Chapter Text
Akilah had been the one to introduce them to the wonders of rugby union after her Dad had brought her on his business trip to the UK. They sat in one of the executive boxes at Twickenham Stoop, with Akilah pressing her face to the glass to watch the Red Roses thrash Italy 39-7 in the Six Nations.
She had texted Gen and Melissa as much information as she could. Every try-scorer, every conversion, every play. She furiously googled every difference between football and rugby after Melissa bombarded her with questions.
(Melissa had been going through a phase where she needed to copy everything that Sam did. He was really into football after a long period of baseball.
And an even longer period of Melissa throwing a tantrum every time her Dad reminded her that she would have to play softball instead.)
When Akilah returned with an England jersey (and three matching red rose pins), she was on a mission to find anywhere in New Jersey where they could sign up to play rugby. Which was so much harder than she could have possibly imagined.
And yet, by some chance the year they were enrolling into their sophomore year of high school, an ex-pro coach for the Italy team Akilah had watched all those years ago had moved back to Jersey. Wiskayok of all places.
They hadn’t hesitated to sign-up the moment the email was sent to their parents.
“What if we’re actually really shit?” Gen asked, dusting the mud off the bottom of her cleats with a brush Akilah had packed.
Melissa was holding the screw-in metal studs for Gen, “We know we’re not. Akilah’s practically Olympic level with how much she knows. And we didn’t practice tackling Sam all summer long for no reason.”
“It wasn’t for no reason,” Gen winked at Melissa, and burst out in a howl of laughter when Melissa shivered in horror.
“You disgust me.”
Akilah was scrolling through her phone, double and triple-checking they had the timings right. Initial try-outs were being held on school grounds and then formal training and games would be held elsewhere to accommodate the posts and size of the field.
(And not just because the principal was a hardass that didn’t want to pay to have extra lines painted onto the football field to accommodate for home games.)
The try-outs were surprisingly popular.
Word must have gotten out that Coach Martinez used to coach professionally, and that Wiskayok alumnus Coach Scott was back after rupturing his ACL twice in just his second season going pro. He had been drafted to the Houston SaberCats straight out of college. Ruptured it in the second exhibition match, came back for the next season ahead of schedule and then re-ruptured it midway through the season.
He had taken time out to get his coaching badges, his playing days were well and truly over. He needed to use a crutch on bad days, and walked with a barely disguised limp on good days. Coach Martinez had reached out to him apparently to give him a chance coaching girls rugby for a first leg-up into coaching.
A lot of the girls there Melissa didn’t recognise. Akilah had wandered over to greet some girl she vaguely recognised from her math class. Melissa was just glad that her and Gen stayed stuck together like glue.
It had always been like that. Akilah was shockingly the more social one out of the trio. And Mel and Gen were more than happy to get dragged along to day trips, movie theatre marathons and whatever else with Akilah and her friends. They were just happy to see Akilah happy.
The drills were hard. Akilah had managed to teach them the basics with very informative youtube videos and facetimes when Melissa’s Mom wouldn’t let her take her bike to the other side of town. But nothing could have prepared them for what it would actually be like.
Coach had them practising simple things to start.
Passing technique, hands always ready to receive at chest height, always ready to snap a quick pass. He reiterated the importance of a spiral pass when moving at pace. When to snap up, when to hold, when to fake a pass and sprint off.
And then came tackling.
Four people were selected to hold the pads and everyone was evenly dispersed between the groups. Mel, Gen and Akilah had somehow been split up. They practised at a lower intensity, five tackles leading with their right shoulder and then five with their left. Low body position, arms wrapped around the legs, pushing off after making contact with the pad to drive them into the ground.
It was similar enough to football that if any of them had played full contact, they had a bit of an advantage.
He had the tacklers set fifteen yards back from the pads, laying face down in a press-up position, before he shouted for them to scramble to their feet and attempt a tackle.
Shauna was holding her group's pads, crouched ever so slightly to hold the bottom of it steady against her thigh and absorb any strength from the tackles. But realistically, from the look of their group, there would be no power to absorb. Even Melissa was feeling a bit self-conscious about full-sending her body weight into a girl she just met.
Laura Lee had good form after the first couple of goes, corrected ever so slightly by Coach Scott. She could get down low and wrap quickly, but she was just so scared.
