HAZE (On Hold)

Part 49

A few days later, Hailee, Jade and the rest of their Stanford teammates make the trip to Milwaukee for their season opener against Marquette University. 

As the plane lands, Hailee instinctively reaches for Jade's hand to hold for reassurance. Jade smiles and squeezes it knowing what's going through her friend's head at that particular moment. 

"You good?" Jade turns to face her. 

Hailee nods, "Yeah, thanks." Jade smiles and nods, "You ready to make your real Stanford debut?" 

"I better be everyone is going to be there to watch, including Kelley and Dylan." 

"You'll be fine, Haze, as soon as that whistle blows you'll forget about everything except the game." 

"Hope so. Hey, how did Storm's team do in their exhibition game?"

"They tied Oregon 1 all, Storm split the second half with another keeper and made a save. She's in tough there though as they have two other more seasoned keepers ahead of her."

"That's too bad, but I'm sure if she puts the work in that she'll get some playing time."

"I hope so because you and I both know how antsy she gets when she doesn't get to play."

"Which usually leads to her getting into trouble." 

"Yep, I just hope her roommate is capable of talking her out of doing anything stupid." 

Hailee laughs. "What's funny about that?" 

"I was just thinking that you sound more like a mother than a girlfriend sometimes when you talk about her."

"Maybe I do, but, someone needs to look after her wellbeing and it's pretty obvious that her parents are too busy trying to save animals from being experimented on and or eaten to care about her and what she needs. You know they are against the idea of her going to a traditional university and instead wanted her to go to some college for natural medicine. I think it's mostly because they don't want her to be away from home where they can control her. She wants more and it's been a struggle for her to go against her family's wishes, even Sunny barely talks to her anymore." 

"I'm sorry Jade, I didn't realize things were so bad for her; if there is anything I can do to help you need only ask, okay?" 

"Thanks, but I think we have things under control for the moment, provided she can handle her course load and maintain her scholarship." 

"Tell her to focus on her schoolwork and not to worry about how she is going to pay for anything, I'll cover the cost if she needs financial help." 

"Haze, she won't ask for anything from you or anyone else, you know."

"She's not asking, I'm offering and I'm quite certain that my Dad will more than back me up." 

"Speaking of your Dad, have him and Chelsea set a wedding date yet?" 

"Next summer, they both want to keep it relatively low key so they are trying to find someplace private to hold it where the press can be kept away."

"Are you looking forward to having a sister?" 

Hailee smiles, "I already consider J.J. to be my sister."

They hear an announcement and stand up, "Time to find out what this place has to offer in terms of food and more importantly coffee!" 

"It's almost supper time, if you have coffee now you won't sleep tonight; which means I won't sleep, and you know how grumpy I get without sleep."

"Okay, no coffee until the morning then."