Malibu | j. parker

veinticinco

With volleyball no longer being an option in her life for a couple of months, Mariposa had no idea what to do. She was bored out of her mind, but she couldn't exactly do much physical activity without over exerting herself.  After homecoming, school wasn't that exciting anymore.  For the football players, they were looking forward to playoffs and state championship, so they had a lot riding on them and a lot of excitement that they haven't felt before, but everyone else was kind of just going through it. Well, they did just take drug test, but all of them knew better than to do them while on the team; clearly not Jordan, but Mariposa knew JJ refused to do drugs.

Reina had an art show coming up before Fall Break, so she was doing that, but Mariposa had nothing.  She focused her attention on sports, and now that she couldn't do any sports until spring, she had nothing going on except for the frustration and stress her schoolwork gave her.

Fabiola and Eladio were still working on getting her a new car, so her and Reina were still riding with JJ, but he wasn't complaining about it. In fact, when he picked them up for school in the morning, he arrived with coffees from Starbucks. "I woke up and saw you posted on your Snapchat story at 3AM, so I thought you'd be tired and got you this." He explained, handing the girls their frappuccinos. It was mainly directed to Mariposa, but he couldn't just get her a drink and not get Reina one when the three of them were riding in the same car for 10 minutes.

After school, Reina was in the art room working on her pieces for the art show, and Mariposa was out in the stadium watching the guys practice. She finished her homework, so she was literally standing next to Billy Baker as if she understood what was going on. "JJ's too shallow, he needs to go deeper." Billy commented, making his assistant coaches take notes.

Mariposa had no idea what they meant, but it definitely wasn't deep and shallow in the way she was thinking.  I need to touch the grass, she thought to herself.  Billy and the assistant coaches watched as she got off of the bench and sat in the grass, her hands playing with a patch of it in front of her.  They weren't bothered enough to ask why she chose to sit on the floor when there was a perfectly clean bench right behind her, so they continued like nothing happened. Until the next water break, Mariposa sat on the ground with her legs crossed Indian style while mindlessly playing with the grass and watching the guys, mainly her boyfriend, practice.

"Baby, why you sitting on the floor?" JJ panted as he and all of the guys crowded the water station. "Won't you get grass stains on your pants?"

"I hope not. I just bought these jeans."

JJ glanced over to the team before he started walking to the bag he brought out with him from the locker room. He quickly pulled out a towel he had stored away, which he usually used if it was really hot and wanted to wipe sweat off, and folded it up so Mariposa could sit on it. Since she was already up so he could lay the towel down, JJ started brushing off the back of her legs and butt when their friends came over. "Bro, in front of everyone?"

Looking up at Jordan and Spencer, Mariposa shrugged and JJ straightened up. "We didn't do anything."

"That's what you guys always say before something happens."

"Yeah, that's kind of how cause-and-effect works."  Mariposa nodded, reaching up to pat Jordan's head like he was a dog.

"I was just taking the grass off of her"  JJ shrugged, throwing an arm around his girlfriend as he faced his closest friends.  The three football players watched the two, wondering why Mariposa wasn't backing away at the fact that JJ was still sweating.  However, at the same time, they did not want to know how she got comfortable with his sweaty body.

From the bleachers, Asher watched the four communicate.  He still found it weird how he wasn't allowed to the practice because of what occurred at homecoming, but Mariposa was fine.  Nothing against her, but he thought he would be able to sit next to her or at least stand on the sidelines to learn everything.  However, Mariposa was basically a second daughter to Billy, so she had some exceptions.