Chapter 11

Derek's POV

3 days later...

Well, today is the first day of practice of the season. I'm excited to get back to playing hard, but it also means that me and Adrian have to be communicating a lot, talking to each other, coordinating our defensive schemes. Me and him worked so well together last year and I hope that we can still work even if we're not on the best terms, mostly due to me.

I'm being a dick and I fully understand that, I should stop, but like I've said, it makes me really uncomfortable that someone else knows about the secret I'm most ashamed of. I really don't want people knowing about me, and Adrian, by no fault of his own, knows my deepest secret.

In the last couple days, the only person I've actually talked to multiple times is Damian. He's super chill and he's a good guy. Again, gay guys are not my favorite people. To be honest, I don't really like gay people. If you're gay but laid back, then that's cool and I'm chill with you. If you aren't flaunting your gayness around, then I will be more likely to hang out with you.

Damian is cool like that. If someone to talk to is something I need, then Damian is and has been that for me in the last couple days.

Practice is at 3 today. The football season is starting before classes, but I still need to know what it's like to have to juggle constant travel with difficult work. I think the person that would know best that I actually want to talk to right now is Damian, who stays in the building next to mine.

I text him and ask if he can talk for a bit (non romantically still, obviously, I cannot stress how not romantic me and his relationship is) and he writes back pretty quickly and answers that he can talk for a bit and to meet him at the tables outside his dorm building.

It's already 10:00 AM, and I need to get some food before I starve to fucking death. I can't eat too much that I'm gonna be tired when practice starts, but I need something in my system before any sports can happen.

I leave my dorm building and walk over to the benches he said to meet me at and he's already there, scrolling through something, probably TikTok. TikTok getting banned is pretty sad to me, and I'm gonna miss it. Hopefully an American investor can buy it and save the app and all of us from having to move to YouTube Shorts.

"What's up?" I ask, taking a seat across the table from him.

"Not much, how bout you?"

"I'll have shit going on in about 5 hours, but right now I need to know how to juggle classes and sports because I was able to do it really well in high school, but that was without the multiple days of travel that I'm about to have to deal with this year."

"It's kind of difficult, but not that bad. You'll have time, I assume, at night after practice ends, and that's when you have to get your work done. I've been lucky because some of my teachers have given me assignment extensions because they understand how difficult it is to keep up with two massive time commitments at once. Figure that out before class starts, it will help you a lot to know what your teachers are like so you can know what classes won't give you extensions and what classes will give you extensions. If the teachers won't give you extensions, focus on those classes and utilize the extensions in the other classes," he states.

"Alright. Thanks."

"No problem. Listen, I've got a date in about an hour and I need to get myself into something presentable, you know, fix up my hair and shit, all of that," he tells me, pointing at his clothes, which are definitely not date attire clothes. He's wearing basketball shorts and a black t shirt.

"Oh, you've got a date? Who is it?" I ask, trying and failing to be a good brother.

"It's just some guy I met the other day after I left the bowling alley. He seemed cool, he was totally into me, and I just thought that it's about time that I put myself back out there so I just swung on it and asked him on a date."

"Good luck. Where are you going?"

"Are you trying to talk to me like a brother?" he asks, smiling.

"I kind of am, but I've never had a sibling before so I have no idea how to talk to someone like this."

"It's fine. You're doing a decent job at it. I've never had a brother. I've had a sister, and she's definitely not the person to talk to about dates and shit like this. I'm just glad I have a chill brother and not a bitchy brother."

"Thanks. I haven't really thought about the fact that I've never had a sibling until I met you and now I wish I grew up with a sibling," I state.

He chuckles. "Trust me, you did not want to hang out with me during middle school. I was a nightmare, ask your dad or my mom about it and they'll both tell you how horrible I was during those years. I was always sneaking out of the house to go to my friend's house, who I had a crush on. I still haven't told him to this day that I had a crush on him, but I would sleep at his house and it was nice and everything but my mom and your dad were pissed at me every time I did that."

"I was still living in Boston during those years. I would never sneak out of the house because my mom would probably beat me if I did that. I really don't know why I care about what she says anymore. I feel like deep down there might be some kind of emotion in me that loves her for raising me on her own, I mean, look where I've ended up. The other thought I have about her is that my hate for her drove me to try to be great, and that's the real reason I'm how I am now," I ramble.

"Yeah, I think it might be the second one," Damian laughs. "But I think my hate for my biological dad is what drove me to be great. I had this whole thought, I was gonna bring honor to the Thomas name after my dad left my mom. Thank goodness your dad came because I might've needed to get a job at 8 years old," he laughs again.

