Divided

- Chapter Nineteen -

It had been a couple weeks since the group had booked the football game tickets, and the day of the game had finally arrived. Tia was rummaging through her wardrobe trying to find something to wear that correlated with her team's colours. She struggled as she was searching for Yellow and Blue. Tia's wardrobe consisted of mostly dark colours such as black, grey, and dark purple. Purple was most certainly off limits since it was the opposing teams colours; Tobias' teams' colour. 

Hannah and Tia went for the same team, and while Hannah was stocked up on merch; Tia was not. She eventually settled on a frilly blue dress and a yellow hair band. She looked nice. Not formal and girl next door sort of nice, but nice as in someone going to a sport game and looking quite dazzling. Tia curled the ends of her hair and applied a light amount of makeup. She smiled at herself one more time in the mirror before making her way to the living area, where her mother was. 

"Hey mum!" Tia said as she walked into the room. 

She was not meant with the same reaction as she expected to be.

"I just found out you're on the fine line of failing math, what the hell Tia?" Her mum, raising her voice while doing so. 

Tia was not sure how her mum knew about her math grade but she could tell her mum was pissed. 

"And to think I was happy for you to go to this damn sport game, you can't even pass a fucking class!"
Tia's heart dropped as her mum maliciously depicted her academic struggles, it wasn't easy keeping up with her grades while simultaneously dealing with people like Jamie and Jordie. Not that her mother knew that. 

"If you go to that game, you can consinder yourself on your own tonight?"

"Excuse me?" Tia asked, concern in her voice. 

"You won't be coming back here!"

Tia knew her mother was most likely bluffing, but it still hurt to hear her say that. 

Tia didn't want this to ruin her time at the game so she shook the negative thoughts and made her way to the train station, where she met up with everyone. 

The group got on the train, it was busy, game days in the city always had packed public transport. Tia and Hannah sat down in the last remaining seats, meanwhile, Tobias and James continued to stand. 

Once they group arrived at the game, finding their seats and getting into the stadium was a blur. There was so many people, and the oval the players played on was massive. Tia was impressed. 

The group were sitting on the second floor, out of three. Completely in the middle. The view was still astonishing, though. As the group got to their seats, they weren't sure how they should sit themselves. Tobias wanted to sit on the edge so he took an end seat, and James assumed that he could 'talk sports' with Tobias, so he took the seat next to him. Tia wasn't fond of sitting next to James, so Hannah offered to, leaving Tia on the corner next to Hannah. Not that Tia minded. 

Throughout the game, the stadium roared in excitement, watching the two teams was intense but it was most certainly worth it. Tobias and James were included in the majority of the crowd that could not contain their excitement, while Tia and Hannah were more passive. Every now and then, the girls would clap or yell something to the oval to share their enthusiasm or dismay. The first quarter went by in an instant and the group mainly discussed the events of the game at quarter time. 

"Imagine supporting the losing team!" Hannah teased to the boys.

James scoffed and Tobias replied, "Imagine thinking your team actually has a chance of winning" he said it with a cocky chuckle following, which boiled the blood of Hannah, who really wanted her team to win. 

The second quarter also went by quickly, and the crowd's enthusiasm did not diminish. The game's score was close. Too close. Hannah and Tia were really hoping for a win, but evidently not as much as Tobias and James; who were flailing their arms in the air and everything. Tia found the boys' enthusiasm to be rather cringe, she didn't use the term often but she deemed their behaviour as an "ick". 

After the second quarter ended, the group split up to go and get food, and at the end of half time, met back at their seats. This time though, James insisted on taking the edge seat. Tobias got back not long after James so he sat down in the seat next to him. Tia and Hannah got back at the same time since they had gone to get food together. Tia was walking ahead of Hannah and got the seat next to Tobias, positioning Hannah into the other corner seat. 

Tobias seemed really invested in the game, he watched attentively, every now and then making a joke to Tia. The game was really close, but it looked like Tia and Hannah's team was coming in for the victory. Well, it seemed that way until the last five minutes when Tobias and James' team made an out of nowhere comeback! Regret settled into Tia after she realised all the snarky comments she had made to Tobias about his team.

The game ended and Tobias's team had secured their victory, Tobias turned to Tia with a smirk making its way across his face.

"Good game" He said, putting out his hand for Tia to shake it, but she refused.

"It was pity points for you to win. Nothing more!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Tia." Tobias said rolling his eyes in a tease and turning to James to celebrate their victory.