Chapter 6 - Balance

<b>*1 year later*</b>

"Don't bother, she's already in love with someone" Angie said to the guy sitting at the table beside us. He picked up his sandwich, walking out of the store while blushing extremely hard.

"I am NOT in love with anyone" I hissed at Angie.

"Girl you've been having secret meetings with your 'coach' for a whole year now, this excuse is getting old" Angie rolled her eyes and Bella giggled beside her.

"Not to mention who would give up so much of their time to help their friend's little sister?" Bella asked "I wish I had someone who would do that for me" she sighed dreamily.

I blushed "we do actually play soccer! And he's only helping me because he owes my brother, I'm telling you there's nothing going on" I said, as if to prevent myself from getting deluded into thinking there was something more. I felt a sudden pang in my chest.

"Okay okay" Bella sipped on her drink as she glanced at the barista for the tenth time that day. The bartender winked at her and she squealed.

"Come on, let's go" Bella said standing up and dragging Angie's arm. I stood up as well, grabbing my empty cup.

"Wait, I wasn't finishe-" Bella ignored Angie and walked up to the counter.

She gave a flirty smile to the bartender, looking closer at his name tag. She scribbled something on a napkin and handed it to him "your coffee was delicious, Ryan".

Ryan reached out to grab the napkin and Bella leaned in closer, a strand of hair falling in front of her shoulder "it'd be nice if you could personally teach me about it".

Bella walked off without waiting to hear an answer and left Ryan looking smitten already. We walked out of the store and Angie and I grinned in approval.

Bella squealed "he was sooooo cute, did you see his smile? It was to die for" she stared off into space, probably already imagining getting married to him.

"I was wondering where all that confidence came from but looks like she's back to normal" I said shaking my head.

~~~~~

"20 laps around the field" Kai said and began running as well. I jogged beside him, after the past year 20 laps was nothing.

"Tryouts are next week" he said, glancing down at me.

I nodded, "do you think I'll be able to make it this time?"

I hadn't made it on the team the first year, which wasn't surprising considering I had only been practicing for a few weeks. But despite that I was consistently training with Kai and I felt a lot more confident.

"No doubt about that, since I was the one training you" he smirked. I rolled my eyes and started picking up my speed, running past him. He started running faster and it soon became a race.

Kai bumped into me with his shoulder and I lost balance and fell on the ground. He looked back at me, his eyes wide, but he kept running and my jaw dropped.

"You're just going to leave me on the floor?!" I hollered back at him.

He made it to the end of the lap and stopped. "My victory" he said smirking at me.

"Cheater! That doesn't count" I narrowed my eyes at him, getting up and patting down my shorts to remove the dirt.

He shrugged, "balance is an important part of soccer".

"Oh I'll show you balance" I grabbed a soccer ball from the cart and kicked it with all my strength straight at his sensitive area.

~~~~~

"Why are you walking like that?" I heard my brother question Kai.

"I had a little incident" Kai mumbled. I grabbed my chocolate milk and smirked as I walked out of the kitchen into the living room.

"That's unfortunate" I said and Kai glared at me.

"Are you ready for next week" Zach asked me.

"Of course, I've been practicing for the past year. This time I'll make it for sure" I said confidently. While I was saying that I wasn't too sure, if all the practice from the past year didn't pay off then I was definitely hopeless.

Zach smiled "well of course I wouldn't mind of helping you practice... in exchange for a year's worth of doing my laundry".

I stuck out my tongue at him "get over yourself, your skills aren't worth that much".

Kai let out a small laugh. Zach ignored my response and turned towards him, "oh yea you don't know, she's joining the soccer team" he said proudly.

Kai feigned surprise "well let's hope her skills are good enough to get in".

Zach smacked the back of Kai's head, "of course they are, she's my sister after all".

"It's not like you gave birth to me" I said as I rolled my eyes. The doorbell rang at that moment and I ran to open the door.

"Finally you're here" I opened it wider to let Carlos come in.

"Who is it?" Zach called out.

"Did you miss me?" Carlos winked at them as he walked in.

"Gross" Zach shivered and rubbed his arms with his hands "why are you always hanging around my sister anyways? Don't tell me you two are-" Zach's eyes widened.

"So what if we are?" Carlos put his arm around my shoulder and led me outside.

Zach immediately got up "what?!!"

"Run" Carlos exclaimed and began running to his car, dragging me along with him. He started his car and drove out of the driveway.

Zach ran outside with no shoes on, yelling at us while Kai was leaning against the door with a weird look in his eyes.

~~~~~