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Madeline 'Madi' Walker was never late to school. Ever. Which was why it was so shocking to see the girl run into early morning practice for the Sea Lions half an hour late.
"Mads!" Lina called the girl over with a smile, "Everything alright? You're never late."
The girl managed to pull a smile onto her face, "I guess. I mean, like, yeah, my charity event may be ruined because the lack of an event planner due to her going into labor, meaning I had to haul ass to the reporters today and everything's a huge mess. I screamed while waiting for my Starbucks order. Not at the people, I waited till I rolled my window up. And I threw up this morning."
Gloria looked at the girl in pity as the others ran laps, "Girl, sit with us, take a break. You need a rest." She glanced at Lina who nodded, "We have a friend, Trey, brilliant at event planning, who need help, we can get her involved. Add a little spice to this fancy life?"
"Hell yes." Madi trusted her two new kinda friends. She knew they wouldn't screw her over, "I need all the help I can get. It's gone mad. My caterer wanted to pull out."
Lina felt awful for the girl. She knew she worked hard to make sure she helped anyone she could.
***
Whitney quit meaning at the next morning practise, another girl had filled her spot.
"Okay, Gloria, Trey and I are going to break it down for you, Okay, one, two, three and four. Five, six, seven, eight." The routine they had nailed made Madi throw her hood up, pulling the strings to cover her face so she could hide herself. She'd never be able to nail that.
"I feel so..." Sky was lost for words, "White."
Madi snorted from behind her hooded barrier, "You are white."
Christina agreed with her, "Me too. Like Clay Akan white.
"Okay, get up. Rhythm has no colour. Just shake your junk and have some fun."
"That's right! Just shake what your momma gave ya."
Madi pulled her hoodie so she could be seen, "My mom gave me a flat ass with no boobs. I actually had an argument about it with her."
"We could just like, keep the old routine until after the game." Sky tried to dig herself out of it.
Christina added, "Or until we graduate."
"That routine suuucked." Madeline spoke in a deep voice, Sky whipping around to face her, "Who said that?"
Lina had enough with the nonsense, "Look, you want this school to respect you, right? Then you need to respect yourselves. Which means you need to improve on your skills."
Trey loved a chance to show off, "That's right. So lets drop it, like it's hot." She body rolled into a split, making everyone cry out in awe.
Madeline backward rolled away, wanting to curl up in a ball and die.
***
When Madi joined the group of girls after her economics class, Gloria was latched onto a bald guy and Seb was standing awkwardly behind her.
"What's up?" Madi greeted them, giving the boy a sideway glance, who gave her a sweet smile, going noticed by Trey.
"Ooooh! You're that Madi!"
"You Madi?" The guy that Gloria hung over spoke, "Girl, nice to meet ya. Victor."
Madi gave him a grin, "Madi." Then she paused, "But you knew that. Cause you just said my name and I-"
Lina cut her off, throwing an arm around her and covering her mouth, "She talks crazy."
Victor nudged Seb, "We like crazy in East LA, don't we?"
Seb smirked at her, watching the blush creep up while Lina's hand was still placed around her mouth, "Certainly has its perks."
Luckily the conversaton changed as Trey spotted something far in the distance, "Hey, Lina. Who is that dude over there checking you out?"
"OOoooh, go ahead Lina."
"That boy is finer than baby hair."
Muffled behind Lina's palm came a small, "I love you." To Trey.
Chuckling the girl removed her hand, "Whatever, he's just some guy."
Sky couldn't believe what she was hearing, "Huh, yea, yea right.Evan's like, the most popular guy in school-"
"Cause that matters here apparently." Madi scoffed, "But no, serious like, he's a gem.
"Please, I'm not impressed." Lina lied so obviously, Seb and Madi making eye contact and rolling their eyes.
Victor piped up, "Lina, if Malibu Ken is sweating you, me and Seb can put that boy in check, real quick." He started to punch air, the girls giving them both encouragement to go beat the boy up.
"Uuuh, I don't think thats too smart, boys." Trying to avoid everything, Madi started to move, "Imma wait in the car." She was sat there, not longer than two minutes playing flappy birds on her phone when a knock on the window caused her to lose. Rolling it down, facing the guilty boy, "You made me lose at flappy birds."
"We should hang."
Raising an eyebrow, Madi was lost for words, managing to squeak out, "Hang?"
"If you want." He replied cooly, "It'll be chill."
Madi nodded, "Yeah. Tots chill."
The girl hadn't been asked out before. Although this wasn't a date. It was definitely, only, no room for any other word, just a hang. But she wasn't one to spend time with a guy on her own, especially one she'd never actually said a word to. There had been no words. Not a singular word. Just a look. Or several looks in the two times they'd seen each other.
Although Madi and heard plenty about the boy off Gloria who seemed to want them together more than any one and she was sure that Sebastian heard plenty about her off the girl too, "That's a great way to get Glo off your back," She tested him.
"It'll be cool to do it regardless." He was so much cooler than her, "So, it'll get your digits off Gloria then, yeah?"
She breathed out, "Yeah." And awkwardly rolled the window up of the limo, sliding down in her seat in embarrassment, "Mother of God-"
