A/N: Wow, guys, it's been awhile. School and golf have been keeping me super busy and I just haven't had any time to write or edit anything- but since I have a long weekend I decided I would fight through the tiredness and get this chapter out.
Thursday - 6:52 a.m
Lincoln Residence
Looking at the time, Abby grimaced and continued scrubbing her teeth. Waking up forty minutes late didn't give her enough time to shower or do her makeup, which resulted in her looking slightly homeless. She tried not to stare at the bags that were surely forming under her eyes. Five hours of school, two hours of homework, two hours of volleyball practice, and then working for five more hours at the local candy shop was taking almost everything out of her. She sighed and spit. She heard her cell phone buzz and read it as she put on her sweats.
Muffy: pls tell me u haven't left the house yet and can u grab me an extra pair of spandex
Abby grabbed her phone and left the bathroom, heading back to her room to grab a pair of shorts for the girl that can never remember anything, even if her life depends on it. (Which, this sort of did. Coach told her that if she forgot shorts one more time, that she would make the whole team run until they all puke.) She shoved them into her bookbag and hurried downstairs. "Lookin' comfy," Cree said from the kitchen table, drinking orange juice. Abby ignored her and grabbed the last piece of toast and her car keys.
"Shouldn't you be in class or somethin'?" She asked before walking out the front door. Cree looked at her and shrugged.
"Free food, lil sis." She responded, making Abby roll her eyes and exit the house.
Shoving the last piece of toast in her mouth and texting Muffy back, telling her that she got a pair, Abby shoved the keys into the ignition of her Chevy Cruze and pulled out of her driveway, praying that her spot wasn't taken by some stupid sophomore that just got their license. She turned the radio up to try and distract her from her road rage that was steadily increasing by the second. Morning traffic was always ridiculous because parents dropping their freshmen (and some sophomores) off couldn't follow the traffic rules.
She continued to screw around with the radio, trying not to stare at the clock and get anxious at the time. She looked up and saw that she was still at least five cars behind the stop sign and sighed. She felt her phone begin to vibrate and play Walking On Sunshine meaning that it was Muffy calling her. Ironically, the Katrina & The Waves song has been her favorite since freshman year, despite Muffy being the pessimist that she is. "What?" Abby answered.
"Somebody's having a good morning." Abby rolled her eyes. The last thing Muffy should be doing is giving Abby sarcasm when she saved her ass this morning by actually answering her texts for once.
"What?" Abby repeated, quite exasperatedly.
"I just wanted to let you know that somebody took your spot," She said, making Abby swear under her breath. "But I'm standing in a spot, saving it for you." Abby laughed, despite being in a foul mood.
"You what?"
"I think I'm in Bartie's spot, but I'm not really sure. Hoagie and his shitty Subaru are beside me so I'm just going to assume it's Bartie's." Muffy explained, making Abby picture her standing in a parking spot so that she would have a parking spot. She shook her head and smiled.
"Abby'll be there in like three minutes." She said and then hung up. Finally pulling onto McClintock Road traffic began to flow and she was able to make it into the parking lot where she saw Muffy, quite literally, standing in a spot, blocking people from pulling into it. When the brunette saw Abby's navy blue car she quickly stepped off to the side, letting her park. Muffy opened the passenger door and leaned in,
"Yo, can I copy your anatomy homework?" She asked. Abby nodded and said,
"It's in the blue folder."
"Light or dark?"
"Light." Abby answered, and as Muffy went to shut the door Abby called out, "Hey, spandex." She handed Muffy the pair of patterned shorts and smiled,
"Thanks, see ya in third." She said, shutting the door and hurrying into the building. She thought it was sort of weird, Muffy hurrying off when there were still six minutes left until the first bell. But she shrugged it off, Muffy was always doing weird things anyway. After listening to the rest of the Nelly song, Abby decided it was time to go inside and face another day in paradise.
Getting out of the car, she grabbed her back and tapped the lock button on the key fob, causing it to beep. She saw Hoagie's unruly head of hair pop out of the Subaru and she heard him swear under his breath. When his full body was finally in sight, Abby saw that he had a drink carrier with what looked like four cups of coffee in one hand and his keys in the other. He looked up at her and she offered a small smile. The two weren't necessarily friends but they weren't strangers either. Abby would personally consider it a close acquaintanceship. But sometimes when she would look at him she would feel a sort of nostalgic pain in her chest, as if they were childhood best buds.
"Hey, Abby, do you like caramel iced lattes?" He asked, making her raise her eyebrows and shrug. Hell yeah, Abby likes caramel iced lattes. Especially when I didn't sleep last night.
"I guess. Why?"
"Bartie told me to get him one this morning but then texted me ten minutes later, saying 'nevermind, I'm skipping first'." Hoagie looked more than a little annoyed, as he looked back over at Abby he took the drink out of the carrier, along with the straw, "Here, take it. None of us will drink it." He offered. When he said 'us', Abby assumed he meant Herbie, Kade, Virginia, and himself. She looked at him with raised eyebrows as to ask 'are you sure?' He nodded and handed her the drink.
