30| Shut up And Focus on Your Homework

THE rest of Fall break was extremely boring. I promised my mom that I would spend the rest of my time focusing on my homework and studying. Although, it had been hard to focus so much with a certain someone constantly floating around in my mind.

I couldn't stop thinking about damn Noah Locke. The last night, the night of the party, just replayed over and over in my head. Just the reminder of the fact that Noah and I kissed not once, not twice, but three times gave me butterflies. God, it felt so good to kiss him. How weird is that?

Months ago, he was number one on my hit list. Now, he's number one on my "Dammit, I want to kiss you" list. Yes, that's a real list.

And now it was Monday, which meant back to the regular school grind. I was in first period, and so far, I hadn't seen Noah yet. It kind of drove me crazy because of how badly I wanted to see him. Or be near him. Or kiss him. Or literally anything.

"Logan, are you even listening to a word I'm saying?" Gracie asked, and I snapped out of my daze.

"Sorry," I muttered.

"Wake up from dream land," Sophie chimed in. "We have a lot to discuss. We're talking about state. It's next week for goodness sake, we've gotta be on our A-game."

"Come on," I said. "I'm always on my A-game."

"I know," Sophie said. "It's other people I have concerns about. AKA the two she-devils."

"Right," I grumbled. The thought of Savannah and Genevieve made me want to rip someone's throat out.

"Genevieve has been playing like shit lately," Gracie pointed out. "It's like she completely forgot how to hit the ball down."

"She either hits the ball way out the back, in the net, or it's a pathetic roll shot," I said, rolling my eyes. "Even I can admit that she was actually decently good. But right now she's seriously sucking it up. She better pull it together before state. No way we're losing to Athens."

Athens Christian was the second best high school volleyball team in Georgia, and otherwise known as our rivals. Practically every year at state, we would be going up against them, and it was variable who would win. Not to mention, we couldn't stand anyone on that team. They were all incredibly intense (to the point of crazy) Jesus-freaks. Nothing wrong with being religious, but we were all pretty sure they were a huge cult. And they were way too nice to be normal. I mean, no one is nice all of the time. Even when we won against them, their wide smiles never faded, and they would hug each one of us. It was honestly terrifying.

    "I'll text her and see what's up," Rose offered, turning her chair around to face us.

    "Good idea," Gracie said. "She would probably actually answer you."

    "True," I agreed. "She can't stand the rest of us. But no one can hate you, Rose."

    Rose smiled and pulled out her phone. "I'll keep you guys updated," she said, turning back around.

    Finally, the bell rang. Gracie, Sophie, and I all stood up and left the room, walking down the hallways.

    "So what are you doing next?" Gracie asked me. I had next period off, so I could definitely leave for a bit.

    I shrugged. "Probably just head to a cafe or something to get some work done."

    Sophie rolled her eyes. "Typical Logan."

    "What? I have things to do!" I defended.

    "Yeah, right," Gracie said. "It's Monday and we just finished 2nd period. Not to mention, we also just came back from fall break. No way you have things to do."

    "Mr. Artisan assigned us homework if you don't remember," I retorted. "It's physics for God's sake! It's gonna take forever to do, so yes, I have things to do."

    Gracie and Sophie both just shook their heads. "Yeah, homework that isn't due until the end of the week," Sophie added.

    "Which means I need to have it done by Wednesday," I said, grinning.

    "Well, while you're having fun with that... we are off to paint some skateboards!" Gracie exclaimed. Her and Sophie both took Art as an elective this year to have some fun away from their harder classes. I couldn't even imagine taking a class that wasn't AP.

    "Have fun," I said, saluting them as they walked away. I turned the opposite way down the hallway, starting towards the exit so that I could get to my car.

    Then, suddenly, someone was grabbing my hand and pulling me away. I didn't even have time to see who it was. When they pulled me into an empty, dark classroom, I retracted my hand away and spun to face the kidnapper.

"Jesus, you gave me a heart attack," I said, smiling.

Noah smirked and grabbed my hand again. "Sorry," he whispered. "I just couldn't help myself."

Noah pushed himself closer to me while I rested my back on the wall of the classroom. He brought his lips to mine like we had done multiple times in Florida. Except this time it was less demanding and more gentle.

I quickly pulled away. "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"I have 4th off," Noah replied, and I raised my eyebrows.

"You do?"

"You wouldn't know that," he said. "But I do. Is that okay with you?"

"It's definitely okay with me," I said, and I pulled him back in for another quick kiss. Damn, I had really been missing out all these years of hating him.

