SKYFALL, Johnny Kavanagh

Strange sports and stranger players

As it turned out, rugby was way more entertaining than I gave it credit for. Sure, I didn't understand much about what was going on, but with Niamh next to me screaming in joy every chance she got, I figured things were going pretty well for Tommen.

"Go. Wait. Yes. No, pass it. I said pass it." Niamh basically screamed in my ear as she watched her brother struggle to pass the ball to the lad in the number 12 jersey, aka Patrick Feely.

"Why can't he just throw it forward?" I asked confused.

"For the sake of my mental health I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." She sighed exasperated. "But after this game you are getting an extensive lesson on rugby."

"Then you'll have to go out to lunch with me and Gibsie, I can't ditch him since he left his car at my house." I stated.

"I want to ask, but I get the feeling I shouldn't." she said.

"Wise choice." I replied.

A couple of moments later our attention was drawn back to the game by an unexpected cheer from the students of the other school.

"What was that about?" I asked Niamh while looking at the scoreboard and noticing it was still at 48-6 for Tommen.

"They managed to tackle him." She said shocked.

"Tackle who?" I asked.

"Johnny." She shouted.

"And? Isn't this pretty usual in rugby, tackling the opposition?" I asked, bewildered by her reaction.

"Yes, but nobody ever manages to tackle him, at least not in school games." She continued.

Accepting that apparently in this sport it was now an anomaly to tackle people, I started to look for Johnny to see how he was doing. I managed to find him relatively quickly after he got back up and started running and, to the surprise of absolutely no one, scored again.

"Did you see that? I think he was looking in my direction." Declared a dark-haired girl next to me wearing what looked like a crop top and mini skirt. And I say looked because both of those things were so tight they basically became transparent.

"When?" I asked to the girl.

"The moment before he got tackled, I couldn't see his expression, but he was definitely looking at me." She replied sure of herself. "Why? Are you jealous?"

"Sure." I rebuked sarcastically, rolling my eyes at the girl. Did these people think Johnny Kavanagh was the second coming of Christ or something?

"Maeve, stop chit-chatting and pay attention to the game." Interrupted Niamh and I silently thanked her. If I had to talk another of Kavanagh's fangirls even for a minute, I was going to lose my bleedin' mind.

The game ended unexpectedly with Tommen winning, and once the two teams were done congratulating each other, we were allowed on the field to celebrate with them.

"You know, I expected more people to be attending this." I said to Niamh.

"I mean isn't Kavanagh the star of the town?" I questioned. "Shouldn't there be paparazzi beating each other up to take some pictures?"

"Normally they would be, but this is a game closed to the public since it's not part of the schools' tournament, so paparazzi and journalists are not allowed in." she concluded.

"Wow, I feel like a celebrity." I declared.

While making my way to team to congratulate on their victory, I noticed Gibsie run and pick up like a sack of potatoes Claire Biggs, and then running away with her into the locker room.