies, to behave, did I make myself understood?
- Yes coach, we say in heart .
- Well you can stop, Williams and Phillips, here, now ! he shouts.
I then let go of Christina’s shoulder, who walks towards him, he speaks to Meg and her in a low voice, they really must not like it, I see Meg’s jaw quiver, then they shake hands. Oh now it’s finally over, we can leave.
I go back to the stands to take my bag and Christina’s, take off the coach’s vest and walk towards him to give it back to him:
- Coach, thank you again, you saved me.
- Oh don’t thank me, rather thank Wilson, he was the one who told you were at the edge of freezing.
I nodded, and turned to look for this Wilson…then like a click in my head, Wilson Thomas.
I didn’t see him anywhere, yet he was there at the start of training:
- Ryan, do you know where Thomas is? I asked him as I walked with him and Christina to the parking lot.
- He left while we were doing laps, he informed me .
I wonder why he left, but I’m careful not to ask Ryan, I don’t want to arouse suspicion, and why did he ask the coach to bring me his vest? Couldn’t he do it himself?
- Hey Elena, whose cardigan is this? Christina asks , pointing to the incriminating object I’m holding. OOOH NO! It ’s not true! she exclaims while taking me by the arm, then she whispers: it’s you-know-who’s?
I nod quickly, Ryan isn’t paying attention to us at all and that’s fine with me, he’s busy debating with Eric about the benefits of weed , he probably won’t listen to what Christina and I are saying.
The trip home is going relatively well, I would like to put Thomas’ jacket back on but it would be weird because they turned on the heating in the car, I can’t wait to get home.
Christina and I have been best friends since last year college , although she had always been my neighbor, I did not see her, I found her pretentious and very studious, even too studious, always raising her hand first and attracting the attention of the teachers, she annoyed me , which was reciprocally she confessed to me that she found me just as pretentious but because I was part of the band of popular people, I had never really paid attention to that, to tell the truth, “popular” people like Mindy Bradshaw, Sam Longsbourg or Nicolas Davino were simply my childhood friends , they had nothing more than the others.
It was during a food fight at the end of the year that we became friends, she was going to have spaghetti bolognese , I threw myself and I made a shield with my body, she was wearing a very pretty dress, it would be such a waste to stain it, then we both hid under one of the tables in the canteen to protect ourselves, we laughed out loud, at the end of the day we were inseparable.
Ryan arrived in our residential area, the one in which only the students from the most affluent families of our private high school lived - like what even in the “upper class″ there were levels.
A cruel dilemma confronts me: should I go to his house to return his jacket or wait until tomorrow?
If I give it back to him tomorrow in high school, I will ruin the only chance of maybe having a conversation with him and finally finding out if it wasn’t just a visual crush because he’s sexy, but if I went to his house I ran the risk of meeting an employee or worse his mom ?
Eric was happy to put an end to the dilemma raging in my mind, saying:
- Are you staying with us to watch a movie or are you going home?
Since when did Eric care about my presence ? I was about to respond when Christina said:
- Come and watch a movie with us, it will be nice, besides, it’s not as if you had better things to do alone at home, moreover if you don’t come I consider that as high treason, you’re about to abandon myself with these two !
- Yes yes , I stay, I capitulated.
Ryan pulled into their driveway, and left his keys to Maurice, their butler (his name was John but Christina’s mother loved French names, she assigned French names to all of her employees).
We sat in the private cinema which was on the 3rd floor of the house, and after 45min debating on the kind of film to watch because of Christina, Eric put on a horror film - something she hates and that I love -, seated between Eric and Christina, I followed the film without blinking or closing my eyes, or shaking the hand of the person next to me very hard like some people whose names I won’t give - Christina - it could have been Eric’s case if it had been a romantic movie. He wasn’t even following the movie he had chosen, he had been playing since earlier on his phone while sipping a beer , I took a look to see what he was doing : he was watching a video , on the docks, in the middle of containers, men were fighting.
I was furious, I had to hear them debate for 45min for a movie he wasn’t even watching ! Christina had lacerated my arm and he was watching a boxing fight, we could have just watched Rocky.
He was watching a story on Instagram. In fact, I was going to look away when I saw a Messenger bubble appear: Tommy. Tommy, it’s Thomas right?
I couldn’t see what they were talking about because he quickly turned the phone away, took a sip of his beer and said to Ryan:
-Let’s go ?
I think they’re going to see this match in real life, Christina’s brother stood up, she screamed, sissy, then asked him where they were going:
- Not your business.
- If mom or dad asks where you are?
- Are you kidding ? Mom is in the Maldives, Dad in New York and if Francesca asks you, say you do n’t know and I’ll call her.
- Buy me some chocolate when you get back.
- Ok. See you Elena.
Christina was finishing her popcorn while changing movies, she turned to me:
- What do we watch now ?
An idea had germinated in my mind, I was going to see Thomas today, and was going to put an end on this stupid crush. I was tired of waiting. Tired of watching from afar, I had to make a move.
- We’re going to see a boxing match.