"I can pay you," She said, but he just shook his head, making his curly auburn colored hair flop. It looked like he was in dire need of a haircut.
"Bartie asked for it, Bartie's going to pay for it." He responded. The two began to walk towards the building and Hoagie chuckled. "Man, I thought Virginia was crazy. Muffy was out there defending that parking spot with her life. She's crazy." He said, making Abby laugh,
"Oh yeah, she only did that because she needed shorts and anatomy homework." She answered. Which was true, Muffy may be crazy, but she wouldn't have defended a parking spot like that for so long unless she truly needed something; which she did. As they approached the door, Hoagie and his long legs beat Abby to the door, holding it open for her, despite his hands being practically full. He and Abby both spotted their respective friend group and began walking towards them. Hoagie looked to Abby as she was at her stop and smiled. Her heart fluttered a little bit when she saw the dimples in his chubby cheeks.
"See you in first," He waved as Abby grinned in return. And as he walked away, she couldn't help regretting not wearing jeans and putting on some makeup that morning. But the smile that he gave her as he waved and walked away made her feel like she really was walking on sunshine.
11:17 a.m
McClintock High - Cafeteria
Sitting around the octagon shaped table, were the jocks of McClintock, all wearing various letterman jackets and eating a pizza from Domino's, the only place that would deliver to the school. "So you're telling me that you volunteered to coach fifteen ten-year-olds?" Seth asked, his mouth full of pepperoni pizza. He never had been one to use proper manners.
"I get paid to do it. And it's just soccer; I know that sport inside and out. Coaching it shouldn't be that hard." Wally shrugged, trying to convince himself more than his friends.
"Being around a group of brats for two hours every day?" Peter asked incredulously. "Do you know yourself?"
"Actually it's Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays," Wally mentioned, bringing on his next point. "I could really use an assistant coach." He looked specifically at Seth, the only other person in their group of friends that played soccer. Hell, he was the only one who even knew how soccer worked besides Wally.
"Yeah, I have other things to be doing, if you know what I mean," He looked over at the cheerleaders' table. Henrietta's long blonde hair was curled and she was wearing jeans that fit just right and a top that was just a little too short, teasing Seth with her belly button ring. Wally rolled his eyes, his friends were such pigs.
"It's three days a week. Like a total of-" He paused to count on his fingers, "Six hours. So we'll still have time to go to practice and do homework and you'll still have time to fuck around with Henrietta." Seth shook his head,
"Sorry man; not worth wasting my time for a couple college applications." He responded, making Wally groan. "Besides, you wouldn't split the money with me." Of course, he wouldn't split the money with him. He wouldn't do anything to deserve the money. Wally just hoped someone would coach with him so it wouldn't be just him and fifteen ten-year-olds.
"Whatever." Wally mumbled. He looked over at Patton who was staring at, what looked like, Fanny Fulbright eating her lunch. He raised his eyebrows and nudged the boy's side, making him jerk his head over,
"What?"
"What're you looking at?" Patton rolled his eyes and nodded his head towards the only male sitting at the cheerleader table. Nigel Uno. Surrounded by less than enjoyable company, he was sitting next to his girlfriend who was vibrantly telling a story. "I feel sort of bad, him sitting there by himself."
"Lizzie would never let him sit with us." Pete laughed, "We're bad influences. She doesn't need her Nigie getting any ideas into his big bald head." His twin brother rolled his eyes.
"Still; he looks so pathetic over there." He really did. His head was propped up on his fist and he was half-heartedly picking at his lunch. His glasses were slowly slipping down his nose and it looked like he was about to fall asleep.
"And you're right," Patton laughed, pointing his slice of pizza at Pete, "He does have a big head."
As the bell was getting ready to ring, signaling the end of lunch and the beginning of fifth period, Patton stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder. His dark eyes darted back to the cheerleaders, and more specifically, the redheaded Fanny Fulbright. He felt a small smile cross his face as she saw her and her friends approaching him. He followed behind them until they each began dispersing, going to their own classes, soon leaving only him and the redhead. "Hey," Patton wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer. Fanny looked up at him and then pushed him away,
"What're you doing?" She asked, glaring at him. He wasn't sure why she was all of sudden so opposed to him touching her, but he backed off and answered,
"Walking you to class?"
"No, we can't be all lovey-dovey at school; especially not with Kuki or Lizzie or anyone else around." She muttered, making him raise his eyebrows. He didn't realize that whatever they had going on was something that had to be kept quiet.
"We did it at your party," He responded. Fanny rolled her eyes and threw her hands in the air, obviously frustrated because even after almost four years, he still didn't understand the politics of high school. One can't be seen alone with a guy that used to date one of your friends.
"Everyone was drunk." She said, then whispered, "And we were in my bedroom." A smirk arose on Patton's face. Hell yeah, we were in your bedroom. He thought proudly to himself. "Just," Fanny sighed and began to head to her class; "Not here, okay?"
