Shoving the box of tissues over to her friend, JJ did her best to stop the roll of her eyes. Grace was doing a great job of pissing her off. The crying was worse than how she had imagined it would be, the red eyes giving the blond a headache and the constant whining driving her insane. "Hate to be insensitive," she chimed in, earning the attention of both her friends, "but we really need to get back to running our strategy."
Grace's swollen eyes hardened on the blond opposite her. "What?"
JJ let her shoulders shrug as she looked between her two best friends. "I mean if we want to win states," she supplied as the obvious answer.
Clenching her jaw, the newly single teen threw the box of tissues she had been clinging to at the soccer star before storming away.
Teresa looked to the blond rubbing her chest with wide eyes. "Damn," she hissed. "Did you have to be so insensitive?"
"I'm thinking of the team."
"How about thinking of your friends?" the brunette challenged.
JJ kept her eyes hard as she looked back to where her friend had practically run out. "I'm sorry," she said begrudgingly, her hand tight around her notebook. "Ok?" I'm sorry. I should have been more sensitive."
The brunette frowned. "What's with you?"
"I just need to know we're going to win," the soccer star almost whined. "We finally made it to states and we have a really good chance of winning. Everyone needs to be focused on the game."
Teresa stole part of the sandwich Grace had left as her head shook. "I get that, but if we want to win then we all need to be in that mindset, right? So let's help Grace out of her funk and then we can focus on the games."
The blond let out a huff, closing the notebook in her hand to get her mind off the game.
Looking behind them to the table that used to be theirs, Theresa kept her eyes focused on the new girl that had won over everybody she used to call her friends.
"Slut," JJ hissed, her eyes following her friends and settling on the brunette a few tables down.
Emily was surrounded by the football players and cheerleaders, the ambassador's daughter smushed between James and Aaron with Haley leaning over her boyfriend to give her new friend on one of her grapes. Maybe they were going over a play the rich girl had written down for the players, JJ didn't know, but whatever they were looking at had the football players clapping at her back and high fiving one another.
Leaning into the brunette girl, James whispered something in her ears and caused Emily to smile back at him, the new girl letting him move her hair from her eyes.
"Is she seriously letting him jump her after just dumping Grace?"
JJ gave an immediate shake of the head. "I don't get it," she said strongly, "I really don't. She's just one girl. How can one girl get all this attention?"
The brunette turned back to her friend and bit back her grin. "You mad it isn't centered on you or Haley for once?"
JJ glared.
"I mean I don't like her because she obviously is into James, and if I were ok with that then it would go against girl code, but you seem to really hate her."
The soccer star's eyes bugged. "Of course I hate her. Ter! Everything has changed since she got here. We don't have our table, we don't have our friends, Grace lost her boyfriend. What else is she going to take from us?"
"You know we don't actually own those things, right?" Teresa supplied. "She can't take them from us. If we want that table back then we get there earlier, and no one said we weren't friends with them anymore. If we want to hang out with them , who says we can't?"
JJ let her eyes narrow. "I mentioned James and Grace too."
The other soccer player made a face. "Yeah well don't know if that's something we can fix, but the others we can." Gesturing over her shoulder to the full table out in the sunlight, she smiled. "We can go over there right now."
"Really?" the blond felt hesitant. On one hand, she hated the brunette girl, but in the other she really missed hanging out with Aaron.
"Ok," Teresa sighed, pushing herself up. "Well I'm going over there. Come if you want."
JJ watched as her friend made her way over to the table, and her heart sank as Emily immediately made room for her. Teresa didn't necessarily talk to the ambassador's daughter, but being able to sit at the same table with their shared group of friends was a huge step.
And JJ was scared to take it.
"Haley, are you going to states?" Their entire school was focused mainly on sports, academics second, and if one of their teams didn't even get to states then they'd lose funding. This was the soccer team's first state championship in over ten years.
The cheerleader smiled at her fellow athlete and nodded her head. "First competition is on Saturday."
Emily looked up from her play in her notebook and glanced over to Aaron. "All of the games are on the same day?" Soccer, field hockey and football also had their first games on Saturday. Looking between Haley and her boyfriend, she frowned. "You won't be able to watch each other?"
Haley shook her head, her arm around her boyfriend's neck. "No, but we're having dinner the same night to gloat about our accomplishments," she grinned, "which we know we'll get." Giggling as her boyfriend kissed her cheek, Haley pushed her hair behind her ear.
Emily smiled, finding it easier to watch the couple together as every day passed. JJ was right about one thing: Aaron was cute, but he wasn't hers.
"So Emily, where's that nerdy girl who follows you around?"
The table went silent, Emily's eyes flickering over to the soccer player who had seated herself at their table. "Her name is Penelope."
Teresa's jaw clenched. "Sorry."
"She's tutoring," Haley supplied.
"Didn't she say you were a bitch?"
Haley met the eyes of her new friend and kept herself in check before looking back to the other athlete. "Probably," she almost grunted. "A lot of people would say that before actually talking to me. What about you, Teresa? Do you think I'm a bitch?"
Teresa smiled, shaking her head. "Not at all. We're friends."
Emily shrunk back into the arm James had around her back, rolling her lips inward to keep herself out of the impending argument.
"I'm taking Haley's side," the football player whispered into her ear. "What about you? Want to take a bet?"
The ambassador's daughter turned her head so her laugh as hidden in the crook of James' neck. "Not a chance."
JJ's eyes widened as she watched new girl and her friend's ex cuddling together at the lunch table, and she almost fell over getting up from the table and running back into the school to find Grace.
