It couldn't have come as a surprise. Not really. Football was like a genetic heritage in her family. Like freckles or blue eyes.
In the case in point, her father had been QB-1 and her grandfather was still one of the best coaches in the country.
Even her grandmother Tami, always wise and ready to land the truth, said it was bound to happen.
So when you really think about it, there was no way Lori would have been able to escape it. Her sister had done it already, preferring arts and literature – in her own age-appropriate way with watercolor and Dr. Seuss, but still much like both of their parents that way. But that just wasn't her.
Lori Saracen loved three things in this world like crazy and those things were: Football, horses and spending time with her daddy.
The thing is, her mom never really had any problem with the last two items of Lori's list, whatsoever.
The girl couldn't ever recall her mom acting jealous of daddy taking her with him on those short trips, just the two of them, and they would eat burgers, swim and later on just watch the stars. No, instead she would just make sure Lori had her bathing suit, or sunscreen or a coat if it were to get cold.
And despite not loving horses as much as she did (or even at all) Julie didn't seem to really have anything against it, or at least she never said as much a word, nothing.
But that most definitely was not the case when the subject was Football.
Now Lori loved her mother, with no doubt about it, but for as long as she could remember they have been at odds, going strike after strike for just about anything: from bedtime, to dresses, to haircuts, all of it really.
Daddy said that was because they were too much alike.
But Lori couldn't see it, especially when her mother seemed to hate something just as much as Lori loved it. Which was a pretty big deal and, therefore, something they just couldn't get past it.
So when it came to Football, well, that's when things really got out of hand.
From the moment Lori started coming back home with muddy clothes and her ponytail and sneakers baked in dirt from playing ball on the streets with some kids, and her mother had put one and one together, that was when she first blew a fuse.
After all, surely no daughter of Julie Taylor would be pigheaded enough to get into a game with boys twice her size, ready to break her like the twig that she was. Or so she had expected and said plain and clearly during dinnertime that night.
Lori's little sister, Abby had laughed and laughed until her mother told her to cut it, and Lori mainly just sulked waiting to be excused, but her daddy, he just kept quiet in that way of his, and the one time Lori peeked at him, while she was playing with the food on the plate, he gave her this little wink, the one that would mean he got her, always.
Later she would hear her parents having a discussion, well mostly it was just her mother talking and talking non-stop until her father would sing some good sense into her hot-head with a few words.
"It's just a game, Julie" he would try and calm her, and kiss her hair – dirty blonde just as the girls were, something he never seemed to get tired of and then she had heard him say. "And Lori's just a kid. 'S no need to get rattle for something that might not even last."
Matt Saracen was a pretty smart guy and was usually right about many things, but this just hadn't been one of them and of that Lori was certain, for there was nothing she loved most than being out in the field, running like there was no tomorrow, ready for the next touchdown.
.::.
Of course Julie would find out she had applied for the team. Not only people were still making fun of her through the halls, but Lori had gone and done something real stupid by getting into a fight with goddamn Mikey Russo.
She should've known better, her parents taught her to, but when that stupid jerk told her pretty much in front of the whole school that she could play with his balls if she wanted to, Lori just lost it.
And she sure hit his balls hard, which, to be honest, wasn't really the part she regretted. No, that would be having her mom called at school to hear all about her latest accomplishments.
The meeting ended with the Coach saying he didn't have a spot for troublemakers on his team, and Lori arguing that were that true, Billy Kinkaid would never again play score, which got him laughing alright, but not her mom.
That being said Lori apologized for her actions and promised in the future she would try to think first and act second, knowing deep down that being a girl and all she already had the odds working against her, no need of adding a grumpy coach to the list as well.
As for Coach Stevens he was nice and all sweet-talk, especially when it came to pretty mothers such as Lori's, but Julie had little patience as it was and, if the twitch of her eyebrow was any sign, its levels were about to reach rock bottom, which led Lori to cut things short as gracefully as she could as Julie yanked her with a firm grip on their way out.
Turned out her mother wasn't mad about the fight nearly as much as she was about the news she had gotten just then.
"Football team? Are you freaking kidding me?" There was a question mark somewhere down the words, but Lori's sense of self-preservation told her to classify it as rhetorical.
Call it a gut feeling.
That night, dinnertime had been a quiet affair and not even Abby had been able to break the mood with her babbling on and on about some art project of hers that was due to Friday.
The same couldn't be said about the exchange her parents had later in the privacy of their bedroom. Their voices muffled by the thick walls, and this time Lori hadn't been able to understand any of it, just the angry tones that would send faint vibrations through them.
Come next morning her dad offered to give her a ride to school what were downright suspicious given she would always ride her bike, but again that same gut feeling told her to suck it up and just go with it. No questions asked.
Most of the ride was made in silence even though it soon became clear they weren't heading to school after all. Instead they rode for another 45 minutes until Matt finally parked the car in front of this huge green open field saying he didn't know about her but he sure wouldn't mind having a day off.
Lori would not disagree on that note, so there they spend the day, playing ball and eating the sandwiches that her father had apparently prepared for this very moment and by the evening sat tiredly and silently, side by side, as the sun disappeared in a red line.
"Why would you wanna play Football, little bird? Why not some other sport like soccer or volleyball. It would sure be easier and your grandma could even help you out."
