2. Chapter 2

Maya is thankful when Monday rolls around again. She doesn’t have to be stuck at home with her parents or her brother. She loves them but everything is always so intense. It’s stressful. At least, at school she doesn’t have to worry about home. She just has to worry about school and her grades. Other than running and training, Maya spent the entire weekend in her room studying.

Everything is going well until Advanced Biology class.

“Okay.” The teacher starts the class. “We are going to change things up in this room. Because I feel like we are becoming too comfortable, to complacent. Since this is an AP class, you all need a new challenge.” She holds a sheet of paper up in dramatic fashion. “New lab partners.”

Everyone in the room groans.

“Don’t move until I’ve called off all the names.”

The teacher, Miss Dalton, does this in the middle of the first semester and the middle of the second. She thinks it’s a good challenge for the students.

She starts rattling off names. “Maya Bishop.” She points to the next lab station set up. “Here. With Carina DeLuca.”

Maya closes her eyes.

“Haha, DeLuca.” Owen Hunt teases. “You’re stuck with crazy runner girl.”

“Shut up, Owen.” Carina says back.

“Oh, you going to defend her now?” Owen challenges.

“No. Just shut up.” Carina mumbles.

“Enough.” The teacher silences them.

Maya wonders what is happening. She thought that Carina and Owen were a couple. At least, the last she knew they were. Maybe they aren’t anymore. She waits until their teacher is done rearranging the class before moving. She takes her backpack and gathers up her things and moves to the new table that was assigned to her and Carina.

She looks over to her right at Carina, just out of the corner of her eye. “Sorry we keep running into each other or getting put together.” Maya mumbles. “My goal is to pass this class with an A whether you help in that or not, I don’t care.” She’s not sure if Carina is even smart or not. She’s got to know some things if she’s in Advantage Biology or maybe it’s a prerequisite for college for her. They are in their senior year. Maybe it’s more that Carina is required to take this class for whatever she wants to do after high school.

“We have the same goal then.” Carina says back with a scoff.

Maya rolls her eyes at Carina’s condescending tone. Two of the three things she hates are sitting right next to her and she can’t do a damn thing about it.

Their first day as lab partners is uneventful. Maya is happy with that. She heads to lunch and sits with Travis and Vic. “You’ll never guess what just happened.”

“Jack Gibson tripped over his untied shoelaces and fell flat on his face.” Vic smirks. Travis and Maya both stare at Vic. “What? It’s bound to happen one day.” Vic shrugs. “Did no one ever teach him how to tie his shoes? I still can’t believe he’s the quarterback of the football team. Like how?”

“No.” Maya deadpans. “That’s not it.”

“Then what?” Travis says as he dips a French fry in ketchup.

“We got new lab partners in Advanced Bio and I just happened to get the queen of popularity.”

“Carina DeLuca.” Travis’ jaw drops open.

“The one and only.” Maya nods and gets her meal out.

“Good luck with that.” Vic mumbles.

“Thanks. I can’t stand her. She’s just so arrogant. Like she’s better than everyone else. And where did she even come from? She wasn’t at this school before sophomore year.”

“I heard she’s from Spain or Portugal.” Travis mumbles around a mouthful of food.

“Wouldn’t she have an accent if she was from a country that didn’t speak English.” Vic inquires.

“Not necessarily.” Travis says. “She could be some military brat or maybe she’s rich. I bet she’s rich. And she went to like rich people school.”

“Why is she in a public school in Seattle then?” Maya questions.

Travis tips his head to the side. “Fair point.” He points a fry in Maya’s direction. “I don’t know then.”

“How was she today?” Vic asks.

Maya shrugs. “I just told her my aim was to get an A in the class and that I didn’t care if she helped or not with that.”

“And?”

“She just said her goal was the same.” Maya scoops some of her berries into her mouth that she brought from home. She usually doesn’t eat the lunch the school provides.

“Is she even smart?” Vic wonders.

“Well, she can’t be stupid if she’s in Advanced Bio.” Travis says and slaps Vic lightly on the back of the head.

Maya lets Travis and Vic bicker about Carina DeLuca as she eats her lunch. She focuses on what she has to do the remainder of the day. School and then a lighter practice. They have a track meet tomorrow after school.

“Are you guys ready for tomorrow?”

“What?” Vic stops and turns to Maya.

