NOVEL NEXT Chapter 33: Captain
When I wake up I don’t immediately find anyone, Élise and Nikki are probably still sleeping since they have to go to work a bit later than usual. I take a quick shower before getting dressed.
But what should I wear?
Hmmm…. Maybe I’ll pick this.
I take out the faux leather light-brown jacket and take out a pair of light blue jeans as well together with a white shirt.
“It’s not really that ‘femme’ but hey, I’m in the mood for something else today.” I say to myself while getting dressed.
I enter the living room and immediately get greeted by Mochi and Pocky who were looking through one of the big windows.
“Liking the view?”
Mochi meows at me.
“Oh you’ve never been this high up before? I guess that makes sense. Don’t you miss going outside?”
She meows again.
“Yeah the city is pretty dangerous for cats. I’m glad you feel safe here.” I approach the two of them and give them a couple of pats. “I’ll give you some food before I go, what would you like?”
Pocky mews and jumps from the windowsill.
“Tuna huh? Let’s see what I can do.”
I take a baggy of tuna out of the closet and start distributing it in the bowls.
“You’re in luck, the chef still had some tuna left.” I laugh and put the bowls down.
Pocky thanks me with a cute meow and the two of them start eating almost immediately afterwards.
I quickly write a little note to my sister saying I already fed the cats and stick it on the fridge. I move to take my choker from its box on the cabinet and put it on.
“I need to go now, I’ll be back in the evening, ok?”
They meow me goodbye as I leave the building. As a sign of good luck, the tram arrives just as I enter the platform; I don’t even have to run!
As usual the tram doesn’t take long to arrive at uni, as I get off I see someone waving at me in the corner of my eye.
“Hey there, kitten.” She grabs hold of my hand almost immediately.
“Hey, lovely.” I give Sam a kiss on her cheek.
“That’s a nice outfit you got going on there, wanted to wear something cool today?”
I nod. “Yeah. Be more in-sync with my girlfriend, you know.” I softly bump against her.
“Oh, I see, I see.” She smiles. Sam’s wearing jogging leggings with a slightly too big training jacket on top. Her hair tied back in a ponytail.
“Were you waiting for me?”
“Maaaayybee. You told me you had lessons in like 30 minutes so I figured you would arrive right about now. Aaaand maybe I wanted to see you before my first lesson starts.” She whispers that last part into my ear.
“Awh! I’m happy you did.” I give her another kiss. “Your lessons starts ten minutes after mine does right?”
She nods. “Yep. So I can stay with you until you need to go.”
“Yay!”
“Yep!”
“Okay, that’s just a literal walk in the park then.” She giggles to herself.
“You dork.” I laugh.
“I know.”
We walk hand in hand through the park for five minutes before someone pokes my shoulder.
Surprised by the sudden physical contact, I turn around and see Hailey and Carol standing behind me.
“Hey Ami, sorry if that surprised you.”
“We should’ve called out to her Carol.” Hailey lectures her friend.
“Well, you didn’t do it either.”
“You didn’t give me the opportunity to!”
I start laughing again. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m fine.” I look to my side and see Sam looking around, clearly a bit confused, while she softly squeezes my hand.
“Ah. Sam, these are Hailey and Carol, they are my friends.”
Sam awkwardly waves at them. “Hey.”
“Wait, that nice girl you met is the captain of the basketball team?” Hailey blurts out.
“Oh, who’s too direct now, huh?” Carol scoffs.
“Huh?” now it’s my turn to be a bit confused. “Are you the captain, Sam?”
She nods while giggling a bit. “I am, yes.”
I start blushing a little. “Oh, I-I didn’t realize.”
“It’s not that big of a deal.” She smiles.
“How do you know her?” I ask Hailey who’s calmed down a bit.
“There’s very little people who don’t know Samantha Martínez, let’s just say it like that.”
Carol nods. “She’s pretty popular.”
“Ah, but you were studying from home because of your illness, right! That’s probably why...”
I awkwardly nod. “Ah, ye, probably.” I can’t tell them that I just didn’t really care about gossip or sports right?
