It was only the second class of the day, but Willow couldn't wait for the day to be over.
The caterpillars crawling around in Willow's stomach wouldn't metamorphosize. It didn't help that she'd woken up late, missing her morning workout. It didn't help that she'd forgotten her lunch at home. It didn't help that people kept wishing her good luck. It didn't help that she had Gen Ed classes with Boscha all day. It didn't help that Boscha wouldn't stop talking about it. It didn't help that Boscha was acting like Willow was simultaneously her prodigy and a desperate rookie that she took a chance on. It didn't help that Boscha was acting as if they already won the game.
Nothing was helping.
Boscha wasn't helping.
Yeah, Boscha definitely wasn't helping.
Willow had somehow convinced herself that the game this afternoon was important. She convinced herself that she should work hard to improve her grudgby and improve her magic. Somehow she convinced herself to do extra chores so her dads would let her have extra garden space so she could put all the plants Boscha was making her grow.
The logical half of Willow's brain was screaming. She shouldn't be this stressed about a game. She shouldn't be this stressed about performing well. She shouldn't be this worried about the outcome of the game.
Willow wasn't even nervous about getting injured. She was far more focused on winning, or at least making it to the second half. Willow should want the opposite. She should want to lose. That way she could stop spending her afternoons arguing with Boscha without coming off like a selfish meanie. That way her life could go back to normal. Normal looked like morning workouts, School, then afternoons in the gardens. Dinner with her family and then to sleep so she could wake up early and work out again.
Willow's muscles flexed involuntarily. She was already missing her early morning stress relief tactic. She'd hoped that it would take longer for the consequences of skipping a workout to manifest.
What on earth was wrong with Willow? If you had told her 5 months ago that in 5 months she'd spend a week playing grudgby with Boscha and Amity she'd have…. Well, she didn't know what she'd think, but it was difficult to remember some days that nobody besides Augustus was talking to her 5 months ago.
A week of practices was all it took for Willow and Boscha to be on friendlier terms, At least during the school day. There hadn't been a single day of practice without an argument or semi-violent confrontation. It was perhaps the strangest thing about Boscha. She was always angry or on the verge of anger. Willow never understood why, at first Willow thought her presence on the field angered Boscha but now she didn't think that was the case. Occasionally Boscha would be furious after botching a play and she'd look at Willow and her anger would subside slightly.
Willow couldn't understand why. It's not like Willow was going to spread rumors or something. It wasn't like Willow hadn't seen Boscha at her worst already. It wasn't like Boscha had anything to gain from showing the slightest modicum of restraint. Willow was grateful for Boscha's restraint.
Grateful wasn't exactly right. It was closer to comfortable. As far as willow could tell, Boscha had never bothered hiding her emotions, not like Amity had. But Boscha had stopped throwing insults around. Well, throwing insults at people. Because of Willow's rather persistent pestering Boscha was now insulting abstract concepts and animals instead of people and aspects of their immediate surroundings.
Willow yawned and turned to her side to whisper something to Luz about doing something over the weekend just to take her mind off of grudgby.
Unfortunately, instead of the human, the sight of Boscha greeted her. While typically a welcome sight, Boscha was best observed like a fungus which emitted poisonous spores. carefully and from afar.
Before class Boscha had asked the teacher to move her and Luz's seats so she and Willow could talk grudgby plays. The teacher had obliged without a second thought. It was very annoying that Boscha didn't even think to ask Willow about the seat change.
Boscha was too close. Too close for Willow to drown out the grudgby talk. too close to pretend that she wasn't very interested in Boscha. too close to pretend that Willow couldn't smell Boscha's unique fragrance. just entirely too close for Willow to function properly.
Willow had never realized it before but Boscha doesn't talk about anything except grudgby. To be fair, Willow spent more time looking at Boscha's lips than bothering to listen to the things coming out of them. Since This time the thing coming out of Boscha's mouth often directly concerned Willow, the words were much more difficult to ignore.
