Work Text:
1.
Recently, Jackie had been working on growing her social media. It started when a video she had posted a few weeks back had been picked up by the algorithm and totally blown up, much to her surprise. It wasn't even anything special, just her and Shauna trying a few viral drinks while they were on a trip up to the city, but it had netted a couple hundred thousand views and resulted in a swarm of people commenting on every new video she made. Jackie had been desperate to recapture it ever since.
In her time of need, Jackie had turned to Nat for help, apparently because she had the ‘second best style on the team’ and ‘major don’t give a fuck energy.’ So Nat had been roped into spending alone time with Jackie as she bounced ideas off of her. While it had revealed to Nat that Jackie could be genuinely fun to talk to, the main result of these hangouts was having Shauna pissed at her during practice.
Today, Jackie was trying to figure out what her audience wanted.
"I don't get it, Nat. I make this totally cute video of my outfits and all I get are comments like this," she said, passing her phone over.
Nat took the phone and scrolled down, reading through the comments. There was definitely a common thread in them.
“wheres ur gf??” “3 videos with no gf. the breakup allegations are real” “post gf”
It continued on like that for a while. There were a couple regulars comments, complimenting Jackie’s outfits or talking about her face card, but they were heavily outweighed by the deluge of people looking for Jackie’s supposed girlfriend.
"Like, is there some joke I'm missing here? What are they talking about?" Jackie continued.
Nat sighed. At times like this she thought Jackie had to be acting dense on purpose.
"They want to see Shauna in a video again. Because they think she's your girlfriend."
Jackie scrunched her face, not believing Nat’s words. "No way. Are you sure?"
"I am one hundred percent positive, Jackie. She is the only other person that shows up in your videos."
"But why would they think she's my girlfriend?"
It was genuinely audacious. Jackie had to be doing this on purpose. Nat sighed, resigned to trying to get through to her once more.
"I don't know, maybe because you are always making her do videos with you, and in all of them you do shit like go to restaurants one on one while you–"
"That's a totally normal thing for best friends to do!" Jackie interjected.
"It's really not, Jackie. You've never gone out to dinner with me before."
“There was the championship dinner,” Jackie tried.
“Where the whole team went out and got cheesesteaks?” Nat said, incredulous. “That is not at all equivalent to a quiet Italian place where you two shared a single fucking plate of pasta!”
"It's Shauna," Jackie said, like that explained everything. To her, it probably did. “And that video only got like, a thousand views. How did that convince the entire internet we’re dating?”
"There was also that video where you made Shauna try on your outfits and kept calling her 'super cute' and ‘totally sexy'," Nat continued.
"Well, she is," Jackie said, like Nat was stupid for not getting it. “Have you seen her? I would die for a chest like hers.”
Nat did not want to get into that comment.
"Okay, how about that video where you surprised Shauna with a present and she literally picked you up, twirled you around, and then actually kissed your cheek before she put you down?"
Jackie blushed, recalling the event. "We were excited!" She said, after a moment. "Okay, I see how maybe that could've kinda sorta been interpreted as just a little bit couple-y, but it's not like I said we were dating. How can they all just assume that?"
"I mean, it's hard not to when looking at you two together. Half the team thinks it,” Nat said. She didn't know how many times she had to say it for Jackie to understand. "It's the looks, mostly."
“I would know if my team thought I was dating Shauna,” Jackie said. “Wait, is this a prank? Are all these comments like, Misty using burner accounts?”
Nat laughed. “I wouldn’t put it past her, but those comments are pretty believable.”
"Ugh, this is so ridiculous," Jackie mumbled. "Okay, I'm going to clear this up." She thumbed back to the comment section, and responded to the top one with 'we are not dating. but i will post more w/ her!' With a satisfied look, she sent it.
“Alright! Put that to rest!”
A few moments later, her phone pinged with a notification. She went back to the video, flipping the comments back up. Nat watched as she squinted at the screen, clearly dismayed at what she was reading.
"What's going on?" Nat asked.
Jackie was still looking puzzled. "They don't believe me! There's someone here saying 'why are you lying' and someone else saying 'explain the twirl video to me then babe.' Nat, I feel like I’m going crazy here!"
