football, for the win! -- [open]

[_bjscw]

Sebastion felt like he was going to collapse from heat exhaustion. The California afternoons were extremely humid, and he couldn't wait until they actually hit the fall season, because football practice was killing him. It was around five PM, and practice had just ended for the day. Most of the guys began to trickle back to the school, eager to shower their sweaty and aching bodies. Sebastion always lagged behind for a while during this time - being an environment full of naked guys made him feel a little pervy.

"Sebastion, you're fucking crazy," said Trent, one of the team's players. He looked at the boy like he was a lunatic. "You're seriously going to stay out in this heat?"

"Yeah," Sebastion panted, still tired from the last play they did. He reached up and wiped a bead of sweat off his forehead. His hair was drenched with perspiration, and his practice jersey was sticking to his wet skin. "I just want to sit down for a while. I like being outside."

"I'm telling you, you're insane." Trent rolled his eyes, and Sebastion grinned. He immediately stepped over and gave the shorter boy a noogie, and they both laughed and shoved at each other. Then Trent ran off to the showers. Sebastion took a few steps backwards, and then collapsed on the field, staring up into the burning sky. He tossed his helmet aside and lied there, his chest heaving up and down with heavy breaths. This was soothing, even if he was still in the scorching temperature.

[andi !]

*

[/size] we both know that i ,

i could think myself dizzy
and right now i'm just spinning around
[/center][/font]

Some people might go on a health kick now and again, but Eliza's life was an eternal health kick. If she didn't have her nose in a book, she was probably out running or practicing karate or kickboxing. She didn't see why anyone wouldn't do the same. The adrenaline rush of working out was amazing and satisfying. And she felt guilty sitting around and watching television. Something about it just seemed so lazy to the girl. So after classes that day, after finishing her homework and the book she had been reading for the past few days (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which, by the way, happens to be an amazing book.), she changed into spandex black shorts and a baggy white tee shirt, through her hair into a bun, and was out the door of her dorm.

Eventually, she came to the football field. The track was around it, and though she normally wasn't a track runner, she wasn't in the mood to get lost around campus; best to run in a circle and in sight of the back door to the school. She couldn't get herself too badly lost here. And the view was great. It was a little before five, and football practice seemed to be winding down. Soccer was more fun to watch; football players had too much padding for a girl to get a good view. She wasn't looking for a relationship, of course; she was in a perfect, committed relationship. Jay had even helped her move into her dorm room. But still, it was something to do while she ran. Eliza had never been as boy-crazy as many girls her age, maybe because just as she started really getting into them, there was one there waiting for her. She had always been the girl with better things on her mind, too busy studying and doing her school work to get too much into guys in middle school, and too busy with her career afterwards to think much about them then. But she could never help but admire the male form. Something about it always drew her, attracted her in an almost artistic way.

After a few laps, the boys began to clear off the field. No real loss, she figured, but as the field quieted down, she could turn down the volume of her music. She slowed her pace slightly, removing her iPod from the thick black sweatband around her upper arm. She turned the volume down slightly and skipped to the next song, as The All American Rejects were beginning to get on her nerves, and she had made the current playlist when she was obsessed with them a few months back. She skipped a few songs ahead to the Mika section of the playlist, ready to get back up to pace. Out of curiousity, she scanned the field. It was empty now, save for the one red-headed boy laying in the grass. Out of curiousity, she slowed to a walk and veered off of the track, onto the grass. She could use a break, anyway.

Eliza stopped a few feet away from the boy, removing headphones from her ears and draping the cord around her neck. "I think you're allowed to leave now," she joked, a light laugh escaping her lips. "Sorry if this seems rude, but it seems a good oppurtunity to ask, and I can't turn it up: What exactly is the draw of football?" She'd often wondered that, and who better to ask than a football player? She kind of got soccer, and was sure she would never ever understand rugby. Football had more of a chance, but it still seemed rather archaic. Or maybe she was missing something.

She sat down in the grass across from the boy, jabbing the pause button on her iPod. "I'm Eliza, by the way."

