The Challenger on the Field

by Independent Chica 16

Hi guys. I lied. I will be posting more within the month. I found my way back to this story. :) Rated PG for slight language. This is an AU fiction for those who are tekkie on details.

1. In the beginning

She couldn't believe it.
Her father could not do this to her. She wanted to have a real house, and not live on Naval Bases all the time, sure.
But Virginia?? During integration? And Alexandria? The littlest town in the whole d@#$ state on top of that?!? That was too much.
She had begged and pleaded with her father, let's move back to California, let' s NOT move to Virginia, let's go HOME.
But her father had been unsympathetic. We are moving to Virginia, he said. She had no choice.
Her name was Angel McGuwire. Her father was a Seaman in the Navy. Her mother was living in California. Her father and mother had been divorced for three years. Angel saw her mother very little and didn't care. She was never around anyway.
Angel herself was 16 years old. She had been homeschooled by her father on all of the moves they had made across the US. Now she would go to a real high school. She was 6'2", 200 pounds dripping wet, and had legs that went on for days. She had red hair, piercing blue eyes that seemed to look right through a person, and she wore gold framed glasses. She wanted contacts, but her father wouldn't get them.
Angel was also a well trained athlete. She was skilled in gymnastics, and track and field. But the real reason she wanted to go to a real high school was for one purpose. FOOTBALL. She loved to play football, and wanted to play on a team. And she was GOOD. She wanted to live somewhere up north, where she might get a chance to play on a real high school team. But Virginia? Forget it. In 1971, they had scarcely started integration, and they were not going to go well with the idea of a girl playing on their beloved male dominated football teams.
Angel sighed. Life in Virginia was not going to be easy, but she was GOING to play football. Whether anyone liked it or not.


The plane ride to Virginia was smooth and uneventful. Boring, really. Angel had been on so many of them, she had lost count. Great, she thought, boring plane ride to match a even more boring city. And we haven't even landed yet!
Her father asked her, " Are you ready, hon.?"
" Yeah, Dad," she said, " Ready for this "New and exciting" adventure that you have been talking about for two and a half hours. I still don't see why we can't live up north."
" Honey, it's cold. You won't like it. It's ugly, and you have no better chance there than here of getting on a football team."
" Yeah, sure Dad. The teams in the North have been integrated for years, and the team here just got the order to start integrating. Please!"
" I know the coach personally, Angel. He'll put you on the team."
Angel had her doubts. Dad knew a lot of people, sure, but he was also not liked by a lot of people. And this Coach Boone was not a person that she had ever heard of, for all of the 16 years that she had been alive. But, maybe her dad didn't tell her EVERYTHING.

A few hours later...