Willow couldn't believe the amount of ways Boscha could say the same thing. She also couldn't believe the amount of ways that Boscha expected a play could break down. She also couldn't believe that Boscha expected Willow to pay attention. They were in class. With other people. The teacher was lecturing. People were trying to learn.
Boscha seemed oblivious to this and continued to prattle on about the differences in response to an approaching player based
It's not like Boscha could talk about grudgby all day.
Boscha hadn't stopped talking about grudgby all day. Boscha hadn't stopped talking about grudgby to Willow all day. Boscha only granted Willow a brief respite from the constant dribble of grudgby related words during lunch. Boscha's intensity had given Willow a headache so strong she wasn't sure she could play in the game that evening.
It was an hour before the match started and Boscha somehow was still doing last-minute prep with Willow and Amity. The three Banshees were sitting on the sideline as Boscha reminded them of common placement of traps and how to avoid them effectively. As Boscha continued to speak Willow felt more and more ill.
The whistle blew, and Willow felt better. Boscha lept up into the air and gained possession of the ball. Rather than running it up the field herself Boscha passed Willow the ball. Willow enveloped her body in vines and went underground, a play she'd made up on the fly in her first grudgby match had turned into a skill that she'd developed over the past week.
Willow had something to do, and that was comforting.
Willow willed her plants to go through the field carrying her and the grudgby ball. The week of practice had given her a decent sense for the dimensions of the field so when she emerged she was just a few feet next to the goal post. When she started grudgby practice, she'd had a habit of squinting her eyes when shooting the ball. She knew better now. Her eyes were wide scanning for the keeper. The keeper didn't seem to notice her yet. Willow had her shot. Willow held the ball to her chest and then with as much force as she could muster jerked her hands out in front of her. The ball accurately sailed into the goal. Willow had scored the first point of the match.
Willow made eye contact with the opposing team's keeper.
"Sorry" was all she had to say.
The keeper laughed.
Willow jogged to the middle of the field, a smile plastered on her face. Boscha returned the smile with a genuinely elated expression, her three eyes filled with joy and pride.
"Play defensive and set up your smidge finding spell," Boscha commanded. Willow nodded.
The Banshees were in a clear lead throughout most of the first half. Because of their numbers disadvantage they couldn't exactly dominate. Three players didn't cover enough field to be an effective team. Even with perfect play it wasn't likely that the Banshees could've run the score up on their opponents.
But they were playing better than expected, considering one of them was a complete rookie and one was a long retired crippled captain, their performance was above average.
They were up by a point at halftime. A whole point!
A whole Point.
Willow came to the sideline relieved. Boscha could go to play-offs, and Willow hadn't horribly failed. Now they could relax, maybe if Boscha was in a good mood they'd even concede and Willow could spend the rest of her evening spending quality time with her plants in her garden.
Boscha had other ideas. The Hexside captain was going to use the halftime break to maximum efficiency.
"I thought you said you'd be able to find it in thirty minutes," Boscha immediately snapped..
"I'm trying! I've been using my magic on other things!" Willow replied.
"Yeah right" Boscha said
"I've been transporting myself all around the field! It's faster and easier than running," Willow explained.
Boscha was still catching her breath, she did not have the luxury of a magic plant transport system to travel around the field. "Fine whatever. We're opening this half with Forest-Fire"
"Absolutely not." Willow countered. She'd prepared for this over the week. "Forest-Fire is too intensive, there's no reason to squander all that magic and stamina now"
Boscha smugly smirked. "Then what do you suggest Leaf girl? We've still got to project dominance."
"Aren't we done? You made it to playoffs! You said after half-time we'd officially be fully qualified," Willow protested.
Boscha gasped as if Willow had said something horribly offensive. "I always play to win." Boscha said, with a fierce look that made Willow eager to please. "And we're up a point. We need to start the half strong"
Willow sighed, accepting Boscha's premise. Willow had agreed to play the entire game. Willow hadn't considered that Boscha was going for Forest-fire for a legitimate reason. Though Willow was skeptical of how legitimate a reason 'projecting dominance' was. Willow quickly spelunked the depths of her mind for an idea.
