Cara? Oh my goodness was this Will's sister? Was this the girl who Aidan liked but was too scared to tell?
"As in Cara Turner," I said her name slowly to make sure.
I had to hand it to Aidan he didn't do bad at all in choosing this one. I mean okay okay, my brother was good looking, he was built, and he was a charming guy, he could get any pretty girl. But she seemed so nice and proper. A bit too mature for someone who played pranks and flirted with trouble in school.
"Yes," she said finally looking up at me. "You've met my brother I suppose?" And you've met mine, I wanted to say. Yet I settled for another answer.
"My roommate is Christina." That seemed to be all the explanation she needed. She rolled her eyes.
"Yes, she is a lively one isn't she?" I smiled and nodded. I guess that's a nice way to put it. "My family adores her and they've been together since sophomore year. Our spirits aren't in sync, as she put it once," Cara said as I held back a laugh. I swear Christina said the weirdest things sometimes. "But we're friends nonetheless. I have a feeling, she's going to become part of my family, so..." she smiled.
"They do make a cute couple. Besides that, Will of course is also on the football team with my brother. Aidan actually introduced me to Will before Christina did." Cara looked down to hide her enthusiasm at the mention of my brother. I think Aidan was wrong. She did like him.
"I've also met Edward and Eric," I decided to continue, hoping not to make her uncomfortable. She really did seem like a sweet girl. "And Myra. I've become really good friends with all of them." God knows I wanted more from Eric. "I heard that all your families are close."
"Myra and I were close childhood friends. Edward, Will, and Eric were like the three amigos growing up. It's nice to hear that they're all close again, especially after what happened last year." There it was again. What in the world happened last year? I wanted to ask her, until Four's mom and Tori came back our way.
"I seen you've met our student body president and our leaders of tomorrow president, Cara Turner." Whoa, Aidan was right. She did have a good head on her shoulders.
After other introductions were made, Cara and I exchanged phone numbers and decided to follow one another on IG. I scrolled through her posts and noticed one was with Aidan, just this past summer. She didn't write any caption. But I couldn't help but think that they looked really good together.
To say we were nervous about the game was a total understatement. I tried so hard not to panic. Jessie was already on the brink of having a nervous breakdown. A lot of people didn't show up, only because there was the football game tonight. Most of the fans there were for Erudite Academy. A few of the other girls' families came, but it was still overwhelming and intimidating.
They won the first set 25-16. They really were the #1 team. I couldn't help but think that this was probably going to be a slaughter. Tori changed us out every couple plays, just to see if we could throw them off, but we were the ones that ended up getting confused. What made it worst was that the first set seemed like it was going to last forever.
The second set we finally seem to get into a groove. I able to get some really good sets like in practice. Letty and Lauren both got in some good kills. I got a service ace and so did Deena. Rogue had some pretty good blocks up at the net and digs as well. Unfortunately, we still lost that set 25-23.
"You all are playing hard," started Tori during halftime. "I'm not going to sugarcoat our plays though. Jessie you need to relax. Letty, Lauren, and Deena we really need you to attack the ball. Alex try to get more comfortable in where you're placing the ball. Rogue, you need to anticipate where it's going to come over from the other side." She continued to instruct the other girls on the team. "Remember to expect the unexpected. This team keeps adapting. Every time we think we got them, they pull a new trick out of the bag. That's why they're #1."
She paused, walked a few steps away, and then looked back at us. "But tonight, we're going to show them that Dauntless is #1. Individually, you all are good players. But right now we don't need good players, we need a great team. One strong wolf cannot defeat a pack of dogs, one strong arm cannot fight off many fists. You're not going to get out of this game victorious, unless you learn to use the strengths of the person next to you. I chose each one of you for a reason, now collaborate together and show me why you are Dauntless's team."
We went back out a bit more confident. It wasn't until I got a service ace to tie the set we got excited. It seem to shock the other team. When I served another ace for the lead, all the girls on the bench went wild. It was the first time we were leading. Erudite immediately called a timeout. But it was too late. Lauren and Letty were pumped up. Deena, Rogue and I seemed to be working on some kind of high now. Even Jessie and a couple other girls who Tori substituted were working things.
We won third set 26-24 and won the fourth set 25-21. We ended up going to a fifth set.
"This is it, ladies. I know that you've been giving it your all tonight and I'm proud of each and every one of you. Everything comes down now to this set. This fifth and final set of the game. This final chance for us to win this game. As my brother would say," Tori said. "This is do or die, win or cry, put up or shut up time! Now," she quieted down and put her hand in the middle of our huddle. "Who's going to win this game?"
We all smiled and put our hands in. Right when we screamed "Dauntless!" It was like half the crowd yelled too. We looked around wondering where the cheering came from.
Lauren nudged me and pointed to the middle bleachers of Erudite's gym. There sat our football team, some girls from the cheer squad, and other students from our school. Shauna, Christina, Tris, Marlene, Mia, Myra, and Giselle had decided to stand in the front of those bleachers and started to cheer for us. The football game must have finished early. Considering we were on our fifth set, I highly doubt anyone thought we would have made it this far against the #1 team in the state, so they all ended up heading out here.
This set was by far the hardest. Even though we came out leading, we ended up losing the lead, twice. We were 9-11 when Tori called out Bree, one of the girls on the team, and put me in to serve.
"You have a high jump serve," said Tori as I made me way back up. "I think it confuses them as to where your ball will land. You can do this, Alex." I walked back out and got ready to serve. My heart was pounding like crazy! I threw the ball up, ran, and hit it across the court. It went straight down inside the right corner of the court.
