Jake’s Saga – Ch. 02 – Spring Break

Jake awoke early the next morning, he rolled out of bed went to the bathroom and went about his morning routine. He tried his best to shake last night’s events with his girlfriend out of his head. Once ready, Jake drove off to the High School and walked up to the baseball field. He was the first player there, and ran a few laps to get warmed up. He noticed the scouts started showing up, and took their seats in the bleachers. Jake finished his jog as his best friend and catcher Chris Archer showed up. “About time man! I was just about to call you!” Jake jokingly shouted. The two started throwing and got loose for the game. Just before Jake started to throw his pre-game bullpen, he looked to the stands trying to scan for Katie, no sign of her. Was she really that mad at him? He pushed her out of his head focusing on the game. Jake was lights out on the mound. Throwing a shutout and struck out 14 batters. It was Jake’s best outing of the year. His coach talked to him after the game, “the scouts were impressed, they will be back in a few weeks, keep pitching like that and the offers will be rolling in!” Jake was ecstatic, he had been working his ass off over the last four years for the chance to continue playing ball after high school. He sent a text to Katie, informing her of the news and said he wanted to see her before he went to Mexico with his family for spring break.



Sunday came and went, and he had still got nothing back from Katie. “Fuck it,” Jake said to himself, “If she wants to be mad at me then so be it, I won’t let it ruin my vacation.” Jake finished packing his bag for the 5 day trip. Monday morning came, and a cab picked the family from the airport. A few hours later they were in Playa del Carmen, dropped off in front of their hotel. They went to the front office to check in. “Im sorry,” the concierge said with a hint of a Mexican accent “It appears all we have are queen beds at the moment.”That’s fine, the kids can share a bed for a few nights, besides, we’re in paradise!” Exclaimed Jakes dad, who slapped him on the back.



After getting settled into their room, their parents came by, and informed them that they would each get $500 to spend during their time in Mexico. “Thanks!” The twins exclaimed in unison. Alexis went off to the information center to book a trip to some Mayan ruins, while Jake pondered what he wanted to spend his money on. He went to the balcony, and saw some divers gearing up near the resort dive shop. “That’s it!” Jake said he had always wanted to learn to dive, why not now? He changed out of his travel clothes and put on board shorts and a tank top, hoping to work on his tan over the next couple of days, he put on his flip flops, grabbed his shades and walked down to the dive shop.



“As luck would have it, we have a class starting in a half hour” said the clerk, “fill out this paperwork, and we’ll get you started” Jake sat in the classroom and found one other student in the room, olive skin, brown eyes, wavy brown hair, she was beautiful. Jake sat down and introduced himself, the girl replied in broken English, with the sexiest Italian accent, “I am Valentina, nice to meet you.” They shook hands, and chatted for a little bit. Jake learned that she was from a small villa outside of Pisa, and was in Mexico with her family for a few weeks. The Instructor, Matt, came in and set down his books. “So you guys want to dive, I’m here to teach you how” he said energetically, before teaching the basics of SCUBA Diving. Matt talked about the physics of diving and covered the basic gear, the class watched some videos and took some quizzes. Jake found it pretty simple, but Valentina was struggling a little bit. They moved onto the pool, and did some basic skills, clearing a flooded mask, recovering a regulator that came out of their mouth, and went through the procedures in case they ran out of air. By 5:00pm they were done with everything for the day. “We’ll meet at 9:00am in the classroom,” The instructor said “Finish reading the book and do the problems at the end of the remaining chapters, and we’ll finish up the quizzes and test tomorrow” They were dismissed and Jake started walking away from the dive shop.



Valentina caught up to Jake and asked for his help with the remaining book-work, he readily agreed, eager to spend time with this Italian beauty. He explained everything to her in a way she could understand, at the end of the night when she understood the material she thanked him, giving him a kiss on the cheek as she said goodnight.



The next morning they covered the remaining material in the classroom which they both excelled at. “Good Job,” Jake told Valentina, “I have good tutor” she replied with a wink.