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You're sat on the bleachers watching Natalie play, the warm summer air inviting back all the bugs from previous years. You bat at the air around your legs causing all the little creatures to skitter away from you. Your lips are curled in a content smile, you hate the bugs crawling all over your legs and arms but watching Natalie do something that makes her so happy is worth it.
You watch as Shauna kicks the ball half way across the field and Nat bolts toward it, giving it a good hard kick into the goal. You shoot up from your seat, the sounds of the teams cheer filling the air. Nat's gaze meets your eyes, she blows you a kiss before the excitement is interrupted by a loud whistle from coach Ben.
“I think that's enough for today,” he says, taking a sip from his water bottle and checking his watch. “Good job girls.”
There's some leftover chatter between the other girls as they grab their things from the bleachers but Nat just runs right over to you, her bleach blonde hair perfectly messy and her bangs stuck to her forehead with sweat.
“You were great out there!” You exclaimed, clapping your palms together.
“Oh shush, it was one goal.” She replied, dismissing your praise with a casual shrug and taking a long sip from her water bottle. You didn't know anything about soccer so as far as you were concerned one goal meant she'd won the game entirely.
“Well, I'm still proud of you.” She doesn't say anything but you notice her face drop for a second taking a pause to register your words before her vaguely sad expression is overthrown by a tiny smile.
She takes a seat next to you and begins digging through her bag, pulling out an extra shirt she'd packed. She took a quick glance across the field to be sure the other girls were leaving before slipping out of her sweat soaked practice shirt and into a fresh black and white striped shirt. After changing she lays down on the bleachers, resting her head in your lap clearly exhausted. The two of you sit there for a while just staring up at the sky as the sunset paints it all kinds of pretty colors. This wasn't uncommon for the two of you, almost every week y'all followed the same routine to decompress after the lively practices. Even if you weren't on the team just watching the girls was enough to tire you out.
“Are you about ready to head home?” You ask softly, careful not to interrupt the calm moment too much.
“Uh..” You feel her start to sit up, but she barely lifts her head before deciding against it. “Not really actually, I'd rather stay here for now.”
You begin brushing the hair off of her forehead, peering down at her and giving her a small nod before planting a kiss where strands of bleach blonde hair rested moments ago, perfectly content with staying in this moment for however long she desires.
“We should go lay in the grass instead.” Natalie suggests, standing up and grabbing your hand, prompting you to follow her.
“Why?” You ask, head cocked in curiosity.
“Dunno, it just feels right.” She responds. You throw your backpack over your shoulder and follow her, because why wouldn't you? Laying in the grass sounds nice anyway.
You sit in the grass, legs crossed with your backpack beside you. Nat lays on her back, arms and legs sprawled out like starfish. The two of you sit like that for a while, discussing all the latest drama the team is involved in. Nat pulls herself up, placing her palms on the earth behind her back to hold herself up.
“So what trinkets do you have with you today?” She asks, gesturing towards your bag. You'd made a habit of carrying around random little knick knacks in case you got bored, 99% of the time you didn't even know what you had in your bag.
“Well let's find out,” You say, hoisting your bag into your lap and unzipping it. You dig through your school books for a second before spotting a small plastic duck, you drop the duck into your palm and hold it up for her to see “I've got a duck.”
You drop the duck back into the bag and begin hunting for the next small treasure. At the bottom of your bag you find your light pink Nintendo DS. Not what you were looking for but it'd keep the 2 of you entertained.
You pull it out and check the game cartridge to see what game was in it at the moment. Pokémon Ruby, your favorite Pokémon game even if Nat was significantly better at it than you.
“Wanna play?” You ask, holding out the small pink device to her. "It's got Pokémon in it right now.”
“Sure.” She nods, taking the device. She turns it on and then shifts her legs into a criss cross shape. You kneel beside her in order to see the screen. You stay like this until the sun is gone and Nat feels ready to head home, alternating between fake arguments over what move she should make to win the fights in the game and laughter.