rashad h.

          “ maybe NOT — but you still are the main source of entertainment around here. besides, you can’t run drills forever. ”     drills only went so far in the real game, or so she’s been told by her father and brother. it’s not surprising they haven’t dug into the meat of plays and structure yet, not when they’re still getting the team to gel together and there’s still six long weeks to go. still, ayla’s itching to shoot something reminiscent to a game, her comfort-level with her new camera growing exponentially each day.     “ c’mon — are you really going to sit here until the ball tells you what to do or do you want to go do something ?? ”

with his correct guess, isla happily let her hands fall to her sides before quickly crouching down to the ground to pickup the sketchbook she had conveniently dropped moments prior. her light laughter fills the air surrounding them, laced with a hum of amusement at rashad’s hopeful wish.“ i think i’m about to break your heart, ”  isla teases as she flips through the pages of her book, landing on a page she had bookmarked ahead of time in preparation for her encounter with the goalie. with the utmost care, the brunette slowly tears the page from the wired spirals it’s attached to and hands it over to him.  “ might not be food, but it is my art and y’know it might be worth a lot in the future, so… you’re very welcome, ”  she jokes once more, nervously tucking a stray hair behind her ear awaiting his reaction. the drawing was that of rashad in action on the field based on a still photograph one of the team’s photographers had taken of him the season before. the sophomore often helped the aspiring artist with projects and she appreciated him greatly for it, so much in fact that she’s absolutely enchanted by the young man.  “ so, what do you think? ”  she asks earnestly, her eyes scanning the page in his hands critically, reviewing each stroke in hopes he’d like it.

rashad shoved the rest of his items into his bag before turning around to face isla. eyebrow raised at the heartbreaking comment, his eyes just barely caught glimpses of unfinished and finished works alike as isla flipped through her notebook. his interest was definitely piqued. as someone who wasn’t much of an artist himself, he held an appreciation for those with creative capacities. “ a reyes original will always be better than whatever they’ve got in the cafeteria. ” with that, he accepted the drawing and let out an impressed whistle as he examined it. he wasn’t sure what exactly he had expected to be on the page, but it hadn’t been this. the person depicted in the drawing was definitely him, though he couldn’t tell which specific moment it had been based on. “ this is cold. ” even rashad’s amateur eyes could appreciate the detail and effort that had clearly been put into the illustration. “ you’re gonna have stuff hanging in the museums someday, so maybe i could end up being the next mona lisa. ” the second half of his statement was a joke, but he really believed she could be a big name in art one day. he finally looked away from the drawing to make eye contact with isla. “ thank you for this, for real. how long did it take? ”

Jazzy scoffed. “He’s a newbie, and he also cat-called me a few days ago. So, I may have went into the wrong cabin and happened to grab some clothes I found by the shower he might have been in.” Her eyes danced with devious joy as she continued before her smile fell. “But of course that’s all theoretical. Anybody asks I don’t know anything about a blond skinny boy who lost his pants.” She pointed behind her left shoulder with her thumb. “The lake’s that way, right? What were you doing heading over there anyways?”

@rashadhq​

          “ STARING at it isn’t going to make you better, ”     amusement curls around her voice before she takes a bite of her cliff bar, the wrapper crinkling against her hands. it’s sunny out, the sky near an endless expanse of blue with a few fluffy clouds skating high overhead. it doesn’t look like rain — bit of a SHAME. as inconvenient as it is, it makes for interesting photos, and with the team bonding event over, ayla is lacking once more in INTERESTING content.     “ when do you guys get to the scrimmages and FUN stuff ?? i’m getting bored again. ”

‘‘so, let me get this straight. you came up here, waking me up at this hour without an actual purpose?’‘ she looked at him before breaking out in a small chuckle. she couldn’t exactly blame him for opting out of whatever he had going on before this. if anything, she may have done the same to him if the roles were reversed after all. ‘‘well, since you’re here, you may as well get a workout in, right?’‘ she was never one to well, say no to any workout really. ‘‘wanna make it a bit of a competition?’‘

he let his silence be a confirmation, as he didn’t think the question really needed a response. he hadn’t meant to wake her up, so it was a relief that she didn’t seem too bothered about all of this. “ sure, ” he agreed, not at all surprised at her suggestion. that’s one of the things he appreciated about riley. she seemed to enjoy working out even more than he did, which was a rare occurrence, especially for someone not actively on an athletics team.  “ don’t expect me to go easy on you, though. ” he was only half-joking, both of them most likely knowing it wouldn’t be wise to overdo it hours before practice.

