“Ji Ho’s taller than Kyung!” Amelia argued.

                “True, but…”  Beki lowered her voice to a low whisper.  “She’s already in with him as the best friend.  It cancels everything else out.  I mean, seriously now, how have you not jumped him yet?”

                I choked on my tongue trying to laugh.  “Geez, Beki, don’t you think of other stuff?  What are you, a boy?”

                “Girls think about this stuff just as much as guys do,” Amelia defended, receiving a high five from Beki.

                I sighed heavily.  “I don’t want to mess with a good thing.  I’d rather have him as my best friend than as nothing because I couldn’t control my hormones and we messed around…” I replied dejectedly.  Doing all the things on pages 86, 71, and 24 repeatedly…all night.  Lord, it got warm out here.

                “Jo’s got a point.  Friends are important and she clearly means a lot to him.  He adores her even though she dresses like a boy,” Amelia remarked, eyeing my track pants and hoodie.  I shot her back a look that said ‘forgive me if we don’t all like dressing like cutsey Barbie dolls like some people.’  She ignored me and nodded.  “Smart girl.  Keep your hormones out of your friendship with Ji Ho, even though he’s a smoking hot goalie.”

                I rolled my eyes.  “Thanks,” I mumbled.

                Amelia broke out in a fit of giggles.  “How about Yu Kwon then?” she guessed, pretending she didn’t see the glare of death Beki was shooting at her.

                I hummed thoughtfully, pretending to mull the idea over in my head.  I twirled my ponytail around my finger away from Beki.  “No,” I finally replied.  “Too gay for me,” I teased.  Beki scoffed.

                “You two are so lucky you’re my friends,” she grumbled.

                “Oh, you know we’re just teasing.  Yu Kwon is super y,” I assured her.

                A cheeky grin appeared on her face.  “He is, isn’t he.”

                Just then, three players came jogging over to where we sat.  Smiling widely and looking like works of art in their uniforms.

                “Hey, ladies!” Yu Kwon greeted us.  He nodded at Beki and pecked her on the cheek.  I felt nauseous.  “You came!”

                “Of course we did,” Amelia replied, wrapping her arms around Jae Hyo’s neck for a quick hug.

                Ji Ho smiled at me and then, face turning emotionless, he gave me a cool, guy nod.  I fixed my expression to match his and nodded back.

                “You two are so weird,” Amelia giggled.  “Cute, but weird.”

                “I caught it from her,” Ji Ho retorted.

                As soon as the laughter died down, I looked around at the increasingly crowded bleachers.  “Hey, where’s Soo Rin?  I thought she’d come see you play,” I wondered.

                “Who?” Ji Ho squeaked.  Realization flashed through his eyes.  “Oh!  Oh yeah, I don’t know.  She’s probably around here somewhere, I’m sure.”  He shrugged after only scanning the crowd for a second.  “We just came by to say hi.  We’re going to start soon.”  He held his hand out to me.  I leaned forward to give him a high five.  We wished them good luck and they jogged back to the field.

                The game would have been exciting if, and this will sound terribly cocky but it’s true so I feel no regret for saying it, if our team wasn’t so good.  We killed the other school.  Ji Ho didn’t let a single goal in.  We laughed as we watched the guys dance around after the final score was called. 

                “Man, I wish the seven of them wouldn’t dance like that.  They look like members of a boy band in a music video,” I said.  My friends grew silent as they studied the guys’ crazy moves.  We looked at each other and fell into laughter all over again.

                The pangs of jealousy didn’t last long when, after the game was over, I watched Amelia and Beki hug their guys and tell them how great they played.

                Ji Ho came up and swung me around before he dropped me.  He teased my lack of balance and the group of us fell into easy conversation about our favorite points in the game.

                Best friend.  It’s better than nothing.

                Monday at school, I was sitting with Amelia and Beki before first period in the cafeteria.  “Oh, hey there she is,” Beki said standing up and waving at someone across the room.  “The new girl I told you about.  Her name is Natalie.  Her family just moved into my building.  Today is her first day.  I met her yesterday.  She’s cool.”

                A pretty blond girl with big blue doe eyes came walking shyly over.

                “Natalie!” Beki greeted her happily.  “These are my friends, Amelia and Jordan.”

                “Hey,” she smiled at us.

                “Sit, sit,” Beki insisted.  Natalie sat next to us.

                “Thanks.  I felt like such a loser sitting over there by myself,” she laughed.  We talked for a few minutes before Kyung, Ji Ho, Jae Hyo, and Yu Kwon sauntered over.  Introductions made, we continued to play ‘get to know you’ with Natalie.

                A moment later, a shocked look washed over her face.  “Oh!  I was supposed to go to the main office to drop off my records.  My mom just received them from my last school on the base back in the States.  Crap!”

                Beki giggled and stood.  “Come on.  I’ll take you.  I have to stop at my locker anyway.  It’s on the way.”  Natalie smiled in relief.  We said our goodbyes and Yu Kwon stood up to follow the girls out of the cafeteria.

               Jae Hyo dropped his arm across Amelia’s shoulders.  “She was nice,” he said casually.  Amelia nodded.

                “Yeah, she’s cool.”

                “Hey,” Ji Ho said elbowing me lightly in the ribs.  “Hook me up.  She’s hot.”

                The rest of us cracked up.  I must pat myself on the back.  My laughter sounded legitimate.  Amelia rolled her eyes at him, but his two friends – both possessing male minds – chuckled and cheered him on, agreeing that the blond beauty was indeed, well, a blond beauty.

                “I just met her,” I told him.  “Give me a couple of days before I push her into the shark tank.”  Ji Ho pouted his lower lip at me.  God, I loved his mouth.  I swallowed the sigh of heavy jealousy and ignored the pain in my head.  “Fine, I’ll talk to her.  I’ll do the ‘girls talk about boys’ thing and see if she’s interested in meeting a super y soccer player.  I’ll leave out the part about you being a horn ball,” I teased.

                Ji Ho tugged on my ponytail as the warning bell rang signaling five minutes until first period began.

                “We got your back, Ji Ho,” Amelia assured him. 

                “You girls are the best.”  He slung his arm around my neck and nodded at Jae Hyo and Kyung.  “I told you having such close friends that are girls would come in handy.”

                We were still laughing as we headed to our lockers.  His arm was still on my shoulder.

                Natalie, hm? I thought to myself.  She was pretty, girlie, smart from what she said about the classes she’d taken at her last school.  A package deal.

                And it was Monday.  New week.  New flavor.