30 minutes later we were all standing in the lobby. We all had our soccer clothes on which caused just a little bit of attention onto us.

I was twirling a soccer ball in my hand and talking to Connor when coach came into the lobby.

"Oh, well would you look at that. You're all here. Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"

He walked outside and we followed him through the doors of the lobby. He clapped his hands together to get our attention.

"Alright, about 10 minutes that way," he said and pointed down a street. "Is a park. As a warm-up, you'll be jogging there."

"How are you going to get to the park?"one of the guys asked.

Just then, a cab pulled into the front of the hotel and coach started walking towards it.

"What?"

"That's so unfair!"

"He gets to drive?"

We all complained but coach just waved. "Anyone not there by 10:15 will do 300 burpees," was his way of saying bye.

And with that he drove off and we started to jog down the street.

___________________

10 minutes later we arrived at the park. Coach was calmly sitting on a bench and waiting for us. We ran up to him and gasped for air when we stopped walking.

"Oh, look. You're here. Then let's start," he said and stood up.

We followed him to an open grassy area in the park. Little kids and their parents were watching us with interest as we walked past them.

"Alright! Remember how I said stamina was an important part of soccer? Well drop and give me 20," he ordered.

We all silently groaned but got down and started doing push ups.

__________________

After about 30 minutes of conditioning coach let us have a break.

The sun was already burning down on us and some of us were sweating profusely. I'm pretty sure that my face was bright red from the heat and half of my hair had fallen out of its ponytail.

I slumped onto the ground and fanned my face with my hand. "It's so hot," I whined.

All of the guys had heard because they all took of their shirts.

"Whew. So much better!" Ryder teased.

"I thought I was going to die, thank god I can take off my shirt," Blake added.

I glared at all of them, secretly thinking of ways of how to kill them in their sleep. But I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of glad they did take of their shirts. I mean, Ryder did look pretty hot without a shirt on.

"Hey, Kennedy, why didn't you take off your sh...oh yeah, that's right," Ryder said and smirked at me.

And I'm going to say it once again. The nerve of this boy!

I got up and walked over to them. I made it look like I wanted to walk to my water bottle but when I passed through between the two of them I punched their abs.

I didn't know if it would actually hurt them but it felt good.

They stumbled back a little and clutched their stomachs, letting out an 'umph'.

"God damn! What do you eat?! You punch harder then I ever thought you would," Blake scowled and rubbed the spot where I had hit him.

"It's one of my many talents," I said and smiled at him.

"It doesn't matter what your talents are. The point is, we can take off our shirts while you are burning up," Ryder said and smirked at me.

"Oh are you sure about that?" I asked.

I pulled my shirt off and threw it at Ryder's face. He yanked it off and scowled at me. His emotion quickly changed though, when he saw me standing there in my black nike sports bra.

The other guys were all also staring at me. I couldn't blame them. Not to brag or anything but I'd say I have a pretty toned stomach.

Wait...that's probably not what they were staring at...

I gave him a flirty wave and a sarcastic smile before walking over to my water bottle. I took off the cap and took a big gulp.

"And we meet again."

I turned around to see who was talking. When I saw who it was I spit out the water that was in my mouth.

"What do you want?" I asked the guy.

"Wow. Can't even be just a little nice to me, can you?" he asked.

I gave him an 'are you kidding me' look. "Seriously? If I correctly remember, you were the guy who wouldn't leave me alone at the club."

"Well I'm sure if you weren't as drunk as you were, you would have wanted to get to know me more. So how about it?"

Who does this guy think he is?

"Look, Nick," I said and narrowed my gaze at him. "First of all, I wasn't drunk. Second of all, no matter what kind of state I'm in, I will never want to get to know you."

"Are you sure about that, sweetheart?" he asked me and cocked an eyebrow.

"Yes, I'm sure, sweetheart," I replied.

"I don't think you know just what you're missing out of."

I was about to reply but someone beat me to it.

"Leave her alone, Nick," I heard Ryder say from behind me.

"Hello, Ryder," he greeted. "Nice to see you before tonight. This your cheerleader?" he asked and pointed at me.

I scoffed and slapped his hand down. "I'll have you know that I am not some cheerleader!"

"So then why are you here, sweetheart?"

"Wouldn't you like to know," I said.

"I do. But I've got a pretty good guess why," he said and nodded his head at my cleats. "By the way, amazing body," he said and winked at me.

Ryder then pushed us apart a little and handed me my shirt. "Put this on," he ordered and turned to Nick. "Look, I think this is the time where you leave. You'll have enough time to get on everyone's nerves tonight. But until then, I'm sure no one wants anything to do with you," he scowled.

Nick put a hand over his heart and pretended to be hurt. He dropped it and then smirked at Ryder. "Wow. I never knew you could be this protective over someone, Ryder. Or should I rather say...possesiv?" He smiled wickedly at Ryder.

