The idea of the TiMER is not mine in any way shape or form. Here is the new re-write of ch 2! Not too many differences in this chapter either. Enjoy!
The next day after soccer practice, my mother took me to so many clothing stores to pick out new clothes for the school year. She also wanted to get me a special outfit for the first day of school, for THE day. She kept going on and on about it while we were out. She repeated how dad and she met at least twelve times. I didn't have to say much during the whole trip and that was fine by me.
Finally, we were able to return home. I was able to get away by saying I needed to hang up my new outfit and was shut myself in my room so I didn't have to hear her talk any longer. I was okay with her being as happy as she was, but it was a lot of expectations to put on me and it was exhausting. Plus, shopping for clothes was exhausting too. I would be more than happy with a few pairs of soccer shorts and some t-shirts. But my mom insisted that in high school there was more of an expectation to dress "better."
I opened my window and threw a rock from my windowsill across the way. Both Spencer and I had a small pile of tiny rocks on our windowsills for occasions such as this. The rock pinged on Spencer's window and after a few moments he appeared.
"Sup," he casually said, leaning against the window. He seemed awfully cheery.
"Why are you so happy?" I asked with a smirk. He shrugged and looked at me. "Whatever. I want to show you my outfit for the first day of school." He rolled his eyes but didn't attest. It was a tradition that I do this, so he was used to it. Most of the time I was trying to decide between lime green soccer shorts and black soccer shorts, but this year was different.
I changed into the black dress with green accents and stood in front of the window.
Spencer wolf whistled. "It looks nice. If your soul mate doesn't like it, we'll have a problem. Let's just hope he doesn't like it TOO much."
My mouth dropped as Spencer howled out with laughter. I knew the dress was form fitting, and honestly, I should have expected Spencer to react like a horny teenager, but it still felt weird. My mom insisted it was a respectable dress and didn't show off too much. Not that I had much to show off. Yeah I was muscular and fit, but I still had the figure of a boy. I didn't mind that, it meant that boy's clothes still fit okay and they lasted longer, but I also didn't wear many dresses and didn't know what to expect from it.
"Go back to circle jerking," I joked and closed my window. I could hear him still dying of laughter as I smirked at him through the window and turned away from him.
There was an hour left. One hour. One hour until the day I would meet my soul mate. Spencer was sitting on my bed with me and we were both staring at my arm. He had crawled into my window ten minutes ago after I told him I couldn't sleep. I had woken him up, as was apparent from the lack of pants and a shirt. I had seen him in less than that so I wasn't shocked when he crawled through my window in a pair of boxers. The guy was still lanky and a bit too tall for his body and it made me laugh. His dad was a nice looking man so we were all expecting Spencer to fill into his body eventually.
Thirty minutes. "Spencer," I said and then stopped.
"What?" he asked after he realized I wasn't going to continue.
"What do I do once I see him?" I asked softly. No one had told me what to do. Spencer looked at me with a blank face. He didn't know either. If class was about to start, what would I do? Or just in general, what was I supposed to do?
"Am I expected to kiss him?" I asked, this time a little louder. I had never thought about that until now. Soul mates kissed. And I knew they eventually did a lot more than that or I wouldn't be here. I wasn't expected to do that right away… right?
"Have you ever kissed anyone before?" Spencer asked. There was no judgment or accusation in his voice. He was simply curious.
"You know I haven't," I demanded. "You've been with me enough to know that."
Spencer shrugged. "You went to that summer camp last summer for a couple weeks. I've heard things happen at summer camps."
I snorted. "Things do happen at camps. But I didn't do anything with anybody. I was too focused on the soccer part of the camp." It was true that I could have kissed one of the guys in my group, and probably do more because he was older and looked like he was experienced, but I passed up that chance. I just didn't want to, honestly. I wasn't going to tell Spencer that though. "Have you kissed anyone?"
Spencer shook his head and looked away. That kind of shocked me. There were plenty of girls who would kiss him if he wanted them to. I'd heard people talking about it in school. "Why not?" I asked.
"I've always thought you kiss people you care about, so I'm not going to kiss someone I don't care about," he claimed. That made sense to me.
"It's weird anyway," I said and crossed my arms.
"What, kissing?" Spencer asked. I nodded. "You haven't ever watched porn then, have you?"
My mouth gaped open. "No, of course not!" I proclaimed. "That's gross. And I'm talking worse than Cavanaugh."
Spencer laughed quietly and fell back on my bed. This apparently was really funny. I kicked him in the side with my foot, which he grabbed and pulled, causing me to yelp a little. Quickly he covered my mouth with his hand and giggled quietly.
"You wouldn't want your parents to come rushing in here," he claimed, not moving his hand. I covered his hand with both of my hands as well and giggled. Then I pulled his hand off mine.
"And why not?" I claimed stubbornly. He shrugged and stared at me, not saying anything.
Before I knew what was happening his mouth was on mine. Somehow though, I knew what to do, and ran my fingers through his hair pushing back as hard as he was. He made a low noise that seemed to come from his chest, oddly causing me to smile. I hadn't heard that sound from him before, and it was exciting. I put one hand on his chest and pushed him down into my bed, going down with him. His hands wrapped around my waist. I stopped for a moment and looked at him.
