"I can't believe that I am missing my practice for a stupid basketball game." I said to Nathan as we walked down the hallway towards the gym.
"Yeah, but it's my stupid basketball game, so it won't be that bad!" Nathan said cheerfully as he nudged me. "This was your idea anyways."
"I know, I just thought I'd have time to practice first! I didn't expect you to drag me to the practice right after the bell rang!"
When I walked out of Science after the bell had rung, Nathan was already waiting for me, ready to drag me to the gym. He had been relased from class early so that he could get his uniform on. And boy, did he look good. He dragged me to the gym and sat me in the front row. He took my backpack- and phone, I might add- and shoved it in his locker in the boy's locker room so that I was forced to watch the entire warm up. As it turns out, Nathan is good. Really good. Like the best one on the team good. The other team showed up about halfway into the practice, and they weren't nearly as good as our team. Before the game started, Nathan ran over to me and sat down beside me. I handed him his water bottle and drank almost all of it.
"This is totally working, Gene. The other guys are so jealous."
"What did you tell them?"
"That you were my girlfriend."
"Awesome." I said, I grin spreading across my face. "This whole charade might actually work, Nathan."
"Evers! Stop chatting with your girlfriend and get back over here! The game's about to start!" The coach yelled.
"Coming!" He yelled to coach. He looked back at me. "You really should smile more, Gene. You look a thousand times more beautiful."
I blushed as he ran off for a group huddle or whatever. A couple minutes later, the two refs, Nathan, and some kid from the other team met in the middle of the court as the bleachers around me started to fill up with students and parents and coaches from other teams in the county. Was he the captain of the team? Why wouldn't he tell me?
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By halftime, I was screaming my head off for Nathan. I was getting a tad more into the game than I had anticipated. I was cheering with the crowd and getting excited for them along with everyone else. Nathan led his team into the locker room. I don't know what to talk about, they were ahead by a good twenty points. The cheerleaders did their little stunt while they were off in the locker room. Let's just say that I did not appreciate having a bunch of popular girl's weird pom poms waggled in front of me. Everyone else seemed to enjoy it though. As soon as our team came back out, I just couldn't stop watching Nathan. He was so good, and he never bragged about it or said so much as a word about it. He was the main scorer for the team, also the one who got the most blocks, and the most steals. And he never said a word about it to me.
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After they won, the gym erupted into ear-splitting cheers. The crowd (including me) swarmed around the team and congratulated them. As soon as Nathan and I made eye contact, he didn't pay attention to the praise everyone else was giving him. He put his hand on the small of my back and steered me away from the crowd and led me outside. As soon as we were out of the building, we started talking.
"I saw you getting really excited, Gene."
I grinned and looked down at my feet.
"I may or may not have gotten a little bit more enthusiastic as the game wore on."
Nathan laughed and I rolled my eyes.
"I have a question for you, Nathan."
"Out with it then," he said, wrapping his arm around my waist and pulling me closer into his side.
"Why did you decide not to tell me that you are a basketball prodigy?"
He shrugged. "It didn't seem like the right time."
"So, it hasn't been the right time for a month now?"
He eagerly nodded. "I dunno, I guess I just- I just was so focused on the prank, on you, on your dancing, on us, that I just kind of forgot."
"How could you forget the tiny fact that you're probably going to get into a division one college and I'm going to be stuck and some other college?"
"You make me forget a lot of things, Gene."
"Like about how you left my backpack and phone in your gym locker?"
"Oh, yeah! Okay, I'll be right back. Promise you'll wait for me before you leave for the studio!"
"Promise."
He gave me a small smile and a kiss on the forehead and ran away before I could do anything about it.
YOU ARE READING
Pretending to Fake It
Novela JuvenilGene 'Ash' Ashcroft doesn't have any friends. And she doesn't care. She actually likes being alone. It means she can focus more on her dancing and schoolwork then having to deal with the annoying and somewhat troublesome aspects of social life. Unti...
