She squeezes his shoulder. “Thanks. I’d have no hope if your loudmouth brother was here.”
Milo smirks, looking down at his book.
“Kai’s just passionate,” I butt in.
“He spreads other people’s news much too quickly and easily,” Maddy says, moving over to the counter.
“Whatever,” I mumble.
Maddy walks away, joining Mr. Stuffy on the couch.
I look down at my math homework and huff. “This’ll be so much easier when it’s me teaching you soccer.”
“You know, I don’t want to put you in a bad position with your coach,” Milo says. “You don’t have to help me with soccer. I don’t want you to get caught and risk your chance to get back on the team.”
“But it gives me an excuse to kick around the ball during this mess,” I reply. “There’re plenty of pockets of time to get in a little training.”
“Yeah, but you said…”
“Don’t worry about it,” I blurt. “I’ve used free periods before to train for upcoming games. Like tomorrow, third period is usually when I’m on the field, and I’ve never seen Coach Anders around. It’s my favorite time of the day because it’s so peaceful out on the field.”
Milo sits back in his chair. “You have third period free? I’ve never seen you in study hall.”
“Wait. You have third period free?”
He nods.
“Well, I think we’ve got our time and place. Meet on the soccer fields?”
He chews his lip with apprehension. “Yeah, sure.”
I stare at him. “What is it?”
“It’s like you know how to study but refuse to use your skill with books and in classrooms.”
I frown. “What are you talking about?”
“You use a free period to get ready for a game,” he replies. “You could use that time to study for an upcoming exam. You need to refocus and use your time to work on your classes.”
“I will,” I say bluntly. “We will. We’ll meet up after school again and work on homework. Please, let’s just use third period to work on soccer. I’ll go crazy without it.”
Milo nods. “Okay. But if we call it close with your coach, I’ll work something else out.”
“You worry too much.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t change into your gym gear, just in case. We could pretend you were just walking by.”
“Milo, stop. I already told you I never see anyone.”
“That doesn’t mean they don’t see you,” he counters. “You could just be laser-focused and not notice that your coach or anyone else is watching you.”
I raise my palms in surrender. “Okay, whatever.”
“I have phys-ed during fourth period, so I usually change early, anyway. After this, you need to learn to use study periods actually for study.”
I smirk. “Stop nagging me. Can we go to your house tomorrow to study?”
His eyebrow quirks. “Why? So you can hang with Kai?”
