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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Sage sits in her usual spot on the way back to Jupiter.
The back of the bus.
Or, at least, it had once been her usual spot, before she started riding her motorbike, Damien, to school. But Dawn has apparently become a spoilsport, because she wouldn't let Sage ride him to the game. Something about team chemistry and cohesion or some other B.S. blah blah blah...
So Sage Sawyer is stuck here, boots up on the seat in front of her, blowing her usual menagerie of gum bubbles, staring out the window as the lights of the highway fly by. Inside the bus, the mood is somber. Jackalope jockeys stew all around her in various stages of exhaustion and disappointment. At least for now, there aren't many conversations occurring. It seems the struggle against the Octopi has really taken it out of them.
On the bright side, however, the smell isn't even as bad as it often is on the commute into a regular school day. There's a reason Sage started riding Damien, after all. Tonight though, everyone was able to take a shower at the Dulcet facilities following the game, so the air is filled with the scent of soap and conditioner rather than the usual stench of sweat and feet.
Small consolations.
Dawn, who has been sitting up at the front of the bus since they left Dulcet, rises and wobbles down the aisle towards Sage. She seems tired to the girl, with a disheveled nest in her hair, floating above the worried map of lines gathering on her face. But as always, there's something steely about her gaze. This, at least, has not faded.
Dawn reaches Sage's seat. They eye each other for a moment. Sage is the first to break eye contact. She puts her legs down and shuffles to her right towards the window, making room for her coach. Coach Wu allows the slightest smile to escape her lips before she nods, once, and sits down beside her wayward wrangler.
"You're off the bench." Coach Wu folds her arms.
It's Sage's turn to smile now. As much as she didn't want to join this team in the first place, she really did miss being out there on the court tonight.
"So what's the plan, Coach?"
"For once in your life," Dawn says, twisting her torso so she can effectively glare into the girl's very soul, "shut up and listen. We'll go from there."
"Fair enough." Sage laughs, pulling a few rebellious strands of hair out of her eyes.
She leans in.
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