Chapter 2: Football Anyone?
Picture of Levi
Levis P.O.V
Two days I have been stuck in this car. Two days I've had to listen to my thirteen-year-old sister go on about her recent celebrity crush. Along with my parents chatting about what a great opportunity this was. To say I was agitated was an understatement. I stared out the car window, watching the palm trees whiz by.
I missed Texas and my friends. I was just about to finally be captain of the football team, which I worked so hard for. Then my parents dropped this bomb on me. My parents did the old it will be a new start, you'll make new friends, you can be football captain at your new school. None of those things were going to happen.
I finally saw the sign, Welcome to Sandy Bay, it's swimming here. I laughed at the poor attempt at a catch phrase. "Oh look kids! Is it not beautiful" My mom said pointing at the open beach with millions of tourist on it. It may be beautiful, but it wasn't Texas that was one sure thing. I watched as the town passed by. It was definitely a tourist town, there wasn't all much here. The main street held all the amenities of the town. If you wanted to go to the movies or the mall you would have to travel 20 minutes to the next town over. I sighed and wondered if the town even had a football team. We turned down a road and entered a street through a huge gate.
"Where are we?" I asked as my parents slowed and pulled into a driveway. There was no way my great grandmother lived in a huge house, within the walls of a gated community. "Son, it's our new house." My dad replied while getting out of the car. Suddenly moving here didn't seem so bad.
I looked around at my surroundings. Most of the house's in the subdivision looked the same, big brick houses with bay windows. The only difference between my new home and the ones across the street was that I had access to the private beach out of my back door. I ran inside to grab the best room before my sister did. As I walked into the house I noticed that the main floor was an open concept. I had a clear view of the kitchen and the sliding door that opened towards the backyard and the beach. I decided to check that out later, I needed to get a better room than my sister.
I ran up the stairs and saw about 6 different doors. I beginning opening different ones to figure out which were bedrooms and which were bathrooms. I quickly figured out which was the master bedroom and picked the next biggest one. I walked towards the bay window in my room and saw I had a clear view of the beach. "Levi, Mia! Come downstairs!" My mom yelled from the stairs. I turned to walk out of the room. "No fair! You got the better room!" Mia screamed and crossed her arms. "It's not my fault you were to slow" I shrugged my shoulders and walked past her.
***
Since all of our things wouldn't be delivered until tomorrow we decided to go out for dinner. As we walked into a local diner, I could feel all eyes on us. I guess word travels fast in a small town. We sat down and waited to be served. "Hello, my names Jeremy and I will be your server. Can I get you a drink to start?" I looked over at Jeremy and realized he was about the same age as me. We ordered our drinks and he disappeared into the back.
Suddenly the door opened and a group of teenagers walked in and took a seat by the window. They were talking loudly about some party going on tonight. If I was back in Texas I would be doing exactly what they're doing. I hadn't talked to any of my friends since I left. I was still waiting to change my number on my phone, so I still couldn't use it.
"So you guy's must either be tourists or Ms. Lees family," Jeremy said waiting for a reply. "Oh wow, I guess it's true what they say about small towns," My dad said and laughed. "Were Ms. Lee's family, I'm Levi." I said and held out my hand to shake his.Jeremy looked at my extended hand and gave my a funny look. He shook my hand and smiled.
"It's nice to meet you, dude. Look there's a party going on tonight if you want to come?" I nodded in reply. "Cool, meet me here around 10 that when I get off and we can head there together." "Okay" Jeremy took our orders and left again, I couldn't believe how easily, I just made a friend. I thought for sure I was going to be spending the summer hanging out with my family. Don't get me wrong my families cool and everything, but a whole summer with them would be brutal.
"See, I told you making friends would be easy. He seems like a nice kid too" My mom said with the I told you so smile. "Yes, mom you told me so," I said and rolled my eyes. I looked over at the group of kids about my age again. They were all laughing and sharing nachos. I noticed Jeremy talking with them and laughing along. They must be his friends as well, I guess I would meet them all tonight. Maybe my mom wasn't all wrong.
***
I waited outside the dinner for Jeremy to get off. I kicked a rock and looked out on the street. "Hey man," Jeremy said as he walked out of the diner. "Hey, so where exactly is this party," I asked as I followed him to a beat up truck.
"You'll see, its a place the tourist don't know about." "Okay, sick truck by the way" I always loved old trucks and wanted one since I could remember. I never got one because my mom was afraid it would break down and leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere.
"Thanks, bought her myself." He smiled a patted the truck. He started the truck and began driving. We exchanged different things about each other. I realized we actually had a lot in common. Jeremy plays football and is actually the caption of the football team.
