Ethan

The sweat dripped down the sides of my face. I grabbed the towel from the back seat of my old beat-up car and wiped away the wetness from the top of my head. I’d gotten my hair cut last week, so instead of my dark brown hair hanging down to my collar, it was now short enough that it felt like prickly stubbles.

 I’d stayed after practice for some extra weight training, not that I really needed. I knew that I was fit. At six feet tall, chiseled facial features, and a six-pack abdomen, I was a hot commodity at school. But what most people didn’t realize was that it took hours of conditioning and years of training for soccer to keep this status.

I walked into the town’s local pizza shop and saw that the rest of the team was already seated and eating. It had become the hangout whenever we got done with soccer practice, and when no one was quite ready to go home.

So, it seemed I was the last to arrive for our daily pizza meal. Of course, there was always a seat available for me at the table. I was one of the three captains of the team, so it was kind of mandatory that someone would move for me to have a seat.

As I looked at the situation, it wasn’t like I told anyone that they had to move or do anything special for me it was just an added benefit of being one of the best.

“What’s up?” I fist-bumped my other two co-captains, Jason and Brandon, then sat down in the seat that one of the lower classmen had just vacated. There were still pizza slices available, and I grabbed four of the pepperoni ones.

“What took you so long?” Jason, who I'd known since middle school, took another sip of his soda as he waited for me to swallow and answer.

“I did an extra leg set today.” I took another big bite of the already cold pizza slice.

“The girls were already here, but left to go do some last-minute shopping.” Brandon piled up all the messes of napkins onto one plate so that clean-up for the waitress would be a little easier. He had the hots for this girl since we started coming here. She was a year older than us and was now attending nursing school at the local college. He gave hints to her about them maybe going out on a date, but she always just giggled and walked away with no definitive answer. The goal he set for himself was to go out at least one time with her before the year was up.

I shrugged. I didn’t care if the girls had been there or not. There wasn’t any one of them that was special to me, they were all there for a good time only. “Any news on this year’s challenge?” The guys would know what I was talking about since this event had been going on with the soccer team since the program began.

The previous year’s captains always picked out a mission that one of the team’s members had to fulfill, even if they were wholly opposed to the conquest. It was usually a younger member, like a sophomore, that had to get one of the upperclassmen, not a Hawkette since they were typically regular team taps anyways, to go out with him and be able to score big.

The chosen player had six months to complete the mission, or they’d lose out on the pot of money that was put in place, in the sum of three thousand dollars. Each team member, which was thirty in all, put in one hundred dollars at the beginning of summer. It was all turned over to the previous year’s captains, and they had to come up with what they wanted for the member to get the money.

No one else, except the team, knew about the yearly event, including the girl whose heart was usually broken after the six-month wine, dine, and romance was over.

Somehow the couple would break up, often from the team member being caught cheating with another girl or just saying that he wasn’t feeling the love anymore. Then the girl cried to other girls, they sought revenge. By the school year’s end, the player was with another girl, three thousand dollars richer, and the heartbroken girl had moved on.

I was never chosen, probably because I didn’t need the incentive of the money to get the girls, they just naturally flocked my way.

The team usually had a huge kick-ass party with some of the money while the player got to enjoy the rest of it however he wanted. I was never into what they did since it was all sort of a cruel joke, but I did get to go to a killer party at the end of the year.

I never had to do a mission because no one in their right mind would pick me, I was captain material and just face it you don’t fuck with the future captain.   

Jason shook his head no to the questions I asked. “They’re supposed to get back with us this evening. They know tomorrow’s the first day of school.” He took a big bite of his pizza slice. “Some of these guys will need that whole six months to get anywhere.” He motioned with his hand at the group that was spread across five different tables.

Some of the lower-level players would need all that time just to get to first base with an upperclassman. If they didn’t complete what they were given to do, the previous year’s captains divided the money among themselves.

“I’m sure Craig and Rob will think of something good. Hopefully, they leave Matt out of it. He’s a total douche.” I had no problems with the other two past captains, but Matt and I always had issues with one another. It seemed we were a thorn in each other’s side. It wasn’t like I started anything, but if Matt wanted to start shit, then I wasn’t backing down. There had been many instances on the field last year where both of us had gone back home with a black eye or two.

