Scott + Jackson
"After a while, you don't taste it anymore." Jackson had really only dedicated himself to drinking that much maybe two times in his whole life, but he remembered both times. They weren't fond memories at all, both of them fueled by peer pressure that that stupid desire to fit in and both times had been when he was still only a freshman in high school. Drinking back then had sort of helped with all the conflicting emotions he was feeling about his learning he was adopted, but after both of those times and their associated hangovers, he didn't think the few hours of not really feeling anything were worth the days of sickness afterwards. So he worked harder to get to the point where people respected him for not drinking so that even peer pressure couldn't get to him anymore. On that front at least.
The long shot of Scott getting that cup into the garbage can didn't escape Jackson's attention, but where that came from, he couldn't be sure. Everyone had fluke moments, he'd seen it on the lacrosse team over the past four years. Sometimes, even one of the lower string players would come out onto the field and manage to help the team score a point, but there was a reason they weren't first; their skill wasn't consistent. Scott had been like that before, but it seemed like he was more and more showing that consistency that Jackson hadn't seen and that made him wonder.
"Where this team stands, it is," Jackson countered. Thinking himself an alpha seemed almost blasphemous considering that he had one, but this season really did mean a lot to him. Colleges probably didn't care how well the seasons were, how many times they won and how many times they lost, but Jackson wanted to go to their interviews and be able to confidently brag about his team, wanted to be proud of his time as captain. Applying for schools with that testament to his leadership skills was important to him and he didn't really expect McCall to understand that.