Chapter Text
It had been dark all day, the ominous gray clouds looming with the promise of rain. Great, Macklin thought to himself. Tryouts for the baseball team were starting that day, and he had been looking forward to seeing how the incoming freshman would perform, if they had the talent to make varsity like he did in his first season at San Jose. His thoughts had been stuck on the idea of tryouts ever since winter break had ended the week before, excited that he could finally reunite with the team he loved so much.
He hadn’t noticed that he had been staring absent-mindedly into his locker until it slammed shut in his face.
"Jeez, Smit, you scared me,” Mack clutched his chest, instantly recognizing the blond curls he knew too well.
Will’s bright blue eyes shined with innocence. “My bad,” he mumbled, dragging out the last word. He flicked his head toward the large window across the wall, his sunkissed curls tossing over his face as he did, “Looks like we’re not practicing today!”
“Oh really? I couldn’t tell,” Mack rolled his eyes, sarcasm dripping from his words. “I really wanted to watch the freshman play, maybe find another prodigy, or-”
“Mack, English was last period, why are you still talking like a nerd?” Will snorted at his own joke, then recoiled as Mack punched his arm. “Okay, I’m sorry!”
“Coach hasn’t sent out a text or anything, maybe he’ll make it indoors?” Mack suggested, checking his phone for the fifth time since break had started. “We still don’t even know if it’ll rain, there hasn’t been a drop all morning.”
Will frowned. “Do you see those clouds, dude? It’ll start pouring any second,” he noted, still watching the wind blow through the trees outside.
As the two of them had started chatting, two of their teammates, Ty and Tyler, had come up behind them. “What’re you whining about this time, Celly?” Tyler asked.
Mack felt his cheeks heat up with embarrassment. “Fuck you, Toff.” Celebrini was a name he wore with pride, though the nickname Celly had become a sarcastic punchline for the upperclassmen. Especially Tyler, who seemed physically incapable of saying it without a playful smirk.
“Hey, don’t talk to him like that,” Ty bumped Mack hard enough to make him stumble, and started jabbing at him dramatically. Tyler eventually joined in, pinning him against the locker with his elbow. Mack’s laugh echoed through the hallway, grabbing the attention of Cat, Tyler’s girlfriend.
“Boys, again? How often have I walked in on this now? Three times this week?” She scolded, yanking her boyfriend off of the underclassmen. “It’s senior year, Tyler, I thought you would have finally found at least a small sense of maturity.”
Tyler grinned mischievously, slinging his arm around Cat’s shoulders. “You love me.”
Cat rolled her eyes dramatically, flicking her blond hair over her shoulder. “As if, dipshit.”
Tyler gasped, acting as if their usual banter was affecting him. “How could you?”
“Oh, whatever, let’s go, Felicia and Alex are waiting for us in Warso’s room,” Cat chuckled and led towards another hallway, Tyler jogging to keep up with her. Ty followed like a puppy, or their practice child, since he was a grade below. He waved at the two sophomores before jogging to catch up with his friends.
The bell rang loudly a moment later, signaling the start of second period. “Shall we?” Mack asked.
Will nodded faithfully. “We shall!”
The two headed off to their next class, bumping shoulders and trading shoves, though they never drifted more than an arm’s length apart. Almost as if tethered by an invisible string.
While they were close with their teammates, Will and Mack shared something different than all of the others. They were constantly together, making it almost impossible to catch one of them alone. They had been friends since they were in second grade, where they were put on the same little league team, the Terriers.
The coaches immediately noticed a spark between them once they had started playing in higher leagues. With their almost immediate reactions and connections with each other, they were selected for the same All-Star team, the Eagles, where they traveled all across the state together.
In high school, they were both on varsity as freshmen, starting their careers as Sharks. They both had amazing seasons, Mack pitching and playing shortstop, and Will tearing it up as a middle infielder. They led the team on their first post-season run, but unfortunately lost the semi-finals due to terrible officiating. At least, that’s what they tell themselves.
The two boys walked into their geometry classroom, greeting their teacher and taking their usual seats beside each other at the back of the room. Mack pulled out his computer and propped his phone against the screen. Grabbing his Airpods from his pocket, he automatically passed one to Will and opened TikTok.
