Despite staying up too late last night, I wake up early the next morning, feeling better rested than I have since vacation ended, even though I could have happily slept for another several hours. I keep trying to explain to my sisters how exercising can make me feel like I have more energy instead of less. Maybe it’s the kind of thing you need to experience in order to understand.

It’s also totally possible that my time with Noah at the end of the day yesterday, has a big something to do with how much better I’m feeling.

It doesn’t take long to walk over to the supermarket parking lot where our hastily put together car wash is taking place, exchanging sleepy nods when I get there with everyone else who was unlucky enough be assigned to the first shift.

No one is really in the mood to chat yet and by the look of it, no one was smart enough to bring food, but hey, we brought the buckets, sponges and squeegees. I’ll survive an hour or two without food.

Maybe.

I’m mostly still just hoping that waking up at eight in the morning on a Sunday, will prove to be worth it when we manage to grab the attention of some of the extra generous, Sunday morning church crowd.

Since there isn’t anyone here yet, I take a few minutes to check my phone and obsess over our fundraising page to see how things are going.

Word is still spreading through the town, maybe a little beyond with each new share of our crowdfunding page, with those most affected by the budget cut talk to their friends and neighbors. While the initial surge of donations has died down a little, we still had a few hundred more on our donation page when we woke up than we had when I’d gone to sleep.

Not bad at all for only a couple of days.

Every time a new update comes in, I end up attempting to recalculate what our final total might be to try and figure out just how this ends. Every estimate I’ve made so far has turned out to be way off base. It's not like math is my strong suit anyway.

Still, I could be playing soccer again for more than just fun by this time next week.

I’m only startled out of my daydreaming when I spot Noah walking towards the lot from the opposite direction of my house.

I guess he really did go way off track from his own route home last night. I didn’t know he was supposed to be here this morning, I checked the schedule. Several times.

Noah doesn’t seem to be paying attention to anything in particular as he strides toward our group, my heart rate speeds up automatically as I start mentally reliving everything that happened last night all over again, for what has to be at least the tenth time.

If Noah so much as smiles at me, I’ll probably do something I really shouldn’t. I probably shouldn’t have kissed him at all the first time. Now all I want to do is reach out and touch him all over again.

I don’t regret last night, but there’s also only so far I’m willing to push the boundaries of the deal I made with my parents.

Maybe if what I’d traded my freedom this semester for was something I cared about a little less, I’d be willing to take my chances and just hope I didn’t get caught.

I won’t risk Molly.

Maybe it’s for the best that Noah walks over to his buddies, not looking at me even once. Taking the option away all together. I should be relieved, instead I’m a little annoyed at the universe that it’s not even trying to tempt me.

My friends have been way luckier than Noah’s, and I don’t really know anyone else standing around the parking lot waiting for our first customers of the morning. As the first hour passes, it turns out that washing cars is actually something I’m pretty good at. Or at least, I don’t screw anything up badly enough that anyone notices.

More than once I try to catch Noah’s eye, just to see what kind of reaction I warrant, but he always seems to be looking everywhere but where I am. Eventually, I kind of have to admit to myself that he might not want a repeat of last night as much as I did. He doesn’t even seem to want to talk to me.

Right. It’s for the best. That’s what I have to keep telling myself.

I assign myself to interior detailing, not wanting to deal with water or soap in a chilly fall morning, throwing myself into my newest assignment as though it's every bit as important to me as soccer.

Not willing to let him think he has the upper hand, I mumble out a half-hearted hey to Noah the first time we end up working together on the same car, acting like I’m too busy to say anything else. Each time he’s close by though, I still can’t help but sneak a peek, wondering what he’s thinking or just wanting to have a look.

Why do guys have to be such a pain in the ass?

For my last car of the day I’ve crunched myself into an old Honda, removing what looks like years of garbage from the back seat, the opposite-side door opens. I look up just as Noah pops his head inside, leaning down to prop his elbows against the seat.

“Are you avoiding me?” He asks.

At first, all I want to do is pretend I have no idea what he’s talking about. Frankly, I just don’t see the point. “You were avoiding me first!”

Noah looks genuinely confused, his impossibly unblemished face looking far younger in the expression.

