I roll my eyes and decide for him. I shove the tray across, muttering, “I’m not hungry.”
“Word around school has made everyone hungry for milkshakes,” Kai says. “Apparently, Ash’s girlfriend can’t stop talking about them. I still can’t believe you hung out with them and didn’t call me. You know how much I want to hang out with that guy.”
“Why? Because we all bore you?” I tease, gesturing at our friends.
“No,” Kai replies. “He can get anything at a snap of a finger. I’ve overheard all the epic things he and his buddies get up to on the weekends.”
Tabitha curls an arm around Kai’s bicep. “We’d make such a cute double date.”
Kai’s eyes light up. “Do you know his girlfriend?”
“I’m working on it,” Tabitha says, her enthusiasm growing at the same rate as Kai’s.
I have to look away before my eyes go into a rolling spasm. Although, it does fill me with a little glee that my time with the school’s it couple has also made Tabitha jealous. That’s a nice bonus I hadn’t intended on.
The end of the school day could not come sooner. Kai’s team always trains on Thursday afternoons and Saturday mornings before games. I change into my soccer uniform and tighten my cleats. Kai meets me by the girl’s locker room and jogs down to the field to approach his coach.
“What’s this?” Coach Lyle asks with his hands on his hips.
Could he grimace any harder at me?
“Jamie missed her practice this morning,” Kai says. “Can she join us?”
Coach Lyle smirks and folds his arms. “What do you think this is? I don’t let just anyone join my team. Plus, if you blew off your practice, what makes you think I’d give you the honor of training with my boys?”
“I didn’t blow it off,” I reply. “Coach Anders told me to work on an assignment instead of going to practice. Now, I’ve got itchy feet and need to run drills.”
“Come on, Coach,” Kai urges. “Let her train with us. She’s better than half the guys here.”
“Half?” I scoff. “Okay, I’ll be modest and play along.”
Coach Lyle rocks his jaw and then shrugs. “Okay, what do I care? Go on, you two, get going.”
Without another word, Kai and I break out in a jog, gaining speed on the rest of the team, who run along the edge of the field. I get some strange looks from the boys on the team, but Kai and Tyler tell them to take a hike.
After a run and some stretches, Coach Lyle has us juggling balls. This couldn’t be more perfect. Kai and I love competing against each other to see who gets the highest number and breaks our record. Kai once got to nine-hundred and fifty-three. It still blows my mind. I hate to admit he’s better than me. That’s why I never admit it aloud.
My best is seven-hundred and two. I’ve spent so many hours in my tiny backyard practicing, and I still can’t get higher. Many days it’s hard just to break two-hundred. Coach Lyle wants us to do one-hundred in a row without dropping the ball. Some of the guys struggle with the stamina and self-discipline needed. Kai, on the other hand, gives me a knowing look, trying for that elusive one-thousand reps. Somehow, I don’t think Coach Lyle will let us dedicate the entire practice session to beating our record. We can't stay on school grounds for the number of hours needed to meet that feat.
Kai and I stare each other down as we start on our one-hundred. His cocky smirk is off-putting, and I swiftly change focus to the ball, keeping my kneeslifting high. I get a nice bouncy rhythm, juggling the ball off one thigh, to the other, and repeat. It’s Zen as I count each time my legs connect with the ball. My head stays steady, my gaze laser-focused, with the ball crossing my vision every second and a half.
After my ninety-ninth hit, I cheer, “One-hundred!”
Thrown off, Kai’s ball ricochets off his right knee and hurtles toward Tyler. Tyler yelps, losing control of his ball too.
“Man, what gives?” Tyler whines, moving in a semi-circle to gain control of the two balls.
“Sorry, man,” Kai says with a laugh, stopping the ball after Tyler passes. “I didn’t expect Jamie to blitz me like that. I was only up to eighty-six.”
I poke my tongue out at him. “Looks like you’ve gotta start over, bro.”
Kai laughs. “Taunting isn’t a good color on you, James.”
I grin. “Since when has that stopped me?”
Five boys on the team can’t get through one-hundred uninterrupted juggles, and Coach Lyle has them run more laps. The rest of us move onto the next drill.
Coach Lyle announces he wants to work on fake-outs. “It’s all about footwork, misdirection, and juggling, like you’ve been practicing.”
