"You'd be amazed what we could do,
We could roll those windows down."
Pull Up — Jason Derulo
"Yes Ma, I'm potty training her." I say into my phone, swirling around the fruits in my bowl. I feel Mocha nudge against my foot under the table, and I peek down at her.
"Oh, darling, did you have to get a dog just weeks after you moved in?" My mother's voice tinkles through the other end of the phone, her dutch accent thick and prominent even though she's lived in America for almost 30 years now.
"Come on, she's cute. And we needed some company." I tell her, stabbing an apple slice with my fork. "She's pretty well trained already."
"Alright honey. I have to run, Nico is waiting on lunch. Talk later, Jordyn."
"Tell him I said he looks incredibly ugly today," I laugh, poking fun at my thirteen year old brother, and I can practically hear my mom's eyeroll through the phone.
"Will do. Stay safe, love you."
"Love you too, Ma." I reply, and she hangs up. Pocketing my phone, I finish off my bowl of fruits and glance at the clock. Just thirty minutes till our evening practice session. I'm already dressed in my kit, so I plop the bowl in the sink before pulling my hair up into a high ponytail, gathering my things before putting Mocha in her crate and setting off.
Faith and Bella are at college because they have classes today, and I only had one morning class. Checking our group chat while I drive to college, I see that Bella has texted that they're waiting for me in the locker room.
I'm parking my car and heading towards the field in no time, my duffel bag thrown over my shoulder. The evening sun glowers down at me as I make my way towards the locker room, my eyes surveying the field. It's empty, but the basketball court tucked away towards the left side certainly isn't. Even from this distance, I can see the basketball team practising, a bunch of attractive giants fighting over a rubber ball.
Some infuriating part of me wants to seek Jace out, but I force myself to look away and duck into the locker rooms. I'm met with the loud chatter of my teammates as everyone gets ready. Saying hello to a bunch of people, I walk towards the bench Faith, Bella and Thalia are sitting on. Throwing greetings their way, I stuff my bag into one of the lockers, taking my water bottle out.
"You guys heard about the away game?" Thalia asks, tying up her shoe.
"Yeah, the Stanford game. Is the date confirmed?" I reply, tightening my ponytail and stretching my arms abit.
"This weekend, apparently. Coach will probably tell us when practice starts." Faith adds in.
"Which is now," Malia appears next to me, Maya next to her. "Let's get going."
We follow the rest of our teammates to the field, where Coach Raye and Coach Summers are waiting for us. We huddle around them, forming a half circle.
"Evening, ladies. Looking good." Coach Summers adjusts her white baseball cap. "I'm assuming most of you are aware of the Stanford game coming up."
"It's this Friday. You will be pardoned from your classes, but you will have to hand in the missed work by Monday morning." Coach Raye adds. "We leave Thursday morning, and return Saturday night."
"As mentioned before, the basketball team will be accompanying us." Coach Summers flips through her clipboard. "Their game against Stanford is on Friday afternoon, a few hours after your game, which all of us will be attending."
"The boys will be at our game too, then?" April perks up from behind me, and I scoff lightly.
"Yes, April." Coach Summers narrows her eyes at her. "Anyways. The NCCA Soccer season this year will be starting in October, as it was postponed due to weather reasons. The season will run through from October to December, with the finals beginning in the first week of December."
"Which means, this is your first match of the season." Coach Raye surveys all of us carefully. "Let's get to practising, you need to bring your A-game this weekend, girls!"
We cheer in response, boosting everyone's moods as the Coaches start to assign us drills to start off practise with. The first hour goes by breezingly, polishing our defense and offense, our skills and techniques. Our team blends together well, and we all know our roles.
I'm feeling pretty damn good about today's practice, sprinting towards the ball and preparing to kick when Coach Summers blows her whistle.
"Girls! The boys will be joining us for the last hour of practice."
I skid to a halt, a curse flying out of my mouth as I look towards the basketball court, and sure enough, the basketball team is heading this way, led by Coach Bradshaw.
"Yes!" I hear Bella squeal quietly, waving enthusiastically at Micah, who shoots her a bright smile back.
"Thought of seeing how good the boys are at soccer." Coach Bradshaw tells Coach Summers, a light grin on his face.
A chorus of disagreements rise from the basketball team, and I sigh, plopping down on the grass. I look towards the boys again, and that's when I finally see him.
Tall and ripped as hell in a black basketball kit, his hair dishevelled with sweat, Jace drops his bag by the bleachers, deep in conversation with Ty. Since bumping into him at the beach Monday morning, I haven't seen him much. I only had one whole peaceful Jace-less day and here he is today.
"Don't be a bunch of wussies boys!" Coach Bradshaw retorts. "What do you say, Summers, Raye?"
"I think it's a great idea." Coach Raye smirks, and now I'm fully convinced that she enjoys this.
"Agreed. We'll have it be girls vs boys." Coach Summers pipes in. "Four teams."
The next thing I know, I'm on the field, preparing to play against a few of the boys. Surprise surprise, Jace Parker is a part of the team that's playing against me. Thankfully, I have Faith by me to keep me anchored down.
The coin toss gives us the kickoff, and Faith volunteers to take it. We all gather around the kickoff circle, and Faith shoots me a glance right as Coach Summers blows the warning whistle. After playing soccer with Faith nearly all my life, I know exactly what that look means.
