"Where's Spencer?" Dillon ask when he sits across from me, setting his homework down on the table.
"Football practice." I answered not looking up from my own homework, don't have a laptop but at least I have an iPad.
"So," he drags out. "Why aren't you at football practice?"
I look up from my homework and across the table at him, his eyes twinkle with curiosity. "How about you worry about your homework rather than being all up in my business?"
I left Beverly without Spencer because I most definitely wasn't about to be sitting on the sidelines watching the others play, he wasn't about to use me as an example. If Billy thought that I would stick around while he switch my position then he's definitely out his mind, Spencer's out his mind deciding to sit on the sidelines. I sat on the sidelines more than enough and I wasn't going back today, I play offense and offense only. No debating.
On the bright side this is the first time I came home without getting into a physical altercation, so that's new. I rather be back here in Crenshaw fighting everyday with my offense position than being in Beverly Hills, this was a mistake. I shouldn't have let my mother talk me into going to Beverly in the first place, Spencer's the only friend I made. And he's my brother. We only have lunch and three classes together, I guess I can throw in football practice in there.
But other than that in the morning I'm pretty much solo until lunch, I mean I guess I have Jordan. I've only been away for seven hours, and I miss Coop and Chris, way more than I should; they made Crenshaw a lot more fun and durable. The doorbell rings and I basically leap out my seat, finally Spencer is home, I walk over to the door and pull it open I'm surprise when I see Jordan standing on the other side of the metal gate.
Stepping out onto the porch I close the front door behind me. "What are you doing here? How do you even know where I live?"
"I got your address from my dad." Jordan informs.
"That wasn't an initiative to just show up at my house." I would have taken a step back if the door wasn't for the door at my back, the last guy who just popped up at my house without having my number or my address — that relationship took a toxic turn. "You just don't show up at somebody's place like this."
"You're right, I'm sorry." Jordan nods his head. "This was wrong on so many levels, I should have just waited until I saw you at school again. I wanted to check on you after you storm out of practice."
"I'm fine."
"Come on, I came all this way just for you to tell me that fine. Throw me a bone, talk to me."
He sits down on the porch steps, I stare at him for a couple seconds before sitting down beside him. "I think coming to Beverly Hills was a huge mistake, I don't belong there and I'm pretty sure besides Billy, nobody wants me or Spencer there. I'm use to guys thinking I shouldn't be on the team, but why would I want to play with a bunch of guys who don't want me for a coach who said he'd have my back only switch me over to defense."
"You just got to do you, from what it seems like you got the goods on and off the field — a lot of people don't have that. And you're wrong about a bunch of guys who don't want you, I want you." He shoots me a cheesy smile. "At school and on the team of course."
"That was so cheesy." I pat his knee. "But you really know how to make a girl feel better."
The corner of his mouth tugs up before he says, "I'm having a couple guys from the team to come over and relax tomorrow, you should tag along. It'll be a good time to get to know them and see that they aren't that bad, maybe make a friend or two."
"Make friends with your sexist girlfriend and your racist friend." I nod my head. "I'll think about it."
After talking things over with Spencer, we thought maybe we did get off on the wrong foot with Jordan friends. So, I decided to take Jordan up on his offer to come to his house to relax in the pool and maybe have a better attempt to befriend them. Sometimes the best friendship comes from not liking each other at first, like Chris and I.
"Don't you have more clothes to put on?" Spencer questions as he stands in the doorway. "Like a wetsuit?"
I stop brushing my hair to look at Spencer over my shoulder, "Am I going surfing or sitting by the pool?"
"Whatever one makes you put on more clothes."
I roll my eyes and turn my attention back to the mirror, dressed in a white criss-cross crop that that ties in the knot right between my breast. I paired the top with light orange bikini bottoms, tying a multicolored cover-up around her waist, and flip flops. I had originally planned on getting in the water, but I couldn't find the top to the bottoms and I worked with what I had — and the outfit I had on wasn't a get-in-water type of outfit. Plus, my hair is straighten and I really didn't want to get my hard work messed up, one drop of water and it's like I haven't put a comb in my hair in months.
And I don't do swimming caps.
I invited Coop but she said she couldn't come because she apparently had some things to handle, whatever that meant.
A smile spread across Spencer's face when Jordan pulls up in his red Porsche, he nudges me. "Watch this." I let him get in the passenger seat while I sit in the backseat. "What the hell you doing?"
Jordan turns his music down, I see genuine concern spreads across his face when he looks back at me then back at Spencer. "I'm just picking you up."
"In your red car? In your red hat?" Spencer hisses, smacking Jordan hat off his head. "You're like a Bloods poster boy, man. Gonna get your head blown off." Jordan looks around to find Mike and Marcus glaring at him, I couldn't help but laugh. "I'm playing."
