Lolita 𐐪𐑂 Dick Grayson

t h i r t e e n

After school came more quickly than anticipated. I was scared all throughout the day of tryouts that I never once was terrified of. And to add on, my last block was AP psychology which I shared with Tim Drake; who could not stop burning holes on the side of my face.

The bell rang and backpack's now zipped up. I put my stuff away and grabbed my basketball bag, wanting to be the first person out.

"Lolita", Tim said being right in front my desk before I even got up, "we need to talk".

I rose an eyebrow to him and saw the teacher patiently waiting to lock the door. I grabbed his hand and dragged him outside.

"You have five minutes, tryouts start soon" I blew out my cheeks and let the right side of my body rest against a window outside a flight of stairs. Tim adjusted both his backpack straps looking down at the floor to recollect his thoughts.

"How did you... you know" He started looking up at me. Eyes greener than mine made me almost forget his question. What is with all these boys having such pretty eyes.

"Well if you hadn't been stalking me for the past three days, maybe I wouldn't have realized" I emphasized on the stalking part. To be fair, this whole week I had stayed in the south where I got out more. It was strange feeling the vibe that someone was constantly looking at me but when I saw robin behind a trash can outside the window of my favorite convenient store one day, I connected the dots.

So I did what anyone would do in this situation.

"So I stalked you back" I said, failing to say it with a serious face. I giggled remembering how I uncovered he was truly Tim.

The tip of Tim's ears flushed red, as so did the tip of his nose. He looked away sighing, his hand coming to hit his forehead softly muttering the word stupid.

"You took your mask off to rub your eyes on night outside my apartment" I smiled knowing he never slept, "and that's when it was confirmed it was you"

"But I had my suspi-" I wanted to reassure him but another voice came intervening our conversation. I snapped to my side to see Dick holding only his duffel bag.

"Come on guys, you should be at tryouts" His pointer hand aiming at me. I huffed, "and you should be on your way home" Dick said at Tim. Tim only rolled his eyes. Before Tim left, he gave me a half assed smile.

I took this as my sign to leave. I pushed the door opened and began walking down the stairs. I ignored Dick following from behind. I became so nervous, my gear bag began slipping out my grasp as I turned the corner to go down the last flight of stairs.

There it fell, hitting a couple of stairs and ultimately laying on a few stairs in front of me. Embarrassment hit my body as I knew he was looking at me now. I wanted to throw my hands around and act like a little child but I controlled myself. I bent down to reach my bag, the tip of the sack got stuck to my skirt lifting it from the front.

Quickly, I jumped the last few stairs and tried opening the door. Dicks hand stopped me, his stare making me yearn him more. I wanted to kiss him, so very badly. His lips were right there. They seemed to get nearer. I fought the urge and shoved my way out, speed walking to the new lockers.

Even from the outside I could already hear the voices of the girls singing so when I made my way in, the loudness grew making me feel more panicked. TLC's voices bounced off the lockers. The room was way bigger than last year. Instead of there being a large empty spot in the middle, it was now filled with more lockers. And it seemed the old quip meant room was destroyed as a corner housed new showers.

Sophie had already changed into her training gear, she was refilling her water bottle talking to another friend of ours. I walked to an empty spot in the new maze of lockers. I rushed to change, knowing that a couple of Dicks hickeys still stained my body. The sight of my old non-basketball sneakers made me annoyed. My uncle agreed to get me new shoes if I made the team.

I wrapped my hair into a ponytail and took out my water bottle. As everyone finished, we finally left the locker room and now stood in the gym. To my relief, my favorite coach, Coach Moore who was the one to refer me to the school was taking attendance.

I desperately looked around trying to find a grip pad for my sneakers but accidentally saw Dick enter who also had a change in clothing. Rather than his average dress pants, pointed shoes and collar shirt, he wore basketball shorts with a athletic sweater.

"Alright ladies, before starting I would like to thank and welcome you all to tryouts" Coach Moore clapped, his clipboard now between his armpit and arm. We all stood there, either paying attention or messing around with those around us. I wanted this to be over, to be told I made the team and that was final.

"Let's give a warm round of applause to coach Grayson" was what took me out of my daze. Everyone clapped for Dick, I failed but tapped my foot as it would give it the same meaning. Dick shown his infamous smile, his hair all ruffled and posture so well, making it hard to concentrate on what he had to say. Luckily for me, our warm up was 10 jogs 'round the court.

Sophie and I stuck together throughout practice, both of us switching our name tags as it always amused Coach Moore. Although there was that one time where I tried going in for a lay up but I failed to not notice Dick standing beneath the headboard making me loose focus and miss the shot. The most easiest shot ever too.

To make it even more embarrassing, Coach Moore pulled me to the side to talk about my shoe situation and if I had new ones for the season. I told him already I had it under control. Well at least that gave me the comfort that I was passing in his eyes.

Tryouts came to a quick end as we were now in line waiting to finish off with suicides. All the running I had done this summer finally paid off. I was able to do all runs without pauses or failing to make it on the whistle Dick blew.

My face drenched in sweat along with the rest of the girls. The gym was being repaired resulting in the usual cold room being warmer than usual. My water bottle rolled on the floor empty, to say we were tired was an understatement. But what was worse was we still had two more days of tryouts. Two more days of making a fool of myself.