In Our Heads

Chapter 21

*****

Cassian leaned his elbows on the ledge as he looked down at everyone in the courtyard. Some of his friends were outside and he assumed the rest were in the cafeteria. There wasn't a lunch practice because their coach did not want to risk anyone getting injured right before the game.

He could spot Amber and Lance playing around; Lance having taken something of hers and holding it above his head where she could not reach it. She was trying to jump to catch it. He chuckled under his breath.

"What is it?" Theodore asked from beside him.

"She doesn't know he's into her," Cassian pointed at the pair.

"Really? It looks obvious."

It did with Lance's huge smile and teasing.

They were on the roof. Cassian had decided to ease up on studying, at least for the day because focusing on the game was the most important thing to him. He felt fatigued but figured a couple of energy drinks before the match would help if he could drink it without feeling nauseous.

He was eating a banana despite his stomach twisting sickeningly, trying to force something into it. He hadn't had much for dinner the previous night and then had skipped breakfast so knew he needed to eat something before the game.

After hanging out with the brothers on Thursday, he headed back to school and then home. His parents did not hint at knowing that he had left school and he figured he was in the clear, but kept his guard up because they always seemed to bring things up at a later stage. He had had the tutoring sessions they insisted on at 6 PM for two hours every day since they mentioned it.

"Do you have to leave immediately after school?" he asked Theodore while stepping away to move further back on the roof.

Theodore turned to him, leaning back against the ledge.

"Yeah, I have to pick Zion up. His school ends slightly earlier than ours on Fridays; I don't want him to wait too long."

Cassian nodded, a little disappointed that Theodore was not going to stick around to watch the match, but Zion was more important than watching a group of teenagers play soccer, especially when he was clearly unwelcome by most of them.

"You guys seem to take sports so seriously."

Cassian agreed. There were banners about the match everywhere and a buzz of excitement around the school.

"At my old school, barely enough people even signed up to make a team for anything. As far as I remember, the only team that ever actually got enough members was the athletics team. By the middle of the year, they would disband because too many people just dropped it along the way."

"That sucks," Cassian frowned.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" Theodore asked.

"Just what I usually do."

Cassian ran through his Saturday schedule from waking up for some early time in the gym and everything afterwards all the way to his piano practice and then extra math lesson in the evening. He knew he did not need the tutor because the only thing he helped with was showing an alternative method to something Cassian could already figure out. The guy had even mentioned that Cassian seemed to be doing perfectly well on his own.

"You do all of that every weekend?" Theodore asked. "So, your parents made you play the piano and take jujitsu?"

"Yup. Piano since I was four, always a few times a week. I've been in tons of competitions too." Cassian wiggled his fingers. He won quite a few of them because of technical excellence.