“Come on, Laura Lee. You won’t hurt me, I promise,” Shauna rolled her eyes, readjusting her hold on the straps.
Laura Lee nodded, jumped up from where Coach had them laying in the grass and ran full pelt the fifteen yards to reach the pad. Or as full pelt as Laura Lee could manage. And bodied into the tackle pad with an almighty crash of plastic and air being forced out of Shauna’s lungs. Laura Lee pushed off a couple extra inches and Shauna was tumbling to the floor with the pad sandwiched in between the both of them.
They laid there for a moment until Laura Lee remembered where she was.
“I’m so sorry!” Laura Lee scrambled to her feet, using the pad on top of Shauna to push herself to her feet drawing another huff out of her lungs with an airy groan.
Shauna gasped in a breath and gave her a thumbs up. Melissa crossed over awkwardly to offer a hand to Shauna. She grabbed the bulky pad and offered her other hand for Shauna to pull herself up.
“You okay?” Melissa asked, incredibly aware of how sweaty her hand was in Shauna’s.
She was trying so hard to ignore the way Shauna’s muscles rippled as she pushed herself off the floor.
“Yeah, just didn’t expect it,” she eventually let go of Melissa’s hand, “thanks.”
Melissa nodded and scratched the back of her neck nervously, “Who knew Laura Lee had it in her?”
Shauna stared at her for a moment, head cocked to one side. She patted Mel on the shoulder, “I’ll go easy on you, I promise.”
She did not.
Melissa was lucky that the teasing smile Shauna shot her before she dropped to the ground in a push-up position was enough warning for her to plant her back foot and ready to push back against her.
It also definitely did not help that Shauna made an extra effort when wrapping around the pad to graze her fingers over her bare ankles and shins before joining in the middle, ready to tip Melissa to the ground.
She managed it once. Shooting her a cocky grin as she helped her back to her feet.
Coach enrolled them into a tag league for the first season after seeing how some of the girls could barely mould their gum shields properly, let alone land and take a decent tackle. Some of them barely understood how and when to ruck despite it being so blatantly obvious after the videos he sent them home with.
(After the third week of training sessions, Coach seemed positive about shoving them into the deep end. He’d managed to get the Yellowjackets a place in an Eastern Conference league for youth rugby union, resulting in a Championship with the Western when their respective Conferences wrapped up.
Except Mel, Gen, Akilah and Shauna were the only ones that could confidently land a tackle without wincing and pulling out halfway through.
Coach had gotten so desperate that he had grouped them off with the rest of the team based on similar heights, strength and confidence levels in the hopes that they could pick up the correct technique.
There were only so many times that he could explain, demonstrate, and shift positions before he lost his mind.
Melissa had ended up with Mari. She was a touch taller than her, but Mel was probably a fair amount stronger than her. Except, Mari didn’t do things by halves.
Mari’s issue was that she didn’t get down low enough for the tackle.
Melissa’s issue was that she felt the big tackle pad was getting in the way of her teaching.
And then suddenly Mari’s shoulder was ramming into Melissa’s head at full force, snapping it back with a deep crack in her neck. But to Mari’s credit, she had clearly listened to some of Mel’s instructions.
Because she was wrapping her arms tight around Melissa’s middle and picking her up just a hair off the floor, to tip them forward to land on the hard ground. Mel groaned from the impact, and Mari’s shoulder had knocked back into her face, clinking her teeth in her mouth.
Mari bounced up from the ground and stared down at the blood gushing from Mel’s split lip. She was just glad she didn’t get any of her gross mouth blood on her jersey.
He had pulled out of the full-contact league the day after and found a tag league centralised in New Jersey.)
They were awful in their first season. No one completely understood their positions, it was almost too similar to football that some of the girls resorted to trying to throw the ball overhand and offside. And the number of knock-ons could have made Coach cry if he thought about it too hard.
As they neared the end of the season, Jackie had emerged as somewhat an odd leader. Coach had her playing as a fly-half and it had clearly gone to her head after finding out that they were often the playmakers and leaders, linking defence into attack.
(Mel didn’t mention that was also the exact thing that Tai as a scrum-half did.)
