The soft thud of a ball hitting the pavement brought her back from her studying. She stood up and walked toward the window ready to give whoever it was a piece of her mind. After all, she had a big test tomorrow and she didn't want to mess it up. But then she saw who it was. It was Chad. The guy from school. The guy on the basketball team. Not the captain, but that didn't matter to her. He was himself and that's all that mattered to her.
She wanted so badly to go out and say hi to him, but she couldn't. Guys on the basketball team NEVER talk to girls on the scholastic decathlon team. It was just the rules of the school and she didn't dare even try to break them, it would disrupt the whole social status throughout the school.
He was there again tonight. His parents thought he was round at Troy's or Zeke's. They didn't know the truth. Really, whenever he got the chance he went to the basketball court near her house, Taylor's house and played ball. He wanted her to notice him and he thought this was the only way. He saw her standing every night at her window looking annoyed. He knew it annoyed her but he couldn't help it. He just wanted to see her face.
Sure he saw her in school all the time. But that was different. He was with his basketball team and her with her scholastic Decathlon team. He couldn't really look at her, never mind go and talk to her. Girls like her didn't talk to what they thought where airhead jocks like him. He wanted so badly to show her that there was so much more to him. Sure, he liked basketball, but he wasn't a total airhead, he was smart too. But letting that sort of information out into the big bad world of school could seriously damage his rep and get him branded for life.
The next morning came and Taylor was shattered. She had spent all night cramming for the test and still felt as if she was going to fail. As she slowly got dressed and ate her breakfast all she could think about was Chad. She knew he didn't live near her. She wasn't exactly sure where he lived but she knew it wasn't in her neighbourhood…
At the same time Chad was running around his house looking for his basketball uniform. He had left everything to the last minute again and was running late. He grabbed a slice of toast and bolted towards the door before he was late for school.
In homeroom Taylor couldn't even get excited about the upcoming Scholastic Decathlon. He team mates where all in hypo drive about the whole thing but she just couldn't muster up any kind of excitement. She was too busy asking herself why Chad chose to play basketball in her neighbourhood and not his own.
'Maybe', she thought, 'they don't have a court in his area. Yea! That must be it.'
That afternoon Taylor was sitting on the swing at the front of her house doing her homework and feeling rather pleased of herself. She had almost certainly aced the test and was on an all time high.
"Erm... Hey! Taylor?" a voice said interrupting her thoughts. She looked up and into the deep brown eyes of the guy she had spent weeks, months dreaming about.
"Yea…" she said stuttering slightly. "I'm Taylor and you're Chad? Am I right?" she already knew the answer but she didn't want him to know that.
"Yep, that's me!" he said. A short silence fell between them. Taylor looked at her feet, not entirely sure what to say. She was scared even. She didn't want to sound like a fool in font of him.
"Well…" she started. "The reason I am here is basically to ask if you could help me with my homework. I totally don't get what is going on in math at the moment." This was all a cover up really. He knew perfectly well how to do his math, but he wanted, needed an excuse to talk to her and this was his perfect opportunity.
"Oh," she said sounding surprised. A jock who actually cared about the grades he got, that was just lain strange. "Well I will see if I can do anything to help you." And with that said the pair sat down on the swing, Taylor explaining the work and glancing at Chad when she thought he wasn't looking, And Chad staring at Taylor as she explained the work, trying hard to look like he was listening.
Taylor lay awake that night thinking. She had really enjoyed her afternoon spent with Chad even if she was helping with his homework. She realised all too soon that it was unlikely that she would ever see him again though after all he wouldn't be needing help with his homework's every night. Right?
Chad was sitting on his bed shooting hoops at the net on the back of his door. Each time he tried to shoot a hoop he missed. He missed because his mind wasn't on basketball. It was on Taylor. He had really enjoyed that afternoon. He wanted to do it again. Maybe he could fake that he needed help with all his homework's. 'Would that work?' he thought to himself, 'or would she get suspicious?' and with one last throw he hit the ball off his bedroom wall and it fell into the trash can.