" Man, is this school SMALL!" Angel could not believe this was happening to her. She had not done anything to deserve it.
" Keep your mouth shut," said her father, " We have to go and see the football coach, and I will not have you chanting women's lib at him, is that quite understood?"
" You know, Dad, even the fact that you have to tell me that is pathetic. Women make up half...."
" Angela Nicole McGuwire, I am warning you."
" Ok, Dad. I promise. No women's' lib."
He nodded with satisfaction, and proceeded into the Football Office. Angel followed, wondering if these Neanderthals were going to let her play.
" Hello, Coach Boone." Her father said pleasantly as he entered the room.
Coach Boone looked shocked, surprised and happy all at the same time. " Jeff McGuwire! I haven't seen you since the Navy. How are you doing?"
" Good, Good," he said dismissively, " Look, there is a specific reason why I am here. You see, my daughter, Angel, wants to play football for the Titans, and I am here to see that you at least let her try out for the team."
That's my dad, Angel thought, always gets to the point.
The room was dead silent. There could have been a fly heard buzzing on the wall it was so quiet. Then, Coach Boone started laughing.
" Jeff, why does she want to play a game with a bunch of big, sweaty guys, risk getting seriously injured, not to mention start a state wide riot?"
He was about to answer when Angel cut in, " I consider my life a waste if I don't start at least one riot a day, Coach Boone."
Her father shot her an evil eye. " What my daughter is trying to say, Coach Boone, is that she is a highly trained athlete and she wants to be given at least the chance of making the team. And I know for a fact you don't have enough decent players going to your football camp as it stands right now." Then his voice got quiet and smooth. Angel knew this was his I-am-not-in-the-Navy-I-am-a-Lawyer-now voice. " And if you don't give my daughter the same chance as you would any boy in this town, your @#$ will be in a sling. I will start with the new sexual discrimination suit and go from there and they will all have your name on them, Coach Boone.
Coach Boone stared long and hard at Angel. She stared right back. She was not going to let anyone take advantage of her.
He suddenly reached into his desk and pulled out a stack of papers. " Now, all of these have to be filled out and returned to me by the time we head to football camp. That's September First. Got that? You have to have a full physical when we get back, after the 14th, and I need to know if you are fit to play by August first. Got all that?"
Angel kept herself from smiling. She had jumped the first hurdle. " Yes sir. I will have all of these filled out by the first."
" Now, listen to me, " he said seriously, " I don't know how the boys are going to react to a girl on the team. They will play with you, because I will make them, but, um, I can't be responsible for anything else that happens, ok?"
Angel had to smile now. This guy was good. " Don't worry, Coach Boone. I am highly trained in Karate, Akido and always carry a bottle of mace. I can take care of myself."
" Alright, then. I will see you in the parking lot on Sept. 1st at 12:00. The bus will leave at 12:30. Don't be late, because if you don't attend football camp, you won't be on the team. Got it?"
Angel smiled again. " Got it Coach."


"Hurry up, Dad! I'm gonna be late!"
Angel dashed upstairs, grab her duffel bag, and went dashing back downstairs, ran outside, and jumped into the open door of her dad's car just as he put it into gear.
The whole drive to the high school was stony silence. Angel was thinking how hard this was going to be, having to prove herself to a bunch of Neanderthals that called themselves teenage boys. She was also thinking about who she would room with at the football camp. But she wasn't worried. Her father had always told her, you do what is the best for the situation, and everything else would fall into place. No questions asked.

They arrived at the school at 12:10. Angel looked around and saw Coach Boone waving her over.
" Well, Angel, you're...um...here." He said, with a nervous look around, looking out of character. He was apprehensive, his eyes were darting around, like he expected someone to attack.
" Yes, Coach. Did you expect me not to be?"
" No. But I hoped you wouldn't. I should have known better. You are just like your father."
" I'll take that as a compliment."
" Well, pick a bus and get on it. We are fixing to leave, in a second."
He went over to talk to one of the other coaches. Bill, something, Angel thought, as she went to get on the first bus.
When she stepped onto that bus, she immediately got the feeling of second-class. She was used to it. But thes e were different. Those dirty looks that she was getting were downright lethal.
She smiled, and, with her Irish accent getting thicker by the minute ( Always got thicker when she was nervous or angry) she said
" G'Day, Lads."
She began to make her way to the back of the bus. She had caught sight of an empty seat. But the rest of her teammates were not making getting there easy. Angel was tripping over feet and bags and all of the other crap that was in the aisle.
Angel's temper snapped. She wanted to make a good impression, but she wanted to sit down more.
She tossed her bag the rest of the way to the back of the bus. It landed perfectly in her seat. Then she went to the door of the bus.
" See ya in a bit, mates." Angel said, as she heaved herself on top of the bus.
Angel was used to people staring at her by now. And staring people were. She made her way across the top of the bus, taking her time, so she didn't fall. When she got to the back of the bus, she grabbed the railing that ran across the bus, and let herself dangle, so she was parallel with the side of the bus that her bag was on. She pulled herself up, just as people were starting to whisper, and she saw the coach come over to tell her to get the h@#$ off of the top of the bus and get in.
She put her feet into the window, and with one graceful yet powerful movement, she shot herself into the bus. She moved her bag aside, and sat down.
Coach Boone got on the bus. He looked like he was trying like hell not to laugh, but he really wanted to.
" Great theatrics, Angel. Anything else,?" He called, trying to sound like he was in charge, and his bus just wasn't worked over by a 16 year old girl.
" No," she said smugly, " We can leave now."

