I don't own the TiMER or anything about it. Most of the story is mine though. So enjoy!
Ch 10 re-write done! 5/22/22
A gentle hand shaking my shoulder woke me up the next morning. I half-expected my mom to tell me it was time for school and was really dreading welcoming the light of the day. When I opened my eyes to see my dad looking at me with his normal goofy grin, I instantly felt ten times better.
"Morning kiddo, I've got to scoot on to work and won't be back till late so I'm going to leave some money on the table. Feel free to order take-out or whatever. Make sure you get your homework done and don't stay indoors all day. When's the last time you practiced soccer? You can't go getting rusty on me now. I love you," he said and kissed me on the forehead.
"I love you to dad," I replied and smiled big at him. He ruffled my hair before leaving and closed the door behind him. It was nice being woken up by my dad, that didn't happen too often.
Looking over at my clock I realized I still had a good hour before I needed to leave for school. It wasn't normal for me to want to get up this early, but I was afraid I wouldn't want to get up if I slept a little longer and with no one to insist I get ready, I had to be accountable for myself.
There was no smell of coffee or soft piano music when I entered the kitchen. That made the room feel extremely uneasy and a tad lonely. I poured my cereal quietly, as if I was afraid to make a ripple of noise in the quiet air. Finally I couldn't take it anymore and turned on the radio in the kitchen just to kill the silence. I didn't even care what was on it; I just didn't like the eerie feeling of being alone this early.
A knock on at the door startled me from fixing my hair. I yelled that I'd be right there and finished the final brushes and picked up my things. It was bound to be Lexi, and keeping her waiting was a good way to start the never-ending whine and gripe festival.
"You'll never guess who I saw running on Fourth Street this morning," Lexi immediately said as I opened the door.
"Good morning to you too," I grumbled and closed the door and locked it.
"Come on you have to guess, it's the least you can do," she insisted.
"Why's that?" I questioned and motioned for her to come on.
"Come on, don't ruin the fun. Guess!"
"Ugh, fine," I groaned. "Um… Mrs. Peters' son, the one that goes to that Ivy League school?"
"Why would he be home? No. Wrong, guess again," she chirped. I shrugged. It was too early, and I didn't care to play the guessing game. "Fine, I saw Mr. Jackson. And oooh he was looking real attractive."
My mouth dropped. She saw him this morning and I missed him? He was out running just a street away from my house? Did he live nearby? Was he doing that on purpose? Did he hope I would be out running early too, like I should be? It had been a while since I'd been out running in the morning. I felt like a bad athlete for doing so, but it wasn't my fault mornings and I just didn't get along. Now I felt bad. He probably thinks I'm a slacker or something. He hasn't ever seen me play before and I bet he expects good players to run all the time.
"Earth to Kaylee," Lexi said, bringing me back to focus. We had arrived at school. "I was just wondering if you wanted to come over tonight. If you're not on solitary confinement or anything. Mom's experimenting with 'ethnic' food or something and I can't bear to suffer through it with only my brothers. You HAVE to come."
"I don't see why not, mom went to some conference or something and dad has to work a late shift today, so I'd be alone anyway," I announced with a smile.
"Ooooh, never mind then. You should totally invite Andy over and have some alone time to get to know him better, if you know what I'm saying," she joked as we approached our lockers. I opened it to block her from seeing how red in the face I was.
"I don't know," I admitted. "I don't know if that's a good idea." She was about to say something when the bell rang and cut her off. It was probably something inappropriate so I wasn't complaining about class this time. We hurried on before our teacher closed the door on us. It wasn't smart to be out in the hallway after the doors were closed. That was just asking for detention. I had seen it happen before.
I trudged to woodshop alone and it was over before I knew it. Even lunch went by really quickly. I was zoned out during most of it, thinking about what Lexi told me before school had started. I would have the house to myself, and no one would ever have to know. But I felt like that would be betraying my dad's trust. He probably wouldn't think it was a good idea, even if Andy was my soul mate.
Before I knew it I was walking towards study hall. I wasn't sure if I even went to English, but I supposed I had. I couldn't account for the time otherwise. That was a definite sign I was in English.
When I entered the library, I saw Collin sitting at a computer not too far away. He rolled his eyes when he saw me and went back to whatever he was doing. I didn't really mind though. Him not being my friend really didn't hurt my feelings.
I tried to sit on a couch and read through the homework for English. We were reading Frankenstein, and I didn't understand a word of it. This wasn't the horror movie I thought it was. Someone in Hollywood really screwed that one up. Or in reality they made it to where I could understand it, so that actually wouldn't be a screw up. Regardless, I couldn't focus on the book. I was too restless. This would normally be my gym period and I needed that on a daily basis. No gym was driving me a bit mad.
