Baked Love

Chapter 3

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“Chip! Are you ready yet?!” Kim’s voice blasted through my poor mobile. I instantly moved away from the speaker.

“Yes yes…I’m coming…”

“The competition starts in like, twenty! Get your pretty ass here right now!” Kim demanded, “and you better wear something cute got that?”

I nodded my head, even though I knew she wouldn’t be able to see. “Yes Ma’am I’m coming now.”

Groggily, I sat up on my tiny bed which creaked dangerously and rubbed sleep from my eyes.

I went downstairs to take a quick bath and realized that we had run out of body wash. Well, obviously—I mean 7 people sharing one bottle of body wash—it’s bound to run out. I sighed. Now I’ll smell of bread and vanilla again.

I pulled on a thin pastel shirt and my only beach pants, grabbed my mobile and spectacles—no wallet—and headed down to the beach.

In our small town, the beach was only a 20-30 minute walk, but since the bakery was situated more to the east, a walk to the shore took only 10 minutes.

When I arrived, the announcer was already calling for the match-ups, and about a third of our school’s population was there to support a certain someone.

I managed to catch sight of him. Xander was in a simple black and white beach pants that reached slightly above his knees, and of course—no shirt.

“From Rivendell High School—Blake Mason,” screams.

“And Xander Jaxon!” More screams.

“Against Heren Junior College—Riley Evans and Luke Hunter!” Applause.

I managed to fight my way through another impermeable wall of screaming girls and spotted Kim waving at the stands. Apparently, everyone at the beach didn’t dress up for the tournament—they dressed for the party.

Not a single person was clad in at least a shirt or bermudas; it was all half-naked men (okay I didn’t really mind that) and girls in stripy bikini that left little for imagination.

“Finally! I thought you were never going to come,” Kim laughed, slapping me hard on the back.

“I almost thought twice about it,” I said, rubbing my back in protest.

“Come, lemme introduce you to my friends—“The popular girl dragged me over to her group and started naming them. Surprisingly, I was good at remembering their names.

“Participants to your positions!” The announcer's booming voice blasted through the loudspeakers.

The crowd took their seats immediately at the stands, and the match began.

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Needless to say, Rivendell High School won hands down.

There was a 1-hour break in between for the players to rest while the courts were cleaned up. The matches took up the whole morning and the finals would be held in the afternoon.

Unfortunately for Kim, her girls and I, we were unable to catch a glimpse of Xander during the break due to the hoard of girls congratulating the team for advancing to the finals.

The beach-side restaurants were packed for the first time and several groups set up beach umbrellas and picnics by the palm trees littered across the shore.