Nat couldn't help but burst out in a hoarse laugh. This was too good. Not even strangers could be swayed from believing they were together. Nat took the phone to scroll through the comments. Below, a new comment popped up, reading “oh lord the denial is SEVERE.” Nat could only hope that one of these comments might get through to Jackie where she couldn’t..
2.
Melissa was having a great week. It all started with their game against St. Elizabeth on Wednesday. Allie had come down with the flu the night before, and to her own surprise, Melissa had been picked to fill her spot. Apparently all that bench warming had put her in the good graces of the coaches. She even got some decent playing time with the varsity girls, helping set up the winning goal for Shauna. Then after the game Shauna had clapped her on the back, told her that she’d played surprisingly well for a junior, and invited her to sit at the varsity table at lunch tomorrow. So she had bid farewell to the second squad table and squished herself onto the edge of the bench, right next to Lottie. If she could just be cool for the rest of their lunch period maybe they’d invite her back, and maybe she’d even get a chance to talk to Shauna outside of the one-sentence comments on her form she got at practice.
Those hopes were dashed the instant Jackie entered the cafeteria. She strolled in with Shauna in tow, their hands clasped tightly together as Jackie led Shauna over to their table. Jackie flounced onto the bench, forcing everyone to slide down so she could take her rightful spot at the front of the pack. Shauna sat down right after, quietly sliding into the seat across from her. Jackie quickly picked up on the conversation at hand, something about the third floor bathrooms, all while keeping her hand tightly entwined with Shauna’s across the table. Melissa couldn’t help but watch out of grim curiosity.
Jackie continued to gently caress Shauna’s fingers with her own, rolling over the lines and joints in an undeniably intimate gesture. Shauna just watched as Jackie did it, pupils blown and mouth open in a pathetically lovesick puppy dog expression.
Melissa looked around to check that she wasn’t the only one seeing this, that someone hadn’t spiked the cafeteria food and given her vivid hallucinations of Jackie and Shauna doing some sort of hand dryhumping right on top of their plates of cheese pizza and skim milk. The other girls weren’t reacting at all, so either Melissa had either completely lost it or this was a regular occurrence.
Melissa began to reconsider some of the pair's behavior since she joined the team. They did hug an awful lot, and there were a lot of long looks in the locker rooms, but Melissa hadn’t thought too much of it. She’d caught Shauna checking Jackie out in the locker room but hadn’t thought it was anything more than hormones. She’d been entirely off base.
“Psst!” Melissa whispered, tapping Lottie’s shoulder and leaning to whisper in her ear. “Nobody told me Jackie and Shauna were dating!”
Lottie shook her head, smiling slightly. “They haven’t admitted it,” she whispered back.
Melissa just looked at their interlinked fingers, still holding tightly across the table, and then looked back at Lottie. “They’re doing a terrible job hiding it, then. How do you explain that?” she asked.
Lottie gave a subtle shrug. “It’s Jackie and Shauna. They do what they want.”
Melissa looked back at them. “You guys haven’t said anything?”
“They’ll tell us when they’re ready.”
So Lottie was no help. She and the rest of the team were just letting this unfold in front of their eyes.
Jackie finally pulled away to get something out of her bag, leaving Shauna staring forlornly at her now empty hands. Melissa considered for a moment that it might be a one sided thing, and Jackie was just clingy. But then Jackie seemed to notice Shauna's glum expression and rolled her eyes, scooting down the bench to make room next to her.
"Ugh, you're so needy. Get over here, Shipman," Jackie said, patting the bench behind her.
Shauna quickly complied, slotting in behind Jackie, who leaned back fully into her lap, even as she kept her conversation going. Shauna pulled her closer, wrapping her arms around Jackie's side, leaving no space between them. In no time at all Jackie was just about curled up in Shauna's lap.
Melissa blinked, and glanced around again to make sure she wasn't the only one seeing this. She looked again at Lottie, trying to communicate her incredulity. Lottie merely shrugged.
