I could have stayed sprawled on the grass for the rest of the afternoon. Even with the sun beating down on me, laying down felt like heaven after that run and then having to carry Harrison for part of his run. My legs felt like jelly and my back still ached. Eventually, I was going to have to get up, but I was milking every minute I could to stay on the grass. The end came too soon.

Harrison nudged me with his toe. "Coach is calling us to come in," he said looking down at me worried before looking back up to the weight room. I wanted to tell Harrison he could let Coach know that he could shove it in some very interesting places, but I decided it was best not to unleash my foul mouth on the poor boy.

Pushing myself up, I stood up gingerly and stretched my back. I clenched my jaw at the achiness and took a few steps. Harrison followed close behind me as I grabbed my phone off the bleachers and started towards the weight room. The walk was short, but my legs felt like lead pipes shuffling along. I pulled open the door and felt very thankful that the weight room was air conditioned. The cool air blasted me in the face and I had no complaints as it was welcome to my sticky skin. Every head turned towards us when Harrison and I stumbled inside. I wanted to give them all a piece of my mind for leaving the two of us to run the mile by ourselves. Not very team like in my opinion.

To further sour my mood, Russ just had to open his mouth. "Nice for you two to join us," Coach quipped from the corner.

My lips tightened in to a line. I knew I had to be careful with what I was going to say. If my mouth got going, there was no telling what was going to come out. My patience was worn thin on top of the fact that I was overheated and physically hurting. I had no desire to run another mile and I had a feeling that one wrong comment could lead to that.

"We're here now," I finally replied shortly.

"While you guys were screwing around on the track, we've been working and lifting," he said writing on his clipboard, not bothering to look at me while he was talking to me.

"And?" I snapped. The word came flying out before I could catch it.

"And you better get working!" he barked.

I didn't say anything back and walked over to the single weights where some of the other guys were. They were doing shoulder presses, so I grabbed two 25 pound weights and began following along. Harrison came beside me and looked over the large arrangement of dumbbells.

"Grab two 10 pounders," I instructed him. His skinny, twig like arms gave the impression he did not lift much. He obediently did what I said and began copying my motion. Once Harrison started doing something, all the guys went back to working out.

I looked over my shoulder at Coach Russ. When I realized he was busy writing on his stupid clipboard, I put down one weight to pull out my phone. It was 3:30. Only 30 more minutes until we were done for today, but it still felt like an eternity to get through.

For the remainder of the lifting session, I did the lift that Russ had handed out to everyone before we got there. I stayed away from Miles and he didn't bother coming over to talk to me, so I didn't pay any attention to him. I could see him glance over a few times, but I ignored him. By the end of the 30 minutes, I was physically done. I could barely stagger around the gym at this point without falling over. Coach dismissed us, only saying he expected us at the field before 9:30 tomorrow morning. The last thing I wanted to do tomorrow was to do what we did today all over again.

Harrison and I dragged our feet all the way back to the dorm.

"Can you carry me?" Harrison whined.

He had to be kidding. I gave him a scary look before answering him. "If I remember correctly I carried your butt the last lap of your mile. Thank you for letting me know you have asthma only when you were about to pass out."

Harrison let his gaze drop to the ground in front of him. "I'm sorry. I just didn't want Coach to think I couldn't do it. I was fine the first two miles," he said softly as I opened the door to the dorms.

I sighed. He had a point. I could see Russ trying to use that as a reason why Harrison medically couldn't be here. We proceeded to the elevator and stepped inside. The rest of the team was far behind us, goofing off. The day's physical activities didn't seem to dampen their moods one bit. I leaned against the rail on the elevator heavily, not wanting to hold my own body weight up anymore.

When the elevator dinged on our floor, I stiffly straightened and walked down the hall to my room. Harrison walked the other way to his own room with a soft call of farewell. I reached into the small pocket on the inside of my shorts for the key to the room. It was luckily still there, so I let myself in to the room.

Pulling off both shoes and haphazardly throwing them across the room, I fell on to my bed and closed my eyes. The room was stuffy, but I had no desire to get up and go open the window. I instead laid in the sauna that was our room, waiting for Miles to get back, so I could yell at him to go open the window. I grabbed my phone and checked my messages. I had two unread texts: one from Mom and the other from Ellie.

I opened the one from Mom first.

I couldn't help but smile at my mom's text. I missed her so much and I hate I had to leave her all by herself over the summer.

I replied that I would call her soon before looking at Ellie's message.

I couldn't help but let out a giggle at my best friend's dumb text. I wish Ellie was here for some moral support because I'm losing it already. I started typing back a reply when the door swung open. Miles walked in and didn't look my way, but instead started stripping off his shirt.

This was very similar to what happened just an hour ago, but even though I've seen him shirtless twice now, the sight still caught me by surprise. He was just so muscular and well, hot. As much as I hated to admit it, the guy was built like a statue at a museum. I stared at his back as he chucked his shirt in the corner by my clothes. Practically drooling when he stretched his arms over his head, causing his back and shoulders to flex, I snapped to my senses when his hands went to the waistband of his pants.