“The track meet.” Maya raises an eyebrow at the pair. It’s obvious they don’t take running and track as serious as she does.

“Oh, sure.” Vic is a sprinter. She can’t stand running long distance, but she has the burst of speed that you need to win short distance races. “I wonder if that Dixon kid will be there.”

“He should be, it’s a cross town meet. All the schools in the city with a track team will be there.” Maya says as if it’s nothing but she always scopes out the competition. Or her dad scopes out the competition and relays the information to Maya. Then she remembers it. “Oh, wait. That’s your crush, right?” Maya looks over at Travis.

“It sure is.” Vic answers.

“Guys, stop.” Travis tries to wave them off.  “He’s like fifteen and he’s not even out. I’m not going to entertain the idea.”

“But he’s cute and there’s no harm in having a crush.” Vic elbows Travis.

He rolls his eyes. “I guess not. And what about you. There’s that Theo guy that goes to West Seattle.”

Vic just shakes her head. “Nope. Not happening. I can’t get involved with anyone.”

“Maya?”

“What?” Maya looks at the pair. She’s been totally checked out of this conversation.

“Do you have a crush on anyone?”

“No. I don’t have time for petty things like crushes.” Maya gets up. “I have to go.” She wants to get to her locker and then go to the library and look something up on one of the library computers before lunch is over.

Travis leans into Vic’s side. “Maybe she is part robot.”

Carina spends her lunch with her friends. Her mind is stuck on the new lab partner though. She’s staring off into the distance when someone getting up from a far off table catches her eye. It’s her new lab partner. Carina smirks and shakes her head.

Theses run ins with Maya Bishop have become more frequent in recent weeks. Carina isn’t sure she knows how to feel about that. She doesn’t really have a problem with the girl. It just that she isn’t a part of her friend group, her social status, and probably from the looks of the clothes Maya wears not in the same tax bracket as her father.

Her father. He was in a high tax bracket when they lived in Italy and then when they came to America twelve years ago. They lived in a fancy town house in Boston. He worked at the hospital there. Until he didn’t. Until he screwed up and got fired. And then they ended up in Seattle. She’s not sure how, but he’s gotten a job at the hospital here, but she knows that he isn’t making the same money that he used to. They live in a modest house and it’s not like what they lived in in Boston. But Carina tries to keep up appearances. She has all the latest clothing trends, is up on all the popular things in life. That way she can stay on top of the social ladder.

“Carina?” Addison nudges her.

“What?” She looks over at her friend.

“I asked if you wanted to come to the party this Friday night.”

“Sure.” Carina agrees right away. She wouldn’t miss it for the world. It’s only Monday and they are planning Friday nights party already. They have a party at somebody’s house just about every Friday night, so it’s nothing new.

The track meet goes well for Maya. She comes in first and is only a few seconds off of her fastest 10,000 meter time. So, all and all, very good.

Her dad is happy with her, and he even lets her skip her morning workout the next morning before school.

She’s happy that the off day she had last week is behind her and that something like that didn’t happen again, so she doesn’t have to do extra training.

Her gym class that day brings something interesting. They are starting a unit on soccer. It reminds Maya of when she saw Carina in the park on Saturday with the boy with the soccer ball. Being competitive at everything she does, Maya puts her total focus into the activity. That is until the teacher makes her sit on the back defensive line because she is being too aggressive and hogging the ball as a forward.

Maya is standing there as the action all happens on the other end of the pitch. A tall brunette jogs over to her.

Carina was put on the other team as a forward, so on the front line. She’s just waiting for someone from her team to get control of the ball and pass it up to her so she can whiz past Maya and score a goal. Show her up. Show Maya that she’s not the only hot shot who can run fast and is good at a sport.

“Who was that boy the other day?” Maya asks.

“You talking to me?” Carina says without looking at Maya.

Maya barely restrains herself from rolling her eyes. “There’s no one else within twenty yards of us. So, I’d say so.” She throws some sass at Carina.

Carina walks around Maya, surveying the field as she does so. “My little brother.”

Maya hums, tracking Carina’s movements. She’s thinking about Carina and her little brother and not paying enough attention to the game. Carina starts moving, running and that’s when Maya sees the ball coming towards them. “Shit.” She mumbles under her breath. Carina has her beat. The brunette is in position to trap the ball as it comes down to the ground, turn, and shoot it towards the goal. It whizzes past the goalkeeper’s right hand and into the back of the net.

