AN: Hello, and I'm back :) Again, I'm not America, so most of my football details are a little vague and not completely realistic. I did do a little research into the structure of high school football, but this story isn't about football, so who really cares!
Chapter 11 – What a feeling
What a feeling, beings believin'
Neptune High won their game the next day which meant that if they won their final game the following week they'd make it to the playoffs. The seniors were in a very good mood. Their football team was having a very good season, midterms were still a way off – too far away to worry about studying, and the 09ers were drama free, for the time being.
The Monday the week of the final match of the regular season started off as normal. Lily and her friends moaned and groaned about returning to school after the weekend, but soon settled back in and resigned themselves their fates.
At lunch Lily, Scott, Keira and Ethan were sitting together, eating and talking when Keira said, "Let's do something tonight! Something fun!"
"What, like a party?" Scott asked, mildly confused.
"No, not a party. I don't know. It's our senior year, we should do things together besides go to school and party," Keira replied.
"We could go bowling?" Lily suggested slowly.
Ethan and Scott hooted with laughter.
"No, I like it!" Keira exclaimed. "It's kind of vintage and cute. We can all go together!"
Ethan and Scott continued to laugh.
"Are you trying to take us back to the 1950s?" Ethan asked, chortling.
"It's so Grease 2, and we all know that was a flop!" Scott added.
"Oh we do, do we?" Lily asked, amused. "Grease 2? Really Scott?"
"What? My older sister made me watch it! She loved the first one, so much so that she even watched the second one heaps of times," Scott defended himself. "Besides, Michelle Pfeiffer was smoking!"
Lily socked him in the arm, and Ethan nodded in agreement.
"Who cares!" Keira exclaimed, trying to move on from the Grease talk. "Actually, I care slightly. John Travolta was so hot!"
Lily grinned and sighed in, agreeing whole-heartedly.
"Anyway, so not the point," Keira finally managed. "We should go bowling. I'm sure the others will be up for it. Please?" Keira begged, batting her eyes at Ethan.
He laughed and said, "Sure. What the hell! How about it Hunter?"
"I'm in," Scott answered, kissing Lily's cheek.
"In for what?" Melanie asked, sitting down at their table, Michael in tow.
"Bowling. The girls want to do something fun tonight," Ethan explained.
Melanie squealed and said, "That would be so cute! We should dress 50s themed! Pretend we're in Grease or something."
Ethan and Scott moaned in unison and Lily and Keira grinned in delight.
"Maybe not the whole poodle skirt thing," Lily said. "But I could probably cope with high waisted jeans and a leather jacket."
"I can totally go with high waisted and tight," Keira agreed.
"Let's go invite the others!" Melanie suggested.
She, Keira and Lily stood and went to ask their other friends while Scott, Michael and Ethan stayed at their table, grumbling good-naturedly over their evening's plans.
"Guys, we're going bowling!" Keira announced to a table containing Sophie, Mia, Michael, Chris, Liam and Josh.
Predictably the guys started laughing and the girls made noises of excitement.
"Mellie thinks we should dress up," Lily added to Mia and Sophie.
"Just general 50s and 60s theme, high waisted, leather, tight, floral," Keira elaborated. "Nothing too crazy like poodle skirts though."
"So, are you going to honour us with your presence boys?" Lily asked playfully. "Scott, Ethan and Michael are man enough to come," she goaded. "It'll be fun!"
"I'll be there," Liam said, giving in first, and setting the standard for his friends.
The other three boys agreed to come almost immediately, the pressure of their girlfriends, and the 09er king and queen was more than enough to see to that.
Keira, Lily and Melanie squeezed themselves onto the seats at the table, which resulted in the boys moving across to where Scott, Ethan and Michael were still sitting. The girls began to suggest ideas for what they could wear that night, usual topics of boys and cheerleading pushed aside.
The afternoon seemed to move by very slowly to the excited 09er girls. The idea of bowling had greatly appealed to them, probably due to the novelty of the activity. The daughters of the wealthiest families of Neptune usual spent their free time at society parties, or shopping for designer clothing, or at their own indulgent parties. Bowling was something more mainstream, an activity that millions of teens before them had participated in over many decades. Thinking about these factors made Lily realise that sometimes it was a good thing to take time out and do something a little different.
