Author: Unveil the Soulbound
Disclaimer: Pretty much all the characters are from me and my wild imagination… Any character resembling anyone from real life is unintentional…
Summary: Nobody’s perfect. Not even Kyle. Athletic – Girl’s Basketball Team Captain, Softball Team Ace Player, Track and Field Varsity; Intelligent – always at the upper 5% of her class; Leadership qualities – Student Body Vice president. But through the years, she’s learned to keep her feelings from other people. Will somebody finally make her realize that all Kyle needs to do is open the door for love? It all depends on her choices…
Rating: PG 13 – R
Author’s note:
I just started this story and I would really love to share it to you… so please… feedback would be GREATLY APPRECIATED… just don’t murder me too much…
Saturday
Waking up extra early this morning, I was half-expecting my brother to show up in the living room, slouching on the couch, watching those pointless shows in the television just to kill time. Maybe even holding a bowl of cereals in front of him. I would have jumped on to him and snatched the bowl from him, leaving him open-mouthed and with no choice but to prepare himself a new bowl, all-too-knowing that it would be a strenuous process to take back his former breakfast from me. Then he would sit back on the couch, now beside me, and we would have teased the commercials on TV. Together.
But not today.
He hasn’t been home for two weeks. Even with the constant phone calls, it would still be better if he was home.
I miss him. I miss my bestfriend. Damn college dormitories.
**********************************************
“You’re going to be late for practices, Kyle.”
Kyle had just finished taking a shower and she was now drying her dark brown hair with a fresh, clean towel she hastily grabbed from her closet earlier that day. After waking up from the resonating sound of her alarm clock, and after a few rubs to her eyes so as to get the traces of sleep to leave her, she finally sat up on bed and decided to take a quick shower before heading down to breakfast.
It was just now though, after the shower, that she finally realized how late she woke up.
Oh shit!, she thought to herself as she looked at the clock on her bedside table. Apparently, I set the alarm clock in a wrong time again. Which makes me late for the practice. Which would make Coach Hunt really angry. Stupid!
Putting on her underwears along with the baggy khaki pants and red shirt she randomly picked from her closet, she hurried down to the kitchen, brushing the short strands of her auburn hair along the way. As she reached the door to the kitchen, she met the eyes of her mother and right away she knew that the older woman was going to question her unpunctuality. Unpunctuality? Fancy word… But late is late…
“Alarm clock issues again?”
Kyle blushed a little, embarrassed. She knows me too well. “Yeah. I wasn’t able to set it the right time again.”
“You’ve got to change that, Kyle. It’s becoming a habit,” concern shone in the older woman’s face.
“I know. It’s just, sometimes I’m too lazy to check my alarm clock if I set it the right way.” The teenage girl grinned because of her lame excuse, “It’s stupid, I know…”
“It’s not stupid. It’s just reckless. If this routine of yours don’t change, I swear you’ll always be late for whatever you need to do. And even your alarm clocks won’t be any help,” an eyebrow shot up from Kyle’s mother, a gesture she knew all too well, and she felt herself warming up under her mother’s glance.
With this, she turned her attention to the food prepared on the small kitchen table, not bearing the gaze her mother extended towards her, making her feel all guilty. That was when she noticed the bacon laying on two plates along with slices of bread. To the sides of the plates were two steaming cups of black coffee. So much for yummy breakfast you can’t enjoy…Why again? Oh yeah! That’s because I’m LATE…
Riza noticed the slight change of expression on her daughter’s face and she knew right there and then what the teenager was thinking. She wasn’t about to agree though.
“Oh no! You’re not going to skip breakfast just because you’re late…”
“But mom! Our coach is going to be mad. As in mad! I need to get there on time –”
“And get yourself hospitalized?! No way! You’re going to be having exhausting basketball practices all day, and you won’t eat breakfast?” Now Kyle saw the incredulous expression being shown on her mother’s face. She knew it was hard to win this fight.
But she could try…
“But mom –”
“No but’s. Eat breakfast and then you get to go to the practices.” Riza pushed one of the stuffed plates towards her daughter. They both knew that when mother mode was on, it was definitely ON. “And don’t worry about the stuffs you’re going to bring. I’ve prepared them already.”
