Jake, 15, slouched deep into the cold metal bleachers, arms crossed and hood up as he watched his older sister Gaby, 18, run drills on the soccer field. Their parents had dropped him off at her college practice—“just for an hour,” they said—while they went to run errands somewhere off campus. It had already felt like three hours, and Jake was convinced he was dying of boredom.

Gaby, decked out in her Kentucky Wildcats training gear, stood near the goal barking instructions and laughing with her teammates. Jake rolled his eyes dramatically.

“All this just to kick a ball into a trashcan?” he muttered under his breath. “This is what D1 athletics looks like?”

Gaby jogged up to the sideline for a water break and spotted him pouting in the stands. “Hey!” she called out with a teasing grin. “Enjoying the show?”

Jake groaned loudly. “You’re literally kicking balls into trash bins, Gaby. I could do that in flip-flops.”

She smirked. “Oh really? Wanna come down here and prove it?”

“Yeah, no thanks. I don’t need to embarrass you in front of your team.”

“Mhmm,” she said with a laugh, wiping her forehead with a towel. “Just admit you miss me and this is your secret way of bonding.”

Jake fake gagged. “Please. I miss Wi-Fi. I miss air conditioning. I miss not being surrounded by sweaty people yelling words like ‘pressing drill’ and ‘goal-line recovery.’”

Gaby laughed again before jogging back onto the field. “You love it,” she called over her shoulder.

He sighed, flopping back on the bench and pulling out his phone only to see No Service. Classic.