Chapter Two:
Stuck in the Mud

I looked in the mirror to make sure it all looked good. I had on a black tank top and green Nike shorts. I grabbed my favorite purse and slid the essentials into it. I slipped on a nude pair of flip-flops. I had only taken a quick shower since I would take a real one at Sam’s. My hair was in a slick ponytail with no headband. The cross I always wore was around my neck and my purity ring was on my finger like always.
Deciding everything looked good, I headed downstairs. I heard voices and thought maybe my friends were here already. I looked to see if they were in the living room but they weren’t there. So I headed into the kitchen.
“What the heck?!” I exclaimed and began to laugh at Joe. He and my mother were doing dishes. Dishes?! He even had an apron on (although that was probably my mothers doing)!
“Hello dear.” My mother turned around. “I told Joe I had to do the dishes and he asked if he could help. Doesn’t he look fantastic in an apron?” Mom tried to hold in her laugh, but was failing. “Your dad looks almost the same when he offers to bake cookies. Anyway, you look nice. Are you all ready?”
Unable to stop from laughing at Joe long enough to talk, I nodded. Joe looked very embarrassed. Score for me! The front door banged open and two of my friend walked in. Cassie’s voice rang out,
“Mom? I’m hoo-me!” She ran into my mom’s arms for a hug. Cassie and my mom have this little joke that Cassie was supposed to be my twin (although we look nothing alike) but God gave her to another mother. Becky followed her grinning. She saw me and ran to give me hug.
“I can’t let you not have a hug! It’s unfair!” she yelled; the last part right in my ear.
“HUGS!” Cassie screamed. “Hugs for everyone! Free hugs!” She started to dance around then saw Joe. “Oh. Hi. How much of that spaz routine did you just see?”
“Ummm.” Joe didn’t appear to know how to answer.
“I’ll just take that as you taking a really long blink and going slightly deaf for a minute. Okay?” she giggled nervously. “Umm, not to be rude or anything, but why don’t you have a shirt on? And…why are you wearing an apron?” Cassie looked at me, like, ‘Help!’
“This is Joe. He’s my neighbor. I sorta ran into him while jogging this morning. Joe this is Cassie and this is Becky.” I gestured to each.
“Hi,” Joe said.
“Hi,” Becky said.
“What?” I asked Cassie, who was looking at me strangely.
“You went jogging?”
“Yeees.” I drew the word out slowly, confused.
“Here let me rephrase that: You went jogging this morning?”
“Where are you going with this?” I asked.
She put both hands on her hips and stared up at me. Her 5 foot 3 inch frame was much shorter than my 5’9” one. “You went jogging. This morning.” I nod slowly. “The only day we DON’T HAVE CONDITIONING”
“Yes, Cassie, I did,” I said. She shook her head at me.
“You do realize that we are going to the park to sweat our butts off? And then we are going to walk around. AND! Then we are going to a dance? Katie! We are going to be working out all day!”
I laughed at her. “Cassie, I like to clear my head in the morning with a jog.”
“Oh, I’d like to clear that pretty little head of yours! I think a good whack will clear it up just fine!” She pretended to come at me.
“Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Hold it!” Becky jumped into the conversation. “Speaking of pretty little heads, what happened to yours, Katie?” She leaned forward to look at it.
I glanced at Joe who was smirking. “Oh, nothing much, Ill tell you on the way to Starbucks. We are going to be late,”
That shot everyone into high gear. Soon I had all my desserts packed away. The brownies and cupcakes were fresh from the oven as my mother had put them in before I got back. I grabbed my iPod and its car cord and stuck them into my messenger bag. I gave my mom a kiss and then turned to Joe. I could hear Cassie and Becky yelling to each other about who gets the biggest brownie. Mom had a big frown on her face.
“They are going to wake the whole neighborhood!” She hurried out the door to shush them.
Joe looked at me. “Don’t you think you should go tell them who gets the biggest one?” he asked.
I shook my head, “No. It’ll only make them more mad.”
“Why?” he asked.