And Melissa couldn’t lie, she was a great kicker. She had good power behind her, and when they practiced conversions she cleared the bar ninety percent of the time. But she wasn’t a leader in the sense that she communicated that on the field.
Yet, Coach still picked her when going into the next season. She was good at rallying the girls together, sure. But that didn’t detract from the fact that she was probably their weakest tackler, the slowest to react to rucks, and didn’t know where to position herself when the team formed a maul after a successful line-out.
“I don’t know why Jackie is captain, she’s shit,” Melissa said with a mouth full of fries.
Their post home match ritual meant they walked to the diner just a handful of blocks away, shared a basket of fries and bitched about the game.
“Why do you hate Jackie so much?” Akilah asked, thumbing the bruise on her hand forming from someone stamping on her after a suspiciously rough tackle for tag rugby.
Gen nudged Melissa, “She’s just jealous.”
Melissa flushed a deep red and pulled her cap down further onto her head.
“Of not being the captain?”
Gen shook her head and finished her milkshake, “No, because Jackie gets to spend sooo much time with Shauna Shipman.”
“Fuck off,” Melissa said, her bright red cheeks doing her absolutely no favours.
Akilah whipped her head to look at Melissa, “You have a crush on Shauna?”
“Shush, they hang out here too!” Melissa looked around the diner to see any sign of Shauna, Jackie or even Jeff and Randy for a clue that they might be hiding in some corner somewhere.
Gen rolled her eyes, “Calm down, lover boy. They never come here after matches.”
“Yeah, ‘cause Jackie’s too busy stroking her own ego and thinking that she’s the best player on the field.”
Akilah and Gen barely managed to suppress their laughter, glancing at each other in between the few remaining fries.
“Who would be your captain then?” Akilah asked, grinning widely.
And Mel had never really thought about it past her dislike of one Jackie Taylor. For reasons that definitely were not related to her best friend.
Maybe Tai would be a good option? No, she was far too political with how she spoke to people that weren’t Shauna and Van.
Van? She was good, reliable, and friends with everyone. But spent far too long ogling over Tai during matches to ever be captain material.
“Uh, you?” Mel gestured to Akilah, “you know your shit, everyone likes you, and you’re actually good.”
Akilah seemed to consider it for a minute, “Don’t think just because you’ve been nice to me I’ll let you get away with your crush on Shauna.”
“No,” Mel let out sadly.
The next season was a bit better. They were playing full-contact and Coach Martinez had shuffled some of them around positionally after some new girls joined who could pad out the scrum. And it had clearly helped.
Shauna was too aggressive to be anywhere other than ‘13’. She could sweep, she could run with the ball, and mostly importantly, she could absolutely steamroll anyone that got in her way.
Any time the ball turned over, Shauna was pouncing on them. Pushing the ruck to its limits, and almost toppling the opposition over in her attempts to grab the ball from the presenting player before anyone could even think about it.
Coach insisted on traveling in pods of three when attacking with at least one forward and one back supporting at all times. Shauna didn’t need that. She was her own pod at this point. Faking a pass to the left, side stepping past dives and tackles on the right, and then she would either tap the try home herself or shrug the ball off the Jackie for another try for her growing tally.
Melissa had been moved from ‘11’ to inside the scrum. She was fast, and one of the only left footed players on the team so a left sided winger almost seemed obvious. Coach Scott had insisted that stronger wingers were becoming the norm in the professional game, it just hadn’t caught up to grassroots yet so she was better suited to flanking.
She had scored plenty of tries from her place at the wing. She just missed getting knee deep in the action, she had to always be watching for an overlap, ready to catch an overhead kick, ready to dive on the ball the moment it reached the try line.
But when Coach Martinez had moved her to ‘7’, she had never felt more at home. Her and Akilah were good at swapping so Mel could favour the touchline. She needed to be ready to break away from the scrum the moment the hooker flicked the ball out and she could charge oncoming players. She did, however, appreciate that she didn’t need to do a lot of the pushing in the scrum.
Gen somehow made it look easy, but from standing in as a fake front row for her to practice against, it was anything but. Gen enjoyed her newfound place as a prop, and she found any moment to flex her muscles in front of Mel.
Crystal as the other prop wasn’t bad, but somehow the scrum always collapsed on her side first, sometimes going in sideways to destabilise the whole operation. And considering a lot of their power and strength came from the scrum pushing forward and gaining valuable inches of grass, Coach didn’t want to risk scrums becoming uncontested during league matches.
