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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It's Monday morning right before school starts and Talia Amphigore makes a beeline for Coach Wu's office.
Talia wants her to be the first person to know, other than Artie and their parents, of course.
Talia marches right on in without even bothering to knock, with a world beating grin plastered all over her face.
Coach Wu, who is sitting behind her desk reading a dog-eared copy of Sun Tzu's The Art of War, barely looks up to greet her. So Talia simply plonks herself down on one of the chairs in front of her. Then Talia slips off her shoe, raises her foot up into the air, and slams her heel down on the desk. The sound resounds around the cramped room, which is filled to the brim with ever teetering filing cabinets.
Talia has Coach's full, albeit begrudging, attention now.
Coach Wu looks up from her book, eyes darting just over her reading glasses. She scrunches up her wrinkled face. Blinks a few times.
"Amphigore. What the hell is your smelly ass bare foot doing on my desk?" She says.
Talia wiggles her toes. Her dark skin shines beneath the office lights hanging above her. "Coach! Hello! I know it's early in the morning but you gotta wake up and smell the coffee! I got my cast off yesterday! I can start practicing again. If you'll have me."
"That's excellent news," Coach takes off her glasses, "but what about your concussion?"
"The doctors all gave me the full go ahead. They said I may feel a bit different up there, but there's no danger." Talia ruffles in the baggy pocket of her sweatpants and pulls out a few crumpled doctor's notes. She hands them to Coach Wu.
Coach nods. "Alright then, maybe I'll consider letting you start practicing again if you would be so kind and remove your frikken foot from outta my face."
Talia quickly brings her leg back down.
She doesn't want to mess this up. Not again.
The whole school day seems to drag like an age, but Talia expected this. It doesn't really bother her. She's spent the whole season up till this point waiting for this moment. She can wait just a few more hours.
But as soon as that final bell starts ringing, Talia is off like a rocket, booking it with all her might to the tubhouse. Her ankle feels good under her. Strong. Resilient. Fast.
But is it fast enough?
Talia hits the security code, barrels through the door, and soon finds herself standing at the center of the hangar. Her brother's already here. He gives her an encouraging double thumbs up, his dark cheeks stained with engine grease and various other tub viscera. In his element, Artie always seems oddly radiant to her.
