Highschool Sports (Jercy AU)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"Keep your game face on, Jackson!" Leo yelled off from the side of the pool.

"Shut up, Leo. He's just doing laps," Piper scolded.

I swam to the edge of the pool and pulled myself out.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, man, but you need to relax," I said to Leo.

"Yeah, okay," he grumbled with a pout on his face.

Piper handed me a towel to dry off with, and I saw a head of blond hair duck away from the window of the pool room's doors. Weird. I didn't think much of it, though, and kept drying off my hair.

"So, are we going to go and see the football game tonight?" Piper asked, deviously. I groaned.

"Would you give it a rest, Pipes? He probably isn't even interested," I said.

Leo popped his head up from his backpack.

"Who isn't interested in what?" he inquired.

I gave Piper a look to know I meant business.

"It's nothing, Leo. Trust me," I assured him. I was lying through my teeth, of course.

The nothing I was referring to was my crush on our high school quarterback, Jason Grace. Okay, so maybe he was friendly to me. So what? He was an all-around nice guy as far as I could tell. And yes, maybe he does say hi to you in the halls every so often; but that could just be because you're both sports stars. Honestly, I didn't even know if Jason even *ahem* played for my team. There weren't any clues to make me think that he did.

The fact of the matter was, I was majorly crushing on a seemingly unattainable football star who probably had only the vaugest idea that I existed.

I was out to a my mom, step-dad, and a few close friends, but no one else at my school knew I was gay. It wasn't that I would have a problem being open, but with my career on the swim team, I didn't want to risk being treated any  differently. I liked my life, I liked school, and yes, I liked Jason Grace; but so what? I was afraid that any change might tip the balance that I'd worked so hard to create and maintain.

"Go Centaurs!" Piper and I screamed from the top of our lungs.

Yeah, lame, I know. Centaurs. I doubt many people even know what a centaur is (I know because I happen to secretly be a huge geek shhhh). Personally, I thought that centaurs are cool and totally badass, but it isn't really convenient as a school mascot. Sure, we have really cool sports jerseys and merchandise. And yes, nothing is more entertaining that seeing a couple of guys in a horse suit run around awkwardly near our team's bench. Given enough thought, though, it was a sucky thing to be shouting as loud as you can if you're trying to keep up any self-respect (but hey, go team right?).

I don't really remember most of the night, as it's Piper who is really into football. I mostly go to hang out with Piper and ogle at Jason.

I always feel like I have to get really into the cheering aspect of the game, though, even if I have no clue what's going on the majority of the time. Honestly, I just stand up and cheer when Piper does, and look scandalized when everyone else is booing and hissing.

It probably sounds like the dumbest system ever, but it works fairly well. I'm a swimmer. What can I say, football is a lot less straight forward.

I think that we won, although I'm not quite sure. The nachos were good, at least.

"Hey, Jackson," someone called.

I turned to face the voice. I wasn't expecting the guy looking at me expectantly. He was a lot less blond, and a lot more Asian than I was hoping for.

Frank Zhang and I don't have a particularly close relationship. We partner up in science, mostly because we don't know anyone else in the class, and the jocks always seem to gravitate towards each other, you know?

"Oh, hey Frank. What's up?" I asked.

He looked a bit uncomfortable. That was odd. After freshman year he got this sudden growth spurt, and his confidence seemed to grow with it. I hadn't seen him this out of sorts (do people still say that?) for at least a few years.

"HE DID WHAT?!?" Piper shrieked.

I couldn't help but cringe. The thing with Pipes is, when you do anything wrong she is totally forgiving and sweet about everything; unless it involves love. She is a freaking cupid or something, I swear. She only gets really serious when something like this happens.

She took a few deep breaths.

"And you said yes?" she asked, a little more calmed down.

I shrugged, trying to contain my excitement.

"It's just the movies. It doesn't have to mean anything you know… He could just be trying to be friendly…" I trailed off.

"Oh, yeah, because everyone who is being 'just friendly' is too nervous to even ask someone to see a movie with them in person. They definitely send their man-servant to deliver the message," she said sarcastically.

"Who asks a guy out through another person? How lame is that?" she finished exasperatedly.

What had happened was that Frank had told me that Jason wanted to see a movie with me. Just Jason and I. He made that part uncomfortably emphasized.

Honestly, I could barely contain my inner fanboy. Granted, it wasn't exactly the fairy tale scene I'd imagined when Jason had asked me out. I was severely disappointed by the lack of passionate gazes, although since he was asking me out through Frank, I wasn't overly disappointed in the absence of that aspect. I could tell just by looking at how red Frank's face was that he didn't want to be in the situation either. Still, I didn't want to miss an opportunity to go out with Jason Grace. I told Frank to let him know that I'd be in the pool after school, training. I wasn't totally desperate. I planned on getting some answers as to why he didn't ask me to the movies himself, and what he was expecting from this "date," if that's what we decided to call it.

"Piper, I said I'd talk to him, okay? I still want to make sure I know what I'm getting into."

She pursed her lips and gave me a conflicted look.

7th period was over at the bell. Time to go to the pool, gather my thoughts, and talk to a certain quarterback.