To Unlock His Heart 8

Coach Moon hadn't been joking or even exaggerating a little bit when he said to come Monday prepared for serious practice. I honestly began to wonder if he was trying to kill us. First thing was the same ten laps around the field as we'd done everyday of tryouts, but now we were on a timer. Twenty minutes to circle the quarter mile track ten times! Just the thought nearly sapped all of my energy. A slight nudge from Skylar though and I fell into stop behind him and Serj, letting the rhythm they set guide me around the track. Those who didn't make it, we sent to the bleachers to do more endurance as punishment while the rest of us began to warm up.

"Nikolai, make sure you completely warm up!" Skylar called from over by the coach and I blinked in confusion. They were talking and Skylar was animated in his excitement while the coach looked surprised and rather intrigued. I groaned inwardly as I slapped a hand over my face. I had honestly thought that they'd forget about that whole gymnastics and soccer thing, but no, it seemed as if Skylar was going to make sure even Coach Moon had an idea of what I was capable of. I shook my head and slid down into a split to stretch my legs even more than I had already, rolling my eyes everytime I saw Coach Moon or Skylar glance in my direction.

"Daaammmm!" someone exclaimed and I looked up to have one of the other varsity players staring down at me. "You know, if you were a girl, being able to stretch like that would be totally hot. But you're a guy, so it's just freaky." I blushed and shook my head before putting all my weight on my hands and pushing my body off the ground. It took a minute but I finally managed to get my body upright, standing completely on my hands.

"What? Since when did we have a circus freak on the team?" one of JV yelled from across the field. I frowned, lowering my feet to the ground to stand up straight. This was why I had kept and had wanted to keep my other skills off the soccer field. To those who didn't have or admire the skill required for gymnastics, I was just another freak. It didn't help that I had no voice to defend myself with. I glanced up at the harsh sound of a soccer ball ricocheting off someone's head and saw the JV player whirl angrily around to where Skylar was standing. "What the hell, man?"

"Just 'cause you ain't got half the skill Nikolai does, doesn't give you the right to toss around insults," Skylar replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Lucas! Skylar! Five sets of sprints! Now!" Coach Moon boomed, though he almost seemed proud of the blonde's actions. "Nikolai, finish stretching out properly. I expect to see you pulling out all the stops in this afternoon's scrimmage." I sighed and resumed my warm up exercises, doing back bends to stretch my stomach muscles before eventually kicking over. I watched as my friend easily completed the sprints, the JV player struggling as he glared at the co-captain.

"Time for full field dribbling!" Coach Moon called. "Skylar, Henry! You two are on defense. Jackson, in the net! You are to dribble the ball downfield, get past the fullbacks and shoot on goal. If you lose control of the ball, lose it to a defender, or miss the goal, you will take a lap across the bleacher stairs! Got it? Good! Let's begin!" I was quick to get in line, peering around the other players to watch as Serj went first. He truly was amazing to watch, easily guiding the ball downfield and dancing around Henry and then Skylar before making an excellent and well placed shot on goal. I could only wish I was half as good as he was.

Half of the people in front of me failed to actually get past Skylar, though Henry seemed much easier of a defender. Still, I was worried since during previous practices he had been much more violent about trying to take the ball from me. I swallowed a bit as Jackson tossed the ball back to me and the defenders repositioned. Henry grinned deviously as I set myself and began a quick sprint downfield. I caught sight of Henry coming at me to double team me with Skylar and I started to panic. They hadn't double teamed anyone else so I wasn't sure precisely how to get around them.

I was within a body length of them when an idea hit and without even thinking it through, I threw myself forward and trapped the ball between my feet at the same time. As my hands hit the ground, my legs released the ball throwing it up and behind both defenders toward the goal. I finished the handspring, landing on my feet and sprinting hard between Skylar and Henry before they could react to what I'd done with the ball. Jackson's eyes were on the still airborne ball and I had to hustle to get to the right place to start the handspring for the move that I'd worked on with Serj and Skylar Saturday. Because of the speed, the force behind the front handspring this time was much stronger and when my heel connected with the ball, it was driven sharply downward.

