Leave Comments, Suggestions, Feedback. I hope you enjoy the story along the way but keep in mind that this is not a quick "get off" story. I wrote this awhile ago, but made some edits and am actively writing ch. 02, so I just figured I'd start off fresh..
Just a quick note, this is fiction, all characters are completely fictitious, any place mentioned has no actual connection to reality. This is the beginning of a much longer story, and the action (and sex) will pick up as the story goes on.
*****
I sat there in the locker room on a bench, in my sports bra and practice shorts. I still couldn't believe I, Rebecca Barnes was about to have my first practice as a Cal Tech Roaring Lion! I remember my father forcing me to tryout for my high school basketball team my sophomore year. And I was certain that I would leave it behind me as soon as the season was over. But, I was actually good, defensively more than offensively that first year, but still good. I was voted second team all-conference for my defense that year. And I had so much fun, and got to know the other girls too.
So 1 year turned into 3, and a scholarship to play for Cal Tech. Being from the midwest, I jumped at the opportunity to get out, and happily accepted the offer from the southern California school. And so here I was, a month before the semester started, about to practice in a facility that was bigger than the gymnasium where we played our home games.
As I looked around the room in astonishment, I saw my new roommate, and fast friend, Rachel Barros coming my way. Rachel seemed nice, very outgoing, like the type of roommate that might get you roped into various adventures or hosting spontaneous events in our room. She was from San Diego, and had played basketball since she was like 8, I think she told me. She was built more for the sport than I was.
She was a good 3 to 5 inches taller than me and had a bigger frame. Not that she was overweight at all, she just knew how to take care of herself, and prepare herself for the sport. She was a freshman, like me (I think we were the only 2 true freshman) and so that's kind of how we ended up rooming together. As she walked over to me she saw that I had noticed her, and smiled brightly as she closed the distance.
"Can you believe it, Rebecca?!" she cried. "God, I mean I've only been waiting for this all my life. All of my friends wanted to go play soccer or baseball, but I went and shot hoops every chance I got, and now..." her voice trailed off as she reflected.
I smiled at my new friend and that she was getting the opportunity to fulfill one of her dreams. As I did, I lazily looked around the locker room again, suddenly noticing that we were alone. "Shit, Rachel, if we don't hurry we're going to be late to your first practice." I exclaimed. as I slid my practice jersey over my head and began putting on my shoes and as Rachel put on her knee braces.
Just then a collection of girls entered the locker room. As I watched them come in, I tried to figure out what sport they belonged to, eventually deciding they were cheerleaders, and I guess we shared this locker room My musings came to a halt as my attention was pulled towards one of the cheerleaders entering the room. I was watched her walk in, but became transfixed as I saw her look right at me, to the point that I couldn't tie my shoe properly. My eyes followed her until she went out of sight, at which point I saw the botched job I had done tying my shoe. Rachel stepped in and started trying it for me. As she did I continued to dwell upon this new person that I had met, no...not even that, saw just moments earlier.
I struggled to put her physical details together, as it was her presence that captivated me and her eyes that seemingly bewitched me. Her darkly tanned skin was radiant, brought to life by the myriad of psychedelic colors on her tight fitting shirt. Embarrassingly enough I remembered looking at her breasts, and noticed that they were about a cup bigger than mine, but displayed almost eloquently, unlike some of the girls she was with. Her hair fell down past her shoulders, straight and black with a pure luster.
I can't remember many other details, than her presence. She was on the outside of the group she was with, but was clearly not walking in anyone's shadow. She had a certain assuredness that I found unnerving, yet intriguing. That alone would have promoted an attempt to search her out and at least met her, but then she looked at me. She stared beyond the point where she had to to be polite, and I found myself being consumed by the dark pools that were her pupils. As soon as she passed by, and looked at me, it immediately felt as if she was looking through me; not like she didn't even notice me, but that she was looking directly at my insides...I know I'm not explaining that well, I guess I don't even know how to describe it, but it was unlike anything I had felt before.
"Honestly, Rebecca, you're lucky I'm around to help with these difficult tasks," she teased. I nodded and smiled as her words finally sunk in. Finally ready, we headed out of the locker room and towards our first practice.
* * *
Because classes hadn't started yet, we had a long practice. And I guess because it was the first practice of the year, our coach, Coach Heath Porter, assumed that we were all out of shape enough, that after our 3 hour practice we had to do some conditioning. The conditioning facility was in the main sports complex, so we had to walk over there. As we began our journey, I looked over and saw Rachel and she smiled, not as bright as before practice but a smile all the same, as she made her way to me, as we walked.
"I should have expected that from our first practice," she began. "I guess I was just figuring today would be a lighter day, just kind of getting to know each other." She laughed a little as she finished her statement.
"Yeah, I didn't know what to expect. I really regret not running track in the spring, though," I said we walked.
"Well looks like you're going to get to make up for it. The only reason we're going all the way over to the actual conditioning center is to use the indoor track." she informed me.
I groaned, a little loudly, as the girls in front of us looked back at us for a moment.
"Hey, so have you gotten to get to know any of the other girls?" Rachel asked.
"No, not too much. I did meet Paige, the backup point guard last year. She kinda helped me out as we went through the drills. She let me know the kind of things Coach Porter wants to see, especially early on," I responded.
"Oh, is she the one who went before you on that rebounding drill?" Rachel asked with some piqued interest, "she's cute."