Three hours into the bus trip, Angel fell asleep. She was so tired from worrying and from getting ready for the trip.
If her father had ever told her anything, she should have remember this: Never let your guard down in a situation that you don't trust. And going to sleep was the biggest way to do it.
She stayed asleep until the bus hit a huge bump and started to swerve a little.
The rest of the incident happened in slow motion. Angel felt herself slid off her seat while she tried to hang on. She grabbed her bag, for leverage, but that didn't help. Then, for some reason, she felt herself fly backward. As she spun around, she also felt a hand in her back push her.
Angel hit the pavement rolling on her side. She lay in the middle of the road, trying to figure what happened. She raised her head slowly, and realized what the people on the bus were going for.
It was the second bus, the one with Coach Bill Young on it. She saw him look at her and get the most terrified look on his face.
The brakes on the bus smoked as the bus driver slammed on the brakes and locked them. Angel was frozen in place, she couldn't move, she was watching that bus come inching toward her face.
The bus stopped, about an inch and a half from her face.
Doors and windows on the bus flew open, and several of the black players came racing out of the bus. One of them, wearing a black suit, red tie, and a white shirt, lifted her up on her feet.
" Are you okay? What happened? How did you..."
Angel was so mad now she was oblivious to the rain, the cold, and the disgusting scrape she had gotten all the way down her leg when she was pushed out of the back of the bus. She had one thing on her mind...Gerry Bertier.
Angel walked by all of the guys, ignoring all of their indecent looks toward her now ripped to shreds blue jeans. She got on the bus, and had two boys in the front seat get up and give her their seat. That's sweet, she thought, and she grimaced and sat down stiffly.
They got to the school in record time. The other bus was already there, and Angel was trying to keep her temper. She got off of the bus, and looked across the parking lot to see Gerry Bertier's self assured look that said, " I got away with it."
Angel snapped. She dropped her duffel bag, and started to walk over to Gerry. She saw him look at her, and his smile lessened a little. She stepped right in front of him and said, " Bet you thought that was funny, didn't you? Bet you thought that, seeing as I am the most different of all of you, black or white, bet you thought it was funny, pushing me out of the back of the bus like that, didn't you?"
"Well, um, yeah." said Gerry.
Angel smiled. " Wrong answer, Gerry. Wrong Answer."
She turned as to move away, then she turned around and back handed him. She hit him so hard that she felt the bones in his mouth break, and his skin tear. She raised her hand to hit him again, only to have it caught by Coach Boone.
" WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!?!?!?" He screamed, looking at Gerry as thought he had never seen a broken jaw before.
" I taught this boy a well-needed lesson on how to respect a lady, and let us hope that he doesn't forget it." Angel said, strangely calm, and speaking in a relaxed, almost cheery, tone of voice.
" Well, Angel, you must be the first player to ever get 20 laps before we ever stepped in the door. 20 laps, NOW."
Angel smiled, dropped her bag next to the track and started running. This is going to be a long two weeks, she thought, as she started heaving almost immediately, due to her injured leg, the cold and the rain that beat relentlessly on her freezing back.

