𝐇𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

TWENTY

Vivianne

"Vee! Come here!" Coach Wang called for me. I gave Kynlee another quick hug and jogged over to my dad, my coach, and Constance.

"As you know, your father wants to watch you during practice because of whatever you might have done," Coach explained, "But I explained to him my rule about parents or any outside folks in general, at my practices. So Constance came up with a nice compromise that I hope works well for all parties: I let him know if you're at practice in the evenings before he comes to pick you up and when practice is over. That way he knows where you are and what you're doing."

Hell nah, that don't sound appealing.

"Okay," I nodded obediently. Coach Wang and my father shook on it and Con nudged me, a little smile playing on her lips. I guess trying to hide my expression of annoyance hadn't worked out fully. I sent her back a nervous smile.

Constance had noticed I was gone?

"Alright then. Here you go, Vivianne," my dad handed me my bag after him and Wang were done talking. "I'll be back here to pick you up."

I nodded, trying to ignore his hard eyes as they left me and drifted over to Constance. "And thank you," he nodded his head at her.

I watched my dad walk back into the building, my arms crossed over my chest. "I hate this," I murmured.

"How long does it last?" Constance asked, starting to walk me towards one of the two lines running through the rings set out over the grass.

"I don't know." I placed my hands on my head, grateful for nice smelling deodorant as a breeze swept through and so did the scent of it and my perfume. "I'm in deep shit. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't trust me until I was 18."

"What'd you do?" she asked curiously, stopping at the end of one of the lines.

I bit my lip, looking around at the other girls standing and talking. "It's complicated...and I wouldn't wanna talk about it here." My eyes widened, "Oh. I finished my book thing for English. I can't go anywhere alone anymore...so could you turn it back in for me? It's in my school locker. Could I give it to you tomorrow after practice? I'll leave it in my volleyball bag."

"Sure," she shrugged. "It just has to be quick. I gotta go home and shower then pick u- then go to work after this."

"Okay, it's a deal," she held out her pinky.

I held back a smile, hooking my pinky with hers.

We stared at each other for a moment before I gave the squeeze and let her pinky go.

"We're, um, doin' a fun little drill today. I'm actually glad that you came. I had Precious goin' twice each time since we had an odd number of girls and nobody else wanted to go a second time."

"Oh, yeah cause she's the captain," I stated dumbly.

I mentally face palmed myself.

"Now that you're here, it's an even number. Just watch what the other girls are doing and you'll get the hang of it," she shrugged.

I saw one of my teammates heading towards Coach, holding up her phone with a worried expression. I nudged Constance, just as she was about to walk off.

"I think something's goin' on," I said.

"I'll go check it out," she started jogging towards Wang. Today, her hair was in long twists that shone underneath the sun, pulled into a back ponytail. Her black shirt hugged her chest as she pushed against the wind, and I couldn't help but stare.

"Your turn, Herida," someone called out behind me.

I made my way through the rings laid out on the ground, trying my best to land my foot in the center of each of them. I made my way to the open space of land and me and Kynlee jumped up to high five, our hands smacking together perfectly.

"Good job, Vee. You did it right on your first try," my friend grinned.

"Hell yea," I gave her an extra high five, running directly to the back of my line since I didn't have any rings to fix.

"Oh c'mon. Now she's leavin'. I have to do two turns again. I thought the numbers would be even since Herida came today," Precious grumbled to the co-captain. "Sorry, I'd volunteer but ian tryna do that," the other girl laughed. Precious groaned again.

I saw Constance heading over to me, an easy smile on her face. "Looks like everything's goin' as planned," she said. "Hm?" I looked at her. "Well, today I had planned on getting active with you guys, and so that wish came true. Unfortunately, it was because one of your teammates has a sister that didn't respond well to her dental surgery and now she's in the hospital," Con frowned.

"Dang. I hope she'll be okay," I frowned too.

Constance glanced across the land at Precious. "I know the captain's worn out, so I'll cut her some slack. To even up the numbers, I'll play against you. If...that's alright," she added, her expression eager.

"Sure," I shrugged, trying to play at nonchalance, "I just did my first try perfectly, so I expect for my second try to be just the same."

"Good. Because we're gonna be out here doin' this for at least twenty more minutes, most likely," she informed me.

Oh great.

"No pressure then," I joked. "Gotta get my winning streak."

"Right," she grinned. "I'm gonna go head over to the other line. Be good..."

I held my head down, hoping that Constance didn't notice my blush. Once it was my turn to go against her, my hands were shaking but I told myself I had to get things perfectly.

I needed to impress her, right?

I moved through the rings quickly, glad that my nerves hadn't fucked up everything. I brought my hand up to high five Con, but apparently I had done it too early. My eyes widened as I saw myself nose diving straight for her lips. I panicked, and pushed myself to fall backwards. That'd be better than an accidental kiss in front of my whole team, right?

Constance caught me, her expression filled with worry for a moment before she bust out laughing.

"You're clumsy, huh?" she joked.

She pulled me up straight against her, but I let go quickly, trying to keep my expression under control.

"Yeah. But I'll do perfectly again," I promised.

Constance frowned. "The drill isn't about perfection. It's about mastery. Those are two separate things in human life, although it is often seen as the same."

I looked down at my feet and Constance pushed my chin up with her fingers, "Go through the drill again. And know you'll do better next time. You scared me there for a second, girl."

I smiled a little.

"Me? I scared you?" I laughed.

She had scared me too...

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