Will scooted his chair towards his friend’s desk, his chin barely brushing Mack’s shoulder as he watched him scroll with his jaw agape. Mack subtly moved his hand toward his shoulder, then smacked his friend’s chin up, Will rearing back in his seat.
Mack’s laughter filled the classroom as Will rubbed his jaw with a frown on his face. “What the fuck?” he scowled, slapping Mack’s shoulder before quickly returning to his desk. Mack turned on his playlist as the bell signifying the start of class rang.
Class went by excruciatingly slowly, especially with Mack checking his phone every few minutes to see if Warso had said anything about practice. Yet. But throughout the entire hour and half he was stuck in math—with Smitty breathing over his shoulder half the time— his coach hadn't said a thing.
Hungry, Mack and Will beelined it straight for the lunch line as the bell signaled the end of class. Once they collected their food, they made their way over to their usual table, all but two of the eight chairs filled. They found their seats between Yaroslav, a tall, intimidating-looking man, who was really just a huge teddy bear, and William Eklund, who the group really only called Eky due to the coincidence they had two Wills in their group.
“What’s up?” Eky asked when he saw the concern in Mack’s eyes.
“Nothing, just worried about practice,” he shrugged, taking his usual seat between Will and Colin, dropping his backpack under his seat. “They still haven’t said anything about the weather.”
Will, sensing Mack’s knee bouncing underneath the table, bumped his hand against his friend’s leg, making the brunette jolt, but causing him to look over anyway. Will took an exaggerated breath, Mack following the gesture. Will’s thumb traced circles on Mack’s shoulders once he slung his arm across the back of his friend’s chair.
Collin, Igor, and Pavol, who were constantly arguing about something new every day, were in the midst of a new heated debate about baseball teams. Eky and Yaroslav butted in every once in a while, and Shakir, being quiet as always, just clung to his best friend, Collin. It was something about the Giants, but Mack wasn’t paying attention. His mind was distracted by the slight contact of Will’s fingers on his back, occasionally sending a shiver down his spine that he tried very hard to ignore.
He pushed these thoughts away and began adding a couple of his own jabs to the dispute at the table, which somehow added more heat to the fire that had begun with. The argument eventually got to the point where Igor put Collin into a headlock, and Pavol was ruffling up the top of both of their heads, leaving Shakir to break it up while Eky and Yaroslav sat back and laughed.
Once Mack had emptied his tray, he stacked it on top of Will’s and carried them over to the trash, instantly feeling the absence of Will’s warm touch. Something was going on with him today, and his and Will’s usual touchiness felt like too much.
Before lunch ended, Ty and Tyler joined the team, along with the rest of the upperclassmen, Alex, Mario, and Ryan. Each pulling up their own chairs, they completed the varsity roster from last season. Mack could only hope that they could add on a couple of extra players after losing a few seniors last year.
While the others laughed and shared stories of recent events, Mack’s head was still spinning with the idea of baseball starting. He loved his sport, truly, but since he was a kid, he had always felt the need to outperform everyone in order to prove himself, especially when the pressure of his father bore down on him over everything else.
Mack’s mind was racing, his body tense, but once he felt Will’s hand rest on his shoulder again, the contact was all he could think about. He was grateful, his anxiety being cured in just a moment’s notice was something only Will could do to him, but he never understood why it was only Will who could.
Will had always been the loud and extroverted one, while Mack kept to himself and hardly ever opened up. But with Will, he could be someone completely different, he could be himself. Will had been there to listen to his problems when Mack felt like no one else would. Nobody could understand him more.
Mack leaned back into Will’s arm, letting himself relax for a moment before he had to pick up his hard exterior again when it was time to go to class. The duo shared two classes together today, English and math, and only had chemistry together tomorrow.
They took their time walking back to class, their laughs echoing through the hallway. Will had art his last period of the day, the only class he didn’t care to show up on time to.
“Looks like tryouts are still on,” Will remarked as they walked up to Mack's class.“No need to worry anymore.”
“I guess you’re right,” Mack sighed. “I’ll meet you in the locker room?”
“Duh.”
“Bye, Smit,” Mack chuckled.
He watched Will jog towards the art wing once the bell rang. Tossing one last glance over his shoulder, he disappeared down the hallway.
Mack sat down at his desk next to Collin, who was already working on his history notes. His short brown hair was tucked up into a baseball cap, as usual.