I leaned in like I was going to tell him a secret and he got closer too. “Because I get it!” I laughed and danced away from him. Then, before I knew what was happening, he scooped me up and gave me a hug. I was about an inch off the ground. My arms were pinned to my sides so I just gave him a few pats on the back. His BARE back. Suddenly, the sweaty boy in my kitchen didn’t smell so bad.
He put me down and I sputtered for a few moments before saying, “Well, I have to go now. Thanks for the shirt, and the um hug.”
“Yep, anytime, Campagna.” He waved and walked out of the house.
“Well,” I said to myself, “that just happened.” Then I went and got into the car with my friends. We pulled out of the driveway and headed down the road. They already had the radio on, but Cassie and Becky were arguing over the station. I leaned forward and plugged in my iPod. As I scrolled through my playlists, I started laughing.
“What?” The two in front asked in unison.
“Two things, who decided who would pickup who?” I asked still giggling.
“Sam,” Becky said.
I laughed out loud, “She picked the three people who like country music!” Sam, one of the friends I was going to be with was an avid hater of country music, while I loved the stuff. “Sam must’ve gotten on my phone recently. Here look.” I leaned forward so they could see. At the top of the playlists were three that I had not made. They were, ‘Never listen to with Sam,’ ‘Songs that make Sam’s ears bleed,’ and ‘Songs that are okay with Sam.’
They all laughed with me. “Well,” Becky said, “now we know what we are listening to!” I hit the first playlist and Kenny Chesney’s She Thinks my Tractor’s Sexy came on.
Cassie turned to look at me. “You have this song?! I love this song. It’s the funniest thing on earth!” She began to sing at the top of her lungs.
We pulled up to the Starbucks just as Wanted by Hunter Hayes came on. We stopped the car and sat there listening. This song is absolutely amazing. Our other three friends came up and tried to open the doors but Becky locked them. They began banging on the widows so we turned the music up. We sat there laughing as they glared at us. Sam pointed to my iPod. I held it up so Hunter’s face filled up the screen. She looked at it and then glared at me. Sticking out her tongue, she held up a Starbucks gift card for fifty dollars. Then they went inside.
We looked at each other. “Well, we can always get free Hunter…” I trailed off, thinking how much I wanted to try the legendary Starbucks.
Cassie finished for me, “But, we can’t always get free Starbucks.”
I ripped my iPod out of the stereo and dashed out of the car. We raced up the walk and into the store. Allie, Sam, and Maia had just gotten into line. They laughed at us and then asked what we wanted. Since I didn’t know what to get I stayed silent, trying to decide what to get. Sam stepped back to stand with me.
“Do you have and idea of what you want?” she asked me.
“Not a clue.” I turned my head to look at her, “What is your favorite?”
Sam recited two or three things that sounded like another language. Then she said, “I think you would like something with mint.”
“So long as it doesn’t taste like mint chocolate chip, I’m okay with it.” I interjected.
“Let’s try the Iced Peppermint Mocha,” she decided.
All the girls had already ordered and were waiting on us. Sam ordered for both of us then handed the man at the counter her gift card. He stared at it for a second then ran it through. We sat at two tables to wait for it. Allie pushed the second table closer so it would be more like one table. Cassie and Sam sat across from me. Maia was on my right, Becky on my left. Allie sat at the head.
Cassie was a little bundle of energy. She wasn’t quite as hyper and spasmodic as Maia, but she could be insane sometimes. At five foot two, she was the shortest of the group. She had medium length blonde hair. She liked to wear heavy eye makeup. Out of all of us, Cassie is probably the most boy crazy. On our volleyball team she is one of two setters.
Allie Bennett is the second shortest girl in our group, only an inch taller than Cassie. She is the libero on our team. Allie is probably the most sarcastic person I know. Sometimes, I have a hard time figuring out if she’s joking or not. Her brown hair is almost never down. She always wears it in a ponytail. She loves nail polish, which is weird because she’s such a tomboy.
Becky and I had been friends since grade school and are probably the closest. She is very pretty, with tan skin and brown hair. Becky has the biggest brown eyes, my mom told her once she reminds her of a doe. She is also incredibly nice, she never swears and always goes out of her way to help people. She is an outside hitter on our JV team. She is the closest in height to me at five feet and eight inches. I love to stand by her, so I don’t feel like such a giant next to the other girls.
