heat

chapter one

I bit my lip to refrain myself from slamming my fist against the steering wheel as the cars ahead of me continued at a snails pace. My dad was going to kill me if my brothers teacher complained about his tardiness again. My brother Mason was one year younger than me making him 16 and although we had never managed to get on when we were younger, we could now act civilized around each other and knew when not to push each others buttons. However we could never handle picking music on the way to school.

"Stop fiddling with it you're gonna break it in a minute" I say smacking Mason's hand away from my car radio. He grunts in response but immediately puts his hand straight back on the control to which I roll my eyes.

"You do know dad will be pissed when Mrs Clark emails him tonight saying that you have made me late again Carter" Mason mumbles finally deciding on an almost bearable station.

"Yeah and then I'll let him know that it was you that spent 10 minutes trying to find your soccer boots when they were exactly where you left them might I add." I snap back. 

"Yeah well I wasn't the one spending forever making breakfast." he retorts. 

I snort and say "right well remind me not to make you breakfast again dipwad." 

He grunts again and we spend the rest of the ride in silence.

I pull into Redwood high and turn into a free parking space. I grab my books and gym bag from the backseat as Mason and I mumble goodbyes. I trudge into the school towards my locker. I nod at people as they wave and exchange pleasantries about how our summer was. My lips quirk up at the sight of my best friends waiting by my locker and I smother a laugh when I am able to hear what they are talking about. 

"You clearly have no idea what you're talking about Noah." Leah says scrunching up her nose . Before she can say anything else  I take my chance to shut down whatever they were talking about. 

"Hey guys" I say putting in my locker combination as the bell rings. 

"Cutting it close Carter, you're dad will have your head if you're late as much as you were last year" Noah tells me smiling. I feel like I have been reminded of this too many times already and roll my eyes in response slamming my locker closed after putting my books and gym bag in there. 

I wave goodbye to them and make my way to my algebra class where I head to the back window and slide into the chair. I avoid engaging in conversation and stare at my book doodling in the top corner. The teacher makes notes on the board but I find myself spacing out and mindlessly writing down notes. I don't mind algebra but I can only hold my attention in one place for so long before I lose interest. 

By the time lunch rolls around I am just about ready to smash my head into a brick wall. I walk to the cafeteria with Leah and we meet Noah and a few others at the table we have sat at since freshman year. 

"So how was summer in Chicago" Noah asks taking a massive bite out of his sandwich.

I shrugged and said "same as it is every summer." Every summer my family from everywhere go to Chicago and spend the summer catching up and hanging out. Dad says its to make up for the fact we never see each other at Christmas or Thanksgiving because its always impossible to get everyone in one place at one time. So by getting a house in Chicago for the summer we can come and go if we need but still spend time together.

"I bet it was nothing in comparison to Amsterdam" I shoot Leah a sly smile and she gleams and tell us all about some Amsterdam hottie that she hooked up with over the summer. Leah's parents are crazy rich and they always go to extravagant places over the summer and holidays. She used to get heaps of people trying to cozy up to her when we were younger but she made it clear she wasn't going to surround herself with fake friends. When I transferred in freshman year we were fast friends when I paid no attention to her bank account. 

When lunch is over Leah and I head to English. The entire period we try our best not to laugh as we recall about all the things she did over the summer including when she smashed straight into a waiter who unfortunately was carrying a tray of red wine and of course Leah was wearing white. Lets just say she will never get to wear that white dress again. 

I gather my things when the bell rings and follow my classmates out into the hall after waving bye to Leah. When I enter AP physics I once again make a beeline to the back window of the class where there are two desks free. As the class begins a boy busts into the class grabbing everyone's attention. I glance at him for a second and decide he must be new because I've never seen him before. Mr Rose gets the boy to introduce himself to the class after the boy apologized for being late.

"Uh hi I'm Caiden and I just transferred from California" He says quickly fidgeting on his feet. Mr Rose nods and gestures him to take a seat. There are only 3 available seats in the class and as he glances around the room he starts making his way towards to me. I exhale stiffly and rearrange my things closer to me to leave him room on the desk.  He shoots me a small smile before settling himself in the seat. 

As the bell rings again signaling the end of the day I pack up my things when Caiden taps me on the shoulder.

"Hey do you know where the boys locker room is? There's the soccer tryouts and I'd rather not risk being late and getting lost" he asks me coolly before slinging his bag over his shoulder.

"Yeah sure" I reply "There right across from the girls ones and I'm heading there now, so we can walk together if you want" 

"That would be perfect" He says as he shoots me a grateful smile. 

I nod my head as we walk down the hallway. "mind if we stop at my locker first? I need to grab my stuff" I say weaving around students going in the opposite direction.

Caiden shrugs and continues to follow me. When we reach my locker I grab my stuff and turn to face him but he asks me before I can say anything.

"So how good is the team here" 

"We're pretty good but we lost in the final last year but I blame the rubbish ref who couldn't call a penalty kick to save his life" I say shrugging my shoulders. 

Caiden snorts "isn't it bad sportsmanship to blame the ref"

"Sure when the game if reffed is done fairly and correctly" I say quirking up my eyebrow. "but last years final was not reffed fairly or correctly" 

As we round the corner to the changing rooms turn to him and say "here we are, and good luck at tryouts" I offer him a quick smile before disappearing into the girls changing rooms. 

I change and lace up my soccer boots before tying my dead straight hair into a messy ponytail and start running out to the soccer field. In my sophomore year I started training with the boys and it didn't take long before my coach realized my potential. It wasn't until last year that I was allowed to play with them but now with the seniors from last year gone I was going to be our main striker. 

I nod at my coach before putting my stuff down next to all the other guys bags and drink bottles. I then jogged on to what would be the craziest year of my life.

---