@rashadhq​

the sounds of charcoal pencil scribbling away on thick textured paper fill the surrounding area where isla sits as she watches the few men practicing out in the field intently. blind contour drawings fill the page as she focuses in on a particular player– the sophomore goalie to be exact. her warm, chocolate brown eyes stay fixated on him well after they finish their scrimmage, closing her sketchbook to stand up and walk over to him as he’s packing up. isla quickly makes her way behind rashad and stands on the tips of her toes to cheekily place her hands over his eyes. “ guess who ? ” she asks in sing-song voice, a smile on her lips as she teasingly messes with him. “ answer correctly and i’ll give you a prize ! ”

he’d been too focused on packing his stuff away to notice the approaching footsteps behind him. the scrimmage had forced the practice to run an hour longer, but it was starting to become such a common occurrence that rashad hardly registered the extension. it had been a pretty good, intense practice, which left him in a pretty great mood. his defenses shot up at the sudden blocking of his vision, but that tension cleared once he recognized the voice. “ i’m gonna have to go with isla, ” he said without having to turn around. “ and i hope this prize is food-related. ”

“couldn’t tell you,” vincenzo responded with a shrug of his shoulders, a lazy, lopsided smile spreading across his face as he cocked his head to the side. “it sounds like some dumb idea a guidance counselor would have.. do we even have one of those here?” he continued to muse, this time allowing a laugh to escape from his lips as he reached for a paddle. “first off, i don’t think we ride it, and second, no, but it cant be that complicated,” his words lacked their usual confidence, and he couldn’t help but chew the inside of his mouth as he surveyed the canoe. “you should get in,” he said, nudging rashad with his paddle.

“Hey,” Jazmine nodded towards the person as she plopped her duffle bag on the grass. “I don’t want to be that guy, but I’m pretty sure I saw some guy naked guy running over there.” The female pointed towards the cabin behind her before rummaging through her bag. “I can’t believe someone would steal someone else’s clothes from the shower.” she mumbled under her breath. “Some people, am I right?” a sly smile crept across her face. Her slender hand reached into her bag and pulled out a neatly folded Men’s practice jersey and shorts, neatly placing them on the ground beside her before before wiping off her hands and looking back at her companion with an innocent smile. “Anyways, do you happen to know where Cabin B1 is?”

“ i wanna know whose bright idea it was to sign us up for this. you have any idea how to ride these things? ” his eyes were squinted due to the harsh glare of the sun, as he turned away from the canoe in question to look at vincenzo expectantly.

normally riley would’ve been thrilled to meet someone at the field at the crack of dawn but all that excitement was thrown away when she realised the other person wasn’t dressed in workout clothes, something she expected to meet them for at 7 am. ‘’you’re telling me i’m here for something that isn’t training you?’’ she huffed as she put down her water bottle. it was only the first few days but her hands were itching to get to work and to do something else that wasn’t relaxing by the lake or well, do simply something with her time. with a frustrated look, she glanced over at the other. ‘’so, why am i here?’’

" this girl kept trying to tag along with me to the cafeteria, so i needed an excuse to leave. ” he just wasn’t interested in spontaneously hanging out with someone he barely knew before practice, which he tried to make pretty clear, but the girl from earlier refused to pick up on that. he shook his phone a bit as he held it up, his brief text conversation with riley still on the screen. “ i figured you’d already be up. didn’t really think of much after that. ” 

     looking around all the other arrivals at the camp, everleigh could only feel confused as to why she was the only one with these many suitcases. it was surprising though, in her mind she was thinking that she was the only one bringing enough stuff, while the others simply brought a lot less. “ i do. ” she said. rashad wasn’t always easy on her, which is why she was surprised to see him even start a conversation with her. “ if i were to bring my whole closet there would be a lot more bags trust me. ”

                    𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐋𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆, the bus ride even longer as the trees blurred into shades of green and brown, catching glimpses of blue from the sky; the bars on her phone going down with each twist and turn that led them to lake powell. her suitcase gets left half-open on her cabin floor, surely a safety hazard for her roommates, but the thought doesn’t even cross her mind as she skips down the steps, beginning to make her way to the beach. the airy breeze is welcomed as it sweeps by her, toying with the sheer cover up that teases the world with a baby blue bikini underneath  ,  “  SERIOUS question  ,  ” she begins  ,   as she pops the cherry flavored lollipop out of her mouth  ,  “  might be the most IMPORTANT question you answer all SUMMER  .  ”  she pauses for a beat  ,  a coy smirk toying on the girl’s features that already gives hint to the mischievous question that’s about to flit past her lips  ,  “  top OR bottom  ?  —–  which bunk did you CLAIM  ?  ”  there’s an innuendo wedged between her syllables as she bites her lip in a teasing grin, holding out her lollipop to them as if it were a mic.

he was pretty satisfied with the journey they had all taken. rashad made sure to sit with one of his quieter teammates on the plane, which had allowed him to peacefully switch between the music and movies he’d downloaded with little to no interruption. he went on to sleep through the first half of the bus ride, waking up in time to join various conversations of anticipation as they neared the destination. now that he had already finished unpacking most of his stuff, he was giving himself another tour of the campsite, but he hadn’t expected to run into sienna so soon. his brows furrowed when she acknowledged his presence and his patience started to wane as soon as she mentioned that she had a question. " hmm, ” he pretended to consider his answer, making no move toward the lollipop. “ sucks that you’ll never find out. ” he felt that the immature inquiry deserved an equally immature response. 

     ‘why would someone bring so many suitcases on a camp?’ is what every normal person who walked past everleigh and her five huge suitcases would think. looking good was something very important to her but at the same time there was no way she could bring all of those to her cabin “ hey! ” she shouted at the first familiar face she layed eyes on. “ do you mind helping out a damsel in distress?  ” she questioned.