Chapter 14

I woke up in the morning to the now usual sensation of another body against mine. Peeking, I found Vicki had made her way through my window at some point. Similar to when Zoe joined me, Vicki was up against me, with a leg and an arm thrown over me. The one big difference however was that while Zoe wore shorts and a t-shirt, Vicki apparently slept naked. She also seemed to be a much deeper sleeper then Zoe, as it took a little bit for me to wake her up.

“Morning, sleepy head.”

“Zoe was right. You get up ridiculously early.”

Looking at the clock, I saw it read five-thirty.

“Well, this is earlier than normal, since I have to start getting up to exercise with the team. You need to get up, too, and get some clothes on before my sister gets curious. As it is, I am going to have to find a way to explain you to her.”

“Nah. Zoe called Tina last night and explained things. I am looking forward to meeting her.”

I just shook my head as I rolled her off me, got a kiss, and headed off to the bathroom. When I came back from getting ready, my clothes were laid out. Tina was talking to Vicki and both were laughing.

“Cas, your little sister is pretty funny.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. I think we are going to be almost as good of friends as she is with Zoe.”

Tina just smiled at me. I could see Zoe’s hand in this and I wasn’t sure I was crazy about it. But it was also clear that there were some things the girls were just in charge of, and I had to live with whatever they decided. I guess I was okay with that. I did notice Tina watching me pretty closely, like she was studying something. Her stare was pretty intense, but I had a big morning planned. I didn’t want to get into it, right then. I was positive at some point, over the next day or two, she would corner me.

“Well, girls, I have to get the day started. I am supposed to be at the school in twenty minutes to meet the JV team for morning exercises.”

I packed my clothes into my gym back figuring I would shower and change in the locker room, after the practice. I got a hug from Tina and a kiss from Vicki, and was out the door.

At the field, the whole JV team was there. I also noticed some cheerleaders, including Zoe, were in the stands. I had called her the previous night, and had asked her and a couple of the girls to come out and assist me. One of the assistant coaches was also in the stands. I would bet he was assigned there since this was a semi-official school activity.

“Okay guys. The morning workout is our strong cardio. Most days I plan on us, or at least you, running. Later, we might work in some swimming, but I have to talk to the coach and get clearance for that. Since this is our first go, we’ll keep it pretty light, and get a baseline for everyone.”

“The girls,” I gestured to them in the stands, “have agreed to help us with tracking our workouts. As we set up our schedule, they have agreed to make sure someone is there with our records, as well. We are going to track everything to measure progress. The important thing to remember, here, is that this is about improving yourself. You are not in competition with anyone, except with your previous time, score or whatever. Hold the pace we set as long as you can. If you have to drop out, do it. Just push hard, each time, and you should see your performance improve. Today, let’s do an easy seven-minute mile pace, and try and hold it for thirty minutes.”

We took off, going round and round the track. Most of the linemen did not make the thirty minute time. I was surprised to see Andy Simons keeping up with me the whole way. He was the second biggest guy on the team, next to Josh, and I had him pegged for dropping out early. When we finished the run, I made sure everyone knew we were meeting every school day, at six. We’d do our morning run, then check in with Zoe and the girls, to make sure they had the record keeping handled. They did and looked at me like I was an idiot for checking on them.

On the way to the locker room Josh threw an arm over my shoulder and said, “Dude, I am about to pass out and you weren’t even breathing hard!”

“Well, I have you guys at a pretty big disadvantage. I run a six-minute mile every day for an hour. I’ve have been doing that for a couple of years. This was a really light day, for me.”

He just shook his head, and we went to get cleaned up and ready for classes.

The rest of the day was a little weird. I was getting looks from people everywhere I went. Of course there was no doubt what the cause of this was. From the show they put on for Josh, I am sure the girls had covertly gotten the word out to everyone about our relationship. I guess they wanted to get the gossip out in the open so it would die down faster. In the one class I shared with Vicki, she had changed seats with the person next to me. I thought it was sweet.

Lunch was where it got really interesting. Vicki had moved from her previous table, and now she and Zoe flanked me on either side. Everyone at our table was totally captivated.

Tami was the first to ask the question everyone at school wanted to know, “So, is it true?”

“Is what true?”

“Josh said the three of you were dating, like as a set. Both Vicki and Zoe were your girlfriends.”

Zoe put an arm around me, “Yep, it’s true. He’s our man.”

I don’t think Tami’s eyes could have gotten any bigger.

“How do I sign up?” she asked.

I wanted to change subjects so I said, “Well, Vicki, are you going to sit over here from now on? What about your friends at the other table.”

She looked thoughtful, then said, “Well, today was more of a demonstration to give everyone some juicy gossip for the rest of the week.” She punctuated that by leaning over and kissing me, then added, “But, yeah, I don’t want to abandon those guys.”

“How about let’s rotate. One day we sit here, the next we sit over there. You guys could either switch tables with me or stay at the separate tables and I could switch between.”

Zoe shook her head, “No. I want to stay with you. I like the idea of us as a trio switching between tables. While I will miss eating with this bunch every single day; I’ll see them after school at practice, and I guess some days before school at your new workout too.”

Tami looked at me, and then at Josh as she said, “So how was the new workout this morning?”

She was one of the few girls from our table who hadn’t watched the practice. I guess maybe because she wasn’t dating one of the guys, as that is really the only reason I could see someone getting up as early as everyone had.

Josh let his head thump onto the table, and then he said, “It almost killed me. And the worst part, was that Cas wasn’t even breathing hard.”

“It will get better, Josh. Like I said, I have been doing that kind of run for a while. You guys aren’t used to extended distances like that. It is a completely different skill than the sprints you normally do. You know who surprised me? That was you, Andy.”