The girls worked hard at their practice after school, Lily worked them hard as she wanted them to be perfect for the final game before the playoffs. Similarly the football team had a hard session, they badly wanted to win their game and make it to the playoffs. They hadn't won a championship for some years, but this year they had a very good team, and a good chance of making it to the championship game.
Following training the 09ers parted ways more quickly than usual in the parking lot, going home to change before they met up again to go bowling.
Lily, Mia and Keira all arrived in the parking lot at the same time with their boyfriends. As they were standing with each other, assessing and complimenting each other's outfits, Melanie and Sophie arrived, their boyfriends in tow. Liam and Josh pulled up moments after them.
Lily was wearing a pair of tight, high waisted black jeans with a cream bodysuit and a brown leather jacket. Her friends were dressed in an assortment of high waisted skirts, jeans, and shirts. All in all they gave quite a good representation of 50s and 60s fashion, but current enough that they didn't look ridiculous. It was kind of hard to look ridiculous when your outfit was clearly entirely designer label anyway.
Scott walked up to Lily, where she was talking with her friends, whistling a tune. Lily turned to look at him sharply and said, "What are you whistling?"
"Nothing!" Scott said hurriedly.
"No, that wasn't nothing!" Lily said, trying not to laugh. "That was, 'Let's bowl', from Grease 2, you utter idiot!"
Scott looked embarrassed, and everyone else started laughing uproariously.
"Oh shut up you lot!" Scott eventually exclaimed.
Still laughing a little, they all went inside, their large group descending upon the front desk to get shoes.
Once they were all wearing the comfortable, yet unattractive shoes, they sorted out their teams. They took up two lanes, diving into teams of six, Lily heading one, and Liam heading the other. The 09ers were somewhat predictable in matters like that. They began their game and soon they were all quite wrapped up in the competitiveness of it, whooping and cheering when strikes were scored.
At one point during their game Lily and Liam sat down next to each other as they waited for their turns to come round again.
"Glad you came?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, you girls were right. It's actually pretty fun," Liam conceded.
Lily grinned back at him, "I'm pretty much always right."
"And you're so modest too," Liam teased.
Lily stuck her tongue out at him and he chuckled at her behaviour. Loud squealing then interrupted their conversation as Sophie finally scored a strike. Liam looked at Lily as she jumped up and hugged her friend, sharing her excitement. He realised, not for the first time, how lucky he was that she'd given him a chance for them to be friends. He then watched Scott walk up to her and place a gentle kiss on her lips, after which she sat down in his lap, her arms easily around his neck, talking animatedly with Keira. He tried not to openly grimace at the open affection and intimacy between Scott and Lily. He couldn't focus on that, he needed to try and move on, and be happy with her friendship. The only problem was, just being friends with Lily Kane made him realise how incredible she was, and that he really didn't want any other girl.
I can have it all, now I'm dancing for my life
Tuesday in school Lily sat in Chemistry, not really focusing on her teacher's words, but thinking over the fun they'd had the previous night. It had been fun, all going out together, and not getting drunk too. She was glad that she and Liam had managed to reach a place where they were friends, it made for a much more pleasant group atmosphere, not to mention he was actually nice when he stopped being an attention seeking jerk. Mr Murphey then called on Lily to answer a question, which ended Lily's pleasant review of the previous evening.
Later in the day, Scott and Lily were walking down the hall later during the day, their hands intertwined, when he said, "So, it was great going out with the others last night, but we haven't done anything together for a while."
"You mean, we haven't gone on a date," Lily said, her eyes bright.
"Yeah. So I think it's about time we went on one," Scott replied.
Lily nodded, smiling, waiting for him to make a suggestion.
"Well, how about we go out tomorrow night? Nothing late, but things have been so busy, with football and other stuff, so we should just make the time and go," Scott reasoned.
Lily leaned up and kissed him and said, "Sounds perfect. How about dinner and a walk on the beach?"
"Sure, sounds good. Where do you want to go?" Scott asked her.
"Surprise me!" Lily said.
"You and your surprise dates," Scott said, chuckling as he recalled her demanding a surprise for their six month anniversary. "You know, we're almost at our nine month anniversary."
"Aww Scott," Lily cooed. "You're so sensitive."
"Shut up, you," he replied playfully.
"No, you're lovely. I was being silly, but it's sweet of you to remember. So are we a couple who celebrates our anniversary in three month segments then?" Lily asked jokingly.
