build me up. (ON HOLD)

FIVE

chapter five.
nervous poops
october 19th.

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THE GAME WAS SO NERVE WRECKING

To make a long story short, when we went up against Peter's team, it was a fight to the death. We didn't know any of the players on the team aside from me knowing Peter. Some of the girls have seen them in other tournaments on and off campus, however, we never expected them to join in the Intramurals. Throughout the evening we saw them play beforehand and got to start mapping out our plan of attack if we got to play them. But being on the courts with them proved almost impossible to predict or plan.

We had lost. It was a total blowout.

We hadn't even gotten up to ten points by the time we had concluded the first set, and in the second set, we had only just made it to 15 points by the time we were at match point. We fought hard, but at some point, we collectively decided to face the music and get our asses kicked. Peter's team was barely sweating, and we were hunched over and had floor burns everywhere.

After the game, a few of the girls, including myself,  decided we would go out for a celebratory dinner at Sonic. We still made second place and that alone was something to celebrate. We invited Peter's team, which to our surprise obliged along with a few friends from the Men's Club team as well.

We all arrived at the same time and claimed spots in the dining area. It was indeed cold outside, but it felt amazing against my skin. Eventually, I slid on my sweatpants over my biker shorts and threw on my sweatshirt after getting too cold. 

As we were sitting outside waiting for our orders to be brought out to us we were mingling with the men we hadn't met before, quickly learning that most of them are graduate students and are doing some form of STEM major. We also found out that most of the guys, like Peter, had planned to play professionally at some point or had goals of it growing up, thus their advanced skills. However, it seems that many of them endured injuries or an illness that prevented that, but they still wanted to participate in some way.

The guys seemed like fun people to be around so we invited them to our open sessions, to which they agreed. Next thing we knew we were doing coordinated dances to songs on TikTok, and posting them on our club pages. Peter is weirdly a good dancer and it took everything in me not to gawk at him.

Eventually, we all settled down as our food and drinks started coming out. It was a large order to make at 11:54 pm and I'm sure these poor workers hated us. Some more people joined us, mostly the girlfriends of Peter's teammates, and they brought their food instead of bothering the workers.

Peter didn't have a girl with him though.

"Man, that was a really tough game, my back is aching," Natasha, our club president huffed out as she laid her head in the crook of her boyfriend's neck. She was sitting in his lap.

Natasha's boyfriend, Nolan, had also joined us after the game. Nolan is a sweet ginger-headed guy with an impressive full beard and mustache. He always came to practice and was our ball boy. He cared a bunch for Natasha and even blocked out our practice time on his work schedule to come help out.

He laughed at her small pout and discouraged look, pushing some of her hair behind her ear and kissing her on the forehead.

"It was a brutal game, but you girls gave it your all, and that's all that matters in the end," he reassured.

We all agreed with him, patting each other on the backs and the guys from the other team began complimenting us as well. Peter even boasted
about how excited he is to see if we decide to compete competitively against other schools, which would be fun.