Before he could even ask, Collin was already dropping a pencil on his desk, along with a piece of paper. “I knew you would need it,” Collin smiled softly, noticing Mack’s shocked expression.
He grinned cheekily. “Thanks, Grafer!”
“Yeah, yeah, as long as you actually do your work this time, we’ll be even,” Collin remarked with a smirk before returning to the pages of his notebook.
“Hey! I always do my work!” Mack exclaimed, a small frown tugging at his lips as he smacked his friend in the shoulder. Although, he did have a point, because as soon as Mack popped in one of his Airpods, he shut his eyes and swayed to the beat.
“I tried,” Collin shrugged, his eyes only flicking to Mack for a second before he returned to his work, sure he would have to share with the other brunette later on.
Once history was over, Mack and Collin made their way over to the locker room, where their gear was stashed. When they arrived, they found Will already standing in the hallway outside.
Will’s face lit up with his toothy grin as he noticed them. Sticking his phone into his back pocket to push open the double doors for them, he promptly followed them inside.
Inside, they found Ty, Shakir, Igor, and Tyler already getting dressed, and shortly after, they were followed by Ryan, Mario, and Yaroslav. The rest of the team slowly trickled in followed by the freshmen.
The first to walk in was a small, brown-haired boy named Michael Misa, who Mack had played with on an All Star team in the seventh grade. Mack had beat him out for the starting pitcher position. Michael wasn’t bad by any measure, Mack was just better.
Following him was a league-wide phenomenon in the baseball community, Sam Dickinson. Known for his performance as a corner and at the plate, he could hit right or left, and performed remarkably at both first and third base. Mack hoped that everything he had heard about the kid was true, because if it was, the season could get a whole lot better just with Sam on the team.
A couple others walked in that Mack didn’t recognize. Each one radiated nervousness as they made their way to the back of the locker room in a pack, unwilling to disturb the older players. Mack remembered that feeling all too well, but his newfound seniority over them gave him a boost of confidence.
“Does anyone have deodorant? I forgot mine,” Mario shouted over the chaos that was the boys locker room. At least four arms shot up with deodorant in hand. “Thanks, boys, but I don’t smell that bad.”
A few people scoffed knowingly, the rest chuckling softly.
“Hey!” Mario grumbled, running his fingers through his dark brown curls as he stuck the deodorant he’d snatched from Tyler under his jersey before pulling his pants the rest of the way up.
Mack had already begun packing up his bag to take to the field, only waiting on Will to finish changing, who was taking longer than usual. “Come on, Smit, let’s go,” Mack whined quietly, only loud enough for Will to hear.
“I’m almost done, chill,” he retorted, fastening his belt around his waist before swinging his backpack around to his chest. He dragged his bag behind them as they pressed their way out of the locker room and into the frigid winter air.
It had been a cold winter, by Northern California standards. With lows reaching the low thirties and the highs being only in the forties some days, it was lucky to even see the sun peeking through the clouds. But today it was in the high fifties. The perfect weather for baseball, Mack thought as the two boys trudged towards the baseball field.
They reached the field fifteen minutes before tryouts started, the clouds were still looming but nothing had fallen from them yet. By the time they had laced up their cleats and started to press the bases into the dirt, the rest of the team had started to show up and help out.
The coaches had also shown up with the team, with Ryan Warsofsky, more casually known as Warso to the players leading them in. He sat on a bucket by the dugout with a clipboard in hand, surrounded by the assistant coaches.
“Boys, huddle up!” Warso called out to the players, who were currently trying to move some dirt around so they could shove second base into its place.
Mack took a deep breath and shut his eyes, only to be jolted back to reality by Will’s hand on the small of his back.
There was a knowing look in his blue eyes, telling Mack everything was okay, and always would be. Mack loved that about his best friend, how caring and kind and positive he could be when Mack didn’t have the strength.
Mack picked up on what Will was trying to say, and gave him a knowing nod before jogging up to the foul line.
“Welcome to day one of tryouts for the San Jose Sharks. I’m Coach Warsofsky, you can call me Warso. These are your assistant coaches for the season, Coaches Wiseman, Houda, and Speer.” he said, pointing at each coach, respectively. “We’re really excited to see so many new faces out here today, and who knows? Maybe a couple of you new freshmen have the stuff to make it onto varsity for this season. Let’s get started!”