we have yet another charity event today, this time it's a school fundraiser. we have to play a bunch of games, mostly sports.

Vivienne said that it'll be fun, Blake did too. they said this is one of the only fun ones out of way too many. I want to believe them. I want to believe that it will be fun. the only problem is that I'm not a huge fan of sports.

and by not being a fan, I mean that I'm not good at any. never was. although I did use to play soccer. It was utterly horrible, but I loved it. it was my own thing. mine.

I liked having something to look forward to, I liked knowing what I was going to do, I liked knowing. it gave me a sense of control. it was the one thing I assumed no one could ever take away from me. tear away from me. just to claim as their own.

I never thought anyone who I loved could rip away the things I loved, the things I relied on.

and not because they liked it, not because they enjoyed it. but only to spite me, to anger me, to hurt me, like I hurt them.

to make me start relying on them.

"guys! come on, we're going to be late!" I look over my shoulder, Rowan has run into my room. he's leaning on my dresser that's right in front of the door, he's completely out of breath and is clutching his stomach while being slightly bent forward.

the door opens once again, Luca and Leo walk in, but this time the door hits Rowan right into his face. "what the fuck!" oh my god. my eyes widen and I cover my mouth with my hands, don't laugh. don't laugh.

Luca and Rowan are in the room now, and the door is shut. Rowan is still standing beside it, he's holding his hands in front of his face. Luca is staring at him with wide eyes and a small smile "Rowan why the fuck were you standing there?" Luca's words come out in a laugh.

Leo is standing beside him, his hands in front of his mouth but I can see a smile forming on his lips.

Blake and Vivienne are sitting on their beds and I can hear them laughing as well.

Rowan doesn't respond, his face is still covering his nose and he walks toward the mirror beside me. "I'm bleeding," Rowan says.

but when Rowan lets go, there's no blood. not one drop. "you aren't bleeding Ro." I say. I walk towards him, he's touching his nose and inspecting it while being way too close to the mirror. I slowly take his hands away from his face and turn him towards me.

I look at his nose and see no blood but just a small bruise, I carefully touch it and Rowan pulls away, "what the hell are you doing?" he asks. I pull him closer to me and touch it again. "I'm just checking to see if anything's wrong with it."

I look over it a bit more and then pull away. "it's fine, it's not broken or anything. you just need ice." I move back to my bed and sit down on it.

"there's ice at the event? we'll get it then" Luca says and walks over to my desk chair to sit down.

Rowan rolls his eyes "fine" he walks over to my bed and sits down "Blair I wanted to ask you something, do you know how to braid hair?"

I look at him "you just got hit in the face with a door, and you're asking me if I know how to braid hair?"

"yeah" he shakes his head "obviously."

I shake my head slowly "well to answer your question, I do know how to braid hair."

he claps his hands together "great!" he smiles. "can you braid Leo's?"

I look over at Leo, he looks up from his phone with wide eyes "what? I don't need-" he starts to say but gets cut off by Rowan. "don't say that, before we left you asked me to braid yours."

he sets his phone into his pocket and sits further up on the bed "well yeah-" he gets cut off again. "just let her do it, I don't want to." he looks at me "you'll do it for him, right?"

I look at him, this is awkward. "um, yeah I can." I say slowly. he smiles and turns to Leo "see?" Leo shakes his head and then looks at me "you don't have to do it, Blair, it's fine."

I shake my head, "no I'll do it" I sit up further in my bed. "are you sure?" he asks, his eyes still looking into mine.

I nod.

"Okay," he pauses and gets up from the bed. do you want me to sit on the floor?" he points to the floor in front of my bed. I shake my head "sit in the chair I'll stand it's easier."

"Are you sure? I don't want you to have to stan-" I cut him off "it's fine Leo, it's way easier for me to do it while I'm standing."

he nods, I look around the room and Vivienne is on her bed, waiting to leave, Blake is in the washroom getting changed. Luca is still sitting on a desk in my room.

Leo walks over to the corner and grace an empty chair, he brings it to the middle of the room and puts it down and then sits in it.

I grab a hairbrush that hasn't been used yet from the nightstand and a couple of small elastics. when I get over to Leo, I stand behind him and look over his hair very closely. it's a little short but it'll work for 2 french braids.

I bring the brush up to his head and run it through. Leo suddenly shifts away, it's not too noticeable but it's there. carefully brush his hair once or twice, Leo has wavy hair, and his hair is slightly knotty but not too much.

After that, I carefully grab his head and tilt it back to me, and then part it down the middle as much as I can. it doesn't really work but it's decent.

I set the brush down on a nearby desk and put my hands into Leo's hair, I feel him twitch and move forwards as I grab one of the parts and try to put it into a ponytail to keep it parted. "sor-" his voice is raspy and "sorry" he coughs.

I tie the one side into a ponytail "it's fine." I say slowly. I take the other part of his hair into my hands and start to braid it.

his hair is soft, really soft. and it smells great. it smells clean. as I'm braiding I can see Leo lean his head back a bit. his eyes close and I can see a smile on his face. a small but utterly cute smile.

I finish the braid off and then grab an elastic band and tie it and then move on to the second.

it takes me about 5 minutes to do the other and once I'm done, I tie it. when I let off his hair Leo opens his eyes and looks back at me. I can see his now upside-down smile turn into normal. I look into his eyes "there you go, 2 french braids." I smile.

he turns his head back down and gets up from the chair, he looks in the mirror and touch's the braid slowly and carefully. but then Rowan comes up behind him and turns him around harshly. he bends Leo's head over a bit and looks over the braids, and then lifts it back up and looks at them from there.

he lets go of Leo and then looks at me "Blair! you did such a good job, they look great." he walks over to me and hugs me and then walks over to Vivienne's desk and sits down in the chair.

