Hey guyss, here's a super quick next chapter. Sorry if it's a little awkward, my mind went blank for a second. Enjoy!

"Godamn, pass the ball to Peirce, Jerkins! Are you blind?!"

Coach was screaming at us as usual, but I'm pretty sure he was trying to kill us today. After making us run ten rounds around the court, german drills, and layup shots, he made us play a match. My teammate of course, was a complete idiot and just kept trying to hog the ball to herself, dribbling towards the basket even though she had like three people fronting her.

Of course, Avery on the other team easily intercepts her and I see my chance. We all run back and I move in on her. She tries to fake but I anticipate it and cleanly snatch the ball away from her. It was so quick, almost no one else saw it coming. I ran as fast as I could, dribbled down the court and shot easily before anyone else even noticed. I fought back a smile, trying not to look too pleased with myself.

Coach blew the whistle. "Great job Peirce! That's what this team needs!" He grabbed my wrist and hoisted my arm up into the air like I'd just won a wrestling match. "Listen to this girl y'all!"

"Thanks coach."

All my teammates surrounded me and high-fived me. Even the girls on the other team came over and said it was a good game. I walked back to the bleachers and sat down feeling great. I took out my water bottle and slowly drank from it.

"Whoo-hoo! That's my boy, way to go Hunter!"

"You the man Shawn!"

"Heck yeah!"

I rolled my eyes as I turned towards the adjoining court where the boys were also winding up their practice. A bunch of sweaty teenage boys filled with testosterone, running around pushing each other. I'm surprised all high school sports aren't a complete train wreck at this point.

I love basketball with all my life. Ever since that one game with my dad when I was five years old, I've been hooked. The adrenaline rush you feel on the court, the shoes squeaking and the net swishing, gave me a different kind of feeling I can't even describe. Making varsity sophomore year was awesome.

I snapped back to reality when I realised I was staring at the boys' team. Yikes.

"All right, before you run off to the locker rooms, everyone huddle up!" Coach called out. I jogged over to stand in front of him with the rest of the team.

"Coach William and I decided to start a new regime. We're going to start doing a combined practice between boys and girls once a week every Friday. We think it would be good for you all, learn a little something from each other. More importantly, we're going to show those boys whose boss."

We all smirked at this, giving each other fist bumps. It was in moments like this I loved Coach Dixon's attitude. He really was pretty cool when he wasn't trying to kill us.

Everyone started to walk away and I grabbed my gym bag, walking along with my teammates, laughing and chatting. I saw the cheerleaders walk past us and towards the boys' team, wearing the most fake smiles I'd ever seen. I nearly brushed past one of them, but she turned around and smiled at me. "Hey Alex! I saw you shoot that last basket. You're really good!"

I smiled at her. "Thanks Veronica."

Veronica Grey. I think she was one of the nicer ones? I'd never seen her act like a bitch to anyone, and she never wore immense amounts of makeup. She seemed friendly, and I would probably want to be friends with her if she didn't keep such bad company. I've seen her with Shawn a lot, and I thought they were together for a month before someone told me they were just really good friends. I did not think a guy like that had the capability to have a friend who's a girl, and not just play with them like toys. Oh, well.

I took a quick shower and went back into the school to find Megan waiting for me at my locker. "What took you so long dumbass? It's bad enough you made me wait for an extra hour because you had practice."

"Sorry. Coach talked to us."

We walked to the parking lot and got into Megan's car, driving to my house. We'd made plans to just hangout and study together like we do on most Wednesdays.

Once we reached my house, we went up to my room and took out our books. We lay sprawled on my bed; books open but completely ignoring them. We just ended up watching F.R.I.E.N.D.S on Netflix again. I know what some of you might be thinking. Yeesh, why does everyone love that show so much? I used to be one of those people. Then I watched it. It did not disappoint.

After about an hour, we forced ourselves to start studying. Two minutes into doing math, I was already utterly confused.

"How they hell do you even solve it when there's two variables Meg? How?!"

"Can you calm down? There's a way to solve it dummy."

The next hour went on the same way, Meg helping me with math while I helped her with biology. We had managed to get some work done and we were on a hot streak, until the front door opened and we started to hear incessant whining from downstairs.

"Alex! I need food!"

I grit my teeth and groaned, pushing myself off my bed and walking downstairs. I went into the kitchen, where I found my stupid fifteen-year-old brother rummaging through the fridge. "Could you not destroy the kitchen for once, Nick?"

"I'm hungryyy!" He whined, like a dog. Not the cute kind, the annoying chihuahua kind.

"You always are." I muttered under my breath. I went to the cupboard and took out some instant noodle packets. "Here. Now shut up and make it yourself."

He gave me the finger and I rolled my eyes, leaving the kitchen and praying he doesn't burn the house down.