I figured it couldn't hurt to at least ask the study hall guy if I could go practice soccer. The worst he could say was no and it really didn't seem like he would care if I was here or not.
"Ex-excuse me," I said, trying to get his attention. He had his nose in a book.
"Yeah?" he asked, without even looking at me.
"I was wondering if I could um, if I could, well I'm on the soccer team and I was wondering if it would be okay if-"
"I don't care kid, do whatever," he mumbled and flipped the page in his book. He didn't have to tell me twice! I ran out of that library as fast as I could, without getting in trouble, and dashed towards the soccer stadium.
Part of me was hoping Andy had his class out on the pitch but the other half was hoping I'd have it to myself. I doubted I would ever get to play a game on it, so it would be nice to have some time where I could at least pretend things were okay and at least a little normal.
The sound of birds chirping was the only thing I heard as I approached the stadium and entered it with ease. It was a beautiful day out and I felt extremely lucky to have all of this to myself. I entered through one of the tunnels and made my way to the room that I knew had a soccer ball in it.
As I entered it and turned on the lights, curiosity got the best of me, and I started looking around. I found a box labeled "JV jerseys" and couldn't help but open it up. Sitting right on top was number 2 Parker. It hurt to look at it. It was so pretty. A deep purple with gray numbers and letter trimmed with white. The brand-new smell was amazing, and I was pretty sure there were tears in my eyes. I knew I shouldn't, but I picked it up and brought it to my face. The mesh material felt cool and familiar, and I never wanted to let go. I would probably never get to wear this jersey and I wanted it so bad. It was practically begging me to put it on. I glanced around, just to make sure I was still alone, and slipped off my shirt and replaced it with the jersey. It felt wonderful and fit really well. I grabbed a soccer ball and my shirt and made my way back out to the field. There would be no one out here so I wasn't worried about anyone seeing me.
As soon as the ball touched my feet, I felt one hundred percent better. Nothing was wrong with the world. The only thing that mattered was the ball and my feet and everything in-between. I ran a few drills and provided commentary to my moves. I dribbled the ball back and forth and worked on my strikes. The ball moved to my slightest touch and went soaring at my will. It just felt right. The wind whipped around my hair as I tore down the field and kicked the ball into the net.
"And Parker scores the game winning goal. The Lady Jaguars win the championship. The crowd goes wild!" I yelled and fell back into the grass. The sun was beating down on me and I felt happy.
A clapping in the distance startled me and made me jump. Walking my way was the head coach of the Varsity team, Coach Miles. How would I explain why I was in a jersey and on the field right now alone? I was bound to be in big time trouble. But the closer he got the more I realized he was smiling. There was a genuine smile on his face. Why was he not mad?
"Impressive," he announced when he was close enough to be in hearing range. "There are a few things we need to work on, but that was definitely the foot work of someone who has been doing this a while. What's your name?"
I stood and brushed the grass off me. "Kaylee. Kaylee Parker," I stated and stuck my hand out.
He smiled and shook my hand. "I'd wondered when I'd be meeting you." I just stared at him. "I've heard really good things about you. Coach Bracket spoke highly of you and said if freshmen ever made it to varsity, you'd be the first to go. I can see why he was excited about you."
"Thank you sir," I mumbled and rubbed my arm. It was always weird to me to have someone brag about my talent. It wasn't that I didn't think I was a decent player, I just always thought I had room for improvement and bragging had no room at all. "But I'm afraid you won't get to watch me much to find out for yourself."
His smile faded. "And why's that? I see you have your jersey, unless you're moving, I can't see why I shouldn't be taking note of you."
"I don't think I'll be allowed to play on the JV team, with coach Jackson being the coach and all," I said awkwardly. He remained silent and I looked away. There wasn't really much that could be said about the ordeal and it seemed to make everyone awkward.
"Well, uh," he started. "I want to see you practicing regardless. Even if I have to administer some practices with you."
"You mean it?" I practically yelled. Getting to practice with the coach of the varsity team would be an awesome opportunity.
"I don't know how the other varsity players would feel about it, but I would like to put you against some real competition and see how you do under pressure. We practice three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I'd have to talk to my assistant coach and work out something with the ladies, but unless I tell you otherwise how does practicing with us Monday sound?" he asked as if he was asking if he should go with milk or orange juice.
"Absolutely!" I exclaimed and jumped up and down.
He laughed. "As much as I would like to see you run that last drill again, if you don't hurry back to the school soon you will be late for your next class."
My eyes got real wide and I ran towards the locker room to change. I had forgotten all about the rest of the day. I yelled back a thanks and then disappeared into the tunnel.
The rest of the day felt like one big blur. I wasn't sure what had happened in any of the remaining classes and somehow I was standing at my locker with Lexi at the end of the day.
