I'm Not That Girl

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty Two

       “And John goes for the goal! And... touchdown!” I said, dropping my bag on the perfectly trimmed, bright, green grass, and running over to John and Phillip, who were in the middle of a practice.

       “Close enough,” John smiled.

       “I have an idea,” Phillip said, picking me up before I could think. He threw me over his shoulder and continued, “Let’s play catch with Elle!”

       “Yes!” John said.

       “No!” I said, attempting to dismount from Phillip’s shoulder.

       “Oh come on, Elle, please?” Phillip pleaded.

       “No way!”

       “Fine. Then I guess we’re just going to have to play catch with a real ball,” he said, dropping me. I tumbled to the grass, and brushed myself off. Grass stains! Yay! I couldn’t wait to brag about them to Kara!

       Once, in gym, I may have accidently pushed her onto the feild, and let’s just say she wasn’t the happiest camper. Her pants may have gotten a little dirty, and she may have overreacted a little too much. She called home, and made her mom bring her an extra change of clothes- not pants, clothes. Her defense was that if she changed pants her outfit wouldn’t work, so the logical solution was to just completely change outfits. She was so mad at me! 

       “Think fast!” John said, as a ball hurled its way towards me.

       “Ah!” I shrieked, quickly moving out of its line of attack.

       “You were supposed to catch it!” he said.

       “I don’t like footballs!”

       “Oh yeah, in seventh grade didn’t you say that you had footballaphobia?” Phillip asked.

       “Still do,” I said.

       “Footballs aren’t going to hurt you. Here, pet it,” John said, putting my hand on the bumpy, oddly shaped ball.

       “No! It’s going to kill me!” I joked, running away.

       I ran right into what felt like a post. I hated having blonde moments like these. I stepped back, and looked at not the object, but rather the person I had run into. I knew his name! It started with an R… Total jerk… Come on, Elle! You could do it! R... Ryan! Yes! Score! Ryan! He was that boring, annoying kid!

       “Elle Paterson,” he said, smiling, “what are you doing on the football field?”

       “Running away from the football field,” I said.

       “Are you with John and Phillip?”

       “Yeah.”

       “Cool. Yeah, I know I look hot in shoulder pads,” he said, patting his shoulders. Psh. Yeah, okay, Ryan. You go ahead thinking that. 

       “What? Oh I wasn’t- who’s that kid over there?” I asked, pointing behind him, trying to distract him long enough for me to run back over to Phillip and John.

       “Who, Sam?”

       “Oh! Yeah, okay, cool, well, great seeing you!” I said, turning away, but was stopped as five strong fingers wrapping themselves around my wrist. “Please let go.”

       “Oh, come on! Elle, are you saying that you don’t feel the connection between us?” he questioned.

       “What connection? We’re connectionless,” I said, trying to keep the mood light.