“Oh come on!” I say, not all that convinced. “As soon as you saw me this morning, you got all weird and kept looking away. You didn’t even come say hello. I figured, with last night…”

“That I was avoiding you? What kind of crazy person do you take me for? I switched with Bruins because I wanted to see you this morning!”

I’m grinning before I can help myself. Right away, Noah smiles back, showing off perfect white teeth. How is it that some people get to look like he does and be mega-talented at the same time?

Noah must take my reaction as some kind of invitation. A little awkwardly, he moves farther into the car, trying to pile all of his limbs in at a bit of a weird angle.

I can see the moment when he decides he’s going to kiss me, almost like it’s happening in slow motion.

This is my chance to cut this off right now. Last night was fun. I can't risk a second chance. Thanks but no thanks.

He’s so close to me now that it’s basically now or never if I want to find a way to say no, or pretend to misinterpret his intentions.

This time, he’s the one that kisses me first. The experience is just as perfect as it had been the night before. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, this time around doesn’t last nearly so long as anything Noah and I did last night. As he pulls back outside of the car, my body is already trying to convince me to crawl across the seat after him.

Of course this had to happen at the end of the day. By the time I finish the Honda, Noah is already working on a blue hatchback. I could wait around to say goodbye, instead, I settle for a wave and a see you later.

I can’t let this go any farther than it has already. I won’t.

Deep down, I want it to.

Monday at school brings more of the same insanity we juggled all weekend, now with classes thrown in with the added benefit of adults stepping in to keep us organized. Day by day, our coaches still send us off on chore duty, all while trying to put together a bake sale for Friday, a student art silent auction and a bunch of other things. I don’t even try to keep track of it all.

Things only get more intense as the rest of the school gets involved, both joining into the plans we already set in motion over the weekend and starting up new projects.

Day by day flies by so quickly that I’m almost constantly left feeling like I’m hanging on by the skin of my teeth, trying to stay on top of everything I have to.

At least I don’t have any classes with Noah, otherwise I’d have a whole other dilemma to juggle. At this point, I’m thinking about him almost as much as I am about soccer and saving the team and about how I absolutely cannot, in no way be thinking about him.

On Wednesday before school, I catch him just in time as he’s walking toward me while I’m still with my sisters. I find an excuse to go in another direction, not willing to risk him saying, or doing anything that might tip my family off that I’ve been playing a little loose with the rules of our agreement.

In an attempt to make up for my missed shift the week before, I show up at the shelter every day, even though I’m only technically scheduled on Thursday mornings. I spend an hour each day walking with the dogs, or picking up poop in the yard, promising myself that the next time I see Kendra in person I will beg for forgiveness.

I know I should have texted her an apology already. Every time I think of it, I convince myself I’ve already waited too long and that if I wait until I see her. The latter will seem more deliberate somehow.

Every time it happens, I know it’s a mistake as soon as I put my phone away. I still can’t bring myself to type the words.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

It’s all too easy to just let myself get lost in fundraising again and again.

At least I know the dogs appreciate the extra effort I’ve been putting in.

The unfortunate side-effect though, is that I usually show up at school exhausted and bleary-eyed. I’ve become something of an expert at power-napping during classes, or even at lunch time while my friends catch up on homework, coordinating their latest plans and results.

By lunch period on Thursday, I’m basically zombie-Reece. I do my best to pay attention while the people around me try to figure out how much progress we’ve made, and how much more they think we can do in the next three days.

Our car wash made a couple hundred bucks, which wasn’t bad for something we put together in two days. I know I’ll always look back on that day as time well spent.

The online crowdfunding campaign ticked over the two thousand dollar mark on Wednesday afternoon, with the orders for student helpers keep ticking in.

From the sounds of it, the drama club was attempting to put on a last-minute showcase that they could sell tickets to in an attempt to help out. This is the first time I’m hearing about it, but it sounds like it's already scrapped. Too much to do in too little time.

It’s really is cool to see just how much everyone is trying. Everyone around me is giving absolutely as much as they can in an attempt to pull this off. Our town as small as it is, is behind us.

I guess the only remaining question is, how much is any of this is going to matter a few days from now?