Skates NaNoWriMo 2023

Chapter 11- Lily

Lily blushed a little when she heard that it was Marks voice that had complimented her. Anyone else it would’ve been nice, but from Mark it sounded amazing. He smiled and turned away, so did she. Lily didn’t want him to see just how much she was blushing now, Mark had just complimented her! She looked over to Natalia and Eliana, who both were watching her blush. They gestured to ask what happened. Lily looked back at Mark to make sure he want looking before pointing at him and then making a heart shape with her hands and they understood what that meant, enough. Something about love and Mark. And probably something about Lily fan-girling over him.

When gym class was over, Lily met up with her friends in the change room. “So, what was that about Mark?” Natalia asked. “Well, nothing much actually, but he said good job” replied Lily. “Oh wow so romantic” Eliana replied sarcastically. Lily rolled her eyes while smiling. I mean, she did say ‘nothing much’, but to her it was. “Hey, him complimenting me is a big win” she laughed. “True, you’re such a lovebird” Eliana said with a smirk. “Am not!” Lily shouted, accused. “I mean, yeah you kind of are, you’ve liked the same boy for like three years now you said” Natalia backed up. Lily smiled but didn’t say anything, because they were right, she had liked him for that long.
It was lunch now, Lily, Eliana, and Natalia always say together at a far table in the back. They would just sit and eat and talk for the half hour, and stayed inside to do their homework during their outside time. Usually just the boys would go out to play football or basketball or something together while everyone else would just stay in. It was a pretty good time, and that way they also didn’t have to do work at home, since they got a good thirty minutes to work, and they were pretty fast in general, so it was all good.
After lunch their schedule showed that they had their electives class, which for Lily was drama, then social studies, and for last period some home room time, which they could use to finish up anything they didn’t during lunch. The rest of the day went by pretty quickly, and without much thought. Lily liked having home room during their last period of the day, it was pretty relaxing and it didn’t have a set list of things to do, so really you could do whatever you please. Drama was great too, Mark was also in that class, but neither Eliana nor Natalia were, they were in art. They would just work on script reading or character blocking, but it was fun, so time flew by. Soon enough, it was time to go home.

She had a had a pretty good day mostly, other than what had happened in math class, but that had all been fixed. Lily was sure still mad at Mrs. Halley for that, but at least her story was still ok and readable. One thing though was that Lily was very excited to go home to see if her skates still fit. She hadn’t been on ice for so long, Lily wasn’t really sure how shed be. Maybe it would be possible for her to get out this weekend or something to practice a little before the trip. Mark wasn’t the only reason that she wanted to skate though, she loved it and always had, but Mark was just, well, a bonus she supposed.

When the day quickly did end, Lily rushed home. Luckily, she lived really close to the school, less than a fifteen minute walk. Grabbing her light green backpack and slinging it over her shoulder, Lily was out of there. She walked passed Mark at his locker on her way to the door, and couldn’t help but smile when she saw his face. He was definitely cute, you couldn’t deny that, even if you didn’t like him. She was about to say something to him, but didn’t know what and thought better of it. The best thing to do was save any comments or whatever until he spoke to her first, that was it wouldn’t seem obvious that she liked him, hopefully. She didn’t need anyone knowing her business about who she likes, bad enough that Eliana and Natalia knew now after three years, but she did trust them that they could keep the secret.

Once she was home, the first thing Lily did was grab a bagel before rushing downstairs to the basement. She pet Larry’s head quickly but needed to get down to her skates. Praying that they still fit, Lily slid the left one onto her foot. It went on pretty well, ans so she put on the right skate. Once they were both hanging off of either foot, Lily grabbed the strings and bulled them tight to make sure that they were on snug. Once tightened fully and tied, Lily stood up to see how they felt. At first it was a little bit weird to be standing in skates, but they felt comfortable. She walked around the carpeted floor a little bit just to make sure that they wouldn’t come loose. They didn’t.

Lily was happy that it was all good, now she could go out to a rink and practice. Maybe she could call Natalia and Eliana over and they could all go skating together, that would be fun! She wasn’t really sure how much her friends liked skating, but they were pretty excited about the field trip next Friday, so they must like it some. Plus, either way it would just be fun to go skating with your friends. It was really exciting now, Lily could hardly wait, it was going to be so fun! She really did need to get out on some ice though, it had been too long, Lily knew she would pick it back up quick, but still, some practice would definitely be good.

