So if we were to pretend that this morning never happened, it was actually a pretty decent first day. My teachers were all adequate and my classmates didn't make me want to rip my hair out.

It was just the first day though, I wasn't about to get comfortable too soon.

"Watch out!" I saw something zooming in my direction and ducked my head so fast I almost caused self-inflicted whiplash.

A soccer ball crashed into the bleachers behind me and I made sure to glare at the dude who couldn't aim for his life. He certainly will not be making the team.

I was staying after school for Cyrus's soccer tryouts. He was going on about it pretty much all day and I, having the big ass heart that I do, offered to stay for support.

...Okay fine. So maybe he had to bribe me with food, but I was going to say yes anyway. I just knew I could get him to convince me with free stuff, so I pretended like I wasn't interested.

I loved watching him play. I loved watching soccer in general and it made me wish I was athletic enough to play on a team.

We would play for fun sometimes, but then he would get all competitive and I would get all whiny, and then we would argue for the remainder of the time.

He waved at me from the field and I waved back.

And then I saw him. The guy from this morning. He was walking onto the field still getting his jersey over his head. I caught the slightest glimpse of his abs underneath.

Show off.

Ugh, but he was so pretty. His dark hair was messy from changing into his jersey and I think he meant to fix it by running his hand through it, but it just made it messier. I for one, was not complaining.

Someone as pretty as that came up to talk to me and I slapped him across the face for being nice. That's 1 for life and 0 for Rowena.

His blush was even now, both cheeks red from the winter chill. It was such a good look. He turned so that his back was facing me and I saw the number 10 on his jersey.

"Is anyone sitting here?" I heard from over my shoulder. I snapped out of my thoughts to see a girl with a hesitant smile on her face. She had short brown hair, just below her shoulders, and big brown eyes that were waiting for an answer from me.

"Uh, no. Go for it." I said awkwardly. I don't have the best luck with making friends with girls and I could feel my fight or flight kicking in.

To be fair, she looked friendly enough. She gently plopped herself down beside me, hugging her jacket closer to her, and I thought It would be really nice to have a close friend that's a girl.

"You're one of the new kids, right? From Wilkinson?"

"That was the hell hole of mine, yes. I'm Rowena." I smiled at her.

"Natalie Griffith." She smiled back. Okay, this is fine so far, nothing too bad. I got this...

"So, is that your boyfriend?" Oh, here we fucking go.

She motions to Cyrus bouncing a soccer ball repeatedly on one knee. "I saw you guys at lunch together."

I mentally rolled my eyes. Then, I snorted at the idea of Cyrus being my boyfriend. "No. That's just my best friend Cyrus."

"Oh." She said, sounding almost disappointed. Wait, disappointment is a new one for me.

"Oh?"

She gave this expression like she just caught her reaction. "I didn't mean anything by it really. It's just... you're two very pretty best friends is all."

I let out a nervous laugh. "No. He's not my boyfriend. We actually tried going down that path before and it was extremely awkward between us for a while there."

She looked at me like she expected to hear more, so I went on. I told her about the day that it happened. It was just a kiss in the heat of an emotional moment.

His dad had gotten into a car accident and was in a coma for at least three weeks. Cyrus came to see me the day he woke up, still high on joy. He said he knew it was hard for me too and he thanked me for being there for him through it all. I don't know, I guess it just seemed like the right thing to do at the moment for someone you love.

But on that day, we undeniably discovered that the love we shared was not that type of love. I didn't have a sibling, but I knew then that Cyrus was the closest thing to it, and this ain't Alabama.

We didn't talk to each other until we were forced into a group activity. Then, we laughed all about it, and then we argued about who kissed who first, and then we were able to pretend like it never even happened.

Our parents have been best friends since before we were born. We were just three months apart and had pretty much been inseparable since.

I remember there was that phase that Cyrus went through where he was convinced girls had cooties. I had cornered him on the school playground and licked his arm, that way he could have cooties with me and we could be best friends again.

"Sorry, I don't why I'm telling you all this." I was basically rambling at this point and she was just sitting there listening patiently the entire time.

