Airball

Chapter 8 - I Get Some Biology Help

November 15, 2019.

The next week sucked. I had started back playing scrimmage with my friends and I was actually having fun playing with them again. But then I would shoot a shot, it would air-ball miserably, and I would be stuck wondering if I would ever be good at basketball again. And then I would wonder if I'd even made the team and get lost thinking about all the shots I had missed. High school basketball was on another level from middle school basketball, and I honestly didn't know if I would have made the middle school basketball team. It was only a matter of time before I received the news that I didn't make the team.

"Hello? Hello? Earth to Blake!"

I snapped out of my thoughts and looked over at Cam, who was desperately trying to get my attention.

"You good bro?" he asked, squinting at me.

I looked over at the clock on the wall and saw that I had zoned out for more than half of biology class. "Yeah," I told Cam. "I'm good. What's she talking about?"

"Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell," Cam said, which was what he said whenever I asked him about anything in biology.

I tried my best to focus on what the biology teacher, Mrs. Keaton was saying. I had gotten up early this morning to take a longer run, and I was still tired. Plus, it was biology. Who actually stays awake during biology? Mrs. Keaton was talking about some activity that we were about to do, but once I heard the word "packet", I lost interest.

"Once you complete it, please turn it in at my desk," she was saying. "You're going to be working in pairs for this project."

Cam punched my arm and I nodded at him, but Mrs. Keaton had other ideas.

"You will not be choosing your partner, I will be counting you off," she said, earning one loud groan from the entire class. She counted everyone off, and everyone went to find their partners. I hadn't been paying attention, so I just stayed at my desk and watched the commotion.

Unfortunately, I didn't get out of the assignment that easily. My partner—who I recognized from art class—found me and sat down in Cam's seat beside me. She placed the packet down between us and stared at me expectantly. She had bright red hair and brown eyes and wore a loose red shirt.

I didn't know her name or anything about her but I hated awkward silences, so I decided to speak first. "Red," I said intelligently, just because that's what popped into my head.

She raised her eyebrows like she didn't know how to respond to that, which to be fair, I wouldn't either. "Yes," she said. "Thanks for noticing."

For a moment, I thought she was going to say, "You too", because that was probably now the color of my face. Did I mention that I hate awkwardness?

"I'm Harper," the girl said finally.

"I'm—"

"Blake Manson," she interrupted. "I know who you are. You play basketball."

Great, I thought, another person to inevitably let down.

But I nodded. "That's me."

"So, Blake Manson, are you going to help me with this?" she asked.

I hadn't even noticed, but Harper had already filled in about half of the front page of the packet while we were talking.

"Oh," I said, "well I'm not very good at biology..."

The girl just shrugged, as if this didn't surprise her. "Then just watch and learn."

I did watch, but I didn't really learn much. I tried to keep up and focus on what she was doing, but I ended up just listening to the sound of her voice and noticing how red her hair really was. I didn't fall asleep, though, so that was a plus.