Volley of Love

2

"Ms. Lircet, I appreciate your eagerness to meet with me, however, the team captain organizes and plans our practices. If you want to speak with him about court time negotiations, it would be more efficient than me playing messenger." Mr. Crooks placed a post-it note in front of me. "I scheduled a meeting for Tuesday at 5:45. He should be available, and you will want to be."

The note read in his terrible handwriting: Room 238 9/24 5:45pm.

"Thank you for giving me the time to express my frustration. I'm sorry if it sounded harsh. Thank you for giving me the opportunity."

"Sure thing." He said dryly. I stood up and shook his hand.

"See you around Mr. Crooks."

"See you." He dismissed me with a wave.

Today is September 9th. He scheduled me for 2 weeks from tomorrow! I will be tracking this big shot down. I'm not waiting this long.

I stormed out of his office. The door clipped my shoulder on the way out. My vision blurred and dark spots appeared as I grabbed the wall to steady myself.

"Fucking basketball." I muttered underneath my breath as I walked past the court. There were about 15 guys doing suicides, about 4 of them were shirtless. Aaron saw me and flipped me off. I ignored him and immediately noticed a guy with messy blonde hair about an inch shorter than Dave's. His abs. Abs! I thought 8 packs were fake!

He looked up after catching his breath. When he saw me standing in the hallway staring like an idiot, he winked. My face flushed and I rushed out of there. I was halfway out the door when I heard someone yelling.

"Hey!" I spun to see the guy I was gawking at running towards me with a Gatorade bottle in hand. He stopped about 4 feet in front of me. "What's your name, gorgeous?"

There's no way. "Sorry, you have to earn that."

He swung his fist in a dramatic way. "Shucks! This doesn't work?" He gestured to his body.

I giggled. "Nope." I backed up but he jumped and grabbed my wrist. I winced as my abdomen twisted but quickly hid it.

"Don't run! Can I take you out?"

I'm not up for dating right now, especially with last night's events. Instead of telling him this I avoided the question. "Who is the team captain?"

He smirked. "Yours truly!"

I smiled. "Seriously?"

"Yup."

"I'm not interested in a relationship right now, but I would love to go out for coffee so I could discuss practice times. I'm Sofia Lircet, the team captain for the Volleyball team."

His smile faltered. "Oh. I'll take you, but I am not interested in negotiations."

I crossed my arms, shaking his hand away. "I'm sure we can come up with an agreement. Tomorrow at 9:35?"

He bit the inside of his cheek. "Sure."

Aaron poked his head out of the gym. "Cap! We need you man!"

"Give me a second Ron!" He yelled back without taking his eyes off me. I shivered. "What about this? You become my girlfriend, and I'll give your team 2 of our hours."

"Your real girlfriend or fake?" He's hot, but he's still a blonde asshole.

"3 hours of court time?"

I grit my teeth. "Answer my question before we go negotiating practice times."

He clenched his jaw. "Fake for now."

"3 and a half."

"Fine." He offered a hand and I shook it. "Tomorrow at 9:35?"