Out of My Shell

TWO

In the afternoon, I had choir with Fox, Jayna, and Vanessa. Next was Geometry with Fox and Jayna, and finally Study Hall with Collyn and Fox. When the final bell rang, I went to the girl's locker rooms to get ready for volleyball practice. Jayna and Vanessa, of course, where there, but so was Collyn surprisingly.

Before practice started, I peppered with Collyn and then we stretched while the coaches called for attendance and began to tell us different dates for different things. Our first game would be on the Thursday of next week, my birthday. Hopefully, it would be good luck.

At practice, we started with the basics because the coaches wanted to see what levels we were at where they wanted to start for improvement.

Collyn was very good at volleyball and we were partners for everything. She told me that she was an outside hitter. I was a middle because of my size of my strength when it came to hitting. On the off season, I had been to several hitting camps and improved the ton. Hopefully, I impressed the coaches and I would be on varsity, maybe even starting.

At the end of practice, the coaches that we had done well and that they looked forward to our season. They gave us picture forms for team pictures on Friday and then we went back to the locker rooms to change. I showered and then changed into a pair of sweatpants and a cutoff I had in my duffel and waited for Collyn.

"Are you riding the bus back home?" I asked her as she walked out to the parking lot.

She nodded. "Me too," I said and we got on the country route shuttle for sports, which left at 5:30 rather than 3:00.

We sat across from each other and talked a little bit about volleyball until Hudson came on the bus. He came to sit with us, but instead of sitting at the seat in front of Collyn like he had in the morning, he shoved me over and came to sit with me.

"Hey, girlfriend," he said, hugging me as he gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Ew, you're wet, didn't you shower?"

"Yes, but I didn't have time to dry off or I would be late for the bus," he said as he ran his fingers through his hair, spraying water everywhere.

I groaned along with Collyn. I slapped him on his hard, sculpted chest.

"I'm sorry, did I get you wet?" he asked with a smirk on his face.

"Yeah, you kinda did," I said.

"Yo, Paterson, come sit back here with us!" someone shouted from the back. The back was where all the jocks sat on the bus.

He turned around and I shrunk down in the seat and gazed out the window at the passing cornfields.

"No thanks, I'll sit up here instead," he said.

"Who ya sitting with?" the same person asked.

He looked at me and smiled. "Just some friends."

Suddenly, the person was clomping up the aisle. I looked over and Stephen was pushing Collyn to the other side of the seat and sat across from Hudson.

"Dude, you're sitting with my sister?" Stephen asked.

"What, she's your sister?"

"Yeah, we look alike. Can't you tell?"

He looked from me to Stephen and then back at me.

"No, not really. You don't look alike at all."

"I'm just kidding. She looks like Mom and I look like Dad. But you watch yourself, because she is my sister after all. I will kick your ass if you hurt her," Stephen said.