7. The Offseason, Part 3

 August 17, Madison, Wisconsin, just before noon

Jason reread the email one more time, confirming that he was in the right place at the right time. He glanced up at the sign that read “Madison North High School” and figured that he couldn’t be too far astray. He took a deep breath, letting the air fill his lungs and taking a moment to focus himself. Jason walked up to one of the many doors that formed a long row across the face of the building. As he approached the door, he prayed that it was unlocked and that he wouldn’t make an absolute fool of himself as he tried to open it. As his hand wrapped around the handle that was warm in the humid midwestern heat, he closed his eyes and pulled. A huge sense of relief flowed over him as the door swung open and he walked into the brightly lit entranceway. Looking down at the email again, he followed the directions to a room that connected to several offices. There Jason was greeted by a middle aged man sitting behind a massive desk full of paperwork and forms. 

“Hi, are you a new student here to meet with your counselor?” The man gently asked. 

“Uh, yeah” Jason replied, still a little overwhelmed and trying to get his bearings. 

“Well why don’t you come right up here and I’ll get you sorted out and point you in the right direction.” The man waved Jason over as he spoke. As Jason got closer he could see the man was wearing a green polo with “MNHS” embroidered on the breast. The man himself was short and a little fat and wore glasses with broad rectangular frames. “Alrighty what’s your name?” he asked once Jason was nearby. 

“I’m Jason,” he replied “Jason Ewing.”

“Well nice to meet you Jason, I’m Mr. Logan” Mr. Logan began tapping away at the keyboard in front of him. “So where are you from Jason?” 

“I’m from Vancouver, Canada.” Jason responded, finding it easier and easier to talk to Mr. Logan. 

“Vancouver, that’s quite a ways away from here.” As Mr. Logan finished responding, he also stopped tapping away at the keyboard and then looked from the screen up to Jason. “And can I get your date of birth real quickly?” Jason gave his birthdate to Mr. Logan who returned to using the computer. “Alrighty, looks like I’ve got the right person.” Mr. Logan pulled a form from one of the many stacks of colored paper around the desk and began jotting down some information. “Okay take this form to that office and Mrs. Hopkins will get you your schedule for the year and then we’ll have someone show you around the school to help you get an idea of what everything looks like.” Mr. Logan pointed to one of the several offices and handed the form to Jason. 

“Okay, thank you.” Jason took the form and headed to the office that Mr. Logan had pointed to. The door was already open and Jason tentatively stuck his head into the office. “Uh hi, Mrs. Hopkins?”

“Oh hello! Yes! I am Mrs. Hopkins!” A woman sat at a neatly organized desk. She wore a golden dress with floral patterns and miniature rubber ducks as earrings. Jason turned his gaze to Mrs. Hopkins and handed her the form he had received from Mr. Logan. 

“Uh, Mr. Logan told me to give this to you” Jason said as Mrs. Hopkins took the form from him. 

“Ah lovely, a new student!” Mrs. Hopkins smiled as she took the form from Jason. She gestured to a chair that faced perpendicularly to her desk. “Feel free to take a seat, this might take a few minutes. Though luckily your parents took care of all the really messy and boring paperwork.” Jason sat down and watched Mrs. Hopkins plug away at the computer. His eyes surveyed the space of the office. Along the walls of the office were dozens of little triangular pennants for different universities. As Jason looked around he realized he had never heard of most of the universities on the pennants. On the desk was a picture of Mrs. Hopkins alongside another woman with a small child between them. The sound of a printer right next to Jason spooked him momentarily and he turned to watch the printer. 

When the printer was done printing, Mrs. Hopkins pulled the paper from the tray and grabbed a blue pen from a mug on her desk. Mrs. Hopkins quickly underlined several things on the paper and then handed it to Jason. “Okay so based on the transcript your parents sent us, there are all the classes this upcoming semester that are available to you, the ones I’ve underlined are the courses that I would suggest you take.” 

Jason looked over the sheet and read through all the classes available to him. Over the next several minutes Jason and Mrs. Hopkins worked out a class schedule for the school year. After everything was sorted out, Mrs. Hopkins printed out Jason’s schedule and sent him on his way. Back in the room with Mr. Logan’s desk, Jason saw Mr. Logan talking to a girl roughly Jason’s age. 

The girl was wearing a sage green jumper and wore her hair in cornrows. Even from afar Jason remarked how incredibly clear her dark brown skin was and immediately became conscious of the numerous pimples across his forehead and chin. The embarrassment passed as he realized that his hair now covered most of his forehead. Over the summer, Jason had let his hair grow out, and no longer spiked it up, instead opting to part it down the middle and let it fall across his face. Mr. Logan and the girl looked over to Jason as he stepped out of Mrs. Hopkins’ office. 

“Hey Jason got your schedule all worked out?” Mr Logan asked Jason with a smile. 

“Yeah, I think so” Jason repeatedly nodded his head ever so slightly as he responded. 

“That’s great!” Mr. Logan slid a small spiral-bound book with a few papers tucked into the cover towards Jason. “This is your planner, and there are also a few papers that might be helpful in there too.” Mr. Logan then extended a hand towards the girl he had been talking to. “And this is Anya, she’ll be showing you around the school today and helping you get situated.” 

Anya was a few inches shorter than Jason, but stood with a presence that made Jason seem small in comparison. Anya gave Jason a once over and took in all his gangly awkwardness. She immediately took note of his height and wingspan as Jason reached a hand out to her. The sleeves of Jason’s shirt, which was already a short-sleeved shirt, looked undersized compared to the length of his arms. His shorts also looked strangely short compared to Jason’s long and narrow legs. 

