Team Manager 2: SPRINT!
Chapter 2
BY THE END of Wednesday’s short track practice, most of the girls hated Dennis. The conditioning workout had been a lot tougher than the stretching exercises the basketball team had gotten used to. When they ended the practice with wind sprints—twenty times to the end of the court with a thirty second rest between them—a few of the girls had dropped out of the run and sat on the floor breathing in great long gasps. One girl had to run to the locker room for her inhaler.
“Gather up and we’ll get out of here,” Dennis called.
“Are you always going to be this hard on us?” one of the girls asked.
“No. This week is conditioning. Tomorrow we’ll be working partly on the gym floor and partly in the weight room. Friday will be the same.”
“What does this have to do with high jumping?” Lana whined.
“To excel in a sport, your whole body needs to be in good condition. You need a good oxygen supply, so you need to increase your lung capacity. You need strength in your legs to propel you over the bar. You need strength in your arms to lift you when you jump. Now, I know you’ll all be a little sore tomorrow. Just know that’s normal. I will be, too. By Friday night, your body will begin to adjust. Now hit the showers. I have to come into the locker room in exactly thirty minutes to get it ready for the visiting team to use. Please don’t dilly-dally. If you’re naked when I come in, that’s just too bad.”
“Ooh. Can we all be naked when you come in?” Leanne asked. There were a few accompanying hoots.
“Behave, girlfriend. We’re in public.”
“You can come in when I’m naked,” Debbie said. Dennis looked twice. Debbie was the school’s goth girl but looked nothing like her usual black clad self. “Scrub my back? And front?”
“Debbie! OMG! What did you do to your hair? I didn’t even recognize you.”
“I figured I needed to be a good clean-cut athlete girl for track season. You wouldn’t pay any attention to me otherwise. Like it?” She’d bleached the black out of her hair and colored it a honey blonde. She had makeup on that made it look like she wasn’t wearing makeup. Dennis had enough experience seeing the Angelines with and without their makeup to tell the difference. Her fingernails were painted fire engine red. There were some things she simply had to rebel with.
“Well, it’s nice to see you putting your all into getting ready for track. Please don’t delay your shower.”
“You lied to me,” Corrine said, snatching a towel from Dennis. “You said shot put wasn’t running.”
“You’re doing great, Corrine. I’m not trying to turn you into a runner. But I really think you have the makings for a great hurler. I want to make sure you have every advantage I can give you. Some of the weight training we do tomorrow will be focused on those pushing muscles I told you about. Don’t give up. There are hard parts, but they’ll be worth it.” He grinned at her and she grimaced back.
“You better be telling the truth,” she said. “I even spent most of my gym classes as a freshman sitting down to rest.” She went into the locker room and Dennis made a mental note to encourage the overweight girl often.
“Good job, Dennis,” Ardith said. She’d been in the gym with the team and did all the exercises the girls did. Even she had to admit it was a tough workout. She’d decided that Dennis’s method with the basketball team was a good one and the girls would be encouraged by having her do conditioning exercises as well. Usually, she had a good workout early in the morning. She’d skip that tomorrow.
“Thanks, Coach.”
“Use the male coaches’ shower room if you want to freshen up after a workout like that.”
“Um… It’s okay?”
“Yeah. I checked with Jim and Andy. Neither are using it because neither one works out that hard with the team.” She handed him the key and a towel, then disappeared into the female coaches’ shower room.
Dennis grabbed his bag from the equipment cage and dashed into the shower room. It definitely didn’t look like it had been used recently. He rushed through his shower, dressed, and was back outside the girls’ locker room with the laundry bag when they started filing out.
“I’ll help clean up the locker room,” Natalie said. “So will Daniella and Roberta. Then we’ll drop you off at home.”
“That’s great. I think I’ve been going through girlfriend withdrawal this week.”
“Well, we don’t have time to fool around in the locker room,” Nat said. “But maybe we can make out a little on the drive home.”
“Maybe we can all come in for milk and cookies,” Daniella said. “Nat said she and Mom baked with Peg on Sunday.”
