Disclaimer: Unfortunately, none of the characters are mine, I just like playing with them.
A/N: A little thank you to everyone who has helped my research by answering loads, and loads questions over the past week or so. I'm not going to name names for fear that I'll miss someone! You know who you are! It's just a little one shot, but it flew into my brain at work today, and wouldn't leave me alone; so here it is.
Read, review and enjoy!
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Clear Eyes
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Growing up on the harsh, unforgiving streets of Mexico taught Santiago Herrera a lot.
He knows when to run his mouth, and when to keep his peace.
Keeping his mouth shut kept him out of the line of fire, and so long as he could back up his 'brothers' and defend himself when need be, no one cared that he was silent for the most part.
They forgot about him.
Much like his team mates did as they sat in the cafeteria boasting and flirting with which ever girl headed their way.
It was easy to fall back into old habits.
To watch, listen and learn.
It did him well in his old life, and it was doing him good in the new one he's making for himself as well.
He's been in town for a few months now, and his old code of conduct is educating him about Dillon High and the Town of Dillon itself in ways the students and people would never be able to.
Like how the Maths teacher, Ms Heyer is having it off with the Science teacher Mr Flynn during break despite the fact he's married.
That lunch trays for the football players are always piled with extra portions and their never made to pay.
Or even as the run of the mill teenagers bitch about the Rally Girls and Cheerleaders behind their backs with narrowed eyes and venomous voices supposed to dictate distain, there's a hint of jealousy and longing in the depths of their eyes.
It's the way Johnson, Centre, Number Fifty One, always looks at his grade anxiously when his report is handed back by the teacher, even as he pretends not to care to the other players. He meets with Coach twice a week and they go over his results.
That Matt Saracen is trying to put up a good front with his latest girl, even as his eyes travel back to Julie Taylor who hasn't looked his way for the past couple of months.
Her eyes are focused on Riggins, and the Fullback's looking back at her.
When he'd often meet up with the Fullback, he'd be surrounded by a couple of girls, one of his arms slung across a blonde's shoulder while the other was loosely positioned around a slim waist.
But other than that, he wasn't really touching them.
But he's seen the guy with Julie Taylor, and it's as if he physically can't stop touching her, whether it's to brush a strand of hair back from her face, or his hand on the small of her back as he ushers her through the corridors next to him. It's the way he pulls her into his side and settles his hand on her hip, his thumb reaching up and tucking itself beneath the hemline of her t-shirt so it's in contact with her skin.
He's seen the way Riggins pays attention to the girls that hang around him, his eyes glazed over, looking at them with a mixture of distain and indulged amusement, like he's secretly laughing at them inside that head of his.
Yet when Julie Taylor talks, Riggins listens. His eyes fasten on her, watching every emotion that crosses her face, his head nods along to her comments, his body bending towards her just a little bit more in an unconscious movement to show that he really is paying attention to what she's saying.
There is a marked difference in the way he talks to them. Julie Taylor is worthy of whole sentences, inside jokes and honest observations. Julie Taylor is who he goes to help for when it comes to trouble with his school work.
The others that follow him around must make do with a grunt or one word answer, never more than that.
When it comes to Tim Riggins, Julie smiles just a little bit brighter and looks at the boy like he hung the stars, moon and sun just for her. Riggins grins and smirks at her, but it's a teasing smirk, laughter and affection in his eyes as they eat her whole.
It's the way the Fullback tugs the petite blonde down on to his lap at parties and in front of his other team mates, drawing her in tight until she's pressed up against him and grips at her leg, as if to hold her in place so she can't get until he's ready to let her go. And that ain't for most of the evening. He's seen the way Julie, Jules, as Riggins calls her, wraps her arm about his waist in return, hand rubbing at his back in a gesture to show she's cool with his actions.
To the others she's just perched on his lap due to a lack of seating.
But back when he'd first come to Dillon he remembered going to a party and he'd seen the true meaning of the word 'perch' which was exactly what numerous girls did, seating themselves on his lap only to end up balancing on his knee while Riggins rested one hand behind his head and kept the other busy with a bottle of beer scarcely paying them any attention unlike the way his thumb runs back and forth along the denim of Julie's jeans.
It's the way Julie tempers her sarcastic comments unless the witty remarks are directed elsewhere and interjects a different tone into her voice when she's speaking to him, warmth, an intimacy.
It's the way he towers over her in the hallway while she looks up at him from beneath her eyelashes in a coy, flirtatious manner, a blush on her cheeks while she licks at her lips before smiling at him and then rubs them together, nibbling on them as if she's imagining him doing that to plump, reddened flesh.
He'd known something was going on between the pair of them long before he'd stumbled across the two of them making out in the weight room late yesterday evening after practice only to disappear before they noticed he'd seen them.
For all that the people of Dillon preached 'clear eyes' on the Football field, their own were clouded when it came to the Fullback and the Coaches Daughter.
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A/N: Yeah, it might be an unusual POV, but then I figured Santiago has 'clear eyes' when it comes to the people of Dillon and might see more than they do!