Page 81 of Saving the Halfback

“Again?” Nolan rolled his eyes and grabbed it.

“Oh, you have no idea.” I had run out of space in my pocket and started shoving them in my backpack. I reached in and pulled the crumpled wad out.

Nolan frowned. “What do they say?”

“Pretty much all the same thing. Insinuating I got on the team by giving someone head. That I take guys into the closet for money. Or that I am secretly a man that tucks my dick.” Igrabbed the newest note and shook my head. “Apparently also a lesbian. I don’t get it. Either I’m sucking dick and having my way with half the school, or I’m a lesbian. How am I both?!”

“Umm… What?” Ethan’s voice was right behind me. I jumped and stepped to the side.

“She’s been getting these notes all day,” Nolan said, pulling the newest one from my hand and giving it to him.

Ethan frowned, then looked at the stack of papers in my hand. “You’re going to report this, right? Who gave them to you?” he asked, standing taller now as his eyes scanned the hall.

“No idea. How can I report it? They have been placed everywhere for me to find. I don’t know what is more disturbing, the thought that they think I gave blow jobs to get on the team or that the notes have been left everywhere I would be and likely right before I would be there.”

“What do you mean?” Nolan asked.

“There was one on the locker in the girls' change room before gym class. On my desk in English, on my seat in history…”

“Why didn’t you say something?” Ethan snapped.

“What is there to say? At this point, the notes contradict one another and make no sense. Someone is just writing crappy stuff on paper and hoping it’ll hurt me.” Nolan and Ethan looked at one another. “It doesn’t. Hurt me, that is. It doesn’t hurt me,” I added. Their doubt was obvious, so I sighed. “I just want to play. Please, let’s forget this.” I shoved the papers into my backpack. “And get ready for the game. Which starts in like two hours.”

As we walked down to the gym, where there was a table laid out with drinks and pizza, they let it go. To my surprise, a lot of players high-fived me, the excitement in the room contagious. By the time Lachlan joined us, I had finished eating and was now listening to Nolan talk to Sam about the game. Nolan seemed to have the stats on other schools’ teams down pat.

Lachlan had Chase in tow as they both walked right up to me. “Show me the others.” Lachlan held out his hand.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “I didn’t want drama before the game.”

“I can tell if it’s Hadley’s writing.” Chase frowned, appearing annoyed.

I pulled a note from my backpack and handed it to him. Chase took the note from my hand with a bit more force than necessary, and his eyes scanned it quickly before he rolled them. “It’s not hers,” he said to Lachlan, as if he were proving a point.

I snatched the note away, not wanting anyone else to read it. “Great. Now, can we move on?”

No one brought up the notes again from then on. I went to the girls’ locker room to get changed. Once I was ready, I walked to the boys’ locker room and waited outside, like Coach had instructed.

As I stood there in my gear, I pushed all thoughts of today from my mind. I ran through my plays, where I was supposed to stand, positions I had to get into to make the runs. Two weeks. I had two weeks of practice under my belt for this, but would it be enough?

My teammates didn’t pull back their tackles anymore. They took me down, as if I were any other player. The difference with teams we would be playing against was, they would be actively trying to bring me down, hitting hard enough to hurt, even injure. Nolan had said to expect them to do whatever it took to win.

Is this really a good idea? Damn…it was too late now.

Coach opened the door and nodded to me before stepping aside. “Bailey, come in, have a seat.” He moved to stand in front of a whiteboard.

All the guys were in uniform and ready. I walked over to Nolan, and he shuffled over so I could fit between him and Lachlan.

“All right, first game of the season, you ready?” Coach asked.

There were a few replies of, “Yes.”

“I said, are you ready?” he yelled.

In unison, we called, “Yes, Coach!”

Coach’s voice was booming, full of energy. “Let’s start the season off giving everything we have, so as we go on, we can keep matching and climbing. Their team is just like us—they are short on players—so when you think you are tired, they are also struggling. Only difference is, you all have been doing this for years, while they aren’t used to being short players. We can do this, Panthers, bring it in.”

All four coaches stepped in, and the players followed. I stayed sandwiched between Lachlan and Nolan as we got up and put our hands in the center.

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