Third Time's the Charm

Chapter 9: Connecting the dots….

“Hey by the way what do you think about Mike?”, Bella asked me nonchalantly while eyeing me curiously.

I raised an eyebrow at her in surprise and replied stonily, “Why do you ask?”

“There is a rumor going around that Mike Dillon is interested in you and was going around asking about you”, she replied in a matter of fact tone.

My eyebrows almost vanished into my forehead in surprise. I narrowed my eyes at her in disbelief.

The rumors that go around in this school was always rather far fetched and didn’t have a lot of truth to it but Bella seems to be hell bent to the idea of me and Mike. She is always brings up Mike whenever she gets an opportunity.

“I heard that he even volunteered to coach for being your personal trainer for you to catch up to the rest of the team”, she declared in an airy tone as she dramatically flipped her pony tail and I couldn’t help myself from giggling out loud at her dramatic antics.

A voice snickered behind us and both of us jumped and eyed the newcomer with utmost distaste.

“Don’t start living on the clouds, honey. Even if Mike were to fancy someone, it would be Bella or me myself, not a loser like you. He is in a whole other league than you. So, stop dreaming and come down from your fantasy world”, Mia said dryly not even bothering to look into my face and she walked out on us.

My smile soon vanished as I realized that she did have a point. Bella glared daggers at Mia’s retreating back and I shook my head disappointedly at my darling cousin.

I knew I could always count on Mia to put me back on to my place.

I let out a sigh and told her about coach’s proposition of letting him be my personal trainer.

Her eyes widened dramatically as she shot me a knowing smile. I cursed internally at her reaction. I should have kept it a secret. I don't want this to go around too with these rumors.

“I thought you weren’t too fond of him?”, she asked smugly and I rolled my eyes at her in response.

I knew where this was going and I was fed up with it. She is under some sort of delusion that Mike Dillon has a thing for me whereas I am pretty sure that he didn’t even knew I existed until a week ago. I have no idea what is she is aiming to achieve by putting these nonsensical ideas into my head.

“It wasn’t my choice. It was coach’s decision”, I snapped back at her annoyed and she let out a snort, clearly not believing a word I just said.

“And Mike just so happened to agree to coach’s words? Since when has he obeyed the teachers?”, she retorted back dryly.

I paused, at a loss and not knowing what to say to defend that. It was true that even though he was the son of a teacher in the same school, he had absolutely no respect to the teachers and he kind of did his own thing, without bothering about them.

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“Mom!”, I yelled out loud in frustration as I saw her tearing apart the piece of paper in which the coach had written me my new diet plan.

“What? You didn’t even tell me that you joined the team? Since when are you so interested in participating in school events?”, she shouted back at me.

I blinked back the furious tears that were threatening to erupt from my eyes and fixed her with a glare as I snapped at her, “I should see you to tell you what’s going on with my life. You are rarely home”

She looked at me incredulously as if I had just lost my mind, then snapped back at me, “I am a single mother, Ava. I work day and night and I do all kinds of odd part time jobs too to just make our ends meet and you want me to spend two hundred dollars on your new diet plan…..This is ridiculous. I don’t have enough to pay our rent and you want to spend my money on cashew nuts, almonds etc?”

I winced guiltily and bit my lip uncertainly, realizing that she did have a point. Those things don’t come in cheap and let’s just face it, we were dirt poor now. We were at least middle class when dad was with us but after he left with that other women, he never looked back and left us to rot by ourselves. I knew mom was having a hard time finding work and she was trying her best but I still felt disappointed.

My grandparents never gave up an opportunity to mock us whenever we visited any family functions. My mom’s family was quite rich and she had left it all, despite their warning for my loser of a dad. And my dad, who I had been close to didn’t even bother showing up at the divorce trial for fighting for my custody. I was never close to mom, and it hurt me like hell, that dad never showed up, not even for me. At least, he should have pretended to fight for me. Now I feel like I am the burden that no one wants but they can’t get rid of it either so they are forced to put up with it.

I let out a sigh as I slumped into the couch, suddenly feeling disheartened.

Should I just give up and go back to being invisible? Or maybe I can become fit and lean without using coach’s diet plan?

He just needs me to loose some weight and be fit right? He doesn’t really want me to follow his plan down to every word, does he now?

I need some fresh air. Staying in here was making me feel suffocated. I decided to visit Luke.

I jumped up from the coach and scurried out, taking my jacket along the wall without another glance back.

As I entered Luke’ neighborhood, my eyes as usual went to the basketball court in there where we had played so many of our epic matches. There was a match going on now too, in full force. I spotted Luke in the game and decided not to intercept him in between games and left him alone.

I continued walking forward and stopped in front of the children’s park. I was watching the seesaws going up and down seamlessly when I remembered where I had met Ethan Torronto before. Never in my life could have made that connection if I weren’t to stumble upon this park and this seesaw again. No wonder he spoke to me as if I was a person he already knew. I just couldn’t make the connection that the scrawny, little guy I had met years back on this very spot would turn into a celebrity. But something is wrong, if Ethan is really the guy from that night, how can he still look so normal? Forget normal, he looks like he stepped out of a fashion runway. I titled my head as I realized that he was way too normal after what had happened that night.