...you barely make it (Physique 1)

You know you came in very physically fit as well as understanding how Lacrosse is played, and that might be the only thing that saves you. You don't know how you totally neglected working out over the time that you've been here. Especially since you knew that this tryout was coming. The coach grimaces as you fumble and stumble and barely stay on your feet. What ultimately saves you is that you do, in fact, stay on your feet. Far too many of the other prospects are incompetent to the point of farce, and would be worse than useless on the team. Coach Mayfield seems visibly horrified at his options. In the end, you make it in primarily due to the display of basic (very basic) competence.

It's still enough to exhaust you. As the sun lowers in the sky, you head over to the water station and find the cheerleaders there.

"Hey," you say, as you take a drink of water.

"Hey," {If Know Taylor = 1}Taylor says. "{else}the black cheerleader says. "My name is Taylor. {endif}I saw you out there."

"Oh, really," you say, trying to act cool in spite of everything. "What did you think?"

She is frowning. "We'll see how it goes, this semester. Maybe we'll get better tryouts in the Spring."

You hold back a grimace or a frown. Showing any visible sign of disappointment will only dig your hole deeper. Across the field you can see Jordan frowning at you as well. There's no way around it: you've failed to impress. You're confident that you're in, but only because everyone else sucked so much.

Glancing back at Taylor, you are stuck by how she was incredibly rude to you, and she just does not care. You examine her face for any sign of disappointment, guilt, or empathy. But no. Her frown is cold. She turns away, her skirt swishing up for a second, and walks off down the field. The other cheerleaders follow her.

You clench both your fists. There's no point in interacting with them anymore. You quietly step off the field and back into campus.

That night, you overcome your own exhaustion and go to the gym. You don't work yourself hard, but you do work out. You are not going to let Taylor demean you, or disappoint Jordan. If you're going to be on this Lacrosse team, you're going to be a good player. At one point, you feel like you almost might puke, but you keep pushing yourself and ultimately feel the tingling in your muscles that means that you have worked them to the point that they will grow.

Then, of course, you go back to your dorm room and collapse. You wake up in the morning unsure of whether you had dinner.