"Very nice, Nikolai!" Coach Moon said as I hopped on my toes. The ball was pushed deep into the back of the net and Jackson was staring at it in stunned silence. I huffed slightly as I turned back to the group and found quite a few approving smiles, Skylar and Serj included. I trotted back to get back in line, blushing a bit in embarrassment that everyone was staring at me. "I expect all of you to be putting your best efforts into this tournament this weekend. If we want to win, it will be what is necessary!" Coach Moon yelled across the field.

Once we'd all gone through the two man defender drill, with at least half the team having to run a course along the stairs, we moved on to the next drill. Coach had two sets of cones running from midfield towards the goals on either end. The line running towards Jackson we were only allowed to use our left foot to dribble between the cones and then take a shot on goal. The other line ran towards Arthur, the JV goalie, and was the same concept, only we could only use our right foot. We weren't allowed to lose control of the ball, screw up and use the other foot, or knock over a cone without suffering through a set of stadium stairs.

Apparently, far too many of us passed this drill or maybe it was that not enough had passed it. Coach decided that he was going to add running to the mix to spice things up. He had us running staggered laps around the field before going back up to center field just to spring towards a ball in front of the goalie. Any hesitation and he doubled the number of times we had to run around the field before we took a shot on goal. If we missed our shot, we had to do ten lunges while we waited for our next turn. If the goalies allowed too many shots to get by them, they had stadium stairs in their future. I was dying for some water by the time coach actually gave us a break. Serj was muttering to himself and scowling deeply as he and Skylar got something to drink.

"Alright, Serj, Skylar, flip a coin," Coach Moon called as he began directing the JV to pick up the equipment. "Winner picks." I found that rather odd, as all of our previous scrimmages had been JV versus Varsity with the fresh meat distributed between them. I stretched a bit as I waited for a chance to get a drink from the cooler. The next time I let my attention float back towards my two friends, Skylar was laughing and pulling his shirt off. I set my cup on the bench as Coach ordered us to line up on the side lines. Serj and Skylar joined him on the field. "Who won?" he asked and Serj jerked his thumb at Skylar who was grinning broadly. "Alright, pick your player."

"Woo! Peanut!" Skylar shouted instantly and almost just as quickly I felt the heat of a dark blush rush to my face as my eyes went wide in surprise. I started towards where Skylar was when the player beside me stopped me and whispered that it was a shirts versus skins game and Skylar had the skins team. I could only imagine my blush grew worse at that and I reluctantly removed my shirt before moving to stand behind the dirty blonde co-captain.

By the time they were done dividing up the teams I could feel my body tensing up and did a quick back bend to stretch again. Apparently since Skylar got to pick first, Serj's team got the ball first. I focused on the match, the ball, knowing that in four days I'd be playing for real against another school. The thing that concerned me, the reason I forced myself to concentrate so hard in practice, was that I knew that if I didn't I'd have issues. I wasn't foolish enough to believe for a moment that there weren't going to be girls in the stands. Girls from other schools, sisters, mothers. Plenty of females to make me unable to function if I didn't find the ability to focus.

I almost didn't notice when coach blew the whistle and called an end to practice. Skylar was laughing loudly as he slung an arm around my neck. We'd beaten Serj's team by a goal I'd scored when he'd moved away from me just before we ran into each other. I looked around as I gathered my bags, but Serj was no where to be found.

"Ah, don't worry, peanut," Skylar said as he caught on to my worried looks. "Our fearless chauffeur ran up to the locker room as soon as Coach Moon blew the whistle. Probably been holding it most of the scrimmage." I nodded a bit, setting my bags back down before laying in the grass to wait. It felt like it took longer than it should have for Serj to come back, but Skylar kept distracting me with random nudges from his cleat.