“Really?” God, how can I miss doing that yesterday?
“Apparently, you fell asleep on your bed, reading your history book,” her mother called out, knowing what her daughter must be thinking. She looked back at the teenager and gave her a knowing look. “Sometimes, you need to slack things out, Kyle. I mean, Friday evening and you’re studying already?”
“Mom, that’s not studying,” Kyle wasn’t about to give in. She’d had this kind of conversation all her life and she knew just how to win it. If she can’t win the earlier argument, she might as well push her luck here. “It’s called advance reading…”
“Yeah, whatever,” Was all her mother could muster. If ever a Cool Mom Association there was, she would probably have been the president of it. Having raised her son and daughter on her own for the past decade, she was never one for strict rules. She believed that understanding her offsprings was a whole lot better than making them follow pointless house rules. It’s so much better to communicate with them because that way you understand each other, and you both see you’re mistakes as a parent or a son or daughter, she would often say when asked about her parental ways.
Of course she also enjoyed seeing either her son or daughter embarrassed when she teased them. Or blush whenever I ask about their love lives, she grinned inwardly.
“Mom, when is Derek calling?”, Riza was interrupted from her trance as her daughter called out. Hearing the name of her eldest, she turned to Kyle, who now was enjoying her hearty breakfast.
“Maybe later, after your training. I thought you guys talked about it?”
“Yeah we did, just checking if he called last night for a change of plans or something,” now Kyle turned to her coffee and sipped, satisfaction at having to eat breakfast showing on her face. This expression was not lost from her mother.
“You look refreshed having eaten breakfast, “ Riza pointed out to her daughter, “and just a while ago, you wanted to skip it…”
All Kyle could do was smile sincerely and say, “Thanks, mom,” as she took the sports bag being handed to her by her mom. She stood up and checked the bag for a while. After reassuring herself that everything she needed was there, she walked to her mom and hugged her tightly.
“Thanks mom, you’re the best. Really.”
Riza smiled and returned the warm embrace. “I know,” she said, teasing her daughter. She looked at the mock ‘oh really?!’ expression on her daughter’s face and in turn pushed Kyle gently out of the room, while saying, “Now scram, or you’ll be busted by your hot and athletic coach…”
With that, Kyle turned back and mock teased her mother with a “Mommmm, don’t tell me you’re crushing on my coach??!!”
Riza saw this playful banter and would really love to return the gesture, but realized that her daughter was running late for her basketball training. She simply pointed to the clock hanging on the wall of the kitchen and said, “You’re gonna be late… Now scram…”
Kyle turned to look at the clock herself, and her eyes widened as the reality hit her that she had only 5 minutes left before the training started. An exasperated “Oh yeah!” came out of her and she dashed towards the door while calling back to her mother, “But we’re gonna talk about this later when I come back!”
Riza looked at the now empty house and smiled to herself, I certainly raised them well.
**********************************************
Confusion showed on Kyle’s face as she started for the school gym where the basketball trainings were being held. There’s certainly a lot of people here right now, she thought. Being a Saturday, she never imagined anyone choosing to go to school than staying at home or going somewhere else, doing whatever. She also never thought any student would be THAT interested in an ordinary basketball practice. Unless…
Reaching the huge basketball court, she had just to stop herself from screaming, What the hell are all THESE people doing here???!!! From where she stood then, she saw the sidelines of the court filled with students of different levels, chatting with each other, or talking to someone on their cell phones, oblivious to her presence. Even the audience seats at the top are filled, she said looking up at the upper part of the gym. Something’s definitely going on… It’s like…Oh no!!! No way!!!
She chose that time to go to the players’ benches, where the basketball team coach now noticed her.
“You’re late, Hanson.”
Kyle acknowledged her last name being called by the athletic, blonde man sitting on the benches and she realized that she needed to give her apologies. And probably take my punisment…
“I’m sorry, coach. I’ll be doing the lapses around –”
“Not today, Hanson. You’re lucky you won’t be running around the court today.” Then, the elderly man pointed to the crowd surrounding the sidelines of the court. “You can’t with all those people.”
Curiosity getting the most of her, she suddenly brought herself to ask, “Yeah, what’s up with that? I mean, coach, we have been practicing for a while now. But there hasn’t been this much commotion before…?”
