Infatuation- Chapter 2
Piper was still sniffling in her room when someone knocked on her door. Piper jumped slightly and turned to find a brunette stranger standing in the open doorway, she peered inquisitively around Piper's room.
"You just got here huh?"
"Umm… yeah", Piper muttered back- she blushed as a result of being caught in such an emotional state.
The stranger walked into the room without invitation and sat on the uncovered mattress.
"I'm Polly". She smiled up at Piper. She was a pretty girl, wearing an Orange Litchfield University tee shirt and jeans that were ripped at the knees. She had a confident air about her, Piper thought it almost edged on arrogance. Her big brown eyes were eagerly assessing the array of boxes and bags that lay around Piper's room. She stood up and walked over to the large bay window that dominated the back wall of the room. "Wow, look!"
Piper joined Polly at the window. Her room overlooked the sports fields on the edge of campus, there were swarms of students wearing orange making their way over to one of the sporting venues. Leading the crowd was a small group of students who were banging very large drums and waving huge orange flags. "Hey, that looks like so much fun. C'mon we're missing out!" Polly proceeded to grab Piper's hand and run out of the room shouting at people to join them.
By the time they got outside Piper was in the middle of a small group of girls. Polly introduced her to some of the other girls from their dorm; Lorna and Brooke. They shouted their greetings to each other over the din of the drums, "This is so exciting!" Piper yelled. The girls nodded in enthusiastic agreement. After a few minutes of walking and excited chatter the girls reached the soccer stadium. The air was filled with loud music and chanting from the mass of students, Piper thought to herself that she'd never felt more at home. A uniform wave of beeping pulled Piper from her thoughts, at that moment every student in sight pulled out their phones to look at the message that they'd all just received. Piper and Polly looked at each other with confusion and excitement before peering down at their own phones.
LitchUni: ARE YOU READY TO MEET THE HEROES OF LITCHFIELD?!
YOU BETTER GET READY!
KICK OFF IS 30 MINUTES AWAY
Polly beamed over at Piper, "This must be the first soccer game of the season! I've heard all about the Litchfield girls' Soccer team. Apparently they got to the national finals last year, they are like royalty around here".
Brooke nodded in agreement, "I can't believe we actually get to see them in person, I watched all their games on YouTube last year- they're insane!"
The excitement around the stadium was palpable as the crowd started to pile through the turnstiles and into the stadium. As she passed through the turnstile Piper was handed an Orange Tee shirt by one of the guys who had been playing the drums. She eagerly pulled it over her head and away from her body in order to see what it said. 'LETS GO LITCH'. She looked around for Polly who grabbed her hand and led her up the stairs to the top row of the stands. They stood up looking down at the soccer pitch below them, there were cheerleaders lining the edge of the field earning wolf whistles from all corners of the stadium. "They look amazing" Brooke gasped in awe, "I definitely want to be a cheerleader". The sun was setting now marking the sky with an array of pinks and purples, Piper thought that she didn't think she'd ever saw anything more beautiful.
The flood lights at the top of the stadium had been turned off in the last few minutes sending the whole stadium into darkness. The crowd became hushed as the students nervously spoke to each other in hushed whispers. From somewhere in the roof of the stadium spotlights were switched on, they made large bright moving circles on the grass of the pitch. The drummers had started to play again now, they were collectively playing a slow beat, Piper felt her heart mirror the beat as she anxiously waited in anticipation.
Piper jumped as the tannoy system brought her out of her trance, "LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, PLEASE GIVE A WARM LITCHFIELD WELCOME TO YOUR WOMEN'S SOCCER TEAM". The stadium around them erupted in noise as the crowd jumped to their feet. The spot lights were now all focused on the tunnel opposite to where Piper was standing. It was only now that the lights were on that Piper noticed the team's stood there waiting to come onto the pitch. The two teams made their way onto the field and Piper cheered and shouted with the rest of the crowd. The Litchfield girls were wearing orange shirts with white shorts, they all waved at the crowd. One of the players, number 4, was running around the edge of the field with her arms in the air encouraging the crowd to shout louder. The crowd laughed and collectively cheered louder, much to her amusement.
The noise didn't subside during the game, even when the opposing team had possession of the ball. Polly and Brooke were right, the Litchfield girls were amazing. They passed the ball between themselves with ease and were almost showing off- number 4 was doing neat tricks and flicks whenever she got the opportunity. Lorna, who didn't seem to have much knowledge of the sport, thoroughly enjoyed these moments- gasping and jumping up and down whenever she managed to pull off a trick.
With five minutes to go both teams had scored one goal each. The crowd was noticeably nervous, letting out gasps every time the other team got possession of the ball. The time was ticking down now, Piper was jumping up and down nervously- she didn't usually care for sport but she felt like at this moment she would give anything for Litchfield to win.
Number 4 had the ball on the half way line with two minutes left to play, she skipped away from one of her opponents before passing the ball to a tall girl, number 10, who was playing in attack. Defenders charged at the number 10 but somehow she managed to get away from all of them. The crowd collectively held their breath and she glided past 3 opponents with ease.
It was only the goal keeper left now.
She pulled her left leg back to take the shot at goal, as the goal keeper ran forward for the ball the number 10 tapped the ball with her left foot and blasted the ball with her right foot into the top right hand corner of the goal.
Piper thought her ear drums were going to burst as she screamed out in excitement along with the rest of the crowd. She jumped up and down with her arms in the air and turned to Polly who was doing the same. The player who had scored the goal was running to the crowd now with her arms held out wide, the rest of the team including the goal keeper had ran the length of the pitch to jump and her back and celebrate with her.
'LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, PLEASE GIVE IT UP FOR YOUR GOAL SCORER AND PLAYER OF THE MATCH- NUMBER TEN…ALEX VAUSEEEE'
At the mention of her name the crowd erupted once more, Brooke leaned over and shouted in Piper's ear, "That's Vause, she's the best player on the team by far! She's even tipped to play nationally one day!" Piper looked down in admiration as Alex continued to be congratulated by her team mates.
As the teams set up to see out the final few minutes of the match the big screen at the end of the stadium displayed a live close up of Alex's face. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun with some of the shorter strands of her fringe clinging to the sweat that had gathered at the top of her forehead. Her cheeks were red and she was panting lightly with her hands on her hips as she waited for the game to begin again. When she caught sight of herself on the big screen she laughed and winked at the camera.
Piper was both surprised and confused by the swooping sensation that she felt in her lower stomach whilst watching the big screen- it must have been because she skipped dinner.
A/N- Thought I'd update straight away so you can see where I'm going with this. Please do review and let me know if you'd like me to continue. I promise it will pick up soon.