Rising (6 page)

There were already a number of different
athletes using the practice fields.
 
The
football team had right field.
 
They were
still standing around waiting for their coach.
 
I saw Mark among the players.
 
The
girls’ soccer team had center field and had already begun dribbling and passing
drills up the field.
 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mumbled to
myself, seeing the streak of auburn hair flying downfield.

Ben and my other teammates were stretching on
the left field.
 
I dropped my gear on the
sidelines and jogged to meet them.

“Goddard!” yelled Coach Louviere.

I looked up to see the coach tapping his
watch.
 

“I know.
 
Sorry,” I said, then began stretching my hamstrings in a hurry.

“What’s up, man?
 
Sleepin
’ late?”
asked Ben.

“Not really.
 
I’ve just been having trouble sleeping at all.
 
When I finally do sleep, I can’t get up.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“Gabe, can you give me a ride to the game this
week?
 
My truck’s completely died on me,”
asked Zack, who was bouncing a soccer ball on his knee.

“Sure.
 
What happened?”

“Transmission,” he replied shortly.

“Ouch.”

“Yeah.
 
My dad completely lost it.
 
I
can’t use his car right now.”

“No problem,” I said, stealing his ball then
sprinting downfield while maneuvering the ball toward the goal.

“Hey!” yelled Zack, chasing after me.

Zack was our star blocker and I was one of the
team’s three strikers.
 
We had a constant
duel going between us to see who was best.
 
Today, Zack was winning.

“Not already!” yelled Ben.

The sophomore Sean jogged down center toward
the goal, calling out to Zack.

“I’m open, man!
 
Over here!”

Sean, a new sophomore on the team, tried to
join in the game.
 
He didn’t realize that
this was a one-on-one competition that had been playing between us since middle
school.
 
I managed to steal the ball
twice before Zack shot past me.
 
I
dribbled twice then knocked the ball right over Sean’s head into the goal.
 
I laughed, circling back behind the goal.

“Nice,” said Zack, giving me a little credit.

We walked back toward the other players, still
stretching on center field.
 
The coach
was making his way toward us.
 
Loud
laughter suddenly carried across the practice field behind us.
 
I glanced across to the football players,
catching sight of Trey Hawkes making a vulgar gesture in a huddle of
players.
 
He happened to be glancing
toward the girls on the other field.
 
No,
he was gesturing toward one in particular leaning over to tie her shoe.
 
I felt a sinking in my stomach to see who he
was glaring at—Clara.
 
What an ass.

“
Yo
, Gabe, let’s go!”
shouted Ben.

I turned away and focused on the practice.
 
Coach Louviere called a series of
drills.
 
My body reacted instinctually
each time.
 
I dribbled, passed, then
aggressively tunneled into the strike zone and scored nearly every time.
 
It was easy.
 
I just imagined the ball was Trey Hawkes’ head and I slammed it home
without fail.
 
Though my body was fully
in sync with the calls, my mind was far away.
 
I thought I could be rid of her for at least one day.
 
Why did she bother me so much?
 
And, why should I care if Trey and those
other losers got a few laughs at her expense?
 
She had no idea what they had been thinking.
 
But, I felt it surely enough, even half a
mile across the field.
 
Anger boiled in
my gut just thinking about it.
 
The ball
zoomed toward me through the air.
 
I
blocked it with my chest, let it drop at my feet, and then kicked it toward the
goal.
 
Zack dove for the ball, but it
swished by him, missing his head by an inch.
 

“Dude!” shouted Ben, catching up to me.
 
“You are
on
today.”

The whistle blew three times.

“Five laps then you’re done, boys,” shouted
Coach Louviere.

Ben fell into stride next to me as we started
laps around all three practice fields.
 
Coach Louviere demanded that we keep our cardio up.
 
The girls had broken into offensive and
defensive teams and were planning strategy for next week’s game.
 
I caught sight of Clara with the defense,
intently listening to the coach.
 
She
hadn’t seemed to notice she was being watched.
 

“What’s up with you?” asked Ben.
 
“You’re silent.
 
You’re moody all the time.
 
I mean, more than usual.”

“Sorry, man.
 
I’m just distracted lately.”

“With what?
 
The dream thing again?
 
I told
you, don’t let that kind of stuff bother you.
 
I never do.”

I hadn’t even thought about that, but Ben was
partly right.
 
As we jogged along the
other side of the practice field, we drew closer to Clara’s group of
players.
 
I was hoping she wouldn’t even
look in our direction.

“Hey, Clara!” shouted Ben.

I wanted to disappear.
 
Leave it to Ben to draw attention toward us
when I was doing my best to be invisible.

“Shut up, man,” I mumbled under my breath.

It was too late.
 
Clara glanced up.
 
She looked intently at us for just a moment
then lightly waved with a smile.
 
Ben
waved enthusiastically back at her.

“What’s wrong now?” asked Ben when we made the
corner. “Whoa.
 
Wait a minute.
 
Don’t tell me that all of your insane
grumpiness is because you have a thing for Clara?”

“No, man, no way.
 
Not her.”

“Oh, yeah.
 
Now it all makes sense.
 
But,
dude, if you like a girl, the point is not to avoid her.
 
You have to actually talk to her for her to
notice you, and be
nice
.”

“I don’t like her, Ben.
 
It’s not that. I mean, I don’t dislike
her.
 
It’s just--”

“What?
 
It’s just what?”