With this, the man flashed a toothy, somewhat wicked smile at her. Okay, I certainly don’t like the looks of that, she thought. “You’ll be having an unofficial game with Martin High today, after the basic drills,” the coach said, pleased with the elusive reaction he got from his team captain, and one of his favorite students.
Wh-what??!!!, her mind screamed. “You - you must be kidding, coach –”, she managed to say before being interrupted by the man before her.
“No joke, Hanson. The Martin High Girls Basketball team will be arriving in probably half an hour…”, he said, glancing at his wristwatch. “More or less.”
With this, she scrambled towards the Girls’ Shower Room to freshen up for the game and change into her outfit. That Hunt is a mean, wicked, impious, bad, awful – her inner rambling stopped when she felt a hand hold her arm, immediately stopping her tracks towards her destination.
“Woah!” she turned to see a spiky haired guy, a few inches taller than her with large brown eyes. The guy still held her arm, but loosened a little bit. To his side was a gorgeous girl with flowing hair, color mildly between brown and the darker shade of gold. Leah Kyrr, campus heartthrob, probably his new girlfriend or something…
“What’s up, Kyle? What’s with the rush?” she heard the guy say.
She turned her full attention to him, and never minded keeping to herself the pent-up anger boiling inside her. “Did you know about all this, Steve?! Huh?!” She pointed to all the people inside the gym.
A guilty expression showed in his face that was not lost from the brunette. “Yeah…umm… sortah…” and he quickly added, “But I DIDN’T know you didn’t know. So I assumed you knew, and I kindah told a few people. But I SWEAR I didn’t know you didn’t know. I promise, Kyle!” He held his right hand up to show the gesture.
“So, this hell of an audience is your fault?”
“Ummm…” for a few seconds, Steve contemplated on what to say. “Figured your team might use a little moral support…” He raised his eyebrows in a I’m-not-so-sure-this-is-a-good-idea sort of way.
“You’re definition of LITTLE is very, very small…” she said, sarcasm obvious in her tone.
“I’m sorry, Kyle. I really really am… I didn’t know Hunt wouldn’t tell you.”
Kyle sighed. She had nothing else to do but accept Steve’s explanation. He’s been his friend for a long time already and she knew he was telling the truth. “Yeah. Okay. I forgive you…”she said, patting his arm which in turn got an ear-to-ear smile from him. “I’m just, I dunno, nervous maybe…”
“Don’t be,” it was now Leah who talked, having been a spectator between the two friends’ interaction. “I’ve seen you guys play last year, and you’re pretty good.” She smiled at Kyle, who in turn smiled back.
This became Steve’s cue to introduce the two girls to each other. “Kyle, this is –”
“Leah Kyrr, I know. She’s pretty popular here in school you know, Steve?” Kyle interrupted, showing a matter-of-fact expression on her face.
“And you’re popular yourself too, Miss Kyle Hanson,” Leah pointed out to the other girl.
Kyle grinned and Steve smiled as he watched the interaction. “Okay, since I guess you both know each other already, we better go, Kyle,” he said pointing to the direction of the benches reserved probably for the VIP’s. Steve was one of the most popular student on school, being a campus jock and the school’s football team quarterback. Leah shared the same kind of popularity for simply being one of the most beautiful girls in school, a certified campus heartthrob. Steve and Leah together, makes perfect sense, she thought.
“And I better change, now,” she said, heading for the shower room.
When Kyle had vanished towards the insides of the shower room, Leah turned to her boyfriend and remarked, “She’s pretty, Steve.”
“Yeah, she’s definitely hot.”
Leah shot her eyebrows up and asked the spike-haired guy beside her, “Tell me again why you didn’t pursue her? You told me before you tried to hit on her…”
“You really wanna know, Leah?”
“Yeah.”
“She’s gay,” he gave her a sincere smile, “And pretty open about it too…”
To Love is to receive a glimpse of Heaven-- Karen Sunde
Love isn't a decision. It's a feeling. If we could decide who we loved, it would be much simpler...But much less magical... -- Trey Parker and Matt Stone
but alas! chapter two saved me from my despair 
. Love sam xx