*6 months earlier*

I carried stacks of homework and tests from this previous school year, throwing them into the fire, symbolizing the end of another school year. I was always told Junior year was the worst year in high school, and now that it’s over for me, I completely agree.

I watched as the books I read months ago from AP English Language burned to ash, alongside the thousands of flash cards I made to remember the many key terms from AP Environmental Science. I didn’t even like science!

My mother told me to save all my study guides for my younger twin siblings, brothers Tate and Thomas, but at age 9 I didn’t think they would need the materials for another 7 or 8 years.

“Juliet!” My best friend Lily called, bringing me out of my thoughts. “Burgers are ready!”

“I’ll be there in a minute,” I yelled back.

It’s a tradition for most of the students in my grade to come to Lifeguard station 22 at our local beach, Imperial, the night after taking their last final, completing the school year. We grill, we dance, we party, and we burn...our old school work. It’s a celebration of our great accomplishments we had this past school year, and marks the first party of summer.

I placed the last paper I was holding, my report card showing straight A’s, into the fire.

As I walked away from the bonfire, no one noticed I was slightly limping, leaning onto my right leg more than I should be.

I started to realize how chilly the beach had become. I was only dressed in my black and pink striped bikini bathing suit top and bottom, covered by my white coverup dress. My toes danced in the sand immediately after I threw off my black flip flops when I first stepped onto the sand.

I reached the grill, and after waiting in line, grabbed a hamburger bun and plate on the table, thanked our grill master Matt, for handing me a cheeseburger, and dressed the burger up with my usual: lettuce, tomato, mayo, ketchup, and of course a handful of pickles. I grabbed a Dr. Pepper can out of the ice chest and walked to join Lily at an empty picnic table farther away from the rest of the group.

I started to eat my burger when I started to get the feeling that Lily wanted to ask me something, my the way she was staring at me.

I sigh and put down my burger, while asking, “Do you need to say something?”

“When are you going to tell them?” Lily blurts out immediately, asking the serious question i’ve avoided answering honestly.

“I can’t let the team down. When the time is right, I will let everyone know.” I answer, trying to sound strong.

Lily stares at me, calculating in her head what to say next, knowing it could upset me.

“How are you and Hunter doing?” I asked, changing the subject.

Her face immediately turned red as she thought about her 3-year crush, a 6 foot 2 kicker on our school’s football team.

Even though our school’s football isn’t the best in our league, Lily and I always attend the home games together, standing and cheering in the stands the whole time.

Hunter and Lily have been flirting with each other this past year during their AP Chemistry class, and Hunter even asked Lily out to the school’s Winter Formal dance, but Lily couldn’t make it because she was out of town, visiting her brother in college. They have stayed close, always texting when they are apart, but they are both too stubborn to ask each other out on a date.

“We are perfectly fine the way we are.” Lily eventually replies.

“Are you sure you aren’t just saying that? You are always complaining about how you miss him, and never get together anymore. It’s summer, take the first step and ask him out!” I tell her.

“No no, he needs to ask me first.” She immediately shoots back. “The boy is supposed to take the first step.”

“That’s so sexist! Girls can do it too!” I shoot her a “duh” look.

“I know, I know. I just want to be more traditional with my dating style.” Lily shouts back, before getting quieter.

I understand where she is coming from, Hunter is her first major crush, and she doesn’t want to mess it up.

“What about you?” She asks. “Why don’t you ask someone out? Hunter can hook you up with one of his football friends.”

I look at her, confused on why I would ever do that. “I have no time.”

“Oh that’s right. I forgot, soccer is the only thing you have time for.” She looks down at the picnic table.

“Hey! You know I’m trying to get the team in top shape. This will be my last year and we need to win this year.” I start to get defensive.

Lily doesn’t understand my obsession with the sport that is soccer. She is the more creative one out of the two of us, and she would rather be painting in her bedroom or making a sculpture to enter in an art show, than play on the field. We constantly get into mini-fights about never being about to spend time together due to my soccer dedication, but in the end she is always my #1 fan cheering me on on the sidelines.

Soccer is my obsession. I live, breath, and sleep soccer. This season will be my thirteenth year playing. My room is painted sky blue, but the walls are covered in autographed soccer posters, ranging from Brandy Chastain and Alex Morgan to Landon Donovan and David Beckham. I only have one spot left on my wall, left for a signed poster of Lionel Messi, my absolute favorite soccer player of all time.

My eyes turn sharply towards the rest of my class, taking me out of my dream state, while seeing a group of people waving their hands at Lily and I, trying to get out attention. My face immediately breaks out in a smile, seeing my teammates calling us over.

Lily and I pick up our plates and soda cans, throwing away our trash in the trash bags that one of my classmates had tied to a picnic table, and headed over to my team.

One of my soccer teammates, Heather, ran over to us, and threw her arms around Lily and I, pulling us into a big hug. “I’ve missed you guys so much!” She said.

“You saw us this morning at school for finals.” I replied smartly.

Heather just waves her hand, not caring.

Even though Lily doesn’t like to play any sports, let alone soccer, she has learned, from me, over the years the rules of the game, and comes to every game. She may seem quiet, but she can be quite aggressive with her yelling, especially if she doesn’t agree with the calls the ref is making, which is pretty much every time there is a penalty against my team.

Lily and my teammates all became good friends, as she was at every game, and some practices, cheering us on.

We live in a small city with only one high school. A month before our season started, our athletic department chose to combine our varsity boys and girls soccer team to make one super team, with a junior varsity for support.

We field a varsity team of 20 with 12 players being boys, and 8 being girls. After the decision was made to combine our teams, my team was furious thinking that all the girls would end up on JV, but during the week of combined tryouts, we worked our butts off and the eight of us made varsity. The rest of the players that didn’t make varsity are very supportive of us, working hard on JV to hopefully represent our school on varsity in the next season.

I hugged the rest of the team, the boys included of course. Even though the boys have been our classmates for years, it took a couple weeks for all of us to get use to playing together, but now we are all rarely seen apart, Lily included.

I looked around confused, realizing that Riley, my soccer best friend, adding to Lily and I to make a trio, wasn’t part of the group. He was the first guy I became friends with once the soccer teams were combined, and I know I can trust him to hold the defense in the backfield for me, as he plays sweeper.

“Where’s Riley?” I ask Lily, but she just stands in front of me, smiling and laughing, while I look puzzled.

I feel my body being picked up and I am soon thrown over someone’s shoulder. I hear the person’s deep laugh and immediately know who's shoulder i’m on.

“Riley, put me down!” I yell at him, pounding my arms on his back, but he just continues to run.

I notice the sand turning darker, meaning we are getting closer to water, and I instantly realise what he is going to do.

