Chapter Seven

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Hayes and I rode down to the school in about five minutes. We figured since it's summer still the front doors of the school weren't going to be open so we walked to where the gym entrance was. It was unlocked.

I opened the doors into the gymnasium and it was completely empty. I flipped the switches to the lights on and the room was filled with the dull buzz of the iridescent lights slowly glowing to life.

Hayes walked over to where the bleachers were and I followed him. Brea wasn't here yet so we sat down and talked for a while and chatted.

"I can't believe I'm gonna learn to play volleyball. From you!" Hayes said.

"You're gonna learn from the best so don't worry," I said nudging his shoulder with mine.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's not get so confident now," he said.

I scoffed, "Ha! Says the cocky quarterback of the football team."

"Well, I know I'm good at my sport. For all I know you could be bad at volleyball. Like really, really bad," he said laughing.

"Shouldn't have said that, Grier." I pulled my Wilson volleyball out of my bag, stood about five feet in front of him and spiked the ball at him before he realized what was going on. He gasped and ducked just in time before it smacked him in the face.

"Dang, girl! Sorry! No need to get violent," He said with eyes wide open.

"Yeah, well, lesson learned," I said smugly.

He just stuck his tongue out at me.

"You know, you're face is gonna stay like that if you keep doing that," I told him.

"Good. Then I can nag you for the rest of your life," he said sticking his tongue out at me again.

I scrunched my nose and thwacked him on the forehead. "Ow! What are you being so mean to me today?" he said with fake hurt in his voice.

"Sorry," I replied sheepishly.

By that time Brea finally showed up.

"Hey you're here early," she called out from the other side of the gym. She headed over to where we were.

"And you brought... him," she said to Hayes, thwacking him in the forehead.

"Ow! What's wrong with you guys!" He yelled. We both just started laughing at him.

"Hey I need to run some errands for the school real quick," Brea said to us. "So here are the keys for the gym office. Everything's in the storage room at the back so if you guys could just set up..?"

She tossed Hayes the keys.

"No problem," we said. Brea walked towards the doors that lead to the rest of the school while Hayes and I went to the gym office.

We unlocked it an headed towards the back, where all of the gym equipment was stored. I rolled the volleyball rack out onto the court while Hayes got the volleyball net.

I helped him put it up and we were done in about five minutes. It was about 2:45 by this time so I decided to help him with basic volleyball moves.

"Okay, so what you wanna do is hold your hands out like this," I demonstrated while showing him how to bump a ball. "And when I toss the ball to you hit it back to me. Don't hit it so hard though. Just aim your hands towards me."

I tossed the ball at Hayes and he hit it back at me. Well, about ten feet behind me.

"How was that?" he asked.

"Pretty bad," I admitted.  "But hey, that's why you have me. Just don't swing your arms so much. Here," I walked over to where he was standing and adjusted his stance.

"So just straighten your arms like so," I said while locking his elbows. "Then you wanna stand like your sitting in an invisible chair." I awkwardly adjusted his hips and avoided eye contact with him.

"Enjoying this booty, Jessi?" Hayes said while laughing.

"Shut up. I'll hit you with a ball again," I threatened. He quickly stopped laughing.

After a few tries he was able to hit the ball back to me really well.

"Beautiful!" I said.

"Well, I'm being taught by the best," Hayes said smiling.

I was blushing like an idiot. God, I hope he didn't notice. By now a bunch of girls were streaming in. I saw one of my good friends.

"Hey Jessi," she called out.

"Hollie!" I screamed. I ran to where she was. I haven't seen her since school ended almost a month ago. She was crazy pretty, too. She was tall, almost 5'6", and she had long brown hair and bright green eyes.

A lot of guys go after her rather than me which makes me feel bad about my short height, and plain hair and eyes. Most guys think I'm dating Hayes anyways. But no. Never. Well...

"So how've you been?" Hollie said to me, snapping me out if my thoughts.

"Oh, summer's been really boring but Hayes got back from his touring yesterday so yeah. He's actually here right now."

"Really? Where?" She said excitedly. She's always had a bit of a crush on him and I always just ignored it but today was different. I felt a little...

Jealous?

Whoa. Weird.

I cleared my throat, "Um yeah. He's over here," I said leading her over to where he was. He was swarmed with a bunch of girls.

Have they always been like this around him?!

"Hayes," I called out to him.

Nothing.

"Uh, Hayes?" I said louder. He looked up from his conversation with a seventh grader smiled at me. He walked over to me and Hollie.

"Hey what's up? Hi Hollie."

"Hi, Hayes," Hollie said quickly.

"What did you need?" Hayes said to me.

"Huh?"

"You called me over?" he said slowly.

"Right! Um I don't know, I just wanted to hang out with my two best friends."

Brea walked in the gym and blew a whistle, "Alright ladies quiet down. Can I have Jessi, Hollie, Amanda, Sarah and Brooklyn come up?" Me, Hollie and the other returning team members came to the front of the crowd and were asked to assist anyone who needs it during practice.

But it was hard for me to concentrate on practice because something was itching at the back of my mind. About halfway through I realized what it was.

Or who it was, rather. I was my best friend. Hayes Grier

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