5 Mia Woods

"I may not be always there with you, but I will always be there for you."

Jake's POV

3:00 pm: Basketball Practice

"There you are!" Jeff jogged towards me as I made my way into the gym. I was still familiarizing with the different routes to different sections of the school. Hence, it was obvious I would be late.

And I hated it.

"Hey, man. Did the practice already start?"

"Nah. The cheerleaders are practicing right now, we'd start as soon as they're done." He smiled. "Come on, I'll introduce you to a couple of my teammates."

We walked towards a group of kids who were laughing their hearts out. Probably, hearing some sort of joke. There was this kid who rolled down on the floor and his laughter sounded like-

I didn't even have the word for it

Simply speaking, it sounded horrible

Thank the lords, the cheer-leading was loud enough to minimize the horrible laughter.

"So, what do you think?" Huh?

I blanked out, again.

Why do I keep doing that?

"Huh?" was all that came out of my mouth. I could see a slight frown on Jeff's lips but he quickly replaced it with a bright smile.

"I was saying if you wanted to join the basketball team. You know, extra credits, scholarships and all."

"Nah, I'm good." It wasn't that I didn't need extra credits. It was kind of the fact that I was confident on my grades enough to give me a scholarship. For me, scholarship didn't matter so much unlike other kids in this high school. I came from a wealthy family so I wouldn't get anything less than a prestigious college.

Man, being rich was awesome!

"Suit yourself." He kept that bright smile on his face and started greeting his teammates. All of them had a bright smile plastered on their faces and I gave them one of my own to match their enthusiasm. They asked me about my previous school and why I changed school and came here mid-semester.

"My family travels a lot, so I don't stick around much in schools."

"Hopefully, you'll stick around for a long time."

Not intending to.

I could stay here for six to seven months, tops. Not more than that. I didn't like to be attached. One of my - scratch that- my only flaw.

Not liking the environment and their questions much, I decided to wander around the gym and take a look. There were the bleachers were some of the students sat and watched people, some students were just talking, the basketball team was now making strategy on how to win the game and...the teacher/the coach was nowhere to be found.

Right, maybe he was running late!

Or maybe-?

Brain, eject those thoughts now!

Nah, I'm good

Ugh..why do you have to do that!

"It doesn't go like this! Follow my lead!" I heard someone screaming.

A girl actually.

"Oh come on, we've been doing this since we were freshmen. Things need a change!" Another one argued.

"We need to stick with the plan!"

"You and your plans! I can't take this anymore."

"I'm the head cheerleader, you listen to me!"

"It always looks like you're the star of the show. Guys barely look at the rest of us!"

Whoa, that looked like serious.

Cat-fight! Cat-fight!

"My cheerfulness will take me a long way, just like your honesty."

"What is that supposed to mean?!"

"It means, thank you for your honesty."

"Ugh!!!" The girl stormed out of the place and the rest followed to pacify her. The 'head cheerleader' let out a sigh as she rubbed her temple , mumbling something.

I couldn't make out what she was saying though.

And I didn't know how I was walking towards her.

"Hey, you okay?" Why did I say that? Of course, she wasn't okay! And would she answer me? Why would a guy be bothered about her right now?

"Yeah, I'm fine. But if you don't mind me asking, who are you?" Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion when she looked up at me.

"Jake. Jake Matthews. I just transferred here." I smiled at her.

"No wonder you were bothering talking to me." She muttered under her breath.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh never mind." She flashed me a smile.

"What's your name?" I decided to ignore what she said. Actually, you know what? I tried to ignore what she said. Given my curiosity and all.

"Mia. Mia Woods."

Malai

Damn it!

"Nice name." I decided not to call her by her name for a while, knowing I'd mess things up like In Candy's case.

I'm hopeless!

"Thanks." She smiled. She looked a lot less frustrated right now. Maybe she was glad that I talked to her and distracted her for a while.

"Anytime."

"Woods!"

We snapped our heads to see who had called her. Turned out, it was the coach. He looked at me with a sense of recognition. I smiled and waved. Clearly, he remembered the morning incident but he decided not to bug me and turned his attention towards Malai.

MIA! MIA! MIA!

Right, Mia.

"I'll be right back. Thanks again, though."

"No problem."

With that, she rushed towards the Coach.