Chapter 12- Mark

It was lunchtime now. Mark like usual, sat down with his friends and a bunch of the other boys at a big table in the middle of the cafeteria. They were quite loud altogether, but all of the teachers were used to it, so they never not mad anymore. It was a half hour long lunch they they would just sit around talking and eating, and then afterwards they would all go outside together, usually to play basketball or soccer or something. Today they decided that they would do some football. Evan went over to the office to get the football for them, and when the bell went, they all headed outside.
Mark found it kind of weird that it was only him and his group that went outside usually, but everyone else would stay inside. Who would actually chose studying over going outside? He asked himself. It was so much more fun to be outside, even if you didn’t like sports. Anyways, he went out the doors and into their ginormous field. Mark and another boy named Lucas were elected as team captains. They each took turns picking people to be in their teams. Mark went first and picked Drew. Sadly, Lucas chose Evan to be in his team. Drew was honestly much better at football than Evan, but she still wanted him on his team. Luckily though, he picked Kevan next, so at least he had two friends on his team. Kevan was really good at football as well, another bonus. The boys finished making the groups in about two or so minutes, and the game started.
They had played football many times before after lunch, so everybody knew their positions already. They only half half an hour, and they didn’t want to waste any time. The game was pretty good, Mark didn’t like it as much as he did basketball, and not nearly as much as hockey, but it was still fun. They had lots of good players on his team too, so that helped a fair bit. Actually, it wasn’t fair, Mark had chosen almost ALL of the good people, so they no doubt were the winners by the end of it. In all honesty, they destroyed the other team. During their time outside, they wouldn’t really keep score, since it would take up too much time, but it was an obvious beating.
Once lunchtime was over, and the boys had to go back in, the end of the day wouldn’t be too bad. They had good, easy classes, and he wouldn’t have to pay that much attention. Whenever he didn’t have to pay too much attention in class was when it was the best, because he kind of hated school. Mark wished that Kevan was in his class, he was really fun, and would make school so much less boring. He walked to his next class, and wished for the day to be over. Once lunchtime was over, he didn’t care anymore, that was really the only good part of the day.
To his happiness, the rest of the day did actually end up passing by really quickly, and he was able to go home soon. Going home meant no more school, and most days, hockey. There was really only one to two days a week if that where he had no hockey, whether it was a practice or a game. Tonight, he had a really important game, like, a really important one. He was playing against another team from Vancouver, and whoever won would get to go onto the city championships this year. It was already spring-time, so the season was almost ending. This would possibly be his last game of the year if they didn’t win.
It was a lot of pressure on all of them to do good and win this, they had gone to the championships four times in his six years of being in the team, and when you didn’t make it, it sucked. Really bad. When you do though, it was great, it was a chance at winning them. Mark was a really good hockey player, almost the best on his team. He was probably the second best, but not even close to Drew’s level. Drew was amazing at hockey, sometimes they won almost solely because of him. The team had hope as soon as Drew joined in, which was four years ago, when they started going to the championships. The rest of his team was great too, they were too tier, but no one even came close to Drew.
He left the school and started walking home. He was close enough that he didn’t need a ride, but not the closest either. It was about a twenty minute walk, but only because he walked fast. Mark wanted to get home. He would have just a little over an hour to get home, eat something, and sit down for a while before having to leave for his game. Mark wanted to have as much time as possible to sit down and relax, so that he would have lots of energy for the game, he was going to need it. The last game of the season like this was always super tiring, everybody working so hard to try and win. Mark did feel as though he had improved lots since last year though, and so had the rest of his team. The only thing really getting at him was just how good the other team was. They were possibly the best in the city, they had won so many games, it would be a tough game tonight. They were also known for lots of fighting, Mark was used to it, but they couldn’t afford to let someone on their team get hurt.

Chapter 13- Lily

Lily was really happy that her skates fit, and it was only Wednesday, so if she booked it now, she should be good for a spot at the public skating on Saturday. She picked up her phone and messaged Natalia and Eliana to see if they wanted to go skating with her on the weekend. Natalia was already online so she replied immediately: “lol this already?” She sent. Lily smiled, and then typed back “haha yes”. Natalia sent “Alright, I’ll come, only five bucks right?” “yup” “What about you Eli?”.

It took a minute of spamming before they finally got Eliana to read the messages “wow guys, I was helping my dad with the tires, have some patience”. Lily laughed, imagining Eli trying to change tires while her phone was going off like crazy and having to answer it. “hah sorry, but will you come?” She asked. Eliana started typing and then stopped. A few seconds later she started typing again and then sent “sure, as long as one of you pays”. Of course that was her response. Lily and Natalia both had part time jobs, just like Eliana, but hers was the highest paying, and she still wanted one of them to pay, typical Eli.

“Yeah I got you” Natalia replied. Lily was glad that Natalia offered the would’ve paid if she had to, cause she really wanted Eliana to come to, but also didn’t feel like paying extra. “K thanks!” Eli responded. Lily shook her head, but because she was cheap, that car she was working on the tires, was her own. She completely paid for it on her own, no help from her parents or anything, and it was a nice car too. A brand new Hyundai Santa Fe 2020 model. Lily was kind of jealous, everyone was. The best times were when Eliana would take them out for joyrides sometimes, it was really cool.

The three of them booked the hour chunk of time for skating starting at noon on Saturday, and Natalia gave Eliana the five dollars, on the condition that she drive the two there. Eliana would have to drive there anyways so she agreed. They all lived super close to each other so Lily and Natalia just walked over to Eliana’s house. The girls did that pretty often, and only because they liked Eliana’s car, so they would just walk, they would look better in a more expensive car, not a rundown, old, beat up, jeep voltswagon. Eliana didn’t really mind either, because she knew how good her car was compared to ours, and she liked to be able to brag.

Eliana said that she had to get back to the tires , and Lily needed to get her skates off of her feet, which had just been sitting there patiently during the entire conversation. The girls had all left the chat and got straight to their things. Lily stood up one last time to make sure that her skates were ok before taking them off. For some reason, even though it was only to try them on again for a few moments, Lily had double knotted her laces, and just yesterday she had cut her nails short, this was going to be fun.

Lily first started picking at the knot that she saw at the top, it moved ever so slightly. She kept repeating this, her fingernails slipping off after just a second each time. It was a process, but she managed to untie the first knot on one of her skates. Since the one knot was gone, the other one would be super easy to get. In just a few seconds, she pulled her left skate off and moved to the right one. Lily did the same, long, annoying, process all over again on the other skate, until finally that one was off as well. She picked them up by the top of the boot part and lay them down in a black fabric bag where she always kept them to collect dust in the basement. She remembered that she should probably wipe them off too, considering the dust. She grabbed a cloth from the basement bathroom, pulled the skates out of the bag, and then started wiping them down quickly. It didn’t have to be a lot, just enough to clean then off a little bit, which she accomplished and then put the cloth back away.

