Ghosts

Chapter 23

"No way! Max is a total liar. Anyone with brains can see it." She smiles at me. "I wish we would've met sooner... I'm a junior, as well. We don't have any classes together. I know you from all the stupid gossip."

"It's crappy. I'm surprised anyone caught Max's act." I say in true surprise.

"Yeah. My friends know, too. I'm glad you tried out so that I could actually meet you and talk to you." Jenny says and catches the ball as Coach yells.

"Alright, ladies. Time to work hard. I'm going to have you do some drills and they won't be easy. It'll be to test your skills and physical endurance. Girls who make the team will be on a list posted outside after tryouts. I'm Coach Maloney. Welcome to two hours of hell."

He's right.

He made us do serious drills that made me sweat within a minute. He had us doing a bunch of push ups, burpy's, and crunches.

And then came suicides.

I'm not a consistently good runner anymore because I'm not conditioned. But, I can still do it.

I push myself to run as fast as I can and make sure to touch the line right away. Once I'm finished, I notice that Jenny was the first one done, and I was right behind her.

"Impressive!" Coach yells to us and we smile. "Now do fifty crunches while you wait for them to finish up."

I quickly get on the floor and do my crunches in, probably, record time. I know not to groan at his order because it only gets us more to do.

"Debbie missed the line, all of you have to do three more suicides." Coach barks at us.

I run hard to finish and I'm greeted by Luke at the door, a smirk on his face. I look away and look at Coach.

"Ah, Hart, come on in." Coach says with a smile.

Luke strides in over to Coach.

"Could you help me choose one last drill. Something really tough that'll make some girls cry?"

Luke looks at me and smirks again, then looks back at Coach. I shake my head and frown as I know what he'll say. I bet he can remember my weakness.

"Three sets of Speed 5. I'll get the cones."

I glare at Luke and he laughs. Asshole.

"Anyone not know how to run Speed 5?" Coach asks as Luke comes back with cones. Nobody raises their hands. Everyone knows what a Speed 5 is. "Good, then take your cones from Luke and get started."

I walk over and get in line to get myself my cones. Once I get there I glare again at Luke.

"I hate you for this." I mutter.

"You need something challenging." Luke smiles and hands me my cones.

I walk over to a spot and put my cones down. Once done, I get to running. This is my least favorite drill. And my hardest. Coach comes over and watches me run. Shit.

I pick up the pace and try not to fall, my legs are about to give up.

"You're doing much better than when you were younger. Must've been practicing while you were gone." Coach says, scaring me. I thought he left a little bit ago.

"Okay, that's enough! I'll get the roster up quickly." Coach yells to everyone. I quickly grab Luke's ball and throw it at him.

"Hey! That wasn't nice!" Luke whines, playfully.

"Yeah? Well neither were the Speed 5's. So let's call it even." I smile and jog to the locker room to change.

It was definitely a workout. No doubts about it.

Once I'm dressed in sweatpants and the shirt I was wearing before tryouts, I pack my bag to leave.

"Wait up!" Jenny yells and she runs after me.

"How do you think you did?" I ask her as I push the locker room door open.

"Pretty good, I'd say. But those Speed 5's killed. You did really well with those." She smiles at me.

"Really? I used to suck at Speed 5's... Last time I did them I almost passed out." I say.

We walk up to the bulletin board and I take a look at the list.

GIRLS WHO MADE THE TEAM:

Madi Wilson

Jenny Garsa

Grace Hines

Taylor O'Neil

Hannah O'Neil

Gretchen Hughes

Amanda Robertson

Katie Albertson

Hailey Genter

Marney Ables

Kaitlyn Gennufeh

CONGRATS TO ALL WHO MADE THE TEAM. PRACTICES START AFTER CHRISTMAS BREAK.

I smile as I see my name and almost scream. I never thought I'd make it!

"We made it!!!" Jenny screams and jumps up and down.

"Congrats!" I say.

We walk down the hall to the doors to lead us home. It was now officially Christmas break.

My time for relaxation.

Just before I open the door, my shoulder is grabbed by someone and pulled into a dark corner.

"You made it, I guess." Luke says.

"Why did you pull me back here? You scared me!"

"Well, sorry, I didn't realize it was a dark corner and I didn't think I'd scare you." He laughs.

"Sure you didn't." I want to glare at him but it's too dark to see him.

I feel his hand touch my cheek and my face instantly gets warm. I'm blushing.

"Are you blushing, Marney?" Luke asks and his face is closer.

"No..." I lie.

"You should be." He says, and he pulls his hand away quickly, pulling me behind him. "Let's get you home. It's Christmas break and we're still at school."

I follow him, walking next to him.

"Hey Marney! Congrats. You get the guy and to be on the soccer team." A slutty looking girl from tryouts says with a glare.

"I don't have any guy. But thanks for the congratulation. I really appreciate it." I hiss as I walk to Luke's fixed car.

The girl stomps her foot and walks away.

I climb into the car and the ride is silent.

Until we pull up to my house.

"Congrats, again, Marney." Luke smiles at me. He touches my face again, rubbing his thumb slowly up and down.

"Thanks." I sigh. His fingers send shivers down my spine.

He lets his hand drop and I get that I need to get out of the car.

"Wanna come over tomorrow? Four o'clock?" He asks. "My mom will make food this time."

I laugh. "I'll be there."

~Author's Note~

As I said at the beginning, the chapter I posted earlier wasn't very good, so I'm making up for it with this one. But will anyone read it? Probably not if they weren't satisfied with the other one.

I keep losing readers per chapter and it's really sad.

Anyway, what do ya'll think? I'm glad I had Marney make the team.

You'll see what happens later ;)

Please comment, vote, and follow!!

Thanks for reading!

-Izzy :)