Disclaimer: Obviously, I do not own Shingeki no Kyojin. I own nothing in the following story except for my original characters and the situations I put them and others in.
Warnings: Mild language for this chapter, but not much else. Rated M for future chapters.
Note: Also, for the sake of the story, Erwin's a senior. As is Levi. And football means soccer.
"I really think it'd be a good experience, Mikasa. So far I've only been helping with the new students' campaigns, and working with the animal shelter. Sports are a huge part of our school, and I firmly believe that there is much to achieve, and with me as their guide the football fundraiser can truly flourish."
Mikasa Ackermann looked at the smaller blonde, jogging to catch up with her, and clutching her bookbag tightly to her chest with a determined look on her face. She didn't quite know why Krista was so set on working with the jocks, but there wouldn't be an issue if she were to help them. Hell, she might even get them to finally understand that the sports budget was stretched between more than a dozen sports, and they couldn't just have everything they wanted.
Plus, the fundraiser really was a good idea. Typically the school just worked off of grants and not-so-secret, secret transactions for higher grades or lesser punishments, and the footballers took that for granted. It'd be good for them.
"Sure."
"But Mikasa, I'm really passionate about- wait, did you just say yes?"
The Student Council president nodded.
"It'd expand your horizons for both you and the teams."
"Oh!" Krista's face lit up, "Thanks, Mikasa! I promise you won't regret it! I've got a ton of ideas, I'm thinking maybe they could do a bake sale, but then they could also offer lessons in football over the weekends for people that want to learn or improve, or maybe students' younger siblings! It's going to be so great!"
"We don't need your help kid. We can manage on our own."
"Damn, Levi. Quit picking on the poor girl." As the blonde looked around, she saw the exasperated face of Erwin Smith, co-captain of the Scouts Preparatory School Men's football team.
"Jeez," huffed Levi, "I wasn't picking on her. I was just kindly informing her, that we don't need help. It's our own damn fundraiser, and it's not like we're even going to sell anything - it's Saturday. People are either spending the day in Sina, or are too lazy to get their asses out here."
Krista felt a flush creep up her neck; did he really think no one would show up? She had worked so hard to make this project real, too…
Erwin rolled his eyes and turned to her, as if finally acknowledging the fact that she was in the room at all.
"Hey," he said, offering a smile, "Levi's just being a downer. We're happy to have you. Actually, half the girls' team ditched us for drinks at the Maria, and we could really use the extra help for setting up. Maybe you could go help the ladies set up their stand in the other gym?"
Krista nodded. The Maria was a bar that was notoriously easy to get into with a decent fake ID. It was also the unofficial gathering spot of all the Scouts Prep jocks, especially the footballers. Without their underaged customers, they'd probably be run out of business.
"Great," said Erwin, looking pointedly at Levi.
After making a great show of huffing and rolling his eyes, the shorter boy popped out his hip, and managed a, "Yeah. Thanks."
"It's really no problem," replied Krista, having decided that a few rotten apples that go get drunk instead of doing something to benefit their team, doesn't make the whole barrel rotten. Erwin seemed very nice, and even Levi appeared to have a softer underside. "I think that we can make this work really well, especially with how much advertising I've been doing!"
"Well then, I suppose you should go help the girls' team, right?" asked Levi, already starting to turn and walk away.
"Oh, right. Um, I'll get right to it!" Krista was starting to feel flustered again, and ran into the second gym. Turning around to get a full view of how much had been done already, she started backing up to where she knew the girls would be setting up their booth. Just as she started to turn around to walk normally, however, she felt her back collide with a pile of stacked boxes, and every inch the graceful, responsible, SCA representative she was, fell flat on her bum, probably squishing a few of the boxes in the process.
As she lay, dazed, with her eyes closed, she could feel all the eyes in the room on her almost as strongly as the waves of mortification washing over her. Her face was all hot, and most like looked akin to a tomato. To make matters worse, the tittering and giggling was starting.
I'm just going to stay here. I'm going to curl up into a ball and just stay here.
"Hey, are you okay?"
She slowly cracked open one of her eyes, to put a face to the voice, and found herself looking into the freckled face of Ymir Engström, the captain of the girls football team. The very attractive, captain of the girls football team. Who was currently holding out her hand, looking almost angelic.
"Your butt's going to melt the cookies."
The key word is 'almost' angelic.
For what felt like the gazillionth time that day, Krista's face was heating up yet again.
"Ehem, yeah, I'm ah, I'm fine."
"Good. But the cookies probably aren't, so…" A new voice chimed in, loud and arrogant. Becka Swasey. The princess of Scouts Prep. Good at school and sports, but a total bitch. That typical queen-of-the-school you'd see in a teenage chick-flick.
"Uhm, right. Sorry, I'm really sorry." Krista pulled herself up, grabbing hold of the offered hand, and releasing as soon as she was standing.
