The Long Winter #102
The Spring Game part one
Shouting filled the house. It came from the largest of the downstairs rooms, the one Shawn had been having the karaoke machine set up in, and one of the voices was indeed hers. Delaney and Lin exchanged confused shrugs and joined the crowd in the room. Shawn stood nose-to-nose with the blue-haired girl from the Institute—
One of the Institute girls!
—in the midst of a bitter argument. The other girls standing between Delaney and the two fighters murmured to each other, speculating about who would emerge the victor, whose taunts were better, more clever, more biting.
“What are they fighting about?” Lin asked the girl beside her.
“They’re yelling at each other about who’s playing in the Spring Game this year.”
“Spring game?” Lin frowned and Delaney’s eyes widened in a sudden understanding.
“The University and the Institute each put together teams and then they play against each other. I think last year it was soccer.”
“Yeah, this year it’s football,” the girl beside Lin said. “I heard they want to do full-contact, but the administrators are lobbying for flag.”
“Well, what’s there to argue about?” Delaney asked.
“Shawn wants a bunch of us to play. She’s trying to get Ash to join our team.”
“Even though she’s not a University student?”
“Especially because she’s not a University student…”
Delaney turned her attention to the fight.
“…barely even consider yourself one of us! Why do you even come around? You don’t give a shit about the community!”
“That’s bullshit, Shawn, and you fuckin’ know it! I’m here almost every weekend, I’m friends with most of the ladies here, present company excluded, you bitch!”
“You’re the best athlete we have! I demand you play on our team!”
“I won’t give in to any of your “demands,” no way no how! You’ll see me on the field, for sure, but only my ass and only from the ground after I stomp your face in!”
“You’re going to eat those words!”
“You’re just jealous I’m not eating you right now, little Mr. Princess!”
Shawn glared at Ash. Ash smirked back.
“I’m going to get Penny to play.”
“The Stark girl? She’s about as athletic as Geri.”
“I think not. She works out every damn day. She was a star on her high school track team, better than the next closest girl in the 100 meter by a full two seconds! You’re going to pay for this, Shawn!”
Delaney leaned closer to Lin and muttered into her ear, “She’s lying, Penny didn’t play sports in high school.”
“Why tell me? You think I give a shit?”
“No, but I’m not telling anyone else here.”
“Why not?”
“Because Ash plays for the Institute and she’s going to find out the hard way she’s recruiting someone who’s played as much sports as, well, as Shawn.”
Lin snorted.
“Do you want to play?” Delaney asked.
“No.”
“I might.”
“I didn’t know you were sporty.”
“I am a little. I played some soccer in school, and volleyball, and I ran track. I had to keep busy somehow after all my friends were taken from me.”
Lin nodded and they watched Ash pass them with her nose in the air. Delaney cut through the crowd with Lin in tow for Shawn, but had to wait while she exchanged words with some of her closest supporters. Delaney then stepped in front of her and smiled.
“I’ll play this year.”
“Good, thank you.”
“Is it true we’re playing football?”
“Yes. We’re asking for it to be tackle.”
“Idiotic of you to risk your body in an idiot sport like football,” Lin muttered.
“I’m going to make sure someone murders Ash out there,” Shawn said, casting an uncharacteristic glare towards the door after the blue-haired girl. “But I’m putting together the team, plenty of tough-ass butches in our community to stack our team with.”
Delaney smiled at Lin and Lin rolled her eyes.
“Have fun with that, ladies,” she said.
“Okay, now that we have the makings of our all-star team of Institute-killing doom, we can begin making our gameplan…”
Delaney listened in awe of Shawn’s mastery of football knowledge. She already knew who was going to be playing quarterback, who could catch, who would be on the defense. She knew (or seemed to know) the gameplan that suited their respective abilities, and what would be the best way to exploit the Institute’s weaknesses, of which Delaney’s ex would be one.
