A/N: So I know it's been a real long time since I updated this story. I am so sorry for that. If you are interested in continuing to read it I would recommend that you re-read the previous chapters, even I had to and I wrote them. I can't make any promises but I hope to complete this story within the next few months. Enjoy!
Donald Ressler practically leaped off the bed when he woke up the third Monday in March. The Baseball season had officially started. He already set out his clothes for school and his uniform the night before. Apparently opening day for spring sports was a big deal at The Chesapeake School. It started with the girls' softball game after school, followed by boys' tennis, and ending with the baseball nightcap under the lights. Ressler planned to make a stop at the baseball locker room before heading to class. He wanted to check the line-up, hopefully he was starting.
Ressler took his time to button his shirt and put on his blue and green striped tie that matched with the other varsity baseball players. He combed his red hair back and wore a white batting practice cap backwards on his head, following the long tradition of the varsity team.
"Hey Tom!" Ressler said as he approached the junior whose attention was focused on the white piece of paper taped to the wall.
"Hey man, your leading off in center today," Tom said as he searched for his name down the line-up card.
Ressler jumped in excitement and relief. The first part of his quest for a scholarship was complete.
"Ah, there I am," Tom said with a hint of disappointment. He was batting eighth in the order instead of second like he had hoped.
"Well, I'll see you at warm-ups kid," Tom said, refusing to look Ressler in the eye as he left for class. Ressler soon followed after him, but veered off toward the math and science building as he got to the heart of campus.
Ressler was about to enter his geometry class when a hand grabbed his wrist. He looked up at his girlfriend with a smile.
"Follow me," Audrey said mischievously.
Ressler officially asked Audrey to be his girlfriend after they got back from winter break. They had spent a lot of time together, but had never done anything physical or had gone out on a real date. The only unfortunate part of their relationship was that it meant less time spent with Liz and Aram. Ressler always studied with Audrey and ate lunch with her the majority of lunches during the week. Matt had began to spend more time with Ressler as well and the three of them would often play silly games after they finished their homework. Ressler had few meals with Liz and Aram and his only exception to spending nights with Audrey was watching Friday Night Lights with Aram and Liz. He convinced them to only watch one or two episodes each week so their tradition wouldn't run out too quickly. He wanted at least one excuse to spend time with the two of them.
Audrey dragged him into an empty corridor where they could have a tiny bit of privacy.
"What are we doing?" Ressler asked, giggling as she pulled him behind a column with a bit of force.
"This," she whispered before lightly kissing him on the lips.
Ressler breathed in her strawberry scent, enjoying the light kisses that started to spread to his neck. Ressler quietly moaned into her soft brown hair. Audrey seemed innocent, but she knew what she was doing. She had been Ressler's first kiss back in February. It was kind of cliché, the kiss coming on Valentine's day after he gave her a stuffed teddy bear and a chocolate heart. Audrey returned the gesture with a deep kiss, but a few days later she brought up the subject in a joking way saying she didn't think she needed to give Ressler anything and that it was a lame, consumer driven holiday. Ressler laughed it off, but was a little hurt by her comment.
Audrey moved her hands up Ressler's chest, slightly tugging on his tie as his hands worked their way down Audrey's back, barely hovering over her waist.
"I wish we could continue this, but class starts in five minutes," Ressler whispered into her ear.
Audrey nodded, giving him one last kiss on the lips before straightening out his shirt and tie and wiping off a few smudges of lip gloss that got on Ressler's face and neck.
They smiled at each other before walking out of the corridor and back toward their class.
As much as Ressler loved spending time with Audrey, he was more excited for Mr. Reddington's criminology class than any of the classes that they shared. After lunch with Audrey, Ressler caught up to Liz and Aram as they made their way to class.
"Nice of you to join us!" Liz said sarcastically.
"Hey, he has a good reason," Aram said in Ressler's defense.
"Whatever," Liz said as Aram and Ressler began catching up, something they used to do at lunch. Liz left herself out of the conversation.
The three students arrived at class a few seconds before the bell rang, just in time to grab their usual seats. Reddington began the lesson soon after.
"Now I know you all are not yet thinking about finals," Reddington paused, waiting for the groans of numerous students to die down.
"But instead of giving a paper final this semester, I am going to be assigning all of you a long-term project that I think you'll enjoy," he continued. "In groups of four, you will act as either a task force or legal team. These are going to be groups of defense attorneys, cops, federal agents, prosecutors, and since there needs to be five teams, something that peaks my interest. Now find three other people to join, first people to form a group get first pick."
Liz momentarily got over her frustration with Ressler and quickly formed a group with him and Aram.
"Samar!" Liz yelled out, but Samar was already on her way over. The four students raised their hands signifying that they were the first team formed.
Red smiled and walked over to their group. They didn't need to have a conversation to know what type of group they wanted to form.
"Great so you guys will be the defense attorneys," Red said calmly.
