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"Okay, but I don't understand why you'd much rather spend time with her than me," Lucia insists as the two girls walk towards the football field since the final bell of the day rang a couple of minutes ago.

They reside next to one another as they stroll out of the wide-open double doors. Jade stalks beside the chatty blonde in her typical all-black attire and signature white-out painted skull backpack clinging on her shoulders, while Lucia maintains her bubbly persona with a short yellow latex skirt coupled with a cropped white shoulder-length shirt to coincide with the strict and unnecessarily sexist dress code the school tries to enforce.

"It's nothing personal, it's just for the project. You know how much I've been trying to avoid her the entire time I've been here. Why would that change now?" Jade says raising her brow at Lucia.

"I mean come on... I-I even offered to buy you food," Lucia starts in disbelief, obviously ignoring Jade's attempt at rationalizing with her. "Food, Jade. Food! Do you know how much that would mean to someone?" Lucia genuinely questions with exaggerated hand motions towards the brunette.

Jade glances over at Lucia and can't help but crack a smile, stifling her laughter with the back of her hand.

"Your actually insane," Jade chuckles out, eyeing the blonde that is a tad shorter than her.

"Yeah, well I'm lonely," Lucia concludes in a deflating tone as she crosses her arms childishly in disappointment.

"You don't have to tell me. I can smell the desperation off of you," Jade snarks as the girls approach the set of steel benches that make up one side of the vast football field.

Jade notices the blonde still on her tail as she starts trudging up the benches.

"You don't have to wait with me," Jade insists,  raising a brow at the strawberry blonde that decides to follow her up to the third row of benches.

"Since I have nothing to do now, I might as well wait with you. It's not bad having some eye candy when I'm feeling depressed after my friend decides to ditch me." Lucia plops down facing the field with her chin solemnly resting in her hand.

A look of 'what the actual fuck' consumes Jade as she observes the strawberry blonde feigning pity for herself. "You can't be serious," she seethes under her breath as she takes her own seat a few inches away from Lucia.

She looks up at the field after growing tired of staring at Lucia who is still trying to keep up the act.

The feet of clean-cut grass is not so green and tidy as when Jade first visited. She remembers the first time she came to this particular field a week ago. The only thing she remembers was lifting her head from her copy of The Immortalists to take a glance at the game that everyone around her seemed so infatuated with. Her eyes scanned the perfect freshly-cut grass before focusing on the player that was running at the speed of light, ultimately making a touchdown. The number 7 on the uniform was illuminated by the shining lights.

Jade had never found any interest in the sport of football, or any other sports in that matter, but this player caught her attention for a short-lived moment before she went right back to the safety of her novel.

"Jade!"

The high-pitched tone snaps the brunette out of her daze. She meets Lucia's emerald eyes in urgency.

"What?"

"I guess honey lips is too busy gawking over my guys over there," a deeper, silkier voice intersects, causing Jade to snap her focus over to Kinsey who now leans against the side of the stand.

The dirty blonde dressed in a bright red Nike Pro sports bra and matching boy shorts has her hair pulled into a messy bun with sweat covering every inch of her body.

The bodily fluid glistens against her paler skin tone, emphasizing the ripples of abs that lead down into a v-shape just above the black rim of her shorts.

To say Jade is overwhelmed is an understatement. Her mouth opens for words to come out but nothing does. It's like whenever the blonde is around, Jade loses the ability to formulate a voice even though there are many thoughts running through her mind. How'd I get here? Do I look stupid in front of her? What does she want? Why is she sweating so much? Did she just call me 'honey lips'?

"I-I'm n-not looking at anyone," Jade chokes out, attempting to protect herself amidst the additional heat that is plaguing every inch of her body.

"Oh, really? I could have sworn you were checking out my dude Tony."

Jade's lips inch open, but Kinsey beats her to it.

"Ay! Tony! I think-"

"Stop!" Jade yelps before the blonde can further embarrass her. She glances over at her supposed "soulmate" to see the strawberry blonde desperately holding back a fit of laughter with her bottom lip stuffed in between her teeth.

Kinsey notices the interaction and chuckles softly. "Practice'll be over in ten then we'll head over to my place," the blonde confirms in all her sweaty glory before jogging back over to the field of exasperated teenage boys.

Jade can feel an internal heat flush her face. She tries to cover her face with her hand as she watches the blonde jog away in her tiny latex shorts. Jade can't manage to take her eyes off of those shorts, no matter how guilty she feels.

"I think I'm gay."

Jade whips her head around at a speed that nearly cracks her neck.

"What?" She asks the strawberry blonde.

"She's hot," Lucia starts to whisper, leaning in towards the brunette while keeping her eyes trained on the blonde that is still jogging away. "I mean I never thought I was into girls but Kinsey might change that. Did you see the way she looked at me?" Lucia pressures as she leans in closer to Jade.

