A/N: I've written almost 300 words on my essay, and to do that I had to scroll through Kim Kardashian's Twitter, and so for that I think I deserve a break. So you guys get and early update of this, enjoy :)

Chapter 11: Winger

Scott stood fast with a training pad attached to his arm, he unnecessarily tucks his head away as Kirstie runs at him in a practice tackle against the pad. Scott takes a step back with the small force then stands up straight to look at the female member of the team looking up at him with her arms crossed.
     "Hit back Scott!" she scolds him, "I won't break, this..." she gestures between them, "...what you're doing is just pissing me off."
     "I'm standing my ground, Kirstie if I hit back you'll hit the ground. Avi doesn't hit as hard as I do because it's not part of his position."
     "So Scott, I'm still going to be tackled by the other teams Lock's, I'm not just going to be tackled by the number 13. Tomorrow I'm going to train with Mario to practice getting hit by a Prop."
     "Yeah okay that's insane, no one likes training with Mario, Kevin is just too nice to say no," Scott laughs slightly as they both look over right as Mario runs at Kevin who was holding a training pad and gets knocked clean over when he gets hit.
     "And that will hurt, I know that, but I still need to know what to expect."
     Scott nods slowly, "That's fair."
     "Exactly, so tackle me, don't hold back, give me the thing," she holds out her arms for the tackle pad as Scott detaches it from his arm and hands it to her.
     "You look smaller than Darrien behind it," he laughs as he watches her take her stance.
     "Shut up and hit me you moron," she laughs and braces herself as Scott tenses, ready to sprint at her.
     Screwing her eyes shut, Kirstie is sure she's ready for the coming hit.
     Scott runs straight at her, getting up to the full speed allowed in the short distance there was between them. He hits the pad with an open arm tackle, sending Kirstie straight over onto her back
and completely knocking the wind out of her.
      "Oh crap," Kirstie gasps, she reaches up with her empty hand to clutch at her chest as she tries to catch her breath.
     Scott drops to his knees beside her, "See, I told you this would happen," he says with nervous laughter.
     "Yep, I should have listened," she says between breaths, still lying flat on the ground.
     "If you can't take a hit then you shouldn't be on the team," a smug voice comes from someone that she can't see. Beauden kneels at her other side, but the voice wasn't his, it was he who showed up after the Captain, with his arms crossed and the smuggest look on his face, Jeremy.
     "Are you okay Kirstie?" Beauden asks, he doesn't look concerned exactly, more frustrated, but whether that was because of Kirstie, or because he'd been training with Jeremy all morning, she didn't know.
     Beauden pulls the pad from her as Scott offers her a hand up, he ends up taking both and just pulling her completely up, holding her steady.
     "You're definitely going to need to practice taking some more hits," Beauden tells her before he throws the tackling pad at Jeremy, hitting him square in the face.
     "Sure, sure, just get that thing away from me, it's face makes me want to vomit," she nods towards Jeremy whose smirk drops.
     "Get lost Jeremy," Beauden says without looking over at him. "Send Avi over here and you can finish training with Alex."
     "Fine, whatever, I don't want to train with any of you anyway." Jeremy says with a sulk as he starts to wander away, slowly.
     "Yeah not such a clever thing to say to the captain aye?" Beauden raises an eyebrow, "Mate, if you can't work with your teammates, you don't get to play with your teammates. So I'd watch your mouth if I were you." He turns back to face Kirstie and Scott, and Jeremy doesn't say another word as he leaves to send Avi over.
     "It's good being friends with the Captain," Scott jokes, jokingly whacking Beauden's arm.
     "Ha!" Beauden laughs, "Score a try and then we'll talk," he smiles.
     Scott pulls a shocked face, "That's cold."
     "Hey well I haven't scored a try, does that mean I'm not your friend either?" Kirstie pulls on a pout.
      "Well, this is where it's complicated, I'm dating your best friend so I have to say your my friend to make her happy, but score a try and like I said to him, we'll talk," he chuckles.
     "Wait you are joking right?" Scott asks suddenly.
     "Yes Scott, I'm joking," Beauden says with a nod.
     "What do you need me for?" Avi asks as he walks up behind them.
     "For size difference, Kirstie just took a hit from Scott, next she's gonna take one from me, then you, see where's at, coping wise," Beauden answers as if it were simple.
    "FYI, she didn't take my hit well," Scott raises his hand.
     "Oh, are you okay?" Avi asks, turning his full attention on Kirstie.
     "You can't ask her that every time she's going to get hit," Beauden interrupts. "Getting tackled is part or the game, you need to be able to take the hit and then get right back up. No one can help you because they're still going to be focused on the game."
     "Unless you're injured," Scott adds matter of factly.
     Beauden turns to him slowly, "Thank you for stating the obvious Scott."
     "You're welcome... oh, oops," he frowns as he realises he wasn't actually being thanked. "I'm having an off day."
      "Aren't you always?" Avi asks as he tries not to laugh at his own joke.
      "Okay guys, let's quit mucking around, this is still training after all," Beauden interrupts them. "Let's get to it." He spins around to look for Coach and when he spots him he cups his hands around his mouth to call out, "Coach! We're gonna help Kirstie with her... tackles!" he drops his hands to the Coach the thumbs up, which he returns so Beauden turns back to his teammates. "We're good to go."
Scott picks up the tackle pad and passes it to Kirstie, "You're gonna need this," he tells her as Beauden crouch's, ready.
     Before Kirstie can attach the pad to her arm he tackles her straight to the ground. He's off and up quickly, while Kirstie still lies on the ground.
     "I'm going to need so much ice after this!" she says as she sits up and finally stands up, ready for Avi to take his turn.
     "If you don't tackle her for real Kaplan, I will tackle you," Beauden tells him, "You are not doing her any favours by going easy on her." As he barely finishes his sentence Avi slams into Kirstie, pulling her to the ground the hops up quickly. Kirstie again takes too long to get up.
     "He's going to make us keep going until you get up faster, come on Kirst, you can do it," Scott nods, crouching as Kirstie readies herself for the hit.

...crouch...bind...set...

Marley opened the door to her dorm room to find her roommate lying on her bed, covered in ice packs.
     Pulling back a smile, Marley closes the door behind her and skips over to Kirstie's bed, "What happened here?"
     "You're stupid-ass boyfriend decided I needed to practice taking hits," she winces as one of her ice packs slips. "I must have gotten hit about a dozen times before I got up quick enough for him, just because he's a freaking rugby-ninja!"
     "You'll get tackled more than that in the game though Kirst, really I'm sure this is just Beauden's way of looking out for you," she shrugs as she sits down on the edge of Kirstie's bed.
     "I'm sure that that was just his way at getting back at me for taking his spot," she laughs, until she groans in pain.
      "I hope they're not expecting you back at practice tomorrow, I mean this is just after right? And you can barely move. It'll only be worse in the morning."
     "Oh no shit!" she sighs.
     "Kirstin, language!"
     "Sorry!" she groans, closing her eyes in frustration.

A/N: With some of the hits I see rugby players take, I'm surprised they get back up at all :o
     I hope you enjoyed the chapter, we explored an obstacle of Kirstie's and had a Kirstie/Scott chat :D What did you all think?

Hannah.