8
At school, Jack approached Will as if he hadn’t ignored his texts all weekend. It was more than Will was expecting, and he was happy to roll with it. Jack sat on the picnic bench next to Will’s copy. They were outside waiting for the first bell to go, and Jack was helping Will finish his history homework. It was better than Jack being angry with him. The breeze was cold and kept catching the pages and flipping them up. A few more weeks and it would be too cold to hang outside at all.
Jack flipped through a few pages of Will’s textbook. “Found it.” He laid out the book and pointed at the paragraphs in the middle.
“Thank you,” Will said gratefully as he scribbled down the answers.
“Birch is coming to volleyball this week,” Jack said.
Will kept writing. He knew he needed to lay off on Birch joining them or risk Jack getting annoyed again. Maybe if he acted cool with this, Jack would drop trying to turn their study evenings into a group thing. “Cool,” he said. “I don’t think I’ll be there this week. Last week, Coach sent out a text about a match.”
Jack shuffled over and sat close to Will. He waited until Will looked up.
“I’m sorry,” Jack said.
Will frowned. “What are you sorry about?”
Jack hesitated and took a deep breath as if he was about to dive underwater. “It wasn’t cool to avoid you like that.”
“You avoided me?” Will played dumb. “I didn’t notice.”
Jack gave him a look. “I wasn’t going to bring it up, but I think I need to. Amanda was excited about Birch, and you know she’s never been interested in any of the guys at our school before. At the party when you two, you know, it upset her.”
Will was used to Jack being direct, but not about things that made them both uncomfortable. He felt guilty about the party, but he was also relieved that Jack was mad on Amanda’s behalf. He apologised.
“No, I didn’t bring it up to make you apologise. It’s not like she told you or anything.” Jack said. “It wasn’t fair to avoid you when nobody told you why we were upset. I’m sorry.”
“Apology accepted.” Will didn’t think an apology was necessary, but he knew Jack wouldn’t be satisfied until he acknowledged it.
“So,” Jack moved on, “it would be nice if you’d sit with us at lunch today. I promise Amanda won’t be angry with you anymore.”
Will hadn’t been planning on avoiding them for lunch to begin with. He had actually been scared of them avoiding him . “Okay.”
Jack smiled. “Great. And don’t avoid training just because Birch is there.”
“I was serious about the match. I can’t go this week,” Will said. Silently he prayed that Jack wouldn’t mention the study group again.
“Then, tonight for study…” Jack scanned his face and trailed off. “How about we leave it as just the two of us?”
“Sounds good.”
The morning bell rang. The unease that had been plaguing Will all weekend eased. He was glad Jack had brought it up. He’d definitely be able to stomach dinner today.
“Will,” Gale called.
Will waited as he trotted up to him in the hall. He tapped Jack’s shoulder so he’d know Will had stopped.
“I’ll see you at lunch,” Jack said before continuing on to class.
“What’s up?” Will asked Gale.
“Coach wanted to talk to all of us,” Gale explained. “Room three.”
Will went with him, surprised that Gale was the one who came looking for him. It was usually Dune, but if Dune was still mad at him it made sense he’d send someone else.
Coach was middle-aged and losing his hair, but despite the wrinkles sneaking their way onto his face, he was a fit man. He could outrun anyone on the team any day of the week, and it got him a lot of respect. It was much easier to follow someone’s instructions when they led the way instead of shouting at you from behind to go faster.
It was a mixture of fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-years in the room. There were fewer in their sixth year than in either of the other years, but that was because half of them had dropped at the start of the year to focus on exams. It was easy to pick them out on the team. Aside from having better skills, all the sixth-year guys were bigger. Except for Will.
“The bus will leave at half four tomorrow from the school gates,” Coach explained. “And you should be back by eight at the latest.”
Will planned to bring his homework with him and try to get some of it done on the bus. He wouldn’t have enough time otherwise.
“And Wednesdays seem to work out well for everyone, so I’m thinking of scheduling matches for the evenings each week. Nobody has any tutorials or after school study?” Coach questioned.
Will put up his hand. “I have volleyball.”
“What time is that?” Coach frowned.
“Five to seven.”