"Shut up."

"Why though? I'd let her-"

"Shut up!" Jade barks, surprising Lucia and herself. It is as if her emotions have all of a sudden taken the wheel, leaving her rationale in the passenger's seat.

"Well dang, I was just playing around. My real concern is the way she was looking at you when you suddenly forgot how to speak," Lucia chuckles slightly.

"Okay and this is where this conversation ends. You see how much she annoys me?" Jade says, rolling her eyes.

"You like it though."

"Leave."

"Okay, okay. I'll stop, but one thing she got wrong is that I was the one gawking at Tony. That boy is cute as hell. He is like a plump teddy bear that you want to hold and squish," Lucia continues, forcing Jade to shut her out.

Jade is too busy in her own zone, trying to regulate her abnormal body temperature. This feeling of burning up does not coincide well with fall humidity.

A ringing sounds causing the vibration of the steel bench both the girls sit on. Jade looks over at Lucia to see her pick up her phone from the seat.

"Hey mom," Lucia starts, sending Jade a slightly worried expression.

"Yes."

"Uh-huh."

"Yeah."

"I did, I promise."

The fragments of the conversation that Jade is able to compile do not give her any hint as to what Lucia is talking about.

"Okay, fine," the blonde concludes before pulling the phone from her ear.

She looks up at Jade in defeat. "Gotta go, mom is on me for missing the tutoring session I had scheduled for today."

"Then why did you-"

"Because I wanted to skip it to have some fun. Guess I got nothing out of skipping," she huffs as she starts to pick up her small leather purse, along with her two thin binders that seem to hold all of the materials for her seven classes. "Don't have too much fun without me," she informs as she carefully steps off the bleachers, sending Jade a wink as she disappears around the side of the bleachers.

Jade nods in accordance as she watches Lucia make her way to the student parking lot.

Jade sits in awkwardness and boredom after Lucia leaves. Her chin resting in her hand as she looks ahead at the field. Even though Lucia annoys the hell out of Jade, she was nice company to have to distract Jade from watching Kinsey.

Jade spots Kinsey squatting down into a position and she immediately heads for her backpack to find the book she checked out from the school library earlier today. She proceeds to stuff her face into the book, allowing the world of fiction to consume her.

After reading in peace for a good twenty minutes, Jade flips the top corner of the page to finish reading chapter two.

"Bookworm, leggo!"

Jade snaps her head up to Kinsey's voice to spot Kinsey and some tall brunette next to her. Jade pauses for a moment as she registers the guy's face in her visual library. She feels like she has seen him before.

Bingo! He was the brunette that was sitting with Kinsey atop her car in that one picture. The memory of that photo comes flooding in as Jade tries to connect the boy from the photo to the boy in front of her. The boy's quiffed hair is now sweat-ridden and matted over his forehead adding to the intimidation of his dark eyes.

"Okay? Who's this?" Jade asks with no hesitation as she remains seated with her book open in her hand and her legs crossed.

Kinsey looks up at James, who stands right behind the blonde with a straight face headed in Jade's direction.

"This is James, my best friend since we've been pissing in our beds. I'm giving his bum ass a ride home today since he wanted to learn how to drift in an almost empty parking garage with his own car," Kinsey states, looking up at James. "James, this is Jade Hill. She's my stalker." The words roll off of Kinsey's tongue in nonchalance.

James hits Jade with a questioning side-eye, causing Jade's embarrassment to hit a new high. She doesn't know what she could say to clarify so of course, Kinsey speaks up instead. That seems to be a pattern between the two.

"Don't worry she's not the killer type. More like the obsessed fan girl type," Kinsey adds as a means of clarifying for the brunette. "Anyways, let's go fuckers, I want to go home," Kinsey starts, walking towards the student parking lot leaving both Jade and James behind. Her gym bag swaying along with her backpack that is slung over her right shoulder.

James follows behind, walking casually in the same direction as the blonde. He pays no mind to Jade after their awkward introduction.

Jade shuts her book before proceeding to step down the bleachers. The two are far enough along, leaving Jade in the dust.

"Fuck me," Jade huffs in frustration as she realizes how long of a day this will be.

Jade thought it would just be Kinsey and her but the addition of James to the equation multiplies Jade's anxiety. She doesn't know why she expected such a thing but the idea of James being with them makes Jade's blood boil subtly for some odd reason.

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Okay, so what do you guys think of that awkward ass introduction lol? Kinsey is always doing this shit. 😂
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Also, how do you guys feel about James? He didn't say much but what're your first impressions of him?
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Okay, this is the last question. What should Jade and Kinsey's ship name be????? I don't want it to be corny so that's why I'm not coming up with one lol.