Page 17

OLIVER

6 months later

I ’m at Maya’s house, practicing my presentation for my Senior Project. My portfolio is done, I’ve got my cover page, research essay, documented my timeline, written my summary and now I’m just rehearsing the speech to align with my video. I’m presenting to the evaluating committee on Monday.

My leg healed ahead of schedule. My cast was off in eight weeks and I was walking normally a month later. Apparently my superior fitness and my dedicated physical therapy did that. Plus, I’ve ben spending a lot of time in the gym. These days you wouldn’t know my leg had been broken, well, apart from the scar.

Penny Adlam’s mentorship has been incredible in more ways than one. Apart from helping me with my project, she’s been guiding me on my little business enterprise, Protein Boost Balls. I’ve created a base of four flavors and have been experimenting with ingredients and learning about nutrition, and George is assisting with the groundwork for branding and marketing, which is his expertize. So far, I’m just making them for friends (and Mom and Dad) but once school’s out, I’m going to kick into production (using Penny’s commercial kitchen) and see where it takes me. I’m keen to travel to farmers markets around our area.

And I’m holding off on college for now and will work at Penny’s restaurant to get experience and see if a culinary career is the path I want to take. That will keep me in Snow Ridge, which I don’t mind—it keeps me close to Maya while she finishes high school.

Maya’s lying down on her bed, a captive audience, while I’m standing on the other side of the room.

“How was that?”

“Yeah, good, just remember, strong, clear and confident,” she says, reading from the evaluation rubric. “And express your enthusiasm.”

“I’m out of enthusiasm,” I say, having gone through it twice already, bored of hearing the sound of my own voice.

“What are you wearing? It says dress and grooming must be professional.”

“What? I don’t have a dress,” I say, acting shocked. “Am I going to have to borrow one of yours?”

“Ha, ha,” Maya says. “You’re so funny. Hey, I know.” She jumps off of the bed and heads to her closet. She pulls out a pale blue dress and holds it in front of me. “How about this?”

I flick through the row of hangers and laugh as I bring out the pink maxi dress that she wore to the Spring Fling. She looked incredible. “Is this my color?”

She shoves me and I fall back onto her bed, making myself comfortable against her pillows. She takes the dresses and hangs them back in the closet. I’m staring at her wall, at the Snow Ridge Owls state championship title flag that’s hanging there, but I glimpse another flag drooping behind it.

“Hey, is that my old Owls flag that I gave you?” I slide off of the bed and walk over to it, carefully taking it down. “I used to hang it out of my window. It’s a wonder it hasn’t fallen apart.”

The ends are frayed and I examine it and turn it over. I read the back and frown.

“Hey, Maya...what’s this?”

“What?” She pulls the closet door shut and looks at me, or rather the flag in my hand.

I hold it up so she can see her own handwriting: FROM OB, MY QB CRUSH.

She stares, her eyes widening in horror as if she’s just realizing what she’s reading.

“No!” she shouts, trying to snatch the flag. I hold it above my head. “No, give it to me! Oliver!”

I race around the room, jumping over the bed, keeping the flag out of her reach. “What’s it mean?” I ask, highly amused. “From OB, my QB crush? Am I OB?”

“Um...no, it’s Obi-wan Kenobi,” she says with a surprisingly straight face.

“The Jedi Master? From Star Wars? You’re a fan?” I say, blatantly scanning the room that offers no proof of any fandom.

“Sure,” she says, her cheeks pink. “I love Star Wars.”

“And QB? Who’s that?”

“Ummmm...”

I approach her, waving the flag in her face, a smirk on mine.

“Okay! Yes!” she cries, “You’re OB, Oliver Blackwell, and you were my quarterback crush, back when I was 12!”

“Really?” Her admission is like music to my ears and sends a shiver up my spine. “You crushed on me back then?”

“Truth?” She looks up at me and her eyelashes flutter. “Actually, before that. Once you helped me when I fell off my sled. You walked me home and carried my sled for me.”

“Nick Herman crashed into you. I remember. He was a total jerk!”

She looks shook. “You remember that? How do you remember that? That was so long ago!”

“I’d seen you with your sister. And Nick was doing crazy stuff, slamming into kids. I was just sorry I couldn’t stop him before he smashed into you.”

“Oh.”

“I left a flower on your front porch.”

“What?” She eyes me suspiciously.

“I left a flower on your porch. A dried one. I took it from Mom’s vase.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“Well, I didn’t leave a note. I just left it on the chair. You probably didn’t even see it.”

“Aww, I wish I had. You should have told me.”

“I think I had a crush on you too,” I say, placing my hand on her cheek. “I used to ride my bike just to watch you dance on your front porch.”

“I was just dancing out there so I could see you, ” she says with a laugh.

“Hmmm,” I murmur, pressing my lips onto her forehead, “my sweet Maya.”

“Ahhh,” she sighs, leaning into me, “my quarterback crush.”

“Um, I think you mean quarterback boyfriend,” I say, hugging my girl and squeezing her as tight as I can.

THE END

THANK YOU FOR READING Maya and Oliver’s story.