Sam squeezes my hand and gives me a smile.
“So, if you don’t mind me asking, are you two dating?” Carol steps in.
Sam nods with a smile. “Yep, we are.”
“That’s pretty fast, you met last week right?”
“Yeah, but we just clicked really well.” I reply, and this time it’s me squeezing Sam’s hand.
Carol nods in understanding and gives us a sincere smile. “I’m happy for the both of you.”
“Thank you.” We say together.
“Are you walking towards class Ami?” Hailey asks.
“Yeah, Sam was taking me there.”
“Okay, we’ll leave you two alone then. And sorry for the, uhm, outburst. I think Carol is rubbing off on me.”
“Hey! Rude.” Carol pouts.
“Anyways, see you in a bit!”
“Bye bye!” I wave them goodbye for now.
“Your friends are pretty interesting.”
“They are. They’re adorably big dorks as well.”
Sam laughs. “Perfect fit for you.”
“Grrrr.” I playfully growl at her. “By the way, why didn’t you tell me you were the captain?”
She shrugs. “It doesn’t really matter, does it?”
“I guess… and your popularity…?”
“The only person who matters for me, is you, sweetie.”
Her comment makes me feel incredibly warm inside and outright speechless.
“Well, I have my friends too of course...”
“Just kiss me already.” I purr.
“Hmm. Maybe a bit longer.”
“Alright.” Sam kisses me again, this time even longer than last time.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.” She takes me in for a big embrace. “Let’s get you to your class now, otherwise you might be late.”
“Awh. I want to stay with you a bit longer.”
“I’m not gonna be a bad influence for you, kitten.” She winks. “Let’s go.”
“Alright then.” I giggle, “That’s to be expected from the team captain I guess.”
“Keep that up, and I’ll have you doing push ups.”
“Noooooo!”
We finish our walk through the park and enter building C, it’s the building for the digital arts, mostly for movies and computer generated arts, it even has some props from well known movies sitting in the lobby.
“Wow, this is pretty awesome.” Sam goes to look at one of the display cases. “I remember seeing this movie in the cinema!”
“Is it your first time coming here?”
She nods. “Yeah, I never really had to come in here so I really didn’t know all this stuff was here in the first place.”
“But now you do.”
“Now I do indeed.” She kisses my hand. “I got a beautiful girlfriend who studies here.”
“You charmer.” My face goes a bit red.
“Is it not working?”
I giggle “It is.”
Sam smiles. “Good. Would you like to go and watch a movie with me next time?” She starts looking back at the displays.
“Yes please! What kind of movie do you like to watch?”
“Sci-fi mostly, but that Lady of the Bracelets movie we watched at your place stoked my interest in fantasy a bit as well.”
“Oh, I heard there’s a new fantasy one coming out soon, maybe that’s something we could do then.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” She takes me with her to a couple other display cases and we discuss several props in depth a bit more.
“No way? This is really the suit she wore in Extraterrestrial?”
“As far as I know it is. The actress studied here so when the university was looking for some props to display she donated it.”
“Amazing!”
Slowly but surely more students start showing up, once Carol and Hailey enter the lobby, Sam turns to me again. “I’m gonna leave you for now, see you at our spot for lunch?”
“Okido.” I give her a quick kiss. “See you later teddy bear.”
“Mhmm. Love you.”
“Love you too.”
She returns a kiss and waves me and my friends goodbye.
“You two look so adorable together.” Hailey says while we are walking up the stairs to our classroom.
“Thanks.”
“How did you meet again?”
“I ran into her at full speed and almost knocked her over.”
“Somehow that sounds very much like a you thing to do, Ami.” Carol comments while slurping from her smoothie.
“It does, doesn’t it.” Hailey adds, while also taking a sip from hers.
“Hey, where did you get those smoothies by the way?” The strawberry smell from Carol’s smoothie is almost overwhelming.
“Ah, there was a stand just around the corner, they just opened this week.”
“Oh, thanks!”
I definitely need to get one of those, maybe they have some milkshakes as well…