Jackson sat on the sidelines, ruminating over the advice given to him by Ms Cotton, as well as his friends, Kenny and Freddy, whilst also looking inward at his feelings about the whole matter with Jasmine.

As he did this, the Titans practice began, and this far into the season, the JV squad was able to at least keep up with the varsity team during the warmup exercises, so both teams participated together as one big squad.

It allowed Kenny to speak with Grant, as there usually weren’t other chances for the separate teams to interact during practice, outside of breaks.

‘Hey, nice job getting carried again,’ Kenny said.

Grant groaned but then looked over with a sneer. He pushed his shoulders back and raised his head higher as he jogged, his body unburdened by a weighted vest, and he revelled in that freedom.

Kenny glared at him, not with jealousy as Grant might’ve hoped, but with contempt for the weakness and cowardice Grant showed in his choice to give in and throw away the vest.

Grant frowned when he saw Kenny wasn’t having the intended reaction. ‘What do you want?’

‘Nothing, just reminding you that you’d probably be winless without Shane.’

‘I guess we’ll never know. At least I’m not the one who needs a fucking KICKER to save my ass, barely scraping out wins in your kiddy JV league.’

‘Hey, you got a problem, cabron?’ Pete moved his way through the ranks to Kenny’s side.

‘I ain’t got no problem with any of you JV rats, you’re not important enough for that.’ Grant grinned, and his two friends behind him cackled like hyenas.

Kenny gritted his teeth then shoved Grant, sending him careening into his friends. The three tripped over one another and caused a pile-up as others tried to veer out of the way or leap over the crash.

The whole herd of Titans slowed and turned back to look at the commotion of those who had gotten caught up in the mess.

One of the players who had tripped over Grant and co, was none other than Wesley. ‘The fuck do y’all think you’re doing?’ he snarled as he pulled himself from the tangle, shoving Grant and the others back down.

‘Don’t look at me, it was that little shit’s fault!’ Grant angrily gestured to Kenny.

Pete was trying to pull Kenny away from the crash to follow after the rest of the herd that was still slowly moving away. But Kenny stayed right where he was, staring down Grant.

‘The fuck is your problem?’ Wesley said, scowling at Kenny. ‘You lucky you on JV, otherwise I’d whoop your worthless ass, you little bitch.’

‘Hey fuck you too. I wouldn’t even wanna play for a selfish QB like you.’

Wesley laughed as he started to jog away. ‘Like I’d pass the ball to a little bitch like you in the first place.’

‘Wesley! What’s the hold-up?!’ Coach Otsen yelled.

‘Some dumbasses tripped me.’

‘Keep moving and shut up!’ Coach Otsen looked past Wesley and to the group that was still standing around. Pete let Kenny go and tried to sneak away. ‘Pete! Ken! Grant! Sonny! And Xavier! What’s the problem?’

Pete flinched and froze. ‘Uhh, there’s no problem, Coach, Sir, we just got a little tangled up.’

Everyone continued to glare at each other whilst Coach Otsen scrutinised them all. ‘Coach Vasquez.’

‘Sir, yes, Sir!’ Coach Vasquez appeared beside Coach Otsen like he’d just sprouted up from the ground.

‘Seems you’ve got some problems within your ranks, go and sort them out.’

‘Yes, Sir!’ Coach Vasquez bolted towards the group of miscreants.

‘Everyone else, keep moving!’ The others turned away from the drama and continued chasing after Shane who was at the head of the pack like always.

Coach Vasquez bounded to a stop before Kenny and the others, grinning at them. ‘What’s the matter guys, c’mon! You have to be maximum warmed up to have a maximum training.’

‘There ain’t no problem,’ Grant said.

‘Yeah, they just tripped, and we just got caught up laughing at them,’ Kenny said with a smirk.

‘Fuck you, bitch,’ Sonny—the shorter of Grant’s friends—said.

‘Hey, c’mon, that’s no way to speak to your fellow teammates.’

‘We ain’t teammates with a bunch of losers like them,’ Grant, Sonny, and Xavier said in unison.

‘Nonsense, you’re all teammates, whether or not you’re actually on the SAME team. You’re all TITANS, and during practice, you all push each other to the MAXIMUM so you can get the maximum out of your training.’

Stolen story; please report.

The boys grumbled, still glowering at one another.

Coach Vasquez’s face screwed up in a frown, but before he could go on another rambling speech, he felt a bear-like hand clap him on the shoulder. He looked up at Coach Knight’s stern expression, then stepped back a bit to let Coach Knight have a go at setting the boys right.

Coach Knight didn’t say anything as he looked at the boys. When they looked at him, they saw a hardened, disappointed gaze that’d win a staring contest against a boulder.

The boys shifted uneasily under the intense pressure of the stare. They looked anywhere but back into those dark, unblinking eyes, but they couldn’t avoid the stare no matter where their eyes fell, they could constantly feel it melting through them.

After about a minute of silence, Coach Knight finally spoke. ‘Say sorry,’ was all he said.

‘Sorry,’ the boys mumbled to one another and themselves, kicking at the grass and shifting from one foot to the other.

Coach Knight mulled over the responses for a few moments. ‘Good. Laps, all of you.’

There was no arguing with Coach Knight, the boys accepted their fate, keeping their complaints to themselves.

