It was Friday at 4pm. I went with the boys in Alejandro's car to the varsity volleyball game. I was so pissed I couldn't play. I probably shouldn't have jumped out of a car but Jill and my dad were being bitches. Jade asked Alejandro to come and I was going to ask Mattia but I'm not playing so I just came with them. We also brought Kairi and Alvaro. I sat in the back next to Mattia. I sat with my arms crossed, leaned my head against the side of the car and looked out the window.
"Last time Luna was in a car she broke her wrist," Kairi said.
Everyone laughed.
"Fuck you," I said jokingly.
"Woah chill," Kairi said laughing.
The boys were all singing a song and laughing. I was so upset. I just wanted to get on the court and play. I felt Mattia's arm wrap around me and pull me closer to him.
"What's wrong?" He asked me.
"Oh I just want to play in this game. I'm literally the caption," I sighed.
"I understand but you need to have your wrist recover," Mattia said.
"I guess" I said leaning onto his chest.
He had both of his arms around me until we pulled up to the school parking lot. We all got out of the car and walked into the gym. I saw this girls warming up and I sighed. Jade ran over to me.
"Oh my gosh is that what you told me about?" She asked touching my cast lightly.
"Yeah..." I said sadly.
"Aww I'm so sorry!" She said.
"I would do anything to play this game" I groaned.
"I know Luna" Jade said.
"Well anyways you should say hi to Alejandro" I told her.
"Oh yeah! I will!" She said and walked up to the bleachers.
(Alejandro's pov)
I sat down with the boys and I saw Jade walking towards me. I stood up and gave her a hug. She looked so good in spandex and her jersey.
"I'm so glad you came!" Jade told me.
"I wouldn't miss it" I told her.
She blushed, it was so cute.
"I have to go warm up. I'll talk to you after the game!" She said hugging me again and walking back onto the court.
"Good luck!" I said sitting back down.
(Back to Luna's pov)
I sat down next to Mattia and watched the girls warm up.
"I'll be right back I'm going to the bathroom," I said to the boys and walked to the bathrooms.
When I got out of the gym I walked into the girls locker room from another entrance. I quickly opened my locker and started to change into my spandex, my jersey, my shoes and knee pads. I threw my hair up into a ponytail then ran out to my coach.
"Luna!" My coach said with excitement.
"Can I please play?" I begged her.
She examined my wrist and looked back at me concerned,
"Luna what happened?"
"I jumped out of a car. But that's besides the point. I didn't even break the hand I hit with and you can sub me out to serve" I said.
"Luna I can't..." My coach said.
"Can I please play?" I said begging my coach.
She sighed and said,
"Well I suppose. But only for a little bit,"
I jumped up and down and said,
"Thank you so much!"
"Okay Luna now go. We are lining up for high fives," My coach told me.
We high fived the other team and then went back to coach. She told me my position and all of the other girls. We walked out to the court and Jade looked at me in confusion. I shrugged and smiled at her. I went up to the net.
(Mattia's pov)
I was talking with the boys as we waited for the game to start.
"Dude what's on your neck?" Kairi said squinting and examining my neck.
Shit. I forgot Luna gave me a hickey last night.
"Umm, what do you mean," I said trying to play it off but I could feel myself turning red.
"Yooo. That's definitely a hickey," Alvaro said.
"Luna is wildin," Alejandro said laughing.
"Shut up," I said laughing putting my hood up.
"Nah but for real are we gonna just ignore this?" Alvaro said.
"Yeah what's going on with you and Luna?" Kairi asked.
"Okay. Last night she told me she was in love with me," I said.
The boys eyes widened.
"What did you say?" Alejandro asked.
"I told her I loved her too," I said.
"Finally!" Alvaro said.
"Damn I knew it. I've saw this coming since like 8th grade bro," Kairi said.
"Are you guys dating now?" Alejandro asked.
"Honestly I don't know what we are. She said she is scared because she doesn't want to break up our friend group. She also thinks that if we get together it will make things awkward between all of us," I told the guys.