"So he just asked you if you wanted to practice with the varsity team? Just like that?" she asked skeptically. I nodded and continued to put books in my bag. It was a lot for me to get my head around too.
"Excuse me… Kaylee?" A voice said from the other side of my locker. I looked around to see someone I wasn't familiar with looking at me.
"That's me," I said cautiously.
"I was told to give you this," the person said, handed me a piece of folded paper, and then ran off. Lexi looked at me and shrugged.
I want to talk to you before you leave school… if I can. Come by my office once the halls die down. –A
Lexi finished the last word after me and oooohed. "He wants to talk to you. How suave," she chided with a girly smile. "Well, go see what he wants, and remember, you don't have to come to my place if you've got a better option." She winked at me and walked off. She was having way too much fun with this.
I loitered around my locker as long as I could and then made my way down the hall to the vending machines where I loitered there a little longer. After what felt like ages, the halls became scarce and I slipped through them seeing only a handful of people.
When I knew I wasn't being watched or followed I turned the corner to Andy's office and saw his door cracked. This area of the school was especially quiet and knocking on the door echoed through the halls loud enough that I was afraid the entire world could hear it. I held my breath, expecting someone to spring around the corner and yell "GOTCHA."
When Andy came to the door wearing his boyish smile I released the breath and stormed in, hugging him with every fiber of my being. I hadn't realized how tense I was, but seeing him relaxed me. That sounded cliché and cheesy but I just felt better.
"You okay?" he asked during the hug. I could hear his voice vibrating through his chest and I wasn't sure if I could say anything. Instead I nodded and breathed in his smell. The mixture of vanilla and mint encased me and his embrace was so warm that I never wanted to let go. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed him. I didn't even realize I could miss someone like this.
Sometime in the exchange of our hugs, Andy had closed the door. I didn't even notice it until he led me to a chair; I had a moment of panic and glanced at the door. If anyone were to see us, him touching my hand, us alone- well I didn't want to think about it.
"Are you sure you're okay?" he asked again.
"Well, define okay," I muttered. There wasn't any reason to lie to him, but I didn't want to make him feel bad, besides, he was the one that wanted to talk to me, so I didn't want to make this all about me.
"Websters defines it as acceptable, not ill, hurt, unhappy, etc," he stated, looking at his phone.
"You have a dictionary app?" I questioned with a smirk.
"You never know when you're going to need it," he shrugged. "But I defined it, now it's your turn to respond to my question.
"I'm doing as best I can, given the circumstances," I replied. He frowned.
"Your mom still giving you a hard time?" He questioned and held my hand in his.
"Uh, actually she's gone," I started. "I mean, she went on a conference or something. I was half asleep when she reminded me last night. I guess she had told me before. I don't remember but I'm sure she had to have."
He pursed his lips together and then spoke. "Well I suppose that's good for your sake. How are classes? Is everything else somewhat okay?"
I shrugged. "I guess. I feel like I'm doing a lot of guessing here. Classes are classes, boring and seemingly pointless. Is it weird that I actually miss P.E.? Not because of you exactly, don't get me wrong I miss you too, but because I miss the daily activity. I miss running around in the middle of the day. It's a good let up from the boring classes."
"I should probably say sorry for that," he said and scratched the back of his head with his free hand.
"Don't blame yourself," I said with a smile. "But enough about me. You called me here. What's up? Everything okay with you?"
"That was just an excuse to see you," he admitted. "I don't really have anything to pressing to tell you. I figured you probably had to be home soon so I wanted to steal you away for a moment just to say hi."
"I don't have to be anywhere really. My dad is working late tonight so I'm kinda on my own this afternoon," I stated. I could lie about the whole Lexi thing, she told me I could. Maybe it would be okay hanging out with him this evening.
"Oh? Well we can't have that, wouldn't want you getting too lonely or anything," he kidded with a grin.
"Do you propose an alternative solution?" I innocently asked. "Maybe… your place?"
"No!" he said abruptly. I was taken aback. "I mean, not in the state it's in right now. It's my man cave. I'd have to clean it up before I could even think about having you over." He forced a laugh but something was behind that laugh. I wanted to question it, but something told me now was not the time. It was a weird feeling, and I wanted to know, but I didn't want to push it.
"Obviously you haven't seen my room, it is far from perfect, especially after soccer," I tried to joke, to push the conversation in a different direction. He seemed to ease up and shook his head.
"I keep hearing about this soccer playing of yours, but I've yet to see it."
"You keep hearing about it?"
"Yeah, I mean, Coach Miles told me about earlier today."
"He-he did?" I stuttered. I was sure I was going to get in a little bit of trouble over the jersey and everything. I glanced down to my backpack were the jersey was. I shouldn't have it, I should have put it back, but I couldn't do it. It was too nice and I knew I'd never get to wear it on the field in a real game or anything.