"You Beverly boys are so scary." I chuckle as I set my bag down by my feet, I lean forward and turn his music back up. I shoot a smile over at Mike and Marcus. "Hey, fellas!" They greet me back with a head nod. "Come on rich boy, I wanna see this pool of yours."
"Damn." Spencer jaw drops as we stand in front of Jordan house, I couldn't blame him because this house is big for just four people. It's not even a house, it's a mansion. "All this on a Coach's salary?"
"Maybe I need to become a Coach." I mutter.
"My mom's an attorney." Jordan explains, he unlocks the front door and lead us through the house. "They're here."
"Oh!" The woman with the blonde hair exclaims. "You must be Spencer and Samantha." She rounds the kitchen counter and greet us with a group hug, when we both were ready to greet her with a handshake. "I am so happy to finally meet you!" She breaks the hug to say, "You're all Billy's been talking about lately, isn't that right?" Jordan and Olivia mutter something that I couldn't quite understand. "My name's Laura, and I have a question. I want you to be completely honest."
"Careful," Olivia warns, raising an eyebrow. "She's a crier."
"I am making my famous Gazpacho tonight." Laura informs, my eyes dart over to the woman chopping a couple feet away from where Olivia's sitting. "And I just need to know a few things. Do you have any allergies? Dairy? Gluten? You're not paleo, are you?"
Spencer rubs his hands together as he says, "No, ma'am. When it comes to food, the only thing we are is hungry."
I tap my shoulder against his. "Ain't that right."
"Okay," Jordan claps his hands together. "We're gonna hit it, Mom."
"Are you joining us, Olivia?" I question.
Olivia looks like she rather be anywhere but here as she says, "Uh, no, but maybe some other time we can hang out."
Following Jordan to the pool, my eyes immediately finding Asher and Hadley — a.k.a the sexist girl and racist boy. This should be as much fun as chewing a bunch of nails. The way Hadley was glaring at me from over the top of her sunglasses, I deemed it better that I sit on the other side of the pool away from them. I claim one of the lounge chairs lined on the sides, while Spencer on the other hand is taking full advantage of the pool, he takes off his shirt and jeans to reveal his swimming trunks underneath.
I fold his clothes and set them at the end of the chair, I know the point of being here was to hopefully get on better terms with Hadley and Asher but I don't see that happening. I doubt I'll have an easy-flowing conversation with the girl who made a sexist comment about my decision to become a football player.
Maybe if I was a stub or a lesbian then girls would be a little nicer about me playing football, but I do understand that a jealous girl will say and do stupid things sometimes. I have been there and done a lot worse, I just wish I just said more stupid things instead of dealing with it the way I did back then. The sound of a chair scrapping against the ground takes me out my thoughts, turning my head in the direction that sound came from I come face-to-face with Jordan.
"You look good." Jordan smiles, his eyes trialing up and down the length of my body before finding my eyes again. "But shouldn't you be trying to get to know Asher and Hadley? Kinda hard to do that from the other end of the pool from them."
"First, thank you." I cross my leg over the other, his eyes followed the movement. "And second, that's not happening. Your girlfriend has been glaring at me the entire time."
"Maybe she's just trying to access your beauty like I am." Jordan winks. "I got tired of trying to look at you from across the way, that's why I decided to come sit next to you."
"And maybe that's why she's glaring at me." I suggest. "Instead of flirting with me you should stop making your girlfriend jealous. She's a girl and until she knows she really has nothing to worry about, she won't get over it."
He raise an eyebrow. "You want me to make it clear to her that she has nothing to be jealous of?"
He definitely did something to make her insecure about a random female being around him. "Yeah, you shouldn't leave a girl you're interested in wandering and assuming things, it gets old quick."
"Wandering and assuming." He repeats. "Duly noted. I make sure I get the message across to her."
"Great." I smile. "Now go tell Hadley that she has nothing to worry about, I really don't need the drama."
One fight and I'm done, but he never said anything about off school grounds though.
After a while I had an enough of sitting on the sidelines, and feeling Hadley eyes on me, so I called it a day and went back inside. Spencer was having too much fun that I know he wasn't ready to leave just yet, and I wasn't going to make him leave because I wanted to leave.
"Hello, Mrs. Baker." I stand on the other side of the island from her, she looks up from her laptop. "Do you know where Olivia went?"
"You can call me Laura." She informs, I kept to myself that I most likely never going to call her by her first name. "And she's upstairs in her room, uh, sixth door to the right."
I knew she said the sixth door to the right, but I honestly don't know what I was expecting when I came upstairs. This family isn't even big enough to have all these rooms, but maybe they have other family members that come over and stay sometimes. Or maybe they're waiting to have a Will Smith moment, waiting for somebody to get into one little and their mom got scared so she sent them to live with his uncle in Bel-Air.
