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seven: cooperation

"Ember, calm down," Valencia said, placing her hand on my shoulder. "Just tell us what happened."

It was the next day, and we were standing by our lockers before lunch. I overslept this morning and missed the first two periods, so I didn't get to see her or Jasmine in class.

"Elias texted me last night," I told her, showing her my phone. She read the messages before she raised a brow.

"He's playing mind games with you, bebita," she concluded, shaking her head. "Who texts someone saying that and then doesn't respond?"

"Exactly!" I exclaimed, showing my frustration. Elias enraged me to no end.

V closed her locker and walked next to me as we made our way into the cafe. "I don't understand what's the point of him doing all of this. Who blatantly goes out with another girl in your face, then claims to 'notice you'? Men are weird."

"I'm saying," I muttered, walking over to our usual table. To my surprise, Temi was sitting down talking to Jasmine at our table with a couple of his teammates sitting beside him.

I wasn't particularly surprised about that. Jasmine used to be a part of the girls' basketball team before the sport department cut its funding for all "non-essential" athletics, so she knew a bunch of the guys that played for the team. What I didn't understand was why they were sitting at our table.

"Hey guys," I greeted, plopping down in the seat next to Jas. "What's up?"

Temi gave me a head nod before he grabbed Valencia's arm to stop her from sitting on the other side and tugged her to sit next to him. "Yo, stop playing."

She rolled her eyes and sat down, but the small smile on her face made me know that she was happy.

"There's a rumor going around that the school might be bringing back the girl's basketball team," Jasmine explained, a bright smile on her face. "Usually I don't like to get my hopes up, but Temi told me he heard Principal Walker talking about it to their coach."

"Congrats, you definitely deserve to play since it's your last year," I said earnestly, rubbing her shoulder. Then I looked around the table, noticing that there was someone missing. "Where's Serena?"

Jasmine shrugged her shoulders. "I haven't seen her all day. She's been MIA lately and I don't know what's going on with her."

"I had class with her last period," Garett, one of the basketball players said. "I just saw her before I came in here. She was by her locker."

I rolled my eyes. I guess she was going to ignore me forever. And since Valencia and Jasmine previously were in my defense, that included them as well.

"Did you think about what I said?" Temi asked me, while picking up an apple sitting on his tray.

I nodded. "Yeah, I actually made a list of some potential schools I might apply to. I don't know for sure yet, but we'll see in November—"

"Are you kidding me?" I heard behind me, and I turned around to see Serena's eyes boring into mine. "After ignoring everything I said, Temi's the one who convinced you to apply to schools?"

"Calm down," I said, getting up. "It shouldn't even matter anyway. I'm still doing what you want, so what's the problem?"

"The problem is you don't ever listen to me when I tell you shit!" She yelled, and my eyebrows raised when I heard the chatter of the cafeteria quiet down. "How can I call you my best friend if you'd listen to him before me?"

"Because you sound like a broken record!" I said, my nostrils flaring. I was tired of always arguing with her, and it's been this way ever since the end of summer. "Listen, I don't know what your problem is, but you need to relax right now."