Conditioning The Heart

C h a p t e r 2. Car Washes and Crushes 🥰 Pt.1

" Let's finish up the preparation! We're going to open up in 5 minutes!" Coach Leigh calls out to us.

It's a hot Saturday morning and the boys' and girls' basketball teams are getting ready to run a car wash, in our school parking lot. Each of the teams has 2 stations. Sam and I, are manning this station with half of the team. The other half is manning the second station with Clarke. The boys team is on the other side split into 2 teams.

"Hey ladies, do you need any help? Our stations are practically finished, so if you need a couple more hands to finish off..." Ellis says while walking over.

He's one of the assistant captains on the boys team. Sam instantly becomes as red as a tomato, and I look at her for a second. Then I smile, she totally has a crush on Ellis. I have to talk to her about that after, I think to myself.

" Actually we could use an extra set of hands. How about you help Sam, finish that poster?" I reply back, smirking at Sam's face.

" Sure! I am at your service" Ellis says while bowing, and Sam can't help but giggle.

I smile, grab the last empty bucket, and start walking away. "Thank me later" I mouth to Sam.

I walk to the hose and put some water in it. When it's full I pick it up and start to turn when I run smack into someone. Water splashes over the bucket and onto their grey sweats.

I look up and of course it's Zeke. He's the captain of the boys team. " Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I wasn't looking!" I exclaim.

Zeke looks up from his wet pants and smiles at me. " Don't worry about it. I brought an extra pair of sweats, and this should dry soon".

"Still, I feel bad. I really didn't mean to run into you!"

"Seriously, don't worry about it. You didn't even know I was there" he says.

"Okay, okay. But why did you come over? You're not even holding anything to fill?" I question.

Now Zeke blushes a little bit, not very much. But, I may be kinda staring at his face when he looks away and I notice it. But he blushes.

"Coaches want us all to come in for a quick talk before we get started. And I figured I should come and tell you." He says.

"Oh thanks! I guess we should head back then so we don't miss it."

"Imagine the scandal if the captains missed the meeting" He says.

I laugh and fake gasp "All the tabloids would be covering it". He laughs and I giggle.

His laugh is actually kinda cute. Wait. No. I can't think that. Not now.

We get back to the stations and Clarke calls me over. I wave bye to Zeke and walk over. Clarke is grinning madly at me, for reasons unbeknownst to me.

"Why are you grinning like the Cheshire cat?" I ask while putting the bucket down.

"Were you and Zeke flirting?" She asks.

"No of course not!"

"Okay teams come over here for a second, so we can get started" Coach Leigh calls out.

As we're making our way over Clarke looks at me and loudly whispers " Are you sure about that? Cause the way he looked at you and the way you laughed said something different to me" and with that she practically skips off to the other girls with a smile.

" Why does she have to be so dramatic? We were just talking" I mumble to myself as I keep start walking across.

" Ashlyn, wait up!" Someone calls out. I turn around for a second and smile when I see Zeke waving at me.

Oh shoot, maybe Clarke isn't wrong. " What you thinking about?" Zeke says, and I stop for a second not realizing he was so close.

Coach Francis tells us to pay attention and we all get quiet.

" Okay teams, we want to get as many cars done so we can make more money!" We all cheer at that. " So with that, try not to fool around too much, or ruin anybody's car, and let's get started!".

Zeke smiles at me and says" Well, I got to get to my team, they probably need me. See you later?" " Yeah for sure!" and we both walk to our stations.

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The car wash has been going on for a couple of hours and now our coaches are giving us a 45-minute lunch break. Me and Sam high five each other once we're finished setting up for round 2. Ellis walks by us and when Sam blushes I know for sure something's up.

I turn to her and tell her " Okay, this is twice I've caught you blushing when Ellis walked by. Now. Spill. The. Beans".

" There's nothing to tell".

" Sure there isn't, you just looked like a tomato because washing the car required sooo much effort" I deadpan to her. When Zeke starts walking past us, a genius idea comes to my mind.

I'm going to be the best wingman, this world has ever seen. " Hey Zeke can you come over here for a second," I ask her, looking at Sam with a sickly sweet smile on my face. She frowns when Zeke starts walking towards us.

" Hey Zeke, I had an idea that I need your help with". Sam and Zeke look at me, neither knowing where this is going.

" Sure? What do you need?" he asks.

" I need you to help me convince the coaches that we should combine stations."

" Combine stations?" Sam asks.

" Yep! The girls' team and the boys' team should work together! Think of it as inter-squad bonding! We all have basketball in common at least." I turn to Zeke and continue, " So come on Zeke, let's talk to the coaches" and with that I walk away.

Zeke hesitates for a second, then scrambles to keep up with me. " Why do you want the teams to work together? I mean it's not a bad idea, just kind of coming from nowhere?" He asks.

" Okay, I might be wing-manning, but team bonding's good, and maybe some of them will become friends?"

" Or Sam and one of the guys into something more?" He says with a smirk.

I say incredulously " You seriously don't know who I'm trying to set her up with?"

Zeke shrugs and says " Umm, no offence but that's not on my priority list."

I laugh, and roll my eyes " But before I do this. Is Ellis a good guy? Wait, he doesn't have a girlfriend right?"

Zeke laughs, " No he doesn't but good thing you checked before. And yeah he's a good guy, one of my closest friends."

"Okay, okay. That's good. Now let me charm the coaches, right into my plans".

" Right into what plans, Ashlyn?" Coach Leigh says behind me.

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I originally wrote this as a 3 part and then combined part 1&2. So that random divider is because of that :)

 Not a Summer Night buttttttt. Ignore that and enjoy the song 😁

Pt.2 is coming soon! :)

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