Pep Talks (Pepper Jones #4)

Pep Talks

(Pepper Jones Series, Book #4)

By Ali Dean

Editor: Leanne Rabesa

http://editingjuggernaut.wordpress.com

Cover: Sarah Foster

http://sprinklesontopstudios.com

“Dude, if you finish everything on your tray, I’ll be super impressed,” Lexi tells me as we settle around a large circular table with the rest of our cross country teammates. “Or totally freaked out. I haven’t decided yet.”

It’s my first meal at Chapman Hall, the cafeteria at University of Colorado at Brockton reserved for athletes only. And there were simply too many choices for dinner; I couldn’t decide. So I’ve chosen some of just about everything. My tray must weigh at least ten pounds.

“Let the girl fuel up, we’ve got triple workouts tomorrow,” Kiki Graves says. She’s co-captain of the cross team along with Sienna Darling, who hosted me for my recruit trip last fall. 

“No worries, guys, you won’t have to roll me outta here. I’m just going to take a little sample of everything,” I explain with a shrug.

“That’s wasteful,” Gina points out. She’s one of my three roommates and I got the impression that she dislikes me from the moment I met her. Well, I guess we met during my recruit trip last year, but I don’t remember her being cold then. Since arriving at the dorm suite early this morning to move in, she hasn’t been especially friendly. I haven’t decided if that’s just her personality, or if there’s something special about me.

“I won’t make it a habit, Gina.” She does make a decent point. “Promise.”

Gina scowls before returning to her salad. Lexi raises her eyebrows and glances at me in question. Like, what did you do to piss her off? Shrugging, I decide to dig into the roast beef first, and discover it’s dry as sandpaper.

Lexi giggles at my expression. “I should’ve warned you to stay away from the meat dishes.” Lexi Morris is a California girl, through and through. Her blonde curly hair is barely contained by a ponytail and she’s rocking a deep summer tan with a spattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks to top it off. We hit it off at the recruit trip last fall and I was beyond thrilled to learn she’d be one of my roommates this year. Gina and Lexi are sophomores, but our fourth roommate is a freshman like me. 

I haven’t gotten a good read on Caroline Hopkins yet. She’s the last one to join the table. There are twelve of us seated around the large circular table, and I suppose we’ll have to divide the team over two tables when the rest of them arrive. There are eighteen total on the roster this year, and the remaining six won’t get here until tomorrow. 

“Ladies, what’s this all about?” a guy asks as he hovers by our table with a tray. “You didn’t save us any seats?”

“Go away, Brax.” Kiki flicks her hand in a shooing gesture. “Girls only at this table tonight. We’re
bonding
,” she says dryly.

“Where are we supposed to sit?” Brax asks.

Kiki tilts her head, refusing to respond to the question, given that there are plenty of open tables.

Another guy throws an arm around Brax. “There will be plenty of opportunities to flirt with the girls later, man,” he says before steering him to the table where the men’s team is sitting. Brax winks at Lexi as he passes, and she rolls her eyes.

“He’s the ultimate flirt,” she explains.

I’ve heard of Brax Hilton. He’s a junior, and a top runner on the team.  I’ve never met him before, though, and I certainly don’t know anything about his flirting habits.

Sienna glances at me and the other four freshmen at the table: Caroline, Wren Jackson, Erin Tokac, and Kendra Smith. Kendra is the only other freshman from Colorado, and we raced each other a few times in high school. “We usually sit with the guys’ team after practice,” Sienna explains. “I don’t know what it was like for all of you in high school, but at UC, the men’s and women’s teams are pretty close. Sure, we compete separately, but we have the same coach and we support each other.”

I nod along with the other freshmen. It was like that at Brockton Public. While the excitement of my new teammates has provided a welcome distraction, there’s definitely an ache in my chest for my old teammates.  Zoe, Rollie, Omar, Jenny… they were my best friends.  I know they will always be my friends, but it won’t be the same. Zoe left yesterday for Mountain West, two hours away from UC at Brockton. Omar is going to State, which is even farther away in the southwestern corner of the state. And Rollie is going to college in Boston. Jenny is still in Brockton, and it’s hard to believe she’s a junior, an
upperclassman
, and co-captain of the Brockton Public cross team. It seems like yesterday she was only a freshman.

Our goodbye party a couple of days ago involved too much alcohol and tears. Jenny and Rollie started dating months ago, and they are going to try the long-distance thing. Zoe and one of my childhood friends, Wesley Jamison, casually dated for months before Wes left for Princeton last week. Wes never had a girlfriend before Zoe, but I don’t think either of them considered it anything serious, despite how long it lasted. We all knew Wes would be heading to Princeton after his deferral year was up. 

I’m the lucky one in love, I guess. My boyfriend, Jace Wilder, is a sophomore at UC, and he lives within walking distance. After spending his freshman year in the dorms (which is mandatory), he decided to move off-campus with his teammate Frankie Zimmer.

As though my thoughts have conjured the man himself, I watch Jace Wilder enter Chapman Hall surrounded by an entourage of gigantic football players. In high school, Jace’s six-foot-three frame of solid muscle was a dominating presence, and he’s gotten even stronger and his muscles even bigger since starting college a year ago. His size isn’t especially outstanding compared to his teammates’, but when he breaks away and heads toward our table after catching my eye, it’s hard not to gawk. He’s twice the size of most girls on my team.

Jace ignores the eleven sets of eyes from the other females at my table as he crouches behind me and kisses me on the cheek in greeting. I turn to face him, and he’s giving me a panty-dropping smile. I’m determined not to be the freshman girl who peaces out all the time to be with her boyfriend, but when he flashes me a grin like this, I’m really tempted to ditch my lonely dorm room tonight for his king-size bed off campus.