"Of course he did, he stopped by and told me about it. He spoke highly. I won't be at the practice, but I expect to see you play sometime," he replied like it was no big deal. Maybe he didn't know about the jersey. He would soon enough when he was giving out the jerseys in practice though.
"I think we can solve this dilemma," I proposed. "I have a big enough backyard for a little 1:1, because you aren't the only one curious about talent here."
"Oh you're on!" he proclaimed and jumped up. It was really kind of cute as he all but dragged me out of his office and to his car. The school was deserted. I hadn't realized how long we'd been in his office, but it was long enough for even the janitors to not be roaming the halls.
He still remembered the route to my house (of course, it was only down the road, so if he hadn't have remembered it I would be worried) and we were at my house in a matter of minutes. I stopped at the front door for a moment. This was a big deal. He was about to see the inside of my house. Alone. We were about to be at my house, alone. The thought of it made my pulse rise a little.
"Everything alright?" Andy asked, bringing me back to reality. I nodded and unlocked the house.
"Welcome to casa de Parker," I announced with open arms. He was silent for a lot longer than I expected. "What?"
"This is a really nice house," he whispered. I could practically hear the open jaw, even before I turned around.
I never really thought about how nice or big my house was. All the houses in the neighborhood were about this size, and I'd been here my entire life, so it was normal for me. I wasn't exactly sure what he was gaping at. It could have been the spacious open living room that was to the left down a couple stairs, or the antique looking dining room to the right that was almost never used. My parents believed dining rooms were only for special occasions and holidays.
"I can give you the grand tour if you'd close your mouth," I joked and poked his side. Andy turned red and said nothing. "Come on, I'm joking."
I pulled his arm to me and went into the living room.
"Obviously this is the living room," I stated and moved forward through the archway into the hall. "This first room here on the left is the guest bedroom, not really interesting. On the right down here is my parents room, again, not really interesting. Down to the left, come on, this is my room." I stopped. Should I show him my room? Would that be weird? Would that insinuate something?
"Can I see your room?" he asked. "But only if you want. I don't want to intrude."
"Uh, yeah, why not," I nervously said and opened the door. I silently wished now that I had cleaned when my mom told me to. There were some clothes draped over my computer chair. The posters on my walls now seemed unadorned and the shelves with my soccer trophies seemed boastful. At least my bed was made and was a plain dark green. I had changed it from the pink girly child's bedding a couple of years ago, when I finally got a say in matters. There wasn't much to my room. It was where I slept and studied. That was about it. Any other time I was outside or at school or something.
"Can I look at your books?" Andy questioned. I had forgotten about my bookcase. I was secretly an avid book reader, and had a fairly large bookcase across one wall of my room. It was just a normal thing in my room; I hadn't realized it would stand out.
"Sure," I stuttered and walked into my room with him. He made his way to the far wall and I sat on the chair next to my computer and watched him. It was cute the way he was looking at every book, touching each spine, and making approval noises every so often. I couldn't help but smile.
A pinging at my window moved my attention to it. Spencer was in his room, waving at me. My eyes got real wide for a moment. I couldn't let Spencer see Andy. He probably knew I was at home alone, and I could see him not approving of this. I waved slowly and reached for the blinds. His smile turned down as I lowered my blinds. I would have to answer to that later, I was sure.
The sudden change in the light brought Andy's attention to me. He smiled and stood with his hands in his pocket. Now what? I probably just made some kind of subtle move of privacy with the lowering of my blinds. Andy would probably read that in a different way then I had meant it. But how had I meant it? Didn't I want privacy? I didn't want Spencer to see Andy and me in my room for a reason right?
"Sorry, it was bright," I lied, trying to break the silence. He shrugged and walked over to me. My heart was probably beating loud enough for him to hear it. I could hear it loud and clear. Why was it beating so hard? Why were thoughts crossing my mind faster than they normally do? How was Andy suddenly standing right in front of me? Had I told him to come over here? I could have, my thoughts were all jumbled. Who knows what I had just said, if I had said anything at all.
Andy's hand reached out for mine and before I knew what I was doing, my hand was in his. Something else seemed to be controlling my body as I stood and looked at him. There were smile lines in his eyes, even when he wasn't in a full smile. He had little freckles dotting his face that I hadn't noticed before now. His hand was so warm in mine. His other hand was on my arm. When did that happen? Had it been there for a while? Why was it so hot in my room all of a sudden?
A/N: Sorry about the terrible cliffhanger. Felt like a good place to end the chapter. I also gave you guys a little longer of one, considering I haven't posted in a while. Hopefully I'll have another one up by Sunday!