"Wanna hangout?" He asked.

"I mean," I paused. I was conflicted. I didn't need to get my homework done right now, but I knew that I needed to stay focused. "I want to hangout with you, but—"

"Can I interrupt you?" Noah asked, and I nodded before finishing my sentence. "We can go hangout at the cafe. Meaning, we can work on some homework for 30 minutes... and then spend the next hour focusing on other things."

"How did you read my mind?" I asked.

Noah shrugged. "We're similar, I guess. But I know that you take your work seriously. I may have heard you talking about your physics assignment."

"You stalker!" I teased. "I always knew you were weird."

Noah rolled his eyes. "Whatever," he muttered. "I know that I'm gonna have the same physics assignment, so I could get a little sneak peak. You can work on that, I'll work on my AP statistics."

    "You know what? Deal," I said. "And I know that I'm going to have the same statistics homework, so I'll get a little sneak peak of that, too."

    "So how about we take my car?" Noah offered.

    "Don't you think people will get suspicious?"

    "No," he said. "We still are friends, you know. To everyone else, that is. It'll only be weird if they see us doing this..." Noah grabbed my face one more time and kissed me again. I swear, I was going to become addicted to kissing him.

    We pulled away and I pulled my hand away from him. "Let's go, friend."

✯ ✯ ✯

    "Shit!" I cursed.

    "What?" Noah asked, setting down his textbook to look at me.

    "That's the 3rd time I've gotten the wrong answer," I muttered. "I swear I'm doing it right, though."

    "Do you need help?"

    I looked up and sighed. "Yeah, I guess."

    Noah stood up and moved over to the chair directly next to me. As much as I wanted to get the problem right on my own, I was kind of desperate at this point.

    Also, he was really close. And he smelt really good. It's not weird to notice that, is it? No, it shouldn't be weird... I'm just saying that he has a good taste in cologne.

    I snapped out of it and watched as Noah examined my work. His pencil was tracing my work as he tried to figure out what I was doing wrong.

    "I got it," Noah finally said. "You accidentally used the wrong equation to find out the amount of power needed. You need to use this one," he wrote out the correct equation. "And then you should get the right answer." Noah looked up at me and smiled.

    "Do you know that those glasses are secretly super hot?" I blurted.

    "You made fun of them weeks ago!" Noah exclaimed.

    I shrugged. "Yeah, cause we weren't friends then. And I wasn't attracted to you then."

    Noah rolled his eyes. "You're only after me for my looks," he said, pretending to flip his hair. "You don't even care about my brain. Did you even listen to what I just said?"

    I rolled my eyes. "You're too cocky," I said, turning my attention back to my homework. I grabbed my pencil and started the problem over again, this time using the equation Noah gave me. He watched me as I scribbled down all of the numbers, finally getting the answer. "It's right," I said, looking back up at him.

    "So what you're saying is that... I was right?" Noah teased.

    "Shut up," I said, hitting his arm. I placed my hands on my forehead. "Ugh, I need a brain break."

Noah stood up and went back over to his seat, which I was mildly disappointed by. He took his scent with him, and I was really enjoying the aroma. Is that weird to say?

"So let's talk about something else," Noah offered.

I set my homework to the side and then looked at my phone. I had a few texts from Gracie and one from Rose. I quickly read the one from Rose.

Rose: There's definitely something up with Genevieve. Not sure what. I'll update when I get more info.

I groaned and put my phone down. What could possibly be wrong with Genevieve? I mean, besides the fact that she was a total bitch. And that she had a big mouth, almost as big as Savannah's. And—

"What's on your mind?" Noah asked, interrupting my thoughts.

I looked up to meet his gaze and sighed. "Genevieve," I muttered. "She's been playing like shit lately, so Rose is trying to see what's up with her. It's driving me crazy."

"Aww, you care," Noah teased, and I rolled my eyes.

"It's not that I care, cause I don't," I said. "I just don't want to lose when state rolls around, and if she plays like she has been, we're definitely going to be at a disadvantage."

"I know what you mean," he said. "The last practice I was at, she couldn't hit a ball to save her life."

"And she couldn't play defense either!" I exclaimed. "It's so unbelievable!"

"What do you think's wrong?"

"I don't know, that's Rose's job to find out," I replied. "I just hope that whatever it is, she can pull it together."

Noah nodded. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

"You're too optimistic," I mumbled. "I guess we'll see how she plays at practice tonight. You'll be there, won't you?"

"Yeah, I'll be there," he said. "And I'm definitely going to kick your ass."

