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I jump, startled, emerging from my deep slumber.

Groggily, I reach for my alarm to turn it off. I hit the button several times, the loud sound not disappearing. Groaning, I peer through my eyelid, to see my phone screen lit up.

I answer it, closing my eyes again.

"Whoever this is, I want to kill you," I grumble sleepily.

"Good morning beautiful, nice to hear your voice as well," a voice greets me, causing my eyebrows to raise and my stomach to clench due to the compliment.

"Hayden? Why are you calling me?"

"Because I'm outside your house and you won't answer the door."

"Why? I'm asleep, obviously."

"Do you often answer the phone in your sleep?"

"Was asleep, you know what I mean," I mutter wearily. "Why are you here, again?"

"To pick you up, remember?" he queries in a duh tone. "I told you yesterday I would."

"For school?"

"Wow, someone is slowly catching on today."

I rub my face roughly, slowly moving into sitting position. "What time is it?"

"Late enough that you should be ready for practise, not still in bed."

"Shit," I sigh, removing the warm, toasty blankets from my legs. "I must have forgotten to set my alarm again."

"You're hopeless."

"Mm," I mumble, swaying slightly as I get to my feet.

"Can you let me in? It's cold out here."

I hang up the phone and practically trip down the stairs. My eyes are heavy with sleep as I stumble to the door and open it.

"Wow," he comments slowly, his eyes raking over my bed hair and sleep-deprived face. "This is a new side to you."

"Shut up," I grumble, turning my back to him and dragging my feet up the stairs.

"Someone is clearly not a morning person."

After sending him a glare over my shoulder, I stomp into the bathroom and slam the door shut.

"You have 2 minutes!" I hear him call out and I wave my middle finger in the air.

After having a much-too-quick shower, I towel off and stroll into my bedroom, trying to find something to wear to practise.

"Oh baby, take it off," Hayden teases as I bend down to grab a shirt on the floor.

I turn, planting the hand that held the shirt against my hip, as the other one was holding my towel up.

"Your commentary isn't welcome."

"Ah, there she is," he grins. "The Grace I know returns."

I roll my eyes and swipe a pair of shorts from my dresser, before stepping back into the bathroom. Considering how late we are, I really should have put my swimmers on straight away, to save getting changed when I got to school, but my mind is not functioning properly this early in the morning.

"Seriously, the Coach is going to kick our ass if you don't hurry up."

Flinging my bag over my shoulder, not even having checked if I had the right books for today, I trip after Hayden as he jogs down the stairs.

Once we get to the bottom, my bag slides off my shoulder, hitting the floor and one of my textbooks tumbles out of it.

"You're a mess," he sighs, scooping down to retrieve my stuff. "Go grab something to eat on the way, I'll get this."

"Thanks," I reply gratefully, hurrying into the kitchen.

I grab a banana before following Hayden out and closing the front door behind me.

"You know what this means right?" he asks me as we both slid into our seats.

"What?"

"I have to do some serious driving to get us there," he smirks, before stomping down onto the accelerator.

I fly backward into my seat, my head banging on the headrest.

"Ow," I complain, rubbing my head as the tires squealed on the bitumen road. "My neighbours are going to hate you."

"Doesn't bother me," he shrugs, hardly slowing down as we fly through a give-way intersection.

I squeeze my eyes shut and pray that we are going to make it to school alive.

Once the car is stopped and the engine turned off, Hayden grabs my bag for me and takes off at an impressively fast rate. I rush after him, hastily pushing back my messy hair from my forehead.

When we enter the locker room, no one is here.

"You right?" he asks, placing my bag onto the bench.

"Yeah," I reply breathlessly, hearing splashing in the distance.

We are definitely late.

In one fluid movement, Hayden removes his shirt, and my lips part as I stare at his rippled body. I honestly could sit here and stare at him all day.

"See you out there," he tells me, oblivious to my gawking.

I walk through the doorway to the girls change rooms and wriggle out of my clothes, not bothering to go into a cubicle. I had just got my swimsuit on, pushing the straps up my shoulder, when I heard a throat clear.

"Any reason why you're this late?" Ashton asks with a frown.

I spin on my heel, slapping my hand to my chest. "Were you... Did you see me get changed?"

"I just got here," he says dismissively, leaning against the door frame. Something about the way his eyes were possessively raking my body and the tone in his voice, makes me believe otherwise. That fact, made me feel violated. I know he's seen my body before, but we're under completely different circumstances now. "And don't avoid my question."

"Can't stop to chat," I say, gripping my goggles a little too hard in the palm of my hand. "I have some catching up to do."

