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jtl-fics · 1 year ago

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Fluent Freshman - Part 37

Laughs might be an understatement.

Falls into hysterics might be the better way to phrase it.

It’s all so ridiculous.

He’d been scared to lose them and yet here they all were. Running around in Abby’s backyard, making a huge fuss about something stupid, talking about killing Daniel, arguing about his diet, and watching him with growing concern as he continues to laugh.

“See! This is because you gave him the damn milkshake!” Kevin exclaims turning to Aaron throwing a hand off.

FF laughs harder.

“How the fuck is Smiths having a mental breakdown about a milkshake?! He’s probably freaking out about that asshole and the fact that you want to let him make it to try-outs!” Aaron shouts back.

“He could be great!” Kevin defends.

“Man, is it worth him being great if Smithster is like this?” Matt asks.

“Well, we just keep him away from Smiths.” Kevin crosses his arms defensively. “Andrew can do it like how he kept Riko away from me.” Kevin points at Andrew.

“Riko was on a different team.” Captain Neil reminds coming up to look at FF in concern as he continued to laugh.

“He was prepared to keep you away from me and we were on the same team.” Kevin argues again.

“I don’t think Andrew is going to make out on the roof with Daniel.” Nicky says with an awkward laugh apparently recovering from Gran’s stated new favorite. Andrew and Captain Neil made faces, “Yeah, he’s not as cute as Neil.” Nicky agrees before settling at FF’s side, “Hey buddy, what’s going on? Do you wanna lay down?” he asks like FF is a toddler who is over tired.

He is pretty tired.

“Nicky he’s having a mental breakdown he’s not a toddler who needs a nap.” Aaron says.

“Well, what do you want to do Mr. Future Doctor?!” Nicky asks panicked.

FF really should stop laughing.

“I don’t study…” Aaron makes a face, “psychology.”

“Literally your only redeeming quality.” Captain Neil interjects but looks chagrined as FF wheezes.

“Shut up.” Aaron spits at him before turning to Andrew, “You’re the one who spends all that time with Dobson. Do you have any idea on how to fix him?” Aaron asks.

Andrew looks at him and FF is a little worried that he might split something in his stomach if he can’t stop laughing soon but he feels like his muscles are stuck in an almost loop that he can’t get his diaphragm out of.

Andrew walks over, “Percussive therapy.” He says and smacks FF hard on the back twice.

“Andrew!” came four different shouts.

FF coughs and it releases him from his hysterical laughing hell.

“Thanks.” He says and his stomach hurts the way it would after an especially hard work out.

“Anytime.” Andrew shrugs and moves back to stand by Captain Neil.

“Smithy? You with us buddy?” Nicky asks concerned and when FF looks around, he realizes it is well and truly the next day and well into the next day at that he must have been on auto-pilot for a while.

“Yeah,” he says and his face aches as bad as his stomach from the strain of using muscles he doesn’t normally. He coughs again, “Sorry about that.” He apologizes.

“Nah man, it’s cool.” Matt assures, “Are you okay? That was uh…a concerning amount of laughter.” He says gently.

“Yeah.” FF says, “I’m fine.” He looks at them and still doesn’t get why they all look at Captain Neil whenever he says it and why Captain Neil always looks especially pained. He decides to move along, “So, Daniel is going to try out.” FF says.

“Yes.” Kevin says at the same time the rest of his friends say “No.”

“Kevin, seriously?” Captain Neil asks.

“We need options.” Kevin shrugs before turning to FF, “Is he any good?” he asks.

“He’s obviously not as good as Smithy!” Nicky exclaims arms around FF in an instant. “Smithy got the offer, and he didn’t.” Nicky adds.

“I didn’t ask if he was better than Smiths, I asked if he was any good!” Kevin bristles.

FF shrugs, “Daniel has always been athletic.” He says thinking about the trophies that lined the halls of their home in Washington.

“The University didn’t listen to Neil and he’s Athletic. He’s going to try-out.” Kevin says.