"What are we doing?" I breathed quietly.
"Tonight is our only chance to do this, and I've wanted to for so long," he breathed back, still keeping his hands on me. "Are you okay with this?"
"As long as we tell no one," I admitted and kissed him once more.
A clock off in the distance rang midnight and my chime went off. We both froze and looked at my arm. It was midnight. I quickly moved away from Spencer and looked at him.
"I'm sorry," he said and sat up.
"Don't be," I admitted. I liked that way too much for him to be sorry.
"Are you going to tell him?" Spencer asked his eyes fixated on my arm. I shook my head.
"No one has to know." I kissed him gently and pulled away from him, knowing I'd never do that again.
An alarm blared in my ears, waking me up. My head was pounding, and I really didn't want to get up. A knock on my door with a "First day of school!" yell was heard, making me really not want to get up.
Normally I would be excited that it was the first day of school, and more excited that it was the first day of high school, but that was the last place I wanted to be today. It wasn't even that it was school that was the problem; the little fact that I was going to meet the guy I would spend the rest of my life with was what the problem was.
I was almost certain that everyone would know today was the day by the time I walked into school. There were a few people from school at my party and my good friend Lexi was one of them. She was the queen of telling everyone every juicy detail of everything that happened ever. It wasn't a secret or anything, so it probably shouldn't bother me as much as it did, but it seemed almost… embarrassing.
I was sure Lexi would be coming to my house any second, wanting to be with me the whole day so that she could see the moment when I met my soul mate. She had most of my classes with the exception of woodshop and gym. She didn't get her hands dirty she always told me, and somehow we'd been placed in different gym classes. She wouldn't want gym with me anyway, while I loved playing soccer and anything involving physical activity she would rather be sitting on the sidelines with makeup and flirting with boys.
With my first day of school outfit on I headed downstairs to see Lexi sitting at my table talking to my mom.
"There you are!" she squealed at me, jumping up. "I absolutely LOVE that dress Kaylee. Mrs. P, you did great picking that out. Kaylee don't give me that look, we both know your mom picked out that dress. Are you ready for today?" I shrugged and sat at the table. "Oh come on, today is so exciting! Better than my day will be. I do hope your soul mate isn't some weird gross kid." She kept babbling on and on, but I tuned her out while I ate cereal. There was a puzzle on the back of the cereal box.
Spencer burst into the kitchen minutes later dressed in clothes I hadn't ever seen before. He had on a black and white stripped sweater on with khaki pants. I wasn't even aware he'd gone clothes shopping for school. As if he read my mind he said, "My mom bought me these. The pants are a little big, but she insisted I have new clothes. It's whatever. Oh, hey Lexi, hey Mrs. Parker."
"I think the outfit makes you look older, it looks nice," my mom said with a smile. It was more of a disappointed smile, but I was sure only I could tell that. Lexi smiled at him and continued to talk about soul mates.
The walk to school was a silent one. At least on my end it was silent. Lexi and Spencer were talking about classes and teachers the whole time. I was looking out for any guy walking by, hoping it would happen earlier than later. I didn't want it to happen in a class or in the hallways. There were too many people around for that. I knew I was already something to talk about and I didn't want to fuel that fire even more.
First period was math. Lexi and I had seats in the same row, and Spencer was one row over. There wasn't anything exciting in the class. The teacher looked ancient and probably was around before the invention of calculators. She seemed like she graded easily though. Spencer doodled the whole class. I couldn't tell what Lexi was doing because she was behind me. I stared blankly at the board, halfway paying attention. The teacher was just going over rules so I wasn't too worried about it. It was the farther thing from my mind… that was sure.
Second period was woodshop. Spencer and I said bye to Lexi as she trekked off to home economics. When it was time to pick electives for this year, Spencer and I made sure we'd be in the same classes and picked the same electives. Most of the people in this class were boys, so it was very possible that 'he' was in this one. I gulped as Spencer pushed me through the door and looked all around. I made sure to make eye contact with every guy in the room, but no chimes went off. Spencer shrugged and we made our way to an empty table area. The whole class was spent talking about tool safety.
We caught up with Lexi in the halls to go to lunch. She didn't have much to say about home ec and seemed disappointed that I hadn't found the guy yet. When we entered the lunchroom she got excited though. "What if he's in here!?" She screamed and pulled both Spencer and me into the line. We made it through the line without finding the guy and to our table in the clear as well. I was really starting to get nervous. There were three classes left in the day. Next we would all go to English, then Spencer and I would go to gym, and then we'd meet up again for World History. Time was ticking down to when I would meet the guy. If I was supposed to meet him at school that is. We hadn't made plans after school yet, so it was very possible we would go to the coffee place across the street and he could be there. But I was thinking too much about it. I tried to participate in the conversation at the table to lighten my mood. Spencer's friend Jack and Lexi's friend Hunter had joined us and this girl who had been in our class last year, Hannah, had also joined us. They were talking about cute teachers.
"Did you guys hear what happened to coach Bracket?" Hunter had said a minute after we sat down.
"Isn't he the JV soccer coach?" Lexi asked.
