I stepped out of the shower and quickly got dressed. I didn't want to take any chances with the younger boys awake early this morning. I brushed my hair and pulled it into a loose bun on top of my head. I was wearing a black and white high low styled tank top and jean shorts. Jared had texted me last night telling me to meet him at the coffee shop down the street from the skate park. Since no one in this house wanted me to date Jared, I walked.
When I entered the parking lot to the coffee shop I saw his beat up black ford truck. I walked towards the small green building and opened the door. Jared was standing in line ordering his food.
I walked up next to him. "Hey."
He looked down at me. "Hey." He wrapped his arm around my waist. "What do you want to eat? My treat."
I stared at the menu and eventually Jared and I decided to split an everything bagel with plain cream cheese. I got a mocha coffee with cream and sugar and Jared got an iced coffee. We took a seat at a table that was in the corner of the cafe while we waited for our bagel.
"So where did you live before you moved here?" Jared asked.
"I lived in Oregon. It was always rainy and cold and really boring there. I lived in a really small town." I slowly sipped on my coffee.
"It's not much different here." Jared flashed his straight white teeth in my direction. Just the sight of him made me smile. He was very attractive, I would give him that. I thought it was weird that he asked me out so quickly at first, but he's actually really sweet. I originally thought it was just going to be fun and wouldn't last long, but he's different than I expected.
"Number 23." Jared got up from the table and walked towards the counter to get our food. Just as he got up my phone buzzed.
I looked down and saw that it was a text from Lydia.
Lydia: Hey Ellie. The boys want to know if you are doing anything later. They are all going to the track and they wanted to know if you wanted to go too.
I started typing my response when Jared came back to the table.
Me: What time did they have in mind? I'm a little busy right now, but I'll be free later.
"Everything alright?" Jared asked setting the food on the table.
I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, Lydia was just asking if I had plans for later today."
He nodded and started to take the food out of the bag. He took the top half and handed it to me. I took it from his hand, our fingers touching for a split second. When his hand was gone, mine felt cold.
I shook it off. "So what does everyone around here do for fun?" I asked. I spread the cream cheese around on my bagel. I used a ton. It's a good thing the people gave us two things of it.
"Well, most of my friends just skateboard." I passed the cream cheese to him. "You see a lot of the people at my school are smart and play school sports. If your not smart or you don't play a sport then you don't really fit in. That's why I hang out with a lot of people from other schools."
"So is your school like the cliche high school where you have your jocks, your nerds, your loners, and your preps?" I asked sarcastically.
"Actually, yeah, kind of." My jaw dropped and I almost lost the food that was in my mouth. Jared laughed and took a sip of his coffee. I was going to die at this new school.
I wiped my mouth with my napkin and collected myself. "Great," I rolled my eyes and placed the napkin back on the table.
"It's not that bad. You just have to get used to the people there." I stared at him in disbeleif. Get used to the people? "You'll do fine. I've only known you for a day or two and I already like you."
I smiled at him and pushed the loose pieces of hair behind my ear. "Thanks." My phone buzzed in my pocket. I reached in and got it checking the new message.
Lydia: They were thinking around 11.
I looked at the time on my phone. It was almost 10:20. I would be done before 11.
Me: Ok
Jared and I spent about half an hour talking about random things that just happened to fit into our conversations. It turns out Jareds favorite animal is a lion and his middle name is Alexander. Since it was almost 11, I texted Keaton and told him that I would meet them at the track. I asked Jared to bring me and he gladly said yes.
We cruised down the road with the windows down and the music blasting. I started singing, more like screaming, to the song Fireball by Pitbul. Jared and I laughed when it got to the rap part because neither of us knew what he was saying. I eventually got him to sing by the time it got to the second verse.
As we pulled into the parking lot by the track I hopped out of the car and walked to Jared's side. He got out and we stood by the side of the car. The parking lot was on a hill raised above the track so we could see the whole track, including the boys already running around. Ethan was on the field in the middle playing football with Wesley, Oliver, and William. Keaton and Logan were playing soccer, trying to keep the ball away from each other. Chase was running laps around the track while keeping an eye on the boys. Drew wasn't there.
I looked at Jared and smiled at him. "I had a lot of fun this morning."
He grabbed my hand. "Me too." He flashed with white teeth at me and bent down to kiss me on the cheek. "Can I take you out again sometime?"
I giggled in a girly way. "Of course." I got on my tip toes and hugged him. "Thank you." When we released he got back in his car and I watched as he drove away. I waved to him and he did a wierd two finger wave, kind of like what Chase did when I first met him.
I ran down the hill and met Chase as he was coming around the track. He slowed down as he got close to me. His face was red and he was breathing heavily. He bent over and collapsed to the ground. He layed on his back and took deep breaths to slow his breathing. I watched as he laid there and he looked at me, raising his eyebrows.
