Jessie - Luke Ross fanfic

Part Eleven

Creepy Connie and Quella run out of the library and I follow shortly afterwards. I see them in the distance, walking in the other direction, so I decide to go home, kicking a pebble all the way. I was so close! It's gonna be really...weird seeing her in school tomorrow.

•••

All over the school; in the corridors, in the cafeteria, the classrooms, the gymnasium were posters about the Talent Show on Friday this week. Luckily, I'm not going to participate.
I'm at my locker when I see Luke bouncing a basketball coming in my direction which, I admit, brings a smile to my face when I see him.
"Hey Jaz," he says enthusiastically and leans against one of the lockers.
"Hi Luke. What's up?" I ask, closing my locker door and swinging my bag over my back.
"Nothin'," he replies and looks down at his ball, throwing it from one hand to another.
I was about to say something when he puts in, "you are coming to the Talent Show, right?"
I roll my eyes for the umpteenth time he's asked me the same question.
"For the LAST time!" I say, making it clear and taking his basketball from him. "I'm coming."
"Great," he sighs and tries to grab his basketball from my hand when I swiftly swap it onto my other. "Hey!"
"When you want something, you just gotta come and get it," I laugh and run off in the direction to my first period with him not close behind.

•••

I think gym was the most awkward period I've ever had.

There's about 24 other girls in my gym class, whilst there are 30 in the boys' class. The girls and I sit around in the middle of the gym with our yellow t-shirts and dark blue shorts on, representing our schools ridiculous gym clothes, and wait for our teacher Miss Yates to come and teach us a lesson about badminton.
"What is taking Miss Yates so long?" Rebecca says, my new bestie in this school that I strangely haven't mentioned before...sorry, I guess?
"I dunno," she normally comes bang on the dot on 3:00pm," I reply.
When my teacher does eventually come, she enters with another teacher, the head of gym, Mr Vega; a stubbly beard, a big body and  ever so strict, as Luke tells me he is when he's teaching the boys' class...but since when did he ever start randomly walking into the girls' lesson?
"All right, ladies," he begins, his loud voice booming throughout the entire gym, with Miss Yates beside him with a clipboard and some paper in her hands. "This lesson will not be about badminton as Miss Yates has planned for you. Today, we'll be assessing you on your basketball skills-"

a/n: you did know this was bound to happen, right?

"-and formerly be asking you to join the girls' basketball team for the eighth graders."
When Mr Vega says the word 'formerly', it won't be formal.
"We're sorry we didn't tell you this any sooner, but I'm afraid that we had a last minute change and blah blah blah. Alright, that's enough of this talking. So I think we're ready then."
I press my lips together to stop a smirk from slipping out.

But then there was the catch.

"Oh yeah and another thing. I've invited the boys along to watch you guys and see how good the girls really are at playing basketball."
My jaw slightly drops and my eyes grow wide in fear.
My heart starts to hammer so loud when Mr Vega lets in all 30 of the boys into the gym and they sit themselves down on the benches on the two side walls.
All the girls were giggling and whispering excitedly. Well, these boys are in the top set when it comes to sport and are considered to be, as they call it, 'fit'. I look around and see Luke sitting right in the middle of one of the benches and my cheeks flush red.
He catches my eyes and waves enthusiastically and I wave shyly back.