"Oh, I don't know," Scott said, beginning to become exasperated. "Nine months is something, special, we should celebrated something between six months and a year, and there's no way in hell we're having an anniversary every month!"
Lily giggled, "Fine with me. You're so funny when you get annoyed. I love you," she added sincerely.
Scott's mild irritation melted away, and he replied, his eyes soft, "I love you too."
After school, seeing as there was no training, Keira and Lily decided that they'd indulge in some shopping. Indulge being the appropriate word seeing as they both loved clothes and had essentially limitless funds.
"Lil, I've been thinking," Keira began, as they were browsing through shoes. "I get that you're friends with Liam now, and I think that's nice, but where are you going with it?"
"What do you mean?" Lily asked, confused.
"I mean, where are you going with it? Liam's not the kind of boy you just stay friends with, and you have a boyfriend." Keira expanded.
"Keira!" Lily exclaimed, truly shocked. "I love Scott! Why can't I just be friends with Liam? I mean really, we both know that I pretty much make the social rules around school."
"Well, yeah," Keira said slowly, "but you know he wanted more than friendship before, so why do you think that would change now?"
"I don't know, and I guess I don't care. It's his problem. As far as I'm concerned we're friends, and I'm happy with that. It's my life, and if I want it all, I'm having it all," Lily stated definitively.
"Alright," Keira replied dubiously. "You're the boss."
"Damn straight," Lily said, laughing. "Come on, too much serious talk, let's shop."
"If that's too serious, we could compare notes on sex," Keira retorted, with wicked grin.
Lily gave her a withering look and said pointedly, "Oh, I love those shoes!" She proceeded to dart off towards an non descript pair of shoes, Keira trailing after her, laughing.
Lily arrived home after shopping, and stored her new items in her closet. She then sat down to work on her homework at her desk. When Duncan and Eva arrived home, one shortly after the other, Lily moved downstairs to help Eva make dinner. Duncan sat near them, talking to them, and stealing bits of food from their preparation.
Duncan reached to take something out of the bowl of salad from the umpteenth time when Lily put down her knife, and playfully slapped her father's hand and cried, "No Daddy! No more, or there'll be no more dinner."
Evelyn chuckled, and Duncan groaned and whined, "Lily."
"Daddy, you're supposed to be the adult," Lily said with a giggle.
"Well, you're almost an adult," Duncan remarked. "Do you have any ideas about what you want to do for your birthday?"
"Not really," Lily replied. "I mean, of course I'd like to have a party with my friends, but other than that, no. You've done a good job the past few years, coming up with things, so I think I'll leave it up to you."
Duncan looked pleased, then bothered. Eva laughed at him, and Lily looked at her for an explanation.
"Well, he's happy he's done well the last few years, but now he's got all that pressure to top those years too," Eva informed her.
Comprehension dawned on Lily's face, and she giggled. She finished what she was working on at the bench, then moved around and kissed Duncan's cheek and said, "Don't worry Daddy. I'll still love you even if you get me a terrible presents, but I know you won't so it's all good!"
Duncan hugged his daughter, thinking again for the hundredth time, how lucky he was that his daughter had turned into a wonderful young lady.
Take your passion, and make it happen
Wednesday after cheer practice, Lily went home quickly, to shower and change into something for her date with Scott. She pulled a red, knee length Mui Mui skirt out of her closet that'd she'd bought yesterday with Keira. To wear with it she grabbed cream, three quarter sleeve Oscar de la Renta blouse and a black pair of ankle boots. She fixed her hair, leaving it out in natural waves, and attended to her make up. Just as she had picked up her purse she heard Scott's car outside, so she grabbed her black leather jacket, and slipped downstairs quickly. She kissed Eva and Duncan goodbye, who had arrived home while she was getting ready, then opened the front door, to Scott who was standing there waiting.
"You got me flowers!" Lily exclaimed, completely delighted. She kissed him soundly, and he grinned at her.
"Well, we haven't been on a date in a while, so I thought it would be nice," Scott explained.
"Nice? It's completely lovely," Lily replied, as he handed the bunch of flowers to her, a mixture of lilies, roses and other dainty little flowers.
Lily ducked back inside to give the flowers to Eva to put in water, then met Scott in his car.
"So, where are we going tonight?" Lily asked.