Knocking on the door that I hope is the sixth door, I lean in close to try and hear movement from the other side. "Olivia?"
"Coming." I hear her say, I take a step away from the door right as it opens. "Hey, Samantha."
"Hey, I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out."
"I was just about to order a movie." She steps to the side and widens the door. "I hope you like Tiffany Haddish."
"Love her." I inform as I walk inside her room, sitting down at the end of her bed. "What movie are you ordering?"
"Girls Trip." She grabs her remote. "So, why was Hadley glaring at you from the other side of the pool? I saw when I was passing by."
"When I first met her, she said something that rub me the wrong way and I said some things back to her. I wasn't really offended a lot of females have the same opinion about me being a football player, but I wanted to prove a point."
"I don't know how girls don't support what you're doing, you are breaking down so many barriers for females, doing something other females would never dare to do because they think it makes them more masculine and they don't want to be seem as that. I think she's jealous because you're not masculine, you have this confident that radiates off you, and you're gorgeous."
"Thank you."
I'm surprise Spencer and I made it this far in Beverly, without a fight or another situation where we had to choose to walk away. I know where all my classes are without pulling out my schedule, classes where I need a laptop I use my phone and hope I know enough to answer the questions from memory. The classes I have with Jordan, he would let me use his laptop which is a win-win situation; I get to finish my assignment and he gets good grade after copying everything down. Win-win.
For lunch, I did eat with Spencer but he somehow manage to put his differences aside with Asher, he now eats lunch with Jordan and the rest of his friends. I wasn't going to make amends with Asher or Hadley, so to avoid potential confrontations I chose to have lunch with Olivia. She's different from Crenshaw but that was a good thing, and she wasn't unbearable to be around either. I rather enjoyed the small interaction we have.
"I'm not saying you shouldn't have went to the party, I'm saying you shouldn't have been drinking on a school night." I say to a hungover Spencer, I grab his face to see that his eyes aren't even focus. "Did you learn nothing from all my hangovers?"
"I'll be fine, Sam." Spencer claims. "Asher and Jordan told me last night that we're just running Drills today."
I wanted to smack the back of his head as hard as I possibly could but I stop myself. "They lied to you then." I point to the bleachers and tell him, "It's Scrimmage day and the Booster are here to watch to see what we got." I shake my head as I secure my helmet over my head. "Look just play it cool today, don't try to give it your all."
When I first got I involved with my ex, I was still going to school at the time; I use to be with him all night and he would drop me off at school with a massive hangover. How I got through it was by playing it cool, everybody knew my skills on the field, so I just chill out; so, by missing a few tackles or tripping over my own feet they just assume that I was having a girl day.
But having a girl day wasn't going to cut it for Spencer, if I didn't know what was going on I would think somebody stole all Spencer's talent. Throughout practice, Spencer was performing horribly — it made me cringe at every fail tackle he did or how he couldn't even catch the ball, let alone run the ball five feet.
"That was a train wreck." I couldn't help but tell Spencer as he sits on the bench in front of his locker. "Maybe they didn't notice." He glares at me and I hold my hands up. "Just trying to lighten the mood a bit. I didn't set you up like your new buddies."
"They didn't set me up." Spencer sighs as he stands up. "I just went heavy on the drinking—"
His sentence gets cut off as well as his balance when Asher shoulder bumps Spencer, but luckily he didn't fall. That would have been embarrassing. "Get it together, man." Asher laughs as he waves his hand in front of his face. "You smell like a party bus."
Jordan laughs as he slaps Asher on his back. "More like Tequila and regret."
"Hold up." Spencer says as if he's putting all the pieces into the puzzle. "Y'all set me up? Last night I thought—"
"Thought what?" Asher scoff. "Thought. . . That we were a team? We were friends? The only reason you were even at that party — is because we told Layla to get you there."
"To what? What, haze me? Make me look bad?" Spencer questions as he takes a step towards Asher. "You got me confused with somebody else, bruh."
Asher closes the distance between them and says, "Then go back to Crenshaw."
"He's not worth it, Spence." I tell him as he pull Spencer back by the back of his jersey, normally he wouldn't have moved an inch but because his balance off it was easy.
But drunk or not, Spencer was not trying to hear anything that I was saying but luckily the situation had gotten loud enough that Billy came over to help. "I will not let you blow this. One fight, and you're done. Game over. Cool it." Billy says to Spencer before turning towards Jordan. "And you should know better than this."
"Oh, do not put this on me, Dad." Jordan shakes his head as he holds his hands up. "You worked this whole thing up. It was all a lie. Even they permit to be at the school was a lie, a lie to save yourself. Hey, yo, you think he cares about you? He's just trying to save his job, okay? That's what matters. Not you. You don't matter to him."
"Enough!" Billy yells. "Everybody out! Now!"