Carina jumps up in the air and does a fist pump. Scoring goals never gets old, no matter how many she scores, whether it’s in gym class or her rec league.

“Where’d you learn how to do that?” Maya asks as Carina jogs away from her back towards the center line.

Maya’s teams back line is under attack again as soon as the ball is kicked off. Carina runs past her from left to right. And then back. Maya has never seen anything like this before. They’ve been in the same gym class for a couple months now and Carina hasn’t been more than a passive participant in any sport they’ve played. Doing the bare minimum to get the grade; just like most of the rest of the popular kids do.

Maya can’t help but wonder what on earth is happening. It’s not until Carina scores a second goal that Maya starts to get annoyed. That hatred for Carina returns.

“You’re making me look bad.” Maya mumbles.

Carina laughs. “Suck it up, Bishop.”

Maya growls. She actually growls in frustration.

Carina laughs again. “You’re finding out that I’m not just a pretty face.”

“I never said you were just a pretty face.” Maya shoots back.

“So, you think I’m pretty.” Carina grins and then runs away from Maya as the ball is passed up the field again.

Maya runs over next to Carina, marking her. Hip to hip, in stride with her as the ball comes in. Maya goes to stick out a leg to fight the ball from Carina and ends up tangling legs together with Carina, tripping the girl, taking her down. Maya comes away with the ball and passes it up the field to one of her teammates.

The teacher blows his whistle. “Carina, are you alright?”

She’s completely fine. “Well, if Bishop wouldn’t be so damn aggressive all the time.”

“Language.” The teacher scolds.

“Sorry, Mr. Larson. I’m fine.” Carina pushes herself to feet. “Though I’m probably going to have a nice big ugly bruise on the inside of my thigh tomorrow.” She rubs the area where Maya foot came into contact with her leg.

“Okay, that’s too much information.” Mr. Larson walks towards the end of the field. “Enough for today. Go get changed.” He tells the class.

Carina smirks as she sees Maya watching her from afar. “I’m fine, Bishop. Stop staring.”

The attention on her by everyone in the class now brings heat to Maya’s cheeks. She ducks her head and jogs to the locker room to change.

The next day in Advanced Bio Carina comes in and sits down next to an already seated Maya.

“Hey, Bishop. Wanna see the bruise that you put on my leg?”

Maya eyes nearly bulge out of her head. “No. I hate you. You made me look bad.”

Carina clicks her tongue. “Cuz I scored two goals on you. You need to work on your defense, superstar.” She unloads her book and notebook and pen from her backpack.

Maya clenches her jaw, grinding her teeth together. Thankful the bell rings to start class and Carina can’t say anything else to her.

Lane makes good on his promise to get Mason into soccer. He enrolled him a week ago even though it was mid-season. Mason had two practices and today is his first game. Lane makes Katherine and Maya go to the game with him and watch.

Mason isn’t on the field at first, so at halftime Lane pulls the boy’s coach aside and has a chat with him. That gets Mason into the game in the second half.

Maya mostly isn’t paying attention to the game because Mason wasn’t playing. She’s looking around for a while at all the people. Parents and families watching their son or daughter play. She gets up and goes to the bathroom before halftime. As Maya turns around, she spots the one person she just can’t stand.

“What are you doing here?” Maya glares.

Carina points out onto the field at Andrea. “My brother.”

Maya looks back over at the field. Sure enough, the boy who she saw in the park a couple of Saturdays ago is running around on the field. “And what, you’ve just been sitting behind me this whole time?”

Carina shrugs with a little smirk. She loves getting Maya all riled up like this. It’s becoming one of her favorite things to do in life. “I feel like I should be asking what you are doing here. I am here every single Saturday morning. This is the first time I’ve seen you here.”

Maya narrows her eyes at Carina. She marches right over to her, right in front of her lawn chair, and points a finger in her face. “Don’t-“ She doesn’t know what to say though. She doesn’t want to say that her father made her come here to watch Mason. She doesn’t want to give Carina the satisfaction of knowing something personal about her or her family.

Carina raises her hands in innocence along with a raised eyebrow and a little smirk.

Maya wishes she could do something or say something to wipe that smug smirk right off of Carina’s face. Instead, she marches off to go use the restroom.