"You'll see," Scott answered, enjoying keeping her in suspense.
They pulled up at a popular Chinese restaurant in Neptune, The Happy Inn. Lily smiled in appreciation.
"Good choice!" Lily told Scott.
"You're pretty easy to please you know," Scott remarked. "As long as the food is good food, you'll eat just about anything happily."
"Yeah, well, I'm awesome," Lily said jokingly.
Scott chuckled, took her hand, and they made their way inside.
"I have to ask you something," Lily said, as they were eating their main course.
"Okay," Scott said, unsure of what that exactly entailed.
"Well, I'd just been wondering, if me being friends with Liam was bothering you. I know you know he came over the other day, so I could help him with homework, but we didn't exactly talk about it," Lily said.
Scott let out a laugh of relief. "Babe, I know you love me. I guess I'd be stupid if I wasn't a little weary about you spending time with another guy, particularly Liam, but I trust you. And you're always around other people with him, and again, I trust you. I'd rather you be friends with him, than having to worry about him being a dick to you all the time," Scott explained.
"Good," Lily replied, clearly relieved the conversation was going well. "I'm glad we can actually be mature about this."
Scott grinned at her, and they continued their meal.
Later that evening, they walked down the beach together, shoes left in the car, the sand between their toes. The moon was shining brightly, giving off enough light for them to see each other's faces clearly. They talked quietly to one another, Lily's lively laugh sometimes making itself heard above the crashing of the ocean waves.
"Do you think you'll win tomorrow?" Lily asked Scott.
"I think we've got a pretty good chance," Scott replied. "Liam is actually a really good quarterback, and you've seen everyone this season, we're looking good."
"I'll say you are," Lily said seductively, turning so she was standing in front of Scott, stopping him in his path, and trailing a finger down his chest.
Scott pulled her to him, and they began to kiss heatedly, fighting for dominance.
Some time later Lily stepped back a little from Scott's arms, turned around, so that her back was against his front, and his arms came to rest around her waist as she leaned back into him.
"Thank you," Lily said quietly.
"For what?" Scott asked, a little puzzled.
"For now, for tonight, for everything, for being you," Lily expanded.
In answer Scott merely tightened his arms around her and kissed her cheek tenderly.
The next day at school passed with no dramas, and ended with a long practice for both the football and cheerleading teams. The next day would either be their last game for the season, or would send them to the playoffs. They football team really wanted to make the playoffs, and if they didn't it wouldn't be for lack of training. The cheerleading team put in a hard practice, Lily wanted to make sure that if it was their last match, that they'd be in excellent form, and if it the boys won, they'd still need to be well prepared for the playoffs.
Friday at school, tensions were a little high as nearly the whole school was eager for the football team to win. Neptune High prided itself on being above other schools, or rather the 09ers tended to pride themselves on being better, but they hadn't made it to the playoffs and had a shot at the championship in several years. The boys on the football team spent most of the day becoming more and more focused on their game, and the cheerleaders were more highly strung than usual, a few petty fights erupting over nothing in particular.
Neptune had a home game, and by when game time came, most of the school had turned out to watch, along with a large number of friends and family. Lily's usual supporters were in the crowd, along with many of her friends parents. A number of the 09er adults had attended Neptune High, and they also liked to see their kids succeeding, it was something to boast about at parties. It was easy to spot the 09er supporters, they had the best seats and wore the best clothes.
The game was a close one, but in the end, it was clear with five minutes to go, that Neptune would win. In reality, those last second wins aren't as plentiful as they seem to be on television and in books.
Full time sounded, and the stands exploded with cheering and clapping, their excitement had been building all game.
The football team ran off, many of them stopping to hug their cheerleader girlfriends and friends. This time when Liam hugged Lily it was brief and not awkward, instead simple and easy, as things should be between friends.
The football team ran back out onto the field, exuberant in their victory. The cheerleaders stayed on the sideline, jumping up and down in excitement, and shaking their pompoms wildly.
The night ended with a party at an 09er house. The week had been a good one for Lily, and her friends, one filled with fun, love, and happiness, those idealistic things of life. However, everyone knows that life doesn't stay like that all the time.
AN: Thanks for reading, please review! Also, a quick shout out to who gave Lily and Liam a ship name, LiLi! My characters have a ship name, it's easily made my month :)