"Shannon, you okay?" I turn around and see my friend Riley looking at me worryingly. Behind her the rest of the girls in our class are coming in. I pick up my jacket and smile at her while rubbing my neck. A nervous tick I have developed.
"Yeah I'm fine, so it starts here." I say as I start to undress to put on my gym clothes. I used to be really self conscious about changing in front of people but ever since I lost weight and joined the basketball team I have made peace with it.
"Where what starts?"
The end of my feelings having control of themselves as I would soon find out.
I quickly find another excuse as to why I said such a thing, "Junior year, love. Junior year." I pat her arm and walk over to my locker to get changed. Ms. Williams would have my ass if I show up late on the first day. Also probably make me run extra laps at practice since she is the head coach.
Since I'm the star basketball player on varsity she expects even more from me than everyone else. It gets annoying at times but I actually really appreciate it. When I exit the locker room I see Quinn sitting on the bleachers by herself, my heart starts racing and I'm about to go talk to her until I hear a voice behind me.
"Banks! Is our star player ready for a winning season?" Coach Williams asks, shaking my hand and patting me on the shoulder. She is a short older woman with straight white hair and piercing blue eyes. I divert my eyes for a second and see Quinn looking at us.
"Of course, coach. I'm excited to see what the incoming freshmen have to offer. I'm sure the other teams won't know what's coming." Which sounds super generic but oh well, it's the truth.
"That's my girl. Now go have a seat, class will be starting in a bit." I shake my head and head over to sit down. I end up sitting a little farther away from Quinn because the seats were taken. I see her look at me and laugh a little right before the bell rings. Everyone is sitting on the bleachers and are quiet waiting for coach to talk. Everyone is a little scared of her but we all respect her greatly.
"Okay class, I'm Coach Williams for those of you who don't know me. Welcome to gym class, now today we are going to start off easy with dodgeball. Leaders will beeee..." She looks at her clipboard for a second, "Shannon and Fletcher" I feel a little awkward because she kind of picks favorites but I look around and no one seems to care.
I get up off the bleachers and go fist bump him. "To decide who gets to go first you guys will do an arm wrestle contest. So players... on the floor!"
We do as we're told and lay down on the cold tan gym floor. We are in the secondary gym which is four times as big with white walls and four basketball courts.
"You're going down, Banks."
"Bet, Fletch."
We steady our arms and I instantly become nervous.
Don't mess up in front of the girl
"Okay ready... set... go!" Coach says and blows her whistle. People start chanting with half cheering for me and half cheering for Fletcher. He is actually not that big of a guy, just a little taller than me and is more lean than built but still has biceps and abs. He is the star soccer player for our school and as always a total ladies man.
After going at it for a good three minutes I finally win and Coach blows her whistle again. People cheer and he and I laugh. He then lunges at me and we play wrestle for a minute until we give up.
Quinn's POV
God she's so cute
Alissa's POV
"Okay okay, now, Shannon chose your first teammate. You guys will go back and forth after that. Get it? Got it? Good."
"Okay I choose... Riley"
Don't pick Quinn too quickly, don't be too obvious
"Noah"
"James"
"Ashley"
I think for a second and figure out that it is probably an acceptable time to pick Quinn now. Wow this is too much overthinking for just a dodge ball game.
"Quinn." She looks at me and smiles, Damn she's cute.
We go on until everyone is picked and then take our respectable sides of the court. Once the game starts I take a ball and end up next to her.
"You stalking me, superstar?" She asks, smirking.
"Superstar?" I ask while dodging balls.
"Well that's what you are, isn't it? Star player, probably super popular, hot star football player boyfriend, gets all A's. Am I on the right track?" She asks while hitting a ball away that was about to hit me in the face.
"No boyfriend. I'm into girls but other than that I'd say you've got me figured out." I say looking down. Luckily for some reason no one took the opportunity to hit me.
"Oh, me too." She says and bumps me lightly so I'll look at her.
The cute girl is gay... That's a first...
I look at her and smile and just then a ball hits me in the head. I laugh and rub it and look over at Fletcher. Oh, did I mention he is my step brother?
"Stop flirting, Banks!" He says and laughs.
"You just got yourself out, Dork!" I respond.
I look over to Quinn and she starts laughing. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine, you should see how beat up I can get in a game."
"Actually I don't want to see that."
"Well still... You should come to a game sometime."
"I guess we will have to see about that."
We look at each other for a minute and I think I may have died in that moment but once I have confirmed I haven't I look over and Quinn gets out. I then go on to play the rest of the game.
Once coach blows her whistle everyone goes to their respected locker rooms. Quinn's locker is close to mine and while we are changing I can't help but look over for a second. Once she lifts up her shirt I see a tattoo on her side but I look away too fast to make out what it was.