"Yeah, I guess so," I offered hesitantly. "I mean she did go before me on that drill, but I guess I'm not the right person to ask about the other part," I said sheepishly. I knew I didn't have to add that last part, but I was still uncomfortable with talking about attractions and what not, especially in public.
Rachel looked over and saw my face, "Oh god, you're not a prude are you." She teased as she jabbed me in the ribs.
"Nah, I just didn't have a chance to notice, you know with that Seal Team 6 training in there," I said motioning towards our practice facility.
That made Rachel laugh. "Yeah, well take it from me, little lady, she is a looker."
As we continued our trek to the indoor track, I contemplated this newest revelation about my roommate; that she found other women attractive and liked talking about it. I was by no means homophobic, I had even concluded that if I were ever attracted to a woman that I would have no problems acting on it. Though, that hadn't ever really happened. I guess, when I'm forced to actually think about it, I've never really been that attracted to anyone. I mean I dated some guys, and fooled around a bit with a few of them, but even then it wasn't necessarily driven by attraction.
Most of them I was setup with, and the closest thing I had had to a boyfriend was with this guy in my class, who on paper should have been everything I wanted. We dated for a few months, but mainly because I wanted my parents off my back, and it gave him a plausible excuse to go to Dungeons and Dragons tournaments, or con shows, hell a few times I even went with him. I had never really felt an attraction for someone else strong enough to act on, let alone talk about. That was the bigger thing to me, was that Rachel was willing to talk about someone she finds cute, before she had even really talked to that person. When I write I have no problem expressing emotions, honestly I can express deep emotion in poetry; but to another person, like face to face, the thought literally made me shudder.
Rachel noticed me shudder, and brought me from my contemplative state as she asked incredulously, "Are you actually cold?"
"No, I just lost in thought," I replied.
"That happens to you a lot, I've noticed," she said. "But doesn't matter now, time to run off all that graduation cake," she joked as we had reached the condition center.
I again groaned, but quieter this time, "You think it's too late to give the scholarship back?" I joked.
Rachel just smiled as we walked into the main conditioning area with the indoor track.
Coach Porter introduced us to Coach Debbie Richards who was an assistant coach, and handled the strength and conditioning. She immediately separated us by position groupings; all guards, all forwards and our 2 centers, then established the stations and the time allotment. The returning players looked relatively unaffected, this must be common beginning of the season procedure I thought. I quietly moved to stand with the rest of the guards as Coach Richards explained the safety regulations for various activities.
I scanned the very large room as she spoke, noticing the quality of the equipment. I was going to have to Snap the weight setup, or no one from back home would believe me. I looked out at the track, not affected by weather, or the sun beating down on it, it was in great condition, and actually found myself looking forward to running on it. As I scanned the room further I saw a collection of bodies walking in from the weight room to the inside of the track. Coach Richards noticed their entrance and explained, "Those are the cheerleaders. They use the space inside the track to practice, especially during football season, the space is large enough that they can choreograph their routines. Just stick to your activities and remember why you're here," she concluded.
Our group was the first group to run the track, and we lightly stretched as one of the student mangers explained the sequence; 2 lap warmup, 6 lap timed session, 2 lap cool down. I looked around at some of the other girls. Apparently my face gave me away, as Paige came over to me. "It sounds tough, but once you get going it's not too bad. And by next week you'll forget that you thought this would be hard," she offered reassuringly.
"Thanks, I did track for a few years back in high school, but much more the sprinting type," I said. Paige nodded in understanding as we took our lanes, Paige giving me the inner most lane, and lining up to my right. I smiled in appreciation, but before I could say anything we started running.
Paige was right, at least during the warm up laps, I did settle into a nice groove. I even had time to examine my surroundings on the last curve of lap 2, and noticed the cheerleaders practicing nearby. I briefly scanned the faces, but didn't see any I remembered.
As I made my way to the student manger, she indicated that she was starting her watch, and would be clocking my next 6 laps. I picked up the pace, moving myself towards the front half of the pack as we rounded the final curve of that first timed lap, I looked up towards the cheerleaders for a moment and immediately put my head down as I worked to start lap 2 without a drop off. The manger called out times, but I couldn't figure out which was mine, so I just kept going. I found that years of track were finally paying off as I was able to stay in the front half of the group through laps 2 and 3. On lap 4, though I began to feel it, and by that final curve I knew it wasn't going to be a pretty ending. As I rounded that curve though, my head absentmindedly looked over at the cheerleaders.
This time I saw her, the girl from earlier, and again she seemed to be looking at me. I chalked it up to a delusion as a result of exhaustion and tried to put it out of mind. I attempted to convince myself there was no reason she would be looking at me, and had about succeeded when before that final curve on the next lap I saw her watch me go around the curve. I wanted to look back to see if she was still watching, but I knew I had better not, and so all I could do was continue running and try to think of why I was so interested in this.
Unable to come to any meaningful answer I neared that final turn of the sixth lap, looking up, I saw her again and this time she was smiling. I looked around to see if anyone was near me, but there really wasn't. I turned before finishing the curve, looked up and tried to smile back at her as I raced for the finish of the timed segment. As I passed the student manger I heard her announce a time and say something else that I couldn't quite make out, as I lowered my speed considerably. Those final 2 laps went pretty normally, thought at the final curve I would exchange looks and even smiles with this mystery person.
As I reached the student manger, I saw only 1 teammate standing around. I slowed to a halt, and was handed a water bottle by the girl, who's name, I found out, was Kristina. I looked at her quizzically, as I graciously accepted the water. "Where are the others?" I asked.
