Squad Goals: Hot by Halloween

by M. F. Lorson

  Addy: Not with that attitude.

  I let out another chuckle. This girl was impossible and was likely to make this a very long swim season.

  Me: Sorry. Yes, please. I cannot wait.

  Addy: I’m sensing sarcasm.

  “What are you smiling about?” my mom asked as she stepped up behind me.

  “I wasn’t smiling,” I answered, quickly closing the text app and rubbing my hand over my face.

  “New friend?” She shot me a sly smile.

  “Hardly.” I joined her in the kitchen for a glass of water before bed. “I found a ride to and from school, so you can take the car.”

  “Really?” she asked as she put a frozen burrito in the microwave. I should have cooked something for dinner so she didn’t have to eat that junk. When and how I would get to the grocery store was a dilemma. “That would be awesome, Gray,” she continued.

  “Yep. It’s a trade with a new swimmer. Rides in exchange for lessons.”

  My mom turned and looked at me with a soft smile on her face. “You’re such a good kid. Hey, that would look great on your scholarship requests too. Giving free lessons.”

  I hadn’t even thought about that, but she was right. And if I somehow managed to turn Addy into a near decent swimmer, the scouts would be begging for me.

  I opened my phone and took a moment to think up an equally snarky remark for Addy.

  Me: No sarcasm. So much excitement.

  Addy: Good. See you at 7:30.

  The next morning I sat on the front porch while I waited for Addy. I didn’t want her ringing the doorbell and waking my mom. When she pulled up, she stopped in front of the house and rolled down the window.

  “Get in, loser,” she shouted.

  With a deep sigh, I had to mentally brace myself for the idea that she would never let me live down calling her a loser by accident.

  “You’re not going to let that go, are you?” I tossed my duffel bag in the trunk before getting into the passenger seat.

  “Not a chance.” She sent a cheesy grin my way.

  As we took off toward school, we stayed pretty quiet. No scenic drive this time. Halfway down Main, I noticed Addy slowing down the car ever so slightly and peeking out her window. I watched as a guy I recognized from school walk out of the house and toward a car in his driveway with a pretty blonde in the driver’s seat. Just as we passed, he looked up and waved at the car with a hesitant smile.

  Addy didn’t wave back. Instead, she laid on the gas as we took off. I had to grab the door handle to brace myself.

  “Know him?” I asked, watching her expression for a sign.

  “You could say that,” she answered through gritted teeth.

  “Let me guess...ex-boyfriend?” I questioned her with a small smile.

  “Good guess.”

  “Was it your swimming that drove him away? Or the bad jokes?” I teased.

  Addy stuck her tongue out at me and finally slowed down enough to make the turn into the school parking lot. As she put the SUV into park, she mumbled, “More like he wanted someone hot more than he wanted someone with an actual personality.”

  Glancing over at her, I noticed the irritated look on her face. Apparently the ex was a sticky subject...duly noted. Although I kinda wanted to tell her that the girl in that car wasn’t any hotter than Addy, but we probably weren’t at that level, yet.

  Addy

  Seeing Cassie’s perky blonde head in Mitch’s car made we want to crank the wheel toward his precious Audi and leave a dent the size of the one in my heart. He was lucky Gray was in the car, and that I didn’t want to look totally insane on our first day of carpooling. Aside from the near vehicular manslaughter, the drive wasn’t that bad. Gray even cracked a smile a few times, dare I say he attempted to make jokes! Not good ones, but jokes anyway.

  I was super relieved when I got his affirmative text last night. Walking in the thick, hot, mosquito infested air wasn’t ideal, but I had a feeling his motivation for taking me up on my offer was bigger than that. Whatever it was, I was grateful. Gray teaching me to swim would help keep the rest of the team from resenting me, but driving him to and from school every day, right past Mitch’s house, that was solid gold.

  If Cassie Carlisle made me feel bad about my appearance, then Gray was going to make Mitch feel like a wildebeest.