Their first league match was luckily at home to a school from Georgia. Coach had warned them of the long journeys for the rest of the season, not enough schools had rugby programmes, and if they did, not enough had ones catered towards girls.
The off-campus field was up a steep hill, the changing rooms right at the bottom of it. The roof leaked above the showers and the windows never fully closed. It was a shithole, but it was their shithole.
Van had set up a speaker in the changing rooms and you could easily hear the music from outside.
They had a communal playlist for all the girls to populate with their own ‘hype-up tunes’, as Van had put it. Apparently to help the new girls assimilate, or whatever. (The only songs removed were Crystal’s additions of whatever musical she had been listening to that week.)
Jackie turned the volume down and stood up on the shaky wooden benches, holding onto the metal coat pegs for stability. She scanned the group with a smug sort of self-righteous smile.
If Mel mentioned that to Gen or Akilah though, they would assure her that Jackie really was that positive all the time. And she was really just checking in on everyone, ensuring that no one was too nervous for their first proper game of full-contact rugby union.
“Here we go again,” Mel muttered, shaking her head as she finished taping her fingers for optimal grip in the muddy conditions.
Gen draped herself around Mel, “You’re cute when you’re jealous. It’s even cuter that she barely knows you exist outside of rugby and you’re still head over heels for her.”
Akilah choked on the water she was drinking and just about held it in when Jackie shot her a glare across the changing room. It could have also been a look of concern, but Mel knew what she saw.
“Girls, I know we had a bit of a rough start to the season last year! But we’ve got some new faces and this is our first season in full-contact,” she paused to let out a tiny ‘Woo’, “Let’s just get out there and try our best. Coach Martinez and Scott are at the sidelines for any questions during the game, so don’t hesitate to ask!”
Jackie made one final scan of the group before stopping on Crystal who had her hand raised. She gestured for her to speak.
“I saw a video where they call it ‘ruggers’ in England.”
Everyone nodded along. Thank you, Crystal . Anything was a reprieve from her singing Hamilton with Misty over the loud music Van blared.
“Ruggers on three?” Van asked, a cheeky grin on her face as Tai smacked her on the shoulder.
“One, two, three!”
“Ruggers!”
The girls from Georgia were built . And looked as if they had been playing rugby for years and years. Their props were at least double the size of poor Gen and Crystal.
Mel was sizing up the other teams ‘8’ for when they broke out of the scrum. She was lanky like Mel, but stocky like their front row.
“Try and avoid taking a tackle early on,” Akilah said as they lined up for Jackie to kick the game off, “they’re gonna use the fact that you look…long?”
“You can say I look weak, Akilah. I have noodle arms,” Mel wiggled her arms around as if to punctuate her point, “I’m worried about Gen and Crystal in the scrum.”
Akilah nodded and pulled her gum shield out of her sock. “Gen will be fine, we both know this. She pushed both of us on the sled at the gym last week like it was nothing.”
(Coach had managed to get the team a regular session in the strength and conditioning room. They didn’t get the same privilege of having a personal trainer like the football team did, but it was still an achievement.
Akilah had become their own PT in a way. After Gen had asked for a specialised plan to help her become stronger in the scrum, Akilah had gone ham.
Quickly Gen had gone from benching twenty kilograms, to sixty in just a handful of months. She could squat nearly a hundred and was working on her back day split.
She couldn’t stop flexing all her newfound toned muscles, lifting up the sleeves of her t-shirts to pop a bicep out when Mel asked where something was. Every moment was an opportunity for Gen to brag. And Mel was certain if Gen wasn’t so deeply her platonic soulmate, she would’ve proposed to Gen the moment she could pick her up off the floor like it meant nothing.)
Jackie throttled the ball into the other half after the referee blew the whistle and the team pushed up alongside her. The defensive line was flat and as strong as it could be when nearly everyone was shitting it for whoever the first person to take a tackle would be.
The opposition shifted the ball across after their ‘15’ drove it into the attacking diamond, before dropping back to sweep.