Melissa decided she was going to give up on her plan of getting close to Shauna. While she could maybe get to be friends with her if she really tried, she was never going to be anything more with Jackie in the picture. And she really did not want to get in the middle of whatever weird dynamic they had going on, regardless of whether it was secret dating or just plain homoerotic friendship.But maybe it would be worth it to offer a little support.
When Shauna wandered off to brood later that day, Melissa followed after her, looking to speak to her in private. She stood awkwardly behind Shauna, who was scribbling furiously in her journal.
“What do you want?” Shauna said.
Melissa had been preparing. She launched straight into her spiel.
“I just wanted to let you know that I've seen you with Jackie. And like, I support you. I think the whole team supports you. You two can tell us anything, if you’re ready.” Okay, perfect. She’d gotten through everything without tripping over herself.
“Okay, creepy,” Shauna said. “What are you even talking about?”
Okay, Melissa got the message. Shauna didn’t want to talk about it. She could back off when needed.
“Just keep it in mind. I’ll see you at practice?” Melissa responded. Shauna continued to look at her as she walked away, completely confused. God, that was awkward.
3.
Tonight was the night. It was one of the biggest parties of the year, and with only a month before homecoming, Jeff knew he needed to hurry up and ask Jackie Taylor out. Ever since Jackie had kissed him during a game of spin the bottle in sophomore year Jeff had had his sights set on her. She was the hottest girl in their grade, and she’d actually smiled at him after they kissed. Jeff knew that had meant something.
"You got this dude," Randy said. "You're on the baseball team, she's on the soccer team, you guys just make sense together. So go over there and get her, dude!"
Randy's words didn't make much sense to Jeff. He was too sober for this. What he needed now was a shot of liquid courage to get him going. He and Randy rolled up to the kitchen, grabbing a few beers from the counter.
"This shit better be strong," Randy said, cracking open the bottle and downing it. He immediately went back for a second, and started rooting around on the counter for something stronger. Jeff took a few sips of his own bottle as he looked around.
It only took a minute to find Jackie. She was right where he expected her to be, huddled up with the rest of the girls soccer team, entirely in their own world. Jeff just stared at Jackie, watching her tilt back her head and laugh. Wow, she was pretty.
Just then, someone grabbed the aux and put a new song on. It was a slow jam, something smooth and sensual he'd heard on the radio a few times. Jackie cheered, and latched on to her friend to begin pulling her out onto the dancefloor. The other girl, a brunette Jeff vaguely recalled being in his health class, resisted, trying to stay on the sidelines. But all it took was one pleading look for Jackie to get her way, the other girl trying not to smile at her antics. Yeah, Jackie could just do that.
Jackie kept hold of the other girl's hand, twirling around her in a gentle dance. It was slow and sensual, Jackie pressed up against her, arms over her shoulders and eyes fixed tightly on her, like nobody else was in the room.
"Dude, that is so fucking hot," Randy commented, pulling Jeff's attention back to the kitchen.
Jeff smacked him on the side. “Shut up, man.” Randy only shrugged, clearly not regretting his words. "Do you know who that other girl is?" Jeff asked.
Randy squinted across the room. "Think that's Shauna Shipman. She's the one that punched Aaron so hard back in 6th grade that he lost a tooth. Still pretty hot though.”
Now Jeff remembered. She must be Jackie's best friend, based on the way they were dancing. Maybe Jeff could set her up with Randy once he and Jackie got together. He just hoped that playing on the Yellowjackets had helped calm her temper.
Eventually the music returned to an uptempo banger, and Jeff had almost finished the bottle he'd been nursing. Alright, enough time waiting in the wings. It was time for J-man to make a move. He downed the last of his bottle and tried to casually make his way over to Jackie, nodding to people he knew as he slowly circled his way over to the cluster of girls.
It took a lot of pushing before he made it across the room. When he was beside Jackie, he pretended to bump into her. She turned in surprise, and he looked at her in mock surprise, before hitting her with his signature smirk. Girls loved his smirk.
"Hey, Jackie Taylor, right?" He asked, trying to make himself heard over the din of the party. Jackie only looked at him confused. "It's Jeff! Jeff Sadecki!" He added, trying to kickstart her memory.