The frown remained. He tapped his board. “Okay, I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
Will nodded, worried that he might end up as one of the sixth-years who had to drop soccer. If matches were every Wednesday, he couldn’t go. He didn’t want to miss volleyball every week. Will’s entire reason for joining the soccer team had been to get a gym slot for the volleyball team. How twisted would it be for that to keep him away?
Will lingered after Coach dismissed them, hoping to have a word. But Coach was one of the first out the door. James followed the younger players into the hall, tormenting them, while Gale moved to a table toward the back, alongside the other sixth-year boys. The meeting had gone long, and there wasn’t much point in going to class with five minutes left.
“It could end up with matches on Wednesday,” Dune said, leaning against the table next to Will. He didn’t look too happy to be talking to Will.
“I know.”
“And?” Dune prompted. “What will you do? This is our last year as a team.”
“I know that too,” Will replied. “It’s my last year with the volleyball team too.”
That made Dune scowl. “It’s only training sessions on Wednesday, but we have matches. You’re an important part of the team.”
Going by Dune’s glare, Will didn’t feel very important. Dune had never spoken to him like this. He was always level-headed and never got on anyone’s case unless they were really messing up. James was the only one that ever got snapped at. But here Will was, and he didn’t know if Dune was speaking as his captain or as an annoyed classmate.
“We’ll just have to wait and see how it works out,” Will answered mildly. He hoped that Dune would drop it, but he didn’t.
“You can move the training to a different day,” Dune said. “Even if it overlaps with soccer training, that’s better than missing the matches.”
Will was highly aware that the other guys had gone silent. “It’s not my club. I can’t ask them to change their schedule just to suit myself.”
“But you can do that to the soccer team?” Dune snapped.
For a hot second, Will almost snapped back, but he was too conscious of the other guys listening in, and he didn’t understand why Dune was attacking him like this. Will stood, and Dune straightened as if Will were about to take a swing at him. “Relax, Captain,” he said dryly. “I just answered Coach’s question. If it ends up not working any other day of the week, not much I can do about it.”
Anger flashed in Dune’s eyes. “You’ll quit the team just so you don’t miss a few volleyball training sessions?”
Will had to focus hard on keeping his anger down. One thing he really didn't like was how volleyball was dismissed around here as less important than everything else. It was the reason everything else in the gym got priority—nobody thought much of the sport. But Jack and Amanda both loved it, and Will liked how he felt when he was playing the game. It was important to him, and even if he was used to hearing it being dismissed, it still made his chest tighten.
“If that’s how it’s going to be, why not just quit?” Dune snapped. “We’re better off getting used to not having you on the team at the start of the season.”
“Fine.” Will clenched his bag strap. “I will quit. I do quit,” he corrected himself. “Good luck in the match tomorrow.” He left the room with his heart beating so hard against his ears it made him dizzy. He focused on that dizziness, not letting himself acknowledge what he’d just done.
After that, he continued thinking so hard about not thinking about it that not a word of anything in class went in. Even lunch time with everyone was a blur.
To make his mood even worse, Will came home to a text from Jack cancelling their study plans. Will twirled his pen around his finger and glared at the sums in front of him. They’d started from ‘scratch’ today, and Will hadn’t listened to a single word that O’Connor said. The frustration over his homework made him even angrier at Dune.
He went to his sister’s room. “Leah,” he called. “Can you help with my maths homework?”
“I’m busy.”
Will leaned against the wall. “Please? I can’t do any of it.”
The door swung inward. Leah was in her black dress again and in the middle of pulling on a leather jacket.
Will forgot all about his homework. “Are you meeting Gabriel?”
Leah’s expression darkened for a second. “No. Just some college friends.”
“He’s your college friend,” he pointed out. “Are you going on a date with him?”
“ No . God, I don’t know why you think we’d be dating.” Leah looked away with red cheeks. Uh-huh, was all Will thought. “Besides,” his sister continued, “after that embarrassing dinner, I’ll need at least a month to face him again.” Leah trailed off and studied Will with a glint in her eye. His own eyes narrowed. When they were kids, Will used to follow Leah around and do whatever she said, and it had gotten him into a lot of trouble when she was in her ‘rebellious’ phase. He knew her scheming look when he saw it.
“Hang on.” Leah disappeared into her room. When she came back out, she had a slip of paper in her hand. The scheming expression was gone. “You owe me a month of late-night pick-ups, okay?”
