Misfits

eighteen

The road we were driving on was full of bumps and cracks, and I was sick of the whole bus constantly shaking.

It was Wednesday, and we were on our way to our second soccer game. Although we had just left our town about twenty minutes ago, I couldn't wait to finally get out of this stuffy bus. God, I hated bus rides.

"Hey you, wanna trade?" Gill asked when her head suddenly appeared over the seat back in front of me. I flinched a little as she slightly scared me, but managed to roll my eyes at her to quickly mask my surprise.

"Trade what?" I asked without much enthusiasm. Gill raised a brow, then held up a chocolate bar.

"Oh, if he doesn't want that, can I have it?" a girl from behind me asked. I briefly looked back just to see that it was the one with orange dyed hair – I didn't remember her name.

Gill tilted her head. "Depends on what you have for me."

The girl opened her bag and briefly peeked inside. "I, uh, I have an apple."

"Ha, please," Gill replied, rolling her eyes in amusement and letting her gaze meet mine again. "What about you? I could cut you a deal since I like you."

"Wait, you don't like me?" the girl behind me asked, sounding rather shocked. "We've been neighbors for years now, I thought we were friends."

"She didn't mean it like that, Valerie," Asher said, suddenly turning back as well from his seat next to Gill. He shot the girl behind me an apologetic smile. "She's just not very interested in your apple."

Gill shot her a friendly smile and laid her hand on Asher's shoulder. "Exactly what my friend here just said. So, Kiri," she turned back to me and wiggled with her eyebrows, "are you craving some sweet temptation?"

"Any other wording would have been fine," I replied, but still reached for my backpack and peeked inside. "Shit, I forgot my snacks."

I let my backpack drop back on the empty seat beside me as Gill sighed.

"Okay, then I'll just eat this myself," she said before turning back around and getting out of my sight.

Asher stayed, though. He crossed his arms on the seat back and rested his chin on them. I raised a brow at him.

"Like I said, I haven't brought my snacks. You can go away now."

"Nervous for the game?" he asked, completely ignoring my rather rude statement. I shrugged and sank deeper into my seat.

Frankly speaking, I had had trouble falling asleep last night for my head had been filled with thoughts and worries about the game. Even though I now had a rough idea of what a soccer game was like, I still wasn't any less nervous about it. Also, last time we had played in the safety of our own town, surrounded by our families and neighbors. Today we were being thrown into this whole new place, with Coach Redmille being the only familiar face there.

So, yes, I was nervous.

"A little," I shrugged. "What about you? Are you still planning on pulling off your solo career?"

Asher shrugged and averted his gaze so he was looking out of the window instead.

"It's not a solo career. If I have a good go at shooting a goal, of course I'll try and take it."

My forehead turned into a slight frown as I narrowed my eyes at the boy in front of me. "That sounds as if you're planning to keep being stupid."

Asher looked back at me. "I'm not stupid. I know how to play soccer."