The locker room clears out like a blink of the eye, and Spencer and I were working on disappearing like that too. Spencer slings his bag over his shoulder and slams his locker shut. "I quit. I'm done."
"Why?" Billy questions, somebody would have thought he was growing three heads the way Spencer was looking at him. "Because I need y'all help to win a season? Winning is my job."
"But you should have said that from the start." I tell him. "You should have said you wanted us here to help this losing team finally win a game."
"All that "here to give you a chance," talk was not needed." Spencer tells him. "And we sure damn wasn't looking for it."
"Yes, I need you to win games, but you need me more." Billy says, I was confused on why we needed him. "This is your chance. This is your way out. I'm trying to help you."
"We didn't ask for your help or a way out. Look, you might recall we wasn't the one knocking down Beverly's door." Spencer reminds him. "You came, said you'd help us get to our dream. And now that we get here, you change our position? How is that helping?"
"Because the both of you can see the field in a way few players can." Billy tells us. "I made a promise, remember? I said that I would help you get to the NFL. But in order to do that, I need you to see the field from every angle, because when you do, you'll be unstoppable."
Since Scrimmage I haven't spoken to Jordan, he has called and text a bunch but I haven't responded. I actually turned on my read receipt so he knows that I seen his message, and just didn't reply. What is there to say to each other after setting my breather up? I'm suppose to be all smiles and giggles? And those the things he said to Spencer that day too, even though he directed them to him — I felt them too.
We've been here for weeks and he's just plotting and scheming to do something as weak as that, Crenshaw would have done worst. And what could Spencer have done to either of them? I mean, Spencer has been flirting with Layla since we got here but Asher should be mad at her and not Spencer. It's not his fault that his girl too easy to take.
Grabbing my duffle bag and hike it over my shoulder. Game day. Stepping into the hallway, I see Spencer coming out his room and he holds his hand out towards me. "Ready to show them why we're the greatest to ever do it?"
I slap my hand against his as I say, "The greatest that will ever do it."
"Please welcome your Beverly High Eagles." The Announcer says and the crowd goes wild, looking out into the crowd I scan it until I see Mom and Dillon. "And if you didn't know Beverly High now has a female football player on the field, Samantha James. She is the second female player in history to be place on the boys football team and the first female football player in Beverly Hills."
"Number 52's hurt." Spencer tells Billy, our eyes snap over to him to see him limping. "He's pulling up on his right hamstring after every play. Asher runs a pick on him, Jordan runs right, Sam and I can bring it in for the win."
"You think you can take him?" Billy questions.
Spencer looks at me with a smile. "I know we can."
"Ash! Mike!" Coach signals them over, pointing to the bench. "Good stuff. Good stuff. Spencer and Samantha's going in."
Grabbing my helmet off the ground and securing it on my head I jog on the field and join the team in the huddle.
"Here's an interesting sub." The Announcer informs. "The new recruit Spencer and Samantha James coming in on defense."
"Is Coach crazy?" I can never remember his name, something with a K I think. Kyle? Kendrick? Kendall? Probably Kyle. "Why is he subbing Mike in for her?"
"At practice didn't she tackle you like five time? And caught the ball every time I threw it to you? Yeah, you're right my dad is crazy for subbing Mike in for her, he should have sub her in for you." Jordan tells him. "Okay, ex pick, TB rule left on one, on one. Ready?" We break up then start to get into position.
"52. Watch 52. Here we go! Hut!"
Jordan drops back and scrambles to the left while Spencer and I went right, I ran quicker ahead and duck down behind number 52 and Spencer tackles him. His tackle is so strong that the three of us fall onto the ground and roll, we stay on the ground and watch Jordan score the touchdown.
"Maybe being defense isn't so bad." I tell Spencer got to his feet, he extends his hand to help me up. "But it has nothing against being a wide receiver."
"I'll be damned. You good, girl?" Billy asks as he place his hand on my shoulder, I nod my head. "Girl you can take a hit." He takes my helmet off then loops his arm around my neck. "I may have to keep you on defense after a hit like that, you know that, right?"
"Come on, Coach." I smile. "I'm too pretty for defense."
"Ah, Chatsworth is contesting your transfer permit." Coach says. "We're gonna fight this."
"They're accusing us of recruiting. You're gonna stand there and tell me it's not true?" The man asks Coach.
"They're a straight-A students."
"And that's why the football coach went down to Crenshaw to recruit them, because they're smart? That's not gonna fly, not with the board."
"Okay, what if they move to this zip code?"
"Move here?" I scoff, shaking my head. "Our mom can barely afford to give us lunch money. You think she can afford to move us to Beverly Hills?"
Coach pace back and forth. "Okay, we're gonna figure this out."
"How?" Spencer question. "Look, face it, Coach, it's over."
Coach taps his finger on his lip before saying, "I have an idea."