"Rise and shine, sleepy heads! You've slept past your alarms and are officially 2 hours late to school." Patty was standing at the edge of Sydney's bed. His arms were crossed across his chest and he was not happy with us right now. "You two better be out of the house before me or else."
"Dad. You can't ground Natalie." Sydney sat up and rubbed her eyes, pulling the warmth of the covers away from me.
"Yes but I can ground you. Which is just as good."
I groaned, "I'm sorry, Patty."
He rolled his eyes, "I have McDonalds on the table." The sassy bald man walked away.
He was a ginger. But not a cute kind of ginger. I would've gone bald if I was him too.
Patty the ginger man? No. Patty the baldy with sass.
Sydney rolled out of bed and went into her closet, "Oooh do you wanna match today?"
I buried my face into the pillows she had stacked on her bed, "As long as it's not yellow or a dress."
She groaned, "You're too difficult."
I finally sat all the way up, stretching to try and wake myself up, "Or I knew that you were holding those yellow sundresses your mom made us wear for that Easter brunch." I stood up and touched my toes, trying to pop my back, "What's the point of even going to school now?"
"Dad loves school and he'd rather be alone in the house, you know this." She laid out a brown pair of Empyre slacks that I'm 99% sure already belong to me and an ACDC shirt.
"I don't listen to ACDC and I'm not a poser."
"But I listen to them and if anyone asks, it's my shirt." She folded her arms across her chest, "This outfit is gas. Throw on your converse, the Prada necklace in my jewelry case, and a belt and you'll have so many bitches."
"Shut up." I threw her sunflower pillow at her and went over to her dresser, going straight to my drawer.
Something I've had since we were little: A drawer at her house. My toothbrush, razor, underwear, bras, swimsuits. Everything I could need at her house that we don't already share.
"What are you gonna wear?" I turned towards her once I decided between boxers or my pink thong.
The boxers won.
For practicality reasons. Which one would be more comfortable to wear during practice?
She pointed to the bed, "Easy. It matches but not identical."
I studied the cheetah print skirt and tight fitting tank top she laid out for herself.
Sydney is hot. This outfit is hot. And it matches my own.
"Excellent." I put my clothes on quickly, throwing my dirty clothes in the laundry bin inside her closet. Then I sat in front of her at her vanity. She was just studying herself in the mirror. "Can you do two dutch braids?"
She groaned, "Can you do my hair too?"
"Yeah, duh."
________
Patty got me a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit and a medium strawberry smoothie. He got Sydney the burrito meal.
I love Patty.
"You guys are late." Yoda found us in the hallway on the way to lunch. Clearly, Syd and I aren't going to eat. But we have to let everyone know our fight is over. Even though it wasn't a fight. "Does this mean we can sit together again?"
Sydney wrapped her arm around my shoulder as we walked into the cafeteria, "Of course." She sighed, "That was our longest fight ever." She looked at me, "13 hours and 12 minutes."
"No seconds?" I raised my eyebrows, playing along.
"Nope. It was right on the dot."
"I hate you both." Yoda sat at the table and crossed his arms.
I noticed Mobius sitting with his football buddies again, looking extra miserable.
I sighed and stood up, "I have to retrieve our new fourth."
"Good luck." Yoda shrugged, "He has become mute."
"Or maybe he doesn't like redheads." Sydney laughed.
Michael kicked her under the table.
I walked over to Mobius' table and tapped him on the shoulder, "So we're having a really important debate and I was hoping you would come sit with us to help defuse the situation? Please?"
He stared at me.
"Look, I am sorry for the awful things I said. I like that we're friends. I love it. You're a great genuine guy and I like it when you're around us." I ran my hands through my hair, "Please?"
He smirked and pointed to his cheek.
"What?"
He pointed to his cheek again, sticking it up in the air.
"I'm not kissing you."
He shrugged and grabbed his stuff, "Worth a shot."
And the gang is repaired.
As they all joked around like I hadn't insulted them this weekend, I let my eyes linger on Scarlett Santoro.
Let me explain the cafeteria. It's huge. As soon as you walk through the double doors, you have the cafe. It's a small, carpeted area that only has 4 tables and is open from 7-9 am. Breakfast only.
The cafeteria is the big part. Too many tables to count. Flags from every country hanging on the ceiling. The whole right wall is lined with windows, staring out to the front parking lot.
The highest level of the jock patriarchy (yes, just like a high school movie) sits next to the windows. Not at the high tables, but at the long benches right next to them.
Cheerleaders closest to the outside doors. Football players in the middle. Baseball at the very end.
The other teams either sit with people besides their teammates (because they have lives outside of sports) or they're not in the cafeteria at all.
We sit three tables south of the cheerleaders, right next to the sea.
The Sea: The line of people leaving the dispensary.
The Dispensary: Where you get lunch.
The hole: Where you sit if you have no friends. I've never sat there and I don't plan to..
We have a straight shot view of the patriarchy since the Tennis team is so small.
I can look right at her without anyone noticing, because it looks like I'm looking right out those windows.
But Scarlett is good about people staring at her.
She can always tell.
She told me it's one of the best things about her. She has eyes everywhere.
So when her eyes met mine, I shouldn't have been shocked.
But I was.
I couldn't move or blink or breathe really.
We just stared at each other.
But as soon as it started, she looked away.
And I was stuck sitting there wondering if I had completely screwed up something that already wasn't going to happen.
