02: Ditching Practice

“And she just ditched you? Damn, Bro, and I thought I had problems,” Knox laughed, listening to Zach’s story as the two tossed around the pigskin mid-field. “Jemma’s on some tirade about me and Shana Dempsey when all I did was hand her a glass. Man she reamed me! Instead of going back to my dorm like I’d planned, she poured her drink on me and went looking for some friend of hers. Chicks!”

“At least you know her name. I didn’t even get that much. The only thing I really know about her is she’s a damn good kisser.”

“You dog! You got action and with no strings attached! Why the hell do you care so much? I’d give anything for a girl to go to town without all that needless chitchat and cuddling they like so much!” Zach smiled to humor his friend but didn’t agree. There was very little he ever could agree on when it came to Knox. But he knew him. Despite the way Knox behaved, he was all talk. He wouldn’t have believed it had he not seen it for himself but his best friend was crazy for Jemma and went out of his way to please her. “Besides, that was months ago, why are you still obsessing?”

Great question, Zach thought as he threw a wide pass. He knew it was crazy but he just couldn’t get her out of his head. He shrugged in response and swiped his arm across his forehead. Clad in his practice jersey and pants, the afternoon sun was beginning to bake him. The weather certainly didn’t fit this time of year. All week in fact it seemed unusually warm for spring. It didn’t help either that Fremont was known for rain. In addition to the hot climes, the conditions were wet and muggy; it felt more like the heat wave of summer. He looked up, shading his eyes with his hand as he glanced in the direction of the auditioning cheerleaders. Their jovial shouts sparked a moment of recognition and a memory he prayed would fade over time.

Sasha was a cheerleader. The thought of stolen moments under the bleachers and in the locker room made him smile briefly. She was his all. “Dude, if I was you, I’d be ditching practice and walking around campus kissing every chick I saw until I found her,” Knox chuckled, tossing the ball harder at his friend, drawing a frown in response.

“I’m not sure that would help me find the girl I’m looking for, Knox, but thanks; I’ll take that into consideration.”

“Anytime, Bro!”

“Ridgeway!” Coach Fowler shouted for his quarterback while he crossed over the field, “You’re wanted in Admissions.”

“Great, now what?” Zach groaned as he pulled the cleats off his feet. As star player for the West Tech Devils he was often imposed upon to give tours to hopeful students and make them feel welcomed to the school. Most days the visits would take up to an hour at least but he’d gotten into a rhythm lately that had reduced the time by half. Besides, most of the potentials were interested in checking out the main facilities, library, cafeteria, student union and dorms while others only cared about party life on campus; he’d gotten good at sorting them out.

“Hurry back, we’re gonna run drills soon. Don’t think you’re skipping them for those asshats in administration.”

“Sure thing, Coach.” Knox gave his friend a pointed look, nudging him to take his advice.

Rushing through the bustling lobby of Ventnor Hall, Zach quickly made it to Admissions and waited for the Dean to see him. As he stood there looking over the hanging portraits of Presidents past, the light scent of orange blossoms drifted in through the opened office doors. Instantly he looked up tracing the aroma towards a source but found the area behind him empty save Daniella, the Dean’s assistant.

Following his nose back through the lobby, Zach breathed in deeply and realized the fragrance seemed to be vanishing from the office. “No,” he whispered to himself and ran through the double wood doors until he stood out in the entrance hall once again. The smell was strongest in this passage and pulled him in the direction of the library. With a smile, he stepped inside and looked around.

The room was eerily quiet as several students crowded the few tables in the room, their eyes focused on the books or computer screens in front of them. Immaculately stacked bookshelves lined the outer edges of the room filled with assorted reading material. Heavy in thought the librarian sorted through a stack of books, rearranging them on the desk in front of her after keying them back into the catalog system.

“Zach!” The voice that had been in his head for the better part of the day chirped his name behind him. “Fancy meeting you here! I didn’t think you even knew where the library was!”

“What do you want, Sasha?” he asked without bothering to turn around as he continued surveying the room.

“Gee, I don’t know. I saw you leaving the field and I thought, well you can probably imagine what I thought. You, me and our favorite hiding place.”

Zach finally turned to look at her, a mix of emotions including confusion, anger and disgust flashed across his face as he watched his ex turn on her seductive charm. “If you think for a second that I’d even consider touching you again, you’re even more twisted than I thought!”

