The Nerd and The Jock - LT Fanfic

19: Bae In His Element

19: Bae In His Element

The jocks turned out to be cooler than I'd thought.

Beast's group of friends were a friendly bunch. Candice, Sharon and I had hesitantly introduced ourselves. We thought we'd be the odd ones out, too nerdy for such a popular group of kids. How wrong I was.

Instead, Beast's friends introduced themselves back, and began promptly using our names when we they wanted to talked to us. And they seemed to want to talk to us a lot.

"Sharon," one of the girls said. She was NHS cheer captain and pretty, utterly flawless with her platinum waves.

Sharon looked up. "Yeah?"

"Can you come with me to the snack table?"

"Sure," Shay said and the two of them went.

Candice, though she seemed to like talking to the jocks well enough, preferred to chat with Blaze's laidback twin brother. She was more capable of flirting than I was -- a realization I noted with surprise, since she was so much more inclined to swoon.

"So, you like sports?" was one of her inquires.

"Yeah," said Beast. "You?"

"Sorta. Not really good at them."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah."

"Shame," he declared.

"Why a shame?" she asked, brows raised.

A casual shrug from Mr. Laidback, followed by a languid reach for a Cheeto out of his friend's ginormous bag. He bit into it, chewed, then shrugged. "You look a little sporty," he said non-committally.

Some of his friends nodded, but I knew it was not their agreement that made Candice's light brown skin redden. She smiled at Beast and ducked her head, like a kid who'd been told she was the smartest in class. I could tell she felt flattered and a little embarrassed. But mostly flattered.

So while Candice was busy swooning and Shay was busy buying goods, I was watching the game. Soccer was not something I watched on my own time, but I knew this game was exciting in particular. This game was fast-paced. Even though floodlights put every motion on display, the soccer ball managed to look like a white blur. It ricocheted every which way, and whenever the ball rolled close to a goal the excitement heightened: more people shouted, clapped, stood up.

"Purple and gold, purple and gold!"

"Score already! Shoot the ball! Ah, come on."

"Let's go Kni-ights, let's go!" Clap, clap.

And it was contagious. I was shouting when Blaze had the ball between his feet, when he shot and made a goal. The crowd roared, then. He trotted backward with one arm in the air, grinning like a fool. Score-keepers updated the board and everybody got more competitive.

At one point there was a time-out, and Blaze looked up into the crowd. He searched until he found me, and grinned and waved. I blew him a kiss. He reached out, palm forward, and made a fist. He caught the kiss, the crazy boy.

* * *

The sky was no longer the orange-gold it had been when the game finally ended. The sky settled into a perfectly resigned dark purple, but it wasn't quiet. Crickets chirped in their bushes and owls hooted in their trees, and NHS kids were crazy happy in the parkinglot.

We'd won against the Dames, could you believe it?

Blaze, his brother, Candice, Sharon and I stood outside the field and waited for our parents to pick us up.

"So, there I was. Sweating and everything. Mike passes the ball to me, and he's like, 'Kick the ball!' Only he's not saying this aloud. He's actually just looking at me with his eyes."

Blaze paused to look down at me while retelling his version of tonight's game. We'd asked him, still on a high from the game, what he'd been thinking when he scored at the last minute. The winning shot, that is. We thought he'd looked focused enough, but we were just curious.

He gave me a look, and it took me a second to realize that he was showing me how Mike looked at him. Whoever Mike was.

"Everybody is loud in my ears. You guys were right -- I was focused, but I felt extremely pressured to win. I'm team captain, people expect me to. I can feel Coach glaring at the side of my head. Mike is doing pretty much the same. And everyone is loud. I know I can't miss. So I kick the ball, and swish! Their goalie misses and we win."

"I didn't know soccer balls made a swish sound when they hit the net," Beast said, rolling his eyes. "No. Only basketballs swish, little bro."

"You know what I mean."

"Have you ever tried to join the team?" Candice asked Beast.

"Nah."

"Why not?"

"It wasn't for me," he claimed easily.

"Don't listen to him," Blaze scoffed. He rolled his eyes skyward, a tendency of the Bourgeois boys. "Only reason he didn't join was because he didn't want me to be his captain."

"Not true!"

"Keep on lying to yourself, bro."

Blaze gave his brother a push, and Beast pushed back. He shouldn't have done that, I thought, thinking about how vindictive Blaze could be. Blaze lunged, Beast braced himself, and the two scuffled on the gravel. The two of them out for each other's throats. Yet somehow, they managed to look playful in spite of all the fighting.

We were still laughing by the time the twins finally pulled away. Looking at them, they were just like any other identical twins, but their personalities were polar opposites. Beast was down-to-earth, a generally relaxed and chill person. Blaze was more fluffy, energized and on-the-go.

Jocks.

Heh.

Twin jocks, even funnier.

Ha, ha.

If there was anything I learned tonight, it was that they were definitely different that I thought they were.

--

Ffs, it's been over a month since I updated and I want to apologize for pushing this chapter back for so long. You should gave gotten this much sooner.

But I appreciate your patience, lovely reader you. How are you, by the way? Summer is pretty much here and I hope you get some wonderful time in the sunshine <3

See you next chapter.