No Shame (Book 2 - No Regrets)

Chapter Nineteen - Fading Faith

KATIE'S POV

"Hey crack-baby." Jerry sneers from down the hall as he approaches. The sound of his voice makes me stiffen, I reconsider waiting to speak to Miss. Slandonu about the homework problems I am struggling on. She is currently talking to another student in her classroom. I could always find out how to work out the problems on the internet. Besides practice will be starting soon. I pick my backpack to leave, but Jerry quickens his pace. Before I can turn the corner to head down another hallway, he grabs my arm.

He pushes me into the wall, I hiss as my shoulder slams into the brick. He yanks my backpack from my grasp. "What are you packing today? Maybe a gun or bomb, you psycho."

"Stop it, Jerry." I say, reaching for my backpack. Jerry moves out of my reach. He unzips my backpack, he turns the backpack upside down. I watch as my notebooks, folders, and papers fly out landing on the floor. Jerry throws my backpack at my feet.

"I'll stop when you give me a reason to." Jerry says as he kicks my pencil case, sending it sliding on the tile down the hall. I listen to his footsteps as he leaves. I lean down and begin picking up the contents of backpack. Under my breath, I curse Jerry for being an incredible huge a*sh*ole.

"Katie, you having a rough day?" Sawyer asks.

I snap my head up and find my boyfriend crouching down in front of me to help me pick up. I feel my cheeks warm up in embarrassment and my heart flutter at the sight of him. Sawyer smiles at me as he hands me a piece of paper. "Did your backpack break?" He asks.

"More like my faith in humanity." I answer.

Sawyer's eyebrows furrow a bit, "Oh." He says. I can tell he is trying to think of something else to say but he doesnt.

"Did you stay after school to watch me practice?" I ask, I keep myself from sounding too excited or hopeful.

Sawyer gives a slightly embarrassed look as he lets out a quick forced chuckle, which gives me my answer. "What are you doing here after school then?" I ask.

"I have a meeting with the baseball team, we're planning an upcoming fundraiser to get new uniforms and equipment before the season starts." Sawyer explains.

"You're doing baseball again? I thought you said you had a lot on your plate this year." I say zipping up my backpack.

"I do, but I talked with coach and some of the guys, I have a real chance at an athletic scholarship if I keep up with it." Sawyer explains helping me up to my feet.

"You could also get an academic scholarship, your grades are good enough." I point out.

"Colleges often offer better athletic scholarships than academic, you know that." Sawyer points out again. He gives me a smile, "We'll have more time to see each other since we'll both start staying after school for practices."

I smile back at him, "That will be nice." I admit. I sigh and touch his arm, "Please don't overwork yourself."

"I won't, I promise." Sawyer says. He leans over and gives me a quick peek on the lips. "Okay, I have to go. If the meeting ends early and you're practicing, I'll stop by the gym to watch you practice."

"Okay." I say, my heart racing from him kissing me. Though he and I have kissed before, my heart always races as if we are kissing for the first time. I wave goodbye to him.

I look back at Miss. Slandonu's classroom, the door is still shut; and I do not feel like waiting around and risking another visit from Jerry. I decide to head to practice.

~~~~~~~~~~

Today's warm up of ten wind-sprint reps and fifty frog-jumps, I feel myself ready for practice to be over. Coach Sherbert, being the ever so benevolent and merciful coach, allows for us to take a five minute break to cool down before beginning practice. I take a seat against the folded bleachers, gulping down the water from my 32-ounce water bottle. "Katie, are you free this weekend?" Sharlotte asks as she approaches with a ice-blue sports drink in her hand.

"I have to babysit my niece Saturday afternoon, but other than that no." I answer. Dominick and Tyde are going out of town to visit Linkon at a-school. They are leaving Friday afternoon and coming back Sunday evening. Mollie is staying at Aria's for the weekend; but Saturday afternoon Aria has something scheduled and I was asked if I could watch Mollie for a couple hours.

"Okay, well if you are free and want, I am going to have a sleepover on Saturday. All the girls on the team are invited." Sharlotte says. "I'll text you the details later."

"Awesome." I say. "Thank you."

Sharlotte smiles, "Hope you can come." She says. Her ponytail bounces up and down as she jogs off to talk with and invite a couple of the other girls on the team.

I look around as I take a couple more sips from my water bottle. Jena isn't here today. I look around the gym again to confirm. Her bag is not against the bleachers and I do not see her around. Hope she's not sick. I think to myself. I take my phone out of my bag, I open the basketball team group chat, I scroll through the messages from today, seeing if Jena wrote to inform us she would be absent from practice. I am scrolling through a spam of memes from earlier when a text notification pops up at the top of the screen. A text from Sawyer.

I leave the group chat to take a look at Sawyer's message. "Friday evening, do you want to go see a movie?"

My heart soars a little as I type, "Heck to the yes!"

I try to keep from smiling like an idiot, but i can feel my cheeks blushing. My phone buzzes when he sends a reply. "Awesome! I'll let the guys know we'll be joining them."

My smile falters for a brief second, but I shake away the feeling. Sawyer and I are still going to be spending time together on Friday. That's enough.

"Okay, ladies, line up on the line. We're going to run some drills." Coach Sherbert calls out. I am putting my phone up when it buzzes with another text notification. This time, it's a new message to the group chat. "FML, my mom forgot I have practice and scheduled a dentist appointment for me. BLEH." Jena's message reads. Her message is followed by a gif of a cartoon figure laying on the ground in a pool of tears.

I chuckle a bit, "Running drills today. Wish my mom had scheduled me a dentist appointment. LOL. Hope all goes well."  I type.

"Boyfriends can wait, come on, Katie." Amber says grabbing my attention. "Before we have to do wind-sprints."

I send the text before tossing my phone into my bag and jog on to the court over to the line.

***AUTHOR'S NOTE***
Oh Sawyer. The very hands that wrote you into existence are about to slap you if you don't get your act together. You're not a bad guy... you're just not a great boyfriend.

Next chapter will be a Katie chapter, then I plan to have a chapter that is, at least, 1/2 Aria's POV or Aria centered. I have not decided if I want to do Aria's POV.

I am still working on the mini-project that I hope to unveil soon! I have a lot more writing left to do before it is ready.

I have loved reading your comments and all your theories. I am so grateful that you all enjoy this story and the characters. I hope that my writing and work will continue to be worthy of such kind praise.

I feel the need to make something very clear. I am NOT currently, nor do I intend to ever, make a profit/make you all pay to read my story and it's chapters. All the content that is published I intend to always be available to you all. I am writing this in light of the recent changes to Wattpad (specifically the coin system which resembles payment systems on other storytelling platforms). If there ever comes a point where Wattpad is forcing any of you to pay to read, I will move platforms and notify you all. BUT THIS IS WORST CASE SCENARIO, CURRENTLY WATTPAD AND THIS STORY REMAIN FREE.

Please forgive any errors, I wrote this on a mobile device. I will come back and edit soon!

THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR READING! I HOPE YOU ENJOYED!

VOTE, COMMENT, FOLLOW, do whatever you want.

Story Fact #2 - I had not planned to have Katie even interested in reaching out to Cason (her biological father). However, I felt that the story with her journey for more answers was not completed by the end of No Regrets.