Whenever I heard the famous "You're a girl?!" in Gundam Seed, it made me think of this. I don't know why, but I just think it fits. Who can't picture Cagalli as a football player on a boy's team? I swear I had to think so hard to fill the team with players; I've used almost every teenage character that was on the show! This is a high school fic, kind of centering around the football team, but also having other aspects. It's mostly AxC (and K x L), but there are some other couples thrown in there. Oh, the SEED people are juniors (except Nicol is a sophomore) and the Destiny people are sophomores (except Meyrin is a freshman). And no coordinators, everyone's a natural, except they don't call themselves that obviously. The ones trying out for the team for the first time (meaning that they weren't on it the previous year are Cagalli, Ahmed, Nicol, Shinn, Rey, Heine, Auel, and Sting).

If you don't know anything about football, then don't get discouraged, because I'm not going to go heavily into detail about the games and stuff. Just what I think is important to the plot or for making the story make sense. Most of my football knowledge comes from Eyeshield 21 and Wikipedia, so I'm no expert either. Anything that I think needs to be explained will be numbered and explained at the end or just have an AN next to it. This chapter will be one of the most football-heavy chapters, as well as one of the shorter ones I think.

Well here goes my second story, "School, Crushes, Friends, and Football". Enjoy and review please!

Disclaimer: There is no way that I now own, ever did own, or ever will own Gundam Seed or Gundam Seed Destiny. So leave me alone.

"Finally, try-out day is here at last!" exclaimed Kira Yamato to his best friend, Athrun Zala. They were on their way to the field at their high school, GS High. It was the end of summer break, and Kira was very excited about football try-outs. He obviously knew that he would make the team, as he was the best wide receiver in the school and had been on the team last year. Besides, Athrun was the captain and quarterback, and everyone knew how well they worked together.

"You're just excited about seeing Lacus again. It's been a long summer after all" Athrun coolly replied. He knew about his friend's secret crush for a long time, and enjoyed teasing him about it. Lacus was the captain of the cheerleading team, and so she would be at tryouts today, since the cheerleading team was also having try-outs. She had also been good friends with Athrun since they were young kids, through their families.

Kira blushed and said, "Yeah, well, at least she's a potential girlfriend. Despite your popularity at school, you never show any interest in anyone. What's with you anyway? With your huge fan club, you could have almost any girl at school!"

"Like I'd want to go out with any of those fan girls. They just like me because I'm…" Athrun stopped walking and imitated one of the said fan girls, "soooo hot and cool and dreamy and the captain of the football team!" Athrun made a face. "Gross."

Kira patted his blue-haired friend on the back and said, "I feel for you, man. Let's forget about that for now, and focus on the game. I hope we get some good new recruits this year."

Athrun looked at him and said, "I have a feeling that this is going to be a very good year for us. I hope I'm right." He had no idea how right he was.

"Alright guys, let's see some hustle out there!" Coach Fllaga called to the players on the field. They were in various stages of warming up, and the coach and Athrun were currently looking over the players trying out. "Well, we lost a lot of upper classmen last year, but we'll be still be fine I think. We still have you and Kira, Dearka and Yzak, and a bunch of other linemen and guards and stuff." Mwu La Fllaga was a pretty laid-back coach, and when he was trying to catch the attention of the cheerleading coach, Ms. Ramius, he left the team to Athrun. So the two were pretty close.

"I think we have some promising new players," Athrun added. "Doesn't look like too many power players, but there's a lot of speed out there."

"I agree," said Mwu. "So, let's gather 'em up and start, shall we?" He gave a sharp blast on his whistle and all the players stopped whatever they were doing, and many of them were just showing off for the cheerleaders watching them, to jog over to where he and Athrun were standing.

"All right, all of you," he started. "I'm Coach La Fllaga, and this is the team captain and quarter back, Athrun Zala. We will be evaluating the various aspects of your play as we watch you, including attitude, speed, power, and technique. Don't worry if you're not totally well rounded, actually that might be good depending on your position! (1)" He laughed at his joke, and some chuckled were heard, although they mostly came from players who were afraid to not laugh.

"Well, you'll notice I haven't taken your names down. That's because I don't care about them right now. Once you make my team, I'll learn your first, last, and middle names, and even your mother's maiden name if you want." There was some more laughter. "But for now, we'll just be going by the numbers on your jerseys. Understood?"

"Yes, coach!" they replied in unison.

"Good, let's get started." He looked at a chart in his hands. "Ok, numbers 82 and 83? Are you tight ends or receivers (2)?"

