Hey guys. So, I've decided to go on with this story. For all of you guys who read Cruz Control I think you'll like this chapter. So please review, it takes about thirty seconds and it really does help me with my writing. Thanks. Happy Easter!

Zita

After the final bell rang on the first day of school I breathed a sigh of relief. I made it through my first day, only about a hundred and seventy more.

I rushed to my locker and to the locker room to get changed for soccer practice. Kylee met up with me on the way to the locker room. Kylee was the goalie for our soccer team. Her position suited her, she is the loudest person off the field and the loudest on. I play right midfield. I was fast and I loved to run, making the position perfect for me.

The fact that I didn't talk a lot didn't really matter on the soccer field. My teammates knew me so well and they knew how to read me. They knew where I was heading on the field and what I was going to do once I got the ball.

"Hey, what are you doing after practice?" Kylee asked me, as she pulled on her practice jersey.

"I'm babysitting."

She smiled, "For which group of hooligans?"

"Cruz and Lia's."

Her smile grew, she had a giant crush on Cruz for as long as I can remember. In fact, the majority of the girls at school claimed to be in love with Cruz and that's why the popular girls didn't come after me.

"What are they up to tonight?" Kylee asked.

I shrugged, pulling on my cutoff, "Cruz has a banquet in Chicago. Something for one of his charities."

Cruz founded two charities after he'd become a professional skateboarder. One was for kids with dyslexia and he launched a campaign to bring awareness to learning disabilities not easily spotted. The other one was for gang violence. He talked to middle schoolers and high schoolers in heavy gang populated cities. He tried to teach a lot of kids to skate in hopes that they would find skating better than gangbanging.

"You ready?" Kylee asked, after I laced my up my cleats.

I nodded and followed her outside and down to the soccer field. Kylee chatted the whole way about how her and TJ really hit it off during chemistry.

I made a face, "Can we not talk about chemistry. I'm trying not to think about the rest of this year."

She smiled, "You have to admit Zion is pretty cute."

She was right. He was cute, so cute that I couldn't take my eyes off of him the whole class, only when he insulted me did I turn my eyes away.

"There is more to a person than looks, Ky."

She sighed, "Oh, I know. Oh look, there's TJ right now!"

I looked to where she was pointing. TJ was walking down to the football field with some other guys, all geared up and carrying their helmets.

He smiled and waved as soon as he saw Kylee and me staring. I turned away blushing as Carson grinned at.

Kylee elbowed me, "Z, Carson is totally noticing you. Why'd you turn away."

I shrugged and started walking towards the rest of the team.

"Fuentes, Kaster! Hurry up!" Coach Mike called to us.

"Hold your horses, we're coming," Kylee called to him a couple seconds before we reached them.

Coach rolled his eyes at her and jumped into his season starter speech. I zoned him out, the speech had been the same for the past four years, and I found myself turning my attention towards the football team.

TJ, Carson, and the rest of their group were standing around the water cooler, looking at our team and pointing. Carson caught me looking and winked with a giant grin.

"Z, stop gawkin' at the pretty boys and pay attention to what I'm about to say," Coach said, clapping his hands in front of my face.

I felt my cheeks grow red and I muttered, "Sorry."

There were giggles all throughout the team and Kylee elbowed me once again, raising her eyebrows.

"Sometimes I wonder why I decided to coach the girls team," Coach muttered.

"Because you had no choice," Alison Reger, one of our defensemen, said.

"As I was saying," Coach started up again, "A new year means new captains. Captains are usually the strongest spots on the team. The girls who are captains have the responsibility of pulling the team together both on and off the field. So this year our captains are Sarah," Coach handed Sarah Golden a captains band, "And boy gawking Zita Fuentes."

My eyes went wide as I took the royal blue captains band from Coach. Kylee clapped me on the back and the rest of the girls let out squeals and words of congratulations to Sarah and me.

Sarah was a junior forward. She was very talented on the field, but she wasn't the best player. However, she was very outgoing and great at talking to people and motivating the team. We all expected her to get it, but I expected Kylee to get the other spot over me.

I smiled at Sarah and she smiled back.

"Come on you two, try them on. Let's see them in action while we run four laps!" Coach said with a grin.