  Mitch was a nice-looking boy. He had those little dimples that drew you in, and he was tall. Standing beside him made me feel small and cute in the best way, but Gray? Gray may or may not have been a swimsuit model in a past life. There were abs on that boy that made you wonder if anything you believed was true. If those abs existed, then maybe Hogwarts was a real place and unicorns lived on the far side of South Dakota. I smiled just thinking about them.

  Across the cafeteria Nora waved me over to our usual table. Her tray was laden with pizza, potato chips, and a full sugar Coke. My own lunch made me sad. Why was healthy food so green and leafy? I had a mission for this lunch period, but I was willing to make a pit stop at our table on the way.

  “I’m afraid I have a business lunch to attend to.” I said, jerking my head toward where Gray sat alone in the back of the room.

  “Ooooh,” replied Nora with an exaggerated wink.

  Beside her, Max rolled his eyes. “Whatever you are up to, I counsel you against it.”

  “I guess it is a good thing I am your big sister, and therefore, I don’t listen to your counsel,” I said with a smirk.

  Max shook his head. “You sure get a lot of mileage out of those thirteen months.”

  “Thirteen months in real time, five years in maturity measurements.”

  “Burn!” cried Nora cracking up. I noticed she laughed a lot more than usual when Max was around these days. I was beginning to get the impression his presence at our lunch table was going to have consequences in the near future.

  I didn’t give Max the opportunity to zing me back. Lunch was only thirty minutes long. If I wanted to nail down the details of our agreement with Gray without having to strand him on a dirt road somewhere, now was the time to do it.

  With my head held high, I made my way across the room, careful to take the route nearest Mitch’s table in the process and set my tray down in front of Gray. Per usual he had his laptop out.

  “Any new bites?” I asked, noting the scholarship hub logo at the top of his screen.

  He shook his head and closed the screen. “At this time in the year, the big ones are all under review. All that’s left to apply for now are the small contests. Two-hundred words on your greatest hero, etc. The cash award for those is hardly worth the effort to fill them out, but anything helps.”

  “And here I thought you were rich,” I laughed.

  “Oh yeah?” said Gray. “Was it my crappy car that gave you that impression or my five-year-old laptop?”

  I knew he was being sarcastic, but there was a bitterness in his expression that warned me to jump ship on this particular talking point.

  “I was hoping we could talk about our arrangement,” I said, changing the subject.

  “Alright.”

  “I appreciate your help during practice, but if I’m really going to make any progress, I need private lessons.”

  Gray lifted one eyebrow. “How often?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know, twice a week?” I asked. “Whatever you think it will take to get me up to par.”

  He let out a belly laugh. “Twice a week! Try twice a day.”

  If he and I were better friends, I would have slugged him in the shoulder good and hard, but touching him was probably still out of line.

  “Hilarious,” I said, a deadpan expression on my face. “But I’m serious. As much time as you think it will take.”

  Gray seemed to mull it over. “We can start with half an hour after each practice and an hour each weekend.”

  I definitely should have played it cooler, but I couldn’t keep the smile from spreading across my face. Three days a week plus weekends
? I was going to be super fit, and it was going to look a lot like Gray and I were an item. Which was a little funny, considering I wasn’t sure if he even considered me a friend yet.

  “Sounds great,” I said. “But if we are going to do this, you have to promise to keep your cool. No yelling at me and waving your hands around all angry construction worker style.”

  Gray sighed. “Then you have to listen to me.”

  “Hmmm….” I hummed, tapping my chin as I pretended to contemplate his offer.

  He pushed back in his chair and stood to leave.

  “Alright, alright, deal!”

  “You do realize this is going to be work, right?” asked Gray, as the bell rang.

  “Of course,” I answered, putting my serious face back on. “I’m willing and ready to put in the hours. I’m going to improve so much that you will have a hard time describing me as anything other than mediocre in the pool!” I declared.

  Gray closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Lord help us.”