Before I can figure a way out of his grasp, I am thrown into the ocean, the cold water taking over my body. I use my legs to push off the sand floor, and bounce up to the surface, breathing in the fresh sea air again.

I sharply turn around to see Riley standing waist deep in water, laughing his head off. I start wading my way towards him, but he keeps taking steps back, avoiding me. I get close enough to him, and I launch myself, tackling his body and sending us both under the water. We come up at the same time, laughing and splashing each other.

We ended our splashing game a minute later and stumbled out of the water, heading for the towels we used a couple hours earlier.

I heard a wolf whistle coming my way, and looked around confusedly, trying to see who was making the noise.

I see a tall, even taller than Hunter, brown-haired boy looking me up and down.

I look down and blush when I see my white coverup dress is sticking to all the curves on my body, making the dress see through.

I look back at the boy, taking him in fully. He’s clad in blue and white swim trunks, paired with a white bro tank. His black flip flops on his feet are sinking into the sand.

My gaze ends back up at his face to see a wide smirk on his lips. His brown hair is being blown slightly to the right side due to the wind on the coast.

I start to glare at him realizing he is probably just a jerk.

“Are you done checking me out yet?” I ask him in a monotonous voice.

“Not just yet.” He said cockily, looking me up and down again.

“Who invited you? Your don’t even go to our school.” I ask rudely, not caring how I sound, as he is a stranger.

“Carson!” I turn around and see Riley running towards us from where he was on the beach with a big smile on his face.

I frown when he gives the cocky boy in front of me a bro hug. “I am so glad you could make it.” Riley tells him.

I look between the two boys with a confused look on my face. Riley turns and faces my body, realizing I have no idea what’s going on.

“Oh sorry! Juliet, this is Carson.” He points to the arrogant boy next to him. “Carson is my best friend from Hendrix.”

Riley hasn’t always lived in our small city of Allendale, he moved here in his sophomore year from our rival city, Hendrix, which is only a 15 minute drive from our high school.

“Carson, this is Juliet, she is a beast on the soccer field, and our school team’s captain.” Riley continues, introducing me.

I look over at Carson to see his eyebrows raised, looking impressed. “Oh is she now. Maybe I’ll have to see you play sometime.” He gives Riley a look at the end, sending the message that there was a second meaning to that line.

I scoffed, “Maybe.”

Carson turned to Riley, “I’m going to say hi to the rest of the boys, and head home. I only wanted to stop by quickly.”

Riley and Carson did their good-bye bro hug and handshake.

Carson then turned to me and said “Bye Stripes.” Apparently I have a new nickname now.

I glared at him again, confused on why he would call me that “Bye, have a great time in Hendrix.” I hope I never see you again, I think to myself.

He turned around slightly, “Oh I’ll see you sooner than you think.”

“Let’s hope not.” I quickly replied.

He chuckled, and continued walking to the rest of the class.

I turned back to Riley, who had an amused smile on his face. “What?” I asked him.

“Nothing, just nothing.” He barely got out as he was still laughing.

I left Riley and his laughing self, to join the rest of the team again at the bonfire.

The rest of the night I sat by the fire and roasted marshmallows and spent time having a great time with my class before walking and turning in at my house.

I woke up the next morning to my alarm clock going off at 5:30. I know what you’re thinking, I probably forgot to turn my alarm clock the night before, because the school year is officially over. But I take advantage of every minute I have, and today being the first day of summer break should not be an exception, and it’s not.

I wake up promptly at this time every morning to take my morning run up to the local park and back. The round trip is about 5 miles, which is a perfect way to wake me up in the morning.

I get up out of bed and pull on an old soccer tournament shirt and track shorts. I unplug my pink iPhone from its charger on my desk and place it in my armband so I can track my run and listen to music while I run.

I walk out of my room and down the hall until I reach the steps to go downstairs, I try to be quiet and not wake my younger brothers, they are definitely not morning people.

When I reach the kitchen, I open the refrigerator door and take out the carton of orange juice and I pour myself a glass.

I have never been a big breakfast person, but since I am so active so early, I need some energy and I make sure I drink at least one cup of juice before I leave the house every morning. And once I build up my appetite from running, I eat after.

I reach the door and pull it open, letting the sun that has just risen pour in. I close the door quietly behind me and walk down the steps from my front porch. I stop when I reach the end of our pathway and notice a huge moving van sitting in front of my neighbor’s house to the right. It’s too early for anyone to actually start unloading items into the house, so no one is with the van at the moment.

The house had been on sale for a while. Our old neighbors, the McCarthy's were a very sweet old couple that have lived in that same house for over 40 years. They children decided it was time for them to live in a retirement house, where they can receive more attention and help for any needs they had.

I continue walking down the sidewalk pass their house, remembering my favorite memories inside the house. Whenever my parents went out to dinner on a date night, the McCarthy’s would babysit us. We would make homemade pizzas for dinner and play the piano, well trying to play, while the pizza was baking.

Once I reached the end of my block, I started to jog and turned on my warm-up music.

Kidnap My Heart by the Click Five starts to play, getting my heart rate up, as I run past the local middle school.

I turn right at the stop light, going up the hill to the city water tower. I take “snake trail” which is a paved running trail through trees that separate the houses houses of the back side of the hill. After turning right at the corner at the bottom of the hill, Bay Park comes into my view.

I cross the street and continue running on the pathway through the park. To my right is the beautiful, vibrant rose garden which is a very popular place to take staged photos in, and is very popular on prom day. After the rose garden is the community tennis courts, which starts to get packed around 8 o’clock in the morning. Even with 4 courts, there is usually a waiting line for match space.

The pathway veers to the left, heading towards the children’s playground, which will be uninhabited for a couple more hours, as the kids are all still sleeping. The south end of the park is my favorite, it may only be an open field of grass, but it can be used in so many ways. Ranging from pickup soccer games and ultimate frisbee games, to little kids running around playing tag, it’s usually always in use. I frequently see football players throwing long balls on the weekends, practicing on their day off.

During the fall, on Wednesday nights, I coach a local AYSO team, American Youth Soccer Organization, from the elementary school down the street. I choose one of the Girls under 10 team because it’s the first step they are taking to really develop their skills and actually compete for the first time. We take over one small section of the open grass field, and scrimmage the boys under 10 team for the last 30 minutes of practice, who uses the rest of the grass for practice.

I reach the end of the park which was transformed into a vegetable garden by the local 5th graders a couple of years ago, which the current students tend to every couple of weeks. After taking a lap through the garden, I head home using the way I came.

