"You never know when you're gonna meet someone, And your whole wide world in a moment comes undone."
~ Daughtry, Start of something good ~
The ball tapped against Lucas's feet and he grinned. He wasn't very good at football. He kept his eyes on his feet instead of ahead of him, but he was happy and who was Sky to tell him otherwise?
She and Tyler were bringing out jugs of juice and a whole crate of ice creams to cater for the entirety of Clarke high schools- now retired- football team. They were spread out playing a football game in the Turner's back garden.
Harper, ever the girly-girl, was sat threading daisy chains into Peyton's hair whilst in turn, Peyton read a hard back book aloud to her. Scott and the rest of the team were playing football with Lucas and Skylar smiled when Scott lifted Lucas up onto his shoulders after Oscar let the ball roll past him and into the goal.
They paraded him around, laughing and cheering. "Ice creams guys!" Tyler yelled out to them and it was only moments before the whole team were crowding around the large picnic table on the back porch. Scott stood behind Sky, wrapping his arms around her middle before planting a kiss on her cheek.
Scott had gathered up the courage to finally ask her out a week after their final game. They'd been together for almost four months and it had been one of the hardest, but happiest, summers that Skylar and her family had ever had.
It had taken a while, but Skylar had finally started to feel normality seep back into her life. Of course, living in the care home was a whole life away from how she had lived before, but she was trying really hard to see past that and enjoy the silver linings that living in the care home offered. She was fed for a start; she didn't need to go starving even once and she had a whole room to herself where she didn't need to share with her Mother stinking of alcohol.
Returning to the real world also meant that she needed to figure out what she was going to do about school. Grace, along with her care worker Mrs Randell, had managed to get Skylar enrolled in the local sixth form. Clearly, with everything that had happened, Skylar hadn't done a single one of her exams. That was all under control also. Sky had met with the head of the sixth form and they had come to the agreement that if she went to their summer school and took all of her exams in September, they would count as her GCSE's.
When they had spoken about which A Levels she would be taking, Skylar distinctively remembered telling the man "nothing with numbers" quite vigorously. In the end, they'd come up with PE, psychology, and English literature which surprisingly, Sky didn't mind at all; she was fast becoming just a good a reader as Peyton. Scott constantly teased them about starting up their own book club when he'd catch them sat in silence, reading.
They would all be starting sixth form in three days time. Skylar was nervous about not having any of her friends with her; the rest of the team were split between two or three much fancier schools. The kind that you need a certain amount of A's to get into- of course they weren't for Skylar. She tried not to concentrate on that. Instead she turned in Scott's arms and wrapped her own around his neck.
She was glad for being tall in moments like these, so that neither of them needed to crane their necks in order to see each other. It had taken the two of them a couple of weeks to get used to the whole 'relationship' idea after they had spent the past year supposedly hating each other. The pair bickered about most things and neither would back down in an argument but any one of their friends could tell that they'd found their perfect match. They challenged each other. They were both stubborn and scarred and although neither of them would admit it, they needed one another.
"Are you okay?" Scott dropped his lips to her ear so that only she could hear.
Nodding against his shoulder, Skylar closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could smell his aftershave mixed with the smell of cut grass.
Harper squealed and Sky quickly snapped back to reality. A wasp was after her ice cream and flew around in front of her face where she was waving around her hands. Skylar laughed and then picked her up to sit on her hip. "Oomph, you're getting heavier. I doubt I'll be able to pick you up in a weeks time." Narrowing her eyes, Harper stuck out her tongue cheekily and then swiped at Sky's nose with her ice cream.
"Ooh now you better run," Chris warned lowly. The rest of the team snickered.
Harper's eyes were wide after Sky had put her down and started to count down from three. Her sister quickly got the message and turned to run but she wasn't quick enough. Skylar enveloped her and lifted her up- not much though because Sky was still very weak and Harper had grown a lot over the summer.
"Lucas!" Harper squealed and giggled as she writhed against her sisters hold. Their brother put down his ice cream and charged at them with no sense of slowing down. He barrelled into Skylar's legs and knocked her down. Carefully, she landed on her elbow instead of landing fully on Harper. "We got her!" Lucas stood with a leg either side of Skylar and she laughed until tears started to form in the corners of her eyes.
The rest of the team watched from the porch and all turned when Jeremy ducked through the door. "Sorry I'm late," he greeted the boys with high fives and shoulder slaps.
"Where have you been?" Skylar asked when she was finally let up. More grass fell off her with every step she took.
His cheeks tinged a rose pink and they knew right away that he had been with a girl. "I was at Kiera's." The team smirked knowingly and Skylar said nothing; she'd learnt not to say anything about the fact Kiera was a different girl to last weeks Holly, to the week before that's Neve. It was obviously some sort of coping mechanism and it was much better than smoking and doing drugs and getting into trouble like he used to. So what if he had a reputation?
Skylar hugged him tightly and smiled. "Glad you made it," she said quietly. He replied by hugging her back.
The rest of the afternoon went by just like the rest of the summer; slow and lazy and peaceful. The boys continued with their game and Harper roped Sky into hairdressing. She was told off many times for moving whilst Harper tried to thread daisies into her hair.
Peyton laughed and took photos of everybody with the new camera she had gotten as an end of exams present. She had had it with her, draped around her neck, 24/7 during the summer. There was a whole wall in her room entirely dedicated to pictures. Random ones of the sky and trees, others with Skylar and the rest of the team. Alex snuck up behind her and kissed the spot below her ear. She smiled and jumped onto his back and they ran around the garden.
Smiling at them, Sky picked at the grass around her. "Your hair is so pretty Sky. Would you let me change my hair orange?"
"Why would you want to dye your beautiful hair ginger?" she asked bemused, trying to remember the amount of times she'd been picked on because of the colour of her hair.
"It's so pretty and different," Harper replied, running her dainty fingers through it. "Will you come and see me in my ballet production at Christmas?" and just like that any thoughts of dying her hair were gone. Relieved, Sky nodded which lead to a scold. "Don't move! Just say yes or no!"
Holding in a laugh, "yes I will," she said.
"Maybe Peyton could come too? And Scott?" she added innocently. "I like Scott."
