Wrangling teenage emotions is hard enough on good days, but what if on bad days they could manifest as giant flesh and blood monsters?
Pacific Rim meets Friday Night Lights as knee-jerk rebel Sage Sawyer is forced to join her high school "tourneytub...
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Friday night and the court is hopping.
Sage Sawyer watches everything from her vantage point atop the hill overlooking the court. She leans against the massive tubhouse doorway, absentmindedly blowing bubblegum bubbles.
The crowd is already down there. The lights are on. The sun fades, turning the sky a peaceful late summer orange. The calm before the storm. It feels like the entire town showed up. And now they're just-
Waiting.
Well, they're going to have to wait just a little while longer, Sage thinks to herself.
She's standing here, watching them, while wearing the burgundy and brown Jackalopes jockey uniform. Its padded leather jacket isn't too far from her own leather jacket, so she's not overly uncomfortable. This jacket is burgundy with brown highlights. The uniform's pants are basically just brown jeans with bountiful pockets. She's now also wearing rugged boots made especially for jockeys.
Sage feels very odd wearing all this stuff. Like her world's been turned upside down. Because it has, she supposes. She never imagined herself to be outfitted like a jock. If someone had told her, even a week ago, that she'd be a starting jockey for the Jupiter Jackalopes tonight, she would have laughed in their face. But recent days have been a whirlwind.
And now here she is.
Dawn limps over and puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"Looking good, kid. This is the first time I think I've seen you not look like you're about to attend a funeral." She says.
"Then why do I feel like I am about to attend a funeral!? My own frikken funeral!" Sage turns back in the direction of the tubhouse. They start making their way to the locker room together.
"You're too young to have such a morbid sense of humor. You know that, don't you Sage?"
Sage grins and blows another gum bubble.
They enter the locker room, where all the other jockeys are wearing their own uniforms, sitting on chairs placed in front of their lockers.
Sage sits down in the chair in front of her new jockey locker, while Dawn heads for the center of the room. The new coach clears her throat and the entire room drops several decibels.
"Alright kids. Many of us haven't been here long, and we haven't practiced together much. Still, we have a game to play. So let's go play it." She brings her hands together and the jockeys begin heading out into the tubhouse.
Sage turns to her locker but soon feels a shadow looming beside her, so she turns back around again.
"Don't forget this, rookie." Artie stuffs a helmet into Sage's stomach. She grabs hold. It's burgundy, with the Jackalopes' mostly brown logo on each side. Three Jackalopes running beside each other, to represent the three jockeys from each team allowed on the court at the same time during games.
