Indecisive Heart

Chapter 19

After the weekend, I went back to school on Monday and took a seat in my homeroom. Gia wasn't here yet, but in walked Asher, looking right at me. He smiled and walked right up to my seat.

"Good morning," he said with the softest voice, "I have something for you." He looked down at a rolled up paper in his hand and passed it to me.

I took it from his hand and looked at it. It was the school newspaper. I looked back up at him and he continued with a smirk, "Hot off the press. Take a look at the front page."

It's a collage of three pictures. A team picture of the whole girl's lacrosse team, an action shot of Jaime, our other team captain, and a picture of me, smiling as I made a goal during practice, my other teammates cheering for me. The title reads "Girls Lacrosse Feeling Confident for New Season."

I smiled and said "Asher, this is amazing! How did you convince Gia to put us on the front page?"

He sat down in Gia's seat next to me since she still wasn't here and said "I told her I had some great pictures to showcase and everyone would be more interested in reading the newspaper if they saw the front page had a story about one of Brookstown's best sports teams! Everyone is reading it. Gia is in the office making more copies because there's a higher demand for them than normal."

I was in complete shock. People were actually reading the school newspaper because our lacrosse team was on the cover. "I don't even know what to say! Thanks for making us look good I guess. We could use the publicity going into this season."

He shook his head and said "I didn't make you guys look good, you did that all on your own. See that picture of you I printed? You look so happy and all of your teammates are right there behind you cheering you on. That's what a team is all about! You guys have a natural charisma, I just captured it on paper." We smiled at each other, his big brown eyes staring into my soul. I felt so warm inside. I was so happy I could reach out and kiss him right now, but I didn't.

Everything felt so natural when I talked to him, I wasn't nervous or awkward, our conversation just flowed so easily. How is he only friends with Gia? He's so easy to talk to, I feel like he should have more friends by now! If he's shy then he doesn't act that way around me, at least not anymore. This could be the start of a great friendship, or maybe something more.

At lunch I noticed someone was reading a copy of the newspaper at almost every table in the cafeteria. I sat down at my table and Rory was already there, staring at the front page. "Look at how good I look in this picture, Sadie! I mean, you look good too, but look at me, I'm glowing!" She smiled and shoved the paper in my face.

"I saw the whole thing already, Rory! Can you believe it? Asher got us on the front page!" I was bursting with excitement. All of this publicity would surely bring us a bigger crowd at our games. "Did you read it? He wrote like two sentences about Jaime but a whole paragraph just for you!"

I did notice that. According to the article he interviewed both team captains, but my paragraph was much longer than Jaime's.

"I did read it, he made us sound really good. I hope it brings more spectators to our games. We could use all the support we can get." Rory answered, "Sure he made the team sound good, but he made YOU sound good too! Listen to this, 'Jaime's co-captain is none other than the extremely talented Sadie Nolan. After watching her play in practice, I can tell she plays with her heart and gives it her all. When talking with her, she expressed her confidence in her team and showcased how passionate she is about lacrosse. If I was on the team, there's nobody else I'd want leading me. She has shown through action and word that she is meant to be a team leader and star player.' Sadie, that's such a nice thing for him to say!" Rory exclaimed.

I should thank him for that. I hadn't read the article when I saw him in homeroom, so I guess I'll have to talk to him in English class.

Finn then came over and sat down next to me, which I wasn't expecting him to do. "I saw your article in the paper! You guys sound great in this! I bet you'll get a big crowd at your first game. I will definitely be there cheering you on!"

"That's what I was just telling Rory! This article will get us so much publicity. I mean, look! Everyone is reading it! No one ever reads the paper!" I said.

Finn smiled and said "You seem excited." I shook my head and said "I really am. I have to thank Asher again for doing this for us." Finn looked confused, "Asher? I thought Gia was the one who asked you to do the interview."

"She was," I explained, "But she must have sent Asher to do it for her, because he was the one who interviewed me. Gia definitely just did this to get the paper more views, but I bet Asher got us on the front page because we deserved it, not just so his story would be read and his pictures would be seen."

Finn still looked confused. "He took those pictures? When did he do that?"

Rory responded, "At our first practice! We were all so excited to finally be playing as a full team with assigned team captains. It was a great idea to come on the first day. I bet he took so many great pictures. Sadie, you'll have to ask him to show us the rest!" She winked at me. "I will most definitely ask him." I winked back.

Finn replied, "Wow, yeah those pictures are really good." He looked up at me and said, "You look really good." Panicked, he shook his head and corrected himself. "I mean, you all look really good. The pictures he took were good."

Rory was giggling under her breath. Finn's face was as red as a tomato. "Thanks, Finn." I patted him on the shoulder.

The bell finally rang and I headed off to English class. I walked fast so I could get there a few minutes early, hoping Asher would be there so I could talk to him. I took my seat but he wasn't there yet. A few minutes passed and I saw him show up right outside the door, but someone stopped him before he came in. They were congratulating him on his popular article.

The bell rang and the teacher came in and started teaching. I didn't even get to make eye contact with him before he sat down behind me. I spent the whole class tapping my foot and playing with my pencil, waiting until the bell rang so I could get up and talk to him.

When the class was finally over, I gathered all my books and turned around. He was already looking at me. I tried not to melt when I saw those warm brown eyes looking down at me and I said "Hey Asher, I just wanted to thank you for that article you wrote. I read the whole thing, and you said some really nice things about me and the team in there. I really appreciate that." I couldn't hold my eye contact. My eyes fluttered down to the ground when he replied "No thanks necessary. It was a win-win. I got to write about people that deserved a headliner story, giving your team the publicity they needed, and in return I got the credit for writing the story. People have been coming up to me all day telling me how much they enjoyed reading it and asking me to write more sports stories, so that was definitely not the last time I will be interviewing you and visiting your practices."

I felt a burst of butterflies when he said he'd be interviewing me again and visiting our practices. "I'd be happy to do another interview sometime. I just can't believe how much attention we got from one story. I'll never be able to make it up to you!" I said.

He smiled down at me and said "Maybe there is a way. Are you free after practice today?"

Oh my gosh, it's happening. It's happening too fast. I responded in a daze, "Um, yeah I think so." He's backing away now as we part ways in the hallway. "Great, maybe we could grab dinner somewhere and you could show me around the area some more?" I cannot believe this is happening.

"Yes, sounds good! Meet me here after my practice and I'll take you to one of my favorite places!" We both smiled and he said "Alright Sadie, I'll see you then." He turned around to walk to his next class, but I stood there for a minute, frozen.

I watched his long legs stride down the hallway while he ran his fingers through his smooth locks of dark brown hair. He turned his head over his shoulder as if he knew I was watching him walk away.

He locked eyes with mine, smiled, and raised his hand in the air to wave as he walked into his next class. I gave him a slight smile and a timid wave back, then turned around to walk to my next class, my mind fuzzy and my stomach full of butterflies.