"Oh no, I'm fine with it. I've been told I have this approachable persona or something like that. I put it use good use though, I run the school paper."

"So do people trust you with their secrets and then you broadcast them on the front page behind their back?"

She laughed at me, "No, nothing like that. I interview willing participants."

I think old me would have been disappointed that she wasn't secretly evil. But new me who strives to stay out of drama is mildly satisfied with her response.

"Anyway," she goes on, "that's who I'm here for." She points to someone out on the field.

Damn it all to hell, of course pretty boy has a girlfriend. "You mean number 10?" I asked, masking the disappointment from my voice.

"What? Oh no, that's Declan. Number 7 is my boyfriend, his name's Jeremy."

Declan. I made a mental note of that.

"Hey isn't Declan the one you slapped this morning?"

"Please tell me you know that because you were there." I buried my face in my hands, already dreading her answer.

"Nowhere even near that hall." I groaned as she explained further, "you're a new girl. I don't know how you were planning to do something that observable without it being noticed."

"Hey, I'm not the only new girl."

"Nope. Just the only one who slapped a star player."

"He was the one that scared me shitless, I'm the victim here. And yes, you can quote me on that."

She smiled, glancing at the field, and then she took a sudden breath in and whispered, "Don't look now, but he's looking over at you."

I did look now. Oh baby did I look, and we locked eyes from across the field and as soon as we did his gaze didn't waver one bit. I could see even from the distance away that he wore the same amused look on his face as he did before.

Only now I could see the side of his mouth raised in a gentle smirk. He flipped his head up in a short nod at me. So nonchalant, but oh so effortlessly attractive.

No, those were not fucking butterflies I felt in my stomach, you are very much not correct.

Because I didn't want to humor him, and also because I was slightly afraid there was someone behind me he could have nodded to, I put my elbow on my knee and rested my chin on my hand, doing my best to look impassive as I held his gaze.

The moment was over when some other kid playfully shoved into him, and then his attention was torn away.

Someone cleared their throat. Oh shit, I forgot Natalie was here.

I cleared my own throat to shake myself from the moment. "So the school paper huh?"

----------------

"I felt good about that. Coach Clarke said it was pretty much a done deal." Cyrus said, piling some fallen lettuce back into his burger.

I had no reaction as I stuffed my face with French fries.

Then I realized he was waiting for me to say something. "Oh shit, no that's fan-fucking-tastic. I was just expecting this you see because you're so talented and all."

He tossed a fry at me, then I picked it off my sweater and tossed it in my mouth. It wasn't a lie though, I had no doubt he would make the team.

"Someone on the team asked about you." He said.

"Hah, that's funny. Someone asked about you too... Wait, what? Who?"

"Wait, who asked about me?"

"Don't be selfish, this is literally about me. Who who who?" I pressed.

"I think his name was Adam." I slumped my shoulders in response.

He noticed my reaction but I changed the topic before he could say anything about it, "What do you think of the team?"

He scoffed, "A bunch of assholes, I expected as much. I guess they're not all bad but the guy who fractured my nose last year, his name's Duncan."

"You let somebody named Duncan fracture your nose?" I snorted.

"Shut the fuck up. Anyway, I found out he's team captain so that should be something."

"Well, we can key his car." Cyrus gave me that little unimpressed glare thing that he does when I talk out of my ass, which happens quite frequently.

"Egg his front door? OH! we could put skittles on his yard so that when the sprinklers turn on his lawn just becomes this rainbow of syrup. But, If we're on the topic of candy we can lick some jolly ranchers and stick them to his car. OH MY GOD OR-"

He shoved the plate of fries closer to me, "go back to stuffing."

"Ungrateful," I mumbled, but I took the fries anyway.

A/N: So this chapter was clearly to establish the background for Rowena & Cyrus's friendship.

I don't like love triangles so I wanted to make my intentions clear from the start :)

BUT IM SO EXCITED FOR THIS NEXT CHAPTER SO I HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE !!

Thanks for reading!✨