I storm past him, furious that he thinks it's okay to just walk in on me getting changed. Technically, it was my fault not going into a cubicle, but if it had been anyone else in there, I doubt Ashton would just waltz into the girl's change room. I jump into the pool, not bothering to dive from the mounting block, and begin to do my warm-up laps.

I am in for a long day.

***

"What's wrong with you?"

"I stayed up all night watching 13 Reasons Why on Netflix," I explain, rubbing at my eyes, lifting my head from the table.

"Ah, I get it," Harvey replies with a nod of understanding, taking the empty seat beside me. "It's addicting, isn't it?"

"Too addictive. You shouldn't have told me to watch it."

"But then you wouldn't ever know how great it is," he informs me matter-of-factly. "Here, I bought you a pizza roll."

"You're my hero," I smile, taking the roll from him. "Not only did I sleep in and was late for practise, I left my wallet at home. Talk about a bad day."

"Aw, poor baby," he teases.

"And what's worse, I'm not meant to have a double practise today, but because I was late, Ashton said I have to do laps of the oval this afternoon and then do weights."

"Ew," Harvey physically gags at the mention of exercise. "And Coach Brennon, don't you mean?"

"That's what I said."

"You really didn't."

"That's what I meant," I mutter, cursing myself for falling back into the habit of referring to the Coach by his first name. The last thing I want is for Hayden to get suspicious.

Or you can just tell him like you said you would... my subconscious reminds me.

"Mmhmm," he nods. "Eat your pizza roll and think about what you have done."

"Oh hush," I laugh, taking a bite.

"I wish this day was over," Harvey suddenly says dramatically. "Double language philosophy."

"Should have stuck with P.E," I sing.

"You know exercise and I don't have a very stable relationship," he points out.

"Playing sport is much more fun. I can't understand why you would choose language philosophy over sport."

"Says the athlete to the nerd," he says with a laugh.

I smile at that and continue eating. Suddenly, a white, pink striped bag is placed on the table as Caitlyn sits across from us. I give her a polite smile but grow quiet as Harvey and talk about their next class together (typical) and their plans of going to see the latest Fast and The Furious movie tonight (thanks for rubbing it in my face that I wasn't invited).

The end of lunch bell blares and I wipe my mouth on the back of my hand, before getting to my feet and throwing out my rubbish.

"Good luck this afternoon," Harvey smiles, patting me on the shoulder.

"I'll need it."

As I walk to the gym, one of the rare occasions when I'm not going to swim, Hayden falls in step with me.

"I can't believe Coach practically gave us detention," Hayden remarks dryly, shaking his head. "He goes a bit over the top sometimes, don't you think?"

"Agreed," I reply. "It's not like we're an Olympic swim team."

"He's a twat."

I snort with laughter as we walk into the brightly lit gym. Hayden and I part ways as I swap the hideous school uniform to shorts and a loose, Nike shirt. I re-do my ponytail, making sure it is tight, before going back out.

After the P.E teacher, Mr Cross told us that since we all aced our test last week, he is rewarding us with a double prac of a game of our choosing. I already know everyone would vote for either Sit Down, Stand Up, which is a game similar to Dodge Ball, or futsal.

After a round of voting, futsal won. Hayden and Mike are elected team captains.

"Grace," Hayden says immediately.

I grin, pushing myself up from the spot on the floor and jogging over to where Hayden is standing. Mia's glare feels hot against my skin as her eyes drill holes into me. I smirk at her, resisting the urge to stick my tongue out, taking in the fact that he didn't choose her at all.

Once the entire gym class is divided into two, ignoring two of Mia's friends that somehow got to "control the music", we all went to our assigned side of the gym. After one of the girl's phones was plugged into the speaker, it was hard to hear Mr Cross blow the whistle, but I just followed Hayden's lead.

I played soccer, even though the rules are slightly different when I was younger, so I was pretty good on my feet and maneuvering the ball.

Soon we were fifteen minutes in and we were up 3-2. Sweat had gathered on my forehead and I could feel that my cheeks were red from the exertion.

Time flew by and it was soon half-time. After a quick drink break, we swapped sides of the field and swapped out players. I couldn't help but laugh in amusement as Mia walked into the goal-keeper position.

"Why are you putting her as a goalkeeper?" I ask Mike, gesturing to Mia. "You're just asking to lose."

Mike replies with some witty remark that I don't listen to because I was too busy smirking at Mia. Her eyes darken as she throws another glare at me. I give her a sweet smile in return, jogging to the center of the field.

