It was the next day and Florian was at the front door of Asteria’s place. He was going to knock but the door swung open before he could. Asteria was there and he was about to say “Good morning” but was pulled into the house. Asteria sat him down at the table and he looked her over. She was dressed in ripped jeans, a t shirt, and sandals wearing an apron around her. 

“Are you cooking?” asked Florian as he looked over to see Asteria’s mother sitting on the couch smoking.

Asteria’s mother winked at him as she took a puff of her cigarette. Asteria was at the stove flipping pancakes and asked if Florian liked them. He answered with a “yes” as he placed his bag on the floor. In seconds, Asteria was walking over placing a plate of food in front of him. Florian was in awe as he looked over his plate. It had a stack of pancakes, bacon, toast, fruit, and eggs. Asteria demanded her mother to join at the table as she placed another plate at the end of the table for her. Asteria’s mother got up and joined Florian at the table. Florian soon began to dig into his food.

“This is... amazing!” said Florian as he started to demolish his pancakes as they melted in his mouth.

Asteria joined them with her plate but then she got up to  pour each a cup of orange juice including one for herself as well. She sat down with them finally to eat and glanced over at Florian as her heart was going out of control form the fast pace beatings. Her mother caught her and grinned.

“Don’t you think she would make such a great wife some day, Florian,” claimed Asteria’s mother as Asteria gave her death stares.

Florian quickly agreed as he was focused on the food. Asteria beamed at his answer and forgot about wanting to kill her mother instantly who was chuckling to herself. They finished up eating and Asteria and Florian were left to clean the dishes while Asteria’s mother left to work. While Asteria cleaned the plates, Florian was drying them and putting them away.

“So how did you learn how to cook like that?” wondered Florian as he placed a plate into a cabinet.

“I taught myself. My mom works too much to cook anything and if she did she would probably kill us both. She lost her cooking skills a long time ago so I took over and over time I got pretty good at it,” replied Asteria as she rinsed off a plate.

“I see. I guess I will have to come over for dinner then because that breakfast was delicious,”

Asteria blushed, “Thank you but anyways tell me about lacrosse. When does the season start?” She asked as she passed him the plate she rinsed off.

“Spring but my team and I practice in the fall for it. Luca, our captain, likes for us to be prepared and this is his final year so he wants us to do good,”

“I didn’t know Luca was a part of the team,”

“And I didn’t know you knew Luca. Isn’t he such a great guy?”

“He really is. He helped me to my class. He’s a real gentleman,”

“Every girl is head over heels for him but Rilynn hates him. She never told me why though,” said Florian as he finished up same as Asteria did.

“Does she truly like anyone?” said Asteria not convinced.

Florian laughed, “That’s a great question but we should really head to school. We don’t want to be late,” Florian said as he began to take the apron off of a flustered Asteria from his touch.

He placed it on the chair and they walked out the door to head to school. Later that day, it was gym class. Asteria was sitting on the bleachers with Luca who was in her gym class along with Seraphina as well. Rilynn was busy flirting with other girls while Asteria was stretching. Luca watched her stretch out her legs as he sipped water from his bottle.

“Why are you so hyped?” asked Luca as he placed his water down. 

Asteria turned to him determined, “I want to see that punk Rilynn with the face of defeat,” She said as she squeezed her hand into a fist.

“That sounds serious,” commented Luca as he giggled.

“She will soon know how much I have changed over the years,”

“So you two knew each other for a while?”

“Yes. We basically grew up together but I hate everything about her especially that face,” said Asteria as she glared at Rilynn who was smirking at her, “That smug look on her face...I just hate it,” She continued as she went back to stretching.

Soon the teacher interrupted everyone’s free time with a blow of his whistle. They all huddled up around him as he explained the day. He wanted them to do relay races. He would pick the teams and each team with face each other. One team wins then they face the team that won the last race. If you lose then  you are out and have to do 100 jumping jacks, 100 push ups, and two laps around the track. The students grunted while Asteria, Rilynn, and Luca all seemed unfazed. 

The teacher then went on and picked the teams. Rilynn was with two other students, Asteria was with Luca which she was excited about along with another student, and Seraphina objected to not being able to be with Rilynn who didn’t care about her as she snuck away from her. The teacher ignored Seraphina and told Asteria’s team to get ready along with the other team she would face because they were first.

Luca placed his hand on Asteria’s shoulder  and gave her a comforting smile, “You will do great. Who cares about Rilynn. Just have some fun,” He told her.

Asteria smiled at him as Seraphina came by her. As she did she whispered to her, “You will soon know your place,” and then she walked off. She turned around and blew a kiss at Luca and smiled at Asteria. Luca blew the kiss away while Asteria gagged as her words meant nothing to her. 