Once she finished cleaning, Lily made her way back upstairs. She went straight over to Larry, Lily felt bad that she mad barely acknowledged him when she got home in excitement to try on skates. Wow, skates, an inanimate object over my very own, living dog Lily thought. “How are ya’ buddy?” She said in a playful voice while rubbing his head. Larry grunted happily at her and she laughed. “Do you want chin rubs?” Lily asked him. Larry lifted up his nose, trying to tell her “yes! I love chin rubs!” in dog language. After a few more minutes of pets, she picked up a ball of of the ground and threw it out in front of her. “Go fetch! Go on!” She said, the playfulness still not leaving her voice. Larry, being a Golden Retriever, loved fetch so much, it was one of his favourite things to do, other than eat and get chin rubs of course. He ran toward the ball, almost slipping as he did so he turned so fast.

He can quickly trotting back and dropped the ball nicely in front of Lily, and then looked at her as if trying to say “well, what are you waiting for? Throw it again!”. She picked it up and threw it for him again, just as he had wanted, clearly, because he ran to catch it with the exact same energy as before. Larry was indeed very cute, especially when he ran, his tail waging and his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth with a big smile on his face. It had brought one to Lily’s face as well.

Chapter 14- Mark

Mark had been home for about an hour now, and was feeling mostly ready to go for tonight. He had all of his hockey things ready and by the garage door, he was going to get every moment he could to sit down, the more rest he had the better. Mark could warm up on the ice and get set at the rink. If they won this game today, it would be their fifth year in a row making it to the city championships, which to him seemed like a pretty big deal. The game would start in a little over an hour, so it would be time to leave any second now.

“Mark let’s go!” he heard his dad call from downstairs. He didn’t reply but walked down and over to the door and nodded. Almost forgetting his water bottle, he grabbed it last second and then walked out the door along side his dad. They walked to the car, Mark threw his stuff in the back and then hopped into the front himself. “You excited?” his dad asked “Sure, I guess so” Mark replied, though it almost sounded like a question. “Hey, I know you’re kind of scared, and you don’t wanna loose, but I’m sure you’ll do great” his dad said. Mark nodded, he didn’t really have a reply for that, but didn’t want to seem like he wasn’t paying any attention at all, although he barely was.
The drive out seemed pretty long, but eventually, they got there. He had been to that same arena a few times before, but not often, maybe three or four times. Once they parked, Mark got out of the car and went around to the back to go and get his bag. Once he had grabbed it, Mark and his dad walked inside into the arena. Marks father and Mark parted ways, his dad going upstairs to find a seat to watch and Mark himself going to the change room. When he entered, Mark saw Drew standing in there as well, it seemed like he had only just gotten there a minute or two ago. “Hey Mark!” Drew called out. “Yo how are you?” He asked back. “Alright, but we gotta win this man, fifth year in a row if we do” Drew replied “yeah I know’ said Mark.

The two finished getting ready in mostly silence, but finished up quick. Of course, they stayed in the change room waiting for everyone else as well. Once all of their team members were there and ready, they all had a little talk and got prepared to go out on the ice. This was their chance to win, they had to, the really just had to. They all made their way out and onto the ice together, and were now ready to start. Their opponent team was already standing on the ice, many of the players yelling out things to try and intimidate Mark’s team.

He just stood there, patiently waiting for the game too start, well, at least, that’s how it looked. In reality, he wasn’t actually very calm at all, he was nervous. Mark looked around the stands in search of his father, he wanted to know where he was. When he finally found him, and the two made eye contact, his father waved to him, and Mark gave a slight nod in return. He looked away, and this time at the opposing team. They looked as good as he had heard they were, which kind of worried him. He had never been this nervous before a game before, it was kind of weird. Now he looked over at Drew, who had never seemed to look more ready in his life. The ref walked over, here we go he thought.

The players all got ready to start, the puck dropped in the middle. The game had now started. Mark played forwards, but he didn’t go straight for the puck right away. Another one of his teammates got control over it, and started skating forwards, towards the other teams net. Now he too started rushing over that way, being open in case it would be passed to him. Within seconds though, the other team had gotten the puck, and were zooming towards Marks teams net. They were getting very close, and his team wasn’t very successful in defending right now. Luckily, Drew came in and swooped the puck back into his control. He made his way back to the other side, going fast but smoothly. Mark followed him, but from the left side instead of the right. They quick;y made eye contact and Drew passed it over to him.

Mark caught the puck with his stick and tried to get around the group of people now swarming him like bees after you break their hive, except faster and more aggressive. He couldn’t have it for much longer, so he passed it back to Drew, somehow evading the swarm of people. Drew took it and went straight up to the net, most people were on him now, leaving Mark open once again. The puck came back to him, and being so close to the net already, he snuck around the back quickly and popped it in from the right side, scoring the first goal of the game.

