Randy

"All right, you guys are done for today. Good hussle!" Coach Bledsoe yelled across the football field, then blew his whistle. I jogged towards the locker room with the rest of the football team, anxious to get a shower. It had rained last night, turning half the field to mud, which naturally ended up on all of us. Besides that, I felt like maybe I had strained one of my shoulder muscles and I wanted to get something on it before it got too bad.

"Randy! Hi!"

My head snapped up, and I turned to see Jana walking towards me. Jana's gorgeous, and she looked especially pretty today in black jeans and a red sweater. I noticed some of the other guys filing by shooting her looks, but I didn't really care. Especially since Jana was smiling and looking straight at ME.

"Hey, what's up?" I called back, removing my helmet and pushing my damp hair back. I knew I was a wreck, but seeing as I just came from football practice, there wasn't much I could do.

"Nothing really, I just wanted to see if you were going to Bumpers today. I'll save you seat if you are." She smiled up at me, shifting her backpack.

I actually hadn't been sure if I was going to Bumpers. I had a lot of reading for English Lit, plus my shoulder was really starting to throb... but there was no way I wanted to turn down Jana's offer. We both usually go to Bumpers, but most of the time she sits with her friends and I sit with mine, so we don't get to talk to much. This was a golden opportunity.

"Definitely." I smiled back.

"Great," she replied, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "I'll see you there in a little while, okay?"

With a wave, she turned and headed in the direction of Bumpers. I waved back then jogged to the locker room, anxious to get my shower and change so I could get to Bumpers. When I entered the locker room, most of the guys were around their lockers, yelling and talking to each other and it took me forever to squeeze my way around everyone else to get to my locker, which just happens to be on the opposite side of the room.

I broke a new record in shower/change time that afternoon, and had just sat down on the bench to pull my socks and shoes on, when a conversation at the end of the row of lockers caught my attention. Now there are about 50 conversations going on at one time, and, as you can imagine, it's not easy to single one out from all the others. It was only because I heard Keith's voice that I snapped to attention. He was standing at his locker, which is in the same row as mine but a few feet down, talking with Jared Nixon and Mitch Dalworth. I turned my head a little so I could hear better. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but I thought for sure I had heard Keith say Jana's name. Now Jared was talking, though.

"-he's having us do those paired projects, too. It stinks. I got the dumbest subject in the world and Clarence Marshall for a partner!"

Mitch and Keith laughed.

"Sounds like fun," Mitch chuckled. "I can almost see the grade you'll be getting."

"A guarenteed F," Keith added with a grin, punching Jared in the arm. "Now me..."

Jared gave Keith a shove. "It's not nice to brag. Some of us don't get as lucky when it comes to partners in school projects."

Keith laughed. "Hey, I deserve it. Jana's the first GOOD partner I've had in my history of PSP."

I knew it! I thought and I clenched my jaw. He must be paired with Jana for some sort of school thing. Darn him, anyway. This is not good.

"PSP?" Mitch was saying when I tuned back into their conversation.

"Partnered School Projects."

Jared and Mitch groaned.

"Dude," Jared put a hand to his face. "I'll tell you right now, if you tell jokes like that, she's not going to be impressed at all. In fact, she'll probably run the other way."

"Keith doesn't care about impressing her, though; right, Keith?" Mitch said with a laugh. "All he wants to do is get an A on their history project."

"Oh, yeah, sure. Right, right," Keith said, but I could see the gleam in his eye. He didn't mean a word of that, and it was obvious to Mitch and Jared he didn't either. They both laughed and slapped him on the back as they left the locker room. Sure, I thought bitterly. They could laugh. Jana wasn't their girlfriend. I finished tying my shoes, then grabbed my gym bag off the floor as I headed out of the locker room. What in the world was I going to do about this? Keith and Jana spending time together, alone, for a who knows how long? Any other guy, I wouldn't worry; but Keith... It couldn't be more obvious to the world that he had a mad crush on her. And this was just the chance he was waiting for. As I pushed the door open to Bumpers a few moments later, I couldn't help but wonder if Jana would still be my girlfriend at the end of the project.