They got the room straightened, the shower squeegeed out and the floor mopped. Dennis figured when the whole room smelled like janitor disinfectant that it was clean enough for the visiting team. The four left.
The ride home was scarcely long enough for his make-out session with Natalie to get their clothes messed up. Dot welcomed them in and Peg joined them for milk and cookies, bragging about how she and her sister had made them. Natalie grinned.
“Um… Dennis?”
“Yes, my love?”
“Ooh! That gives me shivers down my spine. Um… Would you like to go out Saturday night? I mean on a date? With me?”
“Sure! What’s going on?”
“Well, we’re both sixteen now and I figured we could stop pretend dating and go on a for real date. Maybe into Ames to see a movie.”
“Wow! That would be great! Anything with you.”
“Yeah, we’ll do that, too.”
The boys’ basketball team lived up to expectations and lost the regional semifinal. But the school still seemed upbeat as it was the first time in years they’d made it to the second game. Saturday, the school would host the class 2A regional final. The final was never held in the home gym of a school playing in it. It would be played at two o’clock in the afternoon and all basketball players from Bartley were encouraged to act as guides, ticket takers, concession sellers, and generally as hosts. The varsity team managers would take care of providing balls and running errands for the teams.
They all wore their basketball warmups to distinguish them and welcomed the teams to Bartley High School. Dennis was given the responsibility of greeting officials and scorers and seeing that they had anything they needed. He was able to demonstrate the scoring console to the timekeeper who had some questions because Bartley’s system was pretty old and still used a buzzer instead of an airhorn. He met Natalie and sat with her through the first half to watch the game. At halftime, they carried out their responsibilities, which were mostly directing fans to restrooms and the door out if they wanted to smoke. Then, instead of returning to the game, Natalie led Dennis back to the equipment locker. They settled onto a stack of tumbling mats for some serious making out. Dennis discovered Natalie had nothing on under her warmups and the tear-away seams allowed great access.
They didn’t fuck. Neither had thought to bring condoms. But they both got off orally before they had to return to the court for the end of the game to direct traffic and put away the timer and scoreboard controls.
It was a different experience to ride in the front seat with Natalie as she drove her sisters home. The twins demanded goodnight kisses from both Nat and Dennis before they’d let them continue on their way.
“Um… you taste like my sister,” Daniella said. “Were you two fooling around during the game?”
“Sort of,” Natalie said innocently as she kissed Roberta.
“I will never forget the flavor of a man’s come in a girl’s kiss,” Roberta said. “Are you sure you don’t want a little company tonight? We could make it a three-way date.”
“No!” both Natalie and Dennis replied. All four started laughing and the twins went to the door to wave as Dennis and Natalie pulled away from the curb.
The movie was fun and they actually watched most of it instead of making out all the way through. Even more fun, though, was simply walking through the mall holding hands and not being concerned if anyone saw them or if they were considered too young to date. Technically, of course, she was not supposed to have non-family passengers in her car with her. But she would just be careful.
“Let’s go parking,” she whispered when they got into the car to go home.
“You know I’d go anywhere with you,” he answered. She drove away from the mall and onto the country roads that would take them back to Bartley. They watched carefully for a possible place and turned down a lane that looked likely. They hadn’t seen anything for a while, so Natalie just stopped the car and put it in park.
“We’re parked,” she giggled. She leaned over the console to kiss him and they tangled for a while, fondling and groping each other. “Back seat,” she said.
They both piled out of the car and got into the back seat. In moments, they were hot and heavy and clothing was slipping off their bodies. It wasn’t the most comfortable place to try to make love and they were both glad it wasn’t their first time. For this time, though, it would be fine. Natalie was up against the door with one foot on the floor and one on the back of the seat. Dennis lined up over her and sank into her warm wetness with a sigh. Natalie’s moan matched his. She began rocking her hips and he slid back and forth in her welcoming channel. They kissed and tried not to knock their heads into the door, but the important part to both of them was the incredible sensations of being joined together. Both were panting when Dennis couldn’t hold back any longer and exploded inside her. That feeling was so intense that it brought Natalie the rest of the way with him and they moaned and cried into each other’s kiss.
