Gaijin No More

Cody's POV

The day was almost over, fortunately, since I was starting to get really restless. The whole day Aiden had been avoiding me, knowing I would only throw him questions of where he was taking me after school. Whenever I got anywhere near him in the hallways he would only wink at me and walk away. That annoyed the hell out of me.

Thirteen minutes 'til the bell would ring and end this torture they like to call Geography. I couldn't care less about the said subject.

Eleven and half minutes.

Realizing that I was driving myself crazy if I kept watching the clock, I decided to try and do something more interesting to distract myself.

That didn't help much, because there was absolutely nothing to do. So before I even noticed, I was again staring at the clock, praying time to go faster.

Just when I was about to lose my sanity I heard the heavenly sound of the bell. I almost danced in joy, but I refrained myself. Wouldn't want to embarrass myself, not that anyone would pay attention, but still.

Haphazardly I threw my stuff into my bag and made my way out of the class. I didn't need to get anything from my locker so I headed straight out.

Well, I would have headed out if I hadn't been grabbed by a hand from behind. I felt myself be turned around and I wasn't surprised when I came face to face with Aiden.

“So you're not avoiding me anymore?” I asked and placed my hands on my hips, trying to look stern. I failed, though.

“Avoiding you? Where did you get that idea?” Aiden pretended stupid just to annoy me a bit more. I punched his arm and grinned.

“Stop joking and tell me what you have in mind!” I whined and jumped up and down in anticipation. My immature behavior made Aiden laugh and he ruffled my dark hair.

“I'm going to teach you something,” he said and began to pull me towards the school doors and then to his car.

“Teach me something?” I frowned but let Aiden guide me to his car and on the passenger seat. What could he want to teach me? I couldn't think of anything so I just sat in silence as Aiden drove.

After a few minutes we seemed to arrive our destination. To my complete surprise we were now at the tennis courts.

“You... You are going to teach me how to play tennis?” I asked and stared at Aiden, my eyes wide and mouth slightly open.

“Yup!” Aiden grinned and grabbed a bag from the back seat. “Come on,” he gestured me to follow him, which I did.

Aiden dropped the bag on the ground and pulled out two tennis racquets. He gave one to me and took out three tennis balls. I just stared the racquet in my hand like it was completely foreign object to me. Which it actually was. I had never played tennis in my life, although I had seen others play in TV.

I jumped when I felt Aiden stand behind me and adjust the racquet in my hand.

“You hold it like this,” he instructed. “And it's easier if you part your legs a bit.” He moved his leg between my legs and pushed them apart slightly. This made my cheeks heat up a bit and I had to bite my lip to keep myself from shuddering.

Aiden let go of me and jogged to the other side of the court.

“Don't worry, I'll go easy on you.”

“I sure hope so,” I said, being a little nervous. I didn't want to make a complete fool out of myself.

I watched as Aiden threw the ball in the air and hit it with his racquet, sending the ball over the net and straight to me.

Panic surged through me, but I was still able to swing my hand and miraculously, I hit the ball. The ball flew through the air towards the left corner of the court. Aiden ran quickly to the corner and sent the ball back to me over the net.

My next hit wasn't as successful as the first one. The ball didn't fly high enough so it hit the net.

The next half an hour Aiden and I spent passing the ball between us. Several of the balls from my side hit the net or flew in to completely opposite direction that I had intended, but somehow Aiden was able to save most of them.

I was just about the get the hang of the game when we were interrupted.

“Oi Aiden! Can I have a turn with the rookie?” We stopped playing and turned to look at the side of the court. I tensed a bit when I saw that Daniel Wieners was standing there, a smirk on his face.

“I don't know. Cody do you want to play with Dan?” Aiden turned to look at me, not looking too happy about the interruption.

“Sure,” I said, though I wasn't sure if it was a good idea.

Aiden and Dan switched places and so I began playing against my new opponent.

Dan definitely didn't go easy on me. He was clearly showing off his skills and I had hard time trying to get the ball back to his side of the net.

“Come on Cody-boy, is that all you've got?” Dan teased me with that damn smirk still on his face. I knew he tried to annoy me on purpose but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of showing my annoyance.

Again the ball flew over the net towards me and this time I hit it with all my strength. The ball flew fast over the net and Dan didn't react fast enough.

I grinned at Aiden who was now standing on the side and he grinned back. Unfortunately I lost my concentration for a second, and the next moment I felt burning pain on the side of my face and I had fallen to the ground.

“Oops! Sorry Cody!” I heard Dan's voice from the distance, but he didn't sound very sincere.

“Shit Cody, are you okay?” Aiden was kneeling beside me with worried expression on his face.

“Y...Yeah, I think I'll survive,” I groaned and slowly lifted myself in to a sitting position, Aiden helping me to stay up. I had to blink a few times so I could get rid of the blurriness on my eyes.

“Did you really have to do that?” Aiden scowled at Dan who was now standing next to us.

“What? It was an accident!” Dan said defensively.

“Yeah right,” Aiden muttered under his breath and turned his attention back to me. He grabbed my chin gently and turned my face so he could examine the damage.

“You're going to have a nasty bruise,” he said and brushed his fingers over my face. I flinched when pain surged through my face.

“Sorry,” Aiden apologized and removed his hand from my cheek.

“It's okay, I've had worse,” I said and let Aiden help me stand.

“Let's get you back home,” Aiden said. He didn't let go of me, probably thinking that I would collapse if he removed his arm from my waist for a second.

“I'm sorry,” Aiden apologized again once we were on our way back to my home.

“What for?”

“For you getting hurt.” I could hear the regret in his voice, though he didn't have any reason for it.

“It's nothing really. It wasn't your fault.” Aiden didn't seem convinced but didn't say anything.

“I would hang out with you tomorrow but I promised to be with Dan and the others,” Aiden said, looking me with apologetic look on his face.

“Oh it's okay, I promised my dad I would spend some time with him this weekend,” I said and smiled. For some reason Aiden looked relieved. I hope he didn't think I would mind him spending time with his other friends. Because I didn't mind.

“Oh, good,” Aiden said and grinned. I waved at him as he drove away.

My dad was sitting by the kitchen table when I entered our house.

“Dad, do we have some ice?” I asked, rubbing gently my aching cheek.

“There should be in the freezer. Why do you --” He stopped in mid sentence when he saw the slowly darkening bruise on my cheek. “Holy shit, who re-arranged your face?” he jumped up from the chair and rushed over me to examine the bruise.

“I was hit by a tennis ball,” I said and removed his hand from my face.

“Tennis ball? Since when have you been into sports?” he asked and handed me some ice wrapped in a towel.

“Aiden wanted to teach me so we went to the tennis courts today,” I explained and pressed the towel against my cheek to stop the swelling.

“And he hit you with a tennis ball? You have weird friendship with him.”

“No, it wasn't Aiden. His friend Dan wanted to play with me and one of the balls hit me in the face.”

“Oh,” was all my dad said. “Well, when are you going to introduce me to your new friend? I'd like to know who my son spends his time with.” I gave him the what-the-fuck-are-you-talking-about -look.

“Dad, don't try to act like a proper parent, that really doesn't suit you,” I said with sarcasm, smirking at my dad's dumbfounded expression.

“You little shit,” he growled smiling and tried to grab me but I was faster.

“Catch me if you can!” I teased him and ran into the living room, laughing like a hyperactive child.