“Oh, Zachy! You don’t really mean that do you?” Sasha flipped a lock of hair over her shoulder and stepped closer to him. The smell of her perfume he once loved had now become an irritant to his nose and he took an escaping step backwards. “You know we were great together.”

Abigail looked up from her spot near the back and froze in place as she glanced towards the door. It was him! There in front of her stood the guy she found herself locking lips with on Marla Stabler’s balcony. Now clearly visible in the light of day she could see exactly with whom she had the pleasure of kissing. Zachary Ridgeway, the deliciously suave and charismatic girl magnet and big man on campus. He was standing with Sasha Madison, the head cheerleader for the West Valley Tech Devils.

For a moment Abigail marveled over the girl as she giggled with and teased the handsome athlete. Not a strand of her golden blonde hair was out of place. Her skin tight jeans and cleavage flashing top fit over her slender figure, hugging tightly to her curves and drawing attention to all the right places including her long, smooth, tanned legs. Sasha smiled at something Zach said, flashing her perfectly straight, bright white teeth that undoubtedly never felt the pain of harsh, metal bracers. She was supermodel perfection.

Abigail on the other hand fell on the opposite end of the beauty spectrum. With rusty-car brown hair and a figure as flat as a board, she never felt pretty enough for the attention of guys. Freckles plastered her face beneath the large, horn-rimmed glasses she wore in front of bright emerald green eyes, her one saving grace. And her skin was pale and would burn if she dared tan.

She gasped as Sasha’s arms slipped around Zach’s neck and the books stacked beside her fell noisily to the floor drawing the room’s attention, including Zach’s. Bending to retrieve them, she again glanced up, watching the girl she wished she could be flirt with the guy she wished she could have. Her round spectacles slipped down her nose and she caught them in time before they too hit the floor, grabbed her belongings and rushed quickly out the back door. 

“It would probably help if you stopped these delusions of yours, Sasha, because you and I? Never gonna happen again. I’ll see you back on the field,” Zach replied and peeled his ex from around his neck. “Oh and try not to fuck someone on your way back.”

“Abby!” Jemma sang happily as her friend zipped through the door of their shared dorm. “I just ordered a pizza, we have double chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer and Bridget and Trina are on the way. We’re gonna have a girl’s night and bash the assholes we’re dating.”

“That’s great and all but I don’t have a guy to bash.”

“But you’re a girl, that’s all the equipment required!” Jemma stopped her joyful flitting around the room as she noticed the glum look on Abigail’s face. “Hey, what’s going on with you? You’ve been different lately. Is it because of what I did at Marla’s party? Look, Abby, I told you I had to…”

“It’s not that, Jem. I’ve just…I don’t know. I tried to be the person you wanted but it backfired completely. It’s just not me. I’m destined to be the girl helping the hot guy with his homework. I’ll never be the one he wants to date.”

Jemma dropped onto the bed beside Abigail’s leg and looked at her. She knew her friend was having a hard time meeting new people. She had been a shy person since the two met in the tenth grade and it had been a goal of Jemma’s to pull her out of her shell. But lately it seemed Abigail was right and the shy girl she befriended in high school would never blossom. “Abby, what happened at the party? Why’d you run away like that?”

“Well after you went to yell at Knox, I decided to give your advice a shot. I grabbed a glass of champagne and did my best impersonation of a partygoer. Still I couldn’t approach anyone so I went out to the balcony and there was this guy and…” Abigail was cut short as a knock on the door prompted Jemma to look away.

“Pizza’s here. I’ll get that and we’ll pick back up ok?”

“Sure,” she sighed and fell back against her pillows.

“Party’s here!” Trina’s high pitched voice greeted Jemma as she opened the door. “Bridget’s grabbing her overnight bag from the trunk and will be here in a sec, take this would ya,” the girl practically tossed her luggage at Jemma, speaking rapidly and all in one breath. “Where can I plug in my phone because it’s about dead? I’ve been going back and forth with Shawn all day updating my status! First he posted he was ‘single and looking’ so I posted I was ‘hot and on the prowl’ then he comes back with ‘in the player’s club, three girls deep’ so I HAD to one up him with ‘macking a hottie in the Jacuzzi’. If he thinks this stupid game of his is gonna make me break and come running back to him, he has another thing coming! There is some SERIOUS groveling that needs to happen first! I’m in need of some severe chocolate therapy and girl time. I grabbed the family sized bag of mini Snickers and I brought my professional salon set so we can give each other mani-pedies! Oh. Hey, Abby,” Trina finally spoke as she noticed the other girl in the room.

