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Jamie Tartt, star player of AFC Richmond men’s team and coach of the women's team, was standing and fighting with the women’s team’s star player, Lily. “Look when I say pass the ball I want to you fuckin’ pass the fuckin’ ball,” he told her.
“I didn’t need to pass it you tosser,” Lily shot back. “I scored anyway.”
“Lily, I'm your coach. When I tell you to do somethin’ I want you to do it,” Jamie said, doing his best to keep his voice calm. “Learin’ to pass will only make yeh better. It did for me.”
“I’m not you. I’m me. I don’t need to pass the fucking ball.”
“Yeah, you're you but I was jus’ like yeh and look at me now,” Jamie said gently.
“A loser with daddy issues. Who sleeps with his coach to get every minute on the field he has,” Lily said, flipping her blonde hair. “Wanker.”
Jamie screwed his eyes shut, and took a deep breath to suppress the urge to hit her. Then in a slow and low voice he said, “Don’t yeh dare talk about me fuckin’ father. You know nothin’ abou’ i’. As for sleepin’ with Roy, that has nothin’ to do with the amoun’ of time I ge’ on the field. I earned every minute with hard work.”
“Yeah right. Like I believe that,” she scoffed. “He trains with you privately. Without that you’re nothing. Just a little boy with daddy issues.”
Jamie took another deep breath. “That’s i’,” he shouted. “Go home before I do someffin’ I’ll regret. And I’m benchin’ yeh.”
“You can’t do that,” Lily argued.
“Yes I fuckin’ can coz I’m your coach. Now go fuckin’ home,” he growled.
Roy walked over. “Lily, Jamie fucking gave you a fucking order. I suggest you fucking listen,” he told her.
“Fine,” she shouted. “Have fun losing.”
“Losin’ doesn’t matter to me as long as pricks like you don’t win,” Jamie shouted back, starting to charge at her.
Roy put an arm in front of Jamie to stop him. “Deep breath Jay,” he said, using his special nickname for Jamie.
Ted watched with a raised eyebrow. He blew on his whistle and said, “Practice is over everyone.” and made a shoeing motion with his hands. The girls went into the woman’s locker room, while Jamie, breathing heavily, went off to the men’s. The men’s team had training in half an hour.
When Jamie got into the locker room he hit his own locker. “FUCK HER!!” he yelled.
Roy stood in the doorway watching with his arms crossed. “Got that out of your system?” he asked. He was okay to just stand here while Jamie ranted and yelled to let his anger out.
“Fuck! How the fuck did you even fuckin’ stand me?” Jamie asked.
“I fucking didn’t,” Roy answered then added reading Jamie’s mind perfectly, “She’s fucking fighting you at ever turn and fucking driving you fucking insane. It’s okay for you to be fucking angry and want to fucking hurt her. I felt the same fucking way about you.”
“Bu’ you’re were me teammate, I’m her coach,” Jamie argued.
“Doesn’t make it less fucking annoying. But, Jamie, she’s throwing so much shit at you and you’re doing fucking amazing handling it,” Roy responded gently.
“Doesn’t fuckin’ feel like it,” Jamie muttered, leaning back and crossing his arms. He had a very defeated expression on his face. “I jus’ wanna ‘elp her grow bu’ i’ feels like I’m not doin’ fuckin’ anyffin’,” he added tears coming to his eyes. “I wanna be her Ted. Oh, fuck, Ted. Damn do I owe that man an apology.”
“What the fuck for?” asked Roy. Sometimes he could not keep up with Jamie’s ADHD mind.
“For all the shit I pu’ him through,” Jamie answered, tears starting to fall down his cheeks. “Even when I was bein’ a complete prick, he was calm and patient with me. Don’t know ‘ow ‘e did i’.”
“Beats me,” Roy responded. He looked at Jamie. Jamie just looked so sad and lost in this moment. Roy then had an idea. “I can’t believe I’m fucking doing this,” he groaned as he took out his phone.
“Wot?” Jamie asked, sniffling.
“Calling the fucking Diamond Dogs. Just don’t question the weird shit they do,” Roy answered as he typed. “You should be a Diamond Dog too, you know? You’re a coach now.”
A second later Ted walked into the locker room and sat down. Higgins came running from his office. Trent walked from… wherever he had been hiding. Coach Beard and Nate came running in, they had been on their way anyway because of training.
“I like to start this meeting of the Diamond Dogs,” Roy said and waited for the idiots to stop their howling.
“First, I would like to formally make Jamie one of us, seeing as he’s a coach,” Roy continued.
“Makes sense,” Ted nodded.
“Second, Jamie has something he would like to talk about,” Roy told them.
“What’s up Jamie?” asked Ted.
“Um, firs’ if I’m one of ya, do I ‘ave to do the howlin’?” he asked, looking down.
Trent shook his head. “Roy never does,” he answered.
Jamie nodded and wiped his nose. “So um, Ted, I’m so sorry about how I used ter act. Actually I want to apologize to all of you. So I’m so sorry,” he sniffled earnestly, as fresh tears made their way down his cheeks.
Beard shrugged.
“Jamie, that was long ago. It’s all good,” said Ted happily.
“Yeah,” Nate nodded quietly.
Trent shrugged. “I wasn’t here for that.”
Higgins nodded. “Thanks Jamie.”
“And you’ve already said sorry to me so many fucking times for so many different reasons that you don’t even need to fucking apologize for, that I’m fucking sick of that fucking word,” Roy shrugged.
Jamie let out a watery chuckle. “Sorry.”
“Jesus fucking Christ. What did I just say?” Roy growled.
“So-” Jamie started then cut himself off. “I’m no’ goin’ say i’.”
Roy sighed. “Good.”
Higgins looked at Jamie. “What brought this on, Jamie?” he asked gently.
“Just Lily,” Jamie shrugged.
Ted nodded in agreement. “I can see why. She reminds you of yourself.”
Jamie nodded.
“Oh, come on she can’t be that bad,” said the soft spoken Nate the Great.
Roy inhaled sharply. “She fucking is,” he comfirmed. “Been driving poor Jamie fucking insane. He’s trying to do anything he can fucking think of. She’s just not listening. And she’s not fucking listening to Ted either. Or me. I been thinking of kicking her off the fucking team.”
“That might be bad for the winning side of things,” said Higgins.
“And we can’t jus’ give up on her,” Jamie added passionately. “I mean, ‘oo knows what’s goin’ on at ‘er home life. Like maybe she’s abused or someffin’ and that’s causin’ to act out.”
Jamie blushed as everyone gave him sympathetic eyes.
“So we’ll just keep her on the team,” said Ted, “And keep trying. We’ll get there eventually.”
Roy nodded. “Sounds fine.”
“Thanks,” said Jamie, “I jus’ needed to ge’ that off me ches’.”
“That’s what this is here for,” said Trent.
“So we jus’ si’ and talk abou’ stuff and life like girl talk?” Jamie asked.
“What does girl talk even mean?” asked Ted.
“Girls just talk abou’ life and maybe boys they like and other stuff like that,” answered Jamie.
“Yep, that’s what this is,” said Beard.
Jamie bit his bottom lip and nodded. “Fuckin’ mint,” he muttered.
“Now if that’s everything,” said Roy, “We need to get ready for training.”
The others all howled, closing the meeting and sending Jamie into a fit of laughter. Roy rolled his eyes and Jamie got his kit and started changing for training.