Finding Myself

1: Riley

 "Go Mason!" I yell from the bleachers. I may not know shit about football, but I will always cheer on my boyfriend.

He gets to practice first line quarterback for the first time. He's worked so hard to get here and it's so adorable how happy he is.

I take my seat on the bleacher as Mason becomes preoccupied with talking to his team members. I grab my backpack and dig inside to find my folder and notebook so I can do some homework. Unfortunately, I have to stay here until football practice is over since Mason gives me a ride home. We live in the same neighborhood, a couple of houses away, so it just makes sense to go with him.

Just as I start on my homework, I hear my name being called and I look down to see the cheerleaders who are just entering the track. They wave at me and I wave back at them.

"Going to try out for the team this year, Riley? You know we have an extra spot if you want." The head cheerleader, Megan announces. She asks me the same thing every year and I always decline. It's sort of a tradition for most of the girlfriends of the football team members to be cheerleaders. However, everyone knows I suck at any sport related events, so I get a pass for not being cheerleader, but Megan always feels the need to ask at least once every year.

"No, I can't, I'm going to be really busy with my classes this year," I say for the fourth year in a row. The cheerleaders pretend to be sad and Megan gives me an understanding nod, then they all turn around to focus on their practice and I work on my assignments. First day of school and I already have a bucket load of homework. Great, my fault for taking so many advanced placement classes my senior year.

After a while of working on my homework, I finally finish and decide to glance around. I try to find Mason and he is still practicing a few more drills, so I continue looking around. I flinch as I watch a guy being tackled down in practice, ouch that must really hurt. Thank god, I don't play sports. I would probably easily break a bone. My focus then turns on to the cheer team, I recognize all but one of them.

I've never seen this girl before. I wonder who she is currently dating on the football team. Or even if she's not dating anyone yet, she will be soon. Most of the football guys will try to fight for her. Even though I can't exactly see her that well since I'm not wearing contacts or glasses now, I can tell that she's somewhat pretty from her body outline. She's not overweight, but not super skinny like the other cheerleaders. She looks pretty fit and healthier than the others, so I assume that she works out a lot.

The only other thing I can make out from her is that she has straight dirty blonde hair that's pulled up in a perfect ponytail. I'm mildly jealous about that. My hair is a dull dark brown and it's somewhat wavy if I'm lucky, however it's mostly just frizzy all the time. My hair also gets super tangled, so making my hair look that perfect is very tough. I mostly just leave it down and I never do anything fancy with it.

Hopefully she's not like the other cheerleaders. I can't deal with them, not that anything is wrong with them. They aren't like the stereotype, they aren't stupid or high maintenance, I just don't really get along with them. It's always been hard for me to fit in and I've never been into any sports and I hate that the cheerleaders always try to teach me some moves. The last time they tried to teach me anything, I fell and broke a finger. I do not want to make a fool of myself in front of them again. So, I dislike hanging out with them, but I have no option as all the girlfriends hang out together with the football team.

Dating Mason just pushes me into this sporty friend group. I don't feel comfortable with these people, I never have, but I never told Mason. I pretend to fit in for his sake because I know how important football is for me. He's really good at it and has been scouted by a couple of different colleges and back then he was the main quarterback for the team. I would never make him choose between football and me, so I've always pretended to love the sport and the group.

Mason has always been there for me and I would never do anything to jeopardize our relationship. We met when we were young. He was the first friend I made when I moved to this place in second grade.

I remember being super lonely when I first moved here because no one wanted to talk or play with the new kid. Mason was different though, he was the sweetest kid, and he was the only one to invite me to hang out with him. We became best friends who were inseparable.

As we got older, everyone kept teasing us and saying we would end up together. And eventually Mason asked me to be his girlfriend in sophomore year of high school. I said yes of course because it just made sense for our relationship. We've been together ever since and we have even made plans together after high school.

One of the schools that has been fighting for Mason is UCLA, so if he does really well this season then he might be going there. It's his dream so and I have been working my butt off the last four years doing everything possible to have a good outlook when applying.

"Hey, Riley. Ready to go?" asks Mason out of the blue. I jump from fright since I didn't even notice him standing next to me. I guess practice ended and I didn't even realize it because I was so caught up in my thoughts.

Mason chuckles and adds, "Done daydreaming there?"

"Yes," I reply sheepishly. I quickly pack my stuff away and get up to walk with Mason.

We walk down the bleachers and make it to the track, just before we walk out; I hear my name being called behind me again. Mason and I stop and I turn around to face Megan.

"Hey, Riley. We have a new member that we would like to introduce since you will be seeing her with the teams a lot," Megan explains.

The blonde girl next to Megan extends her hand for me to shake and says, "Hello, I'm Quinn. Nice to meet you Riley."

Now that I'm facing the girl, she looks very familiar to me. I shake her hand and reply, "Hi. I think I remember you from earlier. You're in my AP economics and government class, right?"

Quinn smiles widely at my comment and I have to take a quick breath because I'm blown away by her beauty. Like when she walked up to me at first I thought wow she is so pretty, but then she smiled.

"Yeah, that's right. I'm glad that I at least know one person in those classes now. I heard that the teachers for those classes are both a pain in the ass. They are super strict and assign so much work."

"Yeah, I know, this year will be a lot of work. I already have a study book that I got over the summer for those classes. If you ever need help or want to look at the books, just ask and I'll be more than happy to help," I reply to Quinn.

"Thank you, honestly I will probably take you up on that offer. I really want to pass those advanced placement tests," she says.

"Don't worry; I have faith that we will both pass those tests. We just need to put in a lot of effort over this year," I add.

Quinn gives me another breath taking smile and I realize that's her best physical feature. Her smile is so pretty and friendly, just seeing it immediately makes me feel warm and calm. She also gets this cute twinkle in her green eyes as well that just adds to her smile. It's so contagious that I can't help but smile back at her.

"What the fuck just happened?" asked one of the cheerleaders.

"Two nerds have found each other, that's what happened," Mason teases. Everyone starts chuckling and I realize that Quinn and I were so into our conversation that we forgot about everyone else around us.

"Anyway, it was nice to meet you, Riley. I guess I'll see you tomorrow in class," Quinn says. I say goodbye to her and the others and Mason and I finally head out. Before leaving the gate, I glance around to see Quinn one last time. There's just something about her that I like. I can't quite figure out why, but she immediately got on my good side.

I turn around and walk out of practice with Mason.

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Author note: I hope you guys enjoyed chapter 1 of my story. I'm glad that I'm finally out of my writer's block and I'm super excited to be writing this.

There will be 1-2 updates a week.