Totally Undercover

Chapter Eleven

The next few weeks at school were filled with homework, quizzes, photo shoots, Mackenzie, tests, and more projects. I was starting to feel swamped by everything happening. Not to mention I was in the midst of doing college applications. Michael and Clara tried telling me I didn't need to go to college because I had modeling now, but I simply ignored them. I knew I couldn't model forever, and just incase something popped up, I wanted to have a backup plan.

"Where are you thinking of applying?" Luke asked one afternoon as we both lay sprawled out on my floor, surrounded by our lap tops and papers. No one ever told me how stressful applying to colleges was.

"I'm not entirely sure," I answered, opening five new tabs to different schools in California and Florida.

"Alright then, do you know what you want to do?" He asked, taking a different route.

"Nope," I said, popping the 'p'. "I just can't see myself doing anything in the future. What about you? What do you want to do?"

"Well, in an absolutely perfect world," Luke started. "I would graduate high school in the top class, which I think I will, but then I would get a soccer scholarship to Seattle University where I would play for two or three years, but then get recruited to the national team. I would play professional soccer for as long as I could before settling down with a sexy wife and have five or six kids, and then coach a club soccer team."

"Of course you do," I laughed. "But wow. I feel like a total loser next to you. You have everything planned out!"

"That's in a perfect world," he laughed, shaking his head. "It's not going to happen."

"That's not true!" I protested. "I never thought my dream would come true, but it did! Nothing is impossible."

"Yeah, and what was your dream?" Luke asked, raising a questioning eyebrow.

I instantly froze. How could I have been so careless! Luke didn't know my secret; he couldn't know my secret! "To... To live at the beach!" I said, mentally cursing at myself for stumbling over the words.

"But didn't you live at the beach before?" he questioned, looking at me curiously.

"Well, yeah," I started. Think, Ashlee, think! "But it wasn't warm and sunny like it always was here! Not to mention it's always warm, never cold."

"Uh huh," Luke said, clearly not believing me. Luckily though, he didn't say anything.

"So anyway," I said, quickly switching topics. "You're that serious about soccer?"

Luke nodded, the slightest tint of pink on his cheeks. "Soccer has been in my life as long as I can remember. The first thing I did when I could walk was kick a soccer ball."

"That's awesome," I said with a genuine smile. "I wish I knew what I was doing in the future. I just can't see myself doing anything and it sucks."

"You'll know soon enough," Luke said with a reassuring smile. "And I have soccer practice in twenty minutes. I'll catch you later."

"Soccer?" I asked, also getting up as he gathered his belongings. "On a Saturday? Don't you get a break?"

"There's no such thing as a break for a soccer player," Luke said with a small grin. "Plus, when I'm old and can't play anymore I'll get all the rest in the world."

"You sound old already," I laughed, crinkling my nose as we walked down the stairs.

"Well if I'm old, you're ancient," Luke said, sticking his tongue out at me.

"Hey, how do you know if I'm older than you? You don't even know when my birthday is!" I protested, opening the front door for him.

"Actually I do know when you're birthday is," Luke grinned. "Your mom told me. But no worries, young one, you are not older than I."