My first practice flies by. As does the one after it, and the one after that. Before I know it, it's been almost three months and I've been coaching the 16u boys team. I cleared things up with Kile, and now he knows about it too.
I'm snapped out of my thoughts, literally. I see a hand in front if my face, snapping annoyingly. I look up and see Tower standing in front of me.
"An. An. Come on."
"Sorry. What's up?" This is embarrassing.
"I thought we hired you to coach, not daydream." God, I hate this guy.
"Yeah. Sorry." I say, and before he can say much else, I turn my chair away and start towards the edge of the pool where the guys are practicing. They're currently in the middle of a shooting drill, but something's off. Conner, Riley, Theo...
Jack.
"Jack!" I shout. "If you're still floating on that ball in two seconds, your butt is going to be pretty sore from all those pike-ups!" He leaps off of the ball faster than the speed of light. Good.
"Sorry, An," he says, grinning. Jack is by far one of my favorite players. He's constantly laughing, be it at a sexual innuendo that someone made or one of his infamous pranks. From what I've heard, though, he's quite the player. He brings girls to practice sometimes, which I don't like, and it's a different girl every time.
"Next time, you won't get two seconds." I say.
"Ok, coach. Sorry." He says, still grinning. I roll my eyes. Teenagers.
"Everything okay over here?" I hear from behind me. I turn my chair around and face the beautiful woman standing before me.
"Fine. Just a shooting drill. What's up?" I reply, grinning. I find it hard not to be happy around Endia. Her gorgeous smile is infectious.
"Not much. Ryan is over there lecturing the girls, so I figured if come and see how you were doing. You are relatively new, after all." My heart is dying. This isn't fair.
"Oh, thanks." I manage. "I'm doing great. Though, Jack is making trouble, as always." I glance over to where the boys should be practicing and find that they've all gathered around in a circle around someone.
"How much do you want to bet that's Jack that they're all clustered around?" Endia says.
"Way too much. Excuse me a moment," I say, smiling at her before turning my chair and wheeling over to the boys. "Guys!" I shout. "What are you doing?"
Ryan speaks up. "Riley bet Jack that he couldn't stay underwater for 90 seconds without air."
"Oh my god." I groan. "I am done with teenage boys. Ryan, please...retrieve Jack." Looking into the water, Jack seems to be sitting on the bottom of the pool. I hear Endia laughing behind me. At last Ryan surfaces with Jack in tow. As soon as Jack breaks the surface of the water, he gasps for air. Although there's a bit of coughing and sputtering, he seems all right. Idiot boys.
I call the boys to the side of the pool where I can talk to them without shouting. As they swim over, I look at my watch. Ten minutes left of practice. Perfect. I hear Endia walk over and stand next to me.
"Guys." I start. "Not only was that dangerous, but it was also a complete waste of valuable practice time. Riley, you will not make any more bets about breath holding or anything else during practice, understood?" Riley nods. "And Jack. You-" I say, pointing a finger at him as he grins sheepishly, "-will not accept any more bets about breath holding or anything else during practice. Understood?" He nods as well. "Good. Now. Since it appears that everyone abandoned the drill to go watch Jack, you all have 100 pike ups, followed by five minutes of eggbeater, hands above your head. I want to see your elbows, hear me?" The boys all groan and I grin evilly. "Hey, maybe next time you shouldn't make stupid bets." I say. Endia bursts into laughter beside me. The boys begin climbing out to do their pike ups.
"That was good." Endia says from next to me.
I grin guiltily. "You think? I wasn't too harsh, right?"
She shakes her head. "Nope. They're lucky it wasn't Ryan who caught them." At that moment, Ryan shouted for Endia from across the pool. She rolled her eyes. "Speak of the devil." I don't want her to go, but I also don't want her to get in trouble with Ryan, so I wave goodbye reluctantly. I turn to the boys and see Jack talking to Riley.
"Jack!" I say for what seems like the millionth time this practice. "One more word and your practice is doubled!"
"Whatever you say, An."
"Jack." I give him a death stare.
"Alright, alright. Sorry, An." He's still grinning. I roll my eyes at him yet again. I then make the mistake of looking over towards Endia and the girls, and see that Endia is looking right back at me. She sees me watching her and smiles.
Damn her and that smile.
