Dear Dakota | Academic Rivalry Story

Seven | Storms of Deja Vu

N Y L A D Y L A N S

I have never woken up from a nap on a Friday afternoon and thought to myself...

Hey, let's go sneak into the student section of our high school's rival team.

Apparently, this has been in the boy's mind ever since Thursday night. The idea came to them easily. Our high school had to postpone our home football game because the team we are going up against had to kick out some players and add in new ones.

I don't get why our school decided to be generous towards the rival team. I wanted to see how this would all play out with these new players.

"I heard they are really hot." Is the first thing to come out of Delaney's mouth when the topic comes up. I stop fixing my mascara to look at her in the reflection of my mirror.

"Are you actually ogling over some random boys from Syracuse?"

She gets off my bed and pulls up the other team's Instagram. She swipes through the pictures then zooms up on a certain guy with fluffy hair. "Ugh, isn't he a cutie?"

"You have a type, don't you?" I ask and she raises her eyebrow in response. "He looks just like Atlas."

She pushes my shoulder, "Weirdo, I do not have a type."

"Pull up your camera roll and let me see all the screenshots."

"I'll pass, thank you very much."

I twist the mascara close and go to my closet to pick out a sweatshirt. The only problem is that I lived in tank tops and crop tops in Florida. Meaning I don't have many long sleeves.

I keep the tank top I am currently wearing on, and just slip on the only sweatshirt that is in my closet. Dakota's soccer sweatshirt.

I will wash it and return it... I promise.

Liar.

I step out of my room for a moment to grab my shoes from the hallway closet. If powder and paint are going to be thrown around everywhere would it be smart to wear white shoes? Probably not.

That means I am going to wear them.

By the time I come back with my shoes in my hands I notice the boys playing basketball with some of the younger kids in the cul de sac. This is too adorable.

My alarm clock says it is 5:30 and the game starts at seven. "Remind me why we are going so early?"

"Oh, Atlas and Dakota have to go to the Physics room for test corrections. They will do anything to get their grade up in that class. We will go to the field once they are done."

Teachers that do test corrections have a special place in my heart. If it weren't for them my averages would be much lower than they initially are. Especially the ones that curve grades up without needing to be asked. But those are rare.

I walk down the stairs of my house, with Delaney right behind me as I put my necklace on.

This is the first time I have been to a football game in over a year. The last one... let me just say it ended up in a madhouse. Students were screaming at each other, I heard a few fights broke out too. It was an eventful one, to say the least.

Locking the house door behind me, Delaney and I walk down the driveway and wait for the boys to finish their two on two games with the middle school boys. Something about this brings back so many memories. We all used to play with the high schoolers too. At least the generous ones. None of us had any clue about basketball since we were all soccer babies at heart.