‘Don’t forget to give MAXIMUM effort, and also make sure to space out between yourselves so there are no more “tripping” incidents,’ Coach Vasquez said.

Though they were unhappy, the boys all spread out and went about finishing their first lap before getting stuck into their extra punishment laps. By the time they were done and able to return to their respective teams, they were a drill or two behind the rest of the team.

When it came to the drinks break, Kenny had done all that he could to get through his drills as quick as possible and make it back up to where the rest of the JV team were.

He slammed down onto the bench beside Jackson, too breathless to even get a drink.

‘What was all that about?’

As Kenny caught his breath to answer, Freddy sat beside them. ‘I just… fuck, I hate that guy, seeing his damn face makes me want to punch him!’

‘What did he even do?’ Freddy asked. ‘Is this still about what happened last week?’ Freddy asked.

‘No … yes. Fuck, I don’t know, it’s a lot of things, I’m just, I’m frustrated.’ Kenny slumped in his seat.

Pete soon crawled over, dragging himself onto a seat, gasping for breath.

‘Having fun there, Petey?’ Jackson said, smiling.

‘Vete … a la … mierda …’ He slowly sat up and looked across at Kenny. ‘That’s the last time I help you out when you’re picking a fight.’

‘Yeah, sorry I got you caught up in that, man. You didn’t even do anything wrong and you’re getting punished all the same ‘cause of me.’

Pete chuckled. ‘Nah, I’m just kidding, what else is a friend gonna do except take the fall with you when you’re in trouble?’

‘Hah, I owe you one.’ They reached out and bumped fists with one another.

‘What do you guys think Nick is getting chewed out for?’ Freddy said before taking another sip from his drink.

The others looked over and saw Coach Otsen talking with Nick far enough away that they were out of earshot.

‘Uh, I don’t know, but, it doesn’t look like he’s Coach is mad,’ Jackson pointed out.

‘He’s probably getting praised again for winning us the game last week,’ Pete said.

‘Saved by a Kicker… I scored a touchdown too,’ Kenny grumbled.

Pete patted him on the back. ‘Don’t let that cabron get to you.’

They watched as Coach Otsen gave Nick a pat on the shoulder before leaving him for the rest of the break, then, as the teams were ready to resume their practice, Coach Otsen left the varsity team in the hands of Coach Carson, and called the JV team together.

‘Listen up, boys. This weekend, we’re facing the Coyotes again.’

Disgruntled murmurs spread throughout the gathered huddle as the team thought back to one of their closer, grittier games. It was definitely the DIRTIEST so far.

‘Settle down and shut up when I’m talking. I know what happened last time we faced them, and I know there are some issues there, but I need you boys to put that shit out of mind and focus on yourselves. Focus on playing the way you always do. Let me worry about anything dirty, and I’ll be the one to get the officials involved and get on their ass if I don’t think they’re doing a good enough job.’

Kenny kept quiet. He was conflicted about the upcoming game. Part of him wasn’t looking forward to it, because of having to deal with those cheating bastards. It was like a whole team of Grants. No, they were worse. Grant might’ve been an asshole, but he hadn’t cheated during their one-on-one. These Coyotes were MUCH worse.

But, on the other hand, he looked forward to beating their asses again and embarrassing those mutts.

‘I don’t want you getting swept up into their bullshit, the last thing we need is to stoop to their level and try to fight them at their own dirty game. Leave the underhanded tactics to them, just make sure you let the officials see it whenever they break the rules, that’ll be the best way to stop them. And be prepared for it to be even worse than the first time they played against you. We won’t have home-field advantage this time, it’ll be on THEIR turf this weekend, which means the crowd is going to be against you no matter how dirty things get … and, unfortunately, the refs might let them get away with even more bullshit. Still, the important thing is to not let it get to you under any circumstances. Keep a cool head, and I promise you we’ll win.’

Kenny looked around the huddle. Everyone was pissed, even the usual carefree Lonnie looked annoyed. Freddy was staring at the ground. Kenny moved closer and put an arm around his shoulders, he remembered how harshly the Coyotes had targeted Freddy when he was more inexperienced; it had only been his second-ever game.

‘Don’t worry, we won’t let them hurt you,’ Kenny said.

‘I’m not worried about getting hurt … well, okay maybe I am, but not because of me, because of you guys. There’s no one to fill in if I’m hurt.’

Kenny looked around again. They only had eleven players, it was true. It was a fact they had had to deal with all season, and it had noticeably cost them in two games, maybe more. If the Coyotes wanted, they could try to injure any one of the Titans, and they’d be without a replacement for the rest of the game and who knows how long after that until the player recovered.

‘There’s a target on all our backs, one hundred percent,’ Pete said. ‘We’re just going to have to look out for one another.’

‘Bring it in, boys,’ Coach Otsen said, pushing a fist into the middle of the huddle. The boys converged around it. ‘Train like Titans, win like Titans.’

‘Train like Titans, win like Titans,’ the boys echoed then broke apart to continue their training.

Kenny’s mind was firmly fixed on the upcoming game. Anger and determination were at the forefront. There was no way he could lose to such disgusting, filthy cheaters. But at the back of his mind, there was a gnawing worry—how far those depraved Coyotes would sink to try to break the Titans and win a game?