Jackie smiled at him. "Of course, Jeff! From that one time!" See, Jackie totally remembered their kiss. He had this in the bag.
"I just wanted to come over, see what’s up," Jeff said. When Jackie didn't immediately respond, he decided to power on. "You look great, by the way."
Jackie smiled again. "Aww, you're sweet. I'm actually matching with Shauna!" she said, face brightening for the first time their whole conversation. Jeff looked between the two of them. He didn't really see it. There was some blue in both, he guessed? He didn't really have time to look too hard, as Shauna was glaring daggers at him when he glanced over. He needed to move this conversation elsewhere if he wanted to get anywhere with Jackie. Shauna looked like she was moments from mauling him.
The music kicked up a notch, bass filling the room. "Do you want to go somewhere quieter so we can talk?" Jeff asked.
Jackie scrunched up her face in confusion. "What? I can't hear you over the music!" she said back.
Jeff tried to speak a little louder. "I said, do you want to–" Before he could finish the sentence, Jackie was distracted by something in the distance and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.
She leaned over to his ear. "I have to go say hi to someone, i’ll be right back though!" And with that, she slipped into the crowd, Jeff still standing where he was. Confused, he stood there for a moment, before turning to see where Jackie went. Maybe she was like, implying he should come after her? He didn't know how it worked with girls.
As he started to move, he felt someone stopping him. Shit, it was Shauna.
"Hey, uh, Shauna, right? I was just going to go talk to Jackie," Jeff said, nervously.
Shauna shook her head. "Listen to me, Jack."
"It's Jeff," he cut in.
"Jeff. Whatever. Who the fuck cares. Listen to me, Jeff. She's not interested in you."
Oh geez, was she doing the whole overprotective friend bit? Jeff understood it when it was for like, annoying guys, but he was cool! This was the first hurdle he needed to jump to win Jackie over.
"Let's let her decide that," Jeff responded. “Just give me a chance.” Shauna visibly sneered at him in response.
"I'm telling you now, because I know for a fact, okay?"
"And how could you possibly know that?" Jeff shot back.
Shauna paused for a moment, crossing her arms and looking at the ground.
"I just do, okay? Let it go," Shauna said.
Wow, she was stubborn. Jeff tried to smile. "All I'm asking for is a little time," he said.
Shauna shook her head. "I don't know what you need to hear, John. You're not her type. Like, really not her type. She's already got someone who's there for her, so she doesn't need you trying to stick your nose in her business," she continued, getting up in Jeff's space.
Wait, was Jackie seeing someone? Jeff's mind whirred as he tried to think back on the guys he'd seen Jackie hang around. How was it possible that he'd missed something so major?
Just then, Jackie returned to the group, drinks in hand.
"I'm back! And I picked up a refill for you on the way, Shipman," Jackie said cheerfully. "Malibu and Milk, just the way you like it," she continued, passing the glass over to Shauna. Shauna took the drink, her hand lingering over Jackie's for a moment too long. As Jeff watched, the pieces fell into place.
Oh shit, Jackie and Shauna were dating. They were just keeping it under wraps to avoid negative attention. He couldn’t imagine they would get bullied with Shaun’s acting as a guard dog, but maybe their parents weren’t supportive or something. Now all the touching and the dancing and the protectiveness made sense.
Jeff was supportive, obviously. Love wins and all that. He had an uncle that he was like, seventy percent sure was gay, so he knew what to say. Obviously he was a little annoyed that he had spent so long trying to get with a girl who he now realized was never going to be interested in him, but it wasn't her fault. Jeff knew how to bow out gracefully.
He put his hand on both Jackie and Shauna's shoulders. They both looked confused, though Shauna's was more tinged with irritation at his continued presence than anything else.
"I see what's going on here. You two are secretly dating," he said, quietly.
Both girls blushed profusely, before quickly staring at him in shock, their voices overlapping as they reacted to his words.
"What?"
"She's not—"
"It's cool," Jeff continued. "I'm not going to tell anyone." He mimed zipping up his mouth and throwing away the key. "I support you guys. Now that I like, know, it's actually pretty sweet."