“Not if I can help it.” Captain Neil grumbles under his breath.

“Neil, bud, you’re scaring me.” Matt says.

“I don’t need a car to kneecap him.” Andrew says with a shrug, “Smith if you don’t want him on the team then-“

“I don’t really care.” FF interrupts Andrew and the goalkeeper blinks in surprise.

“You don’t…care?” Aaron asks.

“Not anymore. Not really.” He says.

Nicky and Aaron were so worried that Andrew would murder Daniel for him that they hid the terrifying goalkeeper’s Maserati. Kevin and Matt spent the afternoon trying to make Kevin’s smoothies taste a little less terrible. Andrew is thinking about kneecapping Daniel and Captain Neil argued in front of people for his sake.

He has friends and they’re some of the most stubborn people on the planet. Once they make up their mind about someone it’s hard for them to change. They don’t care that he’s a mess of anxiety or that he’s got things he doesn’t want to talk about.

He’s got people on his contact list who would text and call him if he disappeared. More than just his grandma.

What does he really have to worry about?

The night and day of processing everything starts to catch up with him. “I’m kind of tired. I think I’m going to go to bed.” He says feeling like the weight from the night before was truly off of his chest and eager to catch some sleep.

“Drink this first.” Kevin says and FF can hear a slight concern for him but he’s not sure why.

He takes the drink.

“The flavors a little better.” Matt says and FF slams the entire drink as he’s learned to do with Kevin’s smoothies, and it really does taste better.

“Thank you.” He says.

“I’ll take that.” Nicky takes the glass from his hand. “How about we cuddle again tonight?” Nicky asks.

FF thinks that’d be nice but also thinks that Nicky moved a bit too much in his sleep.

“I’ll be okay tonight. Thanks.” he looks back at his friends, “Night guys.” He says and heads inside where Gran and Abby were enjoying some tea.

His Gran kisses his cheek, she’ll be leaving after Monday and FF will miss her like he would miss an arm but she has a bowling league to get back to, a knitting club to run, and she misses the Pacific North West. “I’m going to take you somewhere tomorrow.” She says to him in Polish.

“Ok Gran.” He says back in the same language before kissing her cheek right back. He hears Abby make a touched sound and then a commotion outside and his lips twitch in an attempt to smile, “I’m glad I came here.” He says.

She smiles back, “Me too.” She agrees.

***

“Great, Smithy is depressed.” Nicky hisses looking at Kevin, “Why the fuck would you give him one of your god awful smoothies when he’s already depressed?!” he demands.

“Physical health and mental health are heavily correlated. If his physical health improves-“

“Shut up.” Five voices chorus together as one.

“I’m not wrong.” Kevin grumbles.

Neil looks at Andrew, “We’ll watch his back.”

Andrew nods and when he looks to the rest of their group.

They will.

“Now tell me where the fuck you hid my car.” Andrew turns to Nicky.

“I have zero faith that you won’t run him over.” Nicky returns, “Can’t watch Smithy’s back in jail.” He points out.

“To be fair, his back wouldn’t need to be watched if Andrew ran Daniel over.” Neil argues.

“Neil.”

“I’m just saying.”

***

There had been late night dorm discussions about shifts, what to do if they saw Daniel, and Andrew threatening a few more times that he’d call the cops until Aaron called his bluff.

“You would never call a cop to help you.” Aaron argues.

“Bee said it’s the sign of a narcissist if they use what they learn in group therapy against you.” Andrew crossed his arms and looked away.

So they walked back to Abby’s house that morning but… maybe they should have made it clear to FF that they were planning on watching out for him that weekend.

"He left?" Neil asks.

"With his grandma. She was writing to me last night. She got in contact with an old family friend, Smith's godfather. She wanted to cheer him up." Abby says leaning against her door frame with her coffee mug in her hand.

"She's good." Matt says appreciatively.

"Any word on when they'll get back?" Nicky asks.

"More than likely before the end of the day but otherwise? They didn't say. Smith's face did that thing it does when he's happy though so I don't think you have to worry. He's in good hands." she says.

