“Don’t act like I should’ve stopped that,” Milo says, retrieving the ball. “I only started practicing today.”
“I don’t get why you don’t practice at home. If you know you’re bad at it, why don’t you put in work like you do your other classes?”
“Because my other classes are actually important.”
I roll my eyes and walk over to him. “Whatever. Okay, let’s work on your position when passing a ball. You want to be square on the ball.”
He looks down at my body as I get into position beside him. “Square?”
His gaze gives me a chill and I shake out my limbs to compensate. “Think of it as a right angle.”
He snaps his fingers. “Ah, got it.”
“You want to aim your shoulder where the ball has to go.”
“That part always trips me up. I can’t coordinate my shoulder and my foot.”
“Honestly, Milo, there’s not a lot that doesn’t trip you up.”
“Ha ha.”
“Here, I’ll show you.” I demonstrate with the ball. “Aim behind the ball, angle your body, step onto the ball, and follow through.”
“We may as well be speaking Spanish,” Milo mumbles as I collect the ball.
“¿No comprende, amigo?” I say in a terrible Spanish accent.
“No, I take French.”
Why did that just send a spark of energy through me? Every fiber inside me tingles. It’s the ultimate rom-com trope to have the male lead dole out some French. But Milo isn’t the lead in my love story. I’m still waiting for that guy to turn up in real life, instead of in the movies I stream.
I encourage Milo to practice passing, and it’s varying degrees of bad. With some more pointers, he nears an almost good kick.
“Jamie,” Mrs. Nelson calls from inside the house. “Your aunt has just pulled up out front.”
“Okay, thanks,” I call back.
Milo sighs. “Well, thanks anyway for your help.”
I give him an unconvincing smile. “I think I’ll be getting a better grade in math than you will in phys-ed. You’re a better teacher than I am.”
“I think I’ve proved over the years it doesn’t matter who teaches me this stuff. I’m a lost cause.”
I pat his arm for encouragement, but the maneuver comes off as awkward. “We’ll give it another practice this week. You’ll get it. Maybe. Hopefully.”
Milo laughs. “Thanks for trying. I’ll practice a little more before getting to my physics homework.”
“Yikes. Physics sounds daunting.”
He smiles. “It makes more sense to me than being out here. Theoretically, it should help me work out all this soccer stuff. It’s all angles, thrust, and velocity. But it looks like I won’t be an experimental physicist in the future.”
“You’re too smart for your own good,” I say, heading for the back door. “I’m really lucky you’re tutoring me.”
When he smiles and waves goodbye, I enter the house, scolding myself for letting tingles run throughout my body.
Ten
Thenextday,Isit at the lunch table with the boys, listening to Tyler drone on about a sociology assignment. I don’t want to pay attention to my own assignments, so I have zero interest in his complaints. I've pulled my chair out too far from the table to eat comfortably. I’m waiting for Kai to get here. He can drown out the sound of any voice.
