Love, Brazil // C.H // [COMPLETE✓]

Practice

Calum Hood sat in his usual Wednesday night spot, up on the top row of the bleaches. The bleaches are facing the football field, where his girlfriend, Naomi Sinclair, is playing in her weekly game. Calum was watching her- well, at least he was meant to be. Something else had caught his eye, though. Someone else, actually.

That someone was Jodi Mellark. Captain of the Norwest Christian College girls' team. Calum watched in awe as she ran up the field with the ball, getting around players with ease. She crosses it into the box. Naomi was on the other end of the cross. She over shot and missed. Calum groans. That was such a good set up, it could've been an easy goal. He beings to watch Jodi again. The way she goes into- and usually wins- challenges was flawless. Not to mention she was hot.

Even with beads of sweat dotting her forehead, and her hair stuck to her face, she was pretty. Her eyes were a bright blue, much like the ocean. Jodi's hair was a few shades of brown lighter than his. She was a little shorter than Calum. Cal hates to admit it- even to himself- but he likes her. It's a new thing. He knows it's wrong- he's dating Naomi. But he just can't help it. And Jodi probably didn't like him- in that way, at least.

'Calum! Cal,' Naomi yells from the field, pulling him from his thoughts. The game had finished. He hops down the bleaches and jogs to the side of the field. He waits for Naomi to finish shaking hands with the other team. She walks over and asks, 'Hey, babe! How did I do?'

Calum knows he has to act like he watched her the whole time. 'You did great. Really good, babe,' he says, although it sounds quite strained, even to Calum.

'Are you okay?' Naomi asks. Cal tells her he's fine. She looks at him for a second before shrugging and starting to go about how well she had played. Naomi had something of an ego.

Jodi walks past and gives him a sympathetic look. He smiles back. 'Oh! Babe, did you get the scholarship? The one to play football in Brazil?' Naomi tugs on Calum's arm.

'Yeah,' Calum smiles. He worked hard for it. He was proud. 'Did you?'

'I... haven't checked my mail the last few days. So, I don't know,' Naomi replies. Calum knew she was lying. She was constantly checking for news of the scholarship. 'Naomi,' Calum raises his eyebrows.

'Fine. I didn't get in. Have fun in Brazil without me,' she bites her lip, tears forming in her eyes.

Calum wipes them away. 'It'll be okay,' Calum says- even though he knows it'll probably turn out to be a lie. He glances up to see Jodi standing near by with a friend. She had applied, too. They'd been the only three in the school, which wasn't that surprising.

'Jodi!' Calum calls out. She wanders over, after saying a quick bye to her friend.

'What's up?' Jodi grins. 'Did you get the scholarship?' Naomi asks, barely allowing Calum to open his mouth.

'Yeah, I did! What about you guys?' Jodi's grin grows wider. 'Her smile is beautiful' Calum thinks, before mentally cursing himself.

'I did,' Calum says. 'I didn't,' Naomi sighs.

Jodi's smile falls. 'Oh, no! But you're so good,' Jodie says.

Naomi shrugs. 'Yeah, but apparently not good enough,' she sighs. 'But whatever. My Dad's here. Bye, babe.' Calum and Naomi share a quick kiss and Naomi waves at Jodi, before running off to her Dad's car.

'You walking?' Jodi asks. Calum nods. Those two had lived around the corner for as long as Calum could remember. 'Me too,' Jodi says, and they start walking together.

'Ready to take on Brazil, Mellark?' Calum smiles.

'Don't you mean "is Brazil ready to take on Mellark", Hood?' Jodi smiles back.

They glance at each other. 'Race you to mine!' Jodi yells, and they sprint into the fading light towards Jodi's house. They get there quickly, despite being weighed down by bags. They pause at Jodi's front gate. 'See you tomorrow, Mellark,' Calum smirks, as Jodi goes into her front yard.

Calum waves. Jodi smiles and walks back to the gate. She leans out and high fives Cal's moving hand. 'Night, Hood.'

-----

'CALUM!' Calum hears, causing him to spin around.

'Luke!' he grins. 'Ashton, Michael!' Luke hits him with one of the bright pink balloons he's holding.

Luke, Ashton and Michael are Calum's three best friends. Luke had been his friend ever since day one of kindergarten, when Calum accidentally poured water on Luke. Ashton and Calum had been friends since year one primary. Ashton had accidentally glued his cut out picture onto Calum's arm. It'd been painful to get off, but Ashton was there, which made it a bit better. The three became virtually inseparable.

Michael, however, had only became friends with them last year. He'd gone to a school somewhere else in Sydney, before transferring. Ever since then Calum, Luke, Ashton and Michael had become a group, instead of a trio. They'd earned the group nickname "Bromance", considering how close they were.

'So, heard you got the scholarship!' Michael high fives Calum. The other two cheer and high five him, too. Luke goes behind Calum and ties the pink balloons to his bag, causing a few strange looks from people nearby.

'Sure did,' says Calum. 'Did your girlfriend?' Luke asks. It was no secret that the boys didn't like Naomi that much, but they acted nice for Cal's sake. Calum shook his head. 'Nope.'

'Jodi did!' Ashton says. Ashton and Jodi's mum's worked at the same place, meaning Ashton knew a lot about her. Which was good for Calum, even though no one knew he liked Jodi.

'Yeah, I know. We talked last night,' Calum could feel himself blushing slightly, so he quickly looks down.

Ashton suddenly speaks up again. 'Naomi, how good to see you! We'd love to stay and chat, but we have to be somewhere, right now, immediately. Bye!'

And with that the boys are gone and Calum is left with Naomi. He kisses her on the cheek. 'Hey,' he says lazily.

She greets him before beginning to complain about something or other, so Calum's mind wanders a bit. He's imagining Brazil, imagining the beach, kicking a football around on the beautiful sand. The sun would be shining down on him. Calum is pulled slightly out of his daydream, by the realisation that he still has over a week to go. He's trying not to hype himself up too much. But, that is exactly what he's doing right now. Calum shakes his head to try and get it out of his mind. At least for now.

'What? Don't you think that I should be mad at Tammy for saying Jodi played great last night but not me?' Naomi pouts.

'Wha- no? No, babe! You should've.. you played amazingly, too. I was shaking my head to, ah, show my disbelief, um...'

Naomi nods approvingly. 'I have to go now. I've got class all the way across school!' Calum watches her go, raising his eyebrows. School wasn't that big- in fact, it was quite small. It would take her about two minutes to walk across, three if a lot of people were around.

'Raise those eyebrows higher. I dare you, Hood,' Cal hears a voice that makes him smile, although he tries to hide it. 'Come on, Cal, we've got Math. Shit... you didn't do the homework did you?'

'Luke did it for me,' Calum shrugs.

'Can I copy it quickly?' Jodi asks distractedly, before doing a double take. 'Wait- you got Luke to do your math homework? He never does it for me.'

Calum smirks, trying to look mysterious. 'Oh, manipulation?' Jodi laughs, beginning to make the trek down the corridor to their classroom. Calum nods slowly. Jodi waves at him to hurry up and Cal follows her to the worst form of torture he knows. Ah, the joys of math.