Faster (The University of Gatica #2) (6 page)

Track athletes crowded together, laughing and talking, inside the living room by the tiki bar and also outside in the backyard. Jani had dragged the antique tin tub out of the garage, hosed it off and filled it with ice to keep drinks cool in it.

Friday’s workout had been a killer one as if Coach Anderson knew they were going to need something to tire them out. He gave them Saturday off. The only Saturday they would have off until indoor track season started, and then it would be track meets instead of workouts.

It looked like most of the team had shown up by nine o’clock. Chrissy stood behind the tiki bar making and serving drinks to anyone who wanted something. Sean offered to help continuously and Aileen laughed at how Chrissy smoothly told him to get lost every time.

She stuck to drinking the homemade lemonade she had made earlier. They had found a large punch bowl at the charity shop and filled it with lemonade. Chrissy had then gone and poured a bottle of vodka into it and labeled it “alcoholic.” She set two tall thermos containers on the side of the punch bowl table and marked them “drivers” and “the responsible.” Everyone was told to put their keys into a fish bowl by the door, with their nametags added to the keys. When someone wanted to leave, Aileen was in charge of making sure they were all right to drive.

It was the perfect job for at the beginning of the evening because she got to greet everyone who came into the house and learn a few more names. She doubted she would remember half of them, but having the excuse of writing their names on the tags they had made up helped a lot. By nine-thirty, she decided the trickle of the newcomers had slowed and she was free to move about.

She carried the fish bowl to Jani’s room and closed the door behind her. Jani’s place had been hit by a tornado. A lazy bones tornado. Clothes lay on the floor, on the bed and hanging on the chair of her desk. Aileen had cleaned her room in case someone walked in. It hadn’t taken long, she liked things tidy and organized. Just being in Jani’s room gave her the itch to start picking things up and folding them, but she had no clue what was actually clean or dirty. She set the fish bowl full of keys on the desk and turned to go. She paused and grabbed a shirt off the floor, tossing it overtop so no one would notice if they came into her room. Maybe the mess was to discourage anything from happening in her room.

She slipped out, closing the door behind her.

“Aileen!” Sean hurdled over a lawn chair sitting in the living room and grinned. “Not bad for a distance runner, hey? Think I should change events?”

She laughed. “Hmm… think you should stick to the running thing.” She made a tiny measurement with her thumb and finger. “A little too high. It looked more like a deer leap than an actual hurdle.”

He leaned back and grabbed his chest. “That breaks my heart, kid! Maybe you could teach me?”

She shook her head. “If Coach Anderson refuses, then I am going to have to side with him.”

Sean laughed. “Actually, I’m going to be adding steeplechase to my list of events next outdoor season. I may have to ask you for a bit of help on getting over those two by fours. They are not soft and gentle like the hurdles you use.”

“My hurdles are soft and gentle?” She raised her eyebrows thinking about all the bruises she had earned over the past two years.

“Help me out here, I’m trying to impress you.” He grinned and pulled one of her curls. “I like the Shirley Temple look.”

Self-consciously she flipped her hair over her shoulder. She hadn’t had time to straighten it so she took a diffuser and let it go naturally curly. “You’re my bud, Sean. You don’t have to try to impress me.”

“Never going to be more?” He tilted his head slightly. “Than buds?”

She gave him a hug. “I doubt it.” He made her feel so comfortable. Like there was no pressure to impress or act responsible. He was like the silly part of life everyone needed to have in a friend. “But if my feelings ever change…”

“I’ll be the last to know?” He winked at her. “Come on, let’s get you a glass of lemonade. I hid the responsible thermos. Someone was trying to add vodka to it.” He weaved her around the crowded living room to the kitchen and pulled the thermos out of the freezer. “Nobody ever looks in there for a drink.”

She shook her head and grabbed a plastic wine glass off the pile of new ones on the counter.

“Aileen!” Chrissy shouted. “Can you bring those over here?”

“Sure.” Aileen grabbed them and made her way to the tiki bar.