“I could feel it,” Natalie said. “I felt your semen hitting my vagina and my cervix. It was so intense.”
“Oh, no!” Dennis said. “We didn’t use a condom.”
“Oh, geez. I forgot.”
“I don’t want you to get pregnant.”
“I probably won’t. I’m on the pill and took the last one in my cycle this morning. That means my period will start like tomorrow. So even if the pill wasn’t working, the timing would be all off. And I wanted to feel you, anyway.”
“But, what about STDs?” he asked.
“Has your dick been in anyone but me?” she asked.
“No!”
“Well, no other dicks have been in me either. We’re pretty pure when it comes to STDs. I don’t think we need to worry. Move some more so you stay hard. I want to feel it again.”
Whether their logic was sound or not, the two teens were too caught up in the feelings of raw sex to care any further. This time, though, they were both hyperaware of the fact that his bare cock was in her slippery vagina and when he sprayed his second load, it was going up inside her, not being caught in a rubber. Both nearly passed out from the intensity. And then they simply lay together, kissing and whispering until the car got too cold to stand. Before Dennis got his pants up, Natalie leaned over and sucked his cock into her mouth.
“I wanted to know what we tasted like together,” she said. “I liked it. I want more just like that.”
“I know that we all think we’re safe—except Rosie and Amy—but we really shouldn’t forget the condom again. You know, I’ll marry you without you getting pregnant.”
“Dennis! We’re not getting married. At least, not now. Maybe someday. It’s not like I don’t want to. I do, but we’re not ready for that yet.” They got out of the car, tucked themselves in and returned to the front seat. Natalie started the car and had to back down the lane all the way to the county road. For the first time, she tapped the screen on her GPS and entered Bartley, IA. They were both amazed to discover they were almost as far south as Des Moines. She followed the directions and they headed home. “What made you think about getting married?” she said.
“Um… Dad gave me the whole lecture about the birds and bees last year after the big bust at school. I guess he realized that sex was kind of a real thing in high school and it wasn’t all nice. He said Mom was a junior and Dad was a senior when they got married. We’ll be juniors next year. Dad said that once a person was old enough to have sex, he was old enough to take responsibility for the outcome. You know, something he said when I visited him in the hospital led me to believe he got Mom pregnant on purpose. He wanted to marry her and set up the situation so their parents would feel that they had to.”
“Wow. But, we’re not. Right? I mean going to get married while we’re in school. Um… next time we’re together, give me a box of those condoms. I’m going to put them here in the car in case we need one again.” They laughed at that and the conversation was lighter the rest of the way home.
Monday was a different experience at track practice. Ardith stopped Dennis before they went to the track.
“Do you remember the foul shot demonstration?” she asked. Dennis chuckled at that. “You may need to demonstrate again in order to get the guys in line.”
“We can’t shoot foul shots,” he said. “But I suppose you mean I need to show them I can do the events well and they should listen to me on conditioning.”
“Can you do that?”
“As long as I don’t have to pole vault. I’d never hit the box.”
“Pick your events carefully.”
“Okay, Coach. I can do this.”
The coaches stood by while Dennis led the sixty kids of the combined girls’ and boys’ track teams in their conditioning exercises. The guys were a little slow to pick up the system and probably only participated because they didn’t want to look bad in front of the girls. Not all the girls could keep up yet, but they all tried their hardest through the whole conditioning exercise.
“Guys, you keep giving fifty percent and the girls will all be beating you on the track,” Dennis yelled at them. He was a little intimidated by the boys on the team, all of whom were bigger than he was. But this was his part of the program and he wasn’t going to let them slack off. “You all need to be as strong and fit as I am if you want to beat these girls,” he jibed at them. The whole team laughed.
“Yeah, I definitely want to be big and strong like you. Woowoo!” one of the boys catcalled. Dennis squinted a little to figure out who it was. Derek Johnson, one of the biggest guys on the team. Well, this could be humiliating, but Dennis wasn’t about to back down.
