Playing By The Rules

2. Jennifer

The two men spoke up once again. "Well, that was unnecessary."

"It's no secret that Dawson needs to work on maturity. His recklessness can do him more harm than good," the gray haired man noted.

I couldn't figure out who these two men were. They were definitely here for Caleb - their chatter was completely oriented around him - but they didn't seem like relatives. Not many family members addressed each other on a surname basis. Something didn't make sense.

Madison tapped me on the shoulder. "Let's go. The game is almost over. There's going to be a rush of people leaving at the end of the game, and I don't want to wait in line. Nick will meet us at my car, and drive us to Sonic because I'm really craving a burger right now."

We picked up our belongings and walked towards the exit. Suddenly, one of the side doors burst open with a tremendous amount of force. The unexpected commotion startled me and I dropped my manuscript, the pages flying everywhere like leaves in the fall. Madison swore under her breath, also caught off guard by this sudden interruption.

From behind the doors emerged a blonde boy. His hair was tousled, but there was a method to the madness, as though it was set poorly to appear natural. That was the bulk of my criticism. Even for someone as critical - or as I prefer to say, evaluative - as myself, it was hard to pick out any more distinct flaws in his appearance. The boy was basically perfect.

Even from afar, I noticed that he had alluring blue eyes. Not the usual light blue variety, but a rich shade of sapphire. There was something mesmerizing and mystical about those eyes.

Moving on from his eyes, the rest of this boy's appearance could be described in two words: well defined. With a jawline sharp enough to cause paper cuts and muscles barely concealed by his worn tee, I could see why so many girls worshiped athletes religiously. This guy was almost a reincarnation of Michelangelo's David.

All this information did little to help me figure out the stranger's identity, but there was one thing that acted as a straight giveaway. His smile. It was more of a grin, really, but the corners of his lips quirked up sharply in a way that radiated confidence. The kind of confidence that bordered cockiness. An I'm-better-than-everyone, insufferable, egotistical, pompous kind of cockiness.

Caleb Dawson.

I didn't know what to expect from him, so I just stood there and stared at him. A smile continued to linger on his face, and for a second, I thought maybe he wasn't so bad. Caleb held my gaze for a minute, perhaps waiting for me to do something, then put on his headphones and walked away when he realized I was content being an awkward mute. A less than ideal first impression, no doubt, but that was typical of me. My interpersonal skills left a lot to be desired.

As Caleb walked away, Madison hurried over and tapped me on the shoulder, releasing me from the trance-like state that I was in. Madison's brows were furrowed, and I thought she was mad at me, when I noticed that she was pointing to the manuscript on the ground.

"Look what he did!" Madison basically shrieked.

My eyes followed Madison's index finger down to the ground, where my precious writing was scattered all over the stained floor. Some of the unidentified liquids on the floor had tainted the pages, but there was another, much more visible marking on my work.

A giant footprint.

Judging by Madison's comment, I assumed that the footprint belonged to Caleb. It was quite a large footprint. The mark took up an entire page, blurring all the words underneath it. I tried to salvage the mess, but most of the page was now illegible. Since everything was written just prior to this incident, I didn't even have the time to transfer my work on to a computer. That meant I had to start again from scratch.