  Chapter Eight

  Gray

  Griffith agreed to let us have the pool for thirty minutes after practice, but it was hard to convince him. Even I could spot the skepticism in his expression, like he thought it wouldn’t make a difference. But after seeing Addy’s backstroke attempt, where she somehow ended up changing lanes, he gave me the go-ahead.

  After the pool cleared out, it was just me and Addy sitting on the edge. I was busy explaining to her about the six-count between each arm stroke, but I could tell she wasn’t focusing.

  “Are you listening to me?” I snapped, moving my face in front of her.

  “Yeah, yeah, I’m listening. Six counts.” She hopped into the pool, but it was clear she was out of energy. The coach had us running a lot more drills than normal today. On one hand, it was going to make it hard for her to make progress if she was so tired. On the other hand, she’d never been so quiet.

  “I’ll go easy on you,” I promised. “Do a lap without using your arms. Keep them by your side and take it nice and slow. Focus on your form—pointing your toes and keeping your legs level.”

  “I don’t have to use my arms and I can go slow? Bless you, loser,” she sighed as she took off down the lane. I had to bite down a smile as she pushed off the wall.

  “Keep your knees down,” I shouted as she crept across the pool. Watching her kick through the water, with her hands tight against her side like I instructed, I couldn’t help but notice the way her long brown hair fanned out in the water. She hated the swim cap and was quick to yank it off when actual practice was over.

  “That was exhausting. Was this a trick?” she called from the opposite side. She clutched onto the edge of the pool for dear life.

  “Maybe. It’s a great core workout, isn’t it?” I answered, sitting on the starting block and dangling my feet over the water.

  “You mean...this will give me washboard abs?” She was huffing long breaths through every word.

  “Sure,” I answered back. “If that’s what it takes to make you work, then think about washboard abs.”

  I heard her mumble something under her breath. “What was that?” I called, but she was already back in the water, paddling with her toes pointed. When she approached the touch pad, I heard her muttering to herself.

  “Washboard abs, washboard abs, washboard abs.”

  Addy was sitting cross-legged on the low cement wall outside the gym. When I came up from behind her, I was surprised to spot her scrolling through pictures of famous female swimmers on her phone. When she heard me coming, she closed the app and hopped off the wall.

  “I’m starving,” she said as we walked toward her SUV. “Mind if I swing through the drive-through before dropping you off?”

  “I could eat.” I dropped my duffel in the trunk next to hers.

  “I heard that Charlie’s has an edible veggie burger under 400 calories,” she indicated as she dropped into the driver’s seat.

  “Why would you order that? I’ve seen you eat meat.”

  “It’s low fat,” she answered. “Healthier, I mean.”

  I glanced over at her, wondering if she was making a joke. I’ve seen the way she and her friends eat at lunch. Her equally slender and healthy looking crew eat pizza, burgers, and ranch-covered salads. If Addy thinks she should be on a diet...

  “Don’t you want to eat light after a good workout?” she asked, looking over at me through the dim light.

  “Actually, we just burned a lot of energy, Addy. You’ve gotta fuel your body—not deprive it.”

  “Says the boy with the perfect body,” she muttered, staring forward.

  I shut my hanging jaw, and the car filled with awkward silence. So, aside from Addy saying I had a perfect body, which was...interesting—she also implied that she did not. I’d seen Addy in a swimsuit enough to know that she was being far too harsh on herself.

  I knew she was crazy, but I didn’t think she was delusional.

  When we pulled up to the drive-thru, I made another attempt to convince her. “You need protein. At least get the chicken.”

  “God, that sounds good,” she said as we both stared ravenously at the menu.

  “Yeah, it does. Oooooh, onion rings,” I added.

  “Heck yeah.” We sounded like a couple kids who hadn’t eaten in months, which made us both break out in quiet laughter just before the intercom asked us for our order.

  After Addy called for two chicken sandwiches, onion rings, and water, we drove around to the window where I quickly pulled out my wallet.

  “I’ll get it,” I said as I noticed that I had no cash to contribute.