<><><><>
"Let's go, Wilson!" Coach Whittaker was watching me intently as I was trying to beat my max deadlift. My pr is 260. I'm going for 300.
Almost the entire weight room was watching.
"Come on, Wilson." Mobius was directly in front of me, bent over and making eye contact, "One rep." He clapped, "Come on!"
I straightened my back and lifted with everything in me.
"Yeah!" Sydney was to my right.
Coach was on my left, staring intently at me. He told me if I did one rep, we wouldn't have to do laps during practice.
That's all the motivation I need.
I shut my eyes and pointed my head to the ceiling, absolutely determined to get this done.
And I did.
I stood up straight and held the position before opening my eyes and dropping the bar. "Light work."
"Light work? Your face is as red as your shirt." Mobius pointed at my Louisville slugger shirt with a huge grin on his face.
Coach patted me on the back, "You just made your team very happy. You could take it one step farther and do two more to have a free day."
I stared at him, "Just 2 more?"
He nodded and smiled widely.
I put more chalk on my hands and stood behind the bar.
Right as I bent over to grab the bar, the cheerleaders came in.
All the more reason to show off.
"Let's see if you can do it better than last time." Mobius pulled out his phone and pointed it at me, "For your progress record."
I rolled my eyes and gripped the bar tightly. I took a deep breath in and pulled straight up, lifting it with ease.
"Holy shit." Mo immediately covered his hand with his mouth and glanced at Coach W.
Coach just stood there watching me, "My thoughts exactly."
I put the bar down and it hit the ground with a large thud that echoed through the space.
"What's she doing?" Olivia Hart came over and stood next to Mobius, watching me intently. This doesn't affect me the same way Scarlett would. But Olivia is almost as gorgeous as her. And she's a cheerleader. And she's openly bi. So it gave me tingles.
"200."
"Holy shit." She nodded, staring at me.
I didn't acknowledge her.
No, I was staring at the blonde on the other side of the room.
She was talking to Brian Murphy. An absolute meathead who's been talking about how much he wants to fuck her.
She's only talking to him because she's heard what he's said.
As soon as I gripped the bar again, she looked at me. A smirk on her lips.
I kept a straight face and lifted the bar straight up again, pretending my back muscles weren't absolutely screaming.
I kept eye contact as I let the bar fall again.
"I'm impressed." Coach nodded as I looked at him, 'you earned your team a free day, Wilson. Good job."
"Thanks Coach."
He smiled and turned towards the other kids in the room, making sure no one was accidentally suffocating under any bars.
"Great job, Wilson." Olivia smiled at me.
I smiled back, "Thank you Olivia."
"Way more than I could have done." She sighed and messed with the end of her hair.
"I'm impressed too." Mobius patted my arm, "Great job." He nodded and turned away to walk over to Gavin Heathers.
Sydney was staring at her phone, typing away. I know she saw me lift but I also know that she and her mom have been arguing all day because we didn't make her bed before we left.
"When's your next hockey game? I was so bummed that I missed the last one. Especially with everything that happened there." She gestured to my eye then crossed her arms over her chest.
I smiled widely, "This Thursday. It's a home game. The theme is Warriors Inferno."
"So I should wear red?" She smirked.
"Yeah. You should." I licked my lips slightly, "Do you think my black eye makes me look cool or stupid? Jacobsen was giving me a hard time for it."
She shook her head, "I think it's badass." She stroked my arm, "I just hope it doesn't hurt."
I got goosebumps and I silently prayed she couldn't feel them, "It doesn't anymore." I shrugged, "She barely got any hits in."
She smiled at me, "I noticed that in the video." She squeezed my arm, "Good arm." She let go, "Are you going to the game on Friday? I'm throwing a party after. A small gettogether with mostly cheerleaders. You and your gang could come along."
I laughed, "My gang and I will be there." I pulled out my phone, "Put your number in so you can text me the details."
She smiled wider and took the phone from me, quickly typing in her details. She saved her number as 'Ollie :)'
"Cute." I slid the phone in my pocket.
Before either of us could say anything else, Scarlett made her way over to us, immediately standing too close to me. She didn't acknowledge Olivia even though she was on her cheer squad, "Natalie. How's your eye? I've been meaning to talk to you forever but I wasn't feeling very well yesterday and I've been busy all day." She put her hand on my shoulder, "I haven't seen you since Friday."
Shit.
I almost forgot she saw that whole thing.
"I'm good." I nodded and looked at Olivia, "I'll text you."
She smiled at me, "And I'll see you at your game." Then she walked away.
I turned back to Scarlett, "I'm sorry you had to see all of that on Friday. I swear I'm not usually like that."
"Oh no worries. I hardly remember Friday night, honestly." She shrugged and looked in the direction Olivia just walked away in, "What did she want?"
"She was just watching me lift."
She took her hand off my shoulder, "I'd be careful with her. She's kind of a player."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I looked at her, hoping my eyes weren't wide.
"Oh. I thought- Okay well nevermind then." She shrugged.
"No, what?"
"I thought you guys were flirting. I mean, if you were, that wasn't your finest work but..."
The bell rang.
And I stood there like an idiot.
She twirled my hair around her finger and leaned in so she could whisper in my ear, "If you talk to her in front of me again, I will kick her off the team."
Then she simply just walked away.
"Come on, silly." Sydney slapped my butt and walked towards the locker room.
This is one confusing day.