Aftermath

Amber is just about to say goodbye to her friends after lunch, when she hears a phone vibrate. Bethany picks up her phone and reads something. She makes a confused and concerned face, and hands it over to Amber. It's a text from Sel.

Thea and Dabria are mad at each other. Unsure what just happened. No one is badly hurt anyways, and the school will not follow up apparently. Idk, now you know.

"That didn't make things clearer. We still don't know who punched Thea." Amber groans. "Well thank him for the update I guess."

Bethany is already typing.

"Thanks, I know how to use my own phone." She snarks.

"Do we think Dabria did it?" Garthan leans in over the table. "Didn't you say that she talked about it being a hard punch?" He looks to Amber.

"I don't think so… but I guess it could be possible."

"Well then I think you're gonna have one hell of a practice now eh?" Carl chimes in.

"Speaking of, I really have to go." Amber collects her things and stand up. "Text me if you learn anything new."

"Yeah yeah of course." Bethany waves her hand dismissively. "Or you know, talk to your girlfriend."

Amber stops in her tracks.

"She's not… we're not… eh."

"Sure whatever, tell us when you decided what to call it this time." Garthan says and waves Amber of as she turns to actually leave.

In the locker room, most of the team is already gathered when Amber arrives. She quickly goes to her locker, and changes into sportswear. As some people start to head out on the field, she sees Thea sitting on the bench in front of the lockers. She has her arms crossed and is looking down at the ground. Amber walks up to her. She is already changed, but Amber can see that her hair seems damp, like she's been outside.

"Thea?"

"Not now."

"Whatever is going on between you and Dabria, isn't going to get better by pushing people away."

Thea looks up and meets Ambers eyes. She sighs.

"Is Dabria coming?" Amber asks.

"She is outside already. She had already gone out when I got here."

"Well maybe we should too then, Saree doesn't like it when we're late."

Amber offers Thea a hand to help her up. Thea takes it, and they walk outside together.

On the field, the rain hasn't stopped. If anything it has increased again, and pours down on the students as they gather around their coach. Dabria comes jogging from across the field, she seems to have been warming up by doing laps. Her hair and clothes are soaked and are clinging to her skin. She wipes her hand across her face to get some loose strands out of her eyes, and doesn't even look at Thea and Amber. Saree goes through the first steps of today's practice, and they are divided into groups. Amber and Thea are put in the same group, and Dabria in the opposite one. Dabrias group are supposed to take the ball from Ambers group, who are supposed to defend it. They run around on their half of the field, five in each group. At first it goes well, Thea and Dabria don't pay attention to each other. Amber keeps a constant eye on them. After a while, Thea gets the ball and manage to dribble past almost all of Dabrias group. She focuses on the ball and forgets to look up, and Amber watches as she gets closer to Dabria. Dabria being taller, and a defender, takes a mark on Thea and bodyslams her, stopping her dead in her tracks. Thea falls helplessly to the muddy ground, and Dabria simply takes the ball and continues the exercise. Amber help Thea up, but sees the irritation in her eyes. The exercise gets rougher from there on. Both Thea and Dabria play hard, and seem to focus more and more to get each other on the ground rather than taking the ball. The rain keeps pouring down on them and soon, the two sisters are more brown mud than the usual blue football outfit. Amber tries to intervene by taking or passing the ball so that they don't meet up, but they find their way anyway. She decides enough is enough, and prepares to stop it. She sees Thea take the ball, and Dabria taking aim from a few meters away. Just as Dabria is about to tackle Thea again, Amber ambushes her and tackles her to the side. Shocked, Dabria tumbles to the ground, and looks up at Amber confused.

"Enough. Let her be!" Amber demands and starts to turn away.

"Don't join a game if you don't know the rules." Dabria answers and launches from where she is sitting.

She tackles Amber back, but before they really hit the ground, Thea is there and pulls Dabria away by the waist. They fall backwards back into the muddy grass. Dabria's struggling to get free turns into her trying to push Thea down. They don't get to wrestle long though, before a sharp whistle blows across the field.

"Brontë! Syringa! Get up!" Saree comes jogging towards them.

The sisters scramble up to their feet, still pushing at each other.

"Stop it! What are you doing?" Saree's voice is short, and commanding.

They stand still, and silent for a moment. Amber steps forward to try to explain, but Saree just puts up a hand.

"No, I want them to explain. You all can continue with shooting penalties till I get back here. You two, with me." Saree points around as she speaks, and doesn't wait for Dabria or Thea to respond before she turns around.

And they follow her, silently, both of them wet and grumpy.

Inside in the locker room, they sit down, with a good distance between them. Saree stands in front of them, arms crossed, waiting.

"So who is gonna start explaining? Why are two of my best players on the ground, fighting?"

They glance at each other. Then Dabria takes a breath.

"She-" She doesn't get further than that before Saree cuts her of.

"No don't tell me what she has done. Tell me what you have done. We're not throwing blame here, we're explaining."

Dabria sits silent again.

"I was just trying to do the right thing." Thea says and breaks the silence.

"Oh okay, please continue." Saree encourages.

"Well… I thought Dabria needed help, but apparently, she is perfectly happy and can take care of herself."

"Well," Dabria imitates. "I kind of have to don't I? I have taken care of myself for a long time now, and don't need you, or anyone else for that matter, to expose my life to everyone."

"Why is it a problem to talk about that you need help?" Thea turns up towards her.

"Because it's embarrassing, right? And it's not so easy. You're supposed to love your family, and they are supposed to be there for you. And everyone else got that."

"That's not even true and you know it."

"Maybe. But it's still not fun to talk about how you fear that one day maybe he'll go to far. Or that you're not even sure he remembers your birthday. Or that you aren't sure that you do love him, but pretty sure that he doesn't love you." Dabria draws a deep breath as she finishes.

Saree looks at the two girls, not sure how to proceed. She sits down beside Dabria and puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Thea, could you wait outside for just a second?"

Thea nods and leaves the room. Saree reaches out her hand and wipes a single tear that is rolling down Dabrias cheek.

"Dabria… It's important that you know that you're not to blame for how you're being treated. I did not know how bad it was at your home. I only thought you needed to run away like any teen does." She grabs Dabria and pulls her into a close hug. "You don't need to feel ashamed for what you have been through. If someone is abusing you, or being mean to you, it's not your fault okay? You don't ever need to take that."

Dabria just sits silent again, she wasn't prepared to just throw all her feelings out like that.