“Hi, I’m Jason” he spoke lightly as they shook hands. 

“I’m Anya” Anya responded casually and confidently, almost smiling as she sensed the nervousness of Jason. “Alrighty, what does that schedule look like?” Jason passed the paper that had his schedule over to Anya, and turned to follow her as she walked away. Anya looked over the schedule and took note of the classes that Jason had. Anya handed the schedule back to Jason and looked towards him as she led him to his first class. “You’ve got a pretty tough schedule there, what year are you in?”

“Uh, I’m a grade 11” Jason responded, looking back over his schedule. 

“Cool cool, I’m a senior here” As anya spoke she noticed a slight bit of confusion on Jason’s face. “Here in the states, we make up silly names for the different grades. 9th graders are freshmen, 10th are sophomores, 11th like you are Juniors, and 12th grade is senior.”

“Ah okay that makes sense.” Jason replied,  almost sighing as he spoke. Jason was incredibly relieved that he hadn’t had to ask what a senior was. Anya and Jason walked around the whole school, going from class to class on Jason’s schedule. The two made small talk and Anya made sure to offer any insight she could about the courses Jason was taking. Once they finished walking through Jason’s schedule, Anya took Jason to all the strange corners and side wings of the sprawling building. Anya explained various strange rules the school had, being sure to allow Jason to absorb the information that she was giving him. Before continuing from one idea to the next. 

When Anya had covered almost the entirety of the school and the conversation was dying down a little, she casually asked “Got any clubs or sports that you’re thinking about joining?” 

Jason shrugged “I don’t know.” He had not yet considered if he wanted to continue playing ultimate here in Madison.

“Well if you don’t know, that’s alright. The Wednesday of the second week of school is the club fair. The date should be on one of the sheets you’ve got there.” Anya explained. “I’m one of the captains of the Ultimate Frisbee team here if that’s something you're interested in.” Although she had teased her brother and Frederick about the prospect of recruiting the new student, Anya had learned the importance of recruiting and was always ready to give her friends on the men’s team a little help. Anya’s comment about her role on the ultimate team hit Jason like a truck, knocking him off guard. 

Panic seeped in as he tried to think of a coherent response before mumbling “Yeah, Okay, I’ll let you know.”

Seeing Jason’s response, Anya smiled and waved her hands slightly, “Hey, there’s no pressure you know. I’m sure this is overwhelming.” Jason turned bright red as he realized how poorly he had masked his reaction to her comments about ultimate. 

Jason took a deep breath and responded in a single breath “Oh, it’s fine, it's just that I used to play frisbee and now I don’t really know if I want to play anymore and I don’t want to rush that decision and make the wrong decision or something.” Jason’s words ran together as he spoke, and as he inhaled again he realized he had probably given Anya far more information than she needed. 

Continuing to read Jason like a book, Anya gently offered “The ultimate season is a long way away, you don’t need to make a decision until January if you don’t want to. Take your time. Absolutely no pressure at all.” Jason’s self-consciousness continued to compound upon itself as he heard how gentle Anya was being. 

“Sorry for dumping that on you, I’ll get in touch if I decide I want to start playing” Jason offered Anya an awkward smile. 

Anya returned the smile “Great, my number should be on one of the sheets you’ve got there, feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions at all.” Anya and Jason then said quick goodbyes to each other and went their separate ways. Once Anya made it to the car she had used to get there, she pulled out her phone, went to the group chat that she shared with X and Frederick, and immediately began typing out a message. 

You know how I said that you two could try and recruit the new kid I was showing around the school today? The little ellipses that showed Frederick and X were typing quickly popped up.

Yeah? Frederick and X both replied. Anya explained the situation as clearly as she could through text, eventually just telling Frederick and X that she’d explain the whole situation when she got back home. Despite her excitement at the idea of helping bring fresh blood to the men’s team, she drove with the same careful manner that she always did. When she pulled into her driveway, she saw that X and Frederick were sitting on the front porch talking up a storm. They approached Anya as she stepped out of the car and began bombarding her with questions. 

“How tall is he, how long has he been playing, do you know how good he is, does he cut or handle, is he fast?” Anya put up her hands, gesturing for the two to stop speaking and allow her to explain. The trio walked over to the front porch and sat down, the shade was comfortably warm compared to the scorching heat of the sun. 

“I don’t know much about his skills, how long he’s been playing, anything like that. I just know that he used to play, and is unsure if he wants to keep playing. Oh, and he’s about 6 feet tall, lanky, and white” Anya quickly explained what she knew “And no, I didn’t ask him why he wasn’t sure he wanted to keep playing.” Anya looked at X who she knew was about to ask that very question. 

Frederick nodded as he took in the information that Anya had given him.“So we just need to convince this random new kid that playing with us is better than not playing frisbee at all.” X nodded as Frederick spoke, the gears in his head turning and generating the best path forwards. 

“Well first we should figure out why he stopped playing so we can address that concern and convince him that it won't be a problem here” X stated assertively. 

“Look, getting a new guy on the team would be great,” Anya paused as she worked out how to best phrase her next words, “but the guy freaked out when I even mentioned I was a captain. Take it easy on the guy, don’t poke a sleeping bear, you’re just gonna get mauled.”

Fin Chapter 7