Bittersweet (Jenna Ortega)

chapter two.

Maise's POV

"And that settles the score of 2-5. Maise takes the win." Robin speaks into her hand microphone.

I take one look at Jenna. Her hair clings to her forehead, thick with sweat, and she's struggling to catch her breath, heaving over her knees. I smirk and walk through the small crowd of my teammates who all praise me on my journey to the refreshments table.

"I want a rematch," Exhaustion weighs heavy in Jenna's voice. "You got lucky."

"Your moves are predictable. Your dribbling needs work, it's sloppy. I didn't get lucky, I just knew where you lacked."

"I don't need to hear this from you." She scoffs and goes to walk off.

"But there's potential." She keeps her back to me but remains in place. "In being a janitor. I can just see you mopping the floor with those moves of yours."

"You're such an asshole." She snaps and stomps back to her friends.

"A couple more people have turned up. I'm gonna start doing warmups." Liv tells me as she grabs an orange slice from the table.

"I'll help you out if you need me." I say with a grin. "Oh, and I forgot to ask earlier but is it cool to crash on your couch tonight?

"Couch? Just sleep in my bed with me." Liv wraps her arms around me and squeezes. "I need snuggles with my bestie." She puts on a obnoxious high pitched voice.

"I hate you." I say between short laughs.

"No you love me, forever and always bestieee." She imitates a giggle similar to Cat from Victorious and jogs back to the team waiting for her.

I'm still smiling at her idiocy when I return to the teams huddle. Liv decides to do a split activity and pairs everyone up. She flicks me a smirk just before calling out my name and Jenna's.

"Fuck you Olivia Clayton. I'm not buying you dinner tonight."

—

"She aimed her shots at my head. Multiple times. I could've been decapitated." I ramble to Liv's little brother at their dinner table with half a cookie hanging out of my mouth.

In the Clayton's household, being proper is not a thing.

"I don't think that's realistically possible."

"You're missing the point, Ian. Liv knows how much I hate her, and she took full advantage of that."

Ian steals the last cookie from the plate and shrugs his shoulders. "Why do you even hate her? I talked to her a few times and she was so sweet. Bonus points for her being drop dead gorgeous."

Jenna started two months later than everyone in Freshman year. I remember the moment we met, not so graceful. She was late for class and came sprinting around the corner— close-lined me right off my skateboard. Fifteen minutes we spent in the nurses office. She got off with skinned knees and a hello kitty bandaid, whereas I suffered through a blood nose that would not stop bleeding.

"She's a bitch, that's why. I don't know why the reason matters. We hate each other, everyone knows that. End of story."

"Do you?"

How could he even dare to question that.

"Did you just hear what I said? End of story. You wanna lose friend privileges?" I threaten.

"No.." he mumbles. "But just answer this. Is the hate wholehearted?"

"Wholehearted all the way. We're two very different individuals. We have zero in common."