Cupid's Crash

Part 3

Stumbling down the concrete steps to the football field, nearly late but just in time, Camila was huffing and puffing. She was in the middle of putting her straight brown hair in a pony tail when she saw Mr. Hannigen trudging towards the center of the field with his clipboard, ready to dish out today's dumb activity. In the corner of her eye, there was Lauren with her friends, all huddled together near the benches, laughing and such as they always were.
Camila couldn't help but think about her earlier conversation with Dinah. She was starting to feel a little bad about regarding Lauren in a bad light. She didn't even know her, so who was she to judge? Of course, she'd never thought about her badly, and yet, where was all this unprovoked iffiness coming from? Was she really just irked by her because she was the archetypical popular and pretty girl? Camila shook her head and tried to push the thought away. "Let's just get this over with." She sighed.
"Alright, kids. Gather round!" Mr. Hannigen huffed, his double chin glistening with sweat. "Today is a special day because today..." he paused for effect, "...is football day." Half the class rejoiced with wolf whistles and cheers while the other groaned. Camila was part of the groaning crowd. "You'll all be split up into your own teams which I'll assign. I think it's time you kids learn some new faces, so before you even think about complaining, I'm telling you right now there's a mile run waiting for ya and 300 sit ups if you do." The entire class groaned this time.
"Great," Camila sighed to herself. She just hoped she would get grouped with some of the lazier kids in the class. She didn't like feeling like the deadweight when it came to this crap. After Mr. Hannigen gave a little explanation and tutorial of the sport, not that it mattered much to Camila because she couldn't play for the life of her, it was team assigning time. She crossed her arms and stood amongst the others as they all waited for Mr. Hannigen to go down the list of names on his clipboard and call out their team color. One by one, he called out in his blubbery voice; throwing a colored jersey to each student as they came up.
"Camila Cabello! Blue team!" Mr. Hannigen shouted; making Camila jump at the grating sound of his voice. Slowly, she walked up and grabbed the jersey and glanced around for any others wearing the same colors. Her chestnut brown eyes casually swept the field and she almost chocked when she laid her eyes on the blue team. There was a lump in her throat, she could feel it, as she saw Lauren Jauregui stretching, a blue jersey over her tall frame. "Hurry it up, miss Cabello, we've got a game to play." Mr. Hannigen grunted. Camila snapped out of her spell and made an effort to walk as normally as she could; trying to conceal the all too familiar shaky feeling in her knees she'd get during presentations.
It was just going to be a practice game today, or so Camila believed Mr. Hannigen was saying at the moment, but she wasn't really paying attention. She was much too concerned about being on the same team as Lauren. Speak of the devil? Karma? She didn't know, all she knew was that she wasn't prepared. At all.
"Just play it cool, Camila.It's whatever. She won't even notice you. Just pretend you don't see her." She tried to reassure herself.
Camila blinked twice and shook her head, trying to focus on the class. They were going up against the green team. Judging from the several people on each team who she'd noticed were very competitive from their days together in the class, Lauren included, she wasn't going to be ok. So much for not being a deadweight.
It became very apparent how aggressive the game was going to be the moment it started and Camila was beside herself with anxiety. She didn't know what else to do but awkwardly stand in place and slightly jog up and down the field with her team to look like she was doing something but really she was just trying to get out of the way of her teammates. Lauren, however, was on a roll. She was schooling even the bigger guys and in no time, her team was already way ahead on the scoreboard. Camila supposed since she was also on the same side, it'd be "their" team but she really wasn't contributing much to put it that way.
After about 15 minutes, the green team had almost caught up, just a few points behind. Lauren was sweating and breathing heavily, but the confident smirk on her perfect face said she was far from quitting. Camila had to admit, she looked kinda cool all sweaty and stuff - with her raven hair pressed against her forehead and temple like that and her jaw taut with arrogance. Camila had worked up a sweat too, she couldn't keep up the act and needed a break desperately. She hunched over and rested her palms on her thighs as she tried to catch her breath in the corner. She thought she was going to die. She didn't care anymore about the game or about being a deadweight, she just wanted it to be over. As she sucked in another gulp of air, a sudden voice yelled at her from over all the commotion.

