He Ruined My Life (#Wattys2015)

Chapter VI

"Alysse, you seem really distracted lately." Leah said to me. She had managed to corner me in the girl's bathroom. Now she was really grilling me.

"So what's up." She demanded. Leah wasn't a girl who asked. She always had to know. And there was no surviving her inquisition without spilling your guts.

"Nothing." I say and I hold my ground. There were only five minutes before class. If I could just hold out those five minutes...

"I can tell it's something. First, you have been caught first in Black Hood more than five times in the past month. That's really unlike you, Alysse. You're always the last or second last to lose. Second, you've been spacing out and running out of those evil dares in truth or dare."

"Isn't that a good thing for you guys?" I protest.

"Well, yeah, but it's a strong indication that you have something up. So what is it?"

"I told you, nothing!"

"Well there's gotta be something!"

An idea suddenly blossomed into my head. It might be reckless, but it's gotta work.

"Well, you know what, I think it's kind of getting childish." I blurt out.

"What?!" Leah says quietly.

"You know, Black Hood, now that I think if you really dig deep into it, Black Hood has about the same maturity level as some stupid let's pretend game. And truth or dare? Nobody ever plays that anymore. It's getting old. So I'm kind of getting bored of it. Sorry, that's what I think, okay?"

"Alysse, you definitely have changed." Leah says, her eyes cold. "I don't know when or why, but you have changed. You used to be fun and you didn't care what people thought of you. But now, I see you do. And you weren't as fun as you used to be."

That sounded awfully familiar, the "you have changed part".

The bell rang, and I bolted free, not even bothering to say goodbye. I looked back once and regretted it.

I say Leah with obvious hurt in her eyes. Her lips were kind of puckered and drooping down. She looked at me with this forlorn look as if she might never see me again. And that's when I felt bad.

What if this "Chase" thing was really changing me for the worse? It's not, right? I'm just finally growing up.

Right?

After a while, twirling my hair around my index finger, I decided, yes. I was only just growing up. It's about time, really, to get out of my childhood.

"Alright girls! There's an upcoming game against East so I'm going to be drilling you all real hard! We'll play a few intensive games, so play like the other side is a real opponent. This is going to be our second to last practice before the game, so it's time to stop taking it easy!" Coach shouts. She blows into the whistle and we begin.

Arabella started. She serves well, so she always starts. The other side only barely managed to get it back across the net. Jennifer easily hit it over again, and the other side's champion, Erica, hit it back. Hard. Arabella tried to get it back, but she missed it by a little. Their team cheered. Arabella passed it to me. I took a deep breath. Okay, I'm going to be ready. I'm going to do it well.

Coach beams at me as I hit a hard ball over the net. Now that my mixed feelings about Chase were gone, I could concentrate better. I was slowly regaining my edge in volleyball. It felt great to be playing volleyball properly again. The ball flew back and I hit it back across. All my teammates looked at me, as if saying, "Gosh Alysse, you are finally back to normal." Arabella smiled at me and gave me a thumbs up, but I could tell she was secretly a little disappointed that she didn't get to be team captain.

"You'll get your chance soon!" I whisper to her. I grinned with satisfaction as Sarah failed to hit it back over. One point for my team in practice. We were tied.

Erica served, and I hit it back lightly so that it barely went over. Three people dove for it, but they missed. One more point for us. We cheered. Erica hit it back over again, and Penny, someone else on my team, got it back over. Hard. Nobody on the other team bothered to catch it since they thought it would go out, but it stayed in. Only barely. We cheered again. Sarah hit it over, but we missed. They cheered.

Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, rain poured down on us.

"Girls! Grab your umbrellas and just go! Practice is cancelled for today. We'll do it again later, one day before the real game. Now go, I don't want any of you getting pneumonia before the game."

Unfortunately, I did not have an umbrella. All I had was a navy blue hoodie which I put on and threw the hood over my hair. I was soaked in a minute. I couldn't walk home in this rain! All the girls, including the coach, were gone, so none of them could help me. I saw a car speeding down the road and I desperately asked for a hitchhike. It ignored me. I sighed and tried again with the next car. It ignored me too. By now, I was waving frantically. The next three cars ignored me. Finally, the driver of the sixth car noticed and pulled up. For a moment, all I felt was gratitude to the anonymous stranger who was my savior.

But then, someone stepped out.

Oh no. I think I know this person.

And I did not want him to see me like this.

"Alyssandra Erins," Chase said. "Nice to see you once in real life."