"Jeff, what are you talking about?" Shauna said. Jackie was no longer paying attention to Jeff, only looking intently at the side of Shauna's face, deep in thought.
"I get it," Jeff said, throwing his hands up. "Nothing to see here, right? I'll just leave you two alone."
With that final remark, he slipped away, heading back to the kitchen where Jeff was swaying to the music. Behind him, Shauna still stood in shock, not noticing Jackie still staring at her, deep in contemplation.
"How'd it go?" Randy asked as Jeff returned.
Jeff just shrugged. "She's not for me," he responded. "Did you scope out any other hot chicks?"
Randy grinned. "Of course, dude!"
4.
Tai knew Shauna didn't have a way out of this. There was no practice after school today, and Jackie was staying late as part of a favor for the homecoming planning committee. Shauna had made it clear at lunch that she was going straight home to study, which means her afternoon was wide open.
Tai spotted Shauna as she left her last class, and walked up in front of her.
"Shauna. Given the whole 'maybe dating maybe not' thing you have going on with Jackie, I had a proposition for you," she said.
Shauna was visibly annoyed about being blocked from going home. "For the last time, we are not dating. Jackie's not even gay."
"I'm not talking to Jackie, am I?" Tai replied. "Her side of that is irrelevant to what I'm asking. As the head of the Wiskayok GSA club, I wanted to invite you to come to tonight's meeting."
"No," Shauna said bluntly, before trying to push her way past Tai. Tai followed after her.
"I'l be honest with you Shauna, we're just one person short of getting money for an end of year event, and I've basically already written my admissions essay on it," Tai said. "And I don't know, maybe it could be good for you?"
Shauna rolled her eyes. "Get someone else to do it. There's not exactly a shortage of girls on the soccer team who'd be into that."
"They don't owe me for all the times I covered for them when they skipped school, though."
Shauna glared at her, weighing her options. "Okay, but we're even after this," Shauna responded. Tai gave a noncommittal shrug.
Tai led them to the club room, one of the art classrooms the school had let them use. Shauna trailed in after Tai, seeming more annoyed than embarrassed to be there.
Coach Scott, who Tai had bullied into being their faculty advisor, looked up from behind a folding table, where he was laying out the snacks for today's event.
"Oh, you brought Shauna with you," he said, considering her. "Not the biggest surprise, I guess."
"Good to see you too, Coach," Shauna snarked in response.
Next to Coach Scott, sitting at the table, someone gasped.
"Ohmygod, I knew it! So you and Jackie really are dating!" Misty exclaimed, jumping up from her chair in excitement. Tai was perpetually unclear why Misty showed up to these meetings. She'd never explicitly addressed her sexuality, and truth be told Tai had never been able to get her vibe. Tai had chalked it up to her using the club as a chance to get closer to Coach Scott. Though the concept of the club itself sort of defeated that.
"I knew something was going on between you two after what happened behind the equipment shed, but I didn't think it was like, public reveal serious!" Misty continued.
Tai's head whipped around to Shauna. "The equipment shed?"
Shauna blushed profusely. "It was one time! Jackie was just curious, okay?" Wow, that was a lot to unpack. Honestly, Tai had to give them credit for managing to make it past the yearning phase. This new step might end up being worse though.
"So, is Jackie with you?" Misty continued, smile growing, "No wait, is she not ready to come out yet, and so you're doing it first to ease her in?"
"That's too bad, I'd really hoped she'd taken our chat to heart," Coach Scott commented.
"Jackie is not coming. I don't know why I have to keep saying this, but she isn't even gay. Why does everyone keep being weird about us?" Shauna said. Misty's smile fell, although she kept glancing at the door as if she still expected Jackie to enter any minute. After a short pause, the gears in her brain turning, Shauna looked at Coach Scott in confusion. "And what chat are you talking about?"
Coach Scott stuttered, clearly regretting his words. "Nothing. Just about, um, being confident, and a good captain. Soccer stuff. She's really not coming?"
"No. Duh," Shauna said.
It was obvious to Tai that Coach Scott was covering something up, and not not doing a very good job of it. Shauna didn't seem to believe what he was saying either, but decided to move on. Shauna muttered something about having to talk to Jackie later.
