I know the original pic said basketball but I didn't realize until I was nearly done with this fic, plus soccer is the only sport that I've ever played so
Happy birthday to autisticporrim! I hope you enjoy this fic!
This was not what Rose Lalonde wanted to do after school.
If it was going her way, she would be home in her room, writing stories on her computer and knitting the rest of her yarn. Fall would be starting again in a few weeks, and her Etsy shop would be full of demands for her knitted goods.
But her mother said otherwise. She would always knock on Rose's door and interrupt her work, telling her to leave her room for once and enjoy the day outside. Rose preferred not to. She could get a lot more work done in a place where she was comfortable, and the "great outdoors" was definitely not that place.
After weeks of nagging, Rose finally broke down and signed up for soccer tryouts at her school. That was her first mistake.
The second mistake was letting her mother drive her there. Now there was no way she could get out of the tryouts. Mandy Lalonde had brought along a cooler, lawn chairs, and a camera. Rose wanted to burrow herself into the ground.
Now she was standing outside the doors to the locker room, along with a bunch of other girls, who tittered nervously about the tryouts with each other. If she had made a third mistake, it was bound to show itself soon.
"HEY, EVERYONE!" a girl yelled. Rose winced and turned to chastise whoever that was, when she realized that her third mistake had arrived.
The familiar lanky form of Jade Harley walked up to the waiting group of girls. Her messy black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her glasses were attached to her head by a strap. A whistle and keys hung around her neck, bouncing above the school logo on her shirt.
It wasn't that Rose didn't like Jade. They knew each other quite well, in fact. No, the problem was that Rose had a honking huge crush on Jade, and she had forgotten that Jade was the captain of the soccer team.
"I assume you're all here for tryouts! In that case, let me call roll before you guys get changed." She pulled out a clipboard and began calling names. "Thalia Grace…Winry Rockbell…Blue Sargant…Connie Maheshawren…" As she called each girl's name, a voice responded "here!" When she got to Rose's name, Jade looked up and caught Rose's eye. Rose gulped and looked away.
"Rose! Why didn't you tell me you were trying out for soccer?" she cried, walking up to her friend and rubbing her hair affectionately. Rose shoved her hand away.
"I guess the fact that you are the team's captain slipped my mind," she answered, trying to regain her cool disposition. "I certainly would have mentioned it to you if I had remembered."
"Aww, that's okay. But don't think I'm gonna make any exceptions for you just because we're friends!" Jade wagged a finger scoldingly, causing some of the other girls to laugh. "Well, looks like everyone is here, so let me go over the rules of the locker room."
Rose wanted to sink into the ground and disappear.
It felt like forever until Jade unlocked the door to the locker rooms, and the girls crushed in. "Find a locker and get changed, if you want privacy use the bathroom stalls. Seven minutes!" Before Rose could even get her stuff in a locker, all of the stalls were locked shut, leaving Jade, Rose, and a few other girls in the open.
"Do we changed out here?" a girl asked.
"Yeah. We usually don't get changed in the stalls when the whole team is here, but this is tryouts, so I'm making an exception. Get changed guys!"
Rose changed as fast as she could. She was a bit conscious about her weight, and was sure that the other girls were whispering about her already. What's a fat girl doing at sports tryouts? Shouldn't she be eating McDonald's somewhere? She grunted and changed faster.
She ended up being one of the first girls to finish. Jade stood at the locker across from her, readjusting her ponytail, as Rose slipped on her tennis shoes. She had changed out of her sweatpants into soccer shorts. She looked away from there and at Jade's focused face instead, as she yanked her uncooperative hair back into the ponytail holder.
"Rose?"
"Hm?" Rose realized she was staring at Jade. "Oh! Yes?"
"It's nearly time to head out now, and your shoe is untied."
Rose looked down. "It appears that you are right."
"The other girls are ready, come on!" Jade practically yanked her out once her shoe was done.
Outside, the girls milled about on the field, standing in various clusters. The chatter died down once Jade bounded up to them, Rose lagging behind her. "Alright, girls! Tryouts will be starting soon!"
"Go Rose!" Mandy yelled. Rose ignored her.
"We're going to start with some warmups. Everyone get in a line, and make sure you have enough space to move your arms without hitting someone." Jade waited until everyone was situated before continuing. "Ready? Now spread your legs apart and try to reach your right ankle."
Rose grasped her calf.
"Now your left."
Rose grabbed her other calf.
"Now go to the middle and touch the ground."
Surprisingly, Rose's fingers brushed the ground. Maybe she was more flexible than she thought.
"And again!"
They repeated the warmup and other ones until Rose could feel the blood moving in her.
"Now for tryouts to begin!" Jade announced. The girls cheered. Rose shook her fist in mock happiness.
During the warmups, another girl had arrived. Aradia Megido, the team's goalie, took a long sip from her water bottle. Her red hair was pulled into pigtails. "Sorry I'm late, there was traffic. Sup, Jade?"
"Hey!" Jade jogged over to give her a hug. "Tryouts are starting. Are you ready?"
"I was born ready!" Aradia pulled on her gloves as she walked up to the goal. "The question is, are they?"
"We'll have to see. Alright girls, get in a line! You'll be kicking balls in the goal. Try to get them past Aradia! Go to the end of the line once your turn is over, until all of you have gone three times."