“Well, it has to do with, you know, my sensory
thing.”

“
Ohhhh
,” said Ben
casually, “does she give you a bad vibe or something?”

“No.
 
Actually, she gives off a really calm vibe,” I said, speeding up the
pace without realizing it.

“Oh, yeah.
 
Those calm vibes can be so annoying.
 
I see why you avoid her like the plague.”

“It’s hard to explain,” I said, feeling kind of
stupid about the whole thing.

“Well, we’ve got four more laps, so let’s hear
it.”

“It’s like she’s void of any emotion at
all.
 
I mean, it’s almost numbing when
she comes around.”

“Dude, sounds like a crush to me.”

“No,” I argued, not willing to even consider
it.
 
I tried to explain another way. “I
mean, when you come around, you give off a certain happy, easy-going vibe.”

“Thanks,” he said with a goofy smile.

“When Melanie’s around, I feel her kind nature
pouring out.
 
Although Jessie gives off a
certain anxiety, it’s always just on the surface, never too strong.
 
And, Mark’s eagerness and self-confidence
gives off a good vibe, even when he’s being a jerk. What I’m trying to say is
y’all are all easy to be around.
 
Your
emotions are steady, not overpowering or negative.”

“So?
 
I
don’t get it,” said Ben, pausing to catch his breath. “How can Clara’s calmness
be a bad thing?”

“It’s not just that.
 
It’s like my other sense gets whacked out and
fuzzy when she’s around.
 
I mean, yeah, I
feel a super-strong sort of, I don’t know, quietness come over me, but it makes
me almost dizzy.
 
It’s just weird, Ben.”

“Weird?
You’re
talking about weird?” he asked, giving me a shove.

I tried to laugh, but I was nearly out of
breath, too.

“Come on,” I said, “one more lap.”

***

I toweled off and downed a Gatorade while
walking back to my Jeep.
 
I felt her
before I saw her.
 
On a bench near the
parking lot, Clara was sitting cross-legged with a book in her lap.
 
I had to pass her to get to my car.
 
I walked slowly, trying not to make any
noise.
 
She looked up anyway.
 
When she saw that it was me, a playful smile
lit up her face.
 
It made me even more
uneasy.

“Hi,” she said pleasantly.

“Hello,” I said, feeling that numbness come
over me the closer I walked toward her.
 
“Uh, you waiting for a ride?”

“Yeah.
 
My dad.
 
He’s always late,
when
he actually remembers to pick me
up.”

“Uh, huh.
 
Well, see
ya
later.”

I walked past her, giving a little nod.
 
She gave me a quick puzzled look then went
back to her book, which I noticed was Mrs. Jaden’s latest assignment—
Lord of the Flies
.
 
I jumped in my Jeep and started it up.
 
Clara glanced at her sports watch then pulled
out her iPhone and made a call.
 
I rolled
out of the parking space and glanced in my rearview mirror when I passed
her.
 
She slipped her phone back in her
bag without speaking to anyone, frowning out at the main road.

“Damn,” I whispered to myself.

I sighed then stopped my Jeep and reversed.

“You want a ride?”

I was hoping she would just say no politely,
then I’d be on my way without any guilt.

“Definitely,” she said with a wide smile.
 
“I’m sure Dad forgot again.”

Without hesitating, she closed the book still
open on her lap and jumped up.
 
I chunked
a pile of books and a pair of sneakers into the backseat while she threw her
gym bag on the floorboard and hopped in.
 

“Sorry about the junk,” I said.

“It’s okay.”

As soon as Clara slid into the seat and
fastened her seatbelt, I felt that wave of dizzy tranquility.
 
I had a sudden flashback to my ankle surgery
two years ago.
 
I felt like I did right
before they put me under, like I was slipping into sedation.
 
Glancing sideways, Clara was staring
strangely at me.

“Thanks for saving me there,” she said
quietly.
 

“No problem.”

“Dad is a great guy, but he gets sidetracked
sometimes.”

I shook my head clear for a minute, trying to
push her feelings from me.
 
I turned on
the radio and pulled out of the parking lot.
 
Clara checked her phone, but still no message from her dad. I noticed
her background was a picture of Einstein sticking his tongue out at the
viewer.
 
Odd girl.
 
Most girls used pictures of themselves with
their “BFFs.”

“Which way?” I asked stiffly.

I was making a serious effort to focus, but it
was hard when it felt like I just drank a whole bottle of nighttime Nyquil.

“Oh, uh, left.”

We were both quiet while we drove down Main
Street.
 
No shops were open, except for
Mirabelle’s Café.
 
A few coffee-drinkers
sipped and talked under the awning.
 
I
flipped on the radio to hear the tail end of
Paramore’s
latest hit.
 
The disc jockey then rattled
off the mid-morning news.

“Traffic is next to nothing in Lafayette today,
so enjoy the open free roads, people.
 
One caller let us know about a wreck on Congress Avenue, so avoid that
area if you can. Weather looks great today; cloud-free with a high of 75°, so
get off your PlayStations and laptops and get outside.
 
But, look out, Hurricane Lucy is brewing off
the coast of Cuba.
 
This one’s got
meteorologists scratching their heads.
 
She just popped up out of nowhere and is spinning her wheels, growing
larger by the minute.
 
More about that
later.
 
In international news, the Summit
meeting has been postponed in Tel Aviv due to the bombing on Saturday. Protestors
have inundated the streets—”