The first tackle was, of course, from Shauna. She drove into the ball carrier like she had some age old drama with her. The tackle was low and swept her legs out from under her, somehow the ball stayed in her grasp as Shauna let go to avoid penalisation from the referee. Tai was there to ruck over the opposition immediately, binding and then attempting to push her back to hook the ball to their own team.
Gen and Crystal bound to Tai’s sides and helped push but the ball had been whisked away to farther down the opposition’s attacking line. A few more tackles came flying in from Lottie and Mari, but the ball just wouldn’t move past the halfway line.
The stalemate lasted for ten minutes while the teams took the time to feel the game out. The opposition broke the deadlock by playing the ball to their fly-half, who booted it up for their winger to run on to. No one had kicked the ball yet, Coach had assured them that in grassroots, not many teams did. Laura Lee had been caught off guard and struggled to catch up to their ‘11’ that had already left her in the dust.
Van shuffled across and made a solid tackle just before the try line, but one of their players had been quick to avoid a follow up tackle and placed the ball down in the try zone.
Robin ran on holding the crate of water bottles with Coach Martinez quickly behind her as they assembled behind the posts. They had a minute to regroup while the opposition attempted a conversion.
Lottie got in position underneath the crossbar to charge the ball down, especially with the try-scorer placing the ball down close to the post, the angle was optimal for their fly-half to convert. The muddy pitch didn’t help the kicker to balance the ball on the kicking-tee and step back in time without any of it falling. But she only had a minute, and the referee seemed a bit of a hardass.
(Not that anyone would say anything for risk of getting ejected.)
Lottie started her charge the moment the kicker took a slight step forward. She threw her hands in the air in an attempt to stop the ball from flying over the crossbar. Coach Scott confirmed the successful conversion and rallied the girls back to the middle for a quick restart.
“Keep doing what you’re doing girls, the confidence will come!” Coach Martinez picked up the crate of water bottles for Robin.
Robin wiped a tear away and smiled as best she could at Britt, who already had half the pitch of mud smeared up her legs. Britt gave her a reassuring thumbs-up which only seemed to spur Robin on even more. She jogged off sniffling into the sleeve of a sweatshirt that definitely wasn’t hers.
They ended the first half 0-12. They had scored one more try but failed to convert it after a tight angle Nat had managed to force after trying to push her out of bounds for a lineout.
Coach was right though, their confidence was coming. Slowly but surely.
Shauna was the most covered in mud, having dove onto the ball after the opposition spilt. Grip definitely seemed to be the issue for both teams going into the next half. Melissa’s once white finger tape had gone a groggy shade of brown and was barely helping her hold the ball securely.
Coach Scott clapped Mel on the shoulder, “Your runs are close to breaking through. Try to angle them to crossover Akilah and Mari. You’re doing great, Melissa.”
Mel nodded. Her tackles had been landing, but no one was quite confident enough to fully support Shauna and Gen on rucks to retrieve the ball. It was almost like delaying the inevitable for the opposition to kick the ball over their line and hope a winger could jump onto it. They had been figured out, and the Yellowjackets needed to do their best to change that.
She lined up in the attacking diamond for the restart near Shauna ready to support her with an angled run to break apart the defence. Coach Scott had been right, more support and harsher angles would force the ball through and get them closer to the all-important try-line.
Van caught the ball and tossed it towards Shauna.
Go time.
Shauna started her run through their defence, breaking a tackle, and faking a pass to Crystal who was supporting on the right of the pod. A low tackle to her knees and Shauna had quickly passed the ball to Mel. Shauna fell to the floor with a squelch but had left behind a massive hole in their defence for Mel to run into.
She side-stepped out of a certain ankle tap and then practically slipped over the try line to score the teams first try. Mel placed the ball down as solidly as she could to ensure she had actually scored the try.
Akilah and Gen ran over to her arms outstretched as they pulled her in for a hug and tugged her out of the way of Jackie getting ready for the conversion. They walked past Shauna who was wiping her muddy hands on the front of her jersey.
“Not bad, Melissa,” Shauna called out, nodding at her with a soft smile on her face.
Mel blinked once, then twice and only opened her mouth to respond when Gen pinched her side.
“Yeah! Thanks, couldn’t have done it without you,” Mel yelped and hoped the mud on her face was thick enough to hide the terribly awful blush creeping up.