Sam is a straw blonde with light blue eyes. She and Becky had gotten close the summer between freshman and sophomore year, but she and I grew closer sophomore year when we shared a lot of our classes. She is funny and can two-step better than any white girl I know. She is the shortest right side hitter on our team, actually the shortest hitter on our team. She is a sweetie and always knows what to say to pick you up out of your gloom.
Maia is…energetic to say the least. She takes outgoing to a whole new level. Sometimes, she will do the most random things. Like, run around with an ice cube in her mouth screaming “brain freeze!” But, you couldn’t understand her and it came out more like, “Whane wheeze!” Maia has big blue eyes and brown hair. Her face is covered in freckles and she wears makeup rarely.
We sat at the table and talked while we waited on the orders. Maia was smelling the fake flowers to see if the staff sprayed perfume on them to make them more realistic. Cassie and Allie were talking about the guy who took our orders. I think Cassie was trying to get Allie to dare Maia to ask for his number. Sam and I wee talking about One Direction’s new single coming out. Becky was on her phone.
There was a lull in the conversation so I looked out the window. A handsome blonde guy was walking by on the other side of the street by the Paneras. He looked strangely familiar. I craned my neck to see if I could get a better look when he disappeared into a crowd of people. I looked for him frantically, but he wasn’t to be found.
“Earth to Katie, hello? Is anyone home?” Allie was waving her hand in front of my face. I swatted her hand away form my face.
“What?” I asked.
“Drinks are here,” Becky said.
“Oh. Right. Okay, I’m coming.” I said, flustered.
“What were you looking for anyway?” Sam asked me as we got up.
“I’ll bet it was a cute guy,” Cassie said wiggling her eyebrows at me.
I laughed, “It actually was. He was way older than us though. No not that old,” I said to Maia who had made a grandpa face. “More like in his twenties.”
“He’s not out of reach then,” Allie said, surprising me with her optimism.
“Umm okay.” I responded.
We got our drinks and started for the door. Just as she was about to step outside, Maia turned and waved at the guy. He looked taken aback and timidly waved back. We left the shop and got into our cars laughing. We drove to the park and got out. After a brief argument, we decided to bring the food with us. Allie had brought three volleyballs and we laughed at her. She defended herself by saying that if one popped then we wouldn’t have to go buy one.
Sam brought the blankets and the waters and spread them out on the ground. Maia had gotten Subway and laid it on the ground, covering it with a blanket. Cassie was in charge of snack food and had brought a whole array of chips and popcorn. Becky brought the pop. Sam and I detest pop. Well, actually I like the Orange kind but, I can’t drink it without feeling ill later.

After everything was laid out, we divided up into teams. We were pretty evenly matched; each team had a setter and two hitters. But, the other team had Allie, a really good passer, and my team had me, a middle hitter. Sam and Cassie were on my team. We started playing, we weren’t really keeping score. It was more friendly than anything, but still pretty competitive.
About 45 minutes later, Allie hit the ball way out and it rolled down the hill and into a gully. We all looked at each other, nobody really wanting to get it.
I sighed, “I’ll get it.”Grabbing my sandals in case there were sand burrs, I jogged down the hill. I had worked up a sweat and the cool breeze felt good on my hot skin. The ball had rolled into a small creek at the bottom of the hill. It wasn’t deep enough to carry the ball anywhere though, for that I praised the Lord. Then I noticed the mud.
Looking up at the sky I prayed, “Lord, help me not to be a clumsy oaf and fall into the mud. It really would not be cool.” I took a deep breathe and started down the steep incline. As I neared the bottom, I set my shoes down and used my hands to steady myself. Finally, I was close enough to try to grab the ball. I crouched down and reached forward with one hand. I slowly worked it closer to me. Just as I had it into my hands and was starting to stand, one foot slipped. I started to fall, but a hand grabbed mine and pulled me away from the creek.
“That was a close one,” a definitely masculine voice said.