"Please. Not gonna happen," I retorted. "It's the week before state, do you really think I'm going to let anyone beat me?"

"Of course you wouldn't," Noah said. "But I'm kind of amazing. I don't know if you could beat me."

"I am going to destroy you, Noah Locke," I threatened, shaking my head at him. "You really are one cocky son of a bitch."

Noah shrugged. "What can I say? I'm practically perfect."

"Don't underestimate me, Locke."

"I could never underestimate you, Pierce," Noah said. "And I don't. I think you might be capable of killing me tonight. I see the fire in your eyes when it gets to be close to state. I remember last year."

I laughed. "Shit, I remember last year, too," I said. "I slammed the ball right down and hit Porkchop right in the chest. He had to ice it the rest of the practice."

"It was hilarious," Noah admitted, laughing a little too.

"I felt bad, though. Only because it was Porkchop. If it had been you, I would have laughed my ass off," I told him.

"True," he agreed. "Porkchop is just too nice. He didn't deserve it."

I laughed and shook my head. "Okay, how about I do one more problem and then we can go somewhere else?" I suggested.

"Deal," Noah said. "Do you need my help?"

I glared at him. "I do not," I muttered. "Just shut up and focus on your own homework, will you?"

Noah laughed before he turned his attention back to his own packet, and I focused on mine. I could definitely get used to this.

✯ ✯ ✯

Time for practice rolled around, and I was so ready to play. We were scrimmaging the boys team, and I needed to win. Another thing I needed was to slam some balls down, and I was definitely going to accomplish that.

The net was already set up when I got into the gym, and the boys team was on one side of the court sitting in a circle stretching. A lot of my team was already in the gym, as well, getting geared up. I went over and sat next to Sophie, Rose, Gracie, and Olivia.

    "Logan!" Olivia exclaimed as I sat down. "You're just in time. We were talking about Genevieve."

    "Any news?" I asked.

    Rose shook her head. "She was super weird when I talked to her at lunch," Rose informed us. "I asked her straight up about what was wrong, and she got super defensive. She was saying how nothing is wrong, and it's offensive that I would even think that."

    "That just sounds like the normal, annoying Genevieve," I said.

    "You should have heard her, though," Rose said. "It was definitely not normal of her."

    "Interesting," Sophie said. "Oh well. Maybe she'll tell you eventually. Right now, I'm gonna warm up."

    "I'll join!" Olivia said, and got up with Sophie to warm up.

    I sighed and Gracie and I both got up to warm up, too. Genevieve was irrelevant, anyway. Whatever was going on with her wasn't my problem, as long as she pulled herself together when state rolled around.

    After around 15 minutes of warming up, Coach D and Coach Reid decided to start our scrimmage. As per usual, we were going to play 3 sets no matter what, and then end practice right after that. It was likely going to be a very short practice, which was nice. Coach liked to do a mix of intense practices and easy scrimmages the week before and the week of state. He didn't want us to get too sore or anything before the big day, but he didn't want us to stop pushing ourselves.

    We were still in the first set of our scrimmage, and the score was 20-17. We were up by 3, and 5 points away from winning. No way in hell was I going to let the win slip away.

    Rose served the ball over the net, and I focused on the boys side. Cayden passed the ball, perfectly as usual. How he was so precise just boggled my mind. Jordan jumped up and set the ball straight to Clay, who hit the ball down. I quickly got off of the net and to my outside position, watching as Gracie dug up the ball.

    "Go! Go!" I yelled, and Sophie quickly jump set the ball to me. I took my approach and jumped into the air, swinging at the ball. I made contact and slammed the ball down just past the ten foot line, and it landed directly in front of Noah, who dove, but couldn't pick the ball up.

    I grinned, and made eye contact with Noah as he stood up. I winked, and he shook his head at me. He was so going down.

    Rose went back to serve again, and this time, Tanner passed the ball. Jordan ran to set it, setting the ball outside to Noah, who slammed it to Genevieve behind me. She dove for the ball and got it up, but a blood-curdling scream interrupted the play from continuing. Sophie caught the ball, and I turned around to Genevieve who was laying on the ground cradling her knee.

    "Holy shit," I mumbled.

✯ ✯ ✯

Ugh. I just love Noah and Logan studying together. And Noah helping Logan out... DAMN. What a good guy. What a smart guy, too. And his glasses, too! Bitch... if you ain't a sucker for guys wearing glasses, then what are you doing?

Genevieve isn't doing so well, but like... do we really care right now? She is a bitch, after all.

Ta ta for now...