Maybe This Year

Basketball Tryouts

Alright, I have my bag packed but what to wear? Karly thought to herself as she prepared herself for the tryouts. She dug through her closet for what seemed like an hour but was only a few minutes before pulling out a pair of black leggings, her brand new school sweater, and her signature pair of converse. 

She quickly threw them on, and bolted down the stairs once she saw the time was 7:05. Which meant she only had 10 minutes to eat before she was supposed to be at Lauren's. 

Meanwhile in the Jauregui household, Lauren couldn't stop thinking about the younger girl, and the stupid reason people bullied her. The reason itself was cute, but it wasn't Karly's fault? Why is she getting bullied because of it? Lauren put on a pair of blue skinny jeans, with a pair of black heeled booties, and a loose fitting white tank top. She left her hair in their natural waves and put on a light amount of makeup, considering she would have to redo it after try-outs. 

Lauren shoved her basketball shoes in her bag, grabbed her water bottle, and bounded down the stairs towards the kitchen. She walked into the kitchen and quickly make her breakfast considering she only had seven minutes. She sat down at the table with a bowl of Special K and quickly checked Twitter and Instagram, subtweet, blah, blah, blah, is Karly the new pet? Wow people catch on fast... I smirk to myself and then check Instagram, like, like, I hate you but I'll still like anyways... like, like, ignore, done! Finally.

DING

"Perfect timing." Lauren mumbles to herself as she gets up to answer the door. She opens it and smiles when she sees a tired looking Karly ready with her school bag and gym bag slung over her shoulder. "You ready?" Lauren asks. Karly tiredly nods her head and tries to rub the sleep out of her eyes.

Karly looks up then suddenly realizes, Lauren Jauregui is right in front of me. Does she know I stalked her instagram last night? 

"Are you ok? Your eyes went really wide there." Lauren says giggling. Karly nods her head still processing that she's standing in front of a high school celebrity... "Ok well let's go, before my family starts waking up. You don't want to see them in the morning." Lauren mumbles embarrassed. Karly nods her head, completely understanding where Lauren is coming from. Even though her parents aren't grumpy in the morning, they are way to happy and cheery to be humanly possible. 

They both get into Lauren's car, Lauren throws her bag in the back while Karly keeps her bag on her lap, still a little shy.

Lauren looks over at Karly and notices how awkward and self-conscious she is, it's not like I'm going to throw her bag out the window. "Sooo are you excited for try-outs?" Lauren asks trying to start a conversation with the younger girl.

"A little nervous to be honest." Karly mumbles almost too quiet to hear. 

"Don't worry about it, I was talking to Normani yesterday, and she said you have some mad skills." Lauren says, earning a cute little giggle from Karly.

"Yeah, ya know I play for the NBA!" Karly jokes. The two girls break into a light laughter before falling into a comfortable silence as they pull into the school parking lot. They both sling their bags over their shoulders and make their way towards the gym. 

Opening the gym doors, they already see half of the girls from yesterday changing. Lauren leads Karly towards the back corner where her friends that were on the team last year were waiting for her. Why do I feel like I'm just following her around? Am I annoying her? Karly thinks. She suddenly feels self-conscious that Lauren maybe doesn't want her around, so she walks to the other side of the room and starts quickly changing in the corner, avoiding the worried glances from Lauren.

Lauren watches Karly and gives her worried glances every once in a while. She tries to keep up with the conversation with her friends, but her mind is mainly on Karly. Lauren doesn't understand why the thought of someone liking her, would result in everyone bullying her. Camila, Normani, Dinah and Camila don't understand it either. They all even had a long group chat discussing the subject after Lauren dropped Karly off at her house last night. 

They all can clearly see that Karly is beautiful. Inside and out. She has a bubbly personality that is unfortunately covered by the walls she's built up over the years, she's incredibly smart, pretty much skipping two grades ahead of where she is supposed to be, and she's such a kind-hearted person as well. The girls are surprised that not everyone has a crush on Karly. 

While Lauren was watching Karly worriedly, Karly was trying to change as fast as possible and make her way into the gym so she could let Lauren be. She throws on her t-shirt from one of her past volunteering jobs, and makes her way out of the change room and into the gym. Karly finds that whoever wasn't in the change room was already seated on the floor. She slowly makes her way over to the pack and sits next to a girl that looks like she is in grade 10, "Hi I'm Karly." She introduces herself. 

"Jess." The brunette says offering a kind smile. The two instantly strike up a conversation about what they did over the summer. Karly finds out that people actually hang out over summer, and attend beach parties, meanwhile her summer consists of Tumblr, books and photography. As the two are talking, Lauren and her friends quietly enter the gym.

"You alright Laur?" Vero, one of Lauren's friends, asks Lauren. Lauren nods her head and smiles sadly as they take their seats closer to the back of the gym. Lauren watches as Karly talks to the other girl, she feels a tinge of jealousy that Karly isn't talking to her, but she also feels proud that Karly is reaching out to other people. 

"ALRIGHT. Three laps around the gym! Go!" The coach yells walking into the gym. Lauren watches as Jess says bye to Karly and walks over to her other friends, and smiles to herself before running after Karly. 

"Hey, why'd you leave me in the change room?" Lauren asks Karly curiously. Karly just shrugs and keeps running while looking forward. Lauren sighs in frustration but presses on knowing that something is wrong, "You know that I will find out, right?" 

"Do you like me?" Karly asks dodging the question. 

"Yeah? Of course what kind of question is that?... Did you think I didn't? Was that why you ran away?" Lauren says piecing together Karly's actions. 

The younger girl glances down astonished that someone actually likes her, and doesn't want to throw something at her or call her a mean name. "Really?" Karly asks excited. Quickly realizing how starstruck she sounded she tries to cover it up, "I mean thanks." 

Lauren giggles, "You're cute. Do you want to sit with us at lunch today?" She asks, with a hopeful glint in her eyes. Lauren starts to find that she doesn't just want to spend time with Karly because of the stupid bet, but because she actually wants to be friends with her. 

"Yea sure, is that alright with your friends?" Karly asks. She doesn't want to feel like she's intruding on something, she would hate to be the reason that there's an awkward silence at the table, because no one knows what to do. 

"Of course! They all love you!" Lauren replies happily. Karly smiles, and a rush of happiness and releif runs through her. Wow. I'm wanted. This is new.