Tangled Tracks on Side B

Chapter 8

A.N. Should we go for a double update again?? Lmk if you're here for it ⭐️

"Good morning!" Mom Amelia was getting me out of bed and kissed my head, "Breakfast is ready," She added.

I was once again full of adrenaline at the idea of going to school, I almost had to hide it when I immediately got out of bed, surprising my mom.

"You're in a good mood," She said suspiciously.

"Oh, I just played really well yesterday and my coach said I might be already able to speak to recruiters next year if I keep this up," I didn't lie, but I wasn't telling the truth either.

"Oh my God, that's so good! As a junior??" She was happy for me.

I nodded and let her hug me.

She shared the news at breakfast with the rest of the family, Mom Laura was so proud of me, she had always loved sports, but she had to quit when she got pregnant as a young teen and never found the time to go back to it when she was a single parent to Gabe.

She had instilled in us kids a great appreciation for sports and everything outdoors. She was the one to always let us be wild and explore our full potential when it came to how to move our bodies.

She never scolded us for climbing and jumping and tumbling, but she also very rarely intervened when we asked for help, her strategy was always to remind us that if we had put ourselves in a certain situation we should've known how to get out of it.

That teaching seemed particularly relevant when it came to what I was doing with Sadie, maybe I hadn't learned much after all.

When I got to school that morning I was lucky enough to spot Sadie almost right away. She was in the hallway with a group of cheerleaders, they were posting flyers, I immediately looked at her wrist, and there was my hair tie.

I smiled, a sense of relief washing immediately over me.

Sadie noticed me but didn't have any visible reaction, maybe she lingered an extra moment before looking away, but it was so hard to say.

I too took the occasion, as soon as other people from her group looked in my general direction, to look way past them, to a different group of people behind them.

I was sure it was impossible to say we had looked at each other in that whole exchange, but we knew.

I hated to admit that there was an appealing component in the secrecy.

There was something thrilling in the idea that I could walk right past her, knowing exactly what her mouth felt like on mine, and no one had to know.

It was like having a secret hideout from the rest of the world.

I sat with my team at lunchtime, but I made sure to choose a seat from which Sadie was easily in my line of sight and I could discretely take a peek sometimes while talking to my friends.

"Did anybody hear anything new?" Bailey asked the group.

Eyes jumped around the table but nobody offered any information.

I shrugged.

"Are your moms chaperoning at the Halloween event Angie?" She then asked me.

I raised an eyebrow at her, I knew where she was going with it.

"I'm not sure, probably, knowing them." They loved all school events and activities.

"Oh my God, I miss your moms,"  Zoe said.

I shook my head and laughed. I caught a glimpse of Sadie looking at me.

"You know what's crazy?" Bailey asked Zoe, but for the whole table to hear.