Once I hit the middle school, I start to sprint home, only slowing down and the street corners, checking the street both ways for cars. The last block is always the hardest to run, because after jogging and running for 45 mins, you are exhausted and your body can’t take much more. But that’s exactly why you have to push yourself and finish your run.

I make it through my run, ending on my front porch. I took my phone out of my armband and pressed stop on my workout. I reached down to get the extra key we keep on the porch from under a small frog on a leappad statue, in order to open the front door.

I unlock the front door and put the key back under the frog. After walking closing the door behind me, I head up the stairs and down the hall to my room. I open the door and turn quickly to my left, but I run into my dresser drawer that I kept open after getting my athletic clothes this morning before my run.

I close the drawer I almost ran into, and open the one below it, grabbing regular blue skinny jeans, and in the drawer two above, an old soccer tournament t-shirt. After grabbing my undergarments, I walk back out of my room and head down the hallway and turn in the first door on my right, and enter the bathroom.

I finish my shower 25 minutes later. My hair is super thick and very hard to manage, and because it is currently soaking wet, I wrap it up in my towel, forgetting about it.

Walking back down the stairs, I enter the kitchen and plug my phone into the speakers we have. I turn my current hits playlist on, not caring that my family is still sleeping, they should be used to my blasting music by now.

I take an old plastic bowl from the cabinet above the bread and grab the large box of rice krispies from the bottom drawer of the pantry. I fill the bowl about ¾ full with the rice krispies, before grabbing the milk from the fridge. I made sure to put the milk and cereal box away first, before I start eating, so I won’t get in trouble from my parents.

I am one of those people who needs to submerge all of the cereal under the milk, before I can start eating. I finally am able to grab a spoon and sit down at the counter, inhaling my crunchy cereal.

The cereal starts to dwindle away, until there is almost no more.

I hear a door opening upstairs, and 4 little feet running down the stairs. This can only mean one thing, the little twin monsters have awoken. I can tell they are almost near the kitchen, so I stand up and right when then run in, I grab Thomas with my left arm and Tate with my right arm wrapped around their waists.

I make sure they are both secure in my hold before I start to spin them around, their feet flying in the air. They twins both start to laugh and scream, but i’m having too much fun to tell them to quiet down.

I didn’t notice my parents walk in, their summer pajamas still on, until I started to slow down the spinning. They boys were screaming so loud, I couldn’t hear their door open. They were just looking at us with amused smiles on their faces, trusting me that I wouldn’t drop them.

The boys settled down after a couple minutes of being on the ground, and realized they were hungry when their stomachs started to growl.

Tate gave me a hard glare, “you better have left some rice krispies for me.”

My mom hushed him, “it’s fine if she ate it all Tate, we can always drive to the store and buy another one.”

Tate was glad to find there was still cereal in the box, and Thomas settled for honey nut cheerios, my second favorite cereal.

I finally finished eating my bowl, before rinsing it in the sink and placing it in the dishwasher.

I exit the kitchen, calling “i’m going down into the cave,” and head down the hall, into the basement.

My bedroom may have all my posters, but my favorite room in the whole house is what I call “my soccer den.” It’s the downstairs basement my mom let me take over freshman year so that I could have some space away from my older brothers.

On three of the walls, there are more soccer player posters, famous quotes from players, and my team photos i’ve collected over the years.

On my last wall, disconnected by the door, I have all my soccer plaques, awards, and certificates, ranging from when I started playing soccer at 5 years old when everyone was given a participant ribbon, to this past school season when I was voted “Most Valuable Player” on the team.

Most of my team calls the room the “man cave” because with a TV straight in the back. I reserve the TV for my game film and professional games from the week, but you can also watch regular tv and movies. I also have both the PS3 and XBOX and multiple games for each, but I of course prefer FIFA.

While I was converting the dusty, scary basement into a room of my own, I noticed two old couches being sold at a garage sale for cheap. I bought them specifically for the cave and my mother, being the sewing master she is, created a cover for the sofa so it would look nice again.

My brother’s old foosball game in the corner, exhausted from being played too much.

I head over the couch and grab the remote sitting on the coffee table right in front of the television. It may only be 7 o’clock in the morning here on the west coast, but over in England it is already 3 o’clock in the afternoon and everybody is awake, including the soccer players, but over there they call it futbol.

I turn on the television to channel 422, the channel that has soccer games on 24 hours a day, whether it’s live like the one I am tuning into right now is, or a replay they have on at midnight.

I timed my morning around the game, so I sit down 5 minutes before the game to see both team’s lineups for the game. I am happy to see that neither Manchester United or Monaco has had any injuries that would severely change the game.

My brain is absorbed in the first minutes of the game that I barely notice Riley opening the door and plopping down on the couch seat next to me, picking up my legs and laying them on his lap.

I turn my head when he greets me with a simple “hey” and nod of the head.

Riley being over this early in the morning is almost an everyday thing, and when he doesn’t come over this early, it’s because he is already here because he spent the night in his room. His room is actually the guest room that he took over as he uses it more than anyone else. For the holidays and when we visit family, we usually travel to our relatives houses instead of the other way around because it’s much easier that way, so we never have anyone but Riley coming to sleep over. He even has multiple outfits he has in the closet for him to change into in the morning.

Riley is like a brother to me, and even though he is a week older than me, he feels the need to protect me from everything. My parents treat him like he’s part of the family, which to us he is, and don’t mind at all when he is over.

The twins love him too because he will always play in the backyard with them and try to push him to do stuff because they know he is a pushover, especially for them.

We continue to watch the game in silence for about 8 minutes until one of the Manchester United’s midfielders, Daley Blind, starts to run down the right sideline towards Monaco’s goal. The game shifts with him, as one one of Monaco’s defenders steps up to challenge him. Blind does a flawless scissor trick, confusing the defender. He then gets rid of the ball by passing it to fall left post where Wayne Rooney is waiting. Blind continues running to the top of the penalty box for a possible pass, or if the ball is cleared, he can pop it right back in.

Wayne Rooney has another defender attacking him, but he manages to draw the ball back and pop is over the defender’s head perfectly to where Robin van Persie is right in front of the goal, where he immediately swings his left foot and strikes the ball perfectly in the middle, sending it sailing right by the goalie into the right bottom corner of the net.

Riley and I jump up and down, then hi-fiving each other, cheering loudly for Manchester. When I first transitioned the basement into the cave, my mom would run in afraid something bad had happened, when it was only be cheering or yelling, watching a soccer game. She is so used to it now, she never comes down here, only opening the door if she needs to tell me something.

We sit back down in our seats after finishing our cheering, fully taking in the goal, and watching multiple replays. I then began to criticize the play, saying what I would change if they could ever run it again. Riley chimes in to my analyzing, agreeing with most of what I say, and adding more of his opinions.