The two players in question were one tall, slim guy who seemed to be very relaxed and a slightly shorter one who had more of an angry air about him. "We're tight ends," the taller one replied.

"Right, let's see you guys in action then," Mwu said. "Athrun, work with them a little."

Athrun started doing various drills with them, passes and plays, the normal things. They were both very good. Everyone watched them and commented on their abilities. As Mwu looked around at the players, he noticed one who seemed to be standing slightly apart from the others. Not exactly in an obviously separate way, but the way the guy was acting was kind of how someone who feels uncomfortable in a crowd would act.

Mwu thought, That player has a very slim physique, not a power player at all. I bet he's a runner. Maybe he feels odd because of his lack of muscle? Or maybe he's just nervous because he's no good? I'll have him go next; I'm interested to see if he can play at all.

When the two tight-end players were done, they rejoined the group. Mwu wrote some things down on his clipboard, and then addressed the player he had just been thinking about. "You, number...uh, 29. You are a running back I assume?" the player looked at him and simply replied, "Yeah." The reply was stated in a muffled voice. It seemed that teh player didn't feel like taking out his mouthguard.

"Okay, I need a few defensive players, um Dearka and Yzak and Rusty (AN: he knows their names from last year) will do, to go set up to block a run."

The boys that he had called out ran to the positions that he had told them to go to. There was about 40 yards between where the group of tryoutees was standing and the end zone. "Okay Athrun, give this guy a hand off and let's see him run."

"You, ready 29?" Athrun asked.

"Always ready," the player replied.

"Okay then, GO!" Mwu shouted with a blow on the whistle.

The player numbered 29 ran up to meet Athrun, took the ball from his outstretched hands, and took off. "Whoa, he's fast!" some guys commented. As the player reached Dearka and Yzak, he skillfully executed a series of sharp cuts and spins, and left them in his dust. The poor guys had no idea what had hit them.

"Well, the guy sure knows how to move," Athrun said. "Agreed," Kira said.

Number 29 kept on sprinting down the field until he was approaching rusty, the last line of defense, Coach La Fllaga said, "Too bad, but I don't think this guy's gonna get by Rusty. He's real tough, and can block cuts pretty well."

To the team's surprise, the running back was running straight at Rusty, and didn't show any intention of stopping or changing his running style. "Is he gonna try to overpower him? That definitely won't work."

Suddenly the runner was right on Rusty, and then he wasn't. He was past Rusty, and Rusty was on the ground, with little idea of when he had ended up on the ground. Number 29 had simply barreled though him, and apparently, he wasn't just all speed. Somewhere in that runner's body he was hiding quite a bit of power! The team was dumbstruck. They watched as the runner casually ran to the end zone, and then started returning towards the rest of the group. Once he was near enough to the group that they could talk to him, they started congratulating him and saying how awesome he was. There were pats on the back all around. The player, obviously sweating from the run, started taking off his helmet as he said, "I also play defensive tackle, by the way."

The player finished taking off his helmet, and shook out his head. Long, golden locks flowed down to "his" shoulders, and the boys were awestruck as they looked at the player standing before them. "He" took a hair tie off from around his wrist and started tying "his" hair up, muttering, "I should have done this in the first place."

The sound of a helmet being thrown to the ground broke the silence. The one person who didn't have "his" jaw on the ground looked to the person who had caused the noise.

Kira stared wide-eyed at number 29, and shouted, "CAGALLI?"

The player looked back, equally shocked, and shouted, "KIRA?"

Everyone else, who was now totally in the dark, snapped out of their stupor, and cried out together, "YOU'RE A GIRL?"

(1) In football, most players are specialized in just one area (throwing, catching, etc.), so being all-rounded isn't necessarily an advantage.

(2) Jersey numbers in football correspond to specific positions, so when Mwu saw that the players' numbers were 82 and 83, he knew that they could only be wide receivers or tight ends. The same goes for Cagalli (numbers 20-49 are only for defensive backs and running backs, so Mwu assumed she was a running back).

Player knowledge:

- Quarterback- makes the plays for the team in the huddle and then either passes the ball, hands it off, or executes whatever play he has decided on

- Wide receiver- catches long (and sometimes shorter) passes from the quarterback, has to be fast and use pass routes to catch passes

- Tight end- a player that sometimes catches passes and sometimes blocks, sort of an all-around player

- Running back- runs up the field with the ball and runs by using sharp turns and cuts to get through the defense, also catches some short passes, one of the fastest players on the team

And thus ends chapter 1! I promise, it will get a little less football-ish in later chapters, so just stick with it. I already have chapter 2 written and part of 3, so I'll wait for a few reviews before posting it.

Please review!