"Sorry," Serj said, drawing my attention to him as he picked up his bags. He seemed a little flushed, but I brushed it off as leftover from the scrimmage. "You two ready to go or are you planning to sleep on the soccer field, Nikolai?" I scowled up at that handsome face that was smirking down at me. Swatting playfully at his leg, I got up and threw my bags back over my shoulder. I shook my head most of the way home as Skylar kept ribbing Serj for having lost to him.

By the time I made it upstairs to the apartment, dinner was on the table. I smiled sheepishly at him, half expecting to get yelled at because practice ran so late and I hadn't texted him, but his face just relaxed. He was quick to get up and take my bags before making sure that I was alright. I nodded a bit and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. I brushed my hair out of my face before sitting down at the table and answering all of Kyle's questions about how practice and school were going.

"Nikolai, do you know when the first game is on Friday?" Kyle asked as I pulled out my homework after dinner. I was exhausted after practice today, but I was still excited at the prospect of the upcoming tournament. I nodded to my foster father writing that the first game was at one in the afternoon. Coach Moon had also sent home permission slips because we'd be leaving after our first period class to head out there and start warming up.

"Well, I'm going to try and be there," he said, drying his hands. "No promises because I can't guarantee something won't happen at the last minute, but as for now, I intend to go see you play." I blushed deeply as a huge smile broke out across my face. It really meant a great deal that he would even make the effort to come watch, I couldn't imagine how much greater it would be if he could show up. He had definitely fallen straight into the father's role over the last couple of weeks.

A brief tousling of my hair and he went to watch television while I worked on my studies. Russian was still being a pain in my ass, as I had to struggle to grasp both the alphabet and basic words that I had missed in the first semester. It made me wonder briefly if perhaps the rumour I had heard in class about Serj being a tutor was true. It certainly would be extremely helpful if he was. I was beginning to think that I wasn't going to be able to catch up on my own. It certainly wouldn't be so bad to see more of the black haired teen.

Tuesday morning started off oddly. I was still a bit tired from Monday's practice and staying up a little too late trying to make heads or tails of my Russian. But at the same time I was giddy about Kyle coming to watch the tournament. I doubted that anyone else would quite understand why it made me so happy, but I didn't really care if they understood. However, my mood took it's first nose dive in homeroom when someone jerked on my heavy bookbag. Because I didn't have a locker, I ended up carrying all my books all day so the light tug threw me off balance.

I rolled my eyes slightly at the guy chuckling at me sprawled on the floor as he high fived one of his friends. I swore these guys were all completely retarded. At my old school, I had pushed off the harassment as the boys showing off for the girls. Here, since there were no girls, I had absolutely no clue as to why they were such juvenile apes. Hell, I imagined if I could talk these rich pricks wouldn't have even looked at me twice.

I dragged myself back to my feet and slid into my seat, pulling out my book for first period. I was content to sit there, reading ahead for next period, starting on potential homework as I ignored the comments being aimed at me from the jerkoffs around me. My concentration was broken shortly before the bell rang when Dean Taylor entered the room, escorting a boy who was only a few inches shorter than he was. If that kid was my age, then was going to be a giant by the time he was fully grown. I found myself staring at him, finding him familiar but not quite sure why I felt that way.

He had light brown hair, with what looked like both darker brown and blonde highlights. I had to look away as his hazel eyes caught me staring and blushed faintly. It was never normal for one boy to be looking so closely at another, even if they did feel familiar. Still, even as I turned my eyes to my desk, I noticed the dark blue skinny jeans and black and white converse that just didn't seem right. I couldn't put my finger on why, but the clothes, including a black and white striped band tshirt, just didn't seem to fit the person wearing them. But then, I didn't know his personality so it was rather pointless to even think about it.

