Nine #2
For dinner I worked on a complicated cream sauce, something requiring a lot of focus to get right so I didn’t have any problems there.
But he was always in my dreams. The bright lights were there and he was there.
This night the food was there too. A good steak drizzled with a lavender and black pepper sauce, paired with spring greens.
Craig still smiled with amusement as we forked up a mouthful as if in planned unison.
And that smile warmed me like the sunshine from the last dream.
Dreaming about food just makes you hungry when you wake up.
Still lying tangled in my sheets, I already wanted steak.
I also wanted to see Craig again. Or maybe I just wanted that warm rush when he smiled with his whole face.
I was definitely hungry but didn’t have what I wanted. I made eggs instead.
I made it through first and second period without thinking about steak for lunch. But when Fiona cornered me at morning break near the vending machine I had to think about Criag.
“I can get him in. You’ll owe me for this but if I bump my own registration there is space and I can get this guy into the class if you want him there.”
Fiona was really going out of her way. Unnecessarily so.
I should have said, I changed my mind, because I had.
Mia was right about my brain just going wild.
Why else would the dream change, or keep spitting out fantasies about someone I barely knew.
Instead of denying it all, I squeaked out, “Okay.”
“Really, that’s all you’ve got for me?” Fiona snapped.
She clearly knew I wasn’t telling her everything.
When I didn’t respond further, she said, “I had to sell him as a disability rehab. I’ll need his name, birthdate and contact info to get him registered.
If he is part of a formal rehab program their details might help too. ”
“I’ll ask him.” That was a lot of personal stuff. Maybe he wouldn’t want to give that out and I wouldn’t have to deal with this at all.
Fiona looked me up and down, her arms folded tightly across her chest. “Rilee, are you okay? I mean you have been acting really weird.”
“I’m just not sleeping well,” I lied. I wished it was true. If I couldn’t sleep, I wouldn’t be able to dream.
Fiona shook her head before checking her watch. “I don’t believe that. But if you don’t want to talk about it, fine. Everybody needs some privacy, even in a high school. But just remember no problem ever went away on its own.”
Pulling my almond snickers from the vending machine I shook my head. “Really, I’m fine. If it was something serious, I know you have my back.”
“Just as long as I know how to help, and I’m not sure I am.” After kind of a stare down, Fiona smiled and then with a nod we both slipped into the drifting currents of the passing period hallway.
Today was unit test review day. It is always amazing to me how each class period can have its own personality.
Third period always has questions and tries really hard even though they are not great students.
But fourth is dead as a frog in a jar and getting them to answer one of my questions, let alone ask their own, was like pulling teeth.
By the end of the day I was ready to go home but with the end of the season approaching in a few weeks we had a full afternoon of practice.
Coach Velazquez was awesome. She’d spent the weekend drafting new plays to try out.
We split the team and I ran drills with my group while Maggie ran through the new plays with hers.
Then we met back up and she had her squad run the plays against us.
The screens were incredible and Jackie Mace scored three times in a row. My squad picked apart the second play on the second run through, and the third was complicated enough the girls couldn’t cleanly execute it. But the first was simple and deadly.
The play was dynamic. If the girls called for switch coverage at the screen Jackie cut back toward the screen resulting in a double team but opening the left wing.
A quick pass to the wing resulted in an easy outside two–point shot.
If we stayed man–to–man the screen cleared Jackie’s defender and her layup was easy.
“That is gold,” I murmured to Maggie as she stood there beaming.
“I was hoping for something good and I’m sure if they’re up against an extra tall center who can tip the ball it might not be as clean, but I think it will be worth using. Especially this late in the season it’s nice to have something to pull out that the other teams haven’t seen yet.
“Sometimes it’s getting an unexpected perspective on things that lets you find success,” Maggie continued. “I was watching penguins on the discovery channel and their movements around a leopard seal just sparked something. Just a different situation made things clearer.”