Half a Step

Chapter 6

Hope's POV

Today was the day. I had been counting down the days until the tryouts for the Soccer Team was on. The tryouts for the Track team was later on because we had to go to the track at the other school and that was more complicated planning. Because we were now having lunch , I had one class to sit through.

June and I had spent a few days just revising the rules and skills of soccer. More, I had and June sat on the grass glad to have a reason to leave the house, away from her noisy household.

June had three younger siblings. The oldest was two, in the terrible twos at that, and was constantly needing attention that was not often given and led to a temper tantrum. The two younger ones were twins and only 14 months old. June helped out a lot but needed a bit of quiet, especially to do homework.

The only downside was that today, I didn't have P.E, so I wasn't able to wear my sports uniform and sneakers. That means carrying another bag to every one of my classes.

'Hope. Hope, which piece of music would be easier? I could do The Sound of Silence or Ode to Joy.' June said to me, holding out two pieces of piano sheet music. Both of them had been suggested by the teacher.

I scan both. The Sound of Silence had a complicated melody but there weren't any chords until almost halfway through the music. Ode to Joy looked difficult but would be easier once practised.

'I think Ode to Joy would work. You'd just have to practise it and then it would be easy.' I replied.

June nodded, beanie sliding off more and more, revealing ear piercings. I liked helix earring piercing, aesthetically. While I never wanted one myself, or even wanted my ears pierced, they still looked cool.

June caught my glance, pulling the beanie back on, 'Are you sure you don't want your ears pierced? You'd absolutely rock a pair of earrings I have, a pair of gold and black ones that would look epic.'

'I'm sure.' I consciously pull on my long hair, which is up in its normally high ponytail. Today, I had plaited parts of my hair into the ponytail.

There was a yell from down the hill. Our school had a basin to try to reduce flooding which meant there was a dip. The sun was out and shining in that spot which made it nice, compared to the dimly lit classroom which we would spend the next few hours in.

Down below, a group of boys including TJ were practising their soccer skills. Most of them were taking turns shooting at the goalie. Though it didn't seem to be the entire group of boys that were shooting. A few of them were off to the side and dribbling the ball around each other, obviously not trying out for the role of stricker.

I opened my bag. June had adorned it with quite a lot of keychain, changing it up from the simple, black, backpack that it was originally. One of my favourite key chains was a Husky, my favourite dog, but my friend had decorated it so it was no longer a black, brown and white but colours of black, purples and blue in a metallic paint. The eyes were blue which glowed in the dark. I had realised they glowed after waking up in the middle of the night to find a pair of blue eyes staring at me from the corner of my room.

From the bag I pulled out my container of pasta. It was leftovers from last night where I had made pesto pasta.

'More pasta!' June exclaimed from beside me. 'You've had pasta for practically every day of the term.'

I shrugged my shoulders, ' I like pasta.'

'You mean, you're obsessed with it.'

I couldn't contradict the statement. I did really like pasta, it was so good and because of all the running I did it didn't affect me. When asked what my favourite food was, it was always a pasta dish. Most of the time it was pesto pasta or tuna bake.