Together, We Rise

Chapter Four: Pool Party

Chapter Four

Luke

"It's no use......" I muttered, closing my laptop. "None of them looked even the slightest like me."

"Maybe she deleted him off her friend's list," Melody suggested. "Why don't you ask your mom?"

I scoffed. "She won't tell me. She kept the secret from me all my life. I doubt she'd tell me who my real dad is."

"She might," Melody objected, "if she sees how much you really want to find your real dad."

"I doubt it," I said. "I bet she even stopped talking to him......"

Melody grabbed my hands and pulled me up from the chair I was sitting on. "You need to stop overthinking things, Luke. You can focus on finding your birth dad later but now, everyone is probably at the pool."

Every single team in Nationals, besides the ones that were driving distance from the stadium, was staying at the same hotel. The head of the Nationals committee thought it would be great if all the teams, plus the cheerleaders, could get to know each other, so a pool party was outside.

"I don't feel like going," I said. "Maybe I could just go to bed......"

"And what kind of impression would the Lakemoat High team make if their captain doesn't show up?" Melody asked. "Come on, Luke. You promised me you'll at least try to put Nationals first."

I sighed. "I did, didn't I? Fine, I'll go, but you're coming with me. I don't care if you're not part of Nationals."

"Don't worry, I'll come," Melody assured. She started pulling towards the door. "Now let's go."

The outside pool was packed when Melody and I got there. I wouldn't doubt it, since there was at least twenty teams in all. Not all of them arrived to Miami yet, but it was still crowded.

"Attention, anyone on a basketball team!" a man suddenly standing on a chair yelled. "Please find your team and group off! Further instructions will be given afterwards."

"I guess I have to find my team," I said. "I'll see you later."

"I'm going to find Crystal," Melody said, kissing my cheek before finding Crystal.

I spotted my basketball team and walked over to them. "Thank god you showed up!" Matt said. "We would have looked like idiots without out team captain here!"

Once all the teams were organized, the man spoke up. "As you know, there is only one gym at the hotel! We need to figure out who gets the gym when!"

"Maybe Lakemoat should have it whenever!" Kade suggested mockingly. "They need all the practice the should get!" That caused a lot of the other teams, even the ones that I've never met before, to laugh.

"Yeah, very funny!" I said. "It was so funny, I forgot to laugh."

"Oh, I've heard of Lakemoat!" someone on another team said. "Weren't they the ones who had their very own team captain miss a very easy shot and lose the game? And didn't his best friend get with his ex-girlfriend?" Wow, did everybody know about that?

"Yeah, that's them!" Kade said with a smile. "We even have a name for him here: Loser Luke!"

"We have a name for you as well," I replied. "But it won't be very polite to say it in front of everyone."

"Enough!" the man standing on the chair yelled. "We're here to get a long with each other. I have someone on the committee of Nationals creating a schedule for everybody's practice time in the gym. Rules are simple: You can not take someone else's gym time or else you will be banned from using the gym at all. Clear?"