[/blockquote][/font][/color][/size]

[_bjscw]

Sebastion appeared shocked when a girl appeared, and immediately he sat up, regretting it a moment later; his back was killing him from one of the falls he took during a run. He winced visibly, and then laughed when she asked him why he liked football in the first place. It seemed like a pretty good question after the vigorous practice he just endured.

"Simple - being on the football team gives you a bunch of automatic friends. You get good connections to hot babes, and we're allowed to eat as much as we can because it builds to our muscle." Sebastion shot her a funny grin, and then shook his head a little. "But all shallow reasons pushed aside, football is fun as hell to play."

He watched as she pressed the pause button on her iPod, wondering what she had been listening to. "I'm Sebastion," He would have held out his hand for shaking, but he was still rather gross and sweaty. "Now, since I answered your question, you've gotta tell me... what's the appeal of running around a track over and over again? It's not like it gets you anywhere." He smirked.

[andi !]

*

[/size] we both know that i ,

i could think myself dizzy
and right now i'm just spinning around
[/center][/font]

Eliza raised a brow slightly at his wince, about to ask if he was stranded on the field because he couldn't move, when he laughed. Well, at least she wouldn't have to attempt to pick him up and get him to the nurse, or any such garbage. She had pretty good muscles from her slight sporting obsession, but she clearly wasn't equipt to carry around a football player. Though, the thought did produce a funny image.

She laughed out loud at his logic, grinning. "Ah, friends, food and girls. How do those other guys resist?" she wondered with a laugh. "Basically the same as football; it's fun. Plus, I don't have to worry about psycho body builders on 'roids chasing after me trying to push me into the grass, or track, and sit on me," she replied to his question, smiling.

"Nice to meet you, Sebastion," she added with a nod. She really couldn't understand that part of football, though. Maybe she was a wimp, but she wasn't incredibly fond of the idea of being tackled. Maybe that's why she had always preferred solo sports; no fear for her life.
[/blockquote][/font][/color][/size]

[_bjscw]

Sebastion laughed again. "Hey, being tackled is not as bad as you think. I mean sure, people break their bones sometimes and get sent to the hospital and whatnot, but us football players will do anything to get a little rubbing action against each other, y'know what I'm saying?" He snickered at his own comment. Joking about being gay really wasn't a weird thing for the football players. It was just actually being gay that was a problem.

"Just kidding," Sebastion added a second later, just in case Eliza didn't get his sense of humor. He usually found that people outside of the football team thought the gay jokes were either rude, or just really awkward. "Anyways, football is fun as shit. It's just the practices that are kind of lame."

[andi !]

*

[/size] we both know that i ,

i could think myself dizzy
and right now i'm just spinning around
[/center][/font]

Eliza laughed at his comment, smiling widely. Another laugh escaped her lips at his next comment. "I got that," she answered with a nod. "Yeah, it looked pretty lame. Personally, I prefer running and listening to music. but to each their own," she added, smiling. "My dad watches football religiously. I don't understand it at all. And whoever thought up the point system is retarded. Who can keep track? Six points for this, one for that, seven for whatever." She rolled her eyes and shrugged. Maybe if you got it, it was fun. But as an outsider, it seemed archane and stupid.


"So, Sebastion," she said with a smile as she removed the black armband and the iPod, placing it in the grass. "What do you do when you aren't playing football or being hospitalized?" she asked conversationally, leaning back on her elbows in the grass.
[/blockquote][/font][/color][/size]

[_bjscw]

"Eh, you get used to the strange points system once you learn it. As for watching it on television, I don't get involved with that too much. I'd much rather be out doing it myself than watching some big guy who probably hits his wife playing on the flat screen," Sebastion shook his head, tossing some of his sweaty hair out of his eyes. Ugh, he definitely needed to wash that soon.

