Scramble
Copyright© 2025 by Lumpy
Chapter 22
I dropped onto the bleachers and unscrewed my water bottle cap, tilting my head back to drain half of it in one go. Sweat dripped down my spine, and my legs burned like hell. Three practices a day was a lot, but now seven-on-seven had started to pick up in intensity as everyone vied for the starting spots.
The one good thing from Coach Holloway running my practices while Moreno was busy, he didn’t have time to set up our QB training while he was running seven-on-seven, so I got a little bit of a break after seven-on-seven before we started. Most of the rest of the guys had already headed inside, their voices carrying from the locker room entrance.
Except Hunter, oddly.
He sat alone at the far end of the bleachers, shoulders hunched forward, staring at nothing. I didn’t have to guess why. He’d had a bad day, and when trying out for limited spots on the team, a bad day could cost you a lot.
He’d had two dropped passes and had screwed up one of his routes, practically smashing into Elijah on a play. Everyone had bad days, of course, and this may not have been his worst practice, but it was close. Worse, Elijah had been all over him after the near collision, and then rode him pretty hard after that for the dropped passes.
I checked my watch. Coach was also taking a small break, so there was probably ten minutes before we started. Enough time to close my eyes and rest a moment. Or enough time to walk down there and try talking to someone who probably didn’t want to hear anything I had to say.
Part of me wanted to say screw it and let him wallow. He’d chosen Elijah time and again, so it was kind of on him to deal with how Elijah treated him. But I also thought about the things Coach Holloway, Coach Moreno, and even Dad had said about leadership. That a real leader swallowed their pride and did what they had to do to make the entire team work.
I also remembered Coach Holloway talking up what a leader I was when I’d auditioned for Coach Moreno. Elijah and Mason may be lost causes, but Hunter wasn’t. He was different from the rest of Elijah’s crew. If I could see that, and if I was the leader Coach Holloway wanted me to be, then I had to try.
Didn’t I?
With a sigh, I stood and walked down the bleachers toward him. Hunter glanced over when I was about ten feet away, then turned back to staring at the field, ignoring me.
“Mind if I sit?”
He shrugged.
I settled onto the bench a few feet away, giving him space. We sat in silence for a moment, watching Coach Holloway set up for my third practice of the day.
“You’ve been doing well with the seven-on-seven format,” I said. “Last few practices before today, you were really looking good out there. I think even Coach Holloway’s been noticing.”
Hunter snorted. “Right. That’s why he watched me drop two easy passes and run into Elijah?”
“That was today. I’m talking about Monday and last Friday.”
He kind of grunted and, after a beat, asked, “What do you want, Blake?”
Direct. Fair enough.
“Bad practices happen. I threw three picks in a row during my session on Monday’s practice.”
“But you’re the golden boy. Different rules.”
“Not different rules. Just different days.” I leaned back against the bleacher behind us. “We all have bad days, and the coaches know it. What matters is if we pick ourselves up from them. You’ve got more athletic ability than half the guys out here. Problem is who you’re listening to.”
Hunter’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t respond.
“You know Elijah tearing into you today wasn’t about almost running into him, or the dropped passes, right?”
“Sure felt like it was.”
“That’s ‘cause he’s good at tearing people down in order to make himself look better, and at doing it in a way where the person he’s tearing down feels like he’s right. It’s a shitty skill to have, but he has it. Think back to early last semester when we were just starting on the freshman team, how he treated Miguel and Connor and the other guys. Yeah, he was picking on them ‘cause they were new, but he was doing it mostly ‘cause he wanted to stand out ... to get a starting spot. And tearing them down was easier than doing the work to stand out next to them.”
He didn’t say anything directly, just kind of shifted and continued to watch Coach Holloway.
“You also should try to remember how that worked out for him. How he got himself benched for a while. Jake and Mason, too, ‘cause they were so busy trying to tank games for me, rather than actually trying to win games.”
He grunted.