Angel dragged herself up to her room, exhausted. 20 laps in the rain, cold, and injured wore her out a little.
She looked at her paperwork. Room 314. She found it, and she didn't even want to open the door. Somehow, she knew what was coming.
She opened the door, and looked around her room in disgust. This is smaller than a prison cell, she thought.
And uglier too. The walls were drab brown, with peeling wallpaper. There was one single chain light bulb dangling from the ceiling. There was a stand up screen, which she didn't know what was for, and a tall, ugly wardrobe in the back corner. The floors were solid concrete, and there were two beds tightly jammed into the far corners of the room. And it was cold. Freezing cold.
" How do you like it?" asked Coach Boone. She could hear the sneer in his voice, like he was daring her to complain about it.
" Very Baroque," She sighed, not caring. Her leg was still bleeding, and she need to wrap it up. " Why are there two beds?"
" Meet your roommate, Ronnie "Sunshine" Bass. He will be in here too."
Sunshine was tall, tanned, and had shoulder length blond hair. He was wearing shorts, sandals, and a bright Hawaiian print shirt. From the look on his face, he didn't like the room any better that she did.
" Well, you two unpack. Be to the mess hall by 7:00 for dinner" And off he went, laughing as he went.
" Great," she said, throwing her bag onto one of the beds. " Nice to meet you, Ronnie Sunshine Bass. I am Angela Gabriella MGuwire. Angel for short."
He looked at her for a minute, like he didn't trust her. Then he mumbled "Sunshine."
" Okayyy.." she said, not really caring if this guy liked her. She was just there to play football.
She went behind the screen, and took off her ripped up jeans. She put on a pair of purple bicycle shorts, and hobbled to her bed again. She dug around in her bag, and came up with a tube of herbal ointment, and a couple of rolls of gauze.
" Do you need some help with that?" Sunshine asked, clearly wanting to make up for his rude behavior.
" Are you any good at wrapping up scraped up legs?"
" One of the best."
He took the gauze out of her hand, and started to slowly wrap up her injured leg.
She took that time to study him. It was a habit she had, trying to guess stuff about people before she even talked to them. But she couldn't figure out one thing about this guy.
Sunshine broke the silence by asking, " What happened?'
" Were you not on either of the buses?" She asked, wincing as the ointment started to sting.
" No. My father and I were a little late getting into town, so we just drove straight here. Safer than the buses, from the looks of your leg. What happened?"
" Have you met Gerry Bertier yet?" He nodded. " Well, Gerry thought that it would be really funny when, the bus hit a rough patch in the road, to push me and my stuff out of the back door and sliding across the pavement."
" What a jerk." Sunshine said with conviction as he tied the bandage. " There, all done."
"Thanks," Angel said gratefully. " My dad usually does this for me."
" You have had injuries this bad BEFORE?" Sunshine asked incredulously.
" Not this bad, but I have had my share of bumps and bruises.." Angel explained. " I participated in a lot of sports: gymnastics, hockey, roller blading."
" You like hockey? Me too. I played roller hockey back in California." Sunshine said, moving back over to his bed and opening his suitcase.
" What position did you play?" Angel asked.
" Goalie. And you?"
" Goalie. I played ice hockey though."
" Cool." Sunshine said, smiling. " Well, we better get unpacked and everything." He paused, looked around the room, and grimaced. " Although, staying in here is kinda like living in a prison cell."
Angel laughed, and was just about the respond, when a bunch of guys suddenly stopped at their door, blocking all light to their room.
" Can we...help you?" Sunshine asked, pulling the string on the light in the center of the room.
The biggest one, Eddie, stepped into the room, grazing the top of the door with his head. " We wanna have a few words with your roommate, hippie boy."
" What about?" Sunshine asked pleasantly.
" We want to tell her to watch her step. Just because that new coach is letting her play, that don't mean that we hafta be nice about it." Eddie said, trying to be macho.
Sunshine looked at the floor, and for a few seconds, there was silence. Suddenly, he started to laugh. His laughing got louder and louder. When he recovered, he looked at Eddie and said, " Who do you think that you are kidding? Because it's certainly not me."
Eddie looked nervous. " What are you talking about?" he asked.
" Eddie, buddy, lemme tell you something, and I promise to talk in little words, so you'll understand it, okay? Angel has gone through PROFFESINAL ATHLETIC TRAINING. She is a vegetarian, which means she eats better than all of us put together. And she doesn't consider going to the movies a night of intense excise. She works out, A LOT. Now that's Angel. Let's take a look at you, Eddie." He walks around Eddie for a second. " Let's see. You are about 50 pounds overweight, which the coach has taken pity on your poor soul, and called it muscle. I've seen you run, so I know for a fact that I have a dead grandmother that moves faster than you. And to top all of that off, you are dumber than a box of rocks. Now I have said all of this to prove this one point. If you are trying to threaten someone, I would suggest you do it to someone who could not kill you with one hand, okay, Eddie?"
Eddie flushed bright red. He was so embarrassed that Angel almost felt sorry for him. Eddie left the room in a hurry, taking his friends and his wounded pride with him.
Angel and Sunshine looked at each other for a minute. Then Angel said, " Don't fight my battles for me, Sunshine."
" But..."
" Man, if I am going to make it around all of these guys, I have to stick up for myself. No one is going to be around to help me."
Angel left the room, but not before she heard Sunshine whisper " I just did."