"We could do the thorn vault?" Willow suggested.
Amity spit out her Bile-Ade.
"Seriously?" Amity said
Boscha ignored Amity. "That's just a fancy finale play" Boscha said waving her hands
"And Forest-Fire isn't?" Willow challenged.
"Forest-Fire puts us in a better position optically! we'd gain an advantage, and we'd be up two points which means we could more safely play defense!"
Willow fumed. Thorn-Vault was a humane alternative to arson. Thorn vault was a play that everyone had familiarity with and had all the same advantages as Forest-Fire. Besides Forest-Fire was too risky, that it was unpracticed and unproven! but words failed Willow. There was no way she was doing it. Not a chance.
"You're so cruel for wanting to do Forest-Fire!" Willow yelled, stamping her foot on the ground. She felt tears on the verge of breaking. "We're not doing it! No way!"
She'd had a crummy day, and she would not make it worse by watching her precious babies burn.
Boscha scowled. A blurry expression that Willow only recognized because she'd seen it so many times before.
"Be nice to me Leaf girl," Boscha demanded.
Willow blinked twice, clearing her head. "What?"
"You're being mean. You called me cruel. I don't enjoy arguing"
Willow blinked again and tilted her head. "What?" She repeated. On what planet does Boscha not like arguing?
"Just say puh-leese." Boscha said not making eye contact with Willow. If Willow was seeing clearly she might've noticed a repressed smirk on Boscha's face.
"Oh." Willow said and her heart sank. "Sorry Boscha" Willow apologized in a soft voice. "I didn't realize-"
Willow drew in a shaky breath.
"Okay Boscha, can we please not do Forest-Fire?"
Boscha waved her hand in the air "hmmmmmm okay fine whatever. Nerd. I won't set fire to your dumbass plants."
Boscha smirked.
Was she teasing Willow in a new friendly way? Or the old bully way?
Willow chuckled nervously. "Maybe you could be nicer too?"
"Maybe. But if we're not doing Forest-Fire, we have to do something." Boscha said.
She changed the subject.
Willow's mind raced.
"I have a more defensive play that we can try," Willow said and glanced at Amity.
"Go on"
"Well, as long as amity can save a shot, recover a ball then throw a fireball," Willow rambled.
"Just spit it out." Boscha prodded.
Willow took a breath. "Okay, I can set up a plant chute that can make it so that Amity just needs to drop the ball into the chute while tossing a fireball toward you," Willow pointed at Boscha. "As a diversion. Then the ball and I can travel down the chute and we score"
Boscha didn't like the plan. And she said as much. "That sounds complicated. And we didn't practice anything like that"
"Well, you said-"
"I know what I said. Did you just come up with that?" Boscha asked.
"I've been thinking about it for a while"
"You should've said something while we could've practiced it"
"You didn't ask" Willow retorted.
Boscha scowled. "We can try that if Amity recovers the ball, but we're not playing defensively just for that"
Willow nodded in understanding.
Boscha rested her head on her hand for a moment before snapping back to the present. "Alright if we start with the ball, then we'll do thorn vault, If we have to play defense we can try out your play…. Trash Chute?" Boscha suggested with a smirk.
Willow smiled back. They were going to do the plays she suggested!
Wait did she just call her play trash?
"Maybe you could be nicer too. Like maybe Don't name my plays trash." Willow retorted.
The buzzer sounded, and halftime ended.
They had done it. They won. It was only a few minutes into the second half and after a botched offensive play by Willow and Boscha, Willow's magic detection root network had found the smidge. Willow thought it a little odd that Boscha had demanded to know the location of the smidge so she could get it herself but Willow obliged the captain.
It wouldn't do well for Boscha's reputation to have a rookie find the smidge before her. Boscha would enjoy the attention and the spotlight too. Willow didn't mind that at all.
After telling Boscha where the smidge lay Willow helped amity with defending an offensive push from the opponents. Boscha had casually and discreetly walked to the corner of the field and knelt down to pick up the smidge. It was graceful, covered in sweat and dirt though she was.
