Wade fiddled with the strap around his neck as he waited for the verdict on his newest article for the Oakfield High Gazette. At the end of the previous year, the club's president had graduated, and without a current president the system of deciding what articles went into the paper had slowed way down.

"Wade," Wade looked up to see Ms. Kyo, the newspaper club's mentor, handing him an envelope.

"Wonderful article as always! It's short and straight to the point, will be a great read for our first publishing of the year,"

Wade smiled as he slid the envelope under his arm and thanked her. He began to leave the room, planning on heading to meet up with Molly, who typically edited the articles, before he was stopped.

"Wait, before you go home today; the soccer team is having practice tonight, and the principal wants someone to write a short paragraph about the team. It shouldn't take too long," she said, Wade sighed.

"Do you think someone else can do it? This might be a better time for that new junior to show what she can do maybe?" Wade asked. He was supposed to meet up with Mark and head home with him after school. Mark was already annoyed at Wade from ditching him last year for the newspaper.

Ms. Kyo shook her head,
"I've already sent Amy to do an segment on the marching band. They've been practicing all summer for competition, so she's currently occupied with that,"

Wade sighed, looking down at his watch, he didn't have to meet up with Mark for another few hours. He agreed to do the segment, saying good bye to Ms. Kyo and left, heading to the library to talk to Molly before making his way to the field to interview the team.

When he arrived to the library only the librarians and a few students remained, in the back corner was Molly. She sat on the ground, papers and textbooks spread out with her laptop in front of her as she took notes. Her blonde hair was tied up in a bun, a pencil sticking out of the middle.

"Geesh, it's only the second day and you already look like an mess" Wade observed, Molly's head snapped up in his general direction. A sweet smile resting on her face as she put down her notebook and stretched.

"That what happens when over half of your schedule is made up of AP courses... " she moved a piece of hair that dangled in front of her face. Wade crinkled his nose before laughing, he could hear a librarian shush him but he ignored them.

"Well I'm about to add on to your work load," Wade pulled the envelope from under his arm out and handed it to Molly, she opened it and began skimming over it.

"Kyo needs it by tomorrow after school, but I'll also probably have something else for you to do tomorrow morning," Molly nodded her head

"Is she going for Thursday publications this year?" Molly asked, she grabbed a red pen from her back pack and underlined a few words

"Yeah," Wade turned to look over the room, out side one of the big windows he saw Mark and Tyler walking down the hall with Amy, the newest member of the Oakfield High Gazette.

"Where will you be tomorrow morning? Or should I just email you the segment I'm writing after school?" Molly wrote a few more notes on the paper.

"You are terrible at conjunctions, how did you pass forth grade...? But uh, yeah just email it or something, I'll be in Ms Markel's room first period though," Wade nodded his head, turning to leave before Molly spoke up again.

"Wait, so Wade," she began, "I was wondering if, uh, you..." Her words fell off as her face turned a bright red. Wade stood still waiting for her to continue before she just shook her head. "Nevermind, I'll talk to you tomorrow..."

📷

Wade wondered the halls of the school for awhile until he heard the sound of echoing voices. He followed them till they became clearer, more recognizeable, and quickened his pace. At the end of the hall was two of his closest friends, Mark Fischbach and Tyler Scheid, along which the newest member of the Oakfield High Gazette, Amy Nelson.

"Hey guys!" Mark turned and waved as he watched Wade approach. Amy looked relieved to see Wade, Wade in return chuckled.

"Already scaring our new journalist?" Wade joked, Tyler snickered, and Mark rolled his eyes.

"Noo, I'm just telling Ms. Nelson here about our award winning marching band. Thank you very much- now where was I...?"

"Something about how you single handedly saved Christmas," Tyler mocked and Mark pushed him into a locker. Wade shook his head and gave an apologetic look to Amy who stood to the side watching.

"Well, I think I, uh, have enough information. So I'm just going to go..." Amy mumbled softly before she left heading down the hallway Wade came from, Tyler and Mark paused their 'fight' to wish her goodbye.

"I like her," Mark stated, pushing Tyler off of him and smoothing out his shirt. He turned to walk back down the hall before turning and pointing at Wade.

"How much to get you to get me her number?" Wade snorted, shaking his head. He began to reply before Tyler cut him off;

"'Senior Trumpet player begs friend to ask a girl for her number, because he's too afraid to do it' Sounds great can't wait to read it!" Tyler said as if he was an announcer. Mark glared at him and Wade as they erupted into giggles.

"Alright, alright, shut up," Mark laughed as they continued down the hall. "Before you can even start to give me crap for wanting her number we first have to talk about how Wade still hasn't asked Molly out after 3 years," Mark pointed out matter-of-factly. Wade groaned, rolling his eyes at his two friends as he glanced at his watch. He's heard this too many times already...

"Don't be like that, Wade. It's obvious you two were made for each other. She's the Ying to your Yang, the editor to your writer," Mark held his hands up as if he was meditating, Wade shook his head.

"Yeah, all because we both work on the newspaper we're perfect for each other. With that logic maybe I should ask Amy out," Wade chuckled seeing Mark crinkle his nose at the thought.

"But I mean like... She likes you. How many other girls at this school actually like you?" Tyler laughed and Mark smirked, Wade couldn't care less about girls. He liked them, sure, but they never caught his attention. He could really care less about dating anyone right now too.

"Okay, whatever you guys say," Wade glanced at his watch, "I have to head out to the soccer field to interview the team, I'll meet up with you two later," Wade began walking away from his friends back down the hall.

"Wade! Do me a favor and at least ask Molly to go to Homecoming!" Mark shouted after him, Wade rolled his eyes, waving at them as he turned the corner.

📷

With notebook in hand and camera around his neck, Wade stood to the side of the soccer field watching the team practice. He never really enjoyed doing reports on sports, never had an interest in them, but he wasn't going to complain now.

As he took a few pictures of the team, James Stevenson, the team captain, approached him.

"You're the one who's supposed to do the interview...report thingy?" he asked taking a deep breath, he held his water bottle to his lips before taking a swig of water.

"Yeah,"

James called the team over, the boys crowding around to listen to James talk. He didn't talk for long, letting the boys shout various things at Wade as he quickly wrote them down.

"Anyone want to say anything else?" James asked looking to each player.

"Wait, where's the new kid?" the group went silent as they looked to one another. Wade watched them confused, who's missing?

"Sorry I'm late," they all turned to see someone else running up. He wore the same uniforms as the rest of the team but his shirt was on backwards and his cleats were barley tied. His hair was messy in a way Wade found almost charming, and with strains of hair falling across his dark brown eyes he looked almost bashful.

Wade snapped out of his thoughts as someone began talking.

"You're like," one of the members that Wade recognized from his calculus class (Patrick?), began.
"...Forty minutes late. Where have you been?" the new guy opened his mouth to reply but was cut off.

"It doesn't matter, I want the rest of you to do passing drills, and you-" James pointed the the new guy, "Talk to Wade here then I want you to do fifteen laps around the field," they all agreed, the majority of the team heading towards the field.

"Uh... Hi. Sorry I'm late I guess...," Wade stared silently for a few moments his mind reeling before opening his note pad to a new page and turned to face the other.

"So let's begin,"

📷