  “Nah, I got it,” she answered. She was quicker to get her debit card when the girl handed us two big water bottles.

  “No way.” I tried to stop her, but it was too late. My shoulders sagged as I felt the embarrassment of having Addy not only drive me around town, but now buying me dinner. “I’m buying tomorrow,” I blurted out before really thinking about it. Rides were part of the deal. Not dinner. If we started making this a habit...then what?

  Addy

  “Put your hands in this goop and slather it into my muscles.”

  “Hard pass,” said Max, barely looking up from his video game.

  “Come on, please,” I begged. “I feel like a tube of Playdough that’s been pushed through a grinder and then squished back together again by dozens of tiny hands.”

  Max laughed and hit pause on his World Cup soccer game. “Okay, okay, hand me the goop.”

  “Gladly,” I answered, tossing him a small container of Icy Hot and plopping cross legged on the floor in front of him.

  Max unscrewed the cap and wrinkled his nose. “This smells like the place where mint goes to die.”

  “You smell like the place where mint goes to die,” I laughed, delighted by my own bad joke.

  I didn’t have to be facing my brother to know he was shaking his head.

  “Yuck,” groaned Max as he dug his fingers into the greasy pot. Max only liked to play the kind of sports that came with a joystick. It was unlikely he ever had a sore muscle. Which would explain why he immediately dug into my shoulder like he was kneading dough.

  “Ouch,” I cried, squeezing my eyes shut with each push.

  “I’m barely pressing,” argued Max. “And it says right on the bottle to rub it into the sore spot. If I put it on like suntan lotion, it isn’t going to penetrate the wound.”

  Penetrate the wound. Like in his head he was treating shrapnel bits from my war torn body.

  “Fine, keep going,” I said with a wince. “But try not to enjoy it so much.”

  Max pressed slightly harder. Making the little muscles in my shoulders cry alligator tears. I bit my lip and tried to think of something pleasant, rainbows, puppies, Gray’s abs, whatever it took, but a tear still squeezed out.

  “Dang,” said Max. Coach Griffith really worked you guys hard today.

  “Not Griffith,” I groaned. “Gray.”

&nbs
p; “The new guy,” said Max, loosening his grip on my shoulder. “That’s who you’re spending all your extra time with?”

  “Who did you think I was with?” I asked, pulling one of Dad’s ratty old T-shirts over my sports bra. The Icy Hot stuck in the back, and there would probably be a grease stain. But Dad would never notice it next to the half dozen food oil spots that dotted the rest of the shirt.

  Looking away sheepishly, he said, “Mitch, maybe.”

  I rolled my eyes. “That’s done. Besides, I wouldn’t want to interfere with his current love fest.”

  “Right. I just heard…”

  “Heard what?” I asked, barely giving him a chance to spit the words out.

  “Whoa now,” said Max, surprised by my visceral reaction. “It’s not a big deal. I just heard he and Cassie weren’t all that solid.”

  I fought back an intense desire to pepper Max with questions. What did he mean by, not that solid? Like were they on the verge of a breakup or did they just not agree on the same places to eat? I didn’t ask him though, because I was supposed to be over Mitch. Desperate and obsessed was about as far from hot and desirable as one could get.

  “I thought if you were seeing Mitch again you might not tell me, because of the stuff with Nikki. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have brought it up.”

  “No Mitch.” I answered, softening my voice. I had been so preoccupied with my goal lately that I hadn’t bothered to check in with Max. He was still sitting at our lunch table every day which was a pretty obvious indicator that things weren’t going so hot in his world.

  “No sign of a reunion with Nikki?” I asked. It was a challenge keeping my face neutral when what I really felt was immense relief. Nikki was incredibly vapid. If the two of them never got back together, then I would never have to hear her fake laugh spilling from his bedroom again. I definitely didn’t miss having her around.

  “Considering she hasn’t answered any of my texts and blocked me on Instagram, I would say things are not looking good.”