Chapter 8: Practice

As Amara passed him by, Mr. Shaw closed his eyes softly as her scent invaded his nostrils. He took a deep breath in and almost smiled. Amara smelled so good. Coming back to his senses, he shut the door and walked up to his desk. He opened a drawer and pulled out a present wrapped in red and white wrapping paper.

"Here," he said. "As per tradition, it is wrapped up."

Amara grinned and took the present to open it. While taking off the paper, she eyed him with suspicion in her eyes. Mr. Shaw smiled when her eyes lit up.

"Oh my Goddess, you got me a Lars Ulrich Funko Pop! figure?! Where did you even find one?" she asked excitedly.

"I ordered it last night. Overnight shipping," he explained. "Do you like it?"

Amara squealed in delight and laughed. "I love it! Thank you!"

She flung her arms around him to give him a big hug and Mr. Shaw trembled a little when she did that. Her scent almost overwhelmed him but he managed to keep his cool and return the hug. However, having her in his arms made him extremely happy.

"Kiss her!" Darragh shouted in his head.

"No, I am not going to kiss her!" Mr. Shaw shouted back.

As much as he wanted to kiss Amara, he couldn't. And that was driving him crazy on the inside. On the outside, though, he was calm and collected. That was until he realized they were still hugging. He cleared his throat and pulled away slightly to look down at her smiling face and bright green eyes. Goddess, she was so beautiful.

"Bidh do bhòidhchead a 'briseadh mo chridhe," he uttered softly. [Your beauty breaks my heart.]

Amara scrunched up her face. "What?"

Mr. Shaw blinked madly, not believing he just said that. "It's nothing. Um..." he let go of her and reached into his desk again. "I have your spray here, too."

"Was that Scottish?" she asked him as she grabbed the spray.

"Um, yes. Yes it was. Gaelic is actually what it's called, though," he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "You wanna try that stuff out? See if it works?"

Amara shook her head. "I'll wait until it actually becomes a problem," she said, stuffing the bottle into her book bag. "But what did you say to me just now? In Gaelic?"

Mr. Shaw blushed. "Honestly, I shouldn't have even said it."

"Why? Was it something bad about me?" she asked with a pout.

"No."

"Then what was it? You can tell me," she giggled.

Mr. Shaw smirked. "No, I don't think I will. I'm gonna let you suffer."

Amara's mouth dropped and she scoffed with a twinkle in her eye. "Mr. Shaw, you're so mean."

He laughed and sat on his desk, crossing his arms over his chest. "Oh, I'm very mean, lass."

"Hmph! How rude!"

Mr. Shaw barked with laughter and sighed. "Yeah, I admit it. I'm so mean and rude."

Amara giggled. "You got anything else to say in Gaelic, Mr. Shaw?"

Mr. Shaw thought for a moment before getting a serious look on his face. "Tha gaol agam air do shùilean." [I love your eyes.]

The side of Amara's mouth quirked up. "What's that?"

"Nothing," he smirked.

He realized he could tell her things, just not in English. This was going to be interesting. And fun.

"Psh, well, keep talkin', mister. Gaelic sounds very..." she looked as though she were thinking for a moment, "...cool."

Mr. Shaw sniffed the air. He could smell her arousal.

"Oh Goddess, she's turned on by this?" he asked himself.

"Keep talking Gaelic," Darragh urged.

Mr. Shaw smirked. "No, I think that's enough for one day," he said.

"Aww," Amara groaned. "Do you think you could teach me?"

"Maybe one day, sure."

Amara smiled excitedly. "Well, I'm gonna head to my locker and put Lars in it. I'll be back."

Amara left the room and Mr. Shaw blew a raspberry before turning to the blackboard. "Well, that was interesting," he said to himself.

Amara quickly made her way to the library. It was finally open. She got in and went straight for the computers. She typed in "Gaelic" and came up with nothing.

"Damn," she thought.

She really wanted to surprise Mr. Shaw and learn the language. How hard could it be, really?

The rest of the day went by smoothly and Amara left with some books from the library. She met up with Janine and asked her to take her to Barnes and Noble. Janine agreed and they left the school.

"So why do you need to go there?" Janine asked.

"Mr. Shaw speaks Gaelic. I want to learn it."