"I'm just here as a favor to Tai, since my social life is so dull that I have nothing to do on a school night but hang out here," Shauna said, before stalking over to the snack table to grab a plate of cookies and dropping into a chair in the back.
"Before you get too comfortable, can you just sign the attendance sheet?" Tai asked. "We need it as proof of our member count."
Shauna let out a sigh but took the clipboard from Coach Scott to sign. She stayed quiet for the rest of the meeting, ignoring Misty's repeated attempts to strike up a conversation and only briefly talking with a girl who was apparently in her AP Lit class. Tai was curious about what could've been said between them, but was too occupied with her hosting duties to be able to afford it much attention.
Within two hours the meeting was done, and people began to filter out. Despite multiple entreaties and more than a little threatening, Shauna did not stay behind to help them clean up, insisting that she'd already cleared her debts with Tai by showing up. Tai would take it.
It wasn't until the next morning that Tai realized what she'd done. Jackie was waiting outside her first period classroom, a look of urgency on her face.
"What's going on?" Tai asked her, not sure what was making her captain so unsettled.
"So I heard Shauna went to your GSA meeting yesterday," Jackie said, like it explained everything. Tai just looked at her, confused.
"...yeah? I needed an extra person and she owed me."
"Did she say anything else about attending?" Jackie continued.
Tai let out a nervous laugh. "Look if you're asking me if she's gay, I'm not going to tell you. Why don't you ask her about it?"
Jackie looked irritated, but moved on. "It didn't go well. Can you at least tell me what she did there?"
Tai thought back. "Well, she ate like a whole plate of the cookies Coach Scott brought, and mostly just sat there by herself. The only people she talked to were Misty and this one girl she has a class with."
"What?" Jackie said, eyes widening. "What girl?"
Tai tried to think of who it was. She'd been to a few meetings. "I don't know her that well, but apparently they both have the Literature class with Mr. Kowalski. I think her name is Abigail?"
"Abigail," Jackie muttered, biting her thumb in concentration. A dark look passed over her face, only for a second, before she returned to her usual cheerful self. "Okay, thanks Tai! You've been a real help, but I have to go do something now!"
She marched down the hall, on a mission, leaving Tai standing there as people filtered by her. She didn't know what exactly Jackie did, but at the next GSA meeting, Abigail entered the room looking like a deer in the headlights.
"Is Shauna coming today?" She asked Tai.
"Not a chance. I'm not that persuasive," Tai answered.
"Oh, thank goodness," Abigail said, visibly relieved. She let out a breath and continued into the clubroom. Tai was confused, but figured it was probably for the best if she didn't ask any questions. She really didn't want to know.
5.
It was only a few days until homecoming, and Mari couldn’t have been more excited. This was the kind of locker room talk she needed. She waited an agonizingly long time for all the girls to shower and get changed back into their regular clothes before she launched into the one burning question she couldn’t resist asking.
“Okay, who is everyone going with to Homecoming?” she said, putting out her hands and trying to get the attention of the whole group.
“Like you don’t already know,” Van snarked back.
“Well, it would be nice to have some of my suspicions confirmed, is all,” Mari responded. “Like obviously you and Turner are going together,”
“Damn right we are,” Van said, pulling Taissa close to her.
“And I have also ascertained that Natalie will not be attending at all,” Mari said.
“And thank god for that,” Nat muttered.
“But as for the rest of you, I'm not so sure,” Mari continued. “Like Lottie, who are you going with?”
“I also won’t be going,” Lottie said, her eyes flicking to Natalie for a moment. Very interesting. Mari would save that detail for later.
“Akilah? Gen? Melissa? How about you guys?”
“We were going to go as a group,” Gen responded.
“Boring!” Mari remarked. “Laura Lee, your turn!”
“I’ll be going with a boy from my church my parents picked,” she answered. “But you wouldn’t know him. He goes to another school.”
“Okay, weird,” Mari said, the others murmuring in agreement. Laura Lee seemed nonplussed at their reaction.
“And I bet you’re just dying to tell us who you’re going with, aren’t you, Mari,” Nat interjected.
