Thursday

Chapter 1 - The New Kid

My Spanish test was coming up and I really needed to study but it was difficult to do so with everyone talking about some new kid who just came to our school. We were walking to our lunch table when Becca first started talking about this boy. "Seriously, he is so attractive, we have Physics together and he sits at my lab table." Becca stated. I wasn't really paying attention them. I was more focused on trying to remember the differences between regular and irregular verbs. "I didn't get his name but I think it might have started with  a B." She continued. 

When we got to the table, I pushed my lunch aside and put my book down. All I heard was the blubbering of mouths around me and I couldn't hear myself think. It started to piss me off so I stood up to leave. "Em, where you going?" Will asked me. He's the blonde one in the group. There's WIll, Becca, Riley, and Savannah. And myself, of course. The only time we ever hung out all together was lunch, otherwise we sort of just split up and hang out with who we want to hang out with. "I need to study and you guys are louder than a group of pigs." I chuckled. "Alright, I'll see you in math then." He chuckled. I waved bye and left the cafeteria. 

I made my way down the empty hallway and into the courtyard where I found my usual study spot by the side of the front entrance to the school. I took my backpack off and sat in the grass. "Vamos estudiar." I sighed. It means, let's study. At least I'm pretty sure it does. This is why I needed to study. After about twenty minutes of struggling to focus on how to say the color orange, the bell rang. I got up and headed to math. As soon as I walked in, I noticed Will talking to some girl. This may not seem like a big deal but Will, talking to a girl not in our group, doesn't happen very often. 

I chuckled to myself and sat next to him. "Hey Will." I said. He turned to me and my eyes shifted from him to the girl and back then back to him. He punched my shoulder playfully and then class started. "Afternoon students. How is everyone's wednesday going?" Nobody answered directly. We all just sort of sighed and groaned. "Well, today we're learning about exponents." I rolled my eyes and tried to not fall asleep. 

After math and Spanish, I made my way to the locker rooms. I played soccer for the school team and we had practices every Monday and wednesday. We're a pretty kickass team if I do say so myself and I've heard that the guys team is too. We're both undefeated this season. First time in over thrity years. I plaed central defense, which I know doesn't sound all that important, but trust me, it really is. I've played defense my entire soccer career and I hate bragging, but if it weren't for me being back there, we would have lost about four of the six games we've played already. 

Sometimes I feel like a lot of the pressure is on me because I touch the ball so many times throughout each game when I shouldn't be. The ball shouldn't be back where I am as much as it has been. But my team mates think I can just easily fix the problem and send the ball back up. I do a heck of a lot work because of that. But that's the life a defensive player. Being relied on to patch up everything.

I took my soccer bag out of my locker and started putting on my shin guards and socks. I grabbed my cleats and ball and walked out to the field. Four of our players were already passing a soccer ball back and forth. I sat on the bench and tied my laces. As I did so, I listened to my coach talk to the other coach. "I think we can do that. The field is big enough." Jevon, my coach, said. "Awesome, well I'll bring the boys over right now."

Don, the other coach, jogged towards the locker rooms. "What was that all about?" I asked Jevon. "The guys are gonna practice with us today." He said. "What? Why?" I asked. "They're fertilizing the lower field so they can't ptactice over there today." Jevon placed his hands on his sides andlooked out across the grass. "Ok." I responded. I stood up and joined the line to shoot on net. I looked over towards the locker rooms to see the guys walking over to us. Boys who played soccer were extremely attractive to me so of course I'm gonna look at them a lot.  

Soon I was in front, waiting for Julia to hammer the ball in far corner of net. Sadly she missed by just a centimeter. I kicked my ball to the assistent coach, Trent, who put the ball right in front of me. I touched it once and then my foot got under the ball, causing it to fly perfectly into the top corner of the net. Holly, our goalie was shocked and frankly, I was too. Holly passed me back the ball and I dribbled it to the back of the line. All the guys were on the sidelines, watching us. 

I looked at each face until I paused on one specific person. The most attractive guy I have ever seen was standing there before me. He was tall, almost six foot and he had the most amazing brown eyes. His hair had a perfect brown quiff to it. He was just perfect in general. Who was he? That's my question. "Bring it in ladies!" Jevon shouted. He waved for the guys to join the group too. "So I know this isn't exactly want we were all planning on but we're going to make it work one way or another." Jevon began. 

I was trying to listen to him but all I could focus on was that cute boy. He was looking at the coach and just by the way he nodded his head as Jevon gave instructions, showed me how much he was into soccer. Suddenly his eyes shifted towards mine and we made eye contact for a solid three seconds. He licked his lips a grinned at me. I blushed and turned my attention back to the coach. "We're going to do some passing drills. So from Brittney to, whats your name son?" He asked the blonde dude standing next to the guy I thought was cute.

"Jay." He said. "Ok, from Britney to Jay, you guys are one group so go stand over there." He pointed to an open spot on the field. The cute guy went with them and I stayed. "And the rest of you make up the second group." Jevon said. We went through some drills and as I passed the soccer ball around, I couldn't help but  look over at the mystery guy. Every now and then, he'd look over at me to and I was forced to look away. Butterflies raged through my stomache and it made it hard to focus on my technique. 

"Focus, Johnson, focus." Jevon said to me. "Sorry coach, little tired today." I replied. "Aren't we all?" He joked. I laughed and continued the drill. At the end of practice, Jevon called me over to talk. "You alright Emma? You don't seem into it today." He said. "Yeah I just stayed up pretty late studying. Won't happen again." He patted my back, signaling me that I could leave. I picked up my soccer ball and started walking to the locker rooms. 

"Hey." I turned my head to see that really cute guy walking beside me. "Hi." I said back. My whole body filled with anxiety asI looked at him but I knew I had to be cool. "I'm brooklyn by the way." He put his hand out for me to shake, which I took. "I'm Emma." I can see that he was really muscular because of the way his white jersey clung to his stomache, showing offhis abbs. "I'm new around here so I'm just trying to introduce myself to everyone." He chuckled. "Oh so you're the new kid that everyone's been talking about." I said, putting two and two together. 

"Well, I guess that's me." He laughed. "So how long have you been playing soccer?" He asked me. "About nine, ten years." His eyes widened in surprise. "Wow, thats really awesome. I've been playing for about six or seven years." He shrugged. "That's pretty impressive." I stated. Soon we were in front of the locker rooms and had to go our seperate ways. I stopped and turned around to face him. "It was nice meeting you, Brooklyn." I said. "You too Em, see you around?" He began walking backwards. "Yeah definitely." I smiled. He smiled back and then turned his body around.