"Why?" she asked in confusion.

"He said some stuff to me in Gaelic today but he refused to tell me what he was saying. He's so mean," Amara said with a laugh.

"Oooh, I see. Well, you better get cracking on that."

Eventually the two reached the book store and both of them got out of the car. Amara quickly raced in and looked for the language section. After finding it, she fingered the books to try and find anything about learning Scottish Gaelic. She found three books. Amara grabbed them, brought them to the front and purchased them. Janine was waiting out front for her when Amara came out.

"You got your books?" Janine asked.

"Yep," Amara replied, waving the bag about.

They got back in the car and drove home. When they got there, Amara quickly vacated the vehicle and went straight to her room to start on learning the language. She plopped on the bed and took out the books, then she picked one and began reading it.

After about five minutes she tossed the book aside.

"Man, that crap is haaard," she said to herself.

"You'll get the hang of it," Dakota said.

Amara nodded and grabbed the next book. After reading it for a bit, she realized this book was much easier.

"...muc agus cú," she said. [A pig and a dog.]

"That's pretty good, I think. Try a different one," Dakota urged.

"Um...ba...balach agus cat." [a boy and a cat.]

There was a knock on her door and she quickly put the books under her pillow. "Come in!" Amara called out.

The door creaked open and Benjamin poked his head in, making Amara do an eye roll. "Hi," he said.

"Hello," she said bitterly. "What do you want?"

"Can I come in?"

"I guess," she sighed.

Benjamin frowned and walked in, shutting the door behind him. "You're still mad at me," he stated.

"Yes."

"Heh, guess I can't blame you." Benjamin grabbed her desk chair, dragged it over to the bed and sat in it, facing Amara. "I'm not doing a very good job of making things up, am I..."

"Not really, no," Amara replied, crossing her arms.

"Hmm. What can I do, then? Name it."

Amara's eyes widened and she sighed, flinging her legs over so she could sit in front of Benjamin. "I don't know. Look, I'm not really as mad as I was yesterday. I got to really clear my head this morning and...and I know you're trying your best to be a good guy to me."

Benjamin gave her a sad smile. "I could still do better."

"Yeah, you could. So keep trying."

Benjamin eyed her and sighed. "Okay."

Amara nibbled on her lip as she looked at him. Goddess, he was gorgeous. At least now she knew his attraction to her was somewhat real. Her eyes went to his lips and she huffed.

"I wonder what it would be like to kiss him," she thought.

"Amara! Think about Mr. Shaw! You are way more attracted to him than you are to Benjamin!" Dakota snapped.

"Well, at least Benjamin's attraction to me is somewhat real."

"You don't know that Mr. Shaw's attraction to you isn't real."

"But even if it was, we can't do anything about it."

Dakota whined and escaped into the abyss of Amara's mind. What has gotten into her?

"Amara, are you listening to me?" Benjamin asked, snapping his fingers in front of her face.

Amara blinked madly and giggled. "Sorry, I was distracted with something."

"Were you talking to Dakota?" he inquired.

"Yes."

"About what?"

"Nothing important."

Benjamin nodded his head. "Hmm," he hummed. "Riiight."

"It's nothing you need to know about. It's between me and my wolf."

Benjamin chuckled and nodded. "Okay, okay fine. So, what would you like for your birthday?"

Amara shrugged. "I dunno. Just get me a t-shirt or something."

"Oh c'mon, you gotta want something more than that."

Amara sighed. "What I really want is a damn car. I'd try to buy one myself but on my salary, it's impossible."

"Okay. What kind of car do you want?" Benjamin asked curiously.

"I dunno. I don't care if it's a clunker, I'm just tired of bumming rides from people."

"Hmm. Okay. I'll see what I can do."

Amara laughed. "I won't hold my breath."

"No, I'm serious. It's about time you had a car of your own. I'll talk to Mom and Dad about it, okay?"

Amara sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Alright, do what you gotta do."

Benjamin pat her leg before leaving the room.

Once he was gone, Amara decided to get started on her homework.

The next day went by smoothly and soon Amara found herself in the gym in her gym uniform waiting for practice to start. Some of the other girls were whispering amongst themselves, wondering what "Cursed" was doing there. Amara ignored them.