I position myself adjacent to Faith, my eyes trained on the ball, ready to receive the ball when Faith sends it my way. Still focused on the ball, I take a step back only to bump into someone's chest.
"Watch where you're going, Rivers." Jace's voice speaks from behind me, his body so close that I can feel his breath on top of my head.
Swivelling on my heel, I look up at him, his green eyes piercing into mine, a light smirk twitching at his mouth.
"Sorry." I grumble shortly, before stepping out of his way and standing a few feet away from him.
I can still feel his eyes on me as Coach orders us to get into positions, and everyone goes still, waiting for the whistle to blow.
As expected, Faith kicks the ball my way, and I step forward to receive it, and I almost trip backwards when someone steps in front of me before I can get it, catching the ball and dribbling it away.
"What the—" I blink away my surprise, only to see Jace racing down the field with the ball between his legs.
Motherfucker.
Something inside me burns, strong and hot, annoyance fueling me as and I take off after him, dead set on getting that fucking ball back.
I approach him from the back, and I see him eyeing Ty who's towards his left, about to pass the ball to him. He makes the rookie mistake of turning in that direction, confirming my thoughts and allowing me to cut in between them, catching the ball between my feet just as Jace passes it.
"Damn it!" I hear him groan just as I dribble the ball towards our goal, Jace and Ty hot on my heels.
I see Faith adjacent to me, free and closer to our goal. Making sure nobody can steal it, I swiftly kick the ball and Faith receives it successfully, before sprinting a few feet forward and shooting towards the goal.
Brian, the boys' goalkeeper, tries to block Faith's shot, but Faith never misses. The ball collides with the net, making the girls go up in cheers all around me.
A grin pulls up on my mouth as I turn around to see Jace a few feet away from me, practically oozing irritation.
"Finders keepers, Parker!" I call out, and I see his green eyes flare in annoyance just before I sprint away, ready for the next goal.
• • •
"Quinton, get your ass in the bus!" I hear Coach Bradshaw bellow from somewhere outside of the bus, and Ty's cheerful "Yes sir!" afterwards right before he climbs up the small steps into the gigantic bus the entire soccer and basketball team are squeezing into.
I lean my head against the window, getting comfortable in my seat. Faith is scrolling through her music next to me, and I can hear Bella and Micah chattering away in front of us.
It's game day. We're heading to Stanford, and in just a few hours, the girls soccer team will be playing our first match of the season. My stomach is a tangle of excitement and anticipation, I've waited a long time for this.
I'm snapped out of my reverie when the sound of loud laughter echoes through the bus, and I look up to see Jace climbing onto the bus, Kai and Coach Bradshaw following him. Jace looks around the bus, his eyebrows raising mockingly when he meets my eyes.
Offering him an eye roll in return, I look away outside the window, watching a man walking his little dog down the street. It reminds me of Mocha, and I suddenly miss her. It would've been a huge problem trying to figure out who would take care of her while we're at away games if the friendly couple that lives across the hall from us didn't volunteer.
Quinn and Billie had shown up at our doorstep a few days after we moved in with a welcome pie, and ever since then, we'd made friends with the lovely two women, and they were more than happy to take care of Mocha when we asked them two days ago.
From the corner of my eye, I see Jace and Kai walk in our direction, only to sit down on the empty row right behind me and Faith.
Great.
"Hey blondie," Kai says, tugging at my ponytail, and I twist around to greet him with a smile, and I see that Jace has taken the window seat directly behind me.
"Hey," I nod at Kai, noticing the hoodie he's wearing. "Nice hoodie."
He grins, flashing his pearly white teeth at me. "Thanks, you're a fan?"
I eye the Fall Out Boy lyric that's sprawled across his hoodie. "I'm bad behaviour but I do it in the best way."
"How can I not be?" I answer, and I can feel Jace's eyes burning holes into the side of my face. "My favourite lyric is I got too high again when I realized—"
"—I can't not be with you, or be just your friend." I'm cut off by Jace finishing the line, and before I can stop myself, my eyes go to him, my brows raising in question. The sun streaking through the window is making his brown hair glimmer, contrasting against the softness of his green eyes.
Words die in my throat for a moment, and my brain is yelling at me to say something, but thankfully, Kai speaks and saves me the embarrassment.
"Ah, Jace's been jamming to them since we were in high school." He says, flicking his dark hair away from his eyes. "Should've seen him. It was his personality trait."
I finally find my tongue. "I mean, fair enough. He doesn't have much else of a personality to begin with."
Jace's eyes narrow to slits. "Oh, rich coming from you little miss-"
"Alright alright!" Faith halts both of us, slapping me lightly on the arm. "That's enough bantering, children."
"You're literally like, 5'5." I retort, fighting down a grin because I know Faith gets annoyed when we comment about her height. I'm the tallest out of all three of us at 5'8, Bella is around 5'6 and Faith the shortest at 5'5 the last time we checked.
"I'm not short." Faith's blue eyes glower at me playfully. "I'm fun sized."
I hear Kai burst out laughing at that behind me and I can't help the scoff that escapes me as I lean over and flick my best friend's nose.
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, shortcake."