"Hey! Catch the ball!" A guy on her team hollered.
Camila glanced up in confusion, a bit dizzy, but saw the impending image of a spinning football heading in her direction. A perfect arch heading straight for her. Camila panicked and started to dash back and forth in an attempt to, well, catch it. She darted towards her right, her arms held out like a cradle, then her left, then all the way back to the right before slamming into something hard but fleshy and getting the wind knocked out of her. There was a loud and quick outcry of oo's and ouches as Camila fell on her back with a sharp thump, a heavy form collapsing on top of her. She was seeing stars and spots of blackness and god it felt like her lungs had been punched out of her chest as she lay there in a warped world. There was a heaviness pressed against her hips and crotch as well as her entire torso as a body laid on her. In her dizzy state, she could sense a pair of strong arms almost enveloping her head, as to not crush her completely, and cool quick breaths grazing the bridge of her nose and across her eyelashes. Other than that, everything else was a numb daze. Holding her head, she felt the figure above her gently pick her up by her arms and sit her up so that she was kneeling. The figure was saying something, but all Camila could hear were murmurs and a high pitched ringing. It took awhile for her to regain herself, and when she did, Lauren was in her face, her expression so worried and guilty looking. Like a radio tuning, Lauren's muted voice slowly became louder and louder until Camila was wincing at the volume.
"Oh my god!! Are you ok? Can you hear me? I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there! Hey, you alright?! I hit you so hard, oh my god, I'm so sorry!!" Lauren frantically shouted. Camila squeezed her eyes shut and scrunched up her brows at Lauren's loud voice before grasping at the front of the girls jersey, trying to find balance.
"I-I'm ok. Really. Just..." No, she wasn't ok. It felt like she'd been hit by a truck and her head felt so heavy on her shoulders. The feeling was too much and she tapped her head against Lauren's soft and firm chest, resting her bruised skull, not really comprehending the fact that she was laying her head on Lauren Jauregui's CHEST. She could distinctively hear people calling Mr. Hannigen over and someone else to go get a nurse. Ugh, she felt like shit. They stayed like that for what seemed like forever, and it was crazy, but despite all the commotion, all Camila could hear was Lauren's rapid heartbeat and hurried breathing as she lay there in her arms. Blinking awake, Camila finally lifted her head. "Can you get up?" Lauren asked, almost whispering. "Yeah," Camila grunted as she was helped to her feet. She wobbled a bit before standing up straight and looking Lauren in the face. The girls brows were upturned in a worried bend and the way she was looking at her, so full of guilt and concern - her emerald green eyes hid nothing. If Camila wasn't still dancing with the birds in the smog, she probably would've been embarrassed by their eye contact. Lauren gripped Camila's elbows a little tighter, unintentionally pulling her closer to her. "You feel ok?" Camila couldn't feel a lot of things at the moment, but she did feel bad for making Lauren worry, so with as much effort as she could muster, she lifted her head to look up at the girls 5'7" frame and smiled weakly for her sake. "I'm fine. Thanks. Sorry." There was a slight pause then, like the world had stopped. The girls just stared each other in the eyes without interruption. Then, reality came rushing back in again as Camila's nose started to bleed. A whole new wave of screaming and urgent demands to take Camila to the nurse arouse, and like that, class was dismissed.
A whole trip to the nurses office and phone call home later, Camila was checked into the hospital with a mild concussion and bruised arms and legs. It was a bit embarrassing for her to explain to the nice doctor that she was basically made into a human sandwich with the football field and Lauren's muscles, but hey, it wasn't as embarrassing as being made into said sandwich in front of her entire class. In short, Camila really didn't want to show up to school tomorrow.
But who was she kidding, her editor responsibilities awaited.