to.
For the first time in a long time the team is organized. For the first time since I’ve been here they seem interested in training. The fuck up of last weekend seems a hundred miles off and I’m not the only one who can see the change. I feel like a fucking general on the field, and unstoppable off it. I’m focussed, and I’m getting everyone else around that way too. I’m going to make this team win if it kills me, and I’m going to win too. I’m going to win Penny if it takes me all year. I watch Topher wrap his arms around her, pull her tightly against his body and wink at me over her shoulder and I want to kill him.
I will. I’ll pull him apart when the time is right, but now isn’t that time. If Moxlin are going to win they need Penny, they need Harrison, they need harmony and equilibrium and they need their quarterback firing again even if I have to suffer because of it.
She’ll come to me, I have every faith in that. She’ll fall into my arms when the time is right, and when she does, nothing will be able to stop us.
Finally, in the last quarter of our second game, after Tate gets pulled off with a twisted knee, when every other option has failed him and the answer is staring him in the face, he reluctantly puts me on.
We are losing, of course. Not as badly as we did before, but the bears are arguably an easier opponent. We’ve actually played well so far, even though we are 28-3 down, Topher’s been sacked a bunch of times and not only Tate but Sparks too have both been pulled off with injuries. We look ragged, but not as ragged as we did last week and certainly not as bad as the scoreline suggests. We’ve been upbeat but unlucky, organised but outplayed and Harrison has given me less than three minutes to make an impact. We are going to lose, there is no doubt about that, but I plan to make these three minutes the most memorable of any game yet this season or the last. Topher has other ideas completely though. For two of those minutes he doesn’t even look at me. Harrison sets a play to put me in and Topher changes up at the last minute, sending the ball on a third down high into the air and out of bounds. On the fourth down he dummies me a pass, and runs the ball himself, for a loss of two yards into a wall of opposition players.
When we take the field again, there are fifty seven seconds left, and we’re down another touchdown. This time, finally, after spitting a threat in his ear, he gives me the ball. It’s a simple play, not quite the switchback, but another similar one from the first few pages of the book. He dummies the ball to Jackson who runs into a crowd of people all of whom think he has the ball, while I spin around the defensive line, turning on my heels quickly to push into open space. Topher picks me out with a plumb pass that I pull out of the air with one hand, before spinning around two of their players, dodging another tackle that clips my heels and nearly sends me over and driving so quickly for the end zone that I don’t even give the clock time to tick past forty seconds before I’m standing underneath the goal posts.
It is Moxlin Tigers first touchdown of the season, my first touch of the game and the most points we’ve scored for two years. More than that, it’s a massive fuck you to Harrison, who stands at the end of the field clapping slowly, shock reducing him to absolute astonishment.
We haven’t won the game, far from it, but it feels like we’ve just won the superbowl. Our celebrations have to be cut short by the officials so the game can resume. I’m carried from the end zone, all the way back into my half and then off the field to the bench so the defensive unit can replace us. I’m hugged and high fived and then Penny comes rushing up to me, throws her arms round my neck and kisses me on the cheek. When she pulls herself away again, she’s a little red, embarrassed the moment’s overtaken her. Topher just smiles at us both, like it’s the most
For the first time in a long time the team is organized. For the first time since I’ve been here they seem interested in training. The fuck up of last weekend seems a hundred miles off and I’m not the only one who can see the change. I feel like a fucking general on the field, and unstoppable off it. I’m focussed, and I’m getting everyone else around that way too. I’m going to make this team win if it kills me, and I’m going to win too. I’m going to win Penny if it takes me all year. I watch Topher wrap his arms around her, pull her tightly against his body and wink at me over her shoulder and I want to kill him.
I will. I’ll pull him apart when the time is right, but now isn’t that time. If Moxlin are going to win they need Penny, they need Harrison, they need harmony and equilibrium and they need their quarterback firing again even if I have to suffer because of it.
She’ll come to me, I have every faith in that. She’ll fall into my arms when the time is right, and when she does, nothing will be able to stop us.
Finally, in the last quarter of our second game, after Tate gets pulled off with a twisted knee, when every other option has failed him and the answer is staring him in the face, he reluctantly puts me on.
We are losing, of course. Not as badly as we did before, but the bears are arguably an easier opponent. We’ve actually played well so far, even though we are 28-3 down, Topher’s been sacked a bunch of times and not only Tate but Sparks too have both been pulled off with injuries. We look ragged, but not as ragged as we did last week and certainly not as bad as the scoreline suggests. We’ve been upbeat but unlucky, organised but outplayed and Harrison has given me less than three minutes to make an impact. We are going to lose, there is no doubt about that, but I plan to make these three minutes the most memorable of any game yet this season or the last. Topher has other ideas completely though. For two of those minutes he doesn’t even look at me. Harrison sets a play to put me in and Topher changes up at the last minute, sending the ball on a third down high into the air and out of bounds. On the fourth down he dummies me a pass, and runs the ball himself, for a loss of two yards into a wall of opposition players.
When we take the field again, there are fifty seven seconds left, and we’re down another touchdown. This time, finally, after spitting a threat in his ear, he gives me the ball. It’s a simple play, not quite the switchback, but another similar one from the first few pages of the book. He dummies the ball to Jackson who runs into a crowd of people all of whom think he has the ball, while I spin around the defensive line, turning on my heels quickly to push into open space. Topher picks me out with a plumb pass that I pull out of the air with one hand, before spinning around two of their players, dodging another tackle that clips my heels and nearly sends me over and driving so quickly for the end zone that I don’t even give the clock time to tick past forty seconds before I’m standing underneath the goal posts.
It is Moxlin Tigers first touchdown of the season, my first touch of the game and the most points we’ve scored for two years. More than that, it’s a massive fuck you to Harrison, who stands at the end of the field clapping slowly, shock reducing him to absolute astonishment.
We haven’t won the game, far from it, but it feels like we’ve just won the superbowl. Our celebrations have to be cut short by the officials so the game can resume. I’m carried from the end zone, all the way back into my half and then off the field to the bench so the defensive unit can replace us. I’m hugged and high fived and then Penny comes rushing up to me, throws her arms round my neck and kisses me on the cheek. When she pulls herself away again, she’s a little red, embarrassed the moment’s overtaken her. Topher just smiles at us both, like it’s the most
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