“If Persie would have used his right foot he could have easily bummed it right in front of him to the left corner, making sure the goalie wasn’t even close to block in.” Riley added first to the conversation.

“Yes, but he always loves striking it into the far corner.” I add going against Riley’s opinion.

“It would be harder for the goalie to defend the far corner instead of what is right in front of you.” Riley challenged back, as usual defending the opposing team and using multiple views of the play.

I come back even stronger saying, “Low and to the corner on the front is very predictable and the goalie will stop it every time.”

Riley puts his hands up in the air, surrendering, “I have no idea what side I am even defending right now, all I know is that was an amazing play by Manchester.”

“Agreed.” I say, and we both sigh, continuing to watch the game unfold.

The game was more one sided towards with Manchester coming out on top, which was to be expected, but they were still struggling to get the ball in the back of the net.

The teams started to challenge each other more, trying to end the first half on a high note for their team.

Riley left the coach and went upstairs right as halftime started. He came back a couple minutes with a bag of Lays chips tucked under his left arm, looking down at his black iPhone, as he texts someone rapidly.

“You know it’s only 8 o’clock in the morning.” I tell him as he comes around the couch to sit down again.

“Your point?” He asks me, not even taking his eyes off of his phone.

“It’s too early in the morning for chips, we have breakfasts food, you know.” I reply.

I turn my head towards Riley after he doesn’t reply and see he is too indulged in his phone to pay attention to me.

I lean my body towards him and quickly try to snatch the phone from his hands, but with his fast reflexes, he pulls the phone out of my reach with his right hand before I can grab it.

“Who are you texting?” I ask loudly and out of breath as I try to wrestle the phone out of his grasp.

“Carson is heading out to a summer tournament in Chattensborough, up the coast a couple of hours. He always texts me before games, he says it’s good luck to talk with a friend right before a game, because you know they would be cheering you on if they were at the game, but because they aren’t, giving a pep talk before the game is pretty good.” Riley answers, still not giving up his phone.

I give him a look that said “What the heck?” and asked “What sport does he play?” Thinking about the cocky boy from the party, remembering what he looks like and how he asks, he probably plays football as a wide receiver, or maybe he plays baseball.

“Soccer of course.” Riley replies in a “duh” type of tone.

“What?” I screech. “Soccer?” How can someone so arrogant play such a beautiful game.

“Yeah, he’s an amazing player. That’s how we met in Hendrix, he was chosen as the captain of the school’s high school JV team when we were freshman team. This past year he beat the school’s all time record for most goals scored in a season, with 42 goals with the varsity squad. He’s almost as good as you.” Riley tells me.

I snort at his last thought, yeah he is almost as good as me. He would never beat my record of 48 goals in one season on our varsity team. I was still impressed, I don’t know anyone who has come close to beating my record.

“Pssht, that’s not that good.” I said keeping a calm nature, trying not to look as astonished as I felt.

“That’s amazing and you know it Juliet. Not everyone can be a superstar like you.”

I blushed when he said his compliment. “I am not a superstar.” I shoved him and propped myself back on my side of the couch.

Riley just looked at me with disbelief and muttered a quiet “whatever.” I was never a good compliment taker, it just makes me feel awkward.

We continued to watch the game as halftime had just ended, eating the chips, and cheering when necessary.

Manchester United came out on top, as projected, with a 2-0 win over Monaco.

I grabbed the remote from the coffee table and shut off the tv. There would be games on all day, as it was a Saturday, but I recorded them to watch later.

Riley threw away the chip bag and followed me back up the stairs to the living room where the twins were finishing their morning cartoons on tv.

“Where’s mom?” I asked them, and they both answered “Upstairs” right before shushing me and returning their heads back towards the tv.

“Thanks,” I whisper loudly, earning a glare from only Tate, because Thomas was too indulged in the tv to pay attention.

Riley sits next to the twins on the couch while I head up to my parents room to find my mother.

I open the door to find my mother sorting through laundry.

“Hey mom, Riley and I are heading over to Lily’s for a couple hours. Can the team come over to swim after that?” I ask her.

“Sure, about what time will everyone be here?” She replies, probably trying to figure out what to feed everyone.

“Around 2.” I answer. “Lily, Riley, and I will pick up some snacks on the way back for everyone to eat.”

Since I am very close to everyone on the team, my mom knows them all very well and is comfortable with them coming over. We frequently have little get togethers, and many, many swim parties, so I know what they all like to eat.

“Sounds good honey. Take some money out of the cookie jar.” She replies while folding a pair of jeans.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” I walk around her bed to where she is to give her a quick hug, before heading back downstairs and into the kitchen.

I grab a couple twenties out of a medium sized cookie jar we have, filled with food and entertainment money for times like this party when we need to buy snack food, or when everyone is out of the house and I need to order takeout.

I’m about to walk out the door, when I remember I’m forgetting something, well actually someone.

“Riley! I’m leaving.” I call out hoping he can hear me, even though he is only a room away.

He walks through the doorway a moment later with his keys in his hand.

“Let’s go,” He says as I open the door and follow him to his car.

The whole team is my personal driving group. I could have gotten my license over a year ago, and my permit over 2 years ago, my I am too busy to take the time and take a class online, learning all the rules. I know the basics, but not everything. I know I will get it soon enough in the future, but for now my team will do.

I jump in the passenger’s seat, waiting for Riley to turn on the car. He takes his time, but once the car has started, I immediately changing the radio station to 97.1 Amp Radio, my favorite.

Meghan Trainor’s song “All About the Bass” is playing and I start to sing along, while Riley turns out of my driveway, continuing down the street.

He groans while my voice gets louder and more annoying, on purpose, as the chorus of the song fills the car.

“BECAUSE YOU KNOW I’M ALL ABOUT THE BASS, BOUT THE BASS, BOUT THE BASS, NO TREBLE.” I sing at the top of my lungs just to annoy him.

We reach a stoplight while i’m still singing and Riley starts to bang his head on the steering wheel, moaning “Please stop, it’s horrible. It’s too much for my head to handle.”

I punch him in the shoulder playfully, not caring what he thinks about my “flawless” singing.

“Hey, didn’t anyone ever tell you not to hit the driver while he’s driving?” Riley defends himself.

“You’re not actually driving,” I point out and continue to sing the song.

Riley continues to drive just shaking his head and smiling, on our way to Lily’s house.

15 minutes later, we pull into Lily’s driveway behind her fathers black lexus.

Lily’s parents are a little more closed off than my parents, and as normal people usually do, we ring her doorbell.

We stand outside, quietly waiting for someone to open the door and a moment later someone does.

