I've got scars
Even though they can't always be seen
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Joey held his head in his hands trying not to drift off. The rest of the boys had gotten good hours of sleep, he on the other hand had slept for a couple of hours at most. His conversation with Elena had left him drained and he'd spent some time after coming back to his room looking her up on the internet.
She was a single child, born in London which actually explained her incredible accent changes, the rest of it was dominated by her career. Starting out from the big early wins and then continuing on to being one of the best players the world had ever seen. There wasn't much mention about her family, not at all actually. All he found was that their occupation was 'private'. There wasn't a single photograph of her with them which left him disgusted.
He had then moved onto her friends. Taylor and her had played together a couple of times in local matches. Daniel and her just practiced together as far as he could tell. What he spent a majority of his time on was her and Michael.
He'd gone through a few of her interviews and found that the two of them had met pretty long ago. They played the most together. Almost every doubles match that either of them had played they had done it together. And won quite a lot of times. In addition to that they were very close off the court too which made sense since she'd already told him how he had had a huge role in filling the gap her parents had left.
After two hours of that he'd finally switched off his phone and spent the next hour trying to come up with ideas of how he would behave around Elena so she didn't suspect that their talk had ripped his heart to shreds.
And now sitting on the couch, waiting for Coach Harley, he wasn't worried about what he would say to her because it was going to be gibberish anyway. Alex had fixed up a cup of coffee for him that had made him more sleepy so now he had given up trying and was just focused on keeping himself upright. Captain of the team tired on the first day wasn't going to make the Coach very happy so all Joey had to do was look alive whenever he was around.
He must have blacked out for a second because when there was a noise and he opened his eyes Elena was looking at him wide eyed her arm stretched towards the floor where a bunch of keys were lying.
"I'm so sorry!" she partially whispered seemingly for his benefit but the boys laughed and ruined her valiant effort.
He gave her a tired smile which must have come out like a grimace because she came over to him and rubbed his head.
"Do you think you'll make it through the day?" she asked.
Joey tilted his head up to look at her and the color of her eyes took away a bit of his drowsiness, "I do not understand the language."
Ben all but tumbled over to where he was sitting and hurled into his lap shouting, "New York!"
Joey groaned as Ben's elbow struck his ribs and twisted to his side dragging Ben onto the floor with him. Elena who was standing in between his feet got tangled and fell down on top of the two boys.
And right on cue Coach Harley walked in. The shock anyone would have felt on seeing a girl laughing on top of a boy groaning on top of a boy nearly in tears was clearly present on the Coach's face as he looked at rest of the boys.
After all three of them had stood up and Ben had been handled and assessed for the injuries that he was claiming to have gone through, Coach Harley finally started talking about what he had come there to.
"You all are like a bus load of kindergartners high on cookies!" he looked at Elena, "And you're supposed to keep them calm not participate in their shenanigans!"
Ben started giggling at the last word and Alex who was sitting next to him punched him.
"Ow! Don't get physical with me! You have a girlfriend!" Ben glared at him and turned to look at Coach Harley like the abiding student he wasn't.
Mark raised his hand from the other end of the couch where he was sat on the armrest, "Calm the eff down guys!"
Oliver shouted out from next to Elena, "Have some decency man! You're swearing in front of our teacher!"
Joey squirmed and stood up from his squished position. He raised his finger to his lips and whistled until all of them had stopped talking. "Shut. Up." He said raising his hands after each word.
Coach looked at him, still pissed for what had been going on when he had entered the room, "Get back to your place."
Joey was no stranger to his vocabulary and understood that Coach found it as funny as they did. Regardless, he settled back into the tiny void of space on the couch for him.
"You all have interviews from today evening and all the time till then will be spent prepping for it." He let out an exasperated sigh as Ben raised his hand. "Yes, Ben?"
"Will Elena be there?" he said smirking at Joey and the latter realized how stupid it was of him to tell Ben that he had watched her interviews before sleeping.
Elena answered him, "I actually have interviews of my own. But I'll get free by the time yours start."
"Will you?" Ben asked cheekily still looking at Joey who discreetly flipped him off when Coach had started speaking again.
"No stupid things should be said and I'm saying this specially for you Ben, because you will even after repeated reminders."
Ben who had been sticking his tongue out at Mark turned to look at the Coach and said, "What?"
Alex said, "I'll look after him."
Josh said, "We'll all be there so most of us won't even get the chance to talk."
Coach nodded, "That would have been the case if you all hadn't come out of her plane. And already got clicked with her back home and here," he pointed at Elena.
She gave them a sheepish smile, "If it's any consolation they're pretty fun. And it's your first time so it'll be a blast."
"Like I was saying, now you all have about five minutes of alone screen times in addition to your thirty minutes of group time which all the rest of the teams have as well," Coach Harley continued.
Joey said, "Five minutes isn't that bad."
Coach said, "Funny you should say that because you have been given ten minutes. The photo of you two from the hotel lobby is still blowing up. And they want you specifically to talk about the relationship you have with her."
"We don't have a relationship," Joey answered. He could feel Elena's stare on the side of his face.
"Yet," Ben added and four people said simultaneously, "Shut up, Ben."
Alex said to Elena, "Can you do something about it? I mean you probably have a manager or something, right?"