She looked back to survey the damage, and noted with surprise that she had only crushed a few boxes.
Trying her very best to ignore the laughing in the corner of the room, she grabbed the ruined cookies, and tossed them in the nearby bin. With all the dignity she could muster, she then turned to face the team.
"So. What can I do to help?" she managed to squeak out, determined to forget about the embarrassing incident altogether.
Ymir looked at her, with a strange mix of something like respect and amusement.
"Well, since the fundraiser will be starting in about half an hour, and I don't quite think we're going to be having people banging on our doors for these cookies and/or lessons, we need to actually get people here to raise funds from."
Krista's eyebrows furrowed together. "Yeah, that's a problem. Well, what if…" she thought for a moment, "Hmm, what if we started advertising to people outside of the school? I'm sure a lot of people would be interested in helping out a sports team."
"How?" Becka snorted. "Just, like, go up to people and go, 'oh, well we're having this fundraiser and we're selling stuff so you should buy some stuff'? Where? The mall?"
"No, something more focused, and we'd have to target a specific demographic." Now Krista was feeling more confident; promoting stuff, this was her area. Never mind it didn't work at school, that was just because kids are jerks. Seriously. It's two dollars a cookie. A very big cookie. And it's not like the kids at Scouts Prep couldn't shell out a buck or two.
"And who would you recommend advertising to?" asked Becka, glaring at her with a challenge in her face.
"Well," she said, using her increasing confidence, "On Saturdays there's a shuffleboard contest at the rec center across the street, and the elderly are always willing to spend on stuff for our education, so they'd probably be who we want to focus on."
Ymir narrowed her eyes at her. "So we're going to take advantage of old people and take their money?" Her face split into a wide grin, "Damn, for a blonde you're pretty fucking manipulative."
"That sounds boring. So what are we going to do, make signs?"
"No," Krista tried to reply patiently, "Actually I was thinking we could split up, and some of you could go talk to the elderly during the breaks, and some of us could stay behind, because there's not too much more to set up."
"That's a good plan. Becka, you take the team, and blondie and I'll work on getting the last of this thing set up."
Krista raised her eyebrows at the darker girl, "I have a name. It's Krista."
"Sassy. Sorry, Becka, you take the team, and Krista and I'll work on getting the last of this thing set up," Ymir grinned.
"Why do we get stuck with the old people?" Becka whined.
Ymir gave her a pointed glare, and she tossed her ponytail and left, taking the rest of the girls team to go convince old people to spend more money than they should on overpriced, chock-full of preservatives, cardboard-like cookies, to help benefit a sports team.
The rest of the afternoon went without a hitch. Ymir and Krista worked quickly together, silent apart from the occasional, "Pass me that, will you?". Becka proved to be good at charming older people into thinking she was a decent person, and soon the doors to the gymnasium were being trampled by senior citizens.
Everyone got into position behind tables, and started selling cookies and signing up grandkids for after school football help. Pretty soon they were into a groove, selling so many cookies that Krista could get the specific order, package the set, exchange it for the money, and stuff the bills in the money box in 10 seconds flat.
The crowd of people slowly trickled down to just a few people buying up the last boxes, and then the rest being turned away because they had run out.
They counted all the money, and had about $700 in total, with enough to get a new team bench with custom canopy, and some extra for some new balls.
The girls started disassembling the tables and rest of the setup, and putting them into the storage room, and then started leaving, chatting about their plans for the rest of the day, until the only two left were Ymir and Krista. They started walking out together, and it was eventually Ymir that broke the increasingly awkward silence.
"You know, ou seem pretty cool, so I just thought I'd give you some warning, there are these really evil boxes of cookies, and they're starting to target little blonde girls, so steer clear of them, or you'll probably fall in."
After Krista shot her a red-faced glare, Ymir simply smirked.
"Too soon?"
The shove she got in response was answer enough.
A/N: Hello there lovelies! Don't you just hate Becka? No? You will. *cackles maniacally* This is the first story under this account, and it's also my first femslash or yumikuri fic, and it's definitely not great. I finished this chapter purely on cold, leftover coffee, sweet tea, and determination. The good ol' 'murican way. And yes, I'm aware it's a super lame ending, I stared at my laptop for a good 10 minutes before giving up because I couldn't seem to make it better. Just blame my bad sense of humour. Reviews are very much appreciated, and constructive critiques only make me improve!
I hope to get the next chapter out maybe (?) on Friday, and I'm thinking it'll feature some good old bonding time between the girls, perhaps Krista finding out that Ymir is failing a class (history or literature, I can't decide), volunteers to tutor her after class, and then curses her bisexuality and Ymir's hotness when not in sports jerseys. Oh! And Ymir's name is Entström because I read somewhere that Ymir is a Nordic name, and that's what came to mind for Nordic surnames. So. Yeah.