The sunlight seeped through the blinds of Noah's bedroom, landing on his face telling him it was time to get up. Last night's football practice was pretty exhausting and the feeling of being sore made him want to lay down in bed for the rest of the day. He emerged from his bed and made his way downstairs. He called out to see if his mom was home, and of course, she wasn't. He grinned to himself. The thought of staying home today felt like a good idea. His mom would have no idea that he skipped today. After thinking about it, he shook his head remembering he had important things to do today. He had that physics lab which was a huge part of his grade for first period. Also, he promised Mr. Ziegler that he would help him set up the new classroom he was switching into during third period, and not to mention he had an essay for Ms. Derringer's class. Then football practice was mandatory today and jerseys were being passed out. He knew he had to be there in order to get his lucky jersey again.
Noah sat up from his bed and checked his phone. He scrolled through the messages and clicked on the thread that read 'Dad'. The last message Noah sent to his dad read:
"Just sent you my football schedule for this year. Let me know which games you'll be able to make it to!" Noah sent that message to him last week.
Still no reply.
He sighed, looking at the clock. 7:14 AM. With that, he quickly remembered he had to get ready.
Let's just say, today was going to be a busy Wednesday for Noah Sanders.
Physics was as difficult as it was to spell, and Noah didn't understand much about velocity and all that great science stuff. The lab he was doing was so complicated that neither he nor his partner knew what they were doing. It was a complete mess and Noah knew they would need help in order to get this done and get a good grade on it.
He should have paid attention to what Mrs. Barfield was saying this past week.
Mr. Ziegler had about ten boxes gathered up in his old classroom when Noah and two other students entered. The rest of the class was told to do an assignment in the library if they didn't want to help, and there was no way Noah was going to do any class work when he could just help move some boxes into another building.
This would be a piece of cake! Or so he thought.
It turned out that Noah had to do most of the work, since he was the strongest out of the four of them. The other two students weren't athletic in any type of way; they were into chess and anime or whatever they called it. In other words, they were nerds. Mr. Ziegler on the other hand? He was old! There was no way he could lift a box, he could hardly even lift his arm.
The boxes weren't the only things that needed to be carried either. Noah also had to carry the desks, the chairs, the projector, and many more heavy objects.
He had to be the only strong one to volunteer, didn't he?
Noah looked down at his essay, writers block hitting him pretty hard. Everyone in class seemed to be getting their flow of writing down pretty quick and he sat there with a blank mind. He had about two paragraphs on his paper. Still. Football and a few other things were wearing him out and maybe that was the reason he was spacing out as well.
"Alright class, fifteen more minutes then I want everyone's essays on my desk." Ms. Derringer said.
He began to rub his temples. Then he began to write. Everything that had been on his mind was completely gone and he was able to finish with only two minutes to spare.
Once he placed his essay on her desk, he looked around to see he was the last one to finish his essay. Except for one more person. Olivia sat there looking out the window, her focus mainly on the sky. Noah raised his eyebrows, and peeked over at her essay; it was almost finished but her last sentence needed to be completed.
"What is she doing?" Noah thought to himself. The bell was bound to ring any minute and she was just sitting there looking at nothing.
Then she turned back to her paper and picked up her pencil. The only thing Noah found odd when she began to write was that she only wrote two words. He couldn't see what it said, but he could tell by the stroke of her pencil that it was two words she had put down. As she got up, he noticed that she beamed a little while holding the paper close to her. He narrowed his eyes, wondering why she was so happy. She still seemed happy even what he had said to her yesterday. Noah began to think she was even weirder than before.
Right when her paper hit the desk, the bell sounded off and all the students crowded towards the exit. Noah slowly gathered his belonging, sights still on Olivia, who was still smiling to herself. It was like she didn't have a care in the world at that moment.
When Olivia felt a pair of eyes on her, she immediately looked to the only other person in the room. Noah swung his backpack over his shoulder and once Olivia looked at him, her smile faded faster than Usain Bolt in the 100 meter race at the Olympics.
"What?" Olivia questioned him. She gave him the same look she gave him for years.
"Nothing." He squinted his eyes and shrugged. She caught him staring at her and he quickly turned around to exit the room. Not only had he been staring at her for a while, but her reaction to it made him feel humiliated.
Noah walked over to his locker and shook his head. He felt so stressed and tired that all he wanted to do was go home and sleep it all off. It's been a while since Noah actually had a day to himself to just relax. At this moment, he was tired, hungry, stressed, and added to the list was embarrassed. Looking over his shoulder, a few feet away was Black Sheep standing at her locker, placing some books inside. He really hoped she wouldn't be talking about his awkward staring to that Isaac Smith who was always by her side.
He watched Isaac smile at every word she said, laughing at some points, but mostly smiling at her; like an admiring stare which he couldn't believe with his own eyes.
The two of them started to walk away when a paper that was hanging from Black Sheep's bag fell onto the ground. No one else seemed to see it, so he went on over to retrieve it.
"Art Scholarship, huh? No wonder she's always drawing in class." Noah thought to himself.
He only knew a few things about Black Sheep. One, she was basically an outcast and she didn't have many friends. Two, she looked that way ever since freshman year and her clothes were never the nicest. Three, she worked at the local diner during the summer, and lastly; she was an artist. Well, according to the paper. Other than that, he knew absolutely nothing else about her. Hell, Noah didn't even know her last name!
He slid the paper back into her locker, and as he lifted his shoulder, the soreness ran through his entire body making him cringe. He honestly didn't know if he could make it through practice today.