“I love your dress,” Chrissy said when Aileen set the glasses on the counter. “Where did you find it?”

“My mom bought it, actually.” She looked down at her dark blue and black simple pattern short dress. It had large tank top straps, and silver tag where the dress material bunched together. It was beautiful, she had to admit. “It’s a Michael Kors. She bought it for herself and then thought it fit too tight so she gave it to me.”

“It’s awesome!”

“Thanks!” She watched Chrissy mix a few drinks and helped set the glasses up so Chrissy could pour them.

Mindy, another sprint hurdler on the team, came up. She smiled at Chrissy and just glanced at Aileen. “I’ll have a spiced rum and coke, please Chrissy.”

“Hi,” Aileen said.

Mindy ignored her.

Aileen cleared her throat, unsure if she had said the word loud enough with the music blaring from the speakers.

“Hi, Mindy.”

Mindy glanced over at her and tapped her red manicured finger against the bar top. “I heard you the first time.”

“Ouch,” Chrissy mumbled.

Aileen didn’t know how to respond.

Mindy’s finger tapped faster. “Almost done, Chrissy?”

Chrissy set the Captain Morgan bottle down. “I don’t think I am. This is Aileen’s house. I don’t see why you need to be rude to her while trying to drink her alcohol.”

Mindy scowled. “She got Linda kicked out of here, dislocated her shoulder and is now attempting to be the big shot hurdler.” Her head rocked side to side as she spoke. “No way! You can earn your respect on this team.”

Aileen knew her mouth hung open. She stuttered, trying to think of a comeback to say, but nothing came to mind.

Chrissy didn’t waste a moment. “What the hell? She didn’t wreck Linda’s shoulder. Her drunk ass did it all by herself. Jani kicked Linda out because she wasn’t paying rent. Jani had paid the last four months of Linda’s rent for her… and Linda’s on a full ride!” She glared at Mindy. “I suggest you start training out in lane eight because you sure as shit aren’t going to be in lane three, four, or five.”

It didn’t seem possible, but Aileen’s jaw dropped further.
Ouch!
Lane one and eight were the slow time lanes in a hurdle race, lanes three, four and five were reserved for the fastest runners and the best lanes to see the entire race from.
Double ouch!

Mindy slapped the bar counter and spun around without saying a word.

Aileen felt her face grow warm and suddenly became light headed.

“You okay?” Chrissy asked, handing her a glass of coke. “Drink this, you look a bit shocked. It’ll help take the edge off.”

Aileen took a sip and then giggled, splurting coke out of her mouth. “I’m sorry.” She grabbed a napkin and wiped the tiki bar. “I can’t believe you told her off. Thank you.” As the freshman, was she supposed to be tortured and taught to hold her ground?

“That was uncalled for. Some people take competition to the next level and can’t stand losing. It’s a stupid tactic if they think it’s going to work.”

“She kinda scared me.”

“Don’t let her. When you step in the blocks, show her how easy it is for you, and how hard she has to work. Shoot, even my times are about the same as hers!”

“I’ll try.” Aileen suddenly dreaded the thought of having to train side by side with Mindy. “I’m going to head outside and see how Jani’s doing. See if she needs anything.”

Sean squeezed in behind her. “I’ll help you, Chrissy while Aileen gets some fresh air.”

Chrissy rolled her eyes but grinned. “Alright skinny, can you grab me a couple lemons?”

Aileen made her way around to the kitchen and down the back hall past her room, which she had locked and was thankfully still shut. The back screen door stood propped open by a cement brick. Someone had taken a speaker from the living room and set it up outside so the music continued out there. People were dancing, drinking and chatting. The track team was big. Or at least it seemed big with everyone in their small house.

She tried to see if she recognized some of the faces, anything to distract her from Mindy’s outburst. It had totally thrown her off. She hadn’t even spoken to Mindy before. Some people liked to stir the pot so it fed their inner competitive streak. However, they were supposed to be teammates. Why would Mindy want to create competitive enemies at school? In the same bloody event? She couldn’t imagine screwing someone on the same team. Where was the loyalty?