“I don’t believe anything that comes out of that lying scum’s mouth,” Shawn said. “No one at the Institute will be able to match our skill. They have a few ex soccer players, ex softball players, and ex runners. They don’t even have any athletics teams there at all. Anyone playing is going to be out of shape and out of practice, primed to be obliterated. By us.”
Shawn’s ice-beam-blue eyes were alight with the promise of victory. She had never stood as tall, never walked as large. This was to become her signature achievement, a devastating defeat of the fascists at the cursed Institute.
***
Penny and Hannah counted out their pushups, now into their third grueling set. Ash saw them as soon as she entered The Ad, and raced across the floor to wait for them to finish. Penny grunted her way through the last one and then she and Hannah were pushing themselves back on their haunches to look up at Ash, fatigue showing on their flushed and sweaty faces.
“What’s up, Ash?” Hannah asked, reaching for her towel.
“Got a mission for you.”
“If this is about the football game I’m already signed up.”
“Shawn was trying to recruit me.”
“Recruit you? Why? You don’t go to the Institute.”
“She knows that, but she also knows I was a kick-ass basketball player back in the day and she wants to stack her team of fuckin’ Bolsheviks. So we’re going to have to all meet up and practice a few times before the game.”
“We only have two weeks.”
“Wait, what game? Football? What are you talking about?” Penny glanced between the two of them, inwardly grateful for a break from the workouts Hannah was pushing her through.
“The Spring Game is an annual tradition where the University and the Institute put together teams and play each other,” Ash said. “This year we ladies have football. The boys are going to be our cheerleaders, complete with belly shirts and pleated skirts.”
“And Shawn called you?” Hannah said.
“Yeah, called me for like a real secret thing, only when I got there she had almost all her recruits there to bully me into joining them, but I showed her. Now we really have to kick their asses.”
“We will, no problem.” Hannah glanced at Penny. “You in?”
“Me? Play football? Like, on a team?”
“Yeah, you’re in great shape, you’ll do great out there,” Ash said, taking her customary head-to-toe look of Penny’s fit body.
“I guess, sure, but aren’t there like, real athletes here who can play?”
“Well, of course you’ll have to get your roommate Carter to play, and I know a few other b-ball players and track stars…” Ash glanced at Hannah.
“I only know two girls who could play line. We’re going to be undersized.”
“Speed kills, right?”
“And we’re going to murder them!”
***
Penny emerged from her shower feeling outwardly clean. Maddie was standing at the window, leaning on the sill and staring at her tablet.
“What’s going on?” Maddie asked, engrossed in her notes.
“I was invited to play some sort of game.”
Maddie looked up, her eyes bright. “The Spring Game?”
“You already know?”
“I signed up already. Some senior girl was looking for volunteers among the athletes and she knew I played soccer.”
“It sounds like your aggression is like, exactly what they’re looking for.”
“Really?” Maddie’s smile widened as Penny joined her at the sill.
“Really. Ash like, really wants to kick their butts. She said Shawn, that’s the girl who’s like, the Head Lesbian at the University, that she tried to recruit her but Ash is playing for us. She said she was a basketball player.”
“I see. Are you playing too?”
Penny sighed and looked down. “I guess. I’m signing up and I’ll practice with you, but I don’t want to get hurt.”
Maddie laughed.
“What?”
“I just can’t picture you letting anyone hurt you. More like I can see you bringing the pain!”
Penny laughed.
“For real! You work out every day, you go to that crazy FBI guy’s fighting class, and you were friends with me and Sandra at the same time. You’re one tough cookie, you know that?”
“I already decided to play with you, you don’t need to convince me! I’ll do my best, too.”
“Great. Kendall Hayes, that’s the senior girl’s name, she’s supposed to be letting us all know when practices will be.”
“How exciting!”
Penny smiled while Maddie chattered excitedly about the upcoming game, but inwardly she had no idea what she was getting herself into. She hoped Becca would have some advice for her…
Follow The Long Winter into #103 The Spring Game part two here.