In for the win

Chapter 9

AMARA

The bell rings. At last. Those 2 hours of English might have been the longest of my entire life. I yawned as the sound of the bells filled the auditorium. I hadn't slept much this night. Ethan hadn't stopped snoring and I didn't find a way to make him stop, which didn't involve me slapping him. I walked down the stairs and walked out with Becca, a girl in my class. The auditorium seemed empty, by the fact that the whole hockey team and the basketball team hadn't attended class, because of practice, and the room felt really big without them. Winter season had started, which meant match season had too. As for us, volleyball matches started next week. We were playing against HPU, our long time rivals, so both our coaches had doubled the intensity of trainings. It didn't bother us. It was snowing outside, so I rushed to my car. Training was in 2 and a half hours, so I had time to chill or do something else. I decided to go grab a coffee, and then head back to my apartment. I walked into the Starbucks and waited in line. At this time of the year, all of the coffee shops were packed, they were to make a fortune. "Double foam vanilla latte" I say, smiling to the Starbucks girl. She doesn't even bother to look back and says "Name?" "Amara"I respond briskly. Gosh, how rude? She shouts my order over  to her colleague, and he scribbles my name down on the cup. I wait for my name to be called. "Double foam vanilla latte?" The small guy asks. I come up and grab the cup. "Are you Amanda?" He timidly asks. "No, but I ordered that. I told the lady at front my name was Amara." "Oh my god. I'm so sorry. I must have heard that wrong. I'm new here it's my first week" he says in a frighted voice. "That's no worries." I laugh "As long as I've got my coffee we'll both be fine". "Oh" he exclaims shyly. "It was nice meeting you Amara, and sorry again about the name mix up." "It was nice meeting you too -Derek". I say, reading his name on the little tag of his uniform. I turn and walk through the door. I get back into my car, turn on the heating to the maximum and put my cup between the two seats. I arrive to the driveway of my apartment and park the car. I hurry to get into the lobby, because it's really chilly outside. I walk up the stairs, the elevator being out of service. When I get to the door, I turn the keys in the lock and enter my flat. I throw all my belongings on the little cupboard in the entrance and take off my coat. Sleepily, I fall down on the couch and turn on the TV. A few minutes later, I feel my phone buzzing. I don't pay much attention to it and continue watching TV. When it buzzes a second time, a few seconds later, I pick it up and see incoming messages.

*UNKNOWN NUMBER*

unknown number: how did English go?
amara : who is this?
unknown number : guess
amara : idk Jade?
unknown number : you're gonna have to guess better than that
amara : listen. I don't really have the patience to play along your little prank, so you better tell me who the fuck this it before I loose my patience.
unknown number : we both know I'm way too mature to be playing pranks Preston.
amara: Ethan, how did you get my number?
unknown number : when you left, I granted myself authorisation to ask Matthew for it.
amara : that's fun. What do you want?
unknown number : I was wondering when our next study date was gonna happen
amara : it isn't a date
unknown number : *sad emoji face. I can't believe you'd do that to me
amara : my apartment tomorrow night. 7 o'clock
unknown number : can't wait!! See you then Preston
amara : STOP CALLING ME THAT!
unknown number : *winky face

I laugh as I change the name on the contact info from unknown number to annoying study-date.

—

I hear the door opening and spot from the corner of my eye Candace entering. "Hey" she screeches, half-running in my direction. "Guess what?" She looks super excited and is jumping all over the place. "Uhm I don't know?" "Well. Jakob finally asked me out on a date. Or not, well it was me. I finally plucked the courage to go talk to him after chem and he invited me to go have a drink!" She's super enthusiastic and her good mood is contagious. "Oh my god! That's amazing!" my voice placing itself at the same tone as hers. Jakob Winstern was a guy Candace had been obsessing over for months and she never had had the guts to go speak to him. We tried changing her mind, telling her that talking to him wasn't gonna kill her and she had nothing to loose. But she's extremely stubborn. I'm happy for her that she's finally out of that phase. "I hope when you talk to him, you're not going to stutter like you did last time." I giggle. "Um, mean?" She exclaims. Last week, when we had chem, me and Jakob were lab partners. I tried switching with Candace, but she disappeared at the right moment. When she was walking to an other class with me, Jakob joined us and addressed a "hello" to Candace. She reacted like a scared kitten and mumble something incomprehensible. Then she left in third gear. It was somewhat awkward for her and for me, being stuck with him and having to not explain what had just happened. "Anyway. I'm cooking tonight. Pizza?" Shit. Not pizza?! Since match season was gonna start soon, I was three times more stressed over everything, including food. I had been pretty good the last month, but sometimes you just relapse in old habits. "Um" I stutter "I already ate" That was like the lamest excuse I could have come up with and Candace saw right through it. "Amara. A pizza is good for you. It's energy. If you don't eat then you don't have energy. And if you don't have energy, you'll be like a dead log at training, and we can't have a dead log as a libero." She says, trying to comfort me. "I know" "I'll make them vegetarian if that helps." Candace is always understanding and there for me. She had been the first to found out I had trouble with food, and never judged me. She tried helping me the best she could, and that meant the world to me. I smile at her. "That'd be nice, thanks." I watch her as she gets the stuff ready, and I help her cut the peppers and tomatoes. Twenty minutes later, the pizzas are in the oven, and you can smell the delicious aromas of tomato and mozzarella. Jade and Monica arrive as we were taking them out of the oven. "That smells amazing!" They say, lifting their noses to sniff the smell. We all sit around the table and talk about random stuff. Mostly about the possible relationship Candace/Jakob.

—

Practice is going to be long as hell. Why is that? Mainly because Mikey isn't there and we are stuck with Aubrey coaching us. She's being extra harsh with us, and of course me too. We're practising blocks and the only thing she does is complain. I've been diving and rolling for the past forty-five minutes, because my dives weren't good enough. Apparently. "Stop smashing so hard on the floor!" Or "Get your ass faster up!" Or even "I don't even know how you guys managed to make your way through to regionals. You lack grace and coordination." That was what Himbrey had been saying non-stop since beginning of practice. She was really starting to get on my nerves, but I had to stay focused. I concentrate as Mikayla serves the ball from the other side of the net on Margot. She receives it perfectly and sends it in Monica's direction. She passes the ball high in  the air and I leap up with Jess to hit it. I feint, giving Jess the opportunity to smash the ball over the net. The ball crashes outside the confines of the court. "Nice spike" I hear Himbrey shouting to Jessica. Of course. Jessica is Himbrey's darling. She can never do wrong. If I had been the one to hit it out, I would have been shouted at, or worse, I'd currently be running. The point goes on as the ball flies in my direction. I dive, hitting the ball with my fist, rolling over back on my feet. Hannah receives it, cuffing it back in the air. I take momentum, and run towards it. Jessica does the same, but this time I don't give her the time to hit it. I swing my arm in the air and hit the ball with all my might. I watch as it smashes on the ground, right next to Candace, inside the court. Take that Aubrey Himbrey.