His team cheered, good to get ahead at the beginning he guessed. Any points would help against their opposing team, their enemies. The match started again, and this time the other team got the puck right away. Marks team did their best to defend, but the other team still managed to score a goal. It was an intense game, both teams young back and forth between who was winning and not. At one point, the other team was ahead by five, Mark wasn’t sure if they would be able to win, since it was nearing the end of the game. No matter what though they would have to try, if they have up now it would all be over. One of their players was hurt too, someone from the other team had slammed him into the sideboards, and he was too hurt to play.
It didn’t look good for them, but they were still playing strong. Drew got the puck and with the help of the rest of their team, they got a goal. And another. And another. And soon enough, they were tied. Only a few minutes left until they were done, they had hope now, with all of the points they had scored in such a short amount of time, but they knew that the other team was going to be super aggressive this time, even more than before. But his team would too, this was for the championships. Possibly the last game of the season, the second biggest game each year. Mark was suddenly filled with determination, and he was now ready to win.
He was in the face offs this time, against this big beefy boy who could easily throw him to the side. “No hard feelings” the other boy said with a cocky smirk on his face “no hard feelings” Mark said back bravely. It looked as if the other boy was about to say something else when the ref started counting down. “3”. “2”. “1”. It seemed almost as if he was counting in slow motion, and then came came the final sound: the blow of his whistle. Mark lunged forwards at the puck, his shoulder colliding with the boy ahead of him’s. They were both trying to pry it from each other, and Mark knew he couldn’t get this, so he hit it to his side, passing it perfectly to one of his teammates Liam.
Liam spent no time to waste and immediately charged ahead. The other team stole it, and went towards Marks teams net. Mark rushed over to help but Drew already had that covered, and swiftly retrieved it. The puck went between both teams many times, Marks team getting super close to scoring a few times. Only one minute remained on the clock, if they were going to win they would have to do it fast. He made eye contact with Drew who was almost in the complete opposite side of the rink, and got in position for their favourite move. Mark skated up right up close to the opponents net, and awaited for the moment. Drew hit the puck really hard all the way to Mark, going between at least seven people. He got it and popped it in from the edge of the net, scoring the winning point with only nine seconds left on the clock.
His entire team cheered and sped over to Mark, covering him in a huge group hug. They did it. They had won! He was filled with happiness, and he was proud of himself for scoring the final point, and of course with the help of his teammates. “Good job Mark!” Said Drew. “Thanks you too, you carried us” he replied with a smile. Drew just shook his head, but Mark knew he knew he was right. “We won!” Someone on his team called out, which resulted in even more cheering. Their coach came to join them right away “amazing job out there guys, and congrats on the win!” He said. They really did it, five years win in a row, that was something. Next would be the championships, it was great.
The referee walked out just for a final announcement saying that they won. The two teams lined up to shake hands or high five each other, and congratulating the winning team. There were lots of “good game”s and “congrats” that Mark heard while walking in the line. Once they were all done shaking hands the boys made their way back to the change room. “Hey good job again Mark” someone said “Thanks!” He replied “but it wasn’t all me, that was just the last one, you guys did amazing”. The team cheered again, and Mark looked directly at Drew and nodded his head to say ‘you did great and you know it’, Drew smiled back.

Chapter 15- Lily

When her alarm went off again in the morning, Lily reluctantly got up to do her normal morning routine. At first, she was only tired, only wanted to go back to bed, but she remembered about their field trip, and Mark, which woke her up a little. Today she picked out a light pink hoodie and some sage green cargo pants. As per usual, she also grabbed her necklace and watch, and went to the bathroom to go brush her teeth. She finished and now it has time for her hair. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the morning before, so she stroked it a few times with her brush and that was good enough. Today she decided that she wanted to wear it straight. It was mostly straight, but just to be sure, she pulled out her flat iron to make it perfect. In complete honesty she thought that it looked great completely straight, I should have it like this more often she thought.
Lily finished up upstairs and then made her way downstairs to have her breakfast. Larry greeted her at the bottom of the stairs, his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth and a big smile on his face. “Good morning buddy!” Lily said in a sweet, high pitched voice and Larry started jumping around in excitement, which made Lily laugh, she loved Larry, and almost anything he did could bring a smile to her face. “Did you have a good sleep?” she asked him in the same voice. He made a yip sound to tell her ‘yes I had a wonderful sleep!’ “That’s good bud” she laughed, petting his head as he danced around right beside her.

She walked over to her pantry and got out the loaf of bread before walking back into the kitchen and to the toaster. She opened the bag and in went the bread. While she waited, Lily got the butter from out of the fridge and lay it beside the toaster so that it would be ready right away. In the meantime, she just played around with Larry and replied to all of the messages she got on her phone overnight. There were quite a bunch to read in her group chat with Eliana and Natalia, since they stayed up later than her, talking. Luckily though, it was all just about random irrelevant stuff so she was able to just skim over or pretty fast. Mostly just chats about their weekend plans or snaps of Eliana’s cat and Natalia’s fish. And Natalia fangirling over Eliana’s cat.

Once she finished eating and getting ready, she said goodbye to Larry and pet him in the head one last time before throwing on her bag, draping her leather jacket over her arm, and walking out the door. She walked the few minutes to school and when she didn’t see her friends anywhere, went inside. She already saw Natalia and Eliana at their lockers. “Hey where were you?” Eliana asked “you’re late”. “I know I know” replied Lily “I’m not late to class though” “yeah but your late to meet us, that’s why we just came inside” she said back. “Alright sorry” Lily laughed.

Lily read over their schedule for the day, science, math, electives, ELA, lunch, library, social studies, and gym to end the day. “Ooh science!” Natalia exclaimed. Lily and Eliana laughed, it was such a random exclamation, but then again, Natalia was random. “Hah yeah, so that we can watch everyone play Fifa and stuff on their phones” Lily said. “Exactly” sighed Eliana “like, no one even did work last class, just played on their phones. “Yeah, and that’s why I brought my phone to school today” Natalia said proudly while waving it in the air. “Wow Nat, I wonder if you’ll lose it this time?” Lily teased. Natalia’s mom never let her bring her phone to school, ever since she lost it once that is. ‘That was one time!” she yelled, accused, causing Lily and Eliana to start laughing again.
They walked up to the science classroom, Natalia making sure to bring her phone. They planned on actually accomplishing most of their work today, last class they did some work, and they were definitely going to play on their phones this class again, but if they could get most of the work done, then next class they could just mess around. “Nat, I know you’re excited about having your phone with you, but please try not to loose it again, that was very expensive. If you loose it you will be working until you pay me back every penny” Eliana said in a voice mocking Natalia’s mother. “Oh shut up!” She exclaimed back, “that was ONE time!”.

