Smiley and Sunshine

18.

"Got any weekend plans?" Johnna asked, glancing over at Hayes before scribbling down some more notes.

The weekend? Hayes scrunched her nose. She was just trying to get through Thursday, taking it one day at a time. "Not that I know of," Hayes replied. "I think Austin wants us to wash his car?" Scratch that, she knew they were washing the cars this weekend. Something about sibling bonding through manual labor. Free labor was more like it.

"That's fun. Good ole' bonding time with the brothers."

"Exactly like that," Hayes mumbled, trying to listen to the teacher as he droned on and on about biology.

"I wish my older brothers were home. Being with Abe all the time is boring and he annoys the hell out of me. Oh," Johnna excitedly slapped Hayes' arm multiple times, "That's what I was getting to. I have a soccer tournament this weekend so I won't be here tomorrow. I wanted to warn you that you'll have to face our brothers by yourself at lunch."

"That's alright." She was used to being the only girl. "Um, good luck." Hayes offered as an afterthought.

"Thanks! I could always use the good luck though, not gonna lie, our team is pretty much the best in the county. I know basketball is your jam and all, but do you play soccer?"

A stern cough from their teacher interrupted their conversation before Hayes could respond. "Pay attention, ladies. This will be on your test next week."

Hayes blushed, hating the feeling of being reprimanded, and sunk lower in her seat.

"Sorry, Mr. Brandt," Johnna apologized with a sheepish grin. "Won't happen again."

The bell rang a couple minutes later dismissing the class for their fifth period. "Soooo, like I was saying, soccer?" Johnna bounced along next to Hayes as they walked the halls.

"I know how to play, yes." Hayes shrugged. It was a favorite activity of her old PE coach and she enjoyed it, being one of the rare girls who actually put effort into playing. The rest of her girl classmates liked to form circles and gossip like no tomorrow.

"Sweet! Now you'll have to tag along when we play at the park."

"I didn't say I was good." Hayes warned, tugging on her backpack straps. She should have known Johnna was going to trap her into plans. But the more she thought about, the more fun it began to sound like. Maybe she'd even make some more friends while doing something she enjoyed; playing sports!

"That's true," Johnna laughed, "I bet you're good though. But if you're so worried about not being good, I'm sure with the number of brothers you have, one of them must play soccer. They can bring you up to speed." Johnna wasn't going to let her off the hook that easy.

The girls approached the hallway crossroads where they'd separate until lunch. Although only knowing each other for four days thus far, they quickly picked up a routine. Johnna would turn right to head to her history class and Hayes would continue on to Italian class.

"See you at lunch," Johnna waved as she fell into the flow of moving students.

Hayes replayed the conversation in her head as she walked, her arms swinging aimlessly at her side while holding on to the backpack straps. She had to admit, Johnna made a good point. One of her brothers did play soccer, Dakota. Or, at least he used too.

She was so distracted by her thoughts that she hadn't realized she reached her classroom until she walked directly into another body. She rebounded off of them, catching her balance after a little stumble.

Rubbing her nose, she glanced up much to her annoyance to Francis' smirk. "Fancy seeing you here, Sissy." He had seen her walking down the hall with no awareness of what was going on around her. The perfect opportunity to start some trouble.