Misfits

twelve

Asher was already there, distracting himself with his phone since he didn't exactly talk to other people. It was obvious at this point just how isolated his group was – Gill was the only one to ever really acknowledge the people around her.

Tyler never really opened his mouth in general, Sam only did it to give a snarky remark and Asher liked to keep to himself. And when he didn't, he gave his pointless opinions nobody really cared about anyways.

I didn't know what drove him away from people but made him stick so close to his few friends. Did he only accept them because they were outcasts like him? What was it exactly he saw in them?

I shot him a glance, realizing I was giving him too much thought again and took out my headphones instead. Not my friends, not my concerns.

When the teacher walked in after about ten minutes I took off my headphones, reluctantly welcoming back reality and preparing myself to face another two hours of devastating boredom.

Those two hours ended up feeling like four, and as had often been the case before I was ready to sleep away the rest of the day.

"It's so nice today," Gill stated when I packed my bag right after the bell had announced the end of our last lesson for the day. "We should do something. Go outside."

"Play soccer," Asher said, glancing in my direction. "Prepare for the big game tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes as I shouldered my bag. "I'll bring a shovel for afterwards."

"So it's settled!" Gill smiled. "Let's go."

Wait, did they just include me in their plans, and did I just agree without even realizing?

"What just happened?"

"We're playing soccer," Asher said. "Come on, city boy. We don't have time all day."

I reluctantly followed them out of school, not really wanting to spend the day with them but also not very excited at the thought of just leaving to go back to Michael's empty house.

It felt odd to be on the field and not wear that hideous uniform. At least I hadn't decided to go with the tight jeans today, playing soccer in them would have been really uncomfortable.

Gill suddenly showed up with a ball, and we formed teams. I ended up with Tyler and Asher, so it was a classic boys against girls match. It was obvious we didn't even have the slightest chance to win, even though Asher was on our team – Gill and Sam were like professionals, and I had two left feet while Tyler was probably panicking since there wasn't a book that could teach him how to play soccer.

The game started so suddenly I almost missed the ball rolling my way, so I darted forward to kick it in Asher's direction. He immediately got it and made a run for the girl's goal but was cut off by Sam fearlessly jumping in his way. She took the ball from him and managed to run with it.

When she ran past Tyler he did nothing but watch, as if that would somehow magically stop her. Nothing happened though since he wasn't Eleven, and we all watched as Sam shot the first goal of the match.

"It's weird without Redmille telling me to get off my ass," I stated, earning a chuckle from Gill.

"I can take that over," Asher replied as he stretched his arms. "Don't just stand around and look pretty, Yan, fucking move!"

"You either give a hundred percent or get off my field!" Sam added.

Gill was next. "My grandma can move faster than you, and she's dead!"

I glanced at her. "You stole that from Gordon Ramsay."

She just shrugged and shot me a sweet smile. "Nobody needs to know."