"I'm glad my dad came to help you guys. The only adult male influence in my life in the last few years is my mom's friend from church, Chad. He's a fatass idiot who I hate so much. He hates me too, I have no idea why. Maybe it's because I intimidated him, I don't know."

"You could easily be scary if you just put the effort into that," Damian states.

"Yeah. I could." I think I'm scaring or at least intimidating Adrian every time I'm glaring at him.

"Anyways, it was nice talking to you Derek, I have a date to get to in an hour, and like I said, this outfit is not acceptable to wear to a date, so I'll see you later."

"See you later. Tell me how it goes. I bet you've got him wrapped around your finger already."

"Thanks. I'll see you later," he walks back into the dorm building and I go back to my dorm building.

I decide to go get some lunch and chill alone for a couple hours before practice starts. I've found that being alone is actually nice now. I don't like being around people anymore. I don't know if I'm depressed, I don't really have anything to be depressed about, but being alone is just nice. It's way more peaceful than having to talk to people. I'm glad my friends don't push for me to hang out with them all the time and don't question why I want to be alone all the time.

Well, now that I got my alone time, I have to be around all of them now no matter what I want. All the incoming freshmen are getting their jerseys today, so that's gonna be cool. We can't pick our numbers though, we have to just get a random number that is assigned to the overall position we play.

I go back to my dorm room after just chilling outside a restaurant for a couple hours so I can get a ride from someone. I don't like driving and I think everyone has figured that out already. It just stresses me out and I don't like when people are blasting music in my car either, that distracts me a hell of a lot.

"Yo, Derek, you need a ride? I'm already bringing Kai and Jax so you can come with us," DeShaun tells me as I make my way towards the building.

"Sure, that would be great, thanks bro."

"No problem."

I follow DeShaun, Kai, and Jax to DeShaun's car which is pretty damn nice. It's a Mercedes Sedan and I'm pretty damn sure he didn't buy it himself. I think his parents probably bought it for him, but that's still a lot of money.

"You guys ready for the season to start? I'm kind of scared, these guys are way tougher than us," Kai says and I nod.

"Yeah, I'm a bit stressed but we just have to play hard and prove to our coach that we deserve to get playing time," DeShaun replies.

"I think there are only a few of us that actually have a decent chance of starting right off the bat, and they're Devin, Cam, Aaron, Adrian, and Derek," Jax states.

"You think I could start right off the bat?" I question and Jax shrugs.

"Maybe. I think you're good enough. I don't know if kick returning really counts, but Darren will probably be our primary kick returner," Jax says. "But I'm like 90% sure that Devin will start. Everyone else that I named will almost surely have the starting job locked down by the end of this year. The team last year was so bad and the juniors and sophomores didn't get enough reps last year, so they'll want to see how we play."

"I think the rest of us will get plenty of playing time though, maybe not Cam until he actually starts, but I think he'll probably get the starting job immediately. Woodson was a terrible starting QB last year, I feel like anything better than him would be good for the team," DeShaun states.

"Yeah. I think Adrian, Devin, and Cam have the best chance, their run game was alright last year and I don't know if they'll give the starting job to Aaron immediately," Kai says. "I'm sure I won't be starting in the first game though, I'll get a lot of playtime though."

"Yeah, definitely," I reply.

We pull up to the parking lot outside the athletics facilities. It's crazy. We're about to play in the fucking Rose Bowl for games, this is gonna be so crazy.

We meet up with Aaron, Cam, Adrian, and Devin and all go into the facilities like the emails told us to, where our jerseys and Coach Nelson would be waiting for us. Hopefully Coach Nelson is like Coach Payton in terms of holding all of us to a standard that is raised high so we work hard to get to that standard.

Just like the emails said, Coach Nelson is waiting inside the locker rooms with a few other assistant coaches as well as boxes of jerseys and gear for all of the incoming freshmen. Damn near 75% of the incoming freshmen are from our high school, which is pretty crazy to me. All of us just decided to come here because we were all good enough to get offers and playing with high school teammates makes it all easier. I'm sure a bunch of other high school players went to USC or San Diego State, or some other random Southern California school.

"Good afternoon everyone. My name is Coach Nelson, this is my first year coaching here at UCLA. I'm excited to start my career as a college coach, and I'm glad I can share this experience with all of you. Now, a lot of you know why this is my first year, right?" he asks.

We all nod, knowing that he was hired here because the team last year was so awful.

