9 The Four Letter Word

I was woken up the next day by some loud vibrations coming from the side of my bed.

It was my phone, but I just ignored it the first time.

And the second time.

And the third time.

But then it rang a fourth time and I finally took my phone and answered to whoever was rudely interrupting my sleep.

"Ughhh, my head hurts." I answer without checking who it was.

"Hello," I say through the phone, groggily.

"I'm outside your house. Open the door." It was Sky. I groan and drag myself out of bed. When I open the door, she skips in and goes to my kitchen.

"What are you doing here," I ask her. How is she even so up and energized?

"Coach called an emergency practice today and you forgot to give her your contact info, so I came over to tell you. Also, I have something you most desperately need."

She comes back to me with a glass in her hand with some green substance in it.

"What the hell is that?"

"You don't wanna know what's in it, but it cures hangovers. Just drink it fast and try not to smell it. It'll help you feel better right away."

I take the glass from her and down the drink. It's the worst thing I have ever tasted and I've drunken dirty water before.

I didn't do it on purpose. I was pranked.

I start to gag, but she tells me to take deep breaths and drink some water to keep it down.

"If this doesn't help me feel better, I will kill you," I say to her and she just ignores my threat.

"Go get ready. Practice is at 11. I'll make us some quick breakfast."

While taking a shower, I did start to feel better. I brush my teeth and try to find something to wear. I went with some black tights that cut down into a V around my waist. The black sports bra that I wore, was different from the one I wore last time. The bra was connected to two straps that wrapped criss crossed around my core. I finished off the look with a pair of sneakers.

I tie my brown curly hair up into a middle ponytail and go back to the kitchen. Nick was already in there eating some eggs and bacon. Sky seemed to have warmed up to Nick and they were talking.

"I made breakfast sandwiches. Eggs, bacon, you name it." Sky passes me the sandwich wrapped in aluminum foil.

"We should get going," I tell Sky.

"Spence, can I borrow your car? Mine is having some problems. I have to go to work." Nick was practically begging me.

"I'll give you a ride back home," Sky tells me and I agree for Nick to use my car.

"I'll see you later." I wave goodbye to Nick and Sky takes me to her car.

"How did you get home last night? I thought you were going to stay over at Lily's," Sky asks me.

"Max gave me a ride. He is my neighbor, so it makes sense."

"Ooooooo, anything else I need to know about," she asks while wiggling her eyebrows.

"No, just a car ride," I answer her, laughing.

"So, what happened after I left you and Lily to talk," I ask her.

"Basically, she explained to me that she wasn't thinking straight with the alcohol in her system and that she was terribly sorry. We both agreed that we didn't want our friendship to end because of a boy and we solved everything. She even introduced me to Gasper and he seemed really nice. We're supposed to be going on a date."

"Well, I guess that's awesome that you guys worked it out."

We make it to the school and go to the field. The other girls are standing around. Coach tells us to wait for the football team and everyone seems confused.

It feels so weird being at school on a saturday.

The guys start arriving and Parker comes over to me, Lily, and Sky.

"Wassup guys," Parker says ruffling all of our hairs.

"Parker, what are you doing? Stoooop." We all fight him off and he just laughs at our frustration.

"HEY EVERYONE. LISTEN UP." I look over to see the football coach and our coach waiting for all of us to give them our attention.

"So, I know that this school, for a long time, hasn't had a pep rally," my coach says and continues to talk.

"We've asked the principal if we can start them back up again and after a lot of discussing, he agreed. We've called this meeting to tell you what we plan on doing."

My coach stops talking and we stand there waiting for her to tell us what we're doing. She looks over at the football coach and sees that he's not paying attention.

"Benson, it's your turn," she whispers to him, punching his shoulder.

"Oh, sorry." He clears his throat a couple of times.

"We're going to partner the cheerleaders up with the football players. You don't get to choose who you get paired up with. We will put the football jersey numbers into a cup, shake it, and then call each cheerleader up to get a number. Whoever has that number jersey will be paired with the cheerleader who got that number. We'll tell you the rest afterwards."

There were 24 cheerleaders and 20 varsity football players. JV wasn't getting paired up with the cheerleaders. I wouldn't be surprised if coach didn't pick me to be paired with someone. I look over to see all the players and my eye stops on Max.

He had this natural grin that played on his face and his bronzy hair was all messy. I'm guessing like many others, he was rushed to get ready for the unexpected practice.

I think he felt me staring because he turns to face me. I then realize that everyone's looking at me. Then I realize that coach has been calling my name for the past minute and I snap out of it.

How embarrassing.

I speed walk over to coach and she holds out the bucket towards me. I put my hand inside and take out a piece of paper.

I unwrinkle the piece of paper to see what number I got.

"13," I tell my coach. She yells out 13 and I turn around to see who I was paired up with, when the football coach calls out Chester's name.

Great. I've been paired with an asshole. Don't I have the best luck ever?

Note the sarcasm.

We walk off to the side, while everyone else gets paired.

"How you doing, cupcake?"

"My name is Spencer. If we're being teamed up together, can you not be an asshole?"

"Come on. I'm not even that bad. We had one bad conversation and now you doomed me to this reputation. That's kind of judgmental if you ask me."

"I'm being judgmental?!?! Are you serious?!?! Your such a hypocrite. The first thing you said to me was 'Oh, your one of those girls who play hard to get,' " I say to him, mocking his deep voice.

"I don't sound like that."

"I don't sound like that," I repeat after him.

"Ok, now that you guys are paired up, you can choose any time to meet up and decide what you want to do for the pep rally. The pep rally is in three weeks, so hurry up and get prepared."

After that, coach ended practice. I was glad we didn't have to do any exercising. I started walking off the field when someone stopped me and turned me around.

"Where are you going? We didn't make a plan," Chester questions me.

"Oh... sorry. What did you want to do," I ask him.

"We can go to your house and come up with something. If we go to your house, I'll buy pizza."

I really wanted to say no, but he was buying FOOD. The best four letter word ever created. I tried to fight the urge, but it didn't work.

"Ughh! You have a car, right?"

"Yup. Let's go pumpkin."

"My name is SPENCER!"

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