"Nah! It wouldn't we love you both nun will change that," Alvaro said.
"Exactly. It wouldn't be weird at all," Alejandro said.
"Yeah what they said," Kairi said
"Thanks guys. Love you too," I said.
"Where is Luna though?" Kairi asked.
Luna has been in the bathroom for a while now. She is going to miss the start of the game. I looked on the court and squinted.
"I know I have bad vision, but does that look like Luna?" I said confused.
"Wait what? I think it is" Alvaro said.
"That's her. Her number is 7" Alejandro said.
"What about her wrist?" Kairi said.
"I need to do something" I said getting up.
"Nah just sit down Mattia" Alvaro said slightly pulling me back down.
"She's pushing herself too hard. I don't want her to hurt herself" I said.
"I'm sure her coach knows what she's doing. It'll be okay Mattia" Alvaro said.
I sighed and watch a girl from our school serve the first ball.
(Back to Luna's POV)
It was our serve. The other team was setting up the ball and it was coming back over. Jade passed it from middle back to our setter.
"Outside!" I yelled.
The setter set me the ball and I spiked the ball down. The other team couldn't get my spike. I got the point. We all huddled together and cheered. I knew that Mattia was probably mad at me for going out on the court and playing but he still was cheering me on. I smiled at him and he winked. Our team got 7 more points and the other team eventually broke our serve.
I had some more great hits and our team had more great rallies. Jade also had some amazing highlights. The game was 20/24 (our school was 24)
I was in the back row now and was ready for the serve to come over from the other team. The girl to the left of me passed the ball to the setter, the setter set the ball out of the court. I chased the ball and had an amazing dive. I actually passed the ball over the net. I really had a nice dig for that ball. The people in the bleachers roared with cheers. My team was jumping up and down. I got the winning point. Mattia and all the guys ran down from the bleachers. Alejandro ran over and hugged Jade.
"You did amazing out there!" He said to her.
"Thank you!" She said hugging him.
Mattia lifted me off the ground hugging me. I laughed.
"You did that with a broken wrist Luna! Damn! I'm so proud of you, you were so great on that court" Mattia said.
I smiled and said,
"Thank you! I thought you'd be mad" I said and he put me down.
"He was" Kairi said laughing and giving me a hug.
"Good job Luna" Alvaro said giving me a hug as well.
"Luna!" My coach said gesturing me over to her.
"I'll be back" I said to the boys and ruining over to my coach.
She was standing with a man and a woman.
"This is Luna" My coach said.
"It's so nice to finally meet you. I am David and this is Amanda. I am the athletic director and coordinator at Stanford University. Amanda is Stanford's girls volleyball coach" David said shaking my hand. I shook Amanda's hand as well.
"It's so nice to meet you!" I said smiling.
"We were at the Garden State volleyball tournament a few weeks ago and you really stood out to us. As a junior you are so impressive. We reached out to your coach and she gave us your game schedule. We wanted to come watch you again" David said.
"Wait really?!" I said.
"Yes." David said.
"You are phenomenal out there Luna. You play amazingly even considering you have a broken wrist. Wow now that is impressive." Amanda told me.
"Thank you so much!" I said.
"We would like to recruit you to Stanford. We do know you are a junior so you do have a year of high school left. We will keep in touch with you, Luna. Both of us have your email." David told me.
My jaw dropped.
"Are you serious?!" I said in shock.
"Yes of course!" Amanda said.
"Thank you so much. Oh my gosh! I am so grateful for this opportunity!" I said almost jumping up and down but I tried to stay calm and collected.
"It was great meeting you. We will keep in touch." Amanda said.
"Goodbye" David said.
"It was a pleasure meeting you both. Thank you again!" I said waving to them.
I looked at my coach and practically screamed.
"Oh my gosh! Is this real?! Stanford is a D1 school for volleyball!" I said.