Coach Skyler came out of the storage room with a cart full of basketballs. "Alright, girls," he announced. "Line up."

All the teenagers lined up on the sidelines, including Amara. She wondered what was going on.

"Okay," he said, grabbing a basketball. "We have a new player with us today. Her name is Amara Jenson, so say hello."

Some of the girls said hello while some of the others scoffed. Amara waved to the nice kids but scowled at the mean ones. One girl raised her hand so Mr. Skyler pointed at her.

"Yes?"

"Why is Cursed joining us?" she asked with a smirk.

"Debra, that's no way to talk about someone, let alone a team mate. And that goes for the rest of you," he emphasized. "If I hear that word from any of you, I'll kick you off the team. Got it?"

"Yes, coach," the girls said in response.

"Good. Now, we're gonna do some lay ups to start practice but first let's do some stretches."

Amara watched the other girls and followed them in the stretching. The blonde girl named Debra just shook her head and whispered to some other girls. Amara merely rolled her eyes and reached down to her toes.

"Don't take to heart what Debra says," the brunette girl next to Amara whispered. "She's just a big jerk."

"Thanks," Amara said with a groan before standing up.

"I'm Sally," the girl said as she did more stretching.

"Nice to meet you, Sally."

The stretching stopped and Mr. Skyler passed out balls to each girl. Amara briefly counted and realized there were twelve girls including herself. They all dribbled towards the court and each one did a lay up. They did this move over and over but Amara was the only one who made each shot. Sally only missed a couple. A few others made most their shots very well.

"Okay girls. I want us to do a scrimmage and I'm going to try Amara out in different positions. Amara, I want you to try and be a power forward so you need to be on the left there by the basket. Your job is to rebound, block, and receive passes for inside shots. You got it?"

"Yep," Amara said with a smile.

She made her way to her position and watched as Debra guarded her. Sally made her way across the court, dribbling and looking for an opening. Amara tried getting around Debra but Debra was pretty ruthless in guarding her. Amara finally got around Debra just as Sally passed the ball. She caught it and turned to shoot but Debra knocked into Amara, making Amara fall down. Amara landed on her butt and groaned. Mr. Skyler blew his whistle.

"What was that, Debra?" he asked angrily.

"Oops, sorry," Debra mocked.

Mr. Skyler shook his head. "Alright. Sally, run the play again. Amara, same position. Debra, no fouling this time."

Amara got up and brushed herself off before taking up the position again.

Practice was over and Amara was sweating her ass off. She went to the locker room with the other girls, changed into her regular clothes and left. All in all, she had a great time. Maybe she should really join the basketball team. Amara pulled her black hair out of its ponytail and brushed a hand through it as she walked outside.

She saw Benjamin waiting outside for her and she blinked. "Hey, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to pick you up," he replied.

"Oh. Well, thanks," she said as she got to him.

"How'd practice go?"

"Great...although there's this girl named Debra that's really got it out for me."

Benjamin tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

Amara sighed. "She asked the coach why "Cursed" was allowed to join the team, and she knocked me on my ass a couple of times."

Benjamin opened the door for her. "C'mon, get in."

Amara thanked him and got in. Benjamin walked around to the other side and got in, starting up his car with a smile on his face. Amara eyeballed him.

"What's got you in such a good mood?" she asked.

"Nothing. Just gonna take you somewhere."

"Can I go home and shower first?" she groaned loudly.

"Nope. We're meeting up with Mom and Dad."

"Why?"

"You'll see."

Amara sighed and looked out the window as they drove away. As they drove into town, Amara looked out the side window, wondering what Benjamin was up to.

After a while they pulled up into a car dealership and she made a confused face. She saw Gabriel's black Mustang parked in the parking lot.

"What are we doing here?" she asked Benjamin.

Benjamin parked next to Gabriel and turned off the car, looking at Amara with a smile. "We're getting you a car today."

"W-What?" Amara asked, her mouth agape.

"Yeah. Mom and Dad were already planning on getting you one for your birthday anyway so we decided to get it today."

Amara giggled happily and clapped her hands. "Holy crap!"

Amara got out and so did Benjamin. They met up with Sonya and Gabriel and Gabriel grinned.

"You ready to pick out your first car?" he asked Amara.

"Heck yeah!" Amara replied excitedly.