In the end they have different people loitering around Abby's but FF doesn't get back until after they are all back in the dorm.

So none of them quite knew what to expect when they came to Abby's house and found a motorcycle in her driveway. "Wow, that's a nicely maintained bike." Matt comments looking the bike over with an appreciative eye.

"Thanks." came from the door and when they looked up they see FF standing with a leather jacket on and a helmet in hand. "My uh..." he hesitates, "uncle Theo," he says the title likes it's unfamiliar to him, "kept it. It was my dad's and yesterday he signed it over to me." he explains.

"Do you know how danger-" Kevin starts but Nicky's hand slaps over his mouth before he can finish any reprimand.

"Smithy that's so cool! Are you going to get your license?" Nicky asks.

"Oh, I already have my motorcycle license." he explains, "Since I don't like cars." he adds and his face does that thing again that means he's happy, as if talking about his phobia makes him feel better. "I would ride Gran's motorcycle to school a lot." he explains.

The conversation continues as Aaron, Matt, and even Andrew inspected the Motocycle approvingly. Neil was the only one who had ever ridden one aside from FF and he'd always been more interested in ones that were easy to steal than good ones like the one FF had gotten.

FF goes on a solo drive on his new motorcycle and they keep an eye on him when he's back safe.

Eventually, it's try-outs.

***

"You're sure you want to watch?" Captain Neil asks for the 3rd time since FF had stated the night before over dinner that he intended to come to practice to watch the try-out.

"Yeah Captain Neil." FF answers dutifully.

"You really don't have to come." Captain Neil implores again as they continue towards the Court.

"I want to." FF offers a half smile to Captain Neil. It'd be better to know what he's dealing with. He may have decided that he doesn't really care about the fact that Daniel is here since he has faith in his friends but he also would probably die if he sat around waiting for the news.

So he gets to the Court and Kevin hands him a new shake. "This one actually tastes almost good." Matt says with a smile. He takes the same seat next to Coach Wymack he'd taken over the last couple weeks as the team changed out.

Daniel was there bright and early already kitted out. He sees Daniel see him but Coach Wymack stepped between them when Daniel starts to move towards them, "Keep going with your warm-up Stanton." Coach Wymack orders.

Daniel gives Coach Wymack a pleading look but he must not see what he wants on Wymack's face because he scowls at Wymack and FF before he returns to stretching.

FF takes a sip of his smoothie.

He doesn't know if the smoothie is actually good, if his mouth tastes like ash, or his tastebuds are so obliterated from having drank all the previous smoothies that he can no longer understand what tastes good or bad anymore.

There's someone in the stands. "University sent someone to make sure the try-out is fair." Coach Wymack explains as he settles on the bench next to FF.

Eventually the rest of the Foxes are out, "We have a potential new recruit with us this morning. He will be trying out for the position that Lisa left open." Wymack explains and FF is shocked to see almost the entire team glowering at Daniel. (His upperclassmen friends he had expected, but Jack, Sheena, and his old roommates seem unamused by Daniel's presence).

Wymack gives the practice to Captain Neil to run.

FF sits back and watches the practice unfold.

He sips his drink.

Huh.

"Christ," he hears Coach Wymack mutter under his breath. "What kind of confidence did that kid have to argue for this try-out playing like that?" Coach Wymack asks in stunned awe as he turned to him, "Did he even ever play Exy before?" he asks.

FF sips his drink.

"I said he was athletic." he says and had figured that would have carried Daniel through. He figured if he didn't know the rules and could play at a Division 1 Collegiate level well then it's not like Daniel had zero chance.

Coach Wymack groans, "Kevin is going to kill that kid." he says and it is amazing how poorly Daniel is doing at the precision passing drill.

FF blinks in surprise before he turns his attention to the player standing still watching over the drill.

FF can feel the fury radiating off of Kevin Day.

Huh.

MASTERPOST FOR ALL PARTS OF FLUENT FRESHMAN AU

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