“Ok, you can all get started whenever you’re ready, you will have two more classes after this to finish up the research and complete your write-up” Miss Abbot said with her regular sweet voice. Lily and Eliana took their phones out of their pockets and Natalia grabbed a piece of paper out of her binder. “Ok, me and Lily will work on finding the information, we’ll tell you what we find, and you’ll write it, ok?” Eliana said. She states it like a question, but both Lily and Natalia knew that it wasn’t. “Yes sir” Natalia said with a straight face, but Lily quickly broke hers after saluting. Eliana looked jokingly offended and scoffed as if she was about to say something but then bit her lip and just shook her head while trying to hold in her smile.

“Guys we seriously need to get this down” Eliana scolded. “Yeah we will don’t worry” Lily said “you’re starting to sound like me yesterday, you know? Like, I thought that I was supposed to be the “all work no play” person here”. “Then join me and help get something done!” Eliana said back “or you’re driving yourself to the rink on Sunday”. That immediately got both other girls working, it was funny how well it worked. Lily knew the trick, but also knew that they should get something done, and it would make Eliana loosen up soon enough. She looked over at Natalia. She was pretending to write with her head down, but Lily could see the tip of her phone, and the little bit of screen she saw, Lily knew she was playing games, a small smile built on the corner of her mouth.

Chapter 16- Mark

They all went out to a nearby restaurant as a team to celebrate their big win and qualifying for city championships for the fifth year in a row now. They had everything there, burgers, pizza, fries, wings, whatever, so it was great when you were bringing fifteen other people with you. The service was pretty slow, but it gave them lots of time to talk and discuss the game. Plus everyone was just excited about their win, and somehow they had convinced their coach to pay for most of the mean, the just had to pitch in a bit each. That was fine though, it would only be a little bit, and they all had money with them.

“That was amazing, I’m so glad we won!” one of their teammates named Hunter said. “Yeah, and good job Mark, you got both the first AND last goals! That’s pretty good!” “Yeah I guess so but that’s only two, everyone did really good, and Drew you got like six or seven!” Mark replied. He wanted to give all of the spotlight to his friend, even if Drew didn’t really need it. Drew was nice and all, but was usually pretty cocky and always needed to keep his ego high, but it didn’t really bother anyone that knew him well enough. He didn’t really care about it but knew that Drew liked people to talk good about him, so he didn’t mind passing it on. Drew nodded, he knew that he got lots of goals and did really well, but it was a team effort.

The food came, and as a big group of teenage boys, it was all gone very quickly. They had ordered quite a lot too, but there were just so many of them and they had just finished a hockey game, so they were all really hungry. It was good, but he and everyone else had school the next day, and no one was too close to home, so they all got picked up right away and left to head back home. Marks dad drove him back, he had just stayed around and eaten at the arena while Mark went out with his team, so he was still there near him.

The next morning, when Mark got up, everything hurt. It was typical for him to be sore after a game, but today he was really sore. Well, today’s gonna be great he thought. He got up out of bed, yup, he felt sore alright. Once he was ready for the day, all dressed, teeth brushed, his fingers ran through hid hair a couple of times, Mark made his way downstairs for a quick breakfast before he had to leave for school. There were a few pancakes left from the last morning before, so Mark just grabbed a few of those, put some butter on them, quickly ate them and then left.

The good thing was, their day started with science, also known as the period where they could just sit around and play games on their phones. At least the first period wouldn’t be that bad. When he got to his locker, Drew, Kevan, and Evan were all still walking, and he was the first person there this time. Kevan had to part ways before he even made it to Marks locker, but he waved at least. “Ay Mark!” Evan called out loud as he and Drew walked over to him, and going to their own lockers on either side of him.

“Bro good job last night, seriously, and don’t try to turn it around on me this time’ Drew said to Mark sincerely. “Well-” Mark started, but then remembered Drew’s words about not turning it around and quickly changed up “Thanks, it was fun”. “Yeah it was, I was there too you know” Drew said with his cocky smirk. Mark smirked back and the three finished up at their lockers and made their way upstairs together to science. Mark was actually kind of excited, since they wouldn’t have to do schoolwork, but he was disappointed when he heard his science teacher Miss Abbot say “Ok, you can all get started whenever you’re ready, you will have two more classes after this to finish up the research and complete your write-up”. Ugh, so I guess we will have to do a bit of work this period, that sucks, he thought to himself. “Humph of course there’s only two more” Drew said.

The boys sat down at a table near the back this time, planning on doing a bit of work, but not too much, just enough to stay on time. They all made an agreement to have split responsibilities, and always be working, but not all at the same time. While two people would work, one would get to be doing whatever on their phone, ten minutes passed, and it would be the next person. Evan would get to start first, and Drew and Mark would have to do research, but the research should be pretty easy, at least for the most part. The bad thing would be the write-up, that would suck a lot.

The period ended up being not as bad as they had thought it would, after hearing the due date that is, and they got a bunch done. They had about the first paragraph of a five paragraph edited write up, so they were doing pretty good for time. None of them were stupid, they all did well in school, got pretty good grades, but just didn’t really like being there, that’s all. Next class Mark was hoping that they wouldn’t get any work done, and if they did it would only be a paragraph or two. Plus, tomorrow was Friday, who would want to work on a Friday? Fridays and weekends were for relaxing and watching TV, not schoolwork, he was looking forward to it actually. He always looked forward to weekends, didn’t everybody? He didn’t have hockey either, they had this weekend off, spit started again on Monday, because they really won, and their fifth year in a row.

