Chapter 1.2

How the hell do I get this damn text background off? It isn't in Any other posts! help ME! To the story, since I can't fix this problem.

So, this is Sunset Valley. It’s really not to bad of a place. Pretty decent scenery, and it was near the ocean. However, the scenery hardly mattered to me. What mattered was the sports team. Sunset Valley especially failed in that category.
(Sorry the roof on the house is missing)But I had a lot of athletic ability! I could turn this team around. Hell, one day I might lead them to a championship. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.
I frowned. Oh who am I kidding? Ending up here was awful. Sunset Valley has had good players before, but they always end up losing. Are they freaking cursed or something? Plus, being in this town would mean my family could never come see me play. They were way too far away to drive, and they can’t afford to fly. Bridgeport is only a few hours away. I wonder, what if I had done what Mr. Eads wanted me too, and if I was still on his team. No, I’d rather be here than be blackmailed into being someone’s sex slave. Especially a 50 year old man’s sex slave. I got hungry and went inside to the kitchen.
“Food, I suppose that would be in the fridge,” I muttered to myself. I opened the refrigerator and found some mac and cheese. Yum.
“Okay, Shawn, you can do this. Just read the directions.” I had no idea how to cook. I never needed to know before. I wasn’t used to taking care of myself. As a kid, my parents would do everything for us. In college, the girls would take care of me. That, was great.
“Well,  I guess I’ll try cutting up this cheese,” I sighed. You’d think the cheese would already be like grated. I don’t even know what the green stuff is. I’ll just leave that out. It might be like, vegetables or something.
I finished the mac and cheese. My first meal I ever made by myself. It wasn’t half bad either. Just, that damn stove was hard to cook on. I needed more money, I didn’t have a lot of money growing up. I thought becoming a professional athlete would change that. It’s too bad I made that one mistake by taking steroids. My life would be so different if I never did.
I saw someone walking up to my house through the window. No way? It was her. I jumped out of my seat, and ran to the door to greet her.
“Shawn!” She squealed, “How are you?” It was my cousin Sarah. We were best friends growing up, until her family moved here to Sunset Valley. She was the only reason I wanted to be here.
“I’m doing alright,” I assured her, and pulled her into a hug. We went inside and went into my crappy tv room.
Sarah smiled, “It’s really good to see you again Shawn.”
“Yeah, I know, it’s been like six years,” I said.
“I can tell you aren’t happy here Shawn,” She said.
“Well, the sports team here is terrible. That’s what matter Sarah,” I began.
Sarah cut in, “But Shawn, it’s your fault you ended up here. You made those bad decisions. Sports isn’t all that matters. My father moved us here, even though they had a terrible sports team.”
“And look where you father is now,” I said, “he’s dead.”
“That was a bit harsh Shawn,” Sarah smirked.
“Yeah, I’m sorry, I should have said that,” I apologized. Sarah’s dad died from a heart attack last year, and to make it worse, her mother committed suicide just days after. She wasn’t quite over that yet.
“Hey, I have an idea,” Sarah said, and threw her hands up in excitement.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“We should have a sleepover, like when we were little, it’ll be fun!” She exclaimed.
“I don’t know,” I said, “I mean, I’m twenty-two now, not twelve.”
“Just do it Shawn!” She yelled. I guess I owed her to reminding her of her dead parents.
We both changed into our sleepwear. We didn’t realize what out sleepwear was though.
“Oh, my Shawn,” Sarah gasped.
“Awkward!” I proclaimed. We both changed into clothes more cousin friendly.
We then went and had a pillow fight. “I’m going to kick you ass!” Sarah screamed.
“Okay, right,” I said sarcastically, right before she hit me in the head, knocked me down, and took a shot at my balls.
“Ow, fuck you,” I hissed. Sarah stood there, and laughed her ass off.
“Can we do something else?” I asked.
We decided to take the radio outside, and put it to full blast and dance.
“Are you sure we won’t wake the neighbors?!” I yelled over the sound of the music.
“Who cares!” Sarah shouted back.
“Hey, do your neighbors have a pool?” Sarah asked.