Abigail waved indifferently towards the blithering Valley girl but didn’t bother to look at her. Both of the girls Jemma had invited were nonstop drama queens and self-centered airheads, one more annoying than the other. Both however had such grating voices worse than fingernails on chalkboard. It made Abigail want to drown herself in a tub of ice cold water rather than hear the harrowing tale of how they broke a nail or the incredible sales they found at the mall. This was not how she’d planned on spending her weekend.

The pizza guy walked up with Bridget and Abigail noticed the smile on his face; looks like they’ll be eating cold pepperoni. “I’m gonna head back to the library,” she remarked, sliding off her bed and gathering her books from her desk.

“What about girl’s night?” Jemma asked with a pleading look in her eyes. “I thought we were gonna hang?”

“I’ll be back a little later. I just have that paper due and I wanted to get a head start.” She ignored the disgusted looks on the faces of Jemma’s friends as she weaved through the sleeping bags and clothing already strewn everywhere.

“Have fun, Abby!” Bridget spoke in a derisive tone as she started out the door. The moment it closed behind her she could hear the two girls laughing and mocking her and Jemma refereeing them once again.

Deep in thought and writing what could easily be mistaken as a novel, Abigail sat in front of the computer screen working diligently on her essay. She was three pages in before she noticed movement beside one of the reference section bookshelves.

Drawing from her seat she glanced over the top of the cubicle to get a better view, “Hello?” she called but got no answer in return. Abigail quickly returned to her computer, forgetting the incident as she once again became engrossed by her work. A book fell behind her and landed against the chair in which she sat and she turned with a start.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t think anyone would be in here this time of night,” Abigail glanced up at the clock which read 9:00 p.m. and looked up at Knox frustratingly. It wasn’t very late considering the library stayed open until 12:00 a.m. on weeknights and 2:00 a.m. on weekends. He smiled at her and she waited to hear some insult or put down he was known for but instead he put his hands up defensively and backed away and she continued typing. 

Moments later he returned with three large books in his hands. Slamming them down noisily on the table beside her, he again drew her anger and an even louder sigh of aggravation. Abigail looked up at him as he rubbed the back of his neck, an apologetic look on his face. Once again she resumed working only to be interrupted a third time by the sound of his voice. “So uh, you’re pretty smart right? I mean Jemma tells me you make like all A’s and shit.”

“I suppose,” she responded, keeping her eyes on the screen.

“Cool, cool.” Knox moved closer, taking the seat beside her and looked over her shoulder as she typed. “Wow your fingers move fast! You get a lot done huh?”

“I guess.”

“Is that for a class? I mean I assume it is, huh? You like all this school stuff don’t you?” Abby didn’t reply but that didn’t stop Knox from continuing. “You’re like one of those geniuses who get like all those degrees. Hey what’s your major?” His warm breath blew past her ear again and she jerked back from the keyboard and turned to face him.

“Knox, what do you want?”

He watched her face a moment while he nibbled on his bottom lip. Blowing out a sigh he leaned forward and spoke in one long breath. “I know you don’t like me or whatever but I sorta need your help. I’m failing one of my classes…well all of my classes and I was wondering if you could like help me learn better.”

“You want me to tutor you?” Abigail asked, contorting her face in confusion.

“Yeah! Tutor me! I’d be like totally grateful!”

“I don’t know if that’s such a great idea, Knox.”

“Please? If I fail my next Algebra exam I’m not gonna be able to play football for like the rest of this season or next! That’s like, my entire life! You’d be doing me a real solid! Please?”

“Fine, I’ll do it,” she sighed in defeat at the pleading puppy dog look in his eyes. “But you have to be focused and willing to learn.”

“Awesome! I will, I promise. Can we meet at my dorm tomorrow? Say noon? My roommate will be out doing a few campus tours so we’ll have complete privacy.”

“Sure, Knox. I’ll see you then.”

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