“Please tell me you didn’t get back with Danny Mears,” Van said with a groan.
“Gross, no,” Mari said, offended at the very idea. “I’m over him. I’ll be going with Evan Lee.” Take that, losers. Mari had bagged a senior.
“Isn’t he the guy that shit himself in workshop?” Jackie asked, finally joining the conversation.
“That was in the sixth grade, Jackie, and it wasn’t even—“ Mari cut herself off. There was no point trying to correct them. “You know, you’ve been awfully quiet this whole conversation,” she said with a smile. “Why don’t you tell us who you’re going with? The people want to know who’s going to be the prom king to Jackie Taylor’s prom queen.”
“Oh, I'm going with Shauna,” Jackie said, as if it was obvious.
The room sat in shocked silence before exploding into a chorus of voices, people exclaiming “I knew it!” or “Finally!” all at once. Mari saw some Gen and Akilah pass money over to Melissa, who looked victorious.
“Oh that is so sweet!” Mari said. “So who asked who out?”
“Obviously I did,” Jackie said matter-of-factly, looking over at Shauna with a soft smile which Shauna returned in full. “It was a full production, too. Surprised her with balloons and a banner at her house.” Her eyes softened as she reminisced. Mari didn't get to see Jackie look like this very frequently. "I’ve got tons of pics, but I'm waiting until the day before to post them so it’ll be more impactful.”
“She even roped my mom in,” Shauna added.
“Wow. And to think some of the people here doubted that you two were even dating,” Mari commented.
“Oh, we’re going as friends,” Jackie said quickly. The words might as well have been a bomb dropped on the locker room. The room again fell into silence, this time laced with disbelief. "We agreed it was the best way to do it."
“Jackie, you can’t just platonically take Shauna to the dance. That’s actually insane,” Mari said, not believing she had to spell this out.
“Why not?” Jackie said, looking around the room defensively. “I ran it by the girls on the planning committee, and they were all super supportive. They even said they’d vote us joint prom queens!”
“Did you tell them it was platonic?” Mari asked.
Jackie stuttered. “It was obviously implied!”
“Wow. This is some gay ass shit,” Van commented. “And I would know. They thought you were taking Shauna as your very non-platonic date. And I’m pretty sure Shauna’s mom thinks the same thing.”
“What? No, that’s ridiculous,” Jackie said, looking around the room. Everyone shared the same awkward, ‘how do we tell her’ look. "Shauna, tell them that's ridiculous."
"Is that why my mom told me I had to start keeping my door open for sleepovers?" Shauna muttered, before shaking her head to get rid of the idea. "No. They're just saying that to fuck with us."
Mari couldn't believe what she was hearing. This level of denial was genuinely impossible. They must know what they're doing on some level. It had to be some sort of elaborate prank they were pulling on everyone.
"Okay, very funny you two. You can drop the act now, it's just the team here." Mari said. Jackie and Shauna continued to look confused. They were really committed to the bit. Mari doubted herself, just for a moment. But there was simply no way two people could be this dense.
"This isn't an act," Shauna said, looking around the room. Jackie just stood there with her arms crossed.
"Okay fine, we'll play along," Mari said, turning to the rest of the girls, "Everyone, we just need to accept that they are definitely totally going as friends. Let them do their thing." The rest of the team looked around at each other, trying to decide if they were going to let this slide.
"Right, a platonic date," someone commented. "That's a real thing." The other girls murmured in assent, like they all just now decided to accept what Jackie had said. Mari winked at them.
"Should I take Tai platonically too?" Van joked, a grin on her face. At Tai's glare, she took it back. "Okay, nevermind."
"What?" Jackie said, confused at suddenly having lost control of the conversation. "Guys, I'm being serious. We're not dating." The team started to smile and chuckle at the comment, sharing knowing looks. Jackie looked more and more unsure.
"Just ignore them, Jackie. They'll get bored in a few days and move on," Shauna said. She stood up and went to grab Jackie's hand, ready to exit the locker. Jackie followed her out, hands still linked. Mari couldn't believe they would actually try and convince her they weren't together and then walk around like that.
