Of Hotshots and High School

Chapter 22

Rory's POV

I discovered what Chase meant by "See you tonight," through a string of the most random text messages I might've ever received. The first ones came as I sat in my study hall working through my math textbook, each two or so minutes apart:

Unknown #: 2.5 weeks until showtime

Unknown #: They really like ice cream and pizza

Unknown #: You do defense and keep

Unknown #: If that is okay with you

I was in the middle of a horribly frustrating trigonometry problem when my phone buzzed again.

Unknown #: This is Chase btw

I laughed. I'd been wondering how long it'd take him to get that last one out. I shot him a quick reply:

Me: And here I thought you were the extremely demanding manager for the Beatles or something.

A few minutes later I got his response:

Chase: Nah, not the manager for the Beatles. Just the highly motivated assistant coach for the Flyers, who I'm sure will be just as big.

I worked on my next problem before being interrupted by more buzzing.

Chase: lol

I rolled my eyes. He was a huge dork. Another buzz.

Chase: Oh and practice is at 6:30.

Chase: tonight.

Chase: At Grant's park near the outlet mall.

Dork, yes, but I couldn't stop smiling. Even if he had to send a thousand texts when just one would do.

Chase: On the south field.

 I was just finishing study hall when I got one more.

Chase: They'll be wearing green.

Wow that boy really needed to learn how to text.

By the time lunch rolled around my phone was full of soccer gifs. After study hall Chase's texts had become a little bit better as we sent a few ideas for practice and drills back and forth, but those productive texts had quickly dissolved. It had started from a comment of mine that my skills as a goalie were probably "less than that of a penguin trying to play soccer", which he replied to with a very skilled penguin walking on a soccer ball being slide-tackled by another penguin and telling me that "Penguins can be good at soccer, too ;)". From there it went to any animals and soccer, then to silly home injuries from trying to do soccer tricks, and as the bell rang I'd shot him a set of particularly cute toddlers trying to shoot the ball and failing miserably.

I slid into my normal spot at the corner table next to Lena and kept my eyes open for Chase. Lena was talking a mile a minute before I even got my backpack off my shoulders.

"...and then I was thinking maybe I shouldn't make that design for the engineering fair because I'd really need another set of hands and gumdrops knows my Gran wouldn't be able to help me, so I'm thinking about going with this simpler one instead, but at the same time if I do work on the first design and it works then it could not only be my ticket into one of the top engineering schools in the country, but the fair has all sorts of corporations that come to recruit talent and purchase designs and it'd just be all around incredible!"

It took me a minute to process what she'd said.

"Wait, you got into that engineering fair that you've been talking about?" That was so exciting. Lena had been telling me constantly about an engineering fair that she was dying to get into ever since I'd first seen the drawings in her room. This was like one of her biggest dreams come true, and when she nodded I did a little happy dance in my seat before crushing her in an enormous hug.

"Oh my goodness Lena! That's amazing!"

"Yeah, it's amazing, but it's also terrifying!" She set her glasses on the table and dropped her head into her hands. "I have no idea which design to work on, and it's just so much pressure. This one thing could either make or explode my whole future, and that is way too much pressure to handle on top of all the normal life things I already have to do!" I rubbed her back, not really sure what to do in this situation, so I just told her what I knew.

"Lena, you're incredible, and I'm sure that you are going to figure this out. And even if this one thing were to explode, I know that you would find a thousand other brilliant ways to live your dream." She looked up and smiled gratefully. I gave her a poke. "You work too hard not to," I said with a bit of teasing, and Lena laughed, her shoulders bouncing happily, lightened from the load of worry that she'd been carrying around. "And," I continued, "I'm happy to lend my hands to the cause, though I'm not too sure they'd be that much more useful than your Gran's." This earned me another chuckle.

"Thanks, Rory. I might take you up on that." She breathed out a bit of relief, and I tried to think of anything that I might be able to do to help.

"They don't happen to have like an engineering club or something like that here at Jefferson, do they? Maybe we could find you an assistant who could actually be an extra brain rather than just an extra set of hands." I gave Lena a wry smile. She rolled her eyes.

"Oh come on Rory, you've got a good brain, too. Nope, no engineering club. But you might be right about the whole assistant thing." Her finger toyed with her lip, and it was like I could see the gears in her brain picking up and gaining momentum, the way they do when she gets excited about some new idea or problem to solve. "It would be so nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and to help with research and it'd cut the time it'd take on that step nearly in half, and if they had a place we could work then Gran would be infinitely happier, not to mention potentially me too because it'd likely reduce my stress by--"

I was saved from the runaway train of Lena's thoughts by another text.

"Speaking of assistants..." I muttered, opening the latest message from Chase. It was another gif, this time of Messi dribbling through a bunch of cats trying to attack him with lightsabers. I laughed at the sheer ridiculousness of it.

"What's that?" Lena asked

"Oh, just another dumb soccer gif from Chase." I replied. Her eyes widened.

"Another one! Rory, how long has this been going on and why didn't you tell me!"

"It's no big deal," I defended. "It just started today because I'm helping him coach his team leading up to their big tournament--" Lena gasped.

"You're coaching with Chase?!? Spill. Everything. Now."

I guess it was a good thing Chase hadn't showed up to lunch today. 

A/N  - Hi guys! Thank you SO much for all of your positive feedback since I've come back. It means the world and helps SO much to motivate me. Y'all are the best.  @foxglovetheshipper your comment totally made my life 😂. Thanks for all the love and encouragement, y'all! I'm gonna really try to finish up this story in the next few months, so I hope you all will like it!

Love always,

Cinnamon <3