Chapter Two

Cook's POV

Glancing around while Coach is making us count off into groups like a bunch of five year olds, I hear Shakir shout out, "Four". I fear that he and I are going to get stuck in the same group.

Sure enough, the guy before me yells out "Three", and I yell out "four".

I sneak a glance at Shakir and he is rolling his eyes. I think it is about me, but who knows he is an emotional wreck, he needs to control himself better. He is going to struggle making it if he cannot get his emotions under wrap, and continues his outburst.

We are getting into our groups, and I see Mack Hollins walking toward our group. Thank goodness. I have started texting with Mack since I found out that I got drafted to the Bills. Mack has some questionable behaviors, but I love how he embraces his personality with no shame.

Mack reaches our group and starts complaining, "ugh... my feet feel so restricted, I cannot wait to get these sneakers off."

Shakir says confusingly, "bro.. You want your dogs out like that...?"

Mack says, "Why restrict your feet, they are meant to be out and free."

"You seriously don't wear shoes?", Shakir asked while laughing.

"No."

"You walk in the snow without shoes on??"

"Yeah... it's not that bad"

Shakir laughs erratically, "What the fuck man..."

"Come on bro... stop making fun of Mack." I say to Shakir.

"Alright... sorry sorry..."

Coach McDermott yells out, "Settle down the first activity we are going to do is the human knot. First stand in a circle, and hold out your hands. Now grab the hands of two different people, who are not directly to the right or left of you. First team to get the knot untied wins."

Shakir says, "What the fuck does he think we are... five year olds..."

Another member on the team chimes in, "No literally... What are we doing...? We should be running plays or something... not this bullshit."

Mack responds, "Y'all just shut up... it's not this serious. This is trying to help us get along... just grab hands with someone."

We stand in a circle and I reach out my hand, and grab a random hand with no care in the world, because I know this seems silly, but he is making us do this to help build trust in each other and to be a more cohesive team, so we can work good together on and off the field.

The hand pulled away from me aggressively....

What the heck... why is he pulling away from me.

With my hand empty in the middle of the circle, I look up... and see Shakir giving me a grimace in disgust.

Oh my gosh... that is my luck.. That I ACCIDENTALLY grabbed his hand...

I cannot escape him...

I grab the only other empty hand, but I realize that it is the hand of the guy next to me... I ungrab his hand, and say, "Guys... someone grab my hand that isn't next to me..."

Mack releases one of the hands he is holding and says, "I gotchu bro."

"Thanks man"

We are nearly halfway done with Shakir starts running his mouth again. I genuinely have no idea when this man will shut up. He always has something to complain about. Is he really that privileged that he can complain about stuff as minute as a team bonding exercise?

Shakir groaning says, "Oh my fucking god... how much longer do we have to do this stupid shit??"

Mack responds, "We do team building exercises all the team... get used to it if you want to be respected on this team..."

Finally, we got done untying the knot, and our team was not the first done, but eventually we were able to actually communicate with each other. I just hope this can transfer and we will be able to communicate in practices and games better.

At this point, I have started to drown out Shakir because he never stops talking...

However, Mack says to me, "Do you seriously hear this kid?"

"No, what are you talking about?"

"This kid just said, 'I got my cybertruck up to 125 miles per hour.'"

"Good for him...", I mutter under my breath. This kid is so immature... how did he even make it to the league...

Coach McDermott yells out, "Time for the next exercise. We are going to do a relay race. Stay in your team, and line up on the fifty yard line."

We line up, and Shakir is still yapping to a defense line player about his stupid cyber truck or something.

Coach says, "For the first exercise just to get your blood pumping... each of you will do a forty yard dash, down and then back."

Shakir still complained, " so two forty yard dashes? What the actual fuck?"

I hear Mack come back with, "man, calm down. It's not that serious."

Our team wins the forty yard dash competition, which doesn't come to much surprise as we have three wide receivers, two of them being Mack and Shakir.

Shakir is shouting as he was the anchor, and thinks he won the competition for us... but it was a group effort. This man has an ego bigger than the stadium.

Coach yells out, "Okay, listen up. The next race is a ladders race. You have to run through the ladders. One foot must touch between each rung. If you skip a space, your team will be disqualified, so pay attention."

Shakir says, "This should be easy y'all. We got this."

I swear this dude says so much, but yet nothing at all.

A few guys go before me, and now it is my turn. I execute it perfectly. I was worried I would get my team disqualified, but I didn't thankfully.

Mack goes after me, and he succeeds too. He is an insanely skilled guy.

Last is Shakir, he did well in the dash relay, so we are giving him the benefit of the doubt, and letting him anchor this relay as well.

He gets halfway through the ladder, and I saw him skip a rung. How can he be this stupid. Oh my goodness.

He notices but keeps going.

I know Coach Marx saw it as well, but he didn't say anything.

But he messes up and skips another. Coach McDermott sees this time. He calls out "Shakir! Nice Job! You just disqualified your team."

Shakir groans, and walks back with his head down. This kid is so dramatic.

"Oh my fucking god, I am so stupid!", he says when he gets back.

Mack being the nice guy he is says, "Don't worry about it man, we all mess up sometimes."

Coach McDermott yells out after the last team finishes, "Okay! Enough for right now. Go take a break, and get a drink or something."

Thank goodness that this is over for the moment. I do not think I can listen to that entitled brat talk anymore.