"Why are you so tired?" I asked sarcastically. "How many laps did you do?"
He sat up and rested his elbows on his knees. "Four."
I laughed a little bit. "Only four?" I put my hands on my hips.
"Yeah only four. Didn't you see me? I thought I was running kind of fast," he said seriously. he put his hands out for me to help him up and I grabbed onto them. I pulled him up, or tried to anyway. As mean as it sounds, he was extremely heavy.
"We walked to the field in the middle and the boys all stopped playing their games and looked at me. "Ellie, do you want to play football with us?" Wesley asked.
I nodded and was about to respond when Keaton said, "No we want her to paly socccer with us."
I looked behind me at Chase who just shook his head and laughed. I rolled my eyes and looked back at the boys. "How about we all play together?" They all nodded and looked at me. I could tell they were trying to ask which game to play. Well I didn't really want to get tackled and get all dirty so I chose soccer. Plus, I wasn't the best at football.
"Okay, how about Ellie and Chase are captains. They can choose the teams," said Logan.
I looked at Chase with a questioning look. "Are you up for the challenge?"
Chase crossed his arms in front of his chest, which brought out his muscles and honestly, he was ripped for a 17 year old. He stepped forward and looked at the boys. "Keaton, you're on my team."
Shit, I didn't realize that I didn't know who was good and who wasn't. Oh well, if I'm gonna lose, why not make it fun. "I pick William."
Chase looked over at me and laughed so hard. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. "Wesley."
"Ethan."
"Oliver."
"Logan."
The teams were picked and we went to our sides. My team huddled up and we talked about a strategy. "Whose the best player on that team?"
They all looked at each other and in unison they said, "Chase."
"Okay, who wants to mark him?" They all looked at each other again, but this time said nothing. "Okay, I guess I'll mark him. Are we ready?" They all nodded and we dispersed. Chase said that we could start with the ball so I gave it to William. He smirked at me right before we started and then the ball was taken away from us in an instant.
Keaton scored in the first five second basically. I looked at my team and I was worried. "It's okay guys, we can get it back."
I waited until Chase drifted away from me and I was completely open. When Ethan made a save, as our amazing goalie, I called for the ball and he rolled it out to me. There was no one on me anymore and there was a clear path to the goal. I dribbled to the goal and when I was almost there, Chase appeared out of nowhere. I quickly looked up and made a quick decision to pass it to William who was standing right in front of the goal. William got the ball and kicked it with all his power and it rolled into the goal.
I ran over to William and picked him up. I spun him around in circles ad he giggled. I laughed and ran to the rest of my team. We gave high fives all around and prepared to get another goal. Chase dribbled down the field and passed to Oliver. Oliver took a shot, but once again Ethan saved it.
He looked up and saw a clear path the goal. "Shoot," I yelled. Ethan wound up and shot, but the ball was intersepted when it hit Chase where it really hurts. We all cringed as Chase fell to the ground. The ball landed right in front of Logan and since Wesley, the goalie, was preoccupied with his fallen team mate, Logan took the shot and the ball went into the back of the net. We all ran over to Logan and we had a group hug.
Chase was still laying on the ground in pain. We all stood around him and he layed on his back staring straight up. "Oh my god," he said in pain. Ethan and and Keaton helped him up. He stood there awkwardly and his face started to get red.
Keaton pulled out his phone and answered a call from Lydia. "We're getting ready to leave right now. It might take a while. Our driver got in a bit of an... accident." We all started laughing and Chase put his head down. "Yeah he's fine, but his nuts aren't." We all started laughing even harder. Chase grabbed the soccer ball that was near him and threw it at Keaton's head. It hit him right on the side and he stumbled backwards. "Bye Mom." He hung up and put the phone back in his pocket.
We all made our way back to the car, Chase having to take the long way around becasue he couldn't walk up the hill. We all got in the car and laughed as he wsa struggling. I felt kind of bad, but after a while I realized that I was now living with a ton of guys and they do this sort of stuff all the time.
Chase got in the car after about five mintues of more stuggling and awkwardly drove away from the track.
When we got home, Ethan and Keaton helped Chase inside and sat him down in the dining room. Wesley ran into the kitchen and grabbed a bag of frozen peas and tossed them to Chase. "No one eat those," Keaton said. Chase smacked him in the back of the head and Keaton did it right back to him.
Lydia came into the room and saw us all huddled around Chase. "Aw, my poor baby."
She kissed him on the cheek and he rolled his eyes. "I'm fine, Mom."
"Oh good." She pushed past him and came towards me. "Ellie, we need to talk."
The boys all went, "Oohh," in unison and I followed Lydia into the other room.