It bothered her. More than it should. She couldn’t focus on the faces outside and was pretty sure she hadn’t seen Jani. She moved aside to let a thrower by to get inside the house, but decided stepping down was probably safer than being squished by him and the doorframe.

As she jumped down to the grass, skipping the small steps, she landed and rolled her foot over an empty beer bottle. Someone grabbed her elbow to keep her from falling.

“You okay?”

Tyler. What was he doing at the party?
She had figured he wouldn’t come, especially when his keys hadn’t been handed to her at the front door. She moved away from his hand as if it burned her. “When did you get here?”
Smooth, Aileen.

If her comment surprised him, he didn’t show it. “A bit ago. We walked around the side of the house and have been hanging in the backyard.”

We? You and your sprinter girlfriend?
This time she kept the comment to herself. She nodded instead, not trusting herself to speak.

“How is training going? Are you getting used to Coach Anderson’s training.”

“It’s okay.” She needed to say something more. Why did it have to feel so incredibly awkward? “How’s football training going?”

“It’s busy.”

“Is your first meet next Friday? Home opener, right?”

He smiled, apparently amused by her comment. “Yeah. It’s against Syracuse. Should be a good game.” He hesitated, his eyes running over the crowd outside.

Probably looking for his girlfriend
. She was trying to make more enemies to have to train with, like Mindy.

“You coming?”

“To where?” She pointed to the house. “That’s my room.” They stood under the window to her bedroom. Thank goodness it was dark, she knew her face had to be some kind of ugly shade of red.

He grinned, but thankfully didn’t laugh. “I meant to the game.”

“Oh. Yeah, probably. We have season tickets.” Of course, he knew athletes had season tickets, he was one of them.

“Aileen!” Jani’s voice rang out from beside the garage. “Can you grab me another bag of ice from inside?”

She waved at Jani to let her know she had heard. “I’d better go grab that.”

“I’ll see you around, Ms. Nessa.” As if on cue, two guys grabbed Tyler and lifted him up. “Party host needs help to move the tub of ice and beer.”

Aileen turned and disappeared into the house to grab the ice. It now sat in the sink, dripping and open. She grabbed a bowl and dumped all of it inside, then hurried back outside, weaving her way around to where Jani stood. She handed the bowl to Jani. “Was Tyler here?” she asked, glancing around.

“He was. With two defensive guys. They’re gone now.”

“Already?” She cleared her throat. “I meant, I was just about to grab them beer.”

“They all got one after they moved the tub for me and took one for the road. They were heading to First Down.”

Aileen shrugged, trying to appear like it didn’t matter.

“Someone said Mindy was giving you a hard time inside. Is that true?”

“She seems a bit competitive.”

Jani snorted. “She yelled at me this summer that I kicked Linda out of the house. She’s got a nasty streak in her. Don’t let her get to you.”

“I’ll try not to. Will I be training with her?”

“I hope not, but probably yes. Don’t let her bother you. Just make sure you beat her every time.”

Aileen smirked. “I plan on it now.”

“You are SO going to love this,” Jani said as she pushed Aileen in front of her and guided her in the direction of the athlete’s seating.

Aileen couldn’t believe the size of the seating section for the football stadium. It surrounded the football field like an oval ring, except for where the Lord Warriors weight room building was. According to Jani, the players for both teams would rush onto the field to the roar of the crowd. Aileen had only been inside the weight room, she had no idea what the rest of the building looked like. The large red doors on the one side, with a Red Coat Warrior painted on it, had to be the home team’s exit and entrance. The other side of the building also held a pair of red doors, but with no Red Coat.

They made their way down the large concrete stadium stairs to the athlete seating section and settled in a row with Sean, Chrissy and a few others holding a spot for them. Aileen squeezed in between Sean and Jani. They had great seats, right in the middle of the stadium with a perfect view of the entire field.

Sean leaned over to her and yelled, trying to be heard over the roar of the stadium. “How was your first week of classes?”

“Good,” she hollered back, nodding her head at the same time. “It’s busy.”