Finally I pushed it off to the side as Mr. Harris explained that the boy was new to the city and was in the process of deciding whether or not to attend our school. Well, that certainly explained why he wasn't dressed anywhere near uniform code. Regardless, I put the guy out of my head, at least until I got to gym. It struck me as odd that Skylar was absent today when he hadn't seemed ill when we left practice the night before. And then there was the familiar seeming new guy in my homeroom and first class. As for class, new week, new spring sport to do in class, but even without Skylar here, class seemed weird. The guy Skylar had beaned with a soccer ball on my first day kept staring at me, a devilish smile playing on his lips. It was unnerving to say the least and I made certain to stick closer to Coach Moon than normal.

I was even quicker to shower and change than usual, wanting to escape the uncomfortable stare of the wrestler. It didn't make sense that the guy would suddenly have an interest in me, but the way he looked at me was more much creepy than just the idea he might have had an interest. I shook my head quickly, pushing it aside as something not to worry about right now. It was probably just another way for the idiots around here to attempt to get under my skin anyhow. It seemed like something they would try, since they weren't getting anywhere with the physical bullying.

I was more than happy when lunch rolled around and I could escape the chaos inside the building in exchange for the soccer field. I hadn't even finished my lunch when I noticed Serj almost bouncing down the steps towards the field. Smiling as he reached the edge of the bleacher I was seated at, I popped the last grape into my mouth and waved. He returned my smile and for a moment I felt my heart flutter.

"Hallo, Nikolai," he said. "It is rare to find you not in motion." I blushed faintly, and let him know that he had come down to the field earlier than usual. "Ah, ya. Sky does not seem to be here today, so I came to see you sooner." Ah, well that explained a lot.

Can I ask you something? I wrote on my board and Serj's eyes went wide for a moment before he began to nod. I supposed my asking questions was a bit odd, but I was bound to ask something uncomfortable at some point.

"Ya, of course, Nikolai," he said quickly. I sighed softly, chewing at the corner of my lip as I debated how to ask the question.

My teacher said you were the best tutor in the school to help me, I started slowly. I'm having some trouble catching up to the rest of the class with my Russian. Do you think you could find time to tutor me? I looked up in time to see his eyes light up, much the same way they had when Kyle had invited him up to our apartment.

"I shall be happy to help, Nikolai," he replied, his smile still spreading across his face. "Normally, I tutor people in the library at lunch during soccer season. We could start tomorrow?" I frowned a bit. As studious as I could be, I still liked my lunches outside in the sun. I really wasn't fond of the idea of having to stay indoors, in the library through it.

Could we do it out here? I wrote as the confusion for my frown crossed his face. Or maybe after soccer practice? Kyle wouldn't mind you being there, I know.

"I shall let my mother know," Serj said quickly. "After practice sounds like it would work best for both of us, as catching up takes more time than understanding a homework assignment." I nodded, smiling a bit in relief. Hopefully, with Serj's help I would be back on top of all my subjects and my grades wouldn't drop below perfect. Perfection had to be maintained or else he wouldn't want me when he got back in the country and found out that my mother was dead.

Lunch went back to normal after that, with Serj and I kicking the soccer ball around for a bit. He seemed to be in an even better mood after my asking him to tutor me, but I supposed he liked getting to use his native language that much and he really wouldn't have the chance otherwise. After lunch, that new student was once again in my class observing. I just hoped he wasn't observing the kid behind me who was contantly poking me in the back with the tip of his pencil. I might've yelped when he came close to breaking the skin with one of the pokes, but without a voice, I couldn't express the pain he caused. In the back of my head, I could hear Coach Moon and Coach Tucker telling me that I needed to tell someone what was happening, but I buried it instead. I could handle this.

By the end of the day, the potential transfer student had thoroughly gotten under my skin. He had been in every last one of my classes aside from gym and he always seemed to be sitting just in the corner of my vision. However, everything fell completely into place when I was changing for soccer practice and that kid sauntered into the locker room. He removed his contact and suddenly I could place precisely why he was so damn familiar. The potential transfer student had been Skylar! I marched over to him and punched him in the shoulder.

"What the hell was that for, peanut?" he asked. He'd already changed into more normal clothes for him, but I knew damn well he was the same guy who'd been in my classes.

