"why do we have to be here so early?" I groaned as I grabbed my luggage from the car and set it outside of the car. It was 7am and completely empty at the park, minus the team, where the bus was picking everyone up. multiple families were already here, including the Jones' family.
"because the bus is coming at 8 and everyone needed to get together. now stop complaining." my mom shot back at me. brock turned to me and laughed, so I gave him a little push. he stared at me before turning and walking towards the group of kids that were already there waiting. i looked over at the group and saw some of the siblings before deciding to follow him towards them.
"hey guys!" i said to the group, a warm smile on my face.
"someone's quite happy for 7 in the morning." Tyler said to me.
"you're on your way to regionals and you're telling me you're not happy?" i laughed and rolled my eyes. only about 5 of the boys were there so the conversations were very quiet. the parents were over by a parking space sorting out their paperwork and making schedules. turning my head back to the group, the boys continued talking.
"it's not that I'm not happy, it's the fact that it's 7 in the morning and I'm tired." Tyler explained to the group. i looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
"whatever makes you happy" i whispered to him as I brushed past him to stand near the group of siblings which had separated from the team. Ryan's sister, Lex, was the first to speak when I approached.
"you ready for the 5 hour drive?" she asked with a laugh.
"you know it!" I answered, the sarcasm evident in my voice.
"are you only excited because you can spend the whole bus ride with Tyler or..?" she trailed off at the end of the sentence. as soon as she mentioned Tyler's name, my body tensed up, but I quickly tried to play it off. act dumb or just answer? well I went with the act dumb option.
"what do you mean?" i awkwardly laughed and shifted my focus to something behind Lex.
"oh no nothing, it's just that you guys seem really close and stuff."
"sure." I smiled at her before walking away and going back towards the group of boys, which I noticed got larger. i clicked my phone on and checked the time. with only 20 minutes left, the boys were taking pictures with the parents. i ended up getting in a few of the shots and immediately had the parents send them to me. i quickly saved them all and put one on my snapchat story with the caption "taking on regionals with my favorite boys💛⚾️" .
"hey Juls, do you want to take a picture?" a voice asked while awkwardly scratching his neck. i looked up from my phone and turned around. when i saw Tyler, I smiled at how awkward he was being.
"of course." i smiled before i walked over towards Tanner and handed him my phone. after giving him my phone, I walked back over and stood next to Tyler, placing my arm around him and him doing the same to me. i placed a genuine smile on my face and after I heard the camera click, i turned towards Tyler and we both laughed. i heard the camera click again, but didn't bother to look at Tanner. our moment was interrupted when we heard the parents screaming. i guess the bus arrived a couple minutes early. i ran off towards the car and grabbed all my bags before rushing back to meet up with Tyler.
"you wanna sit together?" he asked while shoving his luggage into the bottom compartment of the bus.
"yeah sure, that sounds good" I answered. i put my luggage in the compartment, only keeping the bag I had to bring on the bus. finally everyone was done putting their things in and we all crowded into the bus.
"here, we can sit here." Tyler said as he picked out the very last row. the other boys followed and sat in the surrounding seats. brock took the seats in front of us and turned to us before sitting down.
"aw you guys are sitting together." he teased. i just rolled my eyes. i looked around the bus and saw all the parents up in the front, I didn't blame them, this bus ride was going to be a long one. i watched zach pull out his phone and speakers and start blasting music. me and Tyler began laughing when Pop Style came on. The bus driver announced that we were on our way. I rotated my body to face Tyler.
"we're really on our way to Georgia." I breathed, the whole thing was still shocking.
"we are." he looked at me and smiled.
"everything this team has dreamed for, it's so close." i said to him.
"I know, and I'm glad I get to spend it with my second family." he reached over to my hand on the armrest next to him and gave it a little squeeze. my face lit up with both happiness and uncomfortableness, but I played it off. when he finally pulled his hand away from me, he spoke again.
"we got this." he whispered to me, before leaning against the pillow he brought and falling asleep. i chuckled at how quick he fell asleep, but quietly got up to go talk to Brock and Ryan.
"hey dudes,what's good?" I said. we were still only about 40 minutes into the ride.
"very bored." they both moaned to me. i raised my eyebrow.
"we'll get used to it. we got another 4 hours." I laughed before pulling out my earbuds and sticking them into my ears. right as I put them in, my phone buzzed and I looked down out at to see a text from Skylar.
skylar❤️❤️: how's it going? anything?
juls: it's ok, but no improvement.
skylar❤️❤️: well the bets running out of time.
right, the bet. the idea slipped my mind.
juls: its fine, I got this. i have to go, I'll talk to you later.
she didn't respond after that. i lifted myself from my seat just enough to look back and see Tyler. he was still asleep so I stayed where I was, but I looked at Tyler just a little longer. i shook my head with a laugh, before sitting back down in my seat next to Ryan. i listened to my music as the thought of the bet and Tyler eventually sent me off into a nap. this defiantly was going to be one crazy trip.
