Skylar's Wish • Rooster

Chapter 8: Memory Lane

I walk back onto the beach, feeling the sand in between my toes. I head towards the chaos with the volleyball and towels in hand. I throw Phoenix hers when she asks me, "Skylar, you in the next round?" I wave them off and make my way over to our instructor, ignoring the protests from my pilot friends. "Hey Mav!" He looks over to me, then looks at the ball in my hands. "Wanna see if you're still any good?" I ask, twirling the volleyball in my hand. He smiles, standing up to walk over to me. "You sure about this, Skylar?" He asks with a teasing smile. "Hell yeah. Let's see what you can do."

Before backing up, I throw my towel over his now empty chair. I back up about twelve feet before I place the ball in my left hand, spin it a few times for good luck. I take a few big steps and toss it high in the air. I jump and make contact with the ball, sending it hard at Maverick. His hands move together to make a pass form. His pass is high enough where I set the ball right back. Maverick jumps and spikes the ball down on my ready arms. I passed the ball back to him, a perfect pass for a set. He sets the ball to me. I jump and contact the ball , sending it to the left of Maverick. He tries to get there in time, but he just misses, causing him to stumble, but he recovers.

I serve the ball back to him again. The pattern continues for a while. Bump. Set. Spike. Until Maverick spikes a little too far to the left, I dive to try to hit it. I miss. "1 to 1," Maverick says. Knowing how long this could last, I ask, "Best 2 out of 3?" He nods. He smiles at me before he serves. He jumps up and next thing I know the ball is on my forearms, and I am passing it back to him. He sets it back to me and I spike it down at him. The pattern restarts immediately. Maverick passes to me, I set to Maverick, and he spikes the ball back to me. Bump. Set. Spike. We volley back and forth for a while, each of us trying something new to cause the other to miss the ball. We have both stumbled more times than we care to admit. Finally, Maverick misses the ball after I spike it down at him, hard.

"2 to 1," Maverick throws the ball to me. I serve, not a jump serve, just a normal serve. I serve down to Maverick who passes it to me, I run up and set to him with a perfect arch. Allowing him to spike it down at me. Just before Maverick hits it down at me, I see out of the corner of my eye, a football flying towards me. I turn and catch the football. Still holding it, I see the volleyball coming right at me. I'm too far away to pass it, so I stick out my foot. The volleyball hits my foot and flies back to Maverick.

Maverick is shocked and confused on what just happened that he was too late, the ball flies past him. I smile, throw the football to Bob before jumping up and down. Maverick walks over to me, "That last one was pure luck," he says. I laugh, "Aren't all your moves pure luck?" I ask, referring to his flying. He nods and laughs. Maverick and I high-five each other. "You're still pretty good, Mav." He looks at the other pilots, who are still playing football, "You've gotten better." I shrug my shoulders, "Haven't played in a while."

I look out over the water to see the sun starting to sink under the horizon. Next to me, Maverick tells everyone that we can head back and what time class is tomorrow. We all head back to our vehicle. I walk off the beach, watching the other pilots laughing in front of me. Or so I thought. I hear someone run up behind me, "So, you're all buddy-buddy with Maverick now?" A male voice asks me. I turn towards the voice, "I've always been close with Maverick. I just try not to be when you're around." Rooster looks at me. "What?" He shakes his head, "I don't know. I thought I knew you, but apparently I don't."
"You want to get to know me, fine." I reach into his back pocket and grab his keys to his jeep. "Hey!" I shrug him off and grab his hand, pulling him along. "Hey Phoenix!" She turns to look at me. "Will you drive Rooster's Jeep back to base?" She looks at me confused, "We're going for a drive." She nods, "Yah sure!" I throw her his keys and continue to drag his ass over to my truck. "Get in." He gets in, I back out of my parking spot and drive down the road.