"Well, I think the way this team played last year was unacceptable. I hope to improve this team greatly, and I would love for you to all be a big help to me doing my job. I will try to make this season enjoyable for all of us here, but I can't do that without you guys all being in full support of me. I need you behind me on everything I do unless you can all agree that my plans are radical or stupid. I want feedback as well, so don't be shy," he says.

He seems like a pretty decent guy in terms of discipline, but I can't tell yet. I hope he knows what he's doing if this is really his first year coaching a college team.

"A couple more things before you can get your gear and jerseys and begin practice. I have looked into every single one of you incoming freshmen and all of the returning players and I understand that there are multiple members of the LGBT community in this room right now. I will not tolerate any discrimination, hate, or bullying because of this fact. If we find out that any of you have been engaging in hateful acts against any of our LGBT players, we will not hesitate to kick you off this team, no matter how good you think you are. We value everyone here and discrimination because of sexuality is unacceptable."

I'm glad he's saying that. I don't know if everyone will follow that rule, but I know all of us coming from Bryant High will. The other 25% of incoming freshmen are the guys I'm a bit worried about. Some of them could've come from out of state, and that's a bit scary.

"Anyways, I'm glad to have you all here, and we will now pass out gear and jersey, just tell us your last name and position and we'll give you your stuff. Thank you for listening to me ramble!" he smiles at all of us before leaving the locker room probably to go outside to the rest of the team.

I walk up to one of the assistant coaches who's passing the jerseys out. "Last name?" he asks.

"Peterson."

He looks through the box of jerseys and hands me one with my last name on it. I have an official UCLA jersey with my fucking name on it. That's crazy to me for some reason. That's so awesome. I have a name and people might actually know who I am.

"Thank you," I tell him and he nods.

"No problem. Go grab some pads, grab a helmet, grab some pants and get changed and go out there and start practicing."

"Cool. Thanks."

I grab the gear I need, going to the corner of the room to quickly get changed, before running out onto the field, where Coach Nelson is speaking to the rest of the team, probably the returning players.

"You have any idea what we're gonna do today?" DeShaun asks me, walking up behind me.

"No, I have no idea. Hopefully something that we are able to do, because we're not as crazy athletic as the guys that have been here for multiple years."

"Yeah."

Me and DeShaun walk towards the larger group on the field and stand behind them, followed soon after by the other freshmen.

"Freshmen! We're doing weight lifting today, just seeing how strong you all are. This is not a test or anything, just seeing how far ahead or behind you might be so we know where to work. I won't be in the weight room with you guys, I'll be out here with the returning players, but a few of our assistant coaches will be there with you," Coach Nelson states.

"Here, follow me, we're going this way," an assistant coach tells all of us, and we follow him towards a really nice building.

The windows are floor to ceiling, which is really fucking beautiful. This is a nice building overall, there are plenty of drinking fountains where you can also fill up water, there's an entire smoothie bar, there are free snacks everywhere, and apparently there's supposed to be an indoor pool in here. All for just the football team, not the basketball team, not the hockey team, not the baseball team, none of them.

"Alright everyone, we'll be starting with the bench. I'll write down where you all are in terms of how much you can lift on the bench. None of these numbers will affect your chances of getting more playing time by the way, our scouting team has already given us a list of freshmen that should be starting or getting substantial playing time. This is just to see where you're at," the same assistant coach tells us.

"You want to share that bench?" I ask DeShaun, pointing to one pretty far down the row.

"Sure."

I go first by placing around 130 extra pounds on the 45 pound bar, knowing that I can confidently bench 175 pounds. I can bench 190, but only after I've already gotten a decent pump in, and I obviously haven't gotten a pump in yet today.

I lie down on the bench, DeShaun standing behind me, spotting me in case I need him to help me pull the bar off of me. I bench a lot for a cornerback at my age, but I don't really want to switch to being a linebacker despite having the ability to do that. I kind of have a sleeper build too. To the naked eye, I obviously have a really well built body, but when I flex my arms for example, they are way bigger than they seem.

I'm able to bench 175 easily for 10 reps before I get off and let DeShaun go. I can do more than 10 reps but I don't want to tire myself out yet.

DeShaun takes 30 pounds off the bar and repeats what I did before him. He might not be able to bench as much as me, but he can squat so much. Him and Aaron are basically required to be able to squat a lot because they need strength in their runs. They can each squat 475 pounds easily, and Aaron might be able to squat 500 pounds. That might be why Cam likes him so much, because he works his ass so hard in the gym. I can maybe squat 325, but my position doesn't require me to be able to squat as much as the runningbacks.