“How’s the first day going?” he asks quietly.

“You saw me several hours ago, Jace.” I pretend to be annoyed by his attentiveness, but it’s cute. He’s so excited for me to be a college student and he wants me to be happy. “But the first run with my team after you left my dorm room was lovely,” I appease him.

“Should I introduce myself now?” he asks. He almost sounds tentative, and it’s adorable on him. He is an extremely confident young man. And it’s not a false confidence either. It’s what makes him such a good quarterback. It’s how he led UC to the championship finals as a freshman after the team hadn’t even made the playoffs for years.

Before I can pipe up, Lexi, who is sitting beside me, eagerly replies, “Hi Jace Wilder, I’m Lexi Morris, Pepper’s roommate.” She waves and I frown at her.

“Hi Lexi, we already met this morning at the dorm,” Jace reminds her, amusement in his voice.

She shrugs. “I know, dude, but I wanted to make sure you remembered my name. It’s easy to forget the first time around, and me and your girl are gonna be friends so you should most definitely know who I am.” 

As Jace introduces himself to the rest of the table, I get the impression that everyone, even a couple of the freshmen, know who he is already. No one seems particularly shocked that he introduces himself as my boyfriend. It’s old news by now that Jace Wilder is taken, and given how much time I’ve spent with Jace on campus over the past year, it’s no secret that I’m the lucky girl.  And I do feel lucky.

The attention from college girls dwindled when they realized Jace was more interested in football than partying. Though the media didn’t catch wind of all the details behind a catastrophic series of incidents with a girl on the UC soccer team who was obsessed with Jace, there was plenty of gossip around campus. It seems most girls did not want to be called a “Savannah Hawkins” – the girl who attacked me in the name of her so-called love for my boyfriend – and decided to let go of any hope of stealing him away from me. So, in one regard, Savannah did me a favor. I guess. I try to think positively.

Jace finally leaves the table, after introducing himself to every single girl, and I can’t help but notice the glazed look in my teammates’ eyes as they watch him join the football team at the food stations. I don’t blame them.

When Sienna blurts, “Hot damn, Pepper, your boyfriend is dreamy,” I can’t suppress my laughter. Sienna has demonstrated a reserved and serious attitude up until now, and those words coming out of her mouth make me crack up. The rest of the girls join me in laughter, but agree with Sienna’s assessment.

“Right on, Sienna,” Kiki nods emphatically. 

“I’d never seen him up close before,” Trish Getty, a junior, says.

“Well, we can expect to see a lot of that sexy man with our girl Pepper around, so you ladies better learn to keep your tongues in your mouths,” Lexi states.

I dig into the veggie lasagna on my plate, which isn’t bad but can’t compare to my gran’s cooking. I’ve actually gotten used to the effect Jace has on people – women in particular. My friends in high school had the same reaction to him for a long time, and it didn’t entirely dissipate as they got to know him better, but it became manageable.  It’s taken time, but I’ve learned to deal with his celebrity status in Brockton and on campus. For a while there, I never thought I’d get used to it, but it rolls off me pretty easily now.

Part of it is that I’ve become confident in who I am. I no longer wonder why Jace picked me, or what others think about our relationship. I know I’m good for him. I make him better, and he brings out a strength in me I didn’t know existed. He helps me find a courage and determination that only comes from unconditional love and understanding. We’ve been through a lot together, and we’ve made it.  Against all odds, I won high school cross country nationals last year for the second year in a row.  And I don’t know if I could have done that if I hadn’t built the confidence and strength that’s required to be Jace’s girlfriend. Uncertainty, weakness, self-doubt – these things can’t accompany someone like Jace. He attracts a lot of attention, and it’s not always good attention. I had to learn to deal with it. And I have. It’s made me a better runner, and maybe a better person.

“You are so totally smitten, girl.” Lexi leans in to tease me, and I know I’ve got the dreamy look in my eyes that I just witnessed on my teammates.

“I’m not denying it.” I shrug before moving on to the next entrée – chicken enchiladas.

An hour later, the team is still lounging around the table, though none of us are eating anymore. Some have a cup of coffee or tea, but we’re mostly just hanging out to chat and get to know each other. The other teams in Chapman Hall seem to have the same idea, and I wonder if lingering around like this after a meal is common. It’s the first day of preseason, so maybe it’s an exception. I hope not. I like it. It’s nice getting to know the girls for their personalities instead of their running times.

Kiki is definitely the leader. At least, she’s the more overt leader.  Sienna is quiet, but her presence is a strong one. Gina, I discover, is simply a grumpy person. She isn’t all that nice to anyone, which actually makes me feel better that I haven’t been singled out. Trish and Lexi entertain us with their banter, and I’m reminded they were roommates last year. Caroline doesn’t utter a word throughout the meal, but I can tell she’s listening attentively by the way she watches everyone and smiles at the jokes. I’m curious about her, and resolve to get to know her better.

By the time we get back to the dorms and shower, I’m too exhausted to think about anything but crawling into bed. I’m grateful that my bed is in its own room. Though I have three roommates, it’s a four-bedroom suite – a great layout that is only afforded to varsity athletes. Until this moment, I hadn’t realized what a perk it is be able to go to sleep when I want to, a luxury other freshmen won’t have in their double or triple dorm rooms.

It’s been a day filled with new experiences, and it’s taken all my energy to process. Still, adrenaline runs through me when I turn off the lights and close my eyes. We had an easy group run today, nothing major. But tomorrow is our first real workout, and I’m filled with anticipation.