“Whose number is this?” He took the page from her.
“The Tooth Fairy, Will. Who do you think? Just text the sum you’re stuck on, and they’ll answer it.” Leah waved behind her as she left, and Will didn’t get the chance to ask any more questions.
“Okay…” Will wandered back to his room and took out his phone. He typed in the number and went straight to compose. He worried about texting a stranger to help with maths but realised the worst that could happen was that they’d refuse .
Will: Hi. Can you help answer this?
He sent a picture of the question, seeing as he couldn’t find half of the symbols needed to write the sum out on his keyboard.
He left his homework aside and pulled on running shoes. Usually, he’d be at soccer training, and he needed to make up for the lost exercise somehow. He jogged what Jack had dubbed the ‘farmer’s circle.’ It was a dirt road that took him on a forty-five-minute loop. When he got back to the driveway, he debated going for another loop but knew he couldn’t avoid his homework forever.
A text was waiting on his phone.
Unknown: 5B.
Will knew this wasn’t a sum that needed a single word answer.
Will: How did you get that?
He didn’t even have his phone down when it buzzed.
Unknown: Multiply by a and b.
Will didn’t understand, and he said so. I don’t get it.
A picture popped up showing the sum, and then Will got it. He sort of remembered doing these types of questions in class. Will got help for the rest of the questions.
Unknown: You weren’t able to do any of them yourself?
Will frowned at his phone. That was judgemental coming from someone he didn’t know. But whoever it was, they had just helped him.
Will: I wasn’t able to focus in class.
Unknown: Why?
Nosy.
Will laid on his bed and pulled his phone close to his face.
Will: Got kicked off the soccer team.
Unknown: What?! Why?????
Will: I sort of had a fight with the captain. He told me I should just quit, and I stormed off after saying I did. It was a very awkward tutoring session sitting next to his best friend.
Unknown: What was the fight about?
Will: Priorities.
Will had just hit send when a second message came through from the unknown number.
Unknown: Btw I’ll change the seating arrangement tomorrow.
Will stared at the message with wide eyes. Of course it was him! Leah’s maths friend from college—god, Will was an idiot.
Will: Gabriel???
Unknown: Will.
Will bit his lip and, since he had nothing to lose, sent an embarrassed emoji.
Will: Leah just said the number belonged to the Tooth Fairy. I only wanted help. I wasn’t cheating.
Gabriel: You didn’t know it was me? Lol.
Lol? Will couldn’t take his gaze off the message. Coach had Will’s number, but he never texted him “Lol.” With burning cheeks, Will rolled onto his stomach and slipped his arms under the pillow, propping his phone up way too close to his face.
Will: Did you know it was me?
Gabriel: I went through those sums in study today, and there was no way anybody else there would have my number.
Will: You should have told me!
Gabriel: I thought you knew and were chancing your arm.
Will: I’m not that shameless.
Gabriel: You could be. What are you doing?
Will: D ying of embarrassment!
Gabriel: Aside from that.
Will’s fingers tightened on the phone. What was he doing? Why was Gabriel asking that? That wasn’t a normal thing for a tutor to ask, was it? What if Will replied that he was in bed? His cheeks went hot just thinking about it. No way. That was too shameless.
Gabriel: Any other homework you need help with? I need to pick my niece up soon.
Oh. Immediately he was disappointed. Gabriel was asking about homework and not flirting.
Will: I’ve given up on homework. Where’s your niece?
Gabriel: Hospital with her granny. I’m dropping her to her mom’s house in the evening.
Gabriel: Is there a youth soccer team in the area? Sarah wants to join really badly.
Was Sarah his niece?
Will: Insensitive much?
Gabriel: Oh crap, I didn’t realise. Soccer is a no-no. Forget I mentioned it.
Will couldn’t help smiling.
Will: Kidding. Yeah, there’s a youth soccer team. There’s kiddie volleyball on Wednesday at five. It’s waaaay better than soccer.
Gabriel: I’ll let Sarah know that its waaaay better. I seriously gtg now!
Will hesitated for a long time before finally typing out a simple reply: Goodnight .
Gabriel’s reply didn’t come until the middle of the night. It woke Will up. The screen’s light blinded him, but it was worth it.
Gabriel: Sweet dreams.