"Man, I don't need her. I can find any girl and make her mine within seconds!" Austin Hayes barged into the boy's locker room with Dylan Reed.
Noah looked over his shoulder as the two set their duffle bags into their lockers. "What happened to you?" Noah questioned.
"Haley broke up with me, Noah. SHE broke up with ME." He put a lot of emphasis on the two words. Shaking his head, he slammed his locker door shut and took a seat next to Noah. "After two years and six months, she said she lost feelings for me... how crazy is that?! How can you stay with someone for so long and say you just lost feelings like that?" The sadness and anger in his tone were so loud that everyone's attention was on him.
"You'll be alright man. Like you said, you can get a girl within seconds, right?" Noah patted Austin on the back.
"Yeah, now that the ladies know you're single, they'll be all over you. But for now, just think about football. Let your anger out on the field." Dylan said with his arms crossed.
Austin's sniffles began to decrease and he wiped a few tears that were running down his face. "Right. I'll just focus on football from now on. I don't need her."
"And we'll help you find someone new, alright? Haley is history." Noah laughed, his arms raised as if he had solved Austin's problem.
The three of them laughed together, putting on their gear for practice.
Noah tried to even out his breathing, but he was too tired to even think about doing that. Coach Matheson had them running lap after lap after lap. Blinking was even a struggle at this point, but practice had only been going on for an hour.
"Drink up, fellas! We got a lot more work to do today." Coach Matheson inhaled the fresh summer air as everyone was gasping for air.
The look on everyone's faces made it seem as if they were in so much pain that they could die right on the spot. Every single person on the team huddled around 'The Gator', also known as a big tank of water that everyone drinks from.
"I'm… so… tired…" Noah took in a deep breath before drinking from The Gator.
"Alright boys, break time is over! Let's run some drills!" The squeal of Coach's whistle made everyone groan. He tossed the football over to Noah. "Mr. QB, show 'em what you got."
Noah grinned, gripping onto the football. Everyone else besides Noah and the second string quarterbacks had to run and catch the football. And by everyone, that meant all fifty-three people on the roster.
He took a few steps back before launching the pig skin across the field. Noah chuckled a bit, "This isn't so bad."
"That's what you think." Coach Matheson busted out with laughter before blowing his whistle close to Noah's ear.
Noah's smile quickly faded.
All that could be heard in the locker room were the tired breaths of the varsity football team. A few were talking about how exhausting that drill they did was, and Austin was going off about how sad he was that Haley dumped him.
Noah was the only one in the restroom, while everyone was getting ready to go home after a long, hard practice. His hands held onto the sides on the sink in front of him, staring straight at his reflection in the mirror. He was sorer than he was this morning, and that was an excruciating soreness. His right arm was in so much pain that he could possibly cry.
Most of the team had already left the locker room when Noah exited the restroom. Three of his teammates were shutting their lockers when they stopped what they were doing to look at Noah. He looked beat.
"Nice practice, Noah." One of them waved at him. Noah nodded back at them before they left the room entirely.
He was all alone, but he didn't mind. He was used to it by now, considering his mom was always out of the house working at her office job that he didn't know, or care, much about.
It was almost six o'clock when Noah had finally decided to change out of his football clothes and into some comfortable sweats and a plain white tee. He threw his backpack and bag over his shoulder then exited the locker room.
The sun was about ready to set and Noah's arm was in much more pain than it was a while ago. He stood there with his left hand over his right shoulder, massaging it a bit to lessen the pain. On the way home, he decided to take the long way that led through the outer edge of the city. He liked to park his car right before the cuts, just next to the grocery store. He was enjoying some peace and quiet when he noticed someone walk out of the grocery store with a bouquet of yellow and blue flowers.
"Black Sheep?" He squinted his eyes, chuckling to himself, "I bet she bought those flowers for herself."
She gripped onto her bag with her hand, flowers held in the other. As she passed by total strangers, she smiled at each and every one of them and they all smiled back. Black Sheep got into her own car and reversed out of the parking lot. Noah, as curious as ever, had to find out where she was going with that beautiful bouquet of flowers. He quickly started up his vehicle and followed right behind.
Staying a car behind her, Noah tried his best not to lose her in this busy city. She didn't get very far from the grocery store either. This part of the city was a lot older, the buildings were rustier and worn down.
"Where is she going?" Noah kept asking himself.
Black Sheep's car pulled into a parking lot right across from the cemetery. To be stealthy and go unnoticed, Noah parked on the opposite street and watched as Black Sheep was getting out of her car. Just as she began to walk away, Noah's cell phone starting blaring loud rock music, making him look away from Black Sheep. The screen read "Mom", and once he was about to answer, the phone stopped ringing. He quickly looked back to see where Black Sheep had taken off to, but she was nowhere in sight. He looked in just about every single direction and it was like she disappeared.
"What the…" He raised an eyebrow. He took his eyes off her for two seconds and just like that, she was gone. Today had been such an off day he felt like it wasn't even real. Except for the pain all over his body.
That was real.
"Mom, I'm home! I headed home as soon as you called!" He closed the front door behind him, still rubbing his arm. "Mom?" He repeated, checking in the living room if his mom was home. She wasn't. Still. It was as if she would rather go to work than stay at home, and it made Noah feel like he wasn't important to her.
Noah stood there in the living room and sighed, and as he carried his bags to head upstairs, he realized that this was almost an everyday thing.
It was pretty sad to think about.