I look up and gasp when I see it was Lily’s twin brother, Aidan, who opened the door for us.

“Sup guys,” Aidan greeted us, giving Riley a bro handshake. “Come on in, Lily’s in her room upstairs.”

I avoid eye contact with Aidan as I pass through the door, following Riley to Lily’s room.

Her door is wide open when we reach it, and we walk right in. Lily is sitting at her desk in her spinning chair, watching Netflix.

She turns around in her chair, “Hey gu-, ouch.” I punch her in the shoulder before she can finish.

“What was that for?” She yells and glares at me, rubbing her shoulder.

“You didn’t tell me Aidan was back!” I whisper yell at her, knowing Aidan was probably in his room to the right of us, and I don’t want him to hear me.

She relaxed when she realized I was only mad because of Aiden. “Why?” She asks with a smirk on her face, “You scared to talk about your feelings again?”

I blush at her question, denying everything. “No. I just wanted to be prepared to see him again.”

Riley just looked between us confused, not knowing what was going on.

I sighed. “Aidan and I dated all through freshman year and we ended it the week before sophomore year began. He was accepted to an amazing boarding school in Florida on the East Coast with a football scholarship, during freshman year and transferred there for sophomore year. We thought being across the country, him in Florida, me here in California, wouldn’t work, because a long distance rarely turns out for the better.”

I continued practically out of breath, “He returns home for summer, and I always see him when I come over here to Lily’s like I usually do, but I try to avoid him as much as I can. Last summer he tried to talk to me, asking if we could get back together, but I was too focused on soccer and I didn’t think we would work out. He understood my reasoning, as he was also practicing with our football team, because freshman year he played as our varsity quarterback, leading us to win CIF. When he left everyone was really sad, knowing he was our best leader, but they accepted his decision, knowing what a great player he was, and what good he could do for his school in Florida.”

I sat down on Lily’s bed, tired of explaining the story. My friends from school, mainly the team, all knew we dated, they were there through it all, or they were onlookers, so I never had anyone I needed to explain it to.

“Wow. Sorry, I never knew.” Riley told me sincerely.

“No problem, how would you know.” I say honestly.

“Juliet, I am sorry too. My dad picked Aidan up from the airport last night during the bonfire, and I totally forgot when he was coming back until I saw him sitting on the counter this morning, eating breakfast. We were catching up, and I didn’t even think to text you.” Lily apologized.

“It’s fine Lily, I’m just scared of what he will say to me when we actually talk.” What am I even saying, there are other things I need to focus on.

I pop up, forgetting about Aidan for the time being, sitting with my legs crossed, “So, what are we going to do? We have about an hour before we need to leave and pick up snacks at the grocery store.”

“Let’s watch the next episode of The Big Bang Theory,” Riley pitches the idea excitedly.

Lily and I immediately agree. Lily shuts her laptop, and we walk downstairs together to the Thompson’s family living room.

Riley grabs the third season disc out of the casing where it sits to the left of the television.

During Soccer season last year, I was getting very stressed and I was lashing out at everyone for no reason. Riley and Lily then decided that I needed a destresser, and “Friday Party Night” was born. According to the two, I am “required” to let loose for a couple hours every Friday night. For the nights none of us feel up to partying, I apparently still have to have a night off, so we decided to start watching The Big Bang Theory from the beginning. My mom thought it was such a great idea, she bought each of us the season set for Christmas last year so no matter who’s house we choose, we would still have the DVDs.

We skipped last friday’s party night because we all went to sleep early due to finals the next week. Lily and I woke up extra early to drive to Riley’s house for a 4-hour AP Environmental Science group study session, before we took a break and went for lunch together.

Today is the day we are starting season three and we were all anxious to see what was going to happen, following the cliffhanger that ended season two.

I sprawled myself over the big couch directly in front of the television, while Riley and Lily sat next to each other on the smaller couch to the left of me.

Seconds later we started the episode, immediately going quiet. About a minute later, the theme song for the show started to play, and we all sang it with the show at the top of our lungs. The song ended “with a big bang” and we all started laughing like we usually do.

I was so absorbed into the second episode that started a couple of minutes ago that I didn’t notice another presence in the room. My legs were lifted off the one side of the couch and Aidan sat down, laying my legs back down but on his lap this time.

“Hey.” He whispered to me.

I looked at him for a moment, before returning my attention back to the television show.

The episode ended with a punny line from Sheldon, which we all laughed at, including Aidan. 

Riley was about to continue to the next episode, but I had to stop him.

“Wait, we’ll watch the next episode next time. We have to stop off and buy snacks before heading home for the party.” I remind them.

“Oh right. Let’s go then.” Lily said while grabbing her car keys and wallet off of the small coffee table next to her.

Aidan turned towards me with a questioning face, “what party?”

Riley beat me with the answer, “Juliet is throwing one of her usual pool parties with the team. They are always spur of the moment, but the team is used to it, and we always have a lot of fun.”

I glare at Riley for answering before I could. I turn back to Aidan who has his eyebrows raised, probably surprised that me of all people would be throwing a party. When we dated freshman year, I wasn’t social at all, only focused on soccer. Which I am still focused on now, but we use our team parties as a break and bonding, which every team needs to do.

“Can I come?” Aidan asks, surprising me.

“Umm, sure.” I answer not one hundred percent sure with myself.

A short “cool” was Aidan’s reply as he stands up and leads Lily, Riley and I outside.

I all but run to get shotgun in Riley’s car so I wouldn’t have to awkwardly sit in back with Aidan, he would be fine sitting with his twin.

A minute later we were off to the grocery store.

We all walked through my front door each carrying a couple bags of chips, or multiple bottles of soda.

Usually I am very healthy with all my meals to keep myself in top shape for soccer season, but the team lets themselves go free during these small parties. We all tell ourselves that we work it off with all the swimming we do, and if I think we didn’t work out as much as we should have, we run extra sprints at the end of practice.

We set the bags down on the kitchen counter and Lily reached into the cabinet for bowls to pour the chips into. Riley helped her by opening the bags and pouring the chips into the bowls.

Aidan just stood next to the counter, not knowing what to do.

“Hey Aidan,” I called out to him, “Can you grab the paper cups from the cabinet?”

“Sure, which cabinet?” He asks, because where I had pointed wasn’t really specific.

“Same place as it’s always been.” With that information, Aidan walked to the cabinet directly above the counter to the left of the refrigerator.

He hands me two stacks with about 10 cups in each stacks, and I tell him a simple “thank you.”

Aidan followed me out the kitchen, down the hall and out the door into the backyard with the bottles of soda in his hands. I placed the cups on one of the round tables we have near the pool, and Aidan placed the sodas next to the cups.