“It’s good to have a busy semester when you aren’t competing. Take it easy in January. Plan to take Friday’s off.”

She gave him a thumb’s up. “Good plan.”

“How’s training?”

“Tiring.” The dull ache of her entire body reminded her how tired she was. Between school, labs, track workouts and weight lifting, she didn’t have much time for anything else, but to sleep and eat. She wasn’t complaining, as she told her folks when she spoke to them last night, she loved every minute of it.

Sean gave her a reassuring smile. “You’ll get used to it.”

“How’s cross country?” She hadn’t seen Sean at all this week in training. The cross country team had been out running hills and these big huge runs she couldn’t fathom doing.

“Good. Really good. It’s going to be a great season.”

A loud horn blew and the crowd suddenly grew quiet. “What’s going on?” Aileen whispered to Jani.

“Game’s about to start. Watch the doors.”

Aileen shifted so she had a full view of both sets of red doors. Gatica was playing Syracuse for the home opener. She thought of Tyler and wondered if he got nervous before the game. What did football players do as they waited to run onto the field?

Syracuse’s doors opened and the team ran out onto the field. A small part of the crowd was dressed in navy blue and orange. They cheered as their team ran on the field.

When Gatica burst through the Red Coat Warrior, the stadium went crazy. Aileen plugged her ears from the noise. The screams even drowned out the marching band’s music. She knew the game but had never gotten into her high school’s Friday night light’s games.

The teams took the field with Syracuse having the first kickoff. The defense players of Gatica took the field and Aileen squinted, trying to find which one was Tyler. She tapped Jani. “Which one is Tyler?”

Jani pointed to the end of the field where one of their players stood alone. “He’s number eighty-eight. You’ll know it’s him. Just watch.”

“He’s the kickoff return. Last year he blew everyone’s mind in the first game of the season,” Sean said. “First play of the game is about to start.” The ref’s whistle blew and the stadium grew suddenly quiet.

Syracuse kicked off.

The bright setting sun should have caused some kind of distraction, at least in Aileen’s opinion, but Tyler bent slightly as he caught the ball at the five-yard line.

He took off running like a bat out of hell. A Syracuse player with fast legs dove across to knock him down. Tyler went over top of him like he was a hurdle. He zigzagged down the field, deeking and ducking out over Syracuse players to the fifty-yard line. All that was left was the kicker, a tiny little guy who looked ready to poop his pants.  The kicker chased him. Tyler ran around him like he wasn’t even there!

Tyler slowed his pace as he high-stepped it into the end zone for a ninety-five-yard touchdown. He stopped, paused as the roaring of the crowd paused in perfect unison. He straightened his arm holding the football and dropped it to the ground like what he had just done was a walk in the park. Everyone in the stands jumped to their feet and started screaming.

“And
that
is why he is one of the best players in the country!” Sean stomped his feet in appreciation.

The teams changed players with Gatica now in the position to kick off and Syracuse to receive the ball. The first down for Syracuse, the quarterback threw the ball to his wide left receiver where Tyler must have been watching the quarterback’s eyes or was one step ahead, or read the quarterback’s mind. Aileen didn’t have time to figure it out. She watched in awe as Tyler hurled himself into the air and snatched the ball away from the receiver.

He took off again and was finally brought to the ground at the twenty-yard line. The fans screamed in appreciation. He was part of a team, but he ran the show and controlled the field, in two plays!

The quarter ran down and in the second quarter, Syracuse took the lead. They were a strong team that quickly figured out ways to stop Tyler when he took the field. If he had been on the offense line, Aileen had the feeling he would be unstoppable.

At half time, the school’s marching band took the field with the cheerleaders twirling and twisting in the air. The score clock showed Gatica in the lead by seven. Twenty-one to fourteen for the University of Gatica.

Jani and Aileen ran up to grab snacks and drinks, squeezing in a bathroom break in between.

“So what do you think?” Jani asked as they stood in line to buy. She stretched and shook her arms. “I’m so sore! I hate the first month of training. My body doesn’t like what I do to it.”