“I also remember you stepping away from them a bit, even getting into it with Elijah one day ‘cause you didn’t screw up your play like he wanted. You need to think about it and hopefully see the same pattern starting here. Elijah can’t stand it when someone else succeeds, so he finds ways to tear them down. Makes them fail so he looks better by comparison.”
“It’s not like that.”
“You’re smarter than that, Hunter. He does it to you too, you just never notice, or at least give him a pass on it. Every time you made a good play, what happens? Elijah finds some small mistake to point out. Makes sure everyone hears about it. And when you messed up, he was right there to make it worse. He treated you just the same way he tried to treat me, the only difference was, I pushed back at him.”
Hunter’s silence stretched longer this time.
“Elijah only cares about Elijah. That’s why I broke away from him once we got to high school. I could see where his actions were heading, and I actually want to make something of myself. Play at a good school. Maybe have a chance to go all the way. Smart players would do the same.”
Hunter finally looked at me directly. “Easy for you to say. They all love you and you have your special coach and everything. You have options.”
“Only because I’ve decided that doing my best is the best way for me to get ahead. All the coaches in the world can’t help you if you try to do it any other way. Besides, you’ve got options too. More than the others, actually. Out of everyone in that group, you’re the only one who showed any willingness to think for himself. Hell, near the end of the season when he was screwing with Miguel and the rest, you walked away instead of joining in.”
“Didn’t walk away. Just didn’t care.”
“Same result. You made a choice that wasn’t just following Elijah’s lead.” I paused, letting that sink in. “Mason can’t do that. He just follows orders. Jake makes jokes but falls in line. Aiden goes along with whatever gets him attention. But you? You actually think about things.”
Hunter picked at the label on his water bottle, peeling the corner with his thumbnail.
“We’ve got three and a half more years here,” I continued. “Three years to build something. Win district, finally, maybe even state, if we work hard enough. Create the kind of team colleges actually want to recruit from.”
“Elijah says...”
“Elijah says a lot of things. How many of them help anyone but Elijah?” I waited, but Hunter didn’t answer. “If everyone works together instead of tearing each other down, we could be unstoppable. Real championship football.”
“You really believe that?”
“I know it. We have a good base right now with some of the sophomores and juniors, and we have a solid freshman class. We could have done something this year if Elijah hadn’t gotten in everyone’s way. It only works if guys like you decide they want to win more than they want to follow Elijah around hoping for scraps of approval.”
Hunter’s shoulders tensed. “I don’t follow anyone around.”
“Then why let him talk to you like that? In front of everyone?” I kept my voice level, not accusatory. “You think college scouts want to see that? They’re looking for players who can work in a system, take coaching, elevate their teammates. Not guys who spend four years in drama and grudge matches.”
“College scouts aren’t looking at freshmen.”
“They’re already watching juniors. In two years, they’ll have eyes on us. You want them seeing a fullback who contributes to wins or one who’s too busy with Elijah’s power trips to develop his game? They talk to the coaches, you know, and guys like Coach Holloway have a reputation to uphold. He’s not going to give you the nod if he thinks you’ll end up making him look bad. You know Elijah’s never going to get an endorsement from him, right? Not the way he acts.”
Hunter stood abruptly, grabbing his water bottle. For a second, I thought he was leaving. Instead, he just stood there, looking out at the field.
I figured that was a sign to keep going.
“You could be starting on varsity by senior year,” I said. “Maybe junior year, if you develop fast enough. Be part of something that matters.”
“Or?”
“Or you follow Elijah while he burns everything down because he can’t stand not being the top dog. Watch him sabotage opportunities because his ego matters more than wins. Graduate with nothing to show for it except stories about who was mad at who in high school.”
Hunter turned back to me. “You think you’ve got it all figured out.”
“You don’t have to have it all figured out to see this. It’s obvious. Elijah’s already ignoring the punishment he’s getting, ending up on the bench when he’s good enough to start. He’s going to keep doing what he does, and he doesn’t care. Question is whether you want to follow him to the bench or not.”
“And if I don’t? Then what? I’m supposed to just buddy up with you?”
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