I’m about to head inside, but Aidan grabs my hand, stopping me from going anywhere.

I turn towards him, about to question his actions, when he puts his hand up, stopping me from saying anything.

“Please just hear me out. I know you don’t want to get back together with me, and that is totally fine with me.” I’m surprised with his confession, but I keep my mouth shut and let him continue. “I want to be just friends, the way we were before I had to leave. No hand holding, no kissing, no couply type things will go on.” He looks at me, not sure on what my response will be.

“That sounds perfect to me.” I respond, my face breaking out into a big smile. “You are a good friend, and I don’t want our awkward past to get in the way of our friendship again.”

He smiles back at me agreeingly, “You are Lily’s best friend, and have naturally become like a sister to me.”

My smile becomes even wider, if that’s possible. “Agreed. You are the older brother I’ve always wished I had.”

He wraps me in a big hug sealing our productive conversation.

I break the hug first, and he follows me back to the kitchen where Riley and Lily were making small talk, waiting for us.

I look at the clock to see it’s 1:45, people will be arriving soon.

“Riley, you’re swim trunks should still be in your room.” I tell him.

“Should be? Where else would they be?” He asks.

I shrug, “I always see the twins coming out of the room, but I never know what they are doing or if they messed with any of your stuff.” This got Riley freaked out, the twins were usually good, usually being the key word there. But who knows what they are doing all of the time.

Riley rushes up the stairs to “his” room, calling back down to us when he confirms that his board shorts weren’t messed with.

I announce that i’m going to change into my bathing suit before the team starts to arrive, and Lily decides to accompany me and change in my bathroom.

We walk back down the stairs together, both our bathing suits covered is cover-ups. My sunglasses are perched on the top of my head, pushing any stragglers of hair I have that didn’t make the ponytail I just put my hair on.

We find Aidan and Riley sitting at the table with the drinks talking about how Aidan’s football team did this last season.

“...our coach from last season retired, so we had to get use to a new, not as experienced coach as quick as we could. It wasn’t easy because season creeps on to you so fast, but we got used to his ways, won league, and went to CIF.” Aidan explains

“Wow, you make it sound so easy.” Riley says is awe.

Aidan chuckles. “It really isn’t easy, but that is to be expected. We had a few bumps in the road, starting with the new coach, and the hardest thing was overcoming our loss in CIF finals. But we were just glad that we had made it that far, barely beating our school’s rivals for the league title. All in all, it was a good season, but we are going to come back this season even better.” Aidan finishes with a determined smile on his face.

“If football is a fall sport, why did you come back home if you have practices during the summer?” Riley questions.

“Since we are a boarding school, we are required to go home for the summer break, but our coach is requiring us to continue to practice and work out with any team that we can. So this summer I will be practicing with the high school’s team, keeping in shape, getting better, and hopefully helping the school improve as well.” He explains.

“But I will be heading back to Florida a couple weeks early because we do have 2 preseason games over summer that we cannot miss and are allowed to be back for.” Aidan adds.

“Our team could really use your help, they went a little downhill after you left.” Riley replies, somewhat negatively, but hopeful knowing the football team will get more help.

“Yeah.” Aidan awkwardly chuckles. “Lily has tried to keep me updated with how the team is doing, especially now that she is dating Hunter. They sound like they had a rough games, but they sound like they are improving much more.”

The boys finally notice our presence, and Riley brings us into the conversation with a simple “Hey.”

We both smile in their direction, placing the towels we brought from upstairs on two cabana chairs next to the pools.

“Juliet! Juliet, where are you?” I hear my mom call from inside the house.

“I’m outside,” I call back to her, walking back towards the door.

I see her struggling to open the door, with her back turned towards me, and I walk a little faster to open it for her. She turns around and I notice she is holding pie boxes in her hands.

“Mom, what are all the pies for?” I ask.

“For the team of course. You have to have a little dessert after all those chips, so I took the twins and went to the bakery while you were out.” She replies. No wonder the house was so quiet when we got back, and why she didn’t greet us when we walked through the door.

I go to grab the three pies from her hands, about to place them on the table so she didn’t have to struggle so much while carrying them, when she stops me and says, “the last pie, which is flavored banana creme, is for our new neighbors next door. I met part of the family, a boy and his very nice mother when I was leaving to go buy the pies, so I decided to buy them one as well, as a housewarming gift and a welcome to the neighborhood.”

I smile at her. My mom is always very welcoming, making sure everyone is involved and feels appreciated.

“Can you, Lily, and Riley, oh hello Aidan,” who my mom just noticed was here, and who replied with a small “good afternoon, Mrs. Adamson.”, “go over and deliver the pie.” She continued.

“Sure,” I replied and everyone stood to follow me next door. Aidan, being the gentlemen I know he is, took the pie for the neighbors out of my hands so I didn’t have to carry it.

“Oh, also invite over the son to come to the pool party, he seems to be around you guy’s age. Hopefully he can come, meet the team, and make some friends for the summer and into the school year, so he isn’t alone as the new kid.” My mom tells me.

I just nod, and she turns to Aidan, who is standing next to me, and tells him, “Welcome back! I told you never to call me Mrs. Adamson, it makes me sound old.”

She gives him a big hug, but still not trying to squish the pie, while I just roll my eyes at her comment about her being old.

We the side gate next to the pool to leave the backyard, and we walk down the driveway and up to the new neighbor’s front door. While we were walking, I noticed the moving truck was gone, and I left better knowing we weren’t going to disturb a lot of their moving.

I was standing directly in front of the door, with Lily on my left, Riley on my right, and Aidan towering over behind me. Riley was the one who ended up knocking on the door and Aidan tapped on my shoulder and handed me the pie because I was the one who was their new neighbor, and I was right in front.

The door opened, and “Mrs. McKnight?” I turn to my right confused, about to question on how Riley knows who my new neighbor is.

“Mom,” I hear a deep voice call out, “Who’s at the door?”

Riley seem to understand what was going on when a smile broke out on his face.

I hear heavy steps coming down their hall, and when they stop I look up and see-

“Carson! My brother!” Riley interrupts my thoughts, steps forward and does a bro shake with Carson as his mom steps to the side.

I inwardly groan, not wanting to be rude in front of Carson’s mother, who seems nice, when I realize my new next door neighbor, is the cocky, arrogant boy I met at the beach.

I step forward as everyone’s eyes watch me, remembering why we came over here, “Hello, Mrs. McKnight. I’m Juliet Adamson, I am your new neighbor in the house to the left of you.”

“Oh, I believe I met your mother this morning.” She replied and I just nodded my head. “Wendy, is it?”