We continue to switch off the bench press until the assistant coach tells us to switch to squats, and I just start by squatting 310 because I haven't tried more than that recently. DeShaun is able to squat 480 today, which is a hell of a lot. The other defensive backs like Adrian and Jax as well as Kai and Cam are able to squat around what I squatted. Aaron squatted 495 pounds and tried to squat 500 but Cam told him not to work himself too hard and that 495 is already a lot.

We then move to deadlift, which I'm pretty good at. I can deadlift 275 pounds and that's a lot for a defensive back, considering we're the smallest position on average in terms of muscle mass. That stereotype is correct for Jax, but me and Adrian are both bigger than him. Adrian put on a lot of muscle over the summer during his camp.

Once we're done, the assistant coach tells us to go onto the field and start doing whatever Coach Nelson had the others doing.

We all walk out to the field, and Coach Nelson is having the entire team run laps around the field. He sees us walk onto the field and blows his whistle, stopping all of them from running.

"Alright everyone. I'm glad everyone's here and we can get started on what I have planned for today. The first thing we're doing is finding out everyone's position and which of you freshmen should be starting. Which of the incoming freshmen played on special teams in high school?" he asks, looking at our group.

Kai, Jax, Darren, Adrian, Devin, and DeShaun raise their hands. We had a top tier special teams unit, especially once Kai and Jax came. They're so fast and block way better than I expected them to block.

"You may know that last year, this special teams unit was dead last in the Pac 12, and I would like to change that. I also understand that a lot of you are from the same high school, and I looked into that high school and saw that they had the best special teams unit in the state. Everyone on that unit last year, step forward," he orders, and all of them step up.

Darren was an exceptional kick returner, especially once the playoffs came around. He was balling out all postseason and was a big reason for our good field position the entire season.

"Alright. You guys will be on special teams every game, because we really need improvements. From anywhere basically, and you guys ran the best special teams unit in the state, so you guys should be bringing in those upgrades."

All of them nod.

"Which one of you is the returner?" he asks.

"I am, sir," Darren says. "My name is Darren Sproles."

"Don't call me sir, this isn't a military camp," Coach Nelson chuckles. "Just call me coach, I'm not trying to making this seem like a military camp, I'm not an uptight guy."

"Okay, coach," Darren seems to relax his posture.

"Well, you'll be returning kicks every kickoff, and we won't have you return punts yet, we'll stick with Roy, but we'll have you return a few here and there."

"Thank you coach," Darren smiles at Coach Nelson.

"No problem. Next, who here was a defensive back on that same high school team?" he asks, and me, Adrian, and Jax step up.

We ran one of the greatest defensive units in the history of California football apparently, which makes sense. We shut out teams multiple times and really frustrated skill players.

"You three ran the greatest no fly zone I've ever watched, you three will not be starting yet, but you will get a lot of playing time, there's not doubt. I'll probably let you guys close out close games as well, you guys seem disciplined," Coach Nelson says. "Next! Who else was on the defense last year?"

Devin and the rest of the players that were on the defense last year step up. Coach Nelson takes a look at Devin and thinks for a moment clearly.

"You're starting, definitely. You were the best linebacker in the state last year, right? You're Devin White?" he asks.

"Yeah, that's me."

"Great. You're starting right off the bat, I watched some tape of you and you're an amazing player. We need you on this team, playing like you were playing last year."

"Thanks coach," Devin says, taking a step back.

"Thank you."

We continue to just go through all the positions and figure out who's gonna start and who isn't. Me, Adrian, Jax, Kai, and DeShaun are not starting but we're promised plenty of playing time. Cam, Aaron, and Devin are starting. It makes sense, they are playing the positions that this team needed to improve most desperately.

I know that me and Adrian are going to be assigned the same side of the field again, and I'm fine with that. We are a no fly zone on our side of the field most of the time, and I think even if we're not on the best terms, we'll still be able to play well hopefully. I'm glad Coach Nelson is letting us close out games, because that's when we really have to be locked in, and seeing us locked in will hopefully make him want to start us more.

I think this will be a pretty good season as long as we all stay relatively healthy.

A/N: I think I'm gonna stick to having just POVs for Adrian and Derek. I don't really know what I would write if there was a POV for Cam and/or Aaron in this book, and again, I really have no idea what I'm gonna do with Kai and Jax. Devin and DeShaun I also have no real plans for in this book, I know there were a few chapters in Devin's POV in the first book, but that's changing in this book. It's going to be exclusively in Derek and Adrian's POVs. I also have a whole plan for the next 15 chapters and I'm so excited to start writing some of the drama. Thanks for reading!!!