There were glares and groans, but we all obediently started running around the field, Sarah and I side by side leading the pack.

It was safe to say that I was one of the only girls who stayed in shape over the summer. Even Sarah started slowing her pace toward the end of the third lap. Kylee was yelling at Coach to let us stop.

Coach was so annoyed with how much out of shape we were and he made us stop and do sprints instead. That's what we ended up doing all practice. We did so many suicides that I lost count, most girls dropped out towards the end of practice and eventually coach blew his whistle. I was the last one to stop, coach had to physically stop me by grabbing my arm.

"Zita, settle down. What's gotten into you?" He asked, as I tried to catch my breath.

I shrugged, placing my hands on my knees.

The truth is I didn't mind running, in fact it was kind of like my drug. It calmed it, it allowed me to clear my mind. Once I started running and got into a stride I hated stopping for anything, stopping means that I would have to face the rest of the earth again. Stopping meant that I couldn't out run the world.

"Jeesh, Miss Overachiever," Kylee said, in-between gasps of air. "I don't think I've ran since last season."

"Thank God you're the goalie," Brooke Fields, another forward stated.

I laughed and Kylee rolled her eyes.

"You guys can go, whenever you don't feel like you're gonna faint."

"Or puke," Kylee shouted at him, slamming herself down on the cool grass.

I sat down next to her and looked up to the sky, seeing the dark clouds pass over, "Is it supposed to rain tonight?"I asked.

"I don't know, Z," Kylee shrieked.

"Anybody know what time it is?" Brianna Toyet, the left mid, asked.

"Almost six," Kylee muttered, hitting the button on her phone to light up the screen.

I scrambled to my feet, "Dang, I gotta go."

"Tell Cruz I say hi," Ky shouted as I grabbed my bags and headed to my car.

"Oh, me too!" Alison called.

I rolled my eyes and started up to the parking lot.

With my luck, football practice was just getting out and all the guys were heading towards the locker room, most of them shirtless and drenched in sweat.

"Hey, Zita! Wait up!" I heard a voice behind me say.

I turned around and wasn't surprised to find Carson jogging to catch up with me.

I slowed my pace.

"Hey I was watching you practice over there, you're pretty kick ass," He said, his white teeth gleaming as he smiled at me.

Carson was the captain of the football team and one of the richest kids in school. Those two factors automatically made him the most popular guy in school. Popular guys didn't talk to me.

"Why are you talking to me?" I asked and automatically felt my cheeks grow hot in shame. I never talked to anybody that way. In fact I hardly ever talked to anybody new.

His grin got wider, "What, I can't talk to you?"

I shrugged, "I don't know."

He put his sun kissed hand on my elbow, "I'm having a party this Friday night after our first game. I was wondering if you wanted to come. You know bring Kylee. It'll be a good time."

I looked at him. He was the ultimate pretty boy. His blonde hair was usually styled to look windblown and after wearing his helmet it didn't look much different. He was tall and muscular. His shirt was off and I could see every lean muscle on his stomach and arms.

"We have our first game then too," I muttered and turned to my car.

"Come after."

"I'll think about it."

He didn't let go of my elbow and I froze. I literally locked up and became stiff. My eyes grew in fear as a flash back of my birth father towering over me clouded my thoughts.

"Let go of me," I hissed in-between clenched teeth.

He dropped my elbow like it was on fire, "What's wrong?"

I shook my head and turned my back to him, "Nothing."

"Okay, then will you come to my party?" He asked.

I shrugged and started walking faster to my car and muttered, "I'll see."

The drive to Cruz's house was about ten minutes. The whole way there I thought about Carson. I knew guys like him were only after one thing, but I never had a boyfriend. Considering I was a senior in high school, I think it was safe to say that it was time that I had one. I came to the conclusion that not every boy is going to be perfect and maybe my standards were too high.

Cruz lived in a neighborhood that had been dominated by new parents and newlyweds. It was a newer neighborhood and the majority of the houses looked the same. Cruz house was an exception, he hated following the crowd.

Cruz and Lia's house was probably the biggest on the street, but it was only one story with a fixed up basement. They'd bought it right after they got married and were in the middle of building a giant house on the shores of Lake Michigan.

