No Ordinary Exchange

just a kiss on your lips in the stadium lights

I FINISHED MY AP EXAMS! I AM NOW A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE! CLASS OF 2020 WOOOOO! Thank you guys for all your well wishes about my exams - I think overall I did pretty well, so I am content. :) I'm sure the chapter title has some of you excited, so I'll keep this note short: stay 6 ft apart, remember to wash your hands, and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

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"So, you're going to the big game tonight?" Harrow asked.

Callum paused with a forkful of fruit halfway to his mouth. "Er... yes?"

Ezran frowned. "But you don't go to football games. Especially when they're big."

Callum shrugged as nonchalantly as possible, eating his fruit. "Well, I'm going to this one," he said after swallowing. "No big deal." Hmm. That could have been overkill.

Harrow nodded, taking a sip of his water. Callum did not like the knowing glint in his stepfather's eyes. "I see. Could this have anything to do with a new... friend... of yours, by any chance? Perhaps a certain exchange student?"

Callum also did not like his stepdad's emphasis on 'friend', and attempted to make that clear by glaring at the man. "I am going to the game to support all of my friends, yes. Rayla is a starting wide receiver and Soren is - obviously - starting quarterback. They both asked me to go, so I am going for both of them." Ugh. Overkill again.

Ezran's eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute..." He grinned at his brother. "You're only going because you'll get to sit with Claudia, right?"

Callum groaned, now feeling much less flustered and far more irritated with his brother's comments about Claudia. "No, Ez. That is not why I'm going."

Ezran raised an eyebrow, clearly skeptical. "Really?"

"I told you already. Both of you. I'm just going to support my friends!" He paused, then sighed in mild resignation. "Okay, they're kind of forcing me to go, but since it's the first game of the season, I really do want to go and cheer them on. Mostly."

Harrow ate the last of his fruit salad before speaking. "Callum, I noticed that you've been spending quite a lot of time with Rayla lately." A complete subject change, then. He raised an eyebrow at his stepson, a mischievous glint dancing in his green eyes. "Might there be... something going on between the two of you?"

Dear God, his dad was everything but subtle.

Ezran gasped. "Rayla?!" He beamed excitedly. "She's awesome. I totally approve."

Callum's face reddened. "She's not - we're not - no. Ez, you've only met her once!" Okay, he didn't sound very convincing. Even to himself. "She's just my friend."

Ezran burst out laughing. "That's what you always said about Claudia! Callum, you like her."

"What, are you still eight years old?" Callum snapped. He then winced at the harshness of his tone. "Sorry." He sighed. "Fine. Maybe," he muttered. "But even if I did 'like her' like her, it doesn't mean anything. And that fact is entirely unrelated to me going to the game." That was true. He'd promised to go to the game long before he'd realized he had a crush on Rayla.

"Are you going to ask her out?" Harrow took another sip of water. "Not to be an overt influence on your love life, but she's a sweet girl and is very smart." He paused, then grinned at his son. "I'm sure I don't need to mention this, but she could also kick your ass. The two of you go well together."

Callum groaned and buried his face in his hands as Ezran tried and failed to disguise his laughter as coughing. "I really do not need, much less want, either of you to be involved in my nonexistent love life, okay?" A love life that would never exist if they kept at it. He wasn't sure he'd ever been more embarrassed. This conversation was worse than when Claudia had to explain periods to him in 7th grade.