"Hello? I'm here," I yelped, not wanting to make anything more uncomfortable than they already were.

He jumped at the sound of my voice and spun around to face me. His bare chest and stomach were once again on full display.

"I didn't know you were in here," he said looking at me with surprise.

"Where else would I be?" I quipped, quickly swiping the corner of my mouth to make sure no drool had made its way out of my lips.

"I don't know. With Harrison?"

I drummed my fingers on my leg. I guess he had a point. "Can you just go take a shower and tell all your buddies to hurry up, so I can take one."

"You know," he began giving me a serious expression. "We could be faster and save water by just showering together."

Miles didn't have any time to react as I grabbed the closest to me, which was my paperback book on the nightstand and hurled it at him. It hit him in the arm before falling to the ground.

"Ow?" he said as if it were a question. Not the best projectile I could have chosen for reasons of damage but it was a knee jerk reaction to throw something at him. He picked up the book and read the cover. "The Street Lawyer by John Grisham," he read out loud.

"Oh look, you can read," I said sarcastically.

"You're so observant," he responded dryly.

"Can you open the window why you're up?" I asked, remembering the stifling heat in the room.

"What? Am I making it hot in here for you?" he asked with a smirk pulling at the corners of his lips. He grabbed a towel and slung it over his shoulders. His pose and the towel made him look like he was posing for the front cover of a magazine.

"Out!" I shouted looking this time for something to grab to chuck at him. I snatched a hard back book from my night table and positioned my arm to throw again.

"You wouldn't," he said backing towards the door.

"You have that much faith in me?"

"That could actually hurt me?"

I raised my eyebrows in response.

"It'll ruin your book," he tried again.

"I've already read it."

"You wouldn't want to hurt a perfectly good book, would you?"

"It's another John Grisham. They're durable books. It'll be okay." I pulled the book back in a position that I could throw it at him. He reached for the door knob.

"And that was a no to the shower together?" he asked with a devilous grin.

I threw the book as soon as the words came out of his mouth. Miles knew what was coming when he uttered those words and had already opened the door and was half way out when the book went crashing in to the wall.

"Missed!" he yelled from the other side of the door.

I huffed in disappointment. I'll get him later.

I was tired from today's workout and practice. I just wanted some alone time from my roommate and everyone else. I took out my contacts and put them in their case to put back in later. I then put on my glasses and put my hair in a French braid to relieve the headache I was getting from having it in a ponytail for so long. I also opened the window myself. A small breeze blew in, but the sticky air of humidity still managed to fit itself through the small screen holes.

Remembering that there was an ice machine down the hall, I grabbed a plastic bag that I had used for bringing my tennis shoes to fill with ice and use for my back. Peeking outside the room, the hall was vacant. Music drifted down the corridor along with loud, off-key singing and laughing. I crept down the hall with my bag clutched in my hand to investigate.

The noise was coming from the slightly ajar bathroom door. Now that I was closer, I could recognize the song to be Justin Timberlake's "Bringing Sexy Back." I rolled my eyes at the song. It was definitely the guys on my team's type of song. A few voices began singing along as JT belted the chorus. I giggled quietly before slipping past and getting to the ice machine.

The ice machine was loud when you hit the dispense button and messy, getting the ice all over the floor. I picked up a lot of the chunks from the ground and tossed them in my bag. Then quickly ran past the bathroom door which now had "Work Hard, Play Hard," by Wiz Khalifa blaring inside. I made it back to the room without having to interact with anyone.

I stripped off my workout T-shirt and laid on my stomach before placing the bag gently on my back. I grabbed my phone and got to work texting Ellie back.

The message bar loaded and sent within a few seconds of hitting the send button. Laying my head down on my pillow, I breathed in deeply. My whole body was calling me to take a quick nap and without much hesitation, I let myself drift off.

Living in Maryland, I can only remember ever experiencing an earthquake once. I was fifteen and had never experienced an earthquake ever before. The rumbling of the natural disaster shook the whole house. Lamps swayed and dishes clattered from an almost 6.0 earthquake. I was at home by myself while my mom was out grocery shopping. At first, I thought it was a big truck passing by our house. When I glanced at the window, there was nothing there.

Now why am I talking about earthquakes you may ask? Well, after what seemed like only seconds of sleep, the bed started to tremor and shake. At first, I ignored it and tried to attribute it to my imagination, but as the shaking became more violent, I realized I would not be returning to my blissful nap. The ice slid off my back as I swayed back and forth on top of my covers.

My eyes sprang open, and I couldn't help but let out a scream.

"Earthquake!" I yelled as the first thought popped into my head. The shaking stopped instantly and a chuckle filled the empty silence.

"Gloria, calm down," Miles said when I realized he was at the foot of my bed.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I snapped turning around and glaring at him.

"Just getting even," he replied cheekily.

Without thinking, I grabbed the bag of ice and chucked it at him as best as I could from my lying down position.