Rose walked to the back of the line.
"Ready?" At the front, Jade's whistle blew. "Go!"
Balls thudded and people grunted ahead of Rose, until she found herself at the front of the line. The first time she kicked, the ball went two feet, rolling to a stop just outside the goal.
"Put a little more 'oomph' into it!" Jade encouraged.
The second time, the ball bounced onto Aradia's foot. "Try a little harder," she said as she threw the ball back to Jade. Rose huffed. She was trying her hardest!
The third time, the ball whizzed to the corner of the goal before Aradia could catch it.
"Whoa." Jade blinked. "Where did that come from?"
Rose stammered. "I-I don't know?"
"Mmm." Jade chewed on her bottom lip. "I see. In any case, we need to move on to the next part." Rose could hear people whispering behind her, and she glared at them.
The tryouts moved on from there. Jade had the girls do drills with the soccer ball around a line of cones, which Rose did surprisingly well at once again. Then they kicked the balls to each other across the field, and took turns guarding the goal (Rose failed miserably). By the time Jade announced that the tryouts were over, the afternoon sun was stretching far across the field.
"God job, everyone! We'll go over the results as a team before we post the list on the seventh, which is a little over a week from now. Have a great weekend!" Jade started packing up the soccer balls, with Aradia helping her. Panting, Rose walked over to her sister and mother.
"Great job, sweetie!" Mandy leaned forward to give her daughter a hug, but halted when she noticed how sweaty Rose was. "Um, maybe you should shower first."
"Yes, I would really like to go home and get clean. Sports is very dirty work." Rose shoved her grassy sneakers into a bag her mother provided, slipping into casual flats. "And I did fairly decent."
"No, you did great! If Roxy wasn't at college, she'd be so proud to see how well you did. Good thing I recorded it!"
"Mom, please."
When the seventh of the month rolled around, Rose was greeted with a shock.
A crowd was gathered around a piece of paper outside the PE coach's office at school, mostly girls. Many in the back stood on their tiptoes to see the list. The ones walking away were either cheering or being comforted by friends. "They might be making a tennis team! You're great at tennis, Connie!" a boy with a large star on his shirt exclaimed as he walked back Rose, talking to a taller girl with a downcast look on her face.
"Excuse me," Rose muttered as she elbowed her way through the crowd. Many of the people stepped back as they realized who was fighting through the crowd. Sometimes, getting a reputation as the creepy goth sophomore was a good thing. Most of the freshman were terrified of her.
"Hey!" Feferi Piexes smiled down at her. As usual, her goggles were strapped on top of her head.
"Ah, hello, Feferi. What are you doing here? I didn't see you at soccer tryouts."
"I saw there was a lot of comm-ocean over here and I wanted to sea what was going on. Oh, and congratulations, Rose!"
"Excuse me?"
Feferi smiled and pointed at the list. "You're on the team!"
What? Surely there was a mistake. Feferi must have seen a different Rose on the list. But no, Rose realized as she scanned the list. Her name was on there, written neatly in familiar handwriting at the bottom. She was actually on the team.
"How did I get on the team? I did poorly at the goalie part." By now part of the crowd had dispersed, leaving the remaining people with breathing room.
"Whale, you'll have to ask Jade. I wasn't there. Speaking of-Jade! Shello!" Feferi waved excitedly in the direction of the aforementioned girl. Jade waved back, before continuing down the hallway.
"Wait, Jade!" Rose shoved back through the crowd again, jogging up to her friend. "How did I get on the soccer team?"
Jade grinned down at her. "Heya, Rose! You did so well that I had to add you!"
"Yes, but you know that I'm not the best at sports, nor the most enthusiastic. I only tried out to get my mom off of my back."
"Even so, you were one of the best people there. It would be a crime not to put you on the team."
Rose sighed. She probably wasn't going to win this argument. "I guess I need a copy of the practice schedule, then. And my own locker."
"Yup. I can assign you one after school. Then we can go to the café down the block and get something together. My treat!"
"Sure, but I'd much rather pay for myself."
"Oh no, Rose, you know that I pay on the first date."
Rose stopped dead in her tracks. "What?"
Jade continuing ahead, looking back at her flabbergasted friend. "Bye, Rose! See you after school for our date!" She jogged ahead as the bell rang.
Rose was left alone in the deserted hallway. Her mouth was hanging open and she was definitely going to be late for English. And she seemed to have a date with Jade Harley.
Hello! I'm TailsDoll13, but call me Taylor!
This one-shot was a quick something I whipped up for my friend's birthday. Happy birthday Fao! Please wish her a happy birthday guys!
If you're interested in reading any of my other stuff, I'm writing a multichaptered Terezi/Feferi fic called "The Princess and the Dragon." I also have stuff for other fandoms up, such as Percy Jackson (mostly Solangelo). Feel free to check them out!
My Tumblr is autisticedwardelric. I'm multifandom (primarily Percy Jackson, Homestuck, Undertale, Steven Universe, and Fullmetal Alchemist) with other fandoms, aesthetic, and social justice mixed in.
You can also find this oneshot up on ArchiveOfOurOwn (Gamzee_Makaraoni), WattPad (TailsDoll13), and Tumblr.
I hoped you guys enjoyed this fic!