Mel gave her an awkward thumbs up and allowed herself to be tugged back to their own half by Akilah and Gen. She shook her head and rejoined the defensive line.
Jackie scored the conversion after Mel had managed to score the try in a relatively good position, and they were only one more try away from levelling with thirty minutes still left to play.
Light work.
They lined up in their diamond formation and waited for the opposition's fly-half to kick the game off. Van made a shaky catch from the speed the ball came at her, and dropped to the ground to protect herself from a knock-on.
The team dropped behind her and Tai grabbed the ball out of Van’s hands before the other team could initiate a ruck. They’d been weak in those, and they couldn’t really do much to change that when half the team were double their size.
Tai drove the ball and took an easy tackle, dropping to present the ball back to Jackie who was waiting behind the protection of Mari and Gen. Gen had been the one solid constant in the rucks, shifting across to cover as much ground as she could. She wasn’t afraid to push off on the tackled player and force the other team back. The definition of body on the line.
Jackie claimed the ball and made a quick pass to Shauna on her right. She took another easy tackle and presented. Jackie passed the ball to Akilah. She was quick and strong. Another winger turned flanker after a show of secure and solid tackles at training, but Melissa was certain Akilah would be a good choice anywhere on the field.
The ball fit snug tucked in the crease of her elbow and Akilah ran like it was all she knew how to do. Crystal ran alongside her, just about keeping up with the swerving, side-stepping and just pure power of Akilah on a mission.
She took a knock and just managed to keep on her feet as she reached twenty-five yards from the try-line. A pocket of space opened up just in front of Crystal and Akilah popped the ball across. Crystal went to catch it, hands chest height and open to continue the drive. But the ball was slippery from the constant onslaught of mud and she dropped it just in front of her. The ball bounced forward and Crystal instinctively jumped onto it to claim possession.
The referee blew the whistle and marked out a scrum favouring the opposition after Crystal’s knock-on. They lined up, binding around the front row. Melissa grabbed onto Gen with all her might. Hoping that the minute amount of pushing she needed to do before the ball escaped the scrum would help them.
Winning the ball or at least pushing them back a handful of inches would be great for their attack. They needed to keep the other team off kilter, and a strong scrum after a game full of weak, wobbly and sideways leaning ones would do just that.
Tai waited at the side with the other scrum-half as the ball was funnelled in for the hookers to try and roll out the back of the scrum. And they started pushing, the muddy ground didn’t allow for much grip but that went for both teams. The opposition's hooker slipped, the props focused more on pushing the Yellowjackets to hold onto their own player.
She eventually got the ball out but not before the Yellowjackets had pushed them back a good couple of inches. Melissa broke off the moment the scrum-half grabbed the ball from the back of the scrum and started a run in the gap between the collapsed scrum and the backs. Mari had gotten used to a quick detachment, the back-row escaped as quickly as they could manage to allow the front and second row to disentangle effectively.
Their scrum-half was a cocky little shit, attempting some fancy steps to worm her way past. Except Mel was already crouched, and was already slamming her entire body weight into the girl. The ball flung from her hands and straight into Mari’s who had backed up her tackle. And she just started running.
Nat was close on her left and Van had joined on her right after the scrum had struggled to unbind quickly. Mari had almost completely broken away, only their centre’s chased her and the ‘15’ at the back was anticipating whether a quick pass was going to be played. Their ‘13’ dove forward and tapped Mari’s ankle and she was careening to the floor, ball firmly tucked into her arms.
She presented quickly, Van was the first to ruck over and allow Nat to take the ball and book it down the line and into the try-zone. The ball was hammered into the grass for a successful try and Nat was running off to hand it to Jackie. They didn’t have much time left in the half and a successful conversion would put them two points ahead.
Jackie lined up the kicking-tee. Deep breath in. Deep breath out. And the ball soared over the crossbar.
14-12.
Any penalty would give up their lead. Lottie had already been warned once over purposefully tripping a player, and the referee would not be so kind the next time.
Mel could feel the mud caked on her legs stinging the stud marks, the gum shield in her mouth felt bulky and irritating, but the game still had five minutes left. And the opposition were doing the best they could to disrupt the flow the Yellowjackets had been on.
