"Garrett, you're up!"

    Coach yelled through his blow horn. He commanded us from a shady spot on the bleachers, while we sweated like pigs on the field. I ran across the field, sweat dripped into my eyes behind my helmet.

    My last two classes flew by, I honestly don't even remember what we were talking about. Now I was running sprints down the field for my fourth period, football practice, and I can't wait for it to be over. As much as I hate running up and down the field, it's nothing compared to what we had to do at summer camp. That was just pure torture.

    Once I was done doing my sprints, I jogged to where we kept our water bottles. I tossed my helmet on the bench, grabbing a bottle from the cooler, I finished it in a few long swallows. I sat down to catch my breath, I could feel the beads of sweat drip down my back. I'm going to take a long hot shower when I get to the locker room.

    Nick jogged up to the bench, taking off his helmet. Picking up his water bottle, instead of drinking it, he emptied the bottle on his head.

    "God, can we just go one day without having to run out here. Why couldn't we just stay inside, where there's AC," he complained, wiping the water from his face.

    "Because central AC is for—,"

    "Pansies," Sam finished as he came up to us.

    "Look who found his voice. Nothing getting knocked around on the field can't fix," Nick teased him. "What happened to you—I thought you were going to ask Nia to prom?"

    "I admit it, I choked," Sam said grabbing a water bottle. "But we have Trig together, so it'll be the perfect time for me to redeem myself."

    "Good luck with that, she thinks you hate her," I told him.

    "What? She thinks I hate her, why would she think that?" Sam asked, shocked.

    "Well, maybe it's because you were staring at her like she had ta third boob growing from her forehead," Nick said exasperated. "You didn't speak to her the whole time, Sam. Of course, she thinks you hate her."

    "Well, I don't. I hope you told her that. You did tell her I didn't hate her, Marcus?" he stressed.

    "Don't worry, I told her you didn't hate her," I assured him. "I told her that you were shy."

    Nick laughed, "Sam, shy, that's rich. But I get why you choked—she's hot, if I wasn't with Crystal I'd try and ask her out myself." And thank God for Crystal, because Nick has never been soft-spoken. What he wants, he gets. And if he wanted Nia, Sam and I wouldn't stand a chance.

    "I don't know what came over me, I just couldn't stop looking at her. She was practically glowing," Sam sighed. I know the feeling, man, I know the feeling. "I'm going to ask her out."

    Not if I have anything to do with it.

    "You don't even know anything about her," I said, trying to talk him out of it.

    "You do," he replied. "You can tell me about her."

    Shit. I can't reveal my knowledge, I was going to use that myself. "Uh, I don't know much about her either." Which isn't a total lie, I don't know much about her, except that she likes to read and she works at Barnes and Noble, and she's pretty, and she's smart.

    "Didn't you talk to her when you walked her to class," Nick asked.

    "Not really," I said. "We just talked about classes, nothing interesting."

    "Garret! Watkins! Matthews! Stop sitting around get back on the field!" Coach shouted.

    "Somebody shoot me," Nick groaned as he put his helmet back on.

    Stuffing my shoulder pads and helmet into my locker, my arms and legs felt heavy from our intense workout. The shower helped with the soreness a little, but it still feels like my limbs had turned to lead.

    I slung my backpack over my shoulder, and began the walk out to my car.

    "Hey, Garrett, wait up!" Nick said jogging up to me. "God, you're really going to make me run again, after that practice. I thought we were friends."

    "Oh, sorry," I apologized. "What's up?" I asked leaning against the side of my car.

    Nick hopped on the hood of his new Porsche, it seems like his dad is getting him a new car every month, maybe it's to make up for him never being home. "Are you coming over, Dad just got the new FIFA from this guy he knows at Microsoft?"

    I've been waiting for the new FIFA release for months, but I also want to go home and read, and more importantly sleep. "Nah, I'm going to head home."

    "Going to spend some time alone thinking about Nia?" he asked wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

    I rolled my eyes, "No." I probably will think about her, but not while I'm doing what Nick is suggesting.

    "Yeah, right," he laughed. "You so are."

    "Would you stop saying that," I huffed, I don't want anyone to hear him.

    "Why? It's true, you like her."