Boscha stood up and put her fingers to her mouth and whistled so loud that all the players and the referee stopped, turned around and faced her.
Boscha had a big grin on her face. "Game over!" she said with an infectious smile and held up the smidge with two fingers.
Willow returned the smile even though Boscha had smiled at the crowd and not at her.
Her first win playing grudgby, and she'd definitely earned her keep.
Boscha tossed the smidge to the ref and ran over to Willow, the smile still on her face.
Boscha gave Willow a strong side hug, and Willow froze. Part of her wanted to recoil. Part of her wanted to turn into the embrace and give Bosca a full hug back. Part of Willow wanted to respond, part of Willow wanted to avoid making a fool of herself at all costs. Willow was often awkward, but not usually frozen in this way.
Boscha said something, and the sound brought Willow out of her small space out-episode. Deeply embarrassed that she hadn't been paying attention Willow asked "What?"
Boscha broke the side hug and began making her way to the side bench with Willow.
"Fine we did it, We made it to the play-offs," Boscha said
That made it easy for willow to figure out what Boscha was talking about.
"Didn't we do that at halftime?" Willow asked.
"Huh. yeah I guess we did." Boscha said and turned with a smile. "But it's nice to win you know?" she asked.
Boscha began packing her sports gear into her duffel bag. Willow sat down on the bench and nodded. "Nice to win" Willow agreed.
"Shame we didn't try out that defensive chute play," Boscha said "we'll have to try that in practice next week, I think that play has potential"
Willow's ears perked up. "You do?" Willow asked.
"For sure" Boscha said. The triclops turned to look at Willow intently. "I really can't wait to develop more plays with you"
Willow couldn't help it. She really couldn't. Boscha just looked so huggable. Part of it was Willow felt bad not returning the hug Boscha had given earlier. Part of it was the excitement Willow felt to play more grudgby. It was also the slight flexing of Boscha's muscles as she rummaged around her sports bag. How Boscha's eyebrows softened her eyes when she spoke about developing plays.
Without thinking, she gave Boscha a hug. A full on hug. Arms around the back, face next to face, and torso close to torso.
Was Boscha hugging Willow back? Willow was too busy trying to figure an elegant way out of the situation to tell. Willow couldn't determine anything about Boscha's reaction.
It was Willow's decision to break the hug. As quickly as she'd started it Willow let good and stepped back from Boscha. It was hard to do, and as Willow missed the external warmth coming from Boscha, she felt internal warmth bubble up. The warmth in her cheeks seemed to dry out the mud on her face caking it on her face which was probably not cute.
"Sorry-" Willow said with her best awkward 'I-can't-believe-I-just-did-that,' smile. "I was just so happy we won the game," Willow tried for a lie. Lying definitely wasn't her strong suit but she couldn't exactly say "I think you're hot, saw a chance to hug you and having no self-control did exactly that"
Willow held her breath awaiting Boscha's response. Boscha blinked her astonishing purple-gray eyes in shock, as if processing new information. "Right- I suppose it's only natural. Winning your first game would be a big rush" a grin spread over Boscha's face. Boscha coughed as if she had just remembered something. "But don't do that again. That was weird"
And then Boscha heel-turned and walked away from the side bench.
Willow's heart dropped. 'That was weird'.
Boscha wasn't wrong, it was weird to hug an acquaintance out of nowhere, especially after having half-hugged them so soon. She hadn't asked or anything. Willow buried her head in her hands. She needed a friend to talk things out with. Gus was fine, but he was still young, Willow doubted that he could give the girl-talk sort of advice Willow desperately needed.
Not for the first time in the months since Luz had made her way onto the boiling isles, Willow thanked her lucky stars that she'd accidentally attacked the human that one day before school. Luz was skeptical of Boscha and would surely set her straight.
Or well not straight, definitely not straight. But maybe less masochistic.
Maybe somehow Willow could get Luz to get Willow to improve her taste in potential romantic partners.