That was my sixth service ace of the night. The team did a quick high-five and out of all the screaming in the bleachers, I could immediately pick out Aidan's voice cheering for me. I went back to serve, thinking about how happy my brother was for me, about what he told me that night we talked it out. He is proud of me. He cared about me then and he always will. The feeling of belonging to something important filled within me as I served the ball. It bounced off the Erudite player's hands and into the bleachers. Seventh service ace! I did another serve, this one came back. I dug up the ball in the back court, Rogue set it for Lauren who smacked it down center court. Now we were leading! Letty got the next kill, Deena got us the point by blocking, and now we were one down from winning the game.
Everyone from Dauntless stood up in the bleachers and started screaming. I stood back, rolling the ball in my palm, waiting to serve. I took deep breaths trying to tune everyone out and for some reason I picked up one voice in the crowd, but this time it wasn't Aidan.
"You got this, Alex," I heard Eric shout. I looked to where they were sitting and picked him out of the entire crowd. He threw me his smirk and for some reason I felt like that was all I needed. I threw the ball up to serve and won us our first game against the #1 team in the state.
"See, didn't I say not to worry," said Eric as we hugged. Most people had already left. We had already shook hands with Erudite. Lauren was interviewed by one of the news channels that showed up to televise the game. The only ones left were either the cheerleaders, the football team, some of our parents, and some people from Erudite.
"Yeah, that was awesome," said Tris, who came and gave me a hug after Eric. Four hugged me too, which was kind of weird because during the hug he tensed. I looked at him as I pulled back to see that he was looking at someone behind me. I turned to see Erudite's principal, Four's mom, smiling.
"To.." she stopped and cleared her throat. "Four, pleasure to see you again, son." They did a hug which did not look friendly at all. "Beat.." she stopped again. "Tris, forgive me. Tris, it's been too long."
Tris offered her hand. "It's nice to see you too Principal Johnson."
I turned to Eric who shook his head, telling me not to ask or say anything. I took Eric's hand and walked away, hoping that my curiosity wasn't going to get the better of me. Then I saw Christina and Will speaking to Cara. Cara looked up and waved. As we got closer, I saw Cara look down at my hand in Eric's and her smile got wider. Immediately I pulled me hand away and noticed that Eric looked hurt. I turned back to Cara and went to hug her.
"How do you know Cara," questioned Christina.
"We've been friends for a while actually," Cara said. From the look on her face, she wanted to make a little trouble to Christina. I winked at her.
"By the way, I never did thank you for sending me those strawberries. I really appreciate you going through all that trouble," I replied as Christina and Will's jaws dropped.
"When did you get Alex strawberries," asked Will.
"About maybe two weeks ago," said Cara looking my way. "Alex was feeling down, cause she couldn't cheer, so I thought I send her a little 'get happy' gift." Wow, I can't believe Aidan told her all of that. He must have really felt for me enough to ask Cara to do something for him. And from what I gathered Cara liked my brother just as much as he liked her.
"Why didn't you tell me you knew Will's sister," asked Christina.
"I think it was because you were pretty much occupied with other things," teased Eric. Christina glared at him. Just then Aidan came by with Edward and Myra.
"Hey Cara," said Myra as they hugged. Edward hugged her as well. When it came to Aidan, you could tell they were happy to see each other in person once again.
"Christina, I think you have something right there," I said pointing to a spot in the front of my teeth.
Right on cue. "Oh. My. God." She covered her mouth. "How bad is it? Was it there this whole time? What is it? Can you tell what it is? Do you think it was there during the football game?"
"I think you should go to the bathroom," I suggested. She immediately left. "Will, you should go check on her." Will said bye to Cara and then left.
"So, Cara, how have you b..."
"Hey Edward, Myra," I said interrupting Edward and then turning to Eric. "Why don't you folks tell me about the football game?" Eric seemed to catch on and looked up at Edward, who took a while to process but then smiled and took Myra's hand to walk in the other direction. We all hugged and said goodbye to Cara. The second I hugged her, Aidan looked my way and shook his head.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Trust me, you both should have a little alone time," I said quietly so she wouldn't hear and then walked away with Eric, Edward, and Myra.
It wasn't long until Eric and I were by ourselves. I looked over at Myra and Edward who looked happy to finally be talking to each other again. I turned to see Aidan and Cara smiling too. Eric picked me up, threw me over his shoulder, and sat me down on a table outside the gym.
"Don't do that again," I said lightly hitting him. "So how was the game?"
"It was good. Let's just say that you owe me," he replied leaning in closer and putting his two hands on either side of me.
"From what you just saw, apparently I get a surprise too," I said pulling on his shirt to come closer. He leaned down and just like every other time, someone just had to come and interrupt us.
"Five minutes until the buses leave," yelled Christina. She threw me a evil smile and I knew she was probably getting us back for walking in on her and Will.
"Why does this always happen," I complained once Christina was gone. "I think because I want this kiss so badly, that I'm just not going to get it." Right after I said it, I realized I didn't say it in my head, rather it came out from my mouth and pretty loud. I looked up to see Eric smiling at me. I threw my hands up to cover my face. That was so embarrassing. Just because I wanted it, didn't mean that he did.
I felt his hands gently pull mine away from my face. He stroked my cheek so I could open my eyes.
"Alex, I'm just as frustrated as you are about this," he said as he kissed my forehead. "I think we're trying too hard."
"Yeah, maybe we should just forget about it," I answered.
"That's not what I meant." I looked back up at him and saw his eyes soften. "If it was really meant to happen, which I think it is," he said as his smile got wider. "Then it'll happen when the moment is just right." He took my hands, placed them around him, put his hands around me, pulling me closer, and leaned his forehead against mine. "Perhaps time is just waiting for that perfect moment. After all, I think that's what you deserve Alex. For everything to be perfect."