Page 38 of Nailing Heat
Chapter Thirteen
~AMELIA~
The team is back from Chicago and now we’re working on getting ready for our game against Kansas City. We’ll be away again. It’s so weird how our schedule can be sometimes. We’ll play for weeks at our home stadium and then have multiple away games in a row. Kansas City is a tough team for us, so we’re working extra hard at practice. Watts had us broken up by offense and defense to work on specific skills.
We’re taking a break right now and Coach Andie is lecturing us on the importance of maintaining good nutrition and staying hydrated while traveling.
“I would recommend everyone gets some Liquid IV and keep those packets with you. Once you get through security, dump it into your water and fill it up. Make sure that you finish that before we land in Kansas City. Sleep when you can and no one should be out late on Thursday night. Even though we don’t take the field until seven on Friday, you all need your rest.”
Everyone is nodding and some of them don’t even look like they are listening. But I remain respectful and listen to her. It’s nice to have a female coach on our team; she’s like one of the girls, sometimes hanging out with us when she can. Her major incollege was sports nutrition so it’s a bonus that we get tips like this from her, whether the other girls listen to her or not.
“Alright, I’m done lecturing you. And since I can tell that most of your weren’t listening to me, it’s property run time girls. Go and run all around this complex and don’t be last.” She claps her hands together and we all take off running.
There’s no way I want to be the last one to finish. I’m not as fast as Mac and Cassie. Cassie actually runs for fun and Mac is naturally fast. It’s a perk of playing defense. I don’t have to necessarily be a fast runner as long as I don’t come up too high out of the box and have to track back to stop an offensive player. I mostly need to be able to challenge the players that are looking to shoot on goal.
In any case, I don’t want to be last, and so far I’m not. I’m hanging in there in the middle of the pack. We make our way around the Blaze stadium, parking lot, practice field and office building. It’s a nice little setup that August was able to create in the downtown area of Tampa. We’re close enough to downtown that we can walk to get coffee, some great pizza or whatever kind of food we’re craving.
I keep breathing in and out, hoping that I get back soon. My strides are long and quick, so I am covering a lot of ground on this two-mile run. I want this to end. I can already feel my legs and lungs protesting a bit in the Tampa Bay heat. I haven’t lost sight of the head of the pack either. I can’t catch them, but I can still see them, which is good.
I finish the run in a little over eleven minutes, which isn’t bad for me. It’s not my best but it’s not terrible. I lie on the turf that is shaded so I don’t get burned. That’s the thing about turf with the sun beating on it, it holds heat like the blacktop. I stretch my arms and legs out wide so that my lungs and torso do not feel so constricted.
“Just don’t lie down, ladies. Come on, you need to stretch!” I hear Dex call out.
Dex has joined us at training again. He missed yesterday and mumbled something about having something to do in the training room when I saw him at home. We haven’t seen much of each other since he yelled at me in Chicago. According to him, he’s been spending his nights out with August. My teammates are exhausted, so we haven’t been heading out much. I had a movie with Hendrix last night, which was nice. By the time I got home, Dex was already in his room with the door closed.
He’s avoiding me. I know it.
Standing, I sip on my water a bit and then begin to stretch out my legs, pulling my legs up one at time towards my chest to get a deep stretch in. I wobble a bit, so I drop my leg to steady myself. I can feel someone’s eyes on me as I’m moving through my routine. I look up and Dex immediately looks away from me. I smile and turn my back towards him. I roll down so that I can touch my toes, giving him a nice view of my ass.
I can feel his eyes on me as I do this. I stand up, turn towards him, and wave. He nods back at me.
“Ladies!” I hear Watts call out. I turn my attention away from the trainer and back to my coach. He’s talking about some simple passing drills that he wants us to do. “Nothing too strenuous since you ran but I want you to make sure that your passes are right on the mark. It’s going to be a tough game on Friday night.”
We all nod and pair up. I look over to see if I can claim Hendrix as my partner, but Jase has stolen her to do some goalie work. DJ calls my name, and I head over to her. We set up and begin passing the ball back and forth.
I look over and see Dex is talking to Coach Watts with a clipboard in his hand. I’m not sure what they’re discussing but Watts is nodding his head vigorously. DJ kicks the ball, and it misses my foot. It rolls near Dex, and I jog lightly over to retrieve it.
I toe the ball with my right foot, and it bounces up. I grab it and begin to head back to DJ. He’s still watching me, but this time Watts is nowhere to be found.
“Is there something that I can help you with?” I ask Dex.
“No, why would you think there was?” The words seem to slide out his mouth like velvet. One side of his mouth is turned in a smirk.
I sigh, “Because you can’t stop staring at me.”
He chuckles. “I’m watching the practice and talking about some new equipment with Watts. I was only looking over at you when you looked at me.”
“I can feel you watching me.”
“I’m not sure what you think you are feeling, but I’m not watching you. I’m watching the practice.” He smiles at me and takes a step forward. “Are you hoping that I’m watching you?” His voice low enough so that only he and I can hear.
“No,” I stammer out. This isn’t going like I thought I would.
“Sure, you weren’t.” He winks at me and walks away, getting the last word in.
I roll my eyes and jog back to DJ.
“What was that about?” she asks me.
