BOND

6.

But I could steal you some flowers

And ask if I could take you out

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Elena quickly filled out all her forms. The deadline was in less than ten minutes and she still had a couple more to go. An email for the details of her next match had come to her late at night and she hadn't looked at the target time. Which had landed her out in the hallway in the middle of the Biology lecture, which she was quite obviously bunking.

She muttered under her breath as she filled all the columns. 

"Age...sixteen. Event, singles. Venue...," she trailed off, turning to look at her phone. Five minutes left. She increased her speed until she herself could barely read it, forget about the officials in New York. 

As fate would have it, she was stuck in the same city as the boys for pretty much the same time. 

Ben had been the one who'd told her about their selection after they had come out of the school and found her lying almost on top of Daniel. Joey had remained inside with Coach Harley to discuss everything and she'd left for home without him. They hadn't talked at all since yesterday morning save for the text she had sent him saying congratulations. 

The second she'd filled out the last word she beelined to the fax office. Hoping to get it through within the time limit.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Joey arranged all the forms of the team alphabetically and rechecked all their details. He and Alex had been the only ones who had not required extra forms. Ben, to no one's surprise, had filled the wrong particulars four times. And still he wasn't sure if everything was correct or not. 

All the information of the tournament had already been given to them and all they had to do was fill out five copies of the same thing for submissions at different places and of course train and play well. Their daily practices had turned much more serious and vigorous. This morning had been the first one since the big announcement and everybody had been on their toes. As if the way they played today would decide the outcome of the matches in New York. 

The whole school knew of their selection and news was picking up in the local and state newspapers. He had gotten a free pass out of his classes on the pretext of sending out the forms. Which was true but definitely not as time consuming as he was making it. 

He had just put in the last paper when the door rattled. He looked up and was greeted with Elena looking burdened. She had a pen stuck in her bun and another in her mouth. Her reading glasses were perched on the very end of her nose and she was shifting through the bunch of papers in her hands so fast he felt bad for them.

She moved right towards with no change in her direction so he quickly got out of the way. 

Elena kept her eyes downcast as she scanned through the papers looking for a mistake, "Hey Joey!"

Joey furrowed his brows, "Hey?"

She still didn't look up as she said, "Just give me two minutes."

He took out his form from the machine and stood over to the side quietly. Whatever she was doing, it didn't look like she needed help. 

Elena quickly dropped in her documents, tapped a few keys, and finally turned to look at Joey. He was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. The black shirt he was wearing pulled tight against his biceps even though the buttons were open over a plain white t-shirt. Coincidentally, both of them were wearing similar sneakers and he noticed it too.