Just Add It On

Chapter 3 - He says and practically skips down the hallway.

The bell rings causing me to jump. Mason chuckles lightly and I glare back. "Come on, we have to get to my next class," I say. We get up and walk through the halls. We meet up with Alivia as we enter the room. We take a seat in our normal chairs and Mason sits to my left. "This is the most boring class ever. She just gives us a long speech about literature every single class." I say resting my hand on my cheek knowing that I'll be taking a nap.

"Autumn." I hear and feel an elbow in my side. I open my eyes and turn to the noise. "Autumn, come on." I see Alivia waving a hand in my face.

"What?" I ask wanting to go back to sleep.

"Class is done. I don't understand how the bell didn't wake you up." She says and I see everyone is almost out of the room. I groan and grab my backpack. Before I can leave, though.

"Autumn, can I talk to you?" My teacher asks. I look at Alivia and she pulls Mason out the door. I take a deep breath before walking over to her.

"Yes?" I ask trying to put a smile on my face.

"Why are you in my class?" She asks turning her whole body towards me.

"To learn about English literature," I respond monotoned.

"Then why is it that you are always asleep in my class?"

"I just get tired in this cozy room," I say and she squints her eyes at me.

"How is it you have a 100% in my class when you never pay any attention?" She asks. I shrug and she gives me a disapproving look. "You should be in IB English Literature HL 1, not just in advanced placement."

"If I'm passing does it really matter?" I ask readjusting my backpack.

"Don't you want to be challenged or learn more to help you in the future?" She asks me confused.

"I don't want anything to do with literature when I'm older," I say and she looks at me strangely.

"I'm putting you into the IB class." She says and I'm about to protest, but she holds up her hand. "and you will take that class or I'll be talking to your parents and you'll be catching up on the detentions you should have got for sleeping in my class."

"Fine," I say before walking out.

"What was that about?" Alivia asks.

"She moved me to IB English," I say and she stops.

"You sleep through her whole class every day and she puts you in IB," Alivia says while shaking her head. "I hate you sometimes." She says.

"I don't want to be a writer like you," I say and she rolls her eyes.

"It still helps with college. More will be interested." She says and I shake my head.

"Not art colleges, the colleges I want don't care if you've got amazing math, science, or literature, skills, sure they want you to know about literature, but they want creativity," I say. Alivia puts her arm around my shoulder.

"It doesn't matter what you want to do because any college will want you." She says making me smile.

"Thanks," I say and she nods. All three of us walk upstairs to my last class of the day, gym.

***

"Well, not any athletic colleges," Alivia says as she and I are bent over. Mason, however, is jogging in place waiting for us to catch our breaths. I look up at him annoyed. How is he so fit? "Your friend seems to be on drugs or something." She says in my ear. I look over at her and mumble back.

"Ya, no kidding."

"Come on girls!" We hear our teacher yell. Alivia and I both glared at him before beginning to run again.

"Ok, teams. Who knows how to play basketball?" Mason's hand shoots up and I remember what his mother said. "Ok, you, you, you." Our teacher beings to put us in groups and surprisingly I'm with Mason. "Ok now everyone has someone that knows how to play basketball. I want that person to go over everything before be begin any games." He claps his hand and my group looks towards Mason.

He shuffles on his feet and looks as everyone stares up at him. "Mason, so what are the positions?" I ask trying to focus his attention on just one person. He seems to snap out of it and begins to tell us what we are going to do.

"Alright everyone understands?" He doesn't wait for a response before blowing his whistle telling us to begin our games. Mason and another kid bounce the ball back and then to another player making the game begin. I begin to block the girl that I was told to. We both run around, her trying to get the ball, and me making sure she doesn't.

We all play for a while and I don't ever get the ball, I don't really mind, though. I'm fine just running back and forth, but of course, then I'm the only one open and Mason passes me the ball. I catch it and then dribble out of the way as the girl almost knocks it out of my hand. I then stop and throw the ball at the hoop.

I goes through and Mason yells something I didn't understand. The rest of the guys on the team yell with their hands up. "We won," Mason says holding his hand up. I high five him.

"Really?" I ask confused. He laughs before nodding his head.

"Sweet," I say and the guys begin talking about the game. Our coach blows his whistle ending class and I'm so thankful.

Alivia walks up to me and groans. "Stupid aggressive guys. One practically killed me and I didn't even have the ball." She says rubbing her arm. I laugh and she pushes me a little.

"Hey, Autumn, bring your friend here." My gym teacher says. I find Mason almost out of the gym walking with a ton of guys.

"Mason," I yell. He turns his head and I motion for him to come over. He says something to the guys before jogging over to me.

"Yeah?" He asks I point to our teacher.

"Mason is it?" He asks. Mason nods. "Did you ever play for school?" He says crossing his arms. Mason looks confused and looks at me for help.

"This is his first year of school, he's never played for any teams," I say and then yawn.

"Really? How did you learn to play?" Our teacher asks.

"My Dad is a huge fan and I loved to play so he and his buddies would come over and play games with us," Mason says and I notice the smile that forms on his face. He really loves basketball.

"How would you feel about playing for our school. Definitely varsity." He says and Mason's eyes widen.

"Really?" He asks and our teacher nods. "Yes, wh-what do I have to do?" He asks and I can't help but smile because he's acting like a little kid.

"Few athletics forms, which Autumn knows where they are, and this." He says holding out a paper. Mason takes it immediately.

"Thank you so much." He says and the teacher nods. I turn and begin walking to the girl's locker room. "Autumn, what's varsity?" Mason asks before I enter.

"The best of the best," I say with a smile. He jumps and pumps his fists in the air.

"I can't believe this. Wait til my dad hears, he's going to be ecstatic." He says and practically skips down the hallway. I laugh shaking my head and going to change.