Leo looks at me and smiles "thank you, Blair, it looks great."

I smile back "of course." I pause "they make you look so cute." cute? God, why did I say that?

his eyes widen and I see some red go across his cheeks but it quickly goes away. "let's just go to the event, we're going to be late."

I look away from him and look around the room, "okay, I'm going to get the others to know we're all leaving."

"okay" he looks away from me.

"Okay."

there are people all around, teachers sitting on the bleachers, parents and even some students. the games are in an inside stadium, considering its practically mid-December. and not to my surprise, it's huge.

when we got here we had to register, and we each got a number written on our hands with our name. me, Blake, Vivienne Luca, Rowan and Leo are sitting on the benches next to the field.

"Okay! everyone get onto the field!" I look over and see the coach from our school yell. and he blows his whistle.

we all get onto the field, and by all I mean practically our whole grade. the grade 9s, 10s and 11s already had their events, now it's us, we're the last ones.

"we're going to be playing soccer today!" he says. at least it's soccer. "we're going to have 2 team captains, and they will be picking who will be on their team." he pauses. "I have already picked the captains out, Leo Ridge and Lewis Hart!"

Leo who's standing beside me looks

over the crowd and stared at lewis and then back to the front. "both of you please come up and stand beside me" Leo looks at me and then walks up, and I see lewis walk up too.

they both face him while standing on opposite sides of him, I can see them talking but can't make out what they're saying. a couple of seconds later they all turn to look at the crowd.

"lewis hart will be picking first." the coach says. lewis looks around the cores staring at each person u too his eyes land on mine. "Blair de luca" he smiles.

I swallow and see everyone turn to look at me, my eyes widen and I slowly make my way up to lewis. I look over at Leo as in waking and see him staring right at me, his face emotionless, his eyes are a lot sadder than usual.

"don't forget to take a blue jersey from the bin please," the coach says. I look down at my feet and see two bins. one filled with blue jerseys and the other with red. I carefully pick one up and carry it in my hands.

when was the last time this thing was washed?

when I get beside Lewis I see him staring at me and smiling "hey Blair" he says. I put the jersey on over my current shirt and smile back "hey."

I turn back to the crowd and see a boy walking towards Leo and grabbing a red jersey. Lewis then picks someone else and it keeps going back and forth until everyone is picked.

Luca is on Leo's team, so is Vivienne. and we have Blake and Rowan.

Lewis and Leo go to the center of the field and I go to the right side to play forward.

The referee blows the whistle and then the game starts.

—

it's 2 to 1, we're losing. this is the last game before halftime. lewis has the ball and he passes it to Rowan, who passes it to me.

I run it down the field and see Leo coming up beside me. I move away from him and then get to the net where I shoot it in. the buzzer goes off. 2 to 2. were tied.

Rowan runs up to me, "great shot Blair!" he pulls me into a hug, and I can feel all his sweat on my skin. "Rowan! you're all sweaty."

he pulls away "jeez, sorry." Blake comes up beside us, "there are drinks, Let's go get some."

we all nod and then go to the table where there's a line. we get into it and wait at least five minutes, Blake goes up first and gets hers, then Rowan goes and then I go. "hi, can I just get a bottle of water."

the teacher at the table looks at me and gives me a sincere smile "I'm so sorry sweetheart, we just ran out, that was the last one," she point over to Rowan who's chugging down his bottle.

I turn back "no it's fine, thank you" I softly smile back, and then start to walk towards Blake and the others when I get stopped in my tracks.

Leo is standing in front of me with 2 bottles of water, he puts his hand out and hands it to me "you look like you need some."

I oblige and take it from him "you don't know how much I do." I open the bottle and take a large sip. "thank you."

"of course." he smiles back, "I have a question." he takes a sip from his water "ask it," I say, he puts the cap back on his water "have you ever played soccer? like on a team?"

my eyebrows furrow and I take another sip "used to" I say. "but I had to quit."

he opens his mouth to say something but gets cut off "break is over! please get back onto the field!" the coach says and then blows the whistle.

—

4 to 4. we're tied.

the next game is the last. whoever gets it in, wins.

the referee blows the whistle and the game starts.

Lewis luckily got the ball from Leo, and he passes it to Rowan.

Rowan runs it to the middle of the field, but Leo gets in the way and gets the ball. he starts running in the opposite direction and Blake who's playing defence gets the ball from him and passes it to me.

Leo turns around and sees that I have the ball and starts running towards me, I run the ball down the field and I feel someone coming up behind me.

I turn around and see Leo jogging, "hey Blair." he smirks. he tries to get the ball away from me, but I don't let him. and he laughs at this.

I kick the ball an inch away from him and then run even faster until I'm near the net, and shoot it in. while I do that I hear a thud right behind me and I see Leo fall onto the ground, he tripped.

the buzzer goes off, the games done, we won.

Rowan runs towards me and pulls me into a hug. a very tight one. "Blair! we won! you got it in!" he picks me up, then squeezes me and sets me down. Blake comes to us too and starts squealing. "we won"

"We did" I smile, I look back behind me and see Luca and the referees all besides and in front of Leo. shit is he okay? the referees try to help him up but he refuses.

Rowan pulls me into another hug and squeals again. "I cannot believe we won!" I look at Rowan and then smile "I can't either" my eyes avert and I look at Leo as Rowan's hugging me.

his eyes stare into mine, and he smiles. a genuine, cute, smile.