"Were here" I looked around and realized we were surrounded by forest. He began laughing. "Dude, don't worry! We just have to walk through the forest a bit and we will be at the party. Trust me I didn't bring you out here to kill you or anything." He hopped out of the truck and began walking.
I ran to catch up with him. "I didn't think you were going to kill me" I stated although the thought hadn't crossed my mind, I did start to get a funny feeling when I noticed we were surround by forest. "Trust me you did, it was all over your face." He said and continued laughing.
As we continued walking I could hear the faint sound of laughing and music. It began getting louder the closer we got. Suddenly we walked into an open clearing. There was a huge fire in the middle of the clearing. People sat around it talking, singing and playing their guitars. I could see a huge keg in the far corner of the clearing with people chatting around it. There had to be about 40-50 people here. I followed Jeremy to a group of guys chatting near the fire.
"Jeremy, man we thought you weren't coming" Jeremy's fist bumped a guy I recognized from the diner earlier. "Yeah, I brought a new friend of mine" He pointed towards me as I walked up behind him. "This is Levi from Texas, he's Ms. Lees great grandson." He smacked me on the back like we were already good friends.
"Nice to meet you" I held out my hand and the guy gave me the same weird look Jeremy had earlier. "Man, we don't shake hands here!" He held out a closed fist. I bumped my fist against him and he smiled. "This here is Jason" Jeremy pointed at the guy I just bumped fist with. "and here is Lucas, Liam, and James" He pointed at the rest of the guys in the circle.
We exchanged hellos and they handed me a cup of beer. I looked around and saw the same girls from the diner chatting in a group. The kept looking over here, probably wondering who I was. Although I'm sure they probably knew who I was or had a general guess. I turned my attention back to the conversation the guys were having.
"I just don't want it to be the same summer as last year man," Liam said while slurring his words a bit. "Well, there's not much we can do about it," James said with a shrug. "What are you guys talking about?" I asked. "Every summer we usually do the same thing, work, party, surf. We do other stuff in between but that's mostly it." Jeremy stated.
"We were trying to figure out something fun to liven it up a bit but we can't think of anything." Lucas finished the rest for Jeremy. "Well, give me a couple of days I might be able to help. My friends and I used to do all these crazy bet things during the summer." I smiled and they all nodded in agreement. They brought me around and introduced me to more people from the football team and soon to be senior class. I began to lose count of the beers I had and since Jeremy was being a designated driver I didn't see a point in stopping. Around two o'clock we decided to head back to Jeremy's for the night since I obviously couldn't direct him to my house. I wasn't sure how I got to the couch in his basement but I was just happy for a bed. The next thing I knew I was asleep.
***
After I finally figured out how to get home the next day, I helped my parents unpack and set up the house. By the afternoon I was exhausted, so I decided to take a long needed nap. Apparently my dad didn't agree because just as I was dozing off he came into my room. "Son were going to go and play some football on the beach, so get up." He ripped my covers off and began trying to pull me out of the bed.
"Dad seriously! I'm not down to play football right now." I tried to bury my head under my pillows. "Levi get up now! The family is here and you're not spending the day in bed. I don't care if your hungover getup." I forgot that my dad's side of the family were all visiting for the weekend.
My dad had three brothers including him and they all had kids. Therefore, it was going to be a weekend of family bonding and competitive games. Football was a big part of our family, so it was no wonder my dad was screaming at me to get up. I slowly got out of bed and put on my workout clothes. I passed my sister's room and could hear giggling. Apparently the girls were able to get out of football. I decided that later I would have to come up with some way to scare them. Maybe hide in the closet with melted wax on my face. Mia recently watched house of wax and would scream her head off.
I jump missing the last two steps of the stairs and headed onto the patio. My mom and my aunts were all sitting on the patio chatting up a storm. I said hello and joined the guys on the beach. I stood next to the rest of my cousins as they choose teams. I looked in the distance and could see two people laying on the beach.Well, hopefully, they didn't get nailed with the football.
After playing for a bit our teams were tied. My mom was calling for dinner so we decided on a tiebreaker. Whoever kicked the ball further won. My cousin hoofed the ball decently far, but I knew if I played my cards right I could beat him. I set my ball up and kicked it with everything in me. It sailed through the air in a perfect spiral. In all honestly it was my best kick yet, it flew right over where my cousins had landed. My team jumped for joy when they realized we won. Although it was short lived. I looked to see where the ball had landed and noticed a girl holding her head. If looks could kill, I would have died right then.