Page 83 of Teaching the Kot'oll Coach

He starts the engine. “I hope you aren’t too hungry.”

“I was expecting something different from eating again. We can’t just be eating, going to my place, patting Ossa, and cuddling all the time.”

He chuckles. “We could be doing something more than cuddling last night, but you were having thoughts.”

I suck in a short breath, trying not to show it on my face. He just loves to annoy me. “I’ve told you that...”

“I know, I know. You want to think about that before we do something more, which I agree. It is important.”

The spaceship takes off into the sky. The sky is orange as evening slowly creeps up on us. Sometimes, the workday feels like a wash. One moment, I’m there hoping it is over so I can be home or at least be somewhere alone. The next moment, it is over... It feels like I could have done something more, but I never got to it.

Now that I’ve been at the school for a while, the days seem to be blending into each other and I almost can’t tell which day is which. Even the day of the week feels like... meh. Maybe that’s not a good thing, but maybe it is how it is.

Do the students remember everything? Can they tell which chapter is taught on which day? Or do things also blur together for them?

There is a spaceship in front of us on the track. Traffic is relatively smooth given the time of the day. We could probably go faster if we just flew however, we wanted in the sky, but that would spell accidents here and there. We still have to follow the guided path of the sky, which is boring at times.

Silence lingers between us, but it’s not that bad. Maybe I should tell him to turn on the music or something, but I have no idea what he likes.

He clears his throat. “How was today with the kids?”

“Good? It feels like the same thing over and over again. The stories are new, and the study kits are different every day, but still... I think you know what I mean.”

“I do. Sports practices are like that too. It is mostly repetition, except you get a bit better every time, yet you can’t even see the improvement until way down the path.”

“Do you always want to be a coach or a teacher?”

He pauses and taps his fingers on the driving controller. “Not really. I’ve been wanting to play floatball.”

“So... Becoming a professional floatball player?”

He lets out a soft sigh but says nothing. Maybe that’s something he doesn’t want to mention, just like I’d rather not tell others about my past, especially when none of that sounds successful.

He taps on the screen of the dashboard, which shows a map. “We’re arriving soon.”

Is he the one dodging my question this time around? I guess that puts us in a tie.

We are heading to the sports complex. Is he bringing me to watch floatball with him? He should know I’m not too interested in that, though. Not to mention the tickets are going to cost a lot of money.

The spaceship descends. We are at the parking lot of the stadium. We are the only few spaceships landing here, so there can’t be a match going for the evening. Why are we here?

He undoes the seatbelt and gives me a hand. “Here, do you want to have a stroll together?”

“Sure.” I undo my seatbelt too and I take his huge hand. His hand makes mine feel kid-sized.

It is cool in the evening. The parking lot is huge as it is designed to host a lot of beings when it comes to tournament times, but today isn’t the day. We parked close to the entrance, so it doesn’t take long to arrive at the lobby of the stadium.

It is also a huge space. There are ropes that indicate the queues to different sections of the stadium. Most of the lights are off as there are no matches today. Within steps, there are ropes stopping us from going over to the doors that will lead to the playing field.

There are two guards, each at a side of the lobby, probably going to say something to us if we step out of the line.

Right in front of us is a sign with an arrow pointing to the souvenir store. Next to the store is a statue of a floatball player with a bat. I think he is someone famous, but I’m completely ignorant of the floatball scene. I don’t know his name. That’s a kot’oll who looks pretty handsome and strong.

Telke lets out a soft sigh as he heads to the store. It feels like, other than the guards, we’re the only two beings here. No one’s coming here when nothing is happening in the day.

The shop is brightly lit. We are also the only ones there excluding the shopkeepers.

There are a lot of things with the emblem of the home team. The logo is a star with a floatball in the center.

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