After me scoring once and Hayden the other, Mia swaps out. I smirk at her again, before passing the ball swiftly to Hayden. I watch as he dodges and weaves through the opposing team before the ball flew over Graham's hands (a guy in our P.E class) and into the net.

As he runs back, we high-five. We are on fire today. After running non-stop for several minutes, I quickly sent Hayden a time-out signal, stopping for a short drink break. After chugging down half my water bottle, I slowly walk back onto the field, hands-on my hips.

"Hey Grace!" I hear Mia call.

Turning, I look over to her, just as she sent the ball soaring towards me. It could not have been angled or timed any better. The ball slammed into my forehead, knocking me back almost a metre. I fall back onto the hard, wooden floor. My head smacks against it harshly with a loud thud and the wind is knocked right out of me.

I gasp, unable to move. My skin burns from where the ball connected with me and my head is pulsing from the impact.

"Stop!" Mr Cross yells out. "Stop playing!"

He rushes over to me, dropping to his knees. I vaguely acknowledge Hayden hovering behind him, watching.

"Don't move," he instructs, gently grabbing my arm. "That was a solid hit. I'd say you have a concussion."

I try to nod but the ache in my head prevents me from moving any more than an inch.

"Are you all right, Grace?" Asks Mr Cross with concern.

"It fucking hurt, I'll tell you that much."

He frowns at my language and Hayden let out a snort of laughter.

"Are you right to get to your feet?"

"We'll soon see."

Slowly, I scramble into standing position. Black dots danced across my eyes and my vision is blurry.

"I'll take her to the nurse," Hayden offers, surprising everyone around us, including Mr Cross.

Considering he really wouldn't be missing anything important in class, Mr Cross dismissed us.

"Oops, sorry Grace," Mia smiles, unable to hide the glee behind her eyes.

I choose to ignore her, knowing the fact that Hayden having his arm around me and is taking me to the nurse, makes her the loser here, not me.

"Bitch," Hayden mutters as we exit.

"Agreed."

"Aimed it right at you."

"I know," I sigh.

"You egg her on," he points out.

"I can't help myself."

He chuckles as we continue to walk towards the main office. I'm glad that not many people were around, seeing as it is class time.

The ache in my head is throbbing the entire time we walk.

I'm glad that Hayden has hold of me, as the school corridor is spinning.

"Almost there," he murmurs as we draw closer to the building.

After the nurse attended to me, she gave me a slip to skip school for the rest of the day. After Hayden relentlessly argued with them about him being able to come too, saying I shouldn't be going home unsupervised, he somehow managed to get out of school for the rest of the day, too. Considering we only have a lesson and a half to go, I think they realised it wasn't much point.

When I wait in Hayden's ute, as he went back to get our bags, I lay my head against the headrest, my eyes closed. My headache is killing me. Nurse Eisen prescribed me some pain relief, but it hasn't kicked in yet.

"Your face is swelling," Hayden comments as he threw our bags into the back. "Like, pretty bad."

"That's not surprising."

The loud sport exhaust on Hayden's ute did not help minimise the ache in my head. I am relieved when we pull to a stop at the front of my house.

As soon as I am inside, my shoes are off and I am lying on my bed, fighting the urge to close my eyes and sleep.

"You can't sleep," Hayden insists, clicking his fingers in front of my face. "Remember what the nurse said? You have a concussion."

"Mmm," I mumble.

"Let's watch a movie," he suggests, getting to his feet.

After setting up the first Transformers movie, he left the room to go make us noodles. My eyes are heavy as I try to keep them open.

My phone vibrates beside me. Lethargically, I reach over and answer it.

"Yes?"

"Stay awake," Hayden instruct and I let out a soft laugh. "I'll be up in two minutes. Stay awake, okay?"

"Okay," I whisper sleepily.

True to his words, Hayden arrives back shortly after. He set our bowls to the side, to let them cool. He crawls into bed beside me before wrapping an arm around my shoulder, drawing me to him.

"You okay?" he asks, his warm breath fanning my face as he stared down at me.

"Yeah," I smile.

I nestle my head into his arm, just as he leaned down and pressed his lips softly to my forehead.

I laid my head against him, a goofy smile on my face, as I face the T.V.

If Mia knew this would happen, there is no doubt in my mind, she would not have kicked that ball at me.

--------------------

The tension between Mia and Grace rises! What did you think of the cute moment Hayden and Grace shared? ;)

I can't decide on what colour dress Grace should wear to the award ceremony! All the suggestions I got, she would look amazing in! I think we should vote! I have collected the most suggested colours down below:

Black:

Red:

Blue (Navy):

Other (Including yellow, pink, green, maroon):

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