The race was starting and Asteria was the first person to go with the baton. Florian who was inside the school was walking in the hall and noticed Asteria. He stopped at a open window and watched waiting for her to start. Vita who was in her class was already at a window cheering her on with other students who admired Asteria. Asteria looked up at them and winked sending butterflies through the stomachs of both males and females in the class. 

“That’s my girl! You got this!” yelled Vita as she pumped up fist.

The teacher walked between Asteria and her opponent, and stopped. Rilynn watched on the other side beside Seraphina. The teacher asked if they were ready. They nodded and got into position. He then blew the whistle to send them off. As soon as he did he was shocked as Asteria ran by him as fast as a cheetah would if they were chasing after their prey. He twirled around as she was handing the baton off to Luca as her opponent was no where near her. 

“Lucky bitch,” hissed Seraphina as Rilynn smirked as she grew prepared to race Asteria.

Asteria’s team won. Vita and Florian both cheered her on making Asteria flustered. Luca walked over to her and they gave each other a high five along with the other student on their team. Soon Seraphina was up and they lost as soon as Seraphina claimed she got a “cramp”. Their team was eliminated for her lie. Asteria shook her head at her as she walked over faking her limp as she walked over to the bench. Next was finally Rilynn and her team. As soon as the teacher blew the whistle the race was over. Rilynn went first and was at her teammate right away. She was so fast that most people  couldn’t see her except for the people were actually fast enough to see her like Florian, Asteria, and Luca. She was like a blur. The teacher was just as impressed with her as he was with Asteria.

Luca looked over to Asteria and she had her fist up declaring that Rilynn be prepared to lose as she carried her bottle of water in her other hand. Rilynn noticed her and stuck her tongue out at her. That bottle was soon crushed as flames covered over Asteria as she fumed. Luca moved away along with other students but Asteria pulled him back over to her.

“We can not lose. We have to beat her no matter what. Got it?” urged Asteria as she was still fuming.

Luca nodded as he feared for his life. The time finally approached for Asteria to have a chance to beat Rilynn in something after so long. Asteria and Rilynn beat out all of the other teams so they were up to face each other for the last race of the day. Florian looked more serious in seeing the results while Vita was amused as usual when something involved Asteria and Rilynn. Luca wanted Asteria to race Rilynn as well so he made her last leg same as Rilynna. Asteria walked over where Rilynn was waiting.

Asteria ignored her as she stared at her. Asteria then got bothered by her constant staring and stared back.

“I thought I told you to stay away from Luca,” said Rilynn.

“Shut up. Who I hang out with doesn’t concern you and Luca has nothing to do with this,”

“Do with what?”

“I’m going to beat you. It’s just me and you and this track, Rilynn,”

Rilynn sighed, “Come on Asteria, you’re just going to embarrass yourself in the end. Why don’t you quit now and save yourself laughs,”

“You...” Asteria started but was interrupted by the whistle. 

She got into position same as Rilynn did. She looked over to her and she looked relaxed as if she wasn’t taking it serious at all. Asteria faced the front and clenched her fists as her eyebrows went in showing her anger was boiling even more. In seconds, Luca was handing the baton to Asteria as he was in the lead. Asteria was off as soon as she grabbed it. Vita and Florian cheered for her as she was speeding on the track. She was winning and she was proud as she saw the finishing line until she was met with Rilynn.

Rilynn was running backwards making Asteria lose her mind. She tried to claw at her but a laughing Rilynn dodged her and started to run forward as the teacher stressed for Rilynn to stop acting childish. Asteria and Rilynn were head to toe. Asteria could see the finish line but it wasn’t calling out to her, it was calling out to Rilynn who she could now see the back of.

Rilynn finished and all the girls ran over to her. Vita and Florian cheered for both Asteria and Rilynn as Asteria ignored them as she was upset with the results. The teacher praised her for her performance but that didn’t help her cheer her up either. Asteria sat down on the bleachers and Seraphina sat down beside her.

“See what did I tell you. You now know your place. That little pretty face of yours isn’t going to work all the time,” said Seraphina before she walked off in a hurry to talk with Rilynn. 

Luca sat down beside Asteria, “Don’t worry about what she said. You did great,”

“I know and Luca,” 

Luca looked over at Asteria, “What’s up,”

“I still had fun like you told me to do,” said Asteria with a smile.

Luca smiled back at her. Asteria then pushed him away as he tried to hug her. As they fooled around they didn’t know Rilynn was staring at them ignoring the girls around her in the process.