"I've already gotten the post taken down," she shrugged. "There isn't much I can do about the interviews."
Mark said, "This is stupid. We're here to play so if they need to ask us something it should be about basketball. Not these two," he pointed at Joey and Elena. "No offence guys."
"No problem," they replied together and looked at each other for the first time in a long while.
Elena took a deep breath and blinked a few times before breaking eye contact with Joey, "It's gonna happen sooner or later. Most of mine today are going to be exactly the same."
Coach Harley took the reigns of the conversation back, "The group time will be just about basketball, I'm sure."
Ben said, "Yeah just about where all we've played and how long we've played for." When every single person in the crowded room looked at him in a shocked manner he added, "I watched last years interviews. Jeez! It's like none of you have any expectations from me."
"We just don't expect you to live up to them," Joey said with smile on his face to tell Ben that he was kidding.
There was a knock on the door and Coach Harley opened it. A hotel concierge said, "We are ready for the team downstairs, sir." He looked inside the room and when he found Elena he released a breath, "And everybody is looking for you Miss Moscovitz."
Elena gave him a thumbs up and then the room turned into a mess as all of them tried to get up at once. A few minutes and many bruises later the boys were making their way downstairs and Elena was going to her room where wardrobe was already waiting for her.
Before she could slip in Joey caught her hand in his and pulled her back out into the corridor.
She looked at him and raised her eyebrows, "What's up?"
Joey ran a hand through his already messed up hair, "Are you okay? After, you know?"
"After I poured my heart out to you about my tragic past?" she smiled. "Yeah, I'm fine. Are you okay? Cause you look like shit."
He gave her a face, "Always nice to hear that from the girl you are about to be questioned about."
She turned serious, "If you're asked about that just..."
He nodded even though he didn't know what he would say either, "Yeah, I'll...I'll say something."
Elena laughed and shooed him off, "Go now. I have shit to do."
He backed away, mockingly saluting her and turning around the corridor.
"Hey!" Elena called out and Joey stuck his head out the corner, "Yeah?"
"Just relax and have fun. Even if you say stupid shit I'll handle it."
"Now that's good advice!" Coach Harley's voice rang down on them and he scurried off.
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"And we are back on in three, two, one," a backstage voice rang out and the interviewer in front of Elena smiled wide at the camera.
"Hello folks and welcome back to Daily Pop. We have today with us Elena Moscovitz. Tennis player, environment enthusiast and one of the most influential teens on the planet!"
Elena smiled at the camera they had told her to.
"Now before the break you mentioned the Tigers."
Elena tried to not point out the fact that she hadn't mentioned anything and was just sticking to the script they had provided her and said, "I did, yes. I go to school with the boys and me coming here with them was just because of a silly mix up."
The interviewer nodded as if she was listening to the whole for the first time, "You moved there quite recently and it seems like you're already very close to them."
She adjusted the shirt she had grabbed to wear over the dress they had put her in and said, "Yeah, it was all pretty soon. I met the boys early on and we hit it off," for once she didn't have to smile forcibly. "I have classes with almost every one of them and we have a lot in common."
She tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and veered off her script. "They are really hardworking boys and they love the game they play. More than any of that they are brilliant and funny and really weird people," she laughed along with the interviewer.
The interviewer looked at the camera and said, "All praise as you can see." She looked back at Elena, "Now there's one photograph that I have been dying to talk to you about," she took out a printout of the lobby photo of Joey and Elena from behind her.
Elena took the photo from her hand and looked at it for a second before putting it against her face, "They really got my good side."
The interviewer laughed and Elena took the moment to look at the photo not that she hadn't stared at it enough already. "Yeah so this was taken on our first day here. And even though it looks like an intimate moment but it is not. At all." She waved her hand at the camera for extra effect. "We were just goofing around at that time. It was the first time the boys were experiencing the screaming and shouting from the fans thing so they were all pretty hyped up."
The interviewer asked, "So nothing going on between you two?"
Elena smiled cheekily and winked at the camera, "Totally single the two of us."
The interview dragged on for a while after that and when it finally got over Elena went to the suite where the boys were being interviewed.
All of them were busy with cameramen and she made her way around staying in front of each of them for a few seconds. They seemed to be doing pretty good. It was their individual interviews and the questions were mostly about their relationship statuses. A couple of interviewers who were free made small talk with her and she stayed and talked to all of who were.
She ended up in front of Ben at the end of her round and he smiled wider noticing her behind the camera. He was doing really great. In between a couple of questions she mouthed to him Joey.
He looked at the door to their left for a split second before turning back to the camera. Elena snaked across the equipment spread across every inch of the floor and walked towards the room Ben had pointed to.
She opened the door just enough for her to slip in but in hindsight what she should have done was knock.
Joey had his back to the door when it creaked open. His shirt was halfway up over his head and he quickly tugged it down before whoever was at the door saw his back.
Elena was about to call out to him when she saw him and her words died at her lips. He had his bare back to her and she sucked in a breath at the scars that covered all of his rear side.
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Hey guysss!!
Pretty chill chapter and i swear i didn't mean to do what i did in the end...i did actually but sometime later xD
Hope you liked the chapter, and if you did don't forget to leave a vote and comment.
Much much much love,
N.