A big grin appeared at her next question. "Oh, you know. I hang out with my buddies, check out well-endowed girls, play video games until three AM. The typical jock behavior you'd expect," He laughed, although all of that was actually true of himself. Well, except for the checking out girls thing. Sebastion just pretended he checked out girls, when really, he always checking out their boyfriends. "But in all honesty, I'm either sleeping, eating, or trying to keep my grades up. I could say I read and try to sound all sophisticated, but I'm too dumb to fool anyone into thinking that."

Sebastion raised an eyebrow. "What about you, Miss Eliza? What do you do besides laps and listening to that iPod of yours?"

[andi !]

*

[/size] we both know that i ,

i could think myself dizzy
and right now i'm just spinning around
[/center][/font]

Eliza chuckled at his explanation, shrugging one shoulder. "I suppose playing it would make it more enjoyable. But I hope they don't make me try in gym class," she laughed. She wasn't sure what they did in high school gym, and didn't remember what they did in middle school gym well enough to make an assumption. But if they tried to make her play football, she would protest.

She laughed, rolling her eyes. "You typical jock. Be more stereotypical, why don't you." She sighed slightly as he turned the question back around at her. A year ago, she at least had an interesting answer. She modeled. She went out with her model boyfriend, went to Hollywood parties. She felt so boring in comparison now.

"I'm honestly more boring than you could possibly fathom," she laughed. "I work out, I eat, I read, I study, I sleep, I go to classes. The same thing every day." She rolled her eyes. She had only been here a week and a half, and the monotony was already bludgering the creativity out of her. She was getting frustrated with the monotony, and she had a whole year of it to endure.
[/blockquote][/font][/color][/size]

[_bjscw]

"Well, awesome then. We're both incredibly boring," Sebastion flashed her a toothy grin, leaning back on his hands and glancing towards the sun. It seemed kind of evil these days, like it would do anything to make the people who liked exercising cower under it's glow. He chewed on his bottom lip, giving it a stiff glare.

"In all honesty though, my routine becomes a bit more interesting after football season is over, as weird as that sounds. But all of us players end up with tons more free time, and we always do something fun every night, since we don't have to worry about getting up for conditioning." Sebastion shrugged, his shoulder pads starting to become a bit uncomfortable.

"So, you don't do any extra-curriculars or sports or anything?"

[andi !]

*

[/size] we both know that i ,

i could think myself dizzy
and right now i'm just spinning around
[/center][/font]

Eliza laughed, grinning back at the boy. Well, at least she wasn't the only incredibly boring person around. It was always a comfort to have someone in a similiar situation. She nodded as he talked about having more free time after football. "That makes sense. Do you do any sports any other seasons?"

She paused at his question, thinking a moment. In all honesty, she wasn't sure. She was sure she could find plenty of ways to entertain herself beyond schoolwork; she could join student council, write for the paper. But then again, she was too worried about her school work to put much realistic consideration into this. She hadn't been in a formal educational setting in four years. And while she was naturally intelligent, she was scared that she'd flounder, that she wouldn't do as well as she had hoped, that she wouldn't get into Princeton. Then again, schools liked seeing extra-curriculars, too...

"I haven't decided yet," she answered with a chuckle. "I was homeschooled until this year, so I haven't had much experience with clubs or team sports. I don't know, maybe I'll join the paper or the track team," she mused aloud, shrugging. She would focus on her school work first, and then see how other things could fit in.
[/blockquote][/font][/color][/size]

[_bjscw]

"Nah. Some guys on our team do basketball as well, but those are the types of guys that are looking to get sports scholarships and whatnot. I do football because it's fun and I'm good at it. Other sports? Not so much." Sebastion wrinkled his nose, now collapsed in the grass again. He closed his eyes solemnly, listening as Eliza described her current situation. He couldn't imagine being home schooled. He thrived on contact with others, and being home schooled seemed like something that would isolate one completely from social contact.

"Do you like being independent?" Sebastion opened on eye to catch a glimpse at Eliza. "Because both the paper and track team are kind of solitary things. I mean, you do your own research and writing for the paper. And then sure, track has a team, but you all just run and whatnot. No helping each other out or extreme bonding. Which is okay, of course, if you're looking for that type of thing," He paused. "Just if you wanted to find a way to make friends, you might want to look for something else. That's my two cents, at least." He closed his eyes again and smiled lightly.