Chapter 17- Lily

Science sadly ended, and as she had predicted, Eliana had loosened up about working pretty quickly, but they had done around three and a half paragraphs of their write up, they would definitely be able to finish next class. Lily liked science in general, always, but when it related to something she was excited about, like the skating field trip, it was even better, more enjoyable. She liked it when they had free time to work on things like projects but also do things for fun, like be on their phones. She could work and play around at the same time, like multitasking, or switching between the two, and it helped her focus a lot. Lily knew school was for learning and not for phones, but sometimes phones and school could work together, and make each other better.
She just wanted it to be the weekend already, though she liked school, weekends were just the best, everyone loved them. The best part about them though, was sleeping in. Also she was going to go skating with her friends, so that was a bonus as well. Skating would be fun on the weekend, but it would be even better next Friday for their field trip, Lily really couldn’t wait for that. She couldn’t wait for it so much that she made plans to go that weekend even! And Mark. Lily really liked Mark, like a lot, but she didn’t know how to interact with him, so she kept her feeling a secret for now, hopefully something would happen on the trip though, she really hoped. Anything, even if it was just Mark telling her that her skates looked nice or something, hearing his voice was always nice.

The days schedule didn’t sound that bad, but it also definitely didn’t go by very quickly. Each period seemed to take hours at a time, dragging out longer as the day slowly passed. She knew that wanting to go home and thinking about it would not be helpful at all, and she should just stop thinking about it to make her day go by faster, bit it was easier said than done. School was great, but so was home, and she could still see her friends outside of school, and do work, but it could all be done in the comfort of her bed. At home she could also listen to music, one of her biggest motivators, which helped her work a lot better.

After what felt like many, many, long hours, it was finally seventh period, the last one of the day. Gym class, and after Mark complimenting her yesterday, Lily was quite excited for it. She was ready and prepared to play again, she wanted to do good, so that hopefully he would say something to her again. When they all separated to go into the competitive and playful sides, Lily walked over to competitive again, and counted the people in front of her to make sure she would be on the same team as Mark. Just as she had hoped, her counting was good, and both her and Mark were on team two this time. Being on the same team as Mark meant being closer to him, and the closer, the easier it is to talk.

She did pretty good again, but sadly Mark didn’t say anything to her, just looked at her multiple times, quite a lot for a fifty minute period. Lily wasn’t really sure what that meant, did he like her? or was he just looking at her because she was on his team? or maybe there was something wrong with her makeup? or her shirt? Ugh, why am I overthinking this so much she thought, he was just looking at me, its no big deal. Except it was a big deal to her, that’s what happens when you have feelings for someone. Everything you do and everything they do suddenly matters, and you have that urge to impress them and make them fall in love with you, even if they already are.

When gym class ended, and everyone was back at their lockers, ready to go home, and some of the really fast kids having already left, Lily slowly got her stuff together to leave. “You ok Lils?” Eliana asked “I thought you were like super eager to get home or something”. At first Eliana seemed concerned for her friend, but then she noticed a slight smile on Lily’s face. “Wait. Why are you smiling?” She asked. “What am I not allowed to smile?” Lily asked jokingly. “Girl it’s not that, but I know you don’t just roam around smiling all the time, what is it?”. “Fine. It’s Mark” Lily replied after a long pause. “Wait what! What about him?” Eliana asked excitedly. “Hah, don’t get excited now, nothing happened, I just-” She started “I just really like him, and more lately than ever”. A wide grin spread across Eliana’s face. “You’re in loveee!” Eliana said like a song. “Shut up!” Lily laughed. The smile never left Eliana’s face, she sure loved bugging Lily about Mark.

Natalia had just been sitting there listening and watching the entire time smiling, it felt kind of awkward having all of your friends know about your crush. Especially when nothing even happens between you and them, it may just seem pretty pointless, even if it isn’t. Mark wasn’t pointless, Lily really liked him, it was just even more awkward and nerve wracking to talk to him, that’s all. She was trying to take things slow, not rush anything, even if all Lily wanted was to know Mark liked her back, and for them to be together. Dating was great, but that little feeling you get whenever you’re around that special person, its much nicer when its a crush, but Lily didn’t know why. Just thinking about Mark made her happy, and she wanted to keep it that way. The way where even the smallest thought could make you smile, make you forget all of the bad things happening, light that spark of fire only love can hold.