At this point, I didn't feel like studying anymore, so we decided to go meet our friends for coffee at Loco Latte. It was our usual café, almost the entire school hangs out there. It's just one of those cute places.

When we arrived, our friends Ezra and Tyler were sitting at our usual table waving us over. "Over here dumbasses!"

Thanks Tyler.

"Do you have to do that every single time?" I asked Tyler exasperatedly plopping down at the booth next to him. "I don't have to Alex. I choose to." He replied sarcastically. I hit him on the shoulder.

"Hey Megan." Ezra said shyly, his face red as she slid into the booth next to him. "Hi Ezra." She said cheerily, pulling out her phone and scrolling through Instagram.

Tyler and I exchanged glances, both of us equally annoyed. It was astonishingly clear that Ezra had a huge crush on Megan, but he refused to admit it. Megan was also completely blind, and didn't even have an inkling that he did. It was stupid really.

We placed our usual orders. Megan got a strawberry milkshake (God Meg, how do you not want chocolate), Ezra got macchiato and a blueberry muffin, Tyler and I got cappuccinos and I got a chicken club sandwich as well.

The jock and cheerleader gang walked in at that moment, and we all groaned except Tyler. He proceeded to go hit on one of the cheerleaders who was already giggling after two seconds of talking to him. Jesus Christ. I hate to admit it, but Tyler really does have a way with the "ladies".

Ezra on the other hand was kind of shy, but he was a really nice guy. He wasn't one of those extreme shy types that needed therapy or something, it was just his cute personality. He's also a super loyal friend. Although, if you get some alcohol in him, he suddenly becomes the most confident person alive. It's hilarious to see. Too bad he suppresses that part of him though.

Tyler never returned to our table and went to sit somewhere else with Veronica Grey on his arm. That's new.

I saw that Shawn Hunter was also here, chatting with his friends and laughing. He went to order coffee and I realised we still hadn't discussed what we were going to do about the project. Sighing, I got up from the table and approached him.

"Shawn."

He turned to face me with a bored look on his face. I was getting a very strong smell of Axe spray from him and I wrinkled my nose in disgust. "Yes?"

"We have to start working on our English project. We never decided what we were going to do...?"

He turned back to face the counter, uninterested in anything I was saying. Yeesh, I feel like some weird desperate chick just talking to him. This is about school for god sake.

"So?"

"It counts for twenty-five percent of our final grade Shawn. I'm not failing because of you."

"All right, keep your shit together. We can work on it at my house on Saturday."

"Um, okay. What's your address?"

He blinked at me like a dumb kid, surprised at something. "You don't know where my house is?"

Now it was my turn to blink at him. Then I burst out laughing. Hard.

"You really thought I was one of those stalker girls whose learnt your address?! Oh god, this is hilarious!"

At this point, I think he snarled at me a little. He grabbed a piece of paper on the counter, scribbled his address on it and shoved it in my arms. Then he walked back to his table. I walked back to mine, still laughing from our conversation. Popular guys are so stupid.

"What the heck was that?" Meg asked. "I asked about our English project. He told me to come over to his house, and when I hadn't already memorized his address, he was shocked. I had to burst out laughing." I told her.

"Oh wow. I think I went to his house for a party once? It's freaking huge. I have never seen that many chandeliers in my life."

"So, a rich playboy. Surprise surprise."

Once we were all done with our food, we went back to our respective houses and called it a day. It was around six by the time I reached home, so I went out to the backyard to practice my basketball skills. The one thing I still never quite got was those reverse passes. Freaking impossible. I never got how to curve the ball from behind me to pass it to my teammate.

I practiced for two hours, never once wavering. I was sweating like crazy and very tired at this point, but I pushed myself to keep going. One thing I've always believed in was to never be satisfied with myself. I could become the president and I still wouldn't let myself be happy with it. It kind of inspires me to keep going. Even if I win ten awards, I wouldn't stop till I got twenty. Then thirty and so on.

"Hey."

I turned around and found my dad standing there looking at me sheepishly. "Oh, hey dad."

"Mind if I join you?"

I stared at him, taken aback. I know your probably wondering why this sounds a little awkward. My dad's been pretty busy with work lately and he's almost never been home. When I was a kid, we used to play basketball, eat ice-cream and go on long drives together. In the last year, it's decreased drastically. I loved my dad and everything, but sometimes it's like he's always at work. We aren't exactly "rich" per se, but we aren't poor either. He works for some corporate company or something.

"You don't have to work?" I asked him.

"Nah. Right now I want to spend time with my daughter."

I smiled. "Sure, dad."

We proceeded to play for another forty-five minutes, and I totally crushed him. By the end of it, he was panting on his knees and laughing. "You've really gotten good! I seriously need to exercise more."

I laughed. "You do."

"Let's go eat dinner, I'm starving."

"Me too."