    "Because I don't want people to hear you say things like that." What if Nia is around and she hears him.

    "People or Sam?" he asked with a raised brow.

    "Both," I replied honestly.

    "Are you going to tell him?"

    "Tell him what?" Nothing's even happened yet.

    "To back off, of course. You are going to try to ask her out, right?"

    "Of course, I am. But I don't know how to tell Sam I'm going to do that, or that I want to do that, because he's so excited about asking her to prom."

    "But technically you saw her first, so you get dibs," Nick reasoned. "You get to ask her out."

    "I guess," I sighed. Nick made it sound easy, but I feel like I'm breaching some kind of guy code, I may have seen and talked to her first, but if it wasn't for Sam I wouldn't have even known she was going to be here.

    "I'm not surprised you like her," he smirked. "I'm glad you're over Whitney, she's on the verge of going full psycho over you."

    "Don't remind me," I said. God, Whitney has crazy written all over her. I don't know how I hadn't seen it before.

    "Speaking of your girl, there she is," Nick said nodding towards the other side of the parking lot. Nia and Lavender stood next to an old beat up car with two girls sitting on the hood, they didn't go to East Chapel. One wore a leather jacket, and had a shaved head, I can't imagine any girl at East Chapel daring to shave their head. The other had massive amounts of dark curly hair piled on top of her head in an up-do, she a dark lipstick and elaborate eye makeup.

    "That car would be sick if it was fixed up a little," Nick said next to me. He was really into getting old cars and fixing them up. "I bet red would be a good color, or a dark green."

    Nia said goodbye to Lavender, and her and her friends piled into the car and left, a trail of exhaust fumes following them through the gates.

    "You know I never thought I would think a girl with a shaved head would be hot before, but I think I'm into it," Nick said.

    "You want Crystal to shave her head?" I laughed. I can't even imagine.

    "Maybe not her, but Nia's friend looks hot," he replied.

    "I should get going," I sighed.

    "All right, see you later," he said getting in his car. "Don't wear out your right hand out too much, we wouldn't want you to hurt yourself."

    I gave him the middle finger in response.

    He winked at me before speeding out of the school parking lot. Tossing my backpack in the backseat and pulling my sunglasses from the visor, I began my own drive home.

    I was greeted by the large gold gates leading to my neighborhood. Pressing the button on the automated lock, I put in my security code, and waited for the gates to swing open.

    I waved at Stan, our neighborhood security guard, as I drove through the gates. He waved back, a bowl of pasta rested on a stomach. I'm not sure what he can protect us from, he rarely moves from his spot in his booth.

    I dropped my backpack by the front door, and headed for the kitchen. Rosa stood by the kitchen counter, chopping up vegetables for dinner.

    "Hi, Carmen," I said sitting on a stool in front of the kitchen island. Carmen was an older Spanish woman, she's been working for our family since I was a baby, she's more of a grandma than maid.

    "Oh, good afternoon, Marcus," she said, looking up from her vegetables. Her tan face riddled with wrinkles, her grey hair was pulled into her usual ponytail. "How was school?"

    "It was great." I met the girl of my dreams today. "Where's everyone?"

    "She took E.J. to swim class, and your father is at work," she said.

    I nodded. E.J. is only five years old, and he already has a busier schedule than I do. Swim lessons, karate, kiddie yoga...you name it that kid has done it. But I was the same way, my mom dragged me to any class she could sign me up for until I tried football. That's the one thing that stuck for me, but I must admit, I was pretty good at karate. My mom and E.J. won't be home for another hour or two, they get frozen yogurt after swim class. It's their tradition.

    "That's what I thought," I said snagging an apple from the bowl on the counter.

    "No Nick or Sam today?"

    "No, Sam had to go to tutoring, and Nick wanted to hang out, but I didn't feel like it," I replied.

    "Are you still sad about Whitney?" she asked setting down her knife. "Because you shouldn't be, she's a mean girl, I never liked her. You're much too nice for her, you deserve to be with a nice girl."

    "I'm not sad, Rosa. Just tired." She was so proud of me when I broke up with Whitney, my mom too, she thought Whitney and I were getting too serious. I agreed with her, Whitney was practically planning our wedding. We didn't even have anything in common, except maybe that we both liked making out with each other, and that wasn't enough to make me stay.