"I know! When they reached out to me I had your exact reaction. I'm so happy for you Luna" My coach said hugging me.
"I couldn't have done it without you" I said hugging her back.
"Now go have fun with your friends and take it easy." My coach told me.
I said goodbye to her and walked back over to Mattia, Alvaro and Kairi.
"We all are gonna go out to lunch. Jade and Alejandro went to get the car." Kairi said.
"Oh yay!" I said.
"What was that about?" Mattia asked.
"I might've just gotten recruited to Stanford..." I said smiling.
"WHAT?!" Kari said.
"Oh my god Luna that's amazing!" Alvaro said.
Kairi and Alvaro both hugged me and squeezed me tightly. I thanked them and looked over at Mattia his mouth was practically on the floor. We all laughed and I pushed his chin up making him close his mouth. He pulled me into a huge hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck hugging him. We were still hugging after a good 30 seconds. Alvaro said,
"We're gonna go in the car"
Kairi patted my shoulder and said,
"Congrats Luna!"
"Yeah. I'm so happy for you" Alvaro said.
"Thank you guys!" I said and they both walked out of the gym.
I let go of Mattia and he said,
"I'm so proud of you Luna. You deserve that. I've seen you working so hard at volleyball since we were little. It's payed off. You are an amazing volleyball player. Congratulations" Mattia said kissing me.
I kissed him back and said,
"Thank you. That means so much to me. But you know what this means?"
"What?" Mattia asked.
"Stanford is also in California... If I commit to Stanford and you commit to UCLA-"
"Oh my gosh this day just got 1000x better. Holy shit! I didn't even realize that! Now we can see eachother even when we are in college!" Mattia said with the biggest smile on his face.
"I know! It will still be hard since Stanford up by San Francisco and UCLA is in LA. But we can make it work" I said smiling back at him.
"Oh we will make this work. Come on let's go eat and tell the Ale and Jade" Mattia said taking my hand and leading me out to Alejandro's car. Everyone was in Alejandro's car already and there was only one seat left. Mattia opened the back door and said,
"Luna sit in my lap,"
"Okay," I said laughing.
He sat down in the car and I climbed onto his lap. He shut the door and buckled us both in. He put his hands around my waist. I leaned my head on his chest. We all drove to McDonalds and ordered food from the drive thru and drove back to Alejandro's house. We pulled into Alejandro's garage and all got out of the car. We carried our food into his house.
"I call the big beanbag!" I said running down to his basement.
"No that's my spot!" Kairi said chasing me. I put my strawberry banana smoothie on the table and jumped onto the beanbag. Kairi jumped on me.
"AHHH" I screamed and started laughing. I pushed him off of me.
"My beanbag," I said.
We were basically wrestling eachother for a bean bag. The others came downstairs with the food and watched us both wrestling. They all laughed. Kairi and I looked at them then back at eachother.
"I called dibs!" I said.
"I always sit here! Ale back me up!" Kairi said.
"You two are literally children," Alejandro said sitting down on his big couch with Jade.
"It's funny because you both are literally midgets," Mattia said.
"Hey!" I said getting up and looking up at him.
I tried to push him playfully but he didn't budge and looked down at me. He picked me up like a baby.
"Mattia!" I said hysterically laughing.
"Thanks bro now I can have the beanbag," Kairi said.
"I gotchu Kai," Mattia said laughing.
Mattia playfully but gently threw me on the couch and sat down next to me.
I frowned at him.
"I know you're not mad," He said laughing and handing me my food.
I tried to keep a frown but I started to laugh. I hugged him and said,
"Yeah I can't stay mad at you,"
Mattia smiled and kissed my head. I cuddled up next to Mattia and watched whatever Alejandro had put on the TV.
I looked over at Jade and raised my eyebrows up and down because her and Alejandro were cuddling.
"I ship it," I mouthed to her.
She smiled and looked at Mattia then back at me.
"I ship you guys," She mouthed.
"Me too," I mouthed back almost laughing.