The Deal || Luke Hemmings

The Wannabe Soccer Recruit With a Reminder

Luke

   "Those girls are so damn annoying."

I agreed as Calum and I watched our competition for the school fair.

"Yeah, but they can sing," I admitted after.

Unlike us, the other band (consisting of those girls who were "so damn annoying" according to Calum) decided to become like one of those pop girl groups...sort of like the Spice Girls or whatever. They sang and had  choreographed moves. How did they do that at the same time? But none played any instrument.

I guess that was our only advantage to say the least--aside from the fact that our music was way better than theirs.

For sure, they had the votes of our classmates.

And that was the problem.

People weren't particularly fond of the Clifford siblings. Michael, for one, chose to seclude himself from everyone even if he wasn't like that at the start of the year. Cara, on the other hand, moved a year up some time ago and had trouble getting on with the crowd ever since. Unlike her brother, she longed to talk to people. She wanted her voice to be heard along with the others. Because of this, she was thought to be too outspoken that people didn't bother getting to know her anymore. Her old group had abandoned her and thus, she she stayed with the more despised sibling.

Eventually, she grew tired and apathetic that she didn't care to reach out to others.

Then there was Ashton who was the class tumbleweed. He was so silent, no one noticed he was there. Some girls did, and developed a crush on him, but he had a passion that took him away from those distractions: his drums. Teachers like him--which makes him repel students even more.

Calum was doing fairly well with both girls and boys and so was I, but it didn't mean that I liked those kinds of people anyway. Calum liked everyone and that was it. He did say that Tommy Fletch, some guy whose hair caught on fire, was his worst enemy in second grade, but he forgot about it a week later and gave Tommy a leaf as an act of reconcilement.

So, to put in a nice way, we're, well, slightly doomed.

-

"This is a disaster." I complained to Ashton who glumly walked out of the classroom.

"I know," he said. "unless we win.

"Do you think we can?" I looked at him hopefully.

"No."

What a positive attitude he posessed.

Ashton strode along further and I joined him, uninvited.

"Hey," I spoke again, after a few seconds. "yesterday..."

"Do you really want to talk about him now?" Ashton spoke suddenly. "I just want to get over with the fair."

If I didn't want to talk about it, I wouldn't have said anything.

"Have you been talking to Cara lately?" I asked after, thinking that this topic might be more enjoyable for him.

"No, not in the mood." he answered blankly. "And it's not because of Michael, just so you know."

We now came to a halt as
Ashton took a long look at his watch. Mumbling some things unclearly to himself, he finally looked up again to say in the same monotone voice, "I have to go somewhere now. See you around."

He went away just like that and I aimlessely wandered around the school when I decided that I had nothing better to do than to look for someone to talk to; perhaps, Calum, whom I found with a snap of my finger.