"Like, who do they think they're fooling?" Mari commented, watching as they left the locker. "I can't believe I didn't realize this sooner."
"Speak for yourself," Van commented. "Tai and I figured it out after our third practice together."
"That was the one where Jackie hurt her ankle and Shauna princess carried her all the way to the nurse's office." Tai said.
Van nodded. "And then I think Shauna took her on an ice cream date after,"
Mari was shocked. "How have I never heard about this?" she asked. "This is crucial information."
"Eh, if you pay attention they pull shit like that pretty regularly."
Very interesting. Mari was going to have to do some digging.
+1
Homecoming went off without a hitch. They all danced together, Mari got to show off the unremarkable man she had picked out for the occasion, and someone snuck in pilfered wine which they all took turns drinking straight from the bottle in the bathroom. And of course, Jackie had won homecoming queen, with Shauna right at her side. Truly an inspiration to them all. After the excitement of the ceremony they'd all gone to crash Lottie's place and stayed up way too late shooting the shit.
The night's revelry meant that the whole team was pretty much wiped for practice on Monday. They all dragged their feet heading out to the field, the sun beating down upon them relentlessly.
Jackie was waiting for them out on the field, somehow looking completely recovered. In fact, she looked better than ever, her face glowing in the afternoon sun. She gave the team a bright smile, waiting for everyone to show up before addressing them.
"Yellowjackets, I have something to announce. I wanted you all to know before the whole school finds out," she said, looking out at them.
"Are you quitting the team?" Crystal asked.
"What? No way!" Jackie said, looking shocked. "It's something personal. Shauna, get up here," she continued, holding out her hand for Shauna to take. They both stood there, looking at each other in a silent conversation, hand in hand, before Jackie turned back to them.
Jackie swallowed. "Shauna and I are dating."
"Yeah, where are you going with this?" Van asked. "We didn't actually believe it when you said it was a platonic date, you guys."
"Oh my god, they're breaking up," someone called out.
"No, we are not breaking up," Jackie snapped. "We just got together, you guys!”
“Haven't you two been together for years?” Laura Lee commented.
“No, they were keeping it a secret,” Lottie said.
"No, they're just idiots," Nat commented.
Jackie looked around, eyes wide. “We have not been secretly dating, or any kind of dating, until now. Where did you guys even get these ridiculous ideas?”
“It can’t have been that ridiculous if we were right in the end,” someone remarked. Murmurs of agreement went up from the team.
"Wait, were you two serious about going as friends?" Mari asked. "Becauser that is a new level of denial."
“Oh my god!” Misty said, excitedly pulling her phone from her pocket. “I knew it! I’ve been keeping a list of reasons I knew you two would get together! Super glad I kept this."
She began to run down the list.
“Reason number one: the equipment shed incident. Reason number two: possessive behavior, from both parties," Misty began. "Reason number three: intimate conduct. And I have in parenthesis here constant hugging, kissing, cuddling—“
“Whoa, we aren’t kissing all the time!” Shauna said, jumping into the fray.
Misty tilted her head, thinking back. “It’s mostly been on the cheek, but some of those have been very close to being on the side of the lips. And all very casually!”
Jackie flushed, not looking at Shauna.
“And of course, I haven’t yet had a chance to update this in light of the big homecoming kiss you two had this weekend,” Misty continued.
Now both Jackie and Shauna blushed bright red, completely unable to look at each other.
“That was actually what made me realize I felt that way about Shauna,” Jackie said. “I confessed that night.”
“Let me get this straight,” Tai said. “You guys kissed–in front of the whole school, with Shauna literally dipping you like some kind of fairytale prince–and only realized you had feelings for each other after?"
Jackie smiled awkwardly. "Pretty much?"
Tai looked both disappointed and happy for them. "Somehow you two are even denser than I imagined."
Shauna looked over at Jackie. "I can't believe everyone else figured it out before we did."
Jackie shrugged. "I guess we were just dating before we knew we were dating. Oh my god, that means we get to have two anniversaries!"
With that, Jackie dragged Shauna away, already making plans for the future. The team watched them go.
"They know we still have practice, right?" Nat asked.
Lottie looked at them walking away. "Let them have it."