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Any Yellowjacket player would affirm that Jackie Taylor and Shauna Shipman were, in fact, best friends. Out of everyone on the team, besides maybe Nat and Van, they had known each other the longest. Meeting in preschool, and their parents becoming friends as well, it was natural they would be attached at the hip for most of their lives. That was what Shauna and Jackie had mentioned once or twice, at least.
Any Yellowjacket player would also affirm that even when far away, Jackie and Shauna always seemed to be stealing glances at one another. Van and Taissa would notice at least, mostly because while stealing glances at each other as well, Jackie’s pale green eyes would catch theirs, only to find Jackie was staring at Shauna, who would be positioned right next to them.
“The closet is glass,” Van chuckled to Taissa one day, causing the taller girl to laugh, kicking the soccer ball into the ginger’s direction, where it would be returned to Taissa moments later with a lazy kick.
Both were staring across the field, where Shauna and Jackie were passing back and forth as well, where just then, Jackie had kicked the ball a bit too hard due to her staring at Shauna, causing it to roll off the field. Zeroing in on the ball, Jackie chased after it, only to slam into Shauna, who had been standing there after failing to receive the runaway ball. The impact of Jackie sent both girls tumbling to the ground, Jackie landing on top of Shauna.
Jackie sat up, realizing she was seated atop Shauna’s stomach. Looking down at the brunette, she began to apologize, murmuring about how she “didn’t realize she was standing right there.” In response, while out of character, Shauna began to giggle, telling the one on top of her that it was okay. Jackie laughed as well, still blushing furiously, not hiding her blush as well as Shauna.
Both lay in the grass, the spring breeze flowing through Jackie’s blonde hair. Jackie stood up awkwardly, walking back awkwardly so as to not step on Shauna’s toned legs, before offering her arm, which the other girl gladly took, pulling her up while still laughing.
“I see what you mean,” Taissa replied, smirking.
“You have grass all over you!” Jackie giggled, trying to frivolously wipe the grass stains from Shauna’s shorts, which the slightly taller girl blushed at slightly, now matching Jackie’s blush the blonde had kept adorning her face since the initial tumble in the grass.
Van and Taissa weren’t the only girls to take notice, however.
“Is it weird that Shauna and Jackie act like boyfriend and girlfriend?” Laura Lee asked Lottie, whom she was also passing to.
The taller girl raised her brow in question, chuckling, “what do you mean by that?”
“Well, Jackie was just on top of Shauna, like boyfriends and girlfriends do when they- y’know,” the blonde blushed, before adding “I know it was an accident and she just got off her, but both of them are really blushy. If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume both were feverish.” The blonde sighed.
“You don’t say?” Lottie laughed, playing with the brunette braids that fell just on her shoulders.
“I do say. I just did,” Laura Lee huffed.
“Look, I also wanna play pretend boyfriend-girlfriend with my girl friends, but that doesn’t mean I should do it at practice,” Laura Lee said, before adding “we need to focus, y’know?”
The blue eyed girl turned to Lottie, whose jaw was slackened in surprise at the unknown confession the blonde had just made.
“What?” Laura Lee laughed nervously, “was it something I said?”
“Nope, I just zoned out,” Lottie replied quickly, quickly grinning about what she had just discovered about Laura Lee, that being something the girl in question didn’t even know about herself.
“What does pretend boyfriend-girlfriend entail?” Lottie asked, kicking the ball back to the blonde.
The girl in question blushed. “Y’know, hugging, holding hands… k-kissing ,” Laura Lee whispered, as if it were blasphemous.
Lottie nodded. “Would you be opposed to playing boyfriend-girlfriend outside of practice?”
“I don’t think so. It wouldn’t distract people from playing, so I guess it’s fine,” Laura Lee told her, not understanding the question.
Lottie didn’t press on, already getting the information she needed.
Jackie sighed, grabbing Shauna’s hand. “It’s no use, the grass stains won’t come off.”
“Jackie, it’s fine, really, I can just stick with these until the end of practice. The uniforms are made to be dirty,” Shauna sighed, reciprocating the hand hold.
“Uh uh, missy. This will not do, I’ll grab you a spare, come on!” Jackie chuckled, strolling off to the locker room, tugging Shauna behind her.
The brunette followed, a soft blush forming on her face once again, her hair matching Jackie’s in the fact it blew wildly in the spring breeze.
Natalie leaned against the stands she had hidden behind to smoke. She pulled the cigarette away from her mouth, a trail of smoke being left in its wake.
“Y’know smoking is bad for you, right?”
Natalie jumped, her breath hitching. She turned quickly, only to be met with the brown eyes, hidden behind thick glasses that belonged to none other than Misty Quigley.
Natalie ignored her, sighing.
“Those two are so gay it’s funny,” she chuckled, lifting the cigarette back up to her mouth, before her pale hand was promptly smacked, sending the cigarette into the dirt below.
Natalie sent the shorter girl a glare that could only be described as murderous.
The blonde shrugged. “You’ll thank me when you’re not dying from lung cancer at age 30,” she told her, smiling intently.
