I wake up to my alarm almost making my ears go deaf.
When I turn on my phone to turn the alarm off, something else quickly captures my attention. It is a text message from a certain someone. Someone who I didn't expect to text me.
Payton.
Payton texted me 'Good morning ðI'm excited to see you during volleyball today. Can't wait for my entertainment,' on Instagram.
I didn't even know I follow her on Instagram.
I gulp reading this, I think flirty text.
She has to be playing with me there's no way.
I open up the notification to make sure that it is a real text message from her and not just from some random person. Her confidence is peak and this all seems way too intentional. But why?
Does she text everyone like this or am I getting a bizarre special treatment?
I'm still laying in my bed just staring at the text message, thinking about what to write back. I'm already running late but that's nothing new for me.
My fingers are now hovering over the keyboard. I am forcing myself to reply. 'Prob will be late. Try not to miss me too much.'Â As soon as I hit sent I immediately get out of bed and I am now deciding to ignore my phone until I get to school because I am nervous of what she might send back.
...
I push through the doors into gym class and I already know that I am late.
Everyone is already sitting in their assigned spots on the floor and I have yet to even walk past the bleachers near the door.
I'm already out of breath. It's not just because I was practically sprinting to try and make it to class on time, which never happened, but also because riding on a bike is difficult. My quads were burning; especially because of the basketball drills I had last night.
I try my best to quietly walk in and pass the freshmen but as always, that plan is probably going to go to shit.
"You're late, Oliver."
I freeze.
Ms. Reed sets her laptop down on the ground and her eyes are now locked onto mine. I can tell she's been waiting to say those three words ever since the first bell rang.
She moves her glasses up, her straight long hair pushed back in a ponytail and her long legs are enough to make me melt but I can't. She's got the familiar strict face back on and I can tell this is going to be a long day.
I begin to open my mouth to say an excuse as to why I was late. Literally anything. Anything to get me away from this conversation.
But she doesn't give me the chance.
"You have detention today and tomorrow."
I roll my eyes and am about to walk away but she still hasn't said all she needed to.
"In my health room. But you know that already because of how many times you have been late to the easiest class in the world."
My jaw clenches.
There are so many things I want to say to her right now but I am so burnt out and I'm tired of this. So instead I just nod, forcing myself to not care and just walk right past her.
Before I can slip away from this conversation for good, I feel her eyes lingering on me again. I'm drained. I want to scream at her but I'm done fighting. So I just walk away so that I can pretend that the tension is gone.
Of course she is still mad at me. Why wouldn't a woman like her be? So it's obvious that that's the reason she's punishing me, and I know it. Yet, it still stings.
Attendance for volleyball went surprisingly well.
Me and Payton made eye contact a few times and I think Claudia noticed because she nudging me as a sign for whenever Ms. Reed was looking in our direction.
Most likely at me.
Today was the first time we were actually going to be playing versing other teams. My team was me, Claudia, Max, Maisie, and two sophomores. I'm still mad at Maisie but I'm competitive and I want to win.
We were first starting up with warms ups to get the blood flowing during these early hours in the morning and of course I'm practicing my spiking.
I need to scare the other teams.
As I keep practicing my spikes with Claudia setting the ball up for me, I hear a voice behind me.
"Okay, that was hot." I turn around and see Payton standing with her arms crossed. I turn back to Claudia and she knows that it's her queue to go. "But how do you even do that? I feel like even when I angle to hit the ball up high it barely makes it over the net."
I pause for a moment, now a little confused. "You're a cheerleader though. Isn't cheerleading all about like, insane jumps and shit like that?"
She smiles. "It is but volleyball seems more difficult. I feel like you need perfect timing, get a good angle...I don't know, help me out, superstar."
Superstar? Intriguing.
Still, I feel my face start to heat up at the nickname.
I hesitate, looking around the lower gym, making sure I don't look near Ms. Reed.
"Come here, I'll help you. Claudia!"
Claudia comes running back over to me and Payton. "Help set the ball please."
Claudia sighs, clearly tired of my shenanigans. "Fine, but only because I'm such a nice friend."
I motion for Payton to stand in front of me, facing the net, and she does as told.
"Alright Payton, so when you go up for the spike, you want to time your jump just right. Now you're like 5 ft or something so even if your vertical is amazing, you're still going to need extra height."
Payton turns her face towards me as she pretends to be slightly offended. "I'm 5'3 thank you very much. And since I'm so short, what are you going to do? Throw me at the ball?"
I smirk because I know exactly where this is going. "Lucky for you, I like to consider myself quite tall and strong." I take a step closer to her and place my hands on her hips. I feel the walls closing in on me. "Lift"
I can tell Payton's body stiffens for a minute, probably from the unexpected physical touch, but then she relaxes into my hold. "Well this just got a little more interesting."
"Shh." I feel my palms growing sweaty because of how nervous I am right now. There's only one time I ever felt this way towards a girl...I ever feel towards a girl.
"When I lift you and Claudia sets the ball up in the air, just focus on the movement of your arms and making sure you get the ball over the net."
Payton turns around and looks at me with puppy eyes. "Whatever you say, superstar."
I bend my knees and lift Payton up in the air.
She's as light as a feather.
I look at Claudia who looks at me and nods, ready to set the volleyball up in the air.
Before I can process Payton calling me 'superstar' again, I see her swing her arm forward and her fingers slightly graze the volleyball. She spiked it over the net.
I set her down and she looks at me with a huge grin on her face. "Did you see that?! I spiked the ball!"
I definitely am impressed. I know she said yesterday she has 'great coordination' but I definitely didn't expect it to relate to her spiking a volleyball. "That was actually pretty good. Let's keep practicing until its time for games though."
"Jules."
Fuck. My. Life.
Her voice cuts through like a knife.
I turn my head and Ms. Reed is watching. Intensely.
Her jaw is clenched, her arms crossed over her chest, but with a different style of attitude then Payton had.
"Mhm?"
I can tell Ms. Reed is a little surprised with the tone of attitude I gave her.
"Are we playing volleyball or is this a different game that I don't know about?"
Before anything can continue, I drop my hands from Payton's waist immediately. I honestly forgot they were still there.
"We were just-"
"Aren't you a volleyball coach? I thought volleyball coaches knew what spikes were. Guess I'm thinking of the wrong sport then."
I'm trying my hardest not to laugh now as I look back and forth between Payton and Ms. Reed.
"Jules is a really good teacher Ms. Reed."
Ms. Reed's eyes narrow.
For whatever reason, I sense the feeling of guilt creeping upon me even though I haven't done anything wrong. Maybe because someone's actually sticking up for me?
"Get with your group blonde lady. Games are about to begin." Payton does as told but flashes me an innocent smile before walking to her group. "And you Jules, you need to focus."
I'm biting my tongue, trying my hardest not to say anything.
I walk past her to join the rest of my group and as I make my way, I sneakily make my ring finger on my right hand touch the side of her waist. Barely any of my finger touched her.
But I know she felt it.
Because for the literal slightest second, I hear the tiniest hitch in her breath. It was so quick. I wouldn't have been able to hear it if I wasn't listening.
But I was.
I don't dare to turn around but I know that she is still watching me as I am now with the rest of my group.
The games haven't even started yet but, I know I won this round.