Coming Out and Other Sports *Completed* (wlw)

Chapter Two

After I showered, I joined my dad and my sister in the kitchen for breakfast, my younger sister Kayla ate a granola bar leaned up against the counter talking to Dad, who was eating a bowl of cheerios. Looking at them you wouldn't think they were father and daughter, she had tan, even skin and long smooth black hair and he had freckly pink skin and the hair he had left was light and cropped short.

            "Kayla, all I'm saying is if you can pull a B average you can take this boy to the Halloween Dance. Just an average, that means you can get a C, as long as you get a few As too."

            Kayla stared into her yogurt and pouted. "Yeah ok."

            "Dad, did mom leave for work already?" I asked and I put some toast in the toaster.

            "Yep," Dad said.

            "This is getting ridiculous, I haven't seen her since the weekend, we keep missing each other." I grabbed something to eat for breakfast.

            "Eventually all of us will be in the same room at the same time."

            I laughed, "Eventually."

            ­­­­Kayla and I left for school, Kayla spent the whole drive sulking about the conditions Dad had given her for the dance. I prayed that We pulled up to the school and Kayla and I went our separate ways. Cheven met me at my locker, bangs bobby-pinned straight back and baby hairs stuck to her forehead from sweat, "Day two no air-conditioning and I think I'm melting. Why don't they at least open the windows at night or something?"

            After my shower, I'd thrown my hair up in a bun, so I wasn't too miserable yet. "I think they're afraid someone will break in and vandalize the school and\or pull off an amazing senior prank, which probably isn't far off from the truth."

            Cheven shrugged, "I guess that's true. It would be a great opportunity. Either way they better get some air going through this building or I'm going to boycott school until the A\C is fixed, because this is not a good look for me." She gestured to her semi-damp hair.

            "Are you ready for the away game tonight?" I asked

            "Hell yeah!"

            We walked to class together, chit-chatting away. Hanna passed us going the other way in the hall and my breath froze, I turned and looked at her, she noticed, turning and connecting eyes with me, scrunching her eyebrows inquisitively. I whipped my head forward and wondered what had possessed me to blatantly stare at her. 

~

            After school, on the bus ride over to Southridge, we all talked smack about how we were going to whip Southridge. Coach Torres sat in the front seat chatting with the bus driver, and we took up the last six rows, all of us talking, or playing games on our phone or listening to music. The conversation had mostly been light hearted, which I was glad for. Kendal put her hands up, "So guys, can I tell you something and get your opinions?"

            Everyone looked at her.

            "So today in government-" Oh not this again I thought to myself, "-I caught that new girl Hanna just staring at me, it was so creepy, I felt so uncomfortable." She let out an exasperated breath, "It's so wrong, what if she corners me somewhere and tries to rape me?"

I rolled my eyes and hunkered down in my seat. Best I stayed out of that conversation. I hadn't met Hanna yet, but I was one hundred percent certain she had no physical desire for Kendal, and she had just happened to be spacing out in Kendal's direction. Before I could get my ear buds in to block them out with music, Cheven piped up, "That's so disturbing, I would report her for sexual harassment, Kendal."