Aileen laughed. “I’m sure it’ll forgive you the moment you hit a six-foot jump at your first meet.”

“True dat!” She grinned. “Are you a football fan now? I saw you screaming and cheering with the rest of us.”

“I believe I am. College football is pretty exciting. I can’t believe how we’re kicking their butts.”

“Game’s not over yet. Second half can sometimes take twice as long as the first.” A buzzer sounded, letting them know there were five minutes left till the whistle.

They raced back down to their seats, sharing the red licorice with Sean.

Gatica started the second half kicking off to Syracuse. The defensive line stopped Syracuse from scoring a touchdown and ended up with the ball on the twenty-yard line after the fourth down. Gatica’s offense took the field and brought the ball up to nearly midfield. Aileen cried out when a Syracuse player intercepted the ball and scored a touchdown. Then they also scored the extra point to tie the game.

There were no points scored the remainder of the third quarter and as the game continued into the fourth quarter the teams seemed locked at twenty-eight, twenty-eight.

Aileen blew out a breath, frustrated when yet another fourth down yielded no touchdown for Gatica.

Sean patted her shoulder. “Relax girl.” He chuckled. “Syracuse is a really strong team. This year they’re expected to win the conference.”

The timer counted down with nothing working in Gatica’s favor. With less than a minute on the clock, Syracuse was at the third yard line, just trying to run the time down and bring them closer to field goal range.

The Syracuse quarterback must have decided to give one last ditch attempt for a touchdown before having to go for a field goal on their fourth down if the third down didn’t work. He set his team into formation. The Syracuse wide receivers managed to get open and the quarterback drilled the football to the one on the right.

Tyler was heading to the left wide receiver and did a one-eighty to change his direction and sprinted toward the right wide receiver. He intercepted the ball.

Everyone roared in reaction. He blazed down the field for a touchdown as the crowd continued to go wild. In the end zone, he high kneed it across and set the ball down like it was a teacup.

The University of Gatica players rushed over to him, crushing and pounding his helmet. They threw him over their shoulders and carried him over to the football coach. They set Tyler down in front of him and made an enclosed tight circle around the two of them, screaming and chanting.

The scoreboard flashed Gatica. The final score thirty-four to twenty-eight. No need to do a field goal kick as the clock had run down.

Aileen screamed, her voice hoarse from all the cheering.

Sean clapped his hands. “He’s the next Deion Sanders. Probably better than Deion. If I were a betting man, I’d put my money on Tyler.”

As they slowly made their way out of the stadium, Aileen watched the football team head back into Lord Warriors. She strained to see Tyler one more time and tried not to show her disappointment when she didn’t. He was the best player on the team. She wondered what would happen if he played with the line-up that was in charge of getting the touchdowns. He would be unstoppable. She sighed. She couldn’t get him out of her head. She had been so busy with school and track this week she had managed to push him out of her mind – temporarily. Apparently all it took was seeing him from two hundred feet away, in a football uniform to bring his good-looking, hot body back into focus.

“Want to go downtown for dinner? Then hit Red Coat’s?” Sean asked.

Jani groaned. “Downtown is nuts after a game. We’ll be waiting for an hour before we even get a table.”

What’s that? A distraction!
“We could barbeque,” Aileen suggested. “Make homemade hamburgers.” She had seen a grill in their garage when they had dragged the old tin tub out of it for the party. It was in good shape. “We just need to pick up a propane tank.”

“I can’t barbeque.” Jani shook her head and turned to Sean.

“Don’t look at me.”

Aileen laughed as they left the stadium and headed toward Jani’s car parked on a side street about half a mile away. “I can barbeque. And make burgers. My brother taught me. We just need to grab stuff and a tank at Walmart.”

“Seriously?” Sean looked skeptical.

“Yeah. It’s easy.”

“Will you marry me?”

Aileen rolled her eyes. “You and I both know that is never going to happen.”

“I know.” Sean grinned and winked at her. “But you can’t blame a guy for trying.”