That night, Angel came in and collapsed on her bed, still in her gear. She had never been so tired in her entire life. It was not even the first full day, and Coach Boone was already running them through drill and laps. On the other side of the room, she heard Sunshine moaning and unbuckling his gear.
" You know," He said, groaning and stretching, " You are gonna hurt worse if you sleep in your gear."
" I know, I'm getting up." She said, moaning and groaning as she struggled to her feet.
" Did you hear what you did to Gerry?" said Sunshine.
" No."
" Well, you caused a lot of damage with just one blow. He can still play ball, but he is going to have a mouthful of metal for the next 6 weeks. You also broke 4 bones in his face. I heard that the doctor asked where the baseball bat was that did it to him. When he heard that it was done by a human hand, he wanted to see you, because he was so sure that you had broken your hand."
Angel looked at her hand. It didn't look broken, so she wasn't worried. " Night Sunshine."
" Night."
Angel fell asleep. She was just going into deeper sleep, when she woke up all of a sudden. She looked at the clock. 3:15 a.m.
She sat up, wondering what could wake her out of a deep sleep when she realized....it was FREEZING.
Angel could see her breath rising in front of her in thick clouds of vapor. She looked over at Sunshine, and saw that he was awake also.
" D****, it's cold." he said, shivering and clutching the thin blanket around him.
" Sure is." Angel agreed. She went over to the thermostat. It shouldn't be this cold, she thought. Then she saw the problem.
The thermostat had been turned all the way down to 42 degrees, and then broken, so it couldn't be turned off.
She told Sunshine, and he said " What do we do now?"
" Freeze tonight, and talk to Coach in the morning."
" We'll freeze to death in here!"
" Don't be such a drama queen. We will not." Angel went to the wardrobe and opened it. She tossed Sunshine a sweater and a pair of sweatpants. " Put those on, and a pair of thick socks too." She then grabbed her own sweater and pants, and got a pair of Sunshine's wool socks. They both got back into bed and laid there shivering until they both went to sleep.
They were both up again at 5:30. They dressed quickly, and ran downstairs to find Coach Boone.
When they found him and told him the problem, they were not amused with his answer.
" There's nothing we can do. The repair guys isn't here."
"BUT WE ARE GOING TO FREEZE!!"
" Get a blanket."
Sunshine and Angel looked at each other, dumbstruck. It was 25 at night, and about 40 during the day. And they had to live with it.
The first full day of football camp was worse than the night before. None of them every stopped moving. They were running left and right, and up and down. Coach Boone was tough, and he proved it. He wanted them to pull together as a team, but none of them were doing it yet. Especially not towards Angel.
It was finally dinner time. Angel was exhausted, and not in the mood to go and face more meat. She had dinner the night before, and all she could eat of it was limp salad, a rock hard roll, a warm carton of milk, and a stale cookie. The main course had been beef stew. Today, it was hamburgers.
Angel got her tray, looked down at it in disgust, and went over to an empty table at the far end of the cafeteria. As she walked by, she got the usual killer looks and indecent words muttered under their breath so that they thought that she couldn't hear them. She sat down and thought, " I am not going to survive on this team."
She was shocked at herself. For the first time since she had begun this entire thing, since she wanted to play football, she had NEVER, ever, had one minute of self doubt. She wanted to quit.
And she would have, if an extraordinary thing had not happened.
Gerry Betier, the captain of the football team, with his mouth full of metal, came over to her and stood beside her for a moment. She looked up at him, wondering what he wanted. She figured he was going to talk his way around the metal, and tell her what a b**** that she was, and how he was going to kick her a$$.
BUT....he didn't. He worked his jaw a couple of times, took a breath, and said quickly, " CanI sit here?"
She caught what he had said, and she replied, " Sure." Angel shifted her stuff, and moved over so he could sit down.
They ate in silence for a while, Gerry, sipping his soup through a straw, Angel, eating her limp salad, and wondering what the hell was going on.
Suddenly, Gerry put his soup down. He cleared his throat, and said, " I want to apologize. It was a really stupid prank that I pulled, pushing you out of the bus like that. I never thought that you might get seriously hurt or anything." He paused, and turned and looked at her. " Can you ever forgive me?"
She thought about it for a minute. He was a guy, who had pushed her out of the back of a bus, on purpose, with the intention of making sure that she couldn't play football. Then he had smiled and smirked about it afterwards.
" I think you have been punished enough," She said with a smile. " I forgive you."
Gerry smiled. He goes, " Good. Now that we are on our way, sort of, kind of, being maybe friends, I just wanna say....please don't hit me again, THAT HURT!"
Angel laughed hysterically. She said, " I can't promise anything, but I will try."