Chapter 18- Mark

First, science class ended, and quite quickly (at least in Mark’s mind), the rest of the day did as well. They got all of their core subjects out of the way mostly all in the morning, and left the best class, gym class, for the very last period. The unit they were doing was still volleyball, but it was young to be ending soon, as said by their teacher. He liked volleyball but basketball was even better, and it was their next sport they would be playing luckily. Mark was also lucky enough to be on Lily’s team again. She was pretty good, and got them many points, Mark wanted to say things to her so many times, but felt it might be weird, and stopped himself.
Regardless of any of that, Mark could go home now, and there would only be one more day left until the weekend would start, plus they didn’t have hockey tonight up until Monday, so he would have some extra time to relax. He left the lockers with Drew and Evan, going out to meet Kevan outside. They all walked together at the end of the day, Kevan and Drew getting onto the bus stop, but Mark and Evan lived in the same street, so they would continue together until Evan got to his house, which was a few houses closer than Marks.
Once his friends were all gone, two in the bus and Evan just entered his house, Mark had about two minutes in his own. He thought about Lily, he didn’t want to talk about her around his friends or anything, and thinking about her might make him smile, which could lead them to ask questions. She was just so perfect, her dark silky hair especially. Her kindness and humour, but mainly, the biggest, most attractive thing to him, was her smile. Her smile was beautiful, she was always around her friends so there was almost always a big smile on her face, and seeing her like that made Mark feel happy.
Once he was home, and had put away his bag, slipped down on the mud room wall, he walked upstairs. He sat down on the big fluffy couch in the living room, and turned on the TV. Since he had no hockey tonight, or any other plans, there would be plenty of time to do whatever he wanted, and what he wanted was to watch TV. Mark opened up Netflix, usually he could browse for a couple of minutes and then find some show to watch for the night. It already felt like a Friday, maybe it was because of the TV, he almost never watched it, so it would be a nice night.
When both of his parents got home, and dinner was made, he was a little over halfway through his movie. Mark had to stop the movie for the time-being, but it was actually starting to get a lot more interesting. They all sat down around the dinner table to have some soup that Mark’s mother had made. He wasn’t the biggest fan of soup, but he loved his mom, so anything she made he would make sure to show her he loved it, even if he didn’t. His mom, Alice, was a really lovely person, she was always so kind and caring, more than anyone he knew by a lot. The best thing was she wasn’t only like this to him, she was like that to everyone, Alice was just that nice it would be weird for her not to be.
Dinner was not actually that bad, Marks mom was a pretty good cook, so she knew what she was doing, but it was quite good for soup. He cleaned up the dinner table and washed the dishes, left them in the drying rack, and then went back upstairs to finish up watching his movie. Mark, for some reason, had been pretty tired all day, so he wanted to complete the movie and then go to bed pretty quick after. Maybe it was from the hockey game last night, it very well could’ve just tired him out and that stayed until now, but regardless, it was time to go to sleep soon, and he did have school tomorrow, which means early wake up.
An hour and a half or so later, the movie had finished. Around the middle it got really interesting, but after that it was probably the most boring movie he had ever seen, putting him to sleep even more. Mark brushed his teeth, got changed, said goodnight to his parents quickly, and then hopped into bed. He made sure that his alarm was set, and didn’t look back at his clock again until six o’clock in the morning, when it went off again for school.
Usually when his alarm went off in the morning, Mark was either happy to get up out of bed and start his day, maybe with a little too much energy, or too tired to do anything, never in between. Today was one of those ‘all ready to go go go’ day, and Mark sprung up when the buzzing sound came from his nightstand. It was finally Friday, on Fridays, everyone’s happy, Fridays are good days, which was most likely the reason for his energy, but no one could ever really tell with him.
Mark got ready for school quickly, brushing his teeth again, running his fingers through his hair until it was perfect just to throw a hat on over top, and going down the stairs. He grabbed his phone to check through his notifications he may have gotten overnight, and the disappointment of there not being any. Mark ate a few pieces of toast, grabbed his bag, and then ran out the door, determined not to make his friends wait again, even though he may wake up around and have lots of energy, it was already almost seven o’clock somehow, but he could’ve understand what took him so long.

Chapter 19- Lily

Only Friday was left now, Lily would have a gymnastics practice tonight in a few hours, but that only lasted for two hours, so she would have the rest of the night to do whatever she wanted. Tomorrow she was free just like Saturday, and on Sunday she would get to go skating with her friends, which she was really excited for! She loved gymnastics, but skating was what she really wanted, plus she would be getting to go with her friends, which was a major bonus. Lily loved her teammates, but no one could ever come even nearly close to how Eliana and Natalia were to her. They were her best friends.
It was 3:30pm, so Lily had exactly and hour before her gymnastics started. Lily went into her room after greeting Larry and playing a round with him for a little bit. She picked up her phone out of her pocket, and the opened her Snapchat. In their group chat, Lily messaged them a quick little “hey” before calling them. Natalia was the first one to pick us like normal, but Eliana also lived a bit farther than Lily and Natalia from the school, so she was usually still getting home when someone would call. They would just sit on the call mostly doing nothing until Eliana could join.
Once Eliana joined, the three talked for a little bit, their usual after school hobby, but pretty quickly Lily had to go and get ready for her practice. Lily walked over to her dresser to grab out a shiny lilac practice suit and put it on, she loved their practice suits, they were very pretty in her mind. She grabbed some dark black shorts to put over top and took her water bottle. Her mother always just picked her up from the driveway. Lily said a quick “goodbye buddy” to Larry and then ran outside and saw her moms car there. When she opened the passenger door, her mom said “Hey sweetie, how was school today?” Lily smiled and answered “it was good”. Her moms eyes slightly widened and her eyebrows went up, and she asked “anything interesting happen today?” Lily thought for a moment before responding “nope, just normal school stuff ya know?” Lily’s mom nodded and then started driving away.
In approximately fifteen minutes, Lily arrived at her gym “bye and have fun sweetie!” Her mom called out as she stepped out of the car. “Thanks I will!” She called back before closing the door. There were only a few minutes left until her practice would start, so Lily ran quickly inside. She took off her shoes and then made her way over to the group of chairs her and her friends usually sat on. “Hey!” One of her friends they called Addie said. Her real name was Adeline, but no one called her that, other than her parents occasionally. Addie patted a chair, signalling for Lily to sit there. Before practice would start the girls would all usually just sit around and talk for a bit.
When the coach called for everyone to head to the floor for warm up, the girls all stood up to start. The warm up consisted of a few laps of runs, jumps, leaps, and kicks. Once warm up was finished, they moved onto stretch, so that they wouldn’t pull a muscle while doing a skill. The first thirty minutes used for warm up and stretch past, and it was time for their first event, which today was bars. Lily grabbed her grips and put them on, everyone sat down together to do this every time, and it would feel incredibly weird to do bars without grips on.
Lily just worked on some of her skills, they had all had a competition about a month ago, so she did not need to work on any routines. She liked doing dismounts the most, especially one called a flyaway, anything to do with flipping though she found really fun. Bars was nice, but since Lily liked flipping skills, and bars didn’t have as much of those, it wasn’t her favourite. Because of this, when it was time for their next event, Lily did not complain at all, especially since it was floor. Floor was definitely her favourite. It had lots of different tricks and skills you could do and then put them with dances and music and squish it all into one big routine.
Within no time, sadly, floor was over, and then so was beam, and vault, and soon enough their practice was already over. Lily picked up her water bottle off of the shelf and said goodbye to her friends before leaving to go and meet her mom who was currently waiting outside in the car. “Hey sweetie how was practice?” Her mother asked when Lily stepped into the car. “It was good” she replied. They drive back home to go and have some dinner, tonight, they were having pasta.
The pasta was delicious, and quite easy to make as well. They all finished it up really quickly, and Lily decided to get some ice cream out of the freezer for dessert. It was a small tub of chocolate and brownie ice cream, Lily’s favourite. She ate a little bit of that before heading upstairs to go and take a shower. Showers were always one of the first things Lily would do after her gymnastics practices, and she would usually head to bed pretty soon after.
Lily finished her shower, brushed her teeth, brushed her hair, and washed her face before putting on her pyjamas for bed. She went to her room again to scroll on her phone for a little bit. She sat, scrolling, for a little while then went to bed, tomorrow was Friday, and then there was the weekend. Lily plugged in her phone and went to bed. She dreamt about next week, at the rink, with Mark there skating with her the entire time, and slept with a smile.