When the game is over, Lane pulls Mason over to him and starts scolding him on how he played. “Son, you need to move around more. Go after the ball when it come in your direction.” He has a hand on Mason’s shoulder. The boy just stood out on the field half the time he was out there.

Andrew runs over to his sister at the same time, a big happy smile on his face. “Did you see me out there? I had a good tackle and Johnny took the ball and scored for our team.”

Maya watches the interaction between brother and sister as she tries to tune out Lane’s harsh voice.

Carina wraps Andrew in a hug. “I did. You did a good job. Your whole team did great.” She looks up and over at Maya. She knows the blonde is watching and listening to her and Andrea. She winks over at Maya. “I see you have a new teammate.”

Andrew looks around trying to find him. “Yeah, his name is Mason.” Andrew points. “He’s over there. He’s really quiet but I told him that was okay because I was really quiet too when I first moved here and started soccer and didn’t know anyone.” Andrew watches Mason.

The boy has his head hung low, looking down at his feet, his hands are behind his back as he anxiously twists back and forth.

Andrew’s eyes shift to Lane as he harshly tells his son what he needs to do to improve. Carina watches the interaction too. It is so intense. “We should head home.” She puts a hand on Andrew’s shoulder and grabs her lawn chair without another look in the direction of what she now knows is the Bishop family. She feels bad now after seeing Maya’s dad and how he is with Mason. She feels bad for Mason, and for Maya, to have to put up with a man like that. Carina knows all too well what it’s like to have a demanding father.

“So, that was your dad?” Carina asks as she works on their biology assignment. They are supposed to be working together to answer ten questions.

“Yeah.” Maya is skeptical about having this person asking her about this. “Why?” She doesn’t need to hear the judgement from Carina. Her father is intense, she knows that. But he is doing what he feels is best for his children. His parenting style is his own.

“No reason.” Carina shrugs.

“No reason?” Maya knows that’s not true. “Or you’re just nosy?” She scoffs. “Don’t pretend like you know me cuz you saw me once outside of school. Or like-”

“Technically it was twice now.”

Maya furrows her brow. How dare Carina interrupt her. “Or like you can judge me. I don’t need your judgement.” Maya folds her arms over her chest. “And don’t interrupt me.”

“Okay.” Carina says and gets back to their biology assignment. She likes the feistiness and the fight that Maya puts up though.

“Okay. Okay what?” Maya is frustrated now.

“Just okay.” She raises her hands in innocence. “Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

“My what?” Maya says louder than she should.

It gets the teachers attention. “Miss Bishop, is there a problem?”

Yeah, there is a problem. The mean popular girl is picking on her again. “No. No problem. Sorry.”

Carina can’t help but smirk. She leans over and whispers in Maya’s ear. “It’s really easy to rile you up and get you on edge. You know that, right?”

Maya lets out a long breath through her nose. “Then why do you keep doing it?”

Carina shrugs. “Cuz I like seeing you all flustered.”

Maya clenches her fists, trying not to let Carina see a physical reaction now that she knows Carina is doing these things on purpose to get a rise out of her. It’s beyond aggravating and frustrating for Maya. “Well, stop it. You could pick on anyone at this school, and you choose me. I know it’s just some sick twisted game. Do you and your friends put money on it? To see which of you can have the highest number of victims.”

“No.” Carina shakes her head. “Here.” She taps at the paper on the tabletop. “All done.”

Maya looks down and sees that Carina has finished their assignment. “What?”

“I’m going to read ahead.” She says now that they are done for the day and there are about ten minutes left of class before lunch. “If you wouldn’t mind keeping it down over there.” Carina smirks.

“Keep it down?” Maya feels like she is two steps behind everything that Carina is saying and doing.

“Yes.” Carina nods once. “So I can read.” She rests a palm on her chin and leans over the biology book.

Maya sits there in complete shock. First, she doesn’t understand where Carina gets off talking about her dad like that. Second, she can’t believe Carina did the whole assignment without so much as discussing it with Maya. Third, Maya doesn’t know how she even did that while they were talking. Forth, Carina has the audacity to ask Maya to be quiet so she can read.

Maya sits next to the brunette the remainder of the class, stewing silently over everything that Carina has said and done. The girl just gets under her skin so much.