She's the new girl, but she definitely will not be someone's emotional punchbag, that's something that is in her past.
He's a Royale both by name and in school hierarchy, used to getting and having everything he wants - except the much needed thera...
Whoever invented morning practice should be burned on a stake. Why on earth I had to wake up at 4:45 each morning just to go run loops in the fields was beyond me.
As I rolled out of bed, I threw on some basketball shorts and my jersey. I picked up my gym bag and made my way downstairs, where I knew Thomas had already laid out my breakfast. I saw Cecilia already awake and went to see what my younger sister was doing.
"What are you doing up already?" I said as I got closer.
"I'm finishing up an AP Lit paper due this morning" she answered.
"Oh, you mean the one you already finished a couple of weeks ago, and yet you're changing because it's not as perfect as you thought it would?" I told her with a grin.
She gave me a side-eye and said nothing more. I picked up breakfast, my car keys and left through the side door. I checked my phone and saw a million text messages from Michelle - she was really starting to get on my nerves. She acted like she was part of the family, and she was as sticky as double-sided tape. I still wonder what the reasons that made me put up with her for that long were.
I ignored her and sent a text to Wyatt.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I could already see him outside his front door as I pulled up.
"Hey, man... Why did Coach demanded we do morning practice again?" he said, stifling a yawn.
"Because he thinks your lazy ass needs to move before you turn to jelly" I laughed at him. He punched my shoulder, and I turned on the radio.
When we got to school, I didn't notice the horde of cheerleaders at the front entrance as I went directly to the outside court to warm up.
I was chatting with Wyatt, James and Liam and doing some stretches when someone extremely obnoxious cover my eyes.
"HI, SWEETIE!" Oh, god, please no.
"Did you miss me?" Michelle spun me around and jumped on me.
"You mean from less than 12 hours ago when I last saw you? Mhm... no. Not really."
She laughed, uncomfortable with my lack of enthusiasm. "Oh, baby, you're so funny! So, I thought that on Frid-" "Don't you have to go train?" I tried. "Oh, look! Coach is calling, I gotta go. Bye, Michelle." And with that, I run away towards the coach who was just coming from the locker room.
When I reached him, I looked at him and whispered: "Please help me." He saw where I was coming from and immediately started babbling about random things. It was not the first time something like this happened, and that goes a long way to show how much sooner I should have ended it with Michelle. Speaking of which, left as soon as she saw coach calling all the others to start training.
Okay, the morning creeps were done, now I had to just get through the rest of the day.
Coach showed us the workout for the day, and as I was starting to run, he called me back.
"We gotta talk, boy. Serious talk" he announced, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I can't say I didn't see it coming. I had been his playmaker for the last three years, some talent scouts were supposed to be coming to our homecoming game, I knew the talk was going to happen. Too bad I didn't really understand what kind of talk.
"I know Coach, I'm ready for this season. I've been looking at-" he put up a hand, stopping me mid-sentence.
"That's not what I wanted to talk about. I mean, it is, but not really." He was fidgeting with his pen, and I had a sense I was not going to like what was coming next. I nodded, asking silently to go on.
"Last year's grades were barely enough to keep you on the team, even if you're the playmaker. You have to raise them to at least an A- or I'm going to have to get you off the team."
My eyes went wide, and I stuttered some sorry attempt for an excuse, but coach cut me off: "I don't make the rules, sorry buddy. You may be royalty, but Principal Hawthorne is a dictator." With that, he waved me off, sending me to the sadder workout I might have ever done.
The thing was that even if I am a Royale - which means I can basically buy half of the East Coast and still have something left in our bank account, I and my siblings were brought up with the knowledge that we had to work for what we wanted. In this instance, said work was school. This most definitely did not mean that I actually did school work. I still was a Royale, everyone was basically begging to do my homework or let me copy their tests. I just had to fake it whenever my dad was home - which was rarely the case - and then I could do anything I wanted. My siblings all did the same, except for Cecilia of course, who I think probably got the IQ points the rest of us were missing.
I nodded heavily. "I'll try to do my best coach..."
"Good. Now go on, laps won't run by themselves". He sent me on my way and I slowly started jogging towards my team mates.
"Good news bro?", Wyatt asked as a neared him. I simply shook my head and run past him.
Coach really ruined my day when I remembered that History project that we were given the day before. I was looking forward to enjoying my last high school basketball season and now I had to work for my grades - I was this close to getting it the way I wanted.
I spent the rest of our morning training moving around, not really feeling the weight lifting. I took a longer shower than usual, during which I decided that I was not going to get depressed over something I could definitely work on in order not to actually do any work.
And what I had to work on with my charm was simply a lady someone who just arrived at our new school.