“Of course, they’re like billionaires,” I answered.
“Then, come on!”  She took off towards the pool, I ran up with her.
“You get in first,” I said.
“I’ve been doing everything first,” Sarah complained, “You need to do something exciting. Hmm, now Sarah was scared too? If we got caught, the Alto’s have the power to put us in jail forever.
I got in first, and Sarah jumped in after me. “Would you be quiet!” I hissed.
“Don’t be so boring Shawn!” Sarah snapped. I was not boring, I just couldn’t afford to get into any trouble.
I splashed Sarah, “Shut up, I’m fun still.”
“Don’t be so easily offended Shawn,” Sarah laughed.
After like an hour of swimming, we got out, and headed back over to my place. We were exhausted.
“Shawn, let’s sleep in a tent!” Sarah suggested.
“I might have a tent somewhere around here,” I said. Sure enough, I found one, and we set it up in the back. I got in the tent.
Sarah followed after me. We chatted for a little while, and told ghost stories, but we both eventually just passed out cause we were so tired. It was almost 4 am by that time, but Sarah’s dumb phone went off. She was about to be late for work, and had to leave immediately.
I got up, and it was just in time to see the sun rise. It was really beautiful actually. I went inside and had some coffee, and I suddenly wasn’t tired anymore. I decided to take a trip to the gym.
I still had a lot of work to do, to get my athletic skill higher. After stopping the steroids, my body got a lot weaker, and I realized that I wasn’t as fit as I thought I was. I worked out hard, and really started to feel the burn.
Another person, a woman came in and started working out. I decided to go and say hi. I hadn’t been around any females besides Sarah since I’d been here.
Besides the fact that she was sweating like a pig, she looked really pretty. I realized I wanted to impress her.
“Hey, the name’s Shawn Nguyen,” I said flexing my muscles.
“Why should I care?” She grunted out, in between breaths.
“Listen, I’m really not that self centered, I just didn’t know how to talk to you,” I explained.
She got up, and stood in front of me. My eyes drifted from her face. Hmm, decent hooters, not huge, but not small, but just right, I thought.
Shawn?” She asked. I looked up.
“I was looking at your face!” I shouted suddenly.
“What?” She laughed. Phew, she didn’t notice. Or she didn’t care, either was good.
“Sorry, I’m nervous,” I admitted.
“It’s alright,” She said. Okay, well I was going to ask her on a date, here goes nothing.
“I was just wondering, do you think, maybe you’d like to go on a date with me?” I asked hopefully.
She frowned, and my hopes we crushed. “Listen Shawn,” She began, “I’m really not interested in starting a relationship right now.”
“I guess I understand,” I sighed.
She was looking out the window. She started out the window for several seconds. She was watching something. I couldn’t see anything except a school.
“Maybe I should go,” she said.
“Wait,” I stopped her, “What’s your name?” Did I really ask out a girl, who’s name I hadn’t yet learned?
“Uhh, it’s Anita,” She said quickly before attempting to walk past me.
“Wait, are you sure you don’t want to go on a date?” I asked again, “I promise you’ll have fun.”
“Listen, I’m sure you’re a nice guy Shawn, but I really don’t want to,” She said.There was something about this girl, I needed to know her more, I had to get a yes from her.
“Come on, everyone needs to get out some time,” I said.
Then Anita exploded in my face, “For the last fucking time dude, I do want to fucking go out with you! I said no! That means no! I will call the police for sexual harassment if you don’t stop asking me!”
“Sorry,” I sputtered out.
“Should be, bitch.” Anita growled. Feisty, I like it.
She pushed past me, and walked out of the gym. This wasn’t the last time she’d see me though. I felt something about her. Like sometimes you don't know someone, but you really want to know them because something about them gives you a warm feeling.  I’ll find a way to get through to her, even if I have to do it from jail. She was going to be mine. Okay, that sounds creepy. It’s not.
A few minutes after that incident with Anita, I went back to working out. I got a phone call, it was from Miles Smith, my boss. He let me call him Miles now, instead of Mr. Smith. Exciting I know. The phone call was good news. I had gotten my first promotion!