    "Well, good," Rosa nodded.

    "There's a new girl at school." I don't know what compelled me to tell her about Nia, the words just started tumbling out of my mouth.

    "Really," she said with interest. "What's her name?"

    "Nia," I said.

    "That's a pretty name," she smiled. "Where did she come from?"

    "She transferred from Jefferson Heights, she got a scholarship," I told her. "She works at Barnes and Noble at the mall, and she's read 1984, and she likes Bob's Burgers." I hadn't meant to say all that stuff at the end.

    "Oh, she does," she smiled. "She told you all of that."

    "Well, we're lab partners, and she ate lunch with us," I explained. "I helped her find some of her classes."

    Her smile broadened. "Well, that was very nice of you to help her on her first day. Do you like her?"

    "Maybe," I replied.

    "That's great!" she exclaimed. "She sounds like a nice girl. Are you going to ask her out?"

    "I think I will—eventually. I don't want to scare her, she just got to our school."

    "That's okay," she said. "As long as you're taking the steps to get to know her, I'm sure she'll like you too."

    "I hope so, but Sam likes her too," I sighed. "And I'm worried he's going to ask her out before I get the chance to."

    "Well, that is a problem, isn't it," she said. "But you shouldn't worry, because she's only going to pick who she likes, and if what you say is true about the things she likes, she'll probably pick you. And if she doesn't pick you, then she still ends up with a nice guy."

    I pray that she picks me. "Thanks, Rosa, you're the best."

    "Thank you, Marcus. Do you want to help me with dinner?"

    "Sure," I agreed, getting off my stool.

    For the next hour, I helped Rosa chop vegetables and get the things she couldn't reach from the top shelf of our cabinets. She was making fajitas for us, my favorite, she had to make a separate bowl of vegetables for my mom, apparently, she's vegan now, but we'll see how long that lasts.

    I heard the front door bang open followed by yelling. E.J.'s home. "Rosa! Bubby!"

    I could hear the pitter patter of E.J.'s feet as he ran from the foyer into the living room, looking for us. "Bubby, where are you?" he asked in distress.

    "I'm in the kitchen, E.J." I replied. He starts to cry when he can't find us.

    He ran into the kitchen with his swim trunks on and his goggles still on top of his head. "Bubby!" he shrieked running up to me. I caught him in my arms and picked him up.

    "Hey, champ. How was swim class?"

    "It was awesome, I swam underwater for a whole minute," he said proudly.

    "You did," I said, tickling his belly, making E.J. let out a high pitch squeal. "That's awesome."

    "And when Mommy and I got frozen yogurt, she let me get gummy bears and sprinkles." I could tell by how fast he was talking, and he still had a few sprinkles around his mouth. His goggles held his dark curly hair back, he was due for a haircut, but every time Mom brings it up he lays the puppy dog eyes on her, and suddenly all thoughts of haircuts are out the window.

    "Elijah, you forgot your backpack in the car," Mom said walking into the kitchen, E.J.'s backpack in hand. "Oh, hi, Marcus. I didn't expect you to be home, I thought you would have went to Nick's house."

    "He invited me, but I decided to stay home," I said, adjusting E.J. on my hip. His head rested on my shoulder, the sugar crash beginning to take its toll on him.

    "Well, I'm glad you decided to stay home," Mom said taking an orange slice off Rosa's cutting board "I feel like I barely see you anymore." She had her phone in her hand, but when does she not have her phone in her hand. It's kind of her job, she's a lifestyle blogger, she posts about mom stuff. She's pretty good at it too, she's been in all sorts of magazines, she's even been on Good Morning America.

    "Marcus, can you take your brother upstairs and get him ready for dinner," she asked, unbuttoning her blazer. When I look at her face, it's almost like looking in a mirror. Her face is slightly more angular than mine, but our mouths, and eyes, and noses are the same. I get my bone structure from my dad.  Her hair's bleach blonde, thanks to her hairstylist.

    "Yes, ma'am," I said, taking his backpack from her. "Let's head upstairs, Champ."