4:01 p.m
McClintock High - Mustang Stadium
"Okay kids, due to the rain making the cross country course disgusting, we're practicing on the track today." The groan erupting from most of the athletes made Rachel roll her eyes. She couldn't see why people would rather run on the cross country course when it's always muddy and gross. "Yeah, yeah, go do two warm-up laps and then stretch on the field." Rachel was much happier this year than years past; at least when it came to cross country. It used to be girls JV and varsity practicing together, while the boys would do the same. But that was just inconvenient because she was already the fastest girl and she didn't have anyone to compete with. But when Roth decided to change it up and have the two varsity teams practice together, everything changed.
Her and Nigel Uno had been competing for fastest at McClintock (and in the district, for that matter) since they were fifteen. Having him there at practice with her made Rachel want to go even harder because there wasn't anything she wanted more than to beat him and be, not only the fastest girl, but the fastest person in the school. Two weeks after their argument, neither of them were over it. Therefore, Rachel threw all hesitations out the window, no longer caring what would happen to whatever friendship they had when one of them beat the other. She pushed herself further than she had ever before. Running in the morning before school, running right after school and then at practice. Harvey even told her that she runs in her sleep.
Sitting down with her legs spread, she reached for her right foot, pulling it towards her, groaning at how good it felt to finally be able to stretch out after a long day. The blonde looked over at the freshman who was sitting down beside of her; Sonya reminded Rachel of herself when she was a freshman. Seemingly not too many friends. Rachel almost laughed out loud and then thought to herself, some things never change. "Hey, Sonya," She tried to offer a friendly smile. Sonya seemed caught off guard that an upperclassman was talking to her; and even more, knew her name.
"Hey, Rachel." She grinned back. The two continued their awkward small-talk when Roth interrupted them and began to talk,
"Okay, with our first meet coming up we managed to get some pretty cool tee-shirts for you guys to wear at school the day before. And don't forget, the first meet is the twenty-third of September." A week and a few days from now, but Rachel was more prepared than ever. This was going to be her season, and no one (especially Nigel) was going to take it from her.
The two teams finished stretching and started doing whole football field suicides. Five in and Rachel was slowly starting to understand they were called suicides. Nonetheless, she kept sprinting, her and Nigel staying neck and neck the entire time. As she began to slow her pace just slightly so she could endure, there was a God-awful scream coming from the other side of the field. She jerked her head to the right and saw Nigel laying on the ground, his knee pulled tightly to his chest. Immediately forgetting about their fight and throwing all inhibitions out the window, she sprinted (faster than she had run all practice) across the field, while everyone else, who were probably silently thanking God for a reason to stop, paused and looked over. Upon getting closer, it was definitely the knee. He had weak knees. She always told him to wear his stupid knee braces. She could hear him swearing as he was also struggling to catch his breath. Rachel collapsed beside of him, "Okay, it'll be okay," She murmured, almost expecting him to yell at her.
Instead, he let go of his knee with his left hand and reached for hers. She gripped his hand, trying to ignore how hard he was squeezing. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I'm going to die, aren't I? Fuck." He continued to mumble. Rachel couldn't help letting out a small chuckle,
"Yes, you're going to die, but not from this. It's just your knee; you'll be okay-" She looked up at their overweight, middle-aged coach who finally made it to the scene. Rachel mouthed something to him and he was off towards the building. "Roth is going to get the trainer." She said, trying to comfort him. She really didn't know what to do; she had never seen Nigel react like that to anything, so he was clearly in a great deal of pain. She kept her grip on his hand as he kept trying to catch his breath.
"Fuck-" He squinted his eyes shut. Rachel saw a few tears make their way down his cheeks and felt her chest seize. She hated seeing him in so much pain, but mostly she hated herself for realizing that now with Nigel out, the season really was hers. "I'm sorry." He groaned, "I've been a huge dick-" Rachel interrupted him, not wanting him to continue. His pain-fueled adrenaline speech would've just made her feel worse.
"Don't do that right now," She said, putting her other hand over his, hoping she was doing something right. She had never had an injury like this, she had absolutely no idea how he was feeling. She tried to think of something, anything that would distract him. The trainer, today it was Jesse, came over and gently pulled Nigel's knee away from the death grip that the brown-haired boy had on it with his other arm. Nigel groaned and gripped Rachel's hand even tighter (which seemed impossible), making Rachel grind her teeth together. Jesse started inspecting and then started talking, but all Rachel heard was 'ACL' 'tear' 'surgery'. Which just confirmed that he would be out for the season and maybe forever.
The ambulance came and took Nigel away after pumping what seemed like tons of morphine into him. "Are you sure you don't want me to go?" Rachel was hesitant to leave him, especially since he still had a death grip on her hand (and she was pretty sure she was losing circulation). He nodded and had a glassy look in his blue eyes. The drugs were definitely starting to work. "Positive?" He nodded one more time, still not letting go.
"Hey, Rach?" The paramedics had him on the stretcher and Rachel finally managed to free her hand from Nigel's sweaty grip. She raised her eyebrows as he slurred, "I love you." Regardless of telling herself that it was the drugs talking, not Nigel, she still felt her heart stop. And not beat again until the ambulance was out of sight.a/
A/N: Honestly, I have no idea when the next chapter will be up, hopefully soon, but no promises. But I sure do hope you enjoyed this chapter, and if you did, be sure to review!
- Maddie