They didn't want to build a new house so soon, but when Lia found out she was pregnant with twins they figured their two bedroom house wouldn't cut it. Their two boys already shared a room and they were already running into walls and their toys ruled every room of the house.

Echo was the oldest of the two boys. He was three and extremely busy. He was always getting into something. You had to keep him occupied with something or else you were going to have a disaster on your hands sooner or later. He may have been busy, but he was always happy. He was always laughing and smiling.

Oakly was the youngest. He was the complete opposite of his big brother. He was eighteen months and quieter than his brother. He was the snuggly one and loved to suck on his thumb or pacifier. He had Cruz's eyes and thick dark hair, but his personality resembled his mom's.

When I pulled into Cruz's driveway I locked my car doors and knocked on the door. I never bothered to wait for an answer, I just went in.

I walked into complete madness.

Cruz was chasing Echo around the house, both of them screaming at the top of their lungs. Cruz had on a tux and he already managed to put a hole in one of his dress socks. Oakly stood in the middle of the commotion and watched his father and brother, wide eyed. Deogee, Cruz's black and white huge American Bulldog, was chasing both Cruz and Echo. Lia wasn't anywhere to be found.

"Hey!" Cruz said, grabbing Echo and flipping him over his shoulder.

"Hi," I said, setting my bag down next to the couch and slipping my shoes off.

I loved the house's layout. Everything was so open. The kitchen and living room where connected by an arch. Every appliance in their house was top notch. The kitchen had complete stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops marked with tiny finger prints.

"How was practice?" Cruz asked, swinging Echo around.

I shrugged, "We just ran the whole time."

"Dad, put me down!" Echo squawked at Cruz.

"I don't think so!" Cruz yelled and ran around the living room with him in his arms.

Deogee sprinted after them, knocking Oakly to his butt just as Lia appeared.

She sighed and scooped Oakly up, "You guys need to watch out for the baby."

"Sorry, Oak!" Cruz shouted over Echo's laugher and Deogee's barking.

Lia was wearing a tight fitting black dress, drawing attention to her protruding belly.

"You look nice," I told her.

She chuckled and shook her head, " I couldn't find anything that would hide my stomach."

I laughed a little. She set Oakly on the island and filled a sippy cup full of juice for him.

"They're both fed and bathed. So basically put them to bed in a couple hours and change Oakly every now and then. Find some way to keep the entertained until they crash," She smiled and shook her head, "I don't know why I'm telling you this. You take better care of them than we do."

I smiled and watched Oakly start to crawl down the island from a chair. He was at that stage where he climbed on everything.

"We should be back around one give or take, it depends. You know how Cruz is."

I nodded and we watched Oakly start running to his dad and brother, his diaper swishing, his sippy cup in the crook of his arm.

"Cruz, I swear if you rip your suit, I'm going to strange you with your tie that you forgot in our room," Lia playfully shouted at her husband.

Cruz stopped and looked down, "Shit, I knew I was forgetting something."

"Yeah, come here," Lia commanded.

Cruz sighed and put Echo down, "Sorry, Bud."

Cruz's blue eyes lit up when he saw Lia up close and his mouth crept into a grin.

"What?" She asked, throwing the tie around his neck and tying it for him.

"Have you gained some weight?" He asked with the signature Fuentes half smile.

She stopped tying for a minute, looked up at him and rolled her eyes before finishing the tie.

"No, some guy knocked me up, again."

Cruz wiggled his eyebrows up and down, "Just some guy?"

Lia nodded and pecked Cruz on the cheek, "Come on, we gotta go. We're gonna be late."

Cruz made a face and sighed, "Boys, your parents are leaving you with this psychotic teenager girl again."

Both boys looked at their father like he was crazy.

Lia rolled her eyes once again and held her arms open, "Give us kisses."

She scooped Oakly up and gave him a kiss on the cheek and then passed Oakly onto Cruz. I smiled as Oak gave Cruz a big smooch on the lips, making Cruz laugh. They both moved onto Echo and left hand in hand.

I sighed, so perfect did exist.

I just had to put myself out there in order to find it.