lose ⤷ a. banks

chapter 2: larson & mcgill

Adam shuffled to the locker room with his teammates after practice, sweaty and sore. Coach Reilly worked them really hard like usual so the boys weren't surprised by the outcome.

"God my back hurts," Garrett Larson complained while he threw off his jersey.

"Been getting it from the back, Larson?" Luke McGill teased and Adam let out a light chuckle as he untied his skates.

"What are you laughing at, Banksie? Who's that pretty girl that dropped you off at practice today?" Larson interrogated and Adam's face fell.

"Are you fucking stupid? That was Shortie and she is not pretty," Adam scoffed.

Larson and McGill's mouths dropped. "That was Shortie? Damn what happened to her? Summer's been good boys," Larson and McGill chuckled together but Adam was unamused.

"She ran into my fucking car so her crazy mom made her drive me," he explained.

"I mean I wouldn't be mad if I got a couple minutes alone with her," Larson smirked and high-fived McGill.

Adam threw his pads down and stood up. "What are you guys talking about? We hate Vienna," he said.

Larson shrugged, "Yeah but I mean..."

"A girl's, a girl," McGill continued. Adam only shook his head and sat back down to undress. "C'mon Adam, you don't think she's attractive now?"

"You guys barely saw her, I was the one who had to sit three feet away from her. She looks the exact same as she did last year," Adam remarked.

"Well that's because you're her neighbor and you get to see her all the time so the change was probably missed by your subconscious," McGill explained.

"Whatever," Larson interrupted, "tomorrow we'll see at school."

"Yeah okay," Adam rolled his eyes. He really hadn't noticed anything different about her but then again, he didn't really look at her—or want to look at her. But maybe Larson and McGill were right.

—

"Dude there she is," McGill whispered and nodded his head towards the front of the cafeteria where Vienna stood with her friend, Camari Yang. Vienna wore black leggings with a lavender tank top which to her unknownst was a disadvantage for Adam's argument.

"Bro," Larson hit Adam with the back of his hand, "I swear she did not look like that last year."

Adam scanned Vienna with his eyes, looking her up and down but he didn't really see anything different. Her hair was longer and she looked taller but everything else seemed the same.

"We should tell Coach to put her back on the team," McGill suggested.

"Or you could just go talk to her. She's literally right over there, don't be a wuss," Adam pointed out.

"Who you calling a wuss, Banks?" McGill raised his voice and stood up as an argument began to break out between the two boys.

Meanwhile Vienna and Camari found some seats and sat down and a table a couple rows down from the boys.

"I think Adam and his friends were just staring at you," Camari said.

"What?" she turned around to see McGill and Adam chest to chest in a heated conversation, "they're probably just planning on how to make this year the worst year of my life."

"Well it was really just Adam staring. He was doing that whole look up and down thing—is it just me or is he really cute now?" Camari was caught off guard as her eyes were glued on the fight between the two boys behind Vienna.