I walked into the common area of the Boy’s Dormitory in an attempt to find solace from the heat that had overtaken my dorm room. It was the last week in August and the first week that I had moved into the boarding school. I opened my laptop and started to login to my facebook account when he entered the room. He was wearing a blue tee-shirt with yellow sleeves, a pair of navy shorts, and ratty tennis shoes. His shoulder length brown hair was wet and he looked a little surprised to find me in the room.

“Hi,” he said nervously

“Hi,” I replied.

“Is this your free period too?” He asked.

“Yep,” I replied, pleased to find out we had the same one. He was cute in a way. Not in the classic sense, but in the slightly nerdy and awkward way one might associate with someone who plays dungeons and dragons.

“I just took a shower.”

“And how was that?”

“Nice, the cold water feels really good in this weather.”

“Well what are you doing now?” I asked him, a plan forming in my head.

“I don’t know.”

“Well, you beat me at foosball yesterday, how about a rematch?”

“Sure,” he said and with that we found ourselves walking towards the main building.

We made our way across the grassy pathway silently. The campus was seemingly empty because most students did not have a free period at this time. Our freshmen year schedules must have been different from others somehow. My dyed red hair was plastered to my forehead from the sweat that was rolling down my face. We entered the game room.

“Do you want to be yellow or black?” I asked, indicating the teams on the foosball table.

“Black.”

I crossed so that I could stand in front of the black pieces. He looked disappointed as he took his spot in front of the yellow team. I waited a second to see if he would get that I was kidding, but he didn’t.

“I’m just messing around,” I said and I crossed to where he was standing, taking a hold of the handles to the yellow team. They were slippery with sweat.

“Oh, ok,” he said, his whole face lightening up as he grabbed ahold of the black handles.

“Have you played foosball a lot?” I asked him as I dug around in my goal for the ball.

“My brothers played a lot and so they taught me some tricks when I was growing up,” he said.

“Really, that explains why you are so good,” I said before popping the ball into the starting hole.

After a heated ten seconds the ball rolled past my goalie into the goal. He grinned at me. I put the ball back into play and about fifteen seconds later was pulling it out of my goal again.

“Ok, so I know a good magician never reveals his secrets, but can you show me one of these tricks so these games last a little bit longer?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“You want to use the branch with the five guys on it. I usually keep the ball with the one on the far right.”
I nodded, watching carefully.

“Then you cross it over to the one right next to him and angle it so it goes into the left corner of your opponents goal.”

He took the shot and it went straight into the goal.

“Genius.”

He went back over to his side.

“So, tell my a little bit more about yourself,” I asked before putting the ball back into play.

“Ok, what do you want to know?”

The ball rolled around the table for a moment before I was able to get it in the placement he had taught me. I crossed the ball over and shot it straight into the left hand corner of his goal.

“Well, are you religious?” I asked him.

“Not really, I consider myself an atheist, you?” He asked, before starting the next point.

“Me too,” I said blocking a goal and shooting one right into his goalie.

“What political party do you consider yourself?” I asked as he shot a goal right past me.

“I’m a democrat I think,” he said.

I took the ball out of my goal and shot it right into his, catching him off guard.

“Thank God, we might actually be able to be friends then,” I said smiling.

“Are you a democrat then?” He asked.

We had one of the longest points to date, lasting about 2 minutes before it finally went into my goal. The score was then him 4 me 2.

“Yes, I am a huge Hillary Clinton fan.”

“Who?”

I used the trick he taught me to score another on him before looking up at him incredulously.

“Hillary Clinton. Secretary of State, Former First Lady, Presidential Hopeful, you have to have heard of her.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Well, I’ll give you my whole spiel on her later, we have to finish this game before lunch starts.”

I put the ball in and he managed to get it past me with a quick shot down the middle, winning the game. A few seconds after his victory the lunch bell rang.

“Hey, I was wondering, do you maybe want to sit next to me at lunch,” he asked, obviously still nervous.

“I don’t know. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think I can sit next to someone who didn’t know who Hillary Clinton was,” I said.

“Oh, ok,” he replied disappointedly.

“Wow, you really don’t know when I’m kidding, do you? I would love to sit next to you at lunch. Also, I hope you know we are having a foosball rematch afterwards,” I responded.

“Game on,” he said and we took our seats at the table.