"What are you talking about? You said first group gets to-" Ressler began complaining.
"Oh how easy it is to get your goat Donald," Reddington said with a chuckle. "I already have you guys down as federal agents."
…
The rest of class turned into a discussion on how each of the different teams work in real life, but before long the bell rang and the school day was over. Students began filing out of class, Samar, Ressler, and Aram, lagging behind while discussing their project. Liz organized her binders while she prepared a few questions in her head that she wanted to ask Red about the project.
"Donald, can I speak with you about something?" Red asked. Liz could hear a hint of concern in his voice and decided to discreetly watch from the back of the classroom.
"Sure, Mr. Reddington. What's up?" Ressler asked.
"Now I don't want for this to come off as inappropriate, but if you are having sex or planning on-"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Liz perked up at Ressler's raised voice.
"Due to some conversation that I heard in one of my earlier classes, I just want to make sure that you are aware of-"
"You know what? You're delusional and you've got no clue what you're talking about? I'm sorry but I've got a baseball to worry about so I'm gonna go."
"Donald-"
"You should come to the game. It'll be much more worth your time than flinging false accusations about my personal life at me," Ressler said before storming out of the classroom.
Red stood in shock and sighed as his eyes landed on Liz who awkwardly began moving toward the door. She froze before exiting and turned to Red.
"Look, I'm annoyed with him right now, but even I think that was out of line. You should apologize," she said.
"He's not having sex," Red concluded. Liz laughed a little, but soon got confused.
"Then why did you ask him about it. I mean, I would have lashed out too. Even Aram...actually he's too nice, Aram's a bad example-"
"Because of Audrey. Lizzie, I asked him because of Audrey. Earlier I overheard her talking to her friend about how she had lost her virginity on Friday night. As much as I wish I could unhear that statement for multiple reasons, I couldn't imagine Ressler being ready enough to handle sex just yet and-"
"Wait, Friday? Are you sure she said Friday?" Liz questioned.
"Yes, why?"
"We watch Friday Night Lights every Friday. I mean, I get where you are coming from with the whole 'he's not ready deal,' but between baseball and the show, I don't see how he possibly could have on Friday."
Red sighed.
"Does this mean she's cheating on him?" Liz asked.
"If Audrey wasn't making it up to impress her friends, then I would assume so. Look Lizzie, I am a teacher, I can't get involved this deeply in my students' personal lives. If you want to go investigate the situation for your friend, then that's your prerogative. My only wish is that you are extremely careful. A lot of people could get hurt if you're not."
Liz nodded her head and walked out of the room. Part of her felt terrible for Ressler, knowing that his girlfriend was probably cheating on him. However, part of her became even more frustrated with him that he would spend almost all of his free time with someone who treated him like that instead of spending it with her and Aram, people that truly cared about him and would never deliberately do something knowing that it would hurt him.
As she walked across the quad she accidentally walked into a boy. She thought it was Ressler for a second because he was wearing the same outfit. She looked up to find Tom Keen gazing down at her.
"Hey Liz," he said with a smile.
"Hey Tom," she said, returning the smile.
"You're lucky you're friends with Ressler," he said.
"Why's that?" Liz asked in confusion.
"The free tickets," Tom said.
"What free tickets?"
"To the baseball game. He got you tickets right?"
Liz shook her head.
"That's weird. Anyways, we each get to give two reserved tickets out for every home game. Usually they're giving to family for opening night, but Ressler said that his folks wouldn't be able to come until later in the season. He said he was going to give them to his friends instead."
"He never even told me that he got free tickets. I was going to go anyways to support him, but it pisses me off that he didn't even tell me he had free tickets."
"Well, if you still want to support the team, I can give you my extra. I was gonna give it to a buddy, but he's kinda a loser."
"That's very nice of you Tom. Thanks!" Liz said with a grin.
"My pleasure," he said in return as he dug the ticket stub from his pocket and gave it to her.
After they ate dinner in between the tennis match and the baseball game, Aram and Liz walked to the stadium. Apparently Aram wasn't given one of Ressler's tickets either so Liz agreed to split the price of one with him. They looked through the stands for a set of seats and found two right behind Matt and Audrey.
"We should go sit with them," Liz said.
"Why? I thought you didn't want to hang out with Audrey," Aram questioned.
"I don't, but maybe if we can handle spending time with them, than we can spend more time with Ressler," Liz suggested.
"Okay," Aram said in agreement.
"Hey Ress," Tom said as the baseball players got all of their equipment situated in the dugout.
"Yeah?" Ressler responded.
"You gave your tickets to Audrey and Matt, right?"
"Just like you suggested," Ressler said with a look of concern on his face.
A/N: Sorry for not updating in forever. I probably should stick to one-shots, but right now I have a good idea where this is going which I didn't have before. If you stuck with this story: THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really appreciate it! Unfortunately I wouldn't expect anything soon, but hopefully everything will slow down around the holidays. Thanks for reading!