Chapter 20- Mark

Mark made his way into the school, finally Friday. At his locker, he read out the schedule. It would be the best day but that’s alright. They had social studies for their last period, and Mark hoped that it wouldn’t be too hard. He also hoped that the day would go by quickly. For some reason he was already eager to go home, and he had this weird feeling in his stomach that the day wouldn’t go well, but he didn’t know why.
First period wasn’t that bad, but then for second period they had math, and Mrs. Halley way super annoyed and mean as per usual, which didn’t help Mark at all. Third period, fourth period, lunch, fifth period, sixth period, all passed, neither quickly nor slow, but they passed, and now it was time for the last period before the week ended, the last fifty minutes of school until the weekend would start. Social studies, it wasn’t the worst it wasn’t the best. That feeling in Marks stomach, that something would happen today was still there, which was probably a good thing because all day had been pretty boring, so he needed something to happen now, anything really. Anything to make this boring day less boring, entertainment or something, maybe their math teacher falling on her face or something.
He took his seat, it was it the back corner of the classroom, and beside him to the left sat this girl named Emma, and beside her, Lily. Mark had always thought that Emma may have had a thing for him, maybe where the feeling in his stomach was coming from, but he wasn’t sure, maybe it was just a feeling, but nothing was actually going to happen. Their teacher instructed that everyone take out their notes and start using them to study because there would be a test upcoming next week on Wednesday. They would be allowed to study in partners or groups if they wanted to, or just continue to work by themselves. Mark gestured to Drew and Evan to come over to his desk so that they could all work together. He noticed that Lily also did the same, but Emma stayed by herself, looking a little bit frustrated while reading. He brushed it off and turned to face his friends, and hoped that they would actually end up studying.
A few minutes later, Emma tapped Mark’s shoulder and with a small pout on her face, starting asking him for help in a soft voice. “Mark, I don’t get any of this, can you help me? Maybe we could work together, just you and me” She said, her pout slowly turning into a mischievous smile. He sighed, was this the feeling in his stomach? “What don’t you get, its just reading over notes, and I’m working with Drew and Evan”. Her smiled faded and turned back into a pout, “yeah but they can work together and we can work together?” she said “and all of it id confusing, I just wrote what was on the board, I don’t get it”. Emma looked behind her shoulder at Lily, who was watching the entire encounter, and then turned back to stroke Mark’s arm. He quickly pulled it away. “What are you doing?” he asked. “I just really need your help, just your help, no one elses. You’re really smart, and I know you want to help me” the devilish smile returning to her face.
“Emma, I’m sorry but I’m working with Drew and Evan like I said!” Mark told her, trying to back away and go to his friends. She grabbed his wrist and pulled him in even closer. Mark saw Lily again watching the two, and he tried to make it obvious he didn’t want Emma touching him. “Ok fine, I get it, you can work with your friends now, after school you can come over to my house to study, it’ll be really fun” She said with a wink and turned back to her paper, like nothing had just happened.
He too turned back to his friends, completely dumbfounded, he did’;t really know what had just happened. Stuttering, he faced Emma once again. “Emma, I’m not going over to your house” he said. She just smiled and winked, and placed a note in his lap that had what he assumed was her address and phone number on it. She smirked at him and said “yes you are, I know you want to”. Drew and Evan looked at him with a look that said “so you got a girl?”, Mark furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head, he didn’t like Emma, he liked Lily, but of course he couldn’t tell them that. “How about we just study okay?” he asked, and his friends reluctantly agreed, but knowing that he was covering something up.
Something about the interaction had been really uncomfortable and weird. Mark knew exactly why though, Emma was acting really weird and was basically flirting with him, and it was even worse that Lily saw it, he wanted her to know that she was who he liked, not some pick-me girl. It was also that Emma had wanted him to go over to her house afterwards, and that his friends were supporting her, he didn’t want her, Mark wanted Lily. How was he supposed to say no now though, he already had her number and address, plus his friend wanted him to go, it would be super awkward now, but he felt a bit of pressure to go.
When the bell went, Emma rushed out of class, and by the time Mark was ready to go, she had found him at his locker. Emma loudly, very loudly, asked him if he was ready to go to her house, and staring at Lily the entire time. Drew and Evan answered for him saying that he was, and Emma dragged his along. Ugh Lily, please know that I like you, and only you, not Emma, I just cant really get myself out of this right now he thought.