“Something like that,” I affirmed. “I’m so excited to spend the year helping you ladies grow your skills and hopefully secure a few titles of your own. For now, let’s get warmed up. We are going to start with four laps around the gym,” I instructed, taking off to lead the jogging, showing the girls I was in this with them.
We had an easy first day of running a few drills, and I worked off all the jitters with the help of the ladies. After practice, the ladies gathered their bags to exit the gym, and I went to collectthe cleaning supplies to sanitize and roll up the mats. Quite a nostalgic feeling.
“Aye coach, can we be honest with you?” Cara shouted from across the gym.
“Always,” I confidently stated but I was dying on the inside. All seven pairs of eyes were on me as they crossed the mat, headed in my direction.
“We were scared after seeing you pull up to the gym in your heels and dresses last week. We just knew you were about to come in here all prissy and we were planning to run you off,” Cara confessed. “But we like you. I hope you stick around. We can’t handle betrayal like with our previous coach. She quit and took half of the team.”
“First, I want to thank you for your honesty and assure you that I’m here to stay,” I laughed. “Watching you guys during the preseason workout and practice today shows me that you guys are dedicated to rebuilding our team. Second, I’m used to being underestimated. I think it actually helped me with a few of my opponents. They saw me, formed an opinion, then I had to show them I wasn’t an easy win. Don’t ever let your opponent’s appearance allow you to let your guard down.”
A chorus of agreement sounded off as the ladies exited the gym while I sanitized the mats and waited for them to dry. I grabbed my bottle of water and took a seat on the edge of the mat, reveling in my accomplishments. The gym door opened, interrupting my moment as my neck snapped in that direction. Rashawn and Nash swaggered into view. A bouquet of sunflowers was clasped tightly in Rashawn’s hands, pulling a huge grin out of me.
“I sent you flowers, but I couldn’t be sure you received them because you never texted me. So I volunteered to take Nash home so he could walk me in to see you. I wanted to makeyour first day of practice as the girls wrestling coach special,” Rashawn divulged.
I sprang to my feet and met them across the gym. “Oh no, I received the flowers. They are in my classroom. The receptionist didn’t bring them up until I was walking out of the classroom to come to the gym. I was going to text you when I finished up. I had to jump right into things when I got here.”
“Good, I was about to break my foot off in somebody’s ass if they didn’t deliver it after hitting my card,” he detailed, passing me the flowers.
I wanted to jump into his arms and kiss him. But Nash was standing right there, eyeing us.
“We can roll up the mats, TT,” Nash offered.
“I would really appreciate that. I’m going to grab my purse and the other flowers from my classroom, and I should be back before you guys are done. Just slide the mats on the side of the bleachers.”
“We got you,” Rashawn affirmed, leaning in to peck my cheek.
On my way out of the gym, my phone rang with a FaceTime call from Essex.
“Hello,”I bubbled into the phone.
“Wassup sis? How was your first day of practice?”
“It was better than I ever could’ve ever imagined,”I gushed. “The girls are so welcoming, and they are actually a great group. I see a lot of potential.”
“That’s what’s up. You gotta send us the schedule so we can make sure we can make everything this season. I’m excited for you, Elise. As soon as they told me they needed a wrestling coach for the girls, I knew you would love it,”he grinned, and Nova’s juicy face came into view.
“Hey beautiful. You heard your TT on the phone?”I cooed.
She smiled, dripping slob all over Essex’s dreads.
“Oh yeah, we need to know at what age do little girls start wrestling? Baby girl needs to be on that mat as soon as she can. I need you to teach her how to whoop ass. What age wrestling start?”
“Oh my God,”I sputtered. Tears rimmed my eyes thinking about the way I had to sneak around to do all things wrestling. If my niece wanted to wrestle, I’d teach her everything there was to know.
“Ya ya yah!”Nova babbled, smiling at me in the camera.
“Yeah, my chunky cheek mama,”I replied.“You are out here giving everybody baby fever.”
“Yeah, you getting up there in age, Elise.”
“We,”I snipped.“You’re literally three minutes older than me.”
“I didn’t include myself because I settled down. I got married. I have two kids and one on the way. You need to settle down and have one so our jits can grow up together.”
I swallowed hard, entering my classroom.“Yeah, we’ll have a discussion about that soon,”I nodded. “But I have to get out of here. It’s getting late and I’m hungry. I’ll call you and chunky mama later.”
“Alright. I love you, sis.”