Coach had brought Robin on, against all odds. Tear tracks marred her face but she ran on in place of Laura Lee at right wing. Gen, Mel and Akilah all shared a glance that seemed to be mirrored across the entire team including Robin and Britt.
Robin sniffled once more and lined up close to the touchline.
The game restarted with the opposition tossing the ball about to find an opening in their tight defensive line. Gen made a solid tackle and Shauna pushed hard to try and retrieve the ball. Mel forced them out wide and just missed grabbing the ball from a fumble before they shifted it back.
Their fly-half received the ball and kicked it as a last ditch attempt over the top and towards their ‘11’. Robin, somehow, was right there with the other winger. They chased the ball together and when it dropped it bounced awkwardly, leading them to chase it endlessly. Robin had managed to get herself back onside by the time the ball stilled and she jumped on top of it. Scrambling to present the ball to Van before the other winger could grab it out of her hands.
Van grabbed it and absolutely leathered it up the field. And the referee blew his whistle.
The Yellowjackets had won. All thanks to Robin? Somehow.
Melissa fell back into the ripped leather of the diner booth with a groan. She somehow had a bruise splotched across her forearm and plenty of stud marks scratched across her legs.
Akilah looked raring to go for another eighty minutes, you wouldn’t have even known she had played if it weren’t for the mud crusting into her braids that she didn’t want to pick out in the very mouldy changing room showers.
And Gen had a crazed look in her eye, probably from all the rattling around her brain did in the scrum. She flexed her hands, enjoying the crack in her wrists that travelled up to her shoulders. As part of the front row, she had to help with the lifts for the line-out. Which was fine, she was more than strong enough. But Mari, the jumper, was practically an entire foot taller than her and Gen had to be squatted right to the floor in order to get enough grip to lift her up with help from Britt.
They had made it work though. Mari, to her credit, was a lot better at catching the ball in the air than when she was receiving a ball from a three yard backwards pass straight to her hands.
Gen slid into the booth next to Mel, picking up her legs where she had stretched them out across the seat and placed them on her lap. Akilah gestured for Robin and Britt to sit down on the other side of the booth first and then followed suit.
“I’m gonna sleep so good tonight,” Mel yawned and adjusted herself so she was leaning against the wall.
Gen patted her knee, “So you don’t want me to come over to watch the new episode of Grey’s Anatomy with you?”
Mel pulled her cap off from where it was covering her eyes, “Woah. That is not what I said,” she stopped to smack Gen’s arm as she chuckled, “You know I love watching Grey’s with you. You guys can come too, my Mom’s out so…”
“Will Sam be there?”
“Shut the fuck up, Gen, or I’m telling him you fell down the stairs when he waved at you last week.”
Gen raised her hands in a surrender.
Robin had started sniffling half way through and Britt was patting her hand cautiously. Akilah had not looked up once from her phone, probably telling her Dad how the game went.
“Your friendship is so beautiful, please don’t fight like this,” Robin croaked, she wiped at her tears with her sleeve.
Why she didn’t carry tissues around with her permanently, Mel would never know.
Britt offered a soft smile, “We’ll come later. Robin gets a bit emotional at Grey’s.”
Robin nodded, her tears finally stopped from her previous outburst. Her sleeve must have been sopping wet constantly with how many tears she shed. She was squashed into the corner and leaning happily against Britt’s side. Or as happily as she could look after crying for the past ten minutes.
“What doesn’t she get emotional at?” Gen said under breath, forcing a chuckle out of Mel.
“What?” Robin asked, tearing up again.
Akilah finally butted in, she seemed to be the only one other than Britt that could get Robin to stop crying. “She said ‘who doesn’t get emotional at it’.”
And it must have been convincing because Robin’s sniffling stopped and they waved someone over to take their order.
The diner hadn’t let go of all the decades it had been open in the exact same spot in downtown Wiskayok. Not much had changed in the borefest of a town, but the restaurant had stayed exactly the same, even down to the peeling wallpaper and chipped tiles in the bathrooms. Mel was fairly certain if she looked hard enough she’d find an old picture of her parents on the pinboard of regulars.
She was shocked that her, Gen and Akilah hadn’t been accosted by a waitress and the old as shit polaroid camera to stick them up on the board yet with the amount of time spent bitching in the confines of the only place in Wiskayok with edible food. And that was a stretch, because anything other than the fries and milkshakes could be a bit sketchy.