If her mother were the one making the same question, Lori would probably have gotten angry as a goose, the way she talked always pushing all the wrong buttons Lori had in her. But that was not the case when it came to Matt Saracen.
Her daddy was always so gentle and kind, in the way he acted, in the way he spoke, never raising his voice for any of his girls, not once in their whole lives. Never impatient, or stern, like there was no wrong-doing that her or her sister could ever do. So much that even now, when he was voicing his doubts about her choices, Lori found she couldn't really get mad at him.
Not when she could see clear as day that all he wanted was an honest answer.
So an honest answer was what she gave him.
"It's because I love it daddy. I love it so much!" She said as she thought of the feeling she would get every time she'd step on a field. "And I just know deep down in my heart that I can be really good at it."
She must've said something right because his smile just about bloomed.
"Then we ought to pay a visit to your grandpa as soon as possible." He actually laughed then. "Geez, he's going to be ecstatic when he learns we have a player in the family."
"Won't he mind me being a girl?" Lori found the courage to express her greatest fear and Matt actually scratched his chin for a moment, carefully taking her words into consideration.
But then he just shrugged, dismissive. "No, I don't think so. And even if it were the case I'm certain that your grandmother would have straightened his mind on the right path. She always has."
Lori smiled then, knowing that to be the honest truth. But then added almost too quietly. "What about mom?"
Matt sighed then, long and lasting, before pulling her into a hug. "Now that will be somewhat of a challenge, as you already know. But you know what little bird? You worry only about doing what you love and giving it your best. And let me worry about your mother. Deal?"
"Deal." Lori said with such a huge smile that it could as well have split her face in two, so happy that she could almost cry.
.::.
At first it is difficult as pulling teeth and nails but Matt drags Julie to every game, and the whole family cheers for her as she runs fast as a lightning bolt, untouchable.
That's what her granpa tells her to be.
And then, to that one game that happens when dad's away on a job, Julie comes anyway, with a camera in hand and a promise to record every second of it, so the two only men in their family can watch and squabble over it later.
Of course that's also the one where Lori gets hurt for the first time.
.::.
The last thing she remembers is the smell of sweat and the taste of grass.
Then she wakes up to a bright white room and the smell of her grandmother's perfume. In truth, Tami's freckled hand is the first thing she sees. Holding her own. The one that's not in a cast.
She tries to move, but there's pain everywhere.
Tami wakes up to her slightest movement. A tearful smile ready to welcome her. "Hello there sweet girl."
Lori squints, bothered by the clarity and the white spots that are blurring her vision. "What happened?"
It hurts to speak too. Damn.
"You just hang in there baby, I'm gonna get your momma." Lori doesn't really wanna be left by herself, but she also doesn't want to behave like a whiny baby, so she makes her best effort to do as she's told.
Soon after there's a commotion as her mother comes into the run. "Oh thank God!"
Julie sobs. Lori blinks almost too scared. She's never seen her mother cry. Not once. "Don't cry mama. I'm sorry."
"´s okay honey. Never mind me." Julie wipes her tears with the palm of her hands, her eyes rimmed and red. "How are you feeling, huh?"
"Like crap." Lori says honestly, forgetting to mind her language, but instead of getting chastised, she hears her mother laughter.
"Good." She says then, caressing her face and brushing her bangs aside. "That's what you get for being do goddamn stubborn."
Lori doesn't argue then, her mother does have a point there. "Where's daddy?"
"Oh he's on his way here, first flight." Julie gives her a small smile, tears still streaming down her face. "Can you do me a favor honey? Can you move your feet so I can see?"
"Okay." Lori just do it, no questions or inquiries, what may as well be a first. Her socked feet dangling underneath the blue sheet ever so slightly. And for some reason that only makes her mother cry harder. "Mom?"
Before her mother can say anything else, her grandma embraces her in a tight hug, whispering something about how lucky they are while giving Lori a reassuring smile once she finds a confused look on her face. "Don't worry baby, you're momma is just tired, that's all."
Then her grandfather comes in like a tornado bringing coffee and donuts in a box.
"She's up?" It's the first thing he asks, before settling his eyes on hers and smiling at the sight. "There you are!"
Lori tries to smile back, but is not sure of just how successful she is at it, suddenly feeling way too tired. "I think I'll take little nap now ok?"
"You do that baby girl. You rest now." She can still hear them, just as she's about to slip into unconsciousness. Maybe it's the medicine but most of it makes little sense. She hears the words street and lucky so many times.
In a haze, Lori still manages to ask, almost in a whisper. "Granpa, did we win?"
She hears him chuckle then but, despite her best efforts, sleep comes before his answer.
.::.
At the age of sixteen, Lorraine Taylor Saracen, is the first girl to ever be admitted to the Dillon Panthers High School Football team.
Many have said that her admission is mostly due to the names that antecede hers on her family tree. Indeed, the girl has some pretty big shoes to fill, following the footsteps of her father, once Quarterback and State Champion Matt Saracen, as well as her grandfather the legendary former Football Coach Eric Taylor. And to prove that she's fit to the task in hand, the girl who's been known as The Lightning Saracen has started with a bang.
After being responsible for the touchdown that would bring the victory to her team on her very first game with the Panthers, she was asked if her family history had anything to do with her decision of playing football.
Her answer short and simple, if not at all surprising.
"You betcha!"
The end