“What’s you event, Derek?”
“Shot put.”
Dennis glanced over at the coaches and saw Ardith nod at him.
“Okay. Demonstration time. Follow me.” He turned and walked across the field to the shot put area. All throwing events were held in a separate part of the field from other events. The other team managers had set out the shot puts and Dennis immediately went over and picked up the girls’ shot. He motioned Derek to come and choose his favorite from the batch.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” he said. “Why should I humiliate you?”
“Go ahead. Give it your best shot. You’ve got a meet coming up on Thursday. You should be ready by now.”
Derek snorted and stepped into the ring. He took his stance and did the shuffle hop approach to the board in the seven-foot circle. He launched the shot for a pretty good throw. Dennis estimated about fifty or sixty feet. He stepped into the circle and did his own shot put dance. He had shorter legs and could move more steps in the seven feet. His shot landed almost even with Derek’s. The girls all applauded. The boys were still saying, “No way.” Only Dennis knew his shot was three pounds lighter than Derek’s.
“Power depends on conditioning,” Dennis lectured them. “And on the mechanics of putting your body in the right position and launching at the right angle. Coach Byers will work with you on that. I’ll work with you to get you in the best condition we can get you in.”
“Should have challenged you to a sprint instead of shot put,” a runner shouted, laughing. It was Dave Overman, a sophomore classmate of Dennis’s.
“Okay, Dave. Do I have to show you everything on the first day? Head for the starting line for the hundred-meter.”
“No. You can’t tell me… If you say so.” The two crossed to the starting line on the track where the boys’ managers had already placed starting blocks. The coaches were on the sideline and the teams gathered around them. Dennis and Dave settled into the blocks.
“Coach? If you’d give us a start, please.”
Coach Andy stepped up to the line.
“Runners take your mark. Set!” And then the whistle blew. Dennis had shorter legs than Dave so it took more steps to cover the same distance. But Dennis had been running with the basketball team all season, doing every drill he put the girls through, including running sprints. The two boys crossed the hundred-meter mark locked in step with each other. Dennis turned immediately and jogged back to the gathered team as Dave stood hunched over at the finish line gasping for air.
“I’m not as strong or as fast as most of you,” Dennis called out. “But I’m stronger and faster for my size than any of you. And good sports conditioning is how you get there. Follow my lead and you’ll be stronger and faster every week than you are now.”
Coach Andy blew his whistle again.
“Sprinters with Coach Graves. Shot put and discus with Coach Byers. Jumpers with Coach Wilson. Eight hundred meters and up and all hurdlers, come with me.” Dennis went over to sit on the bench while he caught his breath. The other team managers came up to him as well.
“Dude, why aren’t you on the team instead of managing and training?” Randy Peterson asked.
“I’m strong and fast for my size,” Dennis said. “But the athletes out there will beat me in any event in competition. Dave is just starting his season and conditioning. I’ve been working at it for six months with the Angelines. In a week or two, even the girls will be able to beat me at their events.”
“Man. Do you do all the events?” Dick Ledbetter asked.
“No. I can’t run hurdles or pole vault. I even have trouble with long jump for the same reason. The targets come at me too fast for me to be sure of where to place my foot. Besides, I can’t cheat at those,” Dennis laughed.
“Cheat? I watched you. There’s no way you could cheat.”
“I used the girls’ shot,” he confessed. “It’s three pounds lighter than what Derek threw.”
“That’s still the right size for you. You can’t cheat at a hundred-meter dash.”
“Well, not exactly. But I can never run faster than my opponent. Watching Dave was the only way I could tell where the finish line was.”
“Oh, dude. That is just so radical. Guys, I don’t think we should tell anyone about what we just heard. Agreed?”
The managers all nodded.
“You might also consider joining the conditioning exercises tomorrow,” Dennis added. The boys grimaced but eventually agreed.
Comments
Please feel free to send comments to the author at devon@devonlayne.com.