"Yeah, I saw him two days ago at soccer practice, what happened?" I asked.
"He got a little friendly with Alexis Zimmer's mom," Hunter replied.
"Woah, aren't they both married, with TiMERs… to different people?" Spencer asked. We had known Alexis since elementary school, so we knew her mom was married at least.
"Yeah, apparently after soccer practice Bracket would go over to The Zimmer's house because Mr. Zimmer works late or something. Rumor has it, he left the position here and moved out of town because someone saw them together. How bizarre is that?" Hunter told us. We all nodded. It seemed terrible that two people with TiMERs that didn't match would hook up with each other. It was just unheard of that people with TiMERs would step out of their marriage.
"So, what are they doing about a JV coach?" Jack butted in, looking at me. I shrugged. I hadn't heard anything about it.
"Gah Kaylee, you should know these kinds of things," Lexi said with a big grin on her face. "But luckily I know. They've hired a new guy and I've heard he is cute with a capital C. And they aren't having JV soccer practice for a few days until he gets settled in."
"So quickly?" I asked. That seemed like a fast turnaround.
"Yeah, apparently this guy was desperate for a job or something. I don't know much about him except that he is really young," Lexi answered.
"How old is he?" Jack asked.
"He must be like 23 or so I would guess," Hannah replied.
"Yeah, I heard he was just out of college. He graduated from Sarthe University. That's not too far from here," Lexi added.
"That'll be nice, after having Mrs. Thatcher for math," I said. "She's got to be older than dust."
Everyone agreed with me, and the table went silent for a moment.
"There he is! I think," Hannah exclaimed, pointing across the lunchroom. We all turned our heads towards the teacher's table but didn't see any young guy. "You guys missed him, he was leaving."
"Well maybe we'll have him for gym. That'd at least help Kaylee, get to know new soccer coach before practicing with him," Spencer said, gesturing to me.
"Oh Kaylee, you better tell me if he's cute!" Hannah chirped.
I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I can do that."
"I doubt she'll think he's cute though," Jack said, taking a big bite out of his sandwich. We all stared at him. "I mean, she's going to find her soul mate today. She doesn't really have any other time to think about cute guys. The soul mate is the only one who matters. You give everything to that soul mate. Your first kiss, your first you know, and more. That's what my older sister told me."
Spencer looked at me and turned red. I looked away and continued to eat my sandwich. So, we kissed. No one had to know that, and he needed to stop turning red. He was sure to give us away with that attitude. I kicked him under the table and acted like nothing happened. Lexi had started talking about something immediately after Jack's comment and no one seemed to notice the awkward silence Spence and I were experiencing.
English seemed to go by with a blur. Neither Spencer nor Lexi were in the class with me, but Hannah was and sat one row over next to me. I wasn't exactly good friends with her, but it was better than not knowing anyone.
And it wasn't really that I didn't know anyone. That was a lie. At least half of the kids I did know. There were only two middle schools that fed into our high school. But even the kids I knew I knew only because I had seen them growing up. The school was pretty big and there were plenty of people you sort of knew, but only knew their face. There was no guarantee I would know their name or even who exactly they were.
I was really looking forward to gym. I had been in soccer camps since I was little, had played on YMCA teams and then a travelling team, and played in middle school. Soccer was something I could see myself doing for the rest of my life, and that was something I wanted to stick with. Spencer often helped me practice. We've spent hours in my backyard practicing drills or simply taking shots at the goal. He didn't play, but he was always encouraging me and helping me out. It was important that I make a good impression on this new coach early. He would see my dedication and know I was serious. Plus, if he played soccer in college, hopefully I could learn a thing or two from him. I had no idea what college I even wanted to attend. As long as I could play soccer, the rest didn't matter. Maybe he would have tips on how to get noticed by college recruiters early.
When we entered the gym, I immediately smiled. A band I had grown up listening to, Styx, was playing softly over the loudspeakers. It wasn't loud enough to where people were actively listening to it, but I could hear it just fine. The teacher hadn't come in yet and there didn't seem to be anything really to do yet. There were no balls out or anything, so I sat on the bleachers and Spencer followed. The bell rang and out teacher still wasn't in.
The double doors swung open quickly and a younger guy stepped through it. "I'm sorry I-" but before he could continue his chime started going off. My chime started going off. Our chimes were going off. They were the same chimes. This guy was the other owner to my TiMER. It seemed as if time I was frozen.
We just stared at each other. He was really, really cute. There was something boyish about him… it was probably his face. He had dimples and light brown curly hair that was a little long for a teacher it seemed. His eyes were the lightest shade of brown I had ever seen. His face seemed to be frozen too. I wasn't sure what mine read, but his read of a mixture of confusion, shock, and nervousness. Spencer cleared his throat, bringing me back into reality. I looked around. Everyone in the class had shocked looks on their faces too. No one spoke or moved an inch. They were looking at me. Everyone was looking at me. I looked back up at this guy… my teacher… my soul mate… whoever he was. I didn't even know his name.
a/n: Alright, chapter 2 re-write is done! Do I feel bad about that cliff-hanger? No, no I do not. Poor Kaylee.