Lovestruck (EDITING)

33: Volleyball

Once I arrive at school, the pace seems to slow down and I can finally relax despite my rushed morning. My first couple of classes are easy enough, and I find myself actually enjoying being by myself like this as I pull open my gym locker to change for PE. I don't need someone to follow me around everywhere and tell me what to do. This is senior year and I'm going to spend it doing what I want to do, not what Shana wants me to do.

I pull my tank top over my head and slip into my white gym t-shirt and eggplant colored shorts, rolling deodorant under my arms and flipping my head over to tie my wavy hair into a high ponytail. I slip my feet into my plain old white tennis shoes and toss the rest of my things back into my locker.

"Hey Skye!" I look up to see Maya's deep brown eyes staring back at me, "How excited are you for volleyball? Hey, we should try team up!"

I giggle a bit at her enthusiasm. "Yeah, I'm pretty excited," I say with a small smile on my face, and I'm not lying.

I actually really love volleyball, especially when we mix both gym classes together, it's always more fun that way. Maya nods excitedly and we head into the gym, sitting down with the rest of the class. I catch Jayden's eye as he walks in with another boy and smile at him. I'm happy he's making friends.

"Who's that you're grinning at?" Maya leans into me, squinting dramatically in an attempt to follow my line of sight.

"Just my friend, Jayden," I point him out, seeing no reason to be secretive about it. We are friends, after all.

"Ooh, he's cute," she remarks, raising her eyebrows up and down.

"I'll let him know you think so," I joke and Maya turns pink.

She pushes me and I have to put my arm out to stop myself from falling too far to the side. I can't help but giggle at her reaction as she pulls me back up, laughing too. Maya has been a friend of mine since day one of freshman year. We've never been very close, but I've always considered her a friend since we met in orientation when we were put into homeroom groups. She dated Marcus two years ago. It wasn't anything too serious, since it was only sophomore year, but when it ended it split our little homeroom group apart. Veronica and I tended to stay away from it and Marcus stayed with us, meaning we lost Maya to a group of Junior cheerleaders for a while. Eventually the two of them learned to laugh at themselves and now they're close friends again, but I remember being so shocked by how their tiny little sophomore romance was allowed to impact everyone around them the way it did. I couldn't imagine something like that ever happening to me.

Maya's insanely long eyelashes blink at me expectantly and I frown in confusion, suddenly zoning back into reality. "What?" I manage to ask.

"I asked, sashes or non-sashes?" she waits for my answer, eying the pile of purple sashes on the floor beside each of the two volleyball courts.

"Oh," I stutter, looking at the sashes, "I mean, sashes. Definitely sashes."

"I agree with you on that one," she grins and I force a smile back.

"Alright, seniors!" Mr Green's deep voice sounds out over the waves of teenage chatter filling the room. "Enough chatting! Who's ready for some volleyball?"