“You really think I’m planning on living to 30?” Natalie chuckling, smirking.
“Don’t say stuff like that,” Misty replied weakly, her crestfallen expression causing Natalie’s smirk to fall in an instant.
Guilt fell in Nat’s stomach like a rock, seeing the concerned, yet sad look on the curly haired girl’s face. Misty pushed up her glances, staring at the ground.
“Fine. Whatever, but you have to agree with me about those two,” Natalie said half heartedly.
Misty let out a slightly unhinged laugh, receiving a concerned glance from the bleach-blonde haired girl, concerned at how Misty had seemingly recovered from the sadness that had grazed her face moments before.
“Totally. There is no straight explanation for them. Like- if a guy and girl acted like that, they would 100% be already dating,” Misty told her, fidgeting with the pink sweater she wore under her jacket.
Shauna sighed, feeling the cool air of the locker room envelope her entire body but her hand, which was still held by Jackie’s warm hand. She smiled softly, watching the girl softly relinquish her hand only to rummage through the spare uniforms. The smaller girl was crouching on the floor, moving her hand around the bag and pulling out its contents, looking for Shauna’s size.
Her skinny, yet toned arms, were covered in sweat from the already grueling practice, a similar sheen of sweat covering her forehead as well.
Shauna blinked twice, guilt falling to her stomach, filling her throat with bile. She was letting her eyes wander again. Jackie was her best friend. Shauna could only imagine the disgust the girl would feel if she knew Shauna was looking at her that way, but Shauna couldn’t help it.
She felt gross. Perverted. She sighed to herself somberly, running a finger up her nose.
“Shipman?”
She looked up from the floor, seeing Jackie’s concerned glance.
“Yeah?” She weakly replied, watching as Jackie got up from her place on the floor.
“What’s with that sad look? You had the same expression when you found out your hamster got sucked up into the vacuum by your mom by accident when we were four,” Jackie chuckled halfheartedly, concern still filling her gaze.
“Oh it’s nothing,” Shauna responded, taking a small step away from Jackie, trying to ignore the look of sadness on the blonde’s face.
“You sure? You can talk to me about anything, you know that, right?” Jackie tried to confirm, now standing in front of Shauna, fidgeting with her colored nails.
Shauna nodded absentmindedly, before sighing to herself lightly. She should tell her. She hasn’t been honest. Not in the slightest, and in the end, it was just hurting Jackie.
She looked into Jackie’s green eyes, hating the concern flooding through them as if it were tears. Shauna shook her head.
“Promise you won’t get mad at me if I tell you?” Shauna whispers.
Jackie blinks in surprise, startled slightly. “Sure,” she whispered back, taking Shauna’s hand.
“I know Jeff is like- your boyfriend, but I really like you,” Shauna whispered.
Jackie smiled lightly. “I like you too, you’re my best friend!”
Shauna frowned at her response, sighing once again. “You don’t understand. I like you how Jeff likes you,” she muttered.
“ Oh.”
Shauna winced at Jackie’s response, not even turning to look at her best friend’s gaze.
“Look, I’m really sorry, okay? I can’t help it! I’d totally understand if you wanted to stop-” she was cut off by something.
Jackie’s lips on hers. Shauna’s eyes opened wildly, before she reciprocated the kiss, calming and closing her eyes once again. Jackie pulled away, a lazy smile falling on her face. Her entire face felt warm, like the beach sand on a sunny day, sizzling under her feet.
Jackie chuckled. “If you couldn’t tell, that was my way of saying that I liked you back. I was just making sure you knew that, because for someone so smart, you can be really dumb sometimes.”
A deeper blush formed on the brunette’s face.
“Gee, thanks,” Shauna replied sarcastically, grinning from ear to ear.
Shauna’s smile faltered though. “Why did you sound like that when you said oh though?” she asked.
Jackie paused, before letting out a hearty laugh.
“I realized I had to think of a way to break up with Jeff, but now I think that won’t be so hard,” the blonde laughed, adding, “seeing as I have you instead.”
Jackie lifted her hand to Shauna’s cheek, giving it a playful squeeze, causing Shauna to chuckle.
“I’ve broken up with him like- a billion times, and he’s broken up with me the same amount, so I think I can do it. A shame that he won’t realize it will be for real that time,” Jackie chuckled, causing Shauna to smile blissfully.
“I don’t know why, but for a while I felt guilty for liking you, y’know? I know there's like- lesbians and all that, but I never thought that I could be like one, or you could be like one,” Shauna sighed, taking Jackie’s hand gently.
“Same. I’ve actually liked you for a while, you were just too dumb to realize it,” Jackie laughed, causing Shauna to frown slightly.
“Then why were you with Jeff?”
“Nobody would even begin to suspect anything if I was actually dating a guy. Jeff should be fine, I am aware he’s been cheating on me for like- years now. I didn’t really draw attention to it because, frankly, I don’t care,” Jackie sighed, pulling Shauna into a hug.
They would be fine. Everything was perfect. After all, they even had regionals next week. What could go wrong?