[andi !]

*

[/size] we both know that i ,

i could think myself dizzy
and right now i'm just spinning around
[/center][/font]

Eliza laid back in the grass as Sebastion spoke, her back now flat against the field. She supposed that saying that she had been home schooled wasn't proving exactly full disclosure; it's not like she had been locked in her house with a tutor, or anything like how one might conceive home schooling. It had been incredibly lax, for one, and played second fiddle then to her career. She was sure that that was what had really gotten her sent here; if she'd put equal energy into her school work over the past three years as she had into her modeling career, maybe she could have continued that way for a while, gone to college in a few years. But the more she thought on the subject, the more glad she was that things had wound up like they did. She liked to learn, but hadn't had time for it. Now she did. Now she could have a real career, not one with a mean retirement age of 25.

She sat up a bit at his question, tilting her head to the side as she considered. "Yeah, I guess I do," she answered, shrugging one shoulder. "I guess I'm pretty social, and I like talking to people... But I don't need interaction. I like doing things by myself. Maybe I'll do something else as well, to meet people. But for the most part, I just do what I want to do, instead of doing things that will end with friendship." She shrugged, smiling sheepishly as she realized just how much she came off as being a loner. He had mentioned earlier that the friends were part of the reason for him joining football. She could never live her life like that. He was right; she was independent, almost to a fault.

"How long have you gone here?" she asked vaguely as she laid back down in the grass, looking up at the light clouds across the light blue sky. She had found that a lot of the people that she remembered back from her middle school days at Stewart either weren't around or didn't remember her, and she found that she was curious, whenever she met someone, as to whether or not they were here when she was last, whether or not she'd seen them at school then, four years ago.
[/blockquote][/font][/color][/size]

[_bjscw]

"Since my freshman year, four years ago." Sebastion spoke plainly, remembering the first time he stepped in the huge entrance hall of Stewart. He had been nervous, just like any other student would be on their first day in a boarding school. But he was also confident - after learning that he could easily gain friends from being on a sports team, nothing could stand in his way! And he had sure been right about that. Sebastion smiled lightly to himself; he could hardly believe he was a senior already. In a year or so, he'd be losing all these friends he had gotten so close to over the years. The idea of it just seemed... unreal.

"Well, Eliza, even if you are the independent type, will you promise me you'll come watch at least one football game this year?" He opened his eyes and sat up again, ignoring the aching bones in his body. "We've got a good team this year, so we're bound to make it far. Who knows, maybe you'll end up realizing why we love it so much if you watch it enough." Sebastion shot her a grin.

[andi !]

*

[/size] we both know that i ,

i could think myself dizzy
and right now i'm just spinning around
[/center][/font]

Eliza nodded as Sebastion spoke. "So you're a senior, too," she replied with a smile. But he had started freshman year, and eighth grade had been her last year. Which she might have been able to guess if she'd known they were in the same grade; Stewart was a big school, but she felt sure that she would have remembered someone like Sebastion.

She laughed as he went on, also sitting up. She let out a drawn-out sigh, jokingly rolling her eyes. "I guess one football game wouldn't kill me," she replied, smiling crookedly. "Though I won't understand what's going on. You'll have to tell me what happened after the fact. But if I have a burning desire to play football afterwards, you'll be the first to know." She laughed at the idea, sure that no such thing would possibly occur.
[/blockquote][/font][/color][/size]

[_bjscw]

"Good then! I just convinced another person to fill a seat! Maybe we can get the stadium filled up for once." Sebastion said cheerfully. Usually the Stewart student body was uninterested in the football team - they never really had a good record for winning. But this year, they had already won two games, and were starting to gain some fans again. They definitely showed potential.

"Anyways," He started, now getting to his feet and wiping at the grass stains on his football pants. "I should probably hit the showers. Y'know, 'cuz I smell like shit." Sebastion laughed, knowing the locker room would be near empty now. "It was nice talking to you, Eliza."