Coach's Daughter

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

A warm, humid breeze was softly blowing into my room as I started to wake up. I could smell a lawnmower through my open window as I pushed my sticky hair back from my face. We really needed to fix the air conditioning. With more and more sweltering weekends in the fall, I was dying.

I let myself slowly acclimate to being awake, drifting in and out of consciousness as my body adjusted. Days with no alarms were my favorite, the natural waking up and falling back asleep, making you feel like you were sleeping for years. Pure bliss.

Besides, I hadn't had enough to drink last night to be properly hungover, but I still needed a moment to catch my bearings before I jumped into the day.

I was groggy and my head was pounding, not a good mood.

When I finally mustered the energy to roll over and face the bright light of my phone, I was startled to see that it was already past noon.

I had an unnatural amount of notifications, varying in importance from a group chat I'd never said anything in to a direct text from my boss from over an hour ago.

*Desperate!!! Need someone 1:30-7 today with Nicole*

"Fuck." I muttered, instantly replying that I'd be there, throwing in a smiley face to emphasize my enthusiasm to work! Not.

I'd been working at an ice cream shop for about two and a half years now, since I turned sixteen, and while my dad thought I was just working one or two shifts every week for extra spending money, I had been racking up an impressive amount of hours and cushioning a very happy savings account for my future endeavors.

My parents had made it clear from a young age that I was to follow their path, and only their path. No matter what other profitable and enjoyable life journey I wanted, they wouldn't accept it. How could I throw away so much raw talent, they wondered. How could I ever want to do something else?

I'd slowly built myself a reliable reputation at work, increasing my pay and trust over the course of my job, to the point that I was frequently stepping in for Diane as acting manager. She was the only person I had told about my plans to leave at the end of the semester. And although she was upset and concerned at first, she had since been giving me as many shifts as I wanted and surprise bonuses whenever she could afford it.

I had twenty seven minutes to get ready and get to work so instead of reading all of Jesse's messages, I called her on speaker while I tried to find an appropriate (preferably clean) outfit to wear to work.

"Hey." Jesse answered in her usual uninterested voice. "What's up?"

"Working all day but I'm free later." I said loud enough to be heard from inside my closet as I sniffed various work t-shirts to find the cleanest.

"Oh cool. Not sure what I'm doing." Jesse seemed to shrug. "I'll stop in later maybe?"

"Sounds like a plan. Guess who added me on snap last night." I suddenly remembered to tell her, jogging back to the phone so I was closer.

"Girl I have no idea." She laughed. "Some soccer jock?"

"Bingo. Jonah Lincoln."

"Rough." Jesse laughed, sounding more interested than she had in a while. "What'd he want?"

"No idea, haven't checked since." I shook my head, pulling some yoga pants up my legs. "What do you think?"

"Probably to shoot his shot." Jesse teased. "You gonna do it?"