    "Bubby, can I keep my swim trunks on?" He turned his big green eyes on me, his bottom lip jutting out just a little. How could I say no?

    "Fine," I sighed. He threw his arm around my neck, locking me in a tight hug, that felt more like a choke hold.

    "I love you so much, Bubby!"

    I patted him on the back as I began to climb the stairs. "I love you too, E.J."

    After dinner, I watched a movie with E.J., Hercules, he loves that movie. We didn't get too far into it before he fell asleep on my lap, allowing me to escape to my room. Now, I sat at my computer clicking through the school directory, praying that it had been updated in the last twenty-four hours. I scrolled through the many names hoping that Nia's would suddenly jump out at me. I knew there were a lot of kids that went to East Chapel, but I didn't know there were this many.

    I got tired of going through so many names, I went to the search bar. I began to type in her name, "Nia..."

    I don't know her last name, so I'll just have to work with what I have.

    Anxiously, I waited for the page to load.

    Nia Owens, popped up in the search results.

    "Please, be her. Please, be her. Please, be her." I chanted, clicking on the name. It was hers, her name was listed, as well as her e-mail, birthday, and school photo. She was only photographed from the neck up, a soft smile graced her face, and her hair was pulled back from her face like it was after lunch. I've never had a reason to use the student directory before, but I'm so glad that East Chapel has one.

    I bookmarked the webpage, before picking up my phone from my bedside table. Opening my Instagram, I immediately went to the search bar, and typed in Nia's name, because she's bound to have one. This turned out to be a lot faster than when I was looking through the school directory, her profile came right up, under her name it said we had some mutual friends. I clicked on her profile to see who they were, and I was extremely disappointed.

    Whitney Williams, Stacy Child, and Crystal Shaw were listed as our mutual friends. Great.

    I guess Whitney and I had the same idea. On second thought, I can guarantee that we didn't.

    Her profile was private, so if I wanted to see her photos I had to request it. I held my breath as I hit request.

    I hope she doesn't think I'm a stalker. I thought Sam was crazy for trying to get a copy of her schedule, and here I am waiting for her to accept my follow request on Instagram.

    Not five minutes after I hit request, I got a notification.

    She accepted.

    Not only did she accept my request to follow her, but she followed me back.

    "Yes!" I exclaimed.        

    My bedroom door opened and my mom poked her head in. "Is everything all right, I heard a noise." She must have been getting E.J. his nightly glass of water, that's the only reason she would be on this side of the house at this time of night.

    "Yeah, everything's fine," I told her, sitting my phone next to me on the bed.

    "Oh, okay," she pushed the door open a little further, stepping inside. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, I don't want to intrude on your...," she cleared her throat. "Private time."

    "Mom."

    She put her hands up defensively. "I know, I know, lame mom alert. I get it, all talks of masturbation are off limits. But it really shouldn't be, because it's a completely normal thing. We all do it. I do it. Your father does it. I'm sure Rosa does it. And one day even E.J. is going to do it."

    "Oh, my God! Mom, would you stop." I groaned. I don't want to think about her or my father doing that. Honestly, just thinking about it makes me want to vomit.

    This isn't the first time she's tried to talk to me about something like this. She's very open about topics like sex, with a partner or without a partner, and she's obsessed with us having our own private spaces for personal time. Not for masturbation, she just feels that it's important for us to have our own personal spaces in general, so we can explore our own identities. That's one of the reasons, her and dad decided to renovate my room.

    Two summers ago, they knocked down a wall, and doubled the size of my room. And Mom got this fancy interior decorator to come decorate, she posted about it on her blog. Granted, I already had a large room to begin with, but now my room was more of an apartment than a bedroom. It's awesome, Sam was so jealous, Nick practically has his whole house to himself.

    "Oh, don't get your underwear in a bunch, I'll get out of your hair. Goodnight, Bubs, I love you," she said.

    "Goodnight, Mom. Love you too."

    She left closing the door behind her. I picked up my phone from where I had dropped it when Mom came in, and began going through Nia's Instagram. There were photos of her with her friends, the same girls that picked her up from school, an older woman, that I assumed was her mom, but she didn't look that old, she looked remarkably young. She also had lots of photos of the books she was reading.

    Carefully,