Mel rolled to sit up properly when the waitress dropped off their fries, and she only didn’t roll off the bench because Gen had an arm wrapped around her middle and pulled her back up safely. A slight pink tinge ghosted across her cheeks as she thanked Gen with an awkward pat on her knee.
Gen’s arm stayed wrapped around Mel as they ate.
“How did everyone find the first full-contact game?” Akilah asked.
Mel hummed, “It was good. We seemed to like…click as a team.”
Britt nodded. She had joined halfway through the first season. A true endurance runner. She was more than happy to play in any position that the Coaches struggled to fill, hence why she ended up as the other lock alongside Lottie. As much of a utility player she truly was, she did also bring Robin with her.
Permanently attached at the hip, no one could decide if they were just really codependent best friends or were the definition of romantic soulmates. Britt and Robin both refused to dispel the rumour, if it was brought up to Robin she would go silent and run away with a deep blush on her face. If Britt was asked about it, she had fun with it. Never confirming nor denying for sure.
Britt was easily the reason the rumour hadn’t been squashed yet. If they didn’t get some crappy superlative in their yearbooks like, ‘Best Will They, Won’t They’ then it was clearly rigged.
“The scrum felt more secure as the game went on too,” Britt stirred the milkshake that had two straws in it before offering it to Robin.
Gen tipped a fake hat with the hand that wasn’t resting on the tiny sliver of skin between Melissa’s t-shirt and shorts from where it had ridden up from nearly falling to her death.
“Thank you, thank you. Crystal’s gotten so much better at hitting the scrum hard and straight,” Gen turned to Mel who was already grimacing at her, “I think she might need a couple more games to feel fully confident tackling people. I kept hearing her apologise to everyone.”
Akilah chuckled, “Whenever I went near her all I could hear was her rendition of ‘My Shot’ from Hamilton.”
The table collectively groaned. They knew Crystal’s obsession with Hamilton all too well.
(The school play the previous year had been Hamilton. And Crystal, naturally, had auditioned for ‘Angelica’. Apparently it was just in her range, but it was her dream role.
For weeks up until the auditions, the changing rooms before games were filled with Crystal practicing her lines. The communal playlist had been infiltrated by the entire Hamilton soundtrack and the only people not complaining were Crystal and Laura Lee.
She had managed to book the role of ‘Peggy’. She was completely overjoyed.
The Hamilton invasion was affecting everyone. During scrum practice, Crystal would be singing. During tackle sessions, she was singing. During rucks, she was laying on the floor, the ball stretched out in front of her, singing.
Coach Martinez eventually struck a deal with Crystal: she didn’t sing at all during practice and everyone on the team would turn up on opening night to cheer her on.
Crystal held up her end of the deal, she removed any evidence of musicals from the communal playlist. She even went as far to remove the Hamilton pins from her bag before she entered the changing rooms before practice.
The team begrudgingly agreed after seeing how much effort Crystal was actually putting in. Robin and Britt had helped with the set painting and had assured everyone that Crystal was actually pretty good when she wasn’t in everyone’s business singing while they were getting tackled into oblivion at training.
Jackie had rustled together a small pot of money for flowers and a card and had also pushed for everyone to dress ‘nicely’. She may have been pointing at Mel’s hat when she proposed a black tie theme.
Everyone turned up dressed to the absolute nines. Gen and Mel had coordinated their colours, Shauna and Jackie had somehow managed to wear the exact same dress but in different colours. (Shauna did not look happy about it.) And Robin and Britt had gone full prom with matching flowers pinned to the front of their dresses. Even Coach Martinez and Scott had some fancy pressed suits on, with ties to match the colour of Crystal’s costume.
Crystal had cried when the team huddled into the actors' space. Mel pulled a Sharpie out of the inside pocket of her jacket and insisted Crystal needed to sign her programme for when she made it big on Broadway.)
“What’s the play this year anyway?” Mel asked, mouth full fries.
“Little Shop of Horrors,” Gen said.
“Is that the one they reenacted in Glee?” Robin asked.
Britt patted her on the hand, “No, sweetie, that was The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”
Robin nodded knowingly. “I hope we dress up again. I thought everyone looked really beautiful,” She already had tears welling up in her eyes again.