“Yes, Wendy is correct.” I respond, “She wanted to welcome you into the neighborhood with this pie she bought from the local bakery.” I reach out my arms and hand her the pie.

“It’s banana creme flavored and we really hope you enjoy it.” I ended with a smile, only directed towards her. When Carson saw me look at him, he just sent me a smirk, and I responded with a glare.

“That is so sweet, please send her my thanks. When we settle down into the house, my husband and I, as well as Carson and our daughter, would love to have you over for dinner sometime.” Mrs. McKnight takes the pie and sends me a sweet smiles.

“That sounds lovely.” I reply, knowing my mom is going to be so excited.

“Where are my manners?” She asks herself aloud. “Come on in everyone.”

She opens the door wider, with Carson still taking up most of the space, trying to invite us in, but I have to decline explaining how we only had time to bring over the pie.

We are about to leave when Riley clears his throat, making me look at him. He looks at me, then at Carson, then back at me, expecting me to say something.

I tried to forget that I had to ask this, but I have to, or my mom will not be happy. “Would you like to come to a pool party that I am holding for my soccer team?”

I’m hoping he says no, but before he could even think about my offer (well my mom’s offer), Carson’s mom replies with an enthusiastic “Of course! Carson would love to go.”

“Sounds good.” I say with a small, forced smile. “We are going to finish getting ready for the party. When you are ready to come over Carson, you can just come through the side gate on the side of the driveway. Everyone usually goes through there to get to the pool.” I say, specifically addressing him.

“I will make sure he get’s there.” Mrs. McKnight replies again, not letting her son speak first.

We all say good-bye, and Riley, Lily, Aidan, and I walk back to my house, through the gate, and into the backyard pool area.

We sit in our prospective seats and continue small talk, while passing around one of the bowls of chips. We tried to slow ourselves down, not wanting to eat all the chips before more people come, but we didn’t really succeed, after we noticed we ate all but a few chips in the bowl.

Lily went inside to refill the bowl with another bag of chips.

Riley, Aidan, and I continued to talk until we heard two car doors close from the street.

“It’s Heather.” I guessed.

“Nah, it’s definitely Hunter. He is always the first person here, and since Lily’s already here, he probably went way over the speed limit to get here and see her.” Riley guessed next.

We both looked at Aidan next, expecting him to take a guess next, but he just shrugged, so we went back to looking at the gate.

The gate swung open and Hunter walked in with a towel slung over his shoulder and a water bottle in his left hand. “Yes!” Riley happily said, and first pumped into the air.

I just laughed, but Aidan stopped me when he said, “Wait, he’s not alone.”

Well, that is true. We did hear two car doors. The three of us waited patiently as the person who rode with Hunter opened the gate, and revealed it was “Heather, yes!”

Now it was my turn to fist pump the air. “You and Riley were both right.” Aidan pointed out with a smile on his face. 

Riley and I just playfully glared at each other, I wouldn’t have gotten anything if I was right, just being able to brag was good enough for me.

More of the team started to arrive, as 2 o’clock had come around.

“Cowabunga!” Hunter screamed and Lily just laughed at her crush, as he jumped in the pool.

The party had started.

The rest of the team, Lily, and Aidan all jumped in the pool soon after Hunter did.

The team was requesting music to be played, and since I was the only person not yet wet, I walked inside to my living room and turned on the stereo.

As another Christmas present from my parents, they hooked up an outdoor sound system around the pool, so for parties like these, we can have music playing. Though it was Winter, and pretty cold when we first got the music system, the team didn’t care about the weather and were happy to jump right in.

I plugged in my phone and turned on the playlist the team all contributed in making when we got the sound system.

Iggy Azalea’s song, Fancy, blasted into the backyard, and was able to be heard throughout the house as well.

I turn around and see the little munchkins, Tate and Thomas, running down the stairs holding their towels with their board shorts on.

“Where are you guys going?” I call out after them.

“Party!” The both yell back at me, not even turning around towards me.

I just smile, following them out back.

Tate and Thomas are greeted with cheers from the team, who love the little munchkins a lot. The twins love to join in with anything team related, and sometimes I draw the line, but the pool parties are their favorite, and the team doesn’t mind.

I sit down on my cabana chair, starting a conversation with Lily, who is holding on to the wall, instead of treading, in the deep end of the pool.

The team starts to yell at me, wanting me to get into the pool.

“Give me a couple minutes, I’m not ready to get in just yet.” I reply back at everyone, laughing at their disgruntled facial expressions.

I stop laughing when a big shadow comes over me. I try to look up to see what’s covering the sun, but i’m picked up and thrown over someone’s shoulder.

I start to pound on their back, and yell, “Riley! Put me down, or so help me, I will-” I was cut short when I heard Riley laughing and yelling back, “you’ll do what?”

I turn my head sharply to the right, realizing Riley is in the pool, and not carrying me.

Before I can figure out who is carrying me, I am dumped into the pool, cold water rushing all around me.

I try to get my footing, immediately pushing off the pool bottom. Finally being able to breath again, I spit out all the water that rushed into my mouth when I was caught off guard and dropped into the water.

I hear laughter from above me, and I look up to see Carson staring down at me.

I continue to glare at him as he goes over to Riley, who has his hand outstretched for a hi-five.

Pushing my self out of the pool is harder than usual because of cover-up, which is again soaked from being dropped in the water.

“Is this “throw Juliet over your shoulder and dump her in the water” weekend or something?” I ask angrily.

Riley who is still in the pool, and Carson who is still standing out of the pool, just throw me identical smirks.

I strip off my cover-up, earning a wolf-whistle from the boys on the team, which earns them all glares, before I jump into the deep end of the pool.

When I come up again, I brush my hair back away from my face, and swim over next to Lily.

Carson follows my example, and takes off his shirt, and I look away so it won’t look i’m staring, which i’m not, just glaring.

He jumps into the pool and swims to Riley, where they do who knows what.

I swim in the opposite, direction, trying to avoid him, heading to where Aidan is sitting on the third level step in the shallow part of the pool.

“What’s up? I knock my shoulder against his.

“Nothing, just enjoying being here with everyone.” He replies nonchalantly. 

“Are you glad to be back?” I ask him, honestly curious.

“Of course. I love living and playing in Florida, but being over there for so long, makes me miss you, Lily, and everyone else so much.” I nod at his response, understanding what he is trying to say.

We continue to make small talk, him mostly explaining what it’s like to live and play in Florida.

Everything he is telling me is so interesting, I don’t want him to stop talking, but suddenly I am splashed with a wave of water.

I turn to my right, and glare at the splasher, well splashers, who is none other than Riley and his new partner in crime, Carson.

