Howard

“Dude, what are you doing? You’re going the wrong way!”

“Get your head in the game!”

I groaned. I’d heard that several times already today, and we were barely half an hour into practice. I was laying under a pile of heavy football players, and the weight on my chest was making it a little hard to breath. I was grateful when they pulled away quickly, and someone, Ted, held a hand to me to help me up.

“Thanks,” I said, taking his offered hand.

I winced when I stood up, and it got me a pat on the back.

“Are you okay? That looked a bit rough, but I think you might have tripped before anyone even landed on you.”

“I’m fine.” I stretched the muscles in my body, and there didn’t seem to be anything wrong, just a bit of ache in my back from the fall. “I’m good, the guys were just heavy.”

“If you say so. Try to keep focused, though, okay? No one wants you to get injured in the middle of practice before we even get to our first game.”

I huffed out a humorless laugh. “Believe me, it’s the last th