The two weeks of football camp flew by after that. Angel, Gerry and Sunshine all got to be a tight-knight group of friends. Which is what Coach Boone was going for, of course, for the Captain, the star quarterback, and the second string quarterback to get together and like each other. The rest would work itself out.
They were all loading the buses, and Angel was glad to see that the white and black players were mixing in the buses together, without having to be made to by Coach Boone.
Angel got on the bus, and saw Gerry and Sunshine sitting in the back. " Hey Angel, back here!" They called.
The entire bus was quiet. They were all recalling the bus ride to camp. " If it's all the same to you guys, I think I will sit up front." She said, dropping her bag on the seat next to Rev.
Everyone laughed. They were all friends.


THEIR PARENTS, ON THE OTHER HAND, WERE ANOTHER STORY...

Football camp had done what it was supposed to do. They were no longer thinking of themselves as black and white, but in white and red. ( The Titans uniform.) They accepted each other, and respected each other. It had taken Angel the longest to break through the racist/sexist barrier. And some of the still didn't like her, but a t least she was respected. A little.
All in all, everyone was happy and making friends at camp. But then, they came home.
The bus stopped in the parking lot of T.C. Williams High, and everyone piled out. Angel got off more slowly, lugging her heavy duffel behind her.
As she went to find her father, she heard snatches of conversation going on around her, none which sounded all too inviting.
" Mom, really, they're a nice bunch of guys..."
" Honey, it must have been awful..."
" Imagine, letting a girl play football! What was her mother thinking..."
" I heard she doesn't have a mother. She ran off with another man and totally abandoned her..."
Angel focused on the last part of the conversation and spun around. About 8 feet away, there were two middle aged women, talking to each other with their hands cupped over their mouths. Nearby, Gerry and Rev were saying, "Mom, Shut up. She's our friend, shut up..."
Angel smiled, and thought, " This is too priceless to let slip by." She walked over, and the two women stopped talking instantly.
" So Rev, Gerry, you didn't mention that your mothers were a couple of busybodies." Angel said, pretending to be all icky sticky sweet.
Both women stopped talking. Then the older one said, " Who do you think that you are, young missy?"
" I think that I am someone who doesn't like to be talked about behind her back and if you don't keep your d*** nose out of my business, I am going to have to start talking about you."
" We are fine upstanding citizens, unlike you and that heathen father of yours."
" Oh. So my father is a lawyer and he's black, that makes him a heathen?"
Rev and Gerry were stunned. All the time that they were at camp, Angel had never mentioned her father was black.
The two women looked horrified. Angel was now obiviously biracial, and the fact that a black man and a white woman had gotten married was totally foreign to them.
Angel finally saw her father, standing across the parking lot. SHe ran over, and gave him a huge hug.
" How did it go Honey?" He asked.
" It was hard." She said, picking up her bag and heaving it into the car.
" Well, you knew it was not going to be easy when you went into it," He said, getting into the car and starting the engine.
Angel got into the car and fastened her seat belt. " I know. I just didn't think it would be this hard."
Just then, Sunshine appeared at her window. She rolled it down, and said, " Hey man."
" Hey. Just wanted to say see you at school tommorrow."
" Wow. Time sure does fly when you are being hounded by Coach Boone."
Sunshine laughed. Her father, who was waiting patiently, said, " Aren't you going to introduce me Angel?"
" OH! Sorry Dad. Sunshine, my dad Jeff, Dad, my friend and roomate, Sunshine."
They shook hands, and then Sunshine said, " Well, better go. I see my dad glaring at me now. Later."
Angel and her dad went home in silence. Then he said, " So how did it REALLY go?"
" Well, I got pushed out of the back of the bus while it was still moving, Me and Sunshine's room got turned into a meat locker, and speaking of meat, I have been living on limp salad and rock hard dinner rolls for the past two weeks. Let's just say I am glad to be home. Oh, and the good townspeople of Alexiandria FINALLY figured out that my mother was white and my father is black, and now I will probably be known as the town Jezebel or something, I dunno."
Her father was silent for a minute. And then he said, " Is that all? I thought something bad had happened."
" Ha Ha, very funny Dad."