Aidan and I stop our conversation after the splashes, and Riley introduces Aidan to Carson.

“Carson, this is Aidan, Lily’s twin and I guess you could say another one of Juliet’s best friends.” Riley explains, and I shoot him a mad look at his second comment.

“Nice to meet you Aidan.” They shake hands and Carson continues, “Do you play on the same soccer team?”

I laugh and Aidan replies, “No, I leave the soccer to this girl.” He punches my shoulder, and I just smile, looking at my reflection in the pool. “Football is my sport.”

I snort, “Football is not just his sport, it’s his whole live. He plays quarterback and has led whichever team he is on to championships every year.”

Carson looks impressed, and Riley continues the introduction. “Aidan, meet Carson. He was captain for Hendrix High School’s Junior Varsity soccer team his freshman year.”

Now it was Aidan’s turn to look impressed. “His mother just transfered jobs into the city, so he will attending Allendale High School this year.” Riley continued.

It took me a second for Riley’s words to set in, “He’s doing what?” I stare at Carson as a smile grows on his face.

Riley grins, but ignores to acknowledge my outburst, “Our soccer coach already heard that he was transferring to our school, and he has already accepted him on our team.”

“He did what?” I scream out and stand up, water coming off of me. This get’s the whole team’s attention, as they all stop what they are doing and turn to look in my direction.

As the captain of the team, I make it a point to know everything that is going on that will affect my team, whether it’s a good thing, or a bad one. I guess I didn’t try hard enough recently.

Millions of possibilities run through my brain. What position does he play? Will coach make him a captain? He seems to like him well enough. My brain continues to race with all the possibilities.

“Don’t worry,” Carson assures me. “I don’t even know if I’m going to play this year. You guys seem to have a pretty good team, and your coach just talked to me about coming out and practicing with the team. It doesn’t mean anything definite though.”

His response makes me feel better, but i’m still pissed off that my coach didn’t tell me anything.

I start to calm down, and the rest of the team goes back to their own conversations and continue to swim and play in the pool.

Aidan leaves my side and swims over to Lily, where he is probably going to question Hunter about his intentions with his sister. I rolled my eyes; he can be so overprotective sometimes.

I bring my attention back to the two boys in front of me. “Well thanks for giving me a heads up Riley.”

“Hey! I just learned last night when I was texting him, and I invited him over to the bonfire so he could meet some of his potential teammates.” Riley says, trying to defend himself.

“Come on, you have to forgive me!” He continues.

“And why is that?” I immediately shoot back at him.

“Because you wouldn’t be able to eat any of the chocolate chip cookies my mom is baking just for you right now.” Riley tells me, with his arms crossed over his torso.

I gasped, “Don’t you dare threaten me with your mom’s cookies.” That is just crossing the line.

“Forgive me and you can have as many cookies as you want.” Riley replies, and Carson continues to silently stand there, watching us with an amused smile.

I launch myself off the step, slamming into Riley’s body, pushing us both underwater.

He comes up sputtering out water and I stay on his back, with my legs wrapped around his waist. “Ok fine,” He begins to surrender, “You win, you can have as many chocolate chip cookies that my mom will make you.”

“Good.” I simply reply.

“Can you get off my back know?” Riley tells me, sounding tired of caring my weight.

“No, I’m good right where I am.” Carson just chuckles at our exchange.

“So, welcome to the team, I guess.” I turn my attention back to Carson, talking to him unenthusiastically.

“Than-“ He begins, but I cut him off before he can finish. “Don’t think I’m going to be easy on you. I don’t care how much coach likes you, you will be tested everyway possible, to see where you stand with our team.”

Since it’s summer, coach is going out of town for vacation for a couple weeks, so as captain, it is my responsibility to make sure the team continues to practice and keep in shape until he gets back.

“That is fine with me,” Carson replies in an arrogant tone, ready for a challenge.

I looked at him through narrowed eyes, before I jumped off Riley’s back, in which he sighed in happiness of the lifted weight. I said a quick “bye” and swim underwater to where Aidan is still talking to Hunter and Lily.

They are all laughing, but I can’t help but cut in and ask, “Is Aidan bothering you guys?”

Hunter and Lily start to laugh again, and Aidan playfully glares at me, so I jokingly punch his shoulder.

“Of course I’m not, I’m just spending time with my old teammate Hunter, and my twin sister Lily.” Aidan replies, defending himself.

Lily shoots me a look, that doesn’t deny or agree with what Aidan said, but still looks like she is a little annoyed.

“Sure you aren’t, Aidan. Why don’t you just leave them alone?” I ask, but change my mind. “Wait, I have a better idea.”

“Hey! Yo! Everyone, look over here.” I yell out, trying to get everyone’s attention.

“If this is supposed to be a team party (with the exception of Lily, Aidan, and the little rascals who have been eating the snacks most of the time), then why are we all separated from each other?” I ask everyone.

“Hypocrite!” I hear someone call out from the other side of the pool.

“Thank you, Riley!” I call back. “We are going to change that now. What game do you guys want to play?”

Many suggestions were thrown out at me, and as a group we decided which ones to play.

For the next couple of hours, we played every game we could think of. From Marco Polo, which Carson is apparently really good at, to Colors, which Tate and Thomas suggested.

We all took a break after the last round of Colors, when Hunter announced that he had to head home. Since he gave Heather a ride here, she was going home with him too.

“Hey can you give me a ride too?” Luke, Palmer, and Ally, three other teammates asked.

This is normal for us, after most practices and games; everyone switches off driving each other.

“Wait!” I called out, before anyone left. “Don’t forget, Monday morning, 8 o’clock sharp on the high school field.”

Groans came out from every direction. “You know it’s summer right?” Riley called out from the back of the pack.

“Training never stops.” I reply, without a beat.

“Can we please make it 10 o’clock instead?” Hunter pleads.

“9 o’clock, or we run sprints.” I make my final offer.

Everyone immediately agreed, knowing how hard we would have to run if they didn’t. Carson just stood there looking a little afraid, but mostly impressed about how much I lead the team.

A couple minutes later, everyone was leaving in their prospective cars with different people.

Only Riley, Lily, Aidan, and Carson stayed behind to help me clean up, even though there wasn’t that much to do. Tate and Thomas didn’t want to stick around and help, so they went into the house to get cleaned up.

We cleared all the bowls of chips and cups of soda from around the pool area, and threw everything in the trashcan outside.

“Thanks for the all the help guys.” I told everyone.

Lily and Aidan, piled into Riley’s car while Carson stayed behind with me.

“You can leave now,” I tell Carson, returning to my annoyed self.

Carson just smirks and walk down the driveway, and into his house.

I will never get that boy.