“Doubt that.” Brandon nodded his head towards the window that looked out to the parking lot. Matt was walking towards the door with Craig and Rob following.

I silently snarled just at the sight of him. If this guy was the one that had anything to do with creating the mission, then I felt sorry for the poor sucker that had to follow the deed’s instructions.

“Boys.” Matt sat down on the chair across the table from me. Two other chairs were vacated by seniors so that his other two companions could be seated with the newly indicted team captains.

“Matt.” Jason knew I wasn’t going to say anything to this guy’s greeting. The two of us gave each other death glares, and Jason knew if he didn’t intercede it all could get ugly quickly. “So, what’s the quest for this year?”

“We’ve decided…” Craig stopped talking when Matt shot him a look that indicated he needed to shut his mouth.

“So, what I’ve decided.” Matt looked over at Craig and Rob, who both nodded their heads that he was the sole creator of the event. “I thought we’d mix it up a bit this year, it was getting so boring with the same old shit.”

“What the hell is it then?” I was tired of looking at Matt’s face and listening to the sound of his voice. The sooner they could get their soccer member with his new team obligation the quicker Matt would be out of my face.

“I’m happy to see that you are eager to get going on this,” Matt smirked at me in a way that didn’t seem like it was a friendly gesture. “You,” he pointed at me, “are going to be directly involved.”

“With what?” Brandon knew if Matt had anything to do with this and I was involved, it wasn’t going to be good.

“Well, we decided this year to let all the underclassmen off the hook. It’s time for one of the captains to take one for the team. By unanimous vote, Ethan has been elected to complete this year’s challenge.

“What the fuck?” I was boiling mad now. “I’m captain, I don’t have to do this shit.” I threw down the slice of pizza I was going to eat. My hunger pains had vanished once Matt implicated me in this whole scheme he had going on.

“Oh, but you do. That’s unless you want to look like a complete pussy in front of the whole team.” Matt motioned to the other tables whose focus was now on the two of us that were going head-to-head. “You don’t want the team to think you can’t handle such a simple challenge, they might think you’re not captain material anymore and elect you out.” Matt had to throw in the last little jab to get me riled up even more. He was sure I was going to fail at this mission, but he needed me to accept the challenge before they could move on.

“Whatever.” I saw everyone was looking at me and I couldn’t look like a complete loser in front of my team. “What is it?”

“You have to seduce none other than, Morgan Eastman.” Matt leaned back in his chair and waited for the rejection of his challenge. This would mean an easy thousand dollars in his pocket.

“What the fuck?” Jason was the first to lash out at all three of them. “She’s like Clarissa’s younger sister.”

Everyone knew who Clarissa was, guys and girls. She was beautiful and the queen of all shit. She was also really nice unless you did something wickedly wrong then your life would be hell clear into the next afterlife. She’d graduated two years ago, but still had a presence in the high school that made girls follow and guys drool. Fucking with her little sister would be social suicide.

“Clarissa was a Hawkette, but little sister isn’t.” Matt stared at me waiting for my withdrawal from the competition.

I glanced at the rest of the tables, and all eyes were on me waiting for my decision. I looked at Rob and Craig who avoided my gaze and then to Brandon and Jason who both shook their head no once. I couldn’t let Matt get the best of me, that’s all Matt wanted was a reason to think that he showed me up.

“Fine.” I shrugged my shoulders to the proposal like it was no big deal.

Matt didn’t let the shock of me accepting the challenge show. “Good.” He stood up along with Craig and Rob. “We’ll check back in a month to see if you’re ready to give up.”

I kept a steady stare on Matt as he, and the other two walked back out to the car. I felt all eyes still on me waiting for my reaction to this new turn of events.

“I’m outta here.” I crumpled the napkin I was holding and threw it down on my unfinished dinner. My appetite had been long ruined as soon as Matt walked through the door and I definitely wasn’t in the mood to sit around and chit-chat with the team right now. Their stares followed me out the door and the whole way to my car.