"Just go," Ryder ordered.

Nick sighed. "Alright, fine. I'll definitely see you tonight." He looked at me. "And I certainly hope to see you again, bella," he said and smiled at me.

"Goodbye, Nick," Ryder coldly said and pulled me back towards the group. "I thought I told you to put your shirt back on," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "And when have I ever listened to you? But..I'll make you a deal. You tell me who that Nick guy is and I'll put my shirt on. Even though I'm sure the other guys wouldn't like it," I pointed out teasingly.

Ryder growled slightly. "That's exactly why you're suppose to put it back on."

I stopped walking and Ryder turned around to face me.

"What?" he asked.

"Oh...my..god...," I said, my mouth hanging wide open. "You're jealous!" I excitedly said and pointed at him. "You want me to put my shirt back on because you don't want other guys looking at me," I stated. "This is amazing!" I yelled and started laughing.

Ryder rolled his eyes. "Would you stop?"

I stopped laughing but smiled widely at him.

"One, I am not jealous. I don't get jealous," he told me.

I rolled my eyes and sarcastically nodded my head.

"Two, I was just trying to help you. I'm pretty sure you didn't want everybody here staring at your boobs."

I shrugged. But I guess it was kinda true.

"And three, you're not special enough for me to get jealous over."

I glared at him and stepped closer to him. "I still think you're lying!" I called excitedly and skipped back to the group.

__________________

"Alright, everyone! Hurry up and get in!" coach yelled.

It was time to go to the other team's school for the game. Coach actually decided to order a shuttle bus for us instead of making us jog to the school. We all filed into the shuttle and searched for a spot.

I was the last one to go inside so I took the only seat left. Fortunately it was next to Justin and not a certain someone.

"Okay, just hold up real quick. I need to take this phone call," coach said and got out of the shuttle.

I turned on my phone to text Isla and tried to focus on typing but Ryder and Blake were arguing rather loudly in the back.

I rolled my eyes at their fighting and texted Isla.

She responded immediately.

"That's it!" Blake exclaimed.

I ignored him and was about to reply to Isla when I felt myself being picked up out of my seat and dropped into the one next to Ryder.

"Hey! Why did you do that?!" I furiously asked Blake who had been the one to put me in another seat.

"Talk some sense into him," he said and pointed at Ryder who was staring out the window with a blank look.

"About what?" I asked him but Blake had already taken my old seat next to Justin.

I huffed and turned to face Ryder. "So what did Blake mean?" I asked him.

"It doesn't matter," he said and shook his head.

"Fine," I grumped. "Don't tell me. But if you won't tell me what that was all about can I ask you something else?"

"And what would that be?" he asked, not moving his gaze from the window.

"Promise me you'll answer."

"That depends on what the question is, darling. I can't promise anything until you tell me what you want to know."

I scowled. "You're so difficult," I complained and slumped back in my seat.

"I only do it to annoy you," he replied, finally turning his head to look at me.

"Haha," I sarcastically replied.

He sighed. "Fine, ask away. But I might not answer the way you want me too."

"Good enough," I agreed and shrugged. I turned to face him again. "Who's Nick and how do you know him?"

He cringed a little when he heard Nick's name. "Nick is...an old acquaintance."

"And old acquaintance?"

"Yes."

"And how do you two know each other?"

"We..uh..both play soccer and I met him through one of our games against his school."

"That's it? That's all you're going to give me?" I asked him.

"I told you I might not answer the way you want me to," he reminded me.

"Fine. Why do you hate him so much?"

He exhaled but stayed quiet. He looked like he was trying to think of an answer that would satisfy me without actually telling me what happened.

"Don't," I warned him.

"Don't what?"

"Don't make up something so that you don't have to tell me the truth. I'll be able to tell if you're lying. And if you're worried about me telling anyone, I won't. Believe it or not but there was a time when you trusted me," I told him and inspected my nails as if what I just said was nothing.

"I hate when you make me feel guilty."

"That's one of the many things I'm best at," I said and gave him a smile.

"Alright," he said and ran his hands down his face. "After we had played their team, Nick and I got to know each other and we became friends. We would go to clubs or just hang out and get drunk."

Of course.

"And one night he convinced me to help him spray paint a wall of a building."

"Idiots," I interrupted and rolled my eyes.

"Will you let me finish? Anyway, police showed up and he fled the scene, leaving me to be found by the cops."

"Didn't they find his fingerprints in the spray paint cans?" I asked.

Ryder shook his head. "He was wearing gloves. There was no solid evidence that he was ever there."

"So since then you've despised each other?" I asked for clarification.

"Yeah," he said and nodded. "And the worst part is, we're playing against him right now."