He sidestepped quickly, but the bag still nicked his shoulder, then fell to the ground making the bag open and getting ice on the floor.

"Is that really the most appropriate response?" Miles asked.

"I think so," I answered getting up. I searched around for my discarded shirt and found it on top of the dresser where I had left it. I could feel Miles' eyes follow me around the room, burning holes into my bare skin.

"Nice belly ring," Miles commented as I slipped the shirt back over my head.

I ignored him and took the other towel from the closet along with my cosmetic bag.

"I'm going to go take a shower," I said pulling clothes out of my suitcase.

"I mean I already took one, but I don't mind being extra clean if that was an invitation," Miles offered going to sit on his bed.

My flip flop went flying across the room at his head. It was the closest thing that I could reach. Miles ducked and the shoe hit the wall.

"Jesus woman, I was just kidding," he muttered.

"Doesn't matter," I snapped back. "While I'm gone, can you make yourself useful and clean up the ice on the floor?"

"I think I can be far more useful in the-," he began, but I slammed the door closed behind me before he had a chance to finish his sentence. I was in no mood to hear the rest of that.

The hallway was empty and quiet. There was no longer any obnoxious music playing from the direction of the bathroom and I took that as my signal that they all had finished up with showering finally. There was no way I was showering if any of them were still in there. Stepping inside, I looked through all the shower stalls and double checked all the bathroom stalls before going to see if there was a lock on the main door. Thankfully, there was.

I twisted it and tested the handle to make sure no one was coming in while I was taking my shower. Each shower stall was set up to have a locking door to close off each one. Inside, there was a 4 by 4 changing room with a bench to set your clothes on. Then a curtain was opposite to the door which led to the actual shower. It looked fairly clean in there, but I was not taking a chance, so I wore flip flops just in case. Who knows what germs and foot diseases were growing on the floor.

Stripping off my workout clothes, I shoved them in a small bag I brought along before stepping in to the shower. The hot water pelted down on my back and arms, relaxing my tense shoulder muscles. For a few minutes, I stood still and let the water pour down my body in tiny streams to the tiled floor. With my favorite shampoo I brought with me, I scrubbed at my scalp and hair to wash away the dirt and sweat from earlier. I continued to condition and use body wash for the rest of my shower. At the very end, I shaved my legs and underarms with strawberry scented shaving cream.

The water began running cold, forcing me to get out and wrap myself in the fluffy red towel I brought with me. I dried off with the towel before changing in to my clothes for this evening. I pulled on a slim fitting ribbed tank top along with a pair of running shorts. I braided my wet hair back into a thick braid that ran down my back. I finished up by putting some lotion on my face and legs. It was good enough before I slipped out the bathroom door.

The hall was still strangely silent with no voices coming from any closed doors. I unlocked the door to our room, finding my blonde headed roommate no where in sight. He must have left without me. I stuck my key back in my pocket after sliding my feet into a pair of flip flops.

When I opened the door to the dining hall following the short walk, my nose went to heaven before returning back to sit on my face. I knew before I even looked at the sign that they were serving lasagna.

My mother's side of the family was Italian and was known for their impeccable cooking skills. They were also known for their slight insanity, which was not hard to believe since there were so many of them. My mother is the middle child of seven children. Family get togethers were always quite the event with all my cousins, aunts, and uncles. There were more people than you could keep up with. I was one of the 17 cousins with more on the way.

My mouth was literally watering from the smell of melty cheese and tomato sauce that was wafting from the kitchen. I could not walk fast enough to the serving line for my stomach's sake. As soon as you walked through the doors of the kitchen line, steam and heat hit you like truck. The air was thick enough to be cut with a knife. All the lunch ladies had their hair tied up high with their hair nets secured over them. They all wore shorts and T-shirts that had Marist printed on the front. I picked Carol out quickly. She stood serving the lasagna with a bored expression. Each guy passed her with a tray in which she scooped a square of the pasta dish.

I grabbed a tray from the beginning of the line along with some salad that was already made. The line moved slowly with each tray getting filled with salad, lasagna, a bread stick, and even a cannoli. This was my kind of dinner.

"Hey Carol," I greeted her warmly.

"Hi honey," she responded grinning widely.

"It smells so good in here."

"You like lasagna?"

"I love it! It's one of my favorites."

"I'm glad. It's my secret recipe, so I hope you like it."

"I'm sure I will."

"Alright, have a nice night, Gloria."

"Bye Carol."

She scooped a piece of lasagna on to my plate before waving goodbye as I got the rest of my dinner.

Carrying my tray carefully, I made my way to our usual back corner table. However, there was no one at our table. Not a single little skinny kid with brown hair. The chairs were still pushed in, so it looked like no one had been there yet. I finally just decided to sit down to wait when I heard a little voice over the lunch room.

"Over here, Gloria."

I glanced up and scanned the room until I saw Harrison and Walker, madly waving their hands in the air to get my attention. They were sitting with the rest of the team. It suddenly dawned on me that Walker's little challenge was starting tonight.