The next day, Angel awoke at 5:30 am to get ready for school. She got dressed, put on her make up, and threw on her leather jacket for attitude more than anything else. She kissed her father,said goodbye to her brothers, petted her dog, and ran outside to her motorcycle. With her helmet in place, she kicked the Harley to life, and roared off to T.C. Williams.
Students were milling around the school when she rode in. Of course, everyone stopped and stared when they heard the roar of the Harley Hog. She parked the bike in one of the regular car parking spaces, took her helmet off, and shook her hair out. She felt 900 pairs of eyes on her, and it unnerved her. She was used to being stared at, but this was a too little much.
She looked around, and saw the guys from the football team congregating at the entrance of the building. She stepped over to them , and said " Hey guys, What's up?"
"Not much." they all said, looking kinda nervous. Suddenly, all 900 pairs of eyes swiveled over to them, all of them looking instead of warm and welcoming, cold and uninviting. All the guys had looks of malice, all of the girls had looks of disgust, and all of the teachers had looks of disparagement and disapproval.
Angel looked around, smiled, and said, " They must be jealous that they can't look as good as we do."
Everyone laughed. That broke the ice just a little. Everyone started to look just a little more relaxed.
Just then, two white girls came strolling up to Angel. They looked really mad. The first one marched right up to her, threw her head back, and spit right in Angels face.
Angel was in shock for a minute. She shook her head a minute, and accepted the bandanna that Gerry handed her. " Thanks Ger." She said, wiping her face off.
Then she turned and looked at the two girls. The one who had spit on her was red faced, and said, " You are such a SLUT!"
" Um, Okay." Angel said. She was still a little dazed from being spit on, but she was rapidly becoming more and more angry.
" Any genius could figure out why you are on a boys football team. What, you don't get any?"
" Bitch. I play football because I want to play football, and you are a ditzy cheerleader because you don't have the brains to do anything else. And I wouldn't be going around, throwing sleeping around with the football players in anyone else's face. At least I don't sleep with the football, basketball and soccer teams."
Boy, was she mad. She swelled up, made a disgusted sound, and stompped off, with her fellow cheerleaders in tow.
Angel looked around and said, " Well, I'm off to a good start, aren't I?"
Just then, the first bell rang. " Well, there's our cue." said Gerry.
" Let's get this over with."