Why were you in all my classes today, posing as some potential transfer? I scribbled angrily on my board. His eyes went wide for a moment and then he laughed, tousling my hair a bit before pulling his shirt off to put a tshirt on.

"That's a secret, peanut," he replied still chuckling at me as I pouted. "Don't worry about it, okay? It wasn't anything bad." I sighed, nodding a little but I was still pouting. I didn't like not knowing why he had disguised himself to sit in my classes or not knowing that he was going to do it in the first place. I just couldn't come up with a decent reason of my own as to why and he wasn't telling, so I went back to my locker to finish getting dressed for practice.

Coach Moon wasn't any kinder to us on Tuesday than he was on Monday, though he worked in sets of agilities. First set was hopping with both feet sideways over the soccer ball and the next set was back and forth over it. By the end of those two sets, quite a few people were groaning in the pain that I knew was radiating through their calves. Even mine were burning from the amount of power I'd had to exert to clear the ball every time. After that it was Monday all over again with the drills and then the scrimmage, though Serj got to pick first this time so I ended up on his team.

When he dropped me off Serj let me know that he could start helping me after practice on Wednesday and we'd make it a Monday and Wednesday thing until I was caught up. I nodded enthusiastically, thrilled that he would take so much of his time for me. Skylar was still moaning over his team's loss during the scrimmage, complaining that Serj and I on the same team just wasn't fair. It was amusing and embarrassing at the same time. Still, I was happy at being able to play and having them both for friends.

Wednesday went by quickly, classes the same as they normally were, although Skylar was there during gym for our golf lessons. Practice was just as hard, coach making it a bit more strenuous with adding in some extra agilities on top of the ones he'd added the day before. But now he had enough to set them up as stations and we'd rotate through them with a whistle blow every minute. The worst one for me was the box step because I was so short that the box actually came up above my knees. After the agilities though, more people seemed to falter on the drills and we had more doing sets of stadium stairs and lunges than either of the previous days.

We dropped Skylar off first after practice and Serj came up to the apartment with me so that we could work on my Russian. He seemed a little on the giddy side, but I figured it was because he'd won the coin toss today too, and we won the scrimmage again. My legs felt like jelly and I hated the feeling of being all sweaty when I knew that I'd be working closely with Serj, so I went and took a quick shower before dinner. I did notice that my friend's eyes went a little wide when I came back out in my pajama pants and a tshirt to be polite at the dinner table in front of company. Kyle seemed happy that Serj had agreed to tutor me and as soon as the meal was finished, he left us to get our studying done.

I couldn't help but to notice that he seemed a little distracted as we worked through the basics of the Russian language. It left me wondering what might have been on his mind, but when I asked he always said it was nothing. Finally, I gave up asking and just assumed he was worrying over the tournament that was now only a day and a half from starting. It made sense, since he was a team captain that he really did want to do well and there must have been quite a bit of pressure on him to succeed. I didn't envy him having that kind of pressure or worries. All I had to do was show up and play, where he had to worry about winning and who we would play when we did win.

Thursday's practice was light, much like a Friday practice and coach called it early, telling us to make sure we got a good night's rest for the next day. Since we'd gotten out early, Skylar and Serj came upstairs for a little while until Kyle got home from work. It was fun to just relax on the couch with them, picking on reality tv programs and just generally hanging out. I'd never had friends before, so it was all new to me, but they seemed masters at making me comfortable around them. Even if I had to write down everything I wanted to say, they never seemed to mind. It really helped with that relaxing thing that coach had told us to do.

I went to bed that night excited about the tournament, but exhausted from a week of hard practices and intense studying. Kyle still planned to be there the next day and getting to skip out a day of school was almost delightful. I just hoped that we did well. I wanted my friends to feel like they had truly accomplished something during their time as co-captains. I'd do my best to make them and Kyle proud. I knew that much. Nothing else mattered to me as I fell asleep to get some rest for the next day. I wasn't going to disappoint any of the people who had put their trust and faith in me. No matter what.