For The Gold

For The Gold

Chapter 3: "Morals Are For Fools"

"I don't think I can do this," said Val. Emilia rolled her eyes.

"Of course you can do it. All you do is walk up, start a conversation, and when it seems right, say 'Do you want to go out with me?' Very fast, simple, and effective."

Val toyed with a blond strand of hair. "What if he declines?"

"He's not going to," Emilia said, sure of herself. "Why would he? He likes you."

"But if he says no… it could really hurt our friendship," Val worried, beginning to pace. "And I value his friendship. And then it would hurt our job… and then it would be awkward… maybe I don't want to do this."

"Well, too late, there he is." Emilia pushed an awkward and surprised Val in the direction of Tyler, who was walking with Hank and Anthony, another player.

"But… I'm not ready!" whined Val. Emilia merely smiled and stopped in front of the trio.

"Tyler, Val has something to ask you… Anthony, Hank, you better come with me…" Emilia pulled the football players out of earshot.

"What are you doing?" hissed Hank. "What's so important?"

"Val—if she finds the courage—is about to ask Tyler out. Be quiet."

"Oh, this is good…" The three watched in silence from underneath their cover of a tree.

"Hey, Val," Tyler said happily. Val took that as a good sign—he was happy to see her. Or maybe he was just being cheerful. Hmm…

"Hi… Tyler…" Val hopped discreetly from one foot to the other. This was making her nervous.

"Are you rooming with Emilia?" Tyler questioned.

"Yeah… are you with Hank or Anthony? Or someone else?" Small talk. Small talk was good… now if she could only relax…

"Hank."

"Oh. Good."

Silence. Again.

"So, anyway, Tyler, I wanted to know if you—well, I mean, it's okay if you don't want to, but—see… I was wondering if…"

"Oh my God, are you from Kingsport?" A peppy voice interrupted Val in the middle of her sentence. Tyler turned.

Brittany Ashton.

Val's worst nightmare had come true.

She was right, Emilia was wrong. Tyler might like Brittany, Brittany was interested in Tyler. Val could tell in her voice, and the look in his eyes was… well, maybe that was surprise, but he would like her. No guy could honestly resist those curves.

"Yeah. That's us," said Tyler, sizing her up in a quick blink. She had changed clothes—now she was in her cheerleading uniform, dark blue with yellow pleats in the skirt and PANTHERS in block letters across her chest.

"Wow! I'm Brittany Ashton, from Charleston. We've won the last four playoffs and I hope we get to number five, then we'll set a record!" Her perkiness was decidedly faked so that she seemed peppy and cheery and drew admirers. Val would bet her crush on Tyler that she was a deadly opponent.

What have I gotten myself into? Val asked herself. This was going to turn into a battle if Brittany made a move.

Which she would, of course.

"That's great," said Tyler. Val wasn't sure if his tone of voice was excited or not.

"So, I better go. I have to get to practice. See you around…" Brittany trailed off.

"Tyler," he supplied. She smiled.

"Tyler." Brittany made it clear she approved. She flipped her thick curls teasingly and walked away like a cat on a runway.

Tyler's eyes followed her a moment before turning back to Val.

"What was it you wanted to say?" he questioned.

"Nothing," sighed Val. "Nothing at all important."

What chance did she have against that? She wasn't going to give up, but right now, she couldn't fight. The tone was ruined and it would be even more awkward to ask him now.

Brittany had chosen her timing well.

Val wasn't giving up, though. It might seem crazy for her to take an unspoken challenge, but she had seen the dare in Brittany's eyes, and that was enough for her to fight on.

*

"Why did she have to come then?" moaned Val. "I was on the verge of getting the words out, and then she jumps up in her fake perkiness and he forgets all about me!"

"He didn't forget about you," said Emilia from in the bathroom, where she was taking her shower. "If he had forgotten about you, he wouldn't have turned back to you after she left. And he was looking at you some of the time while she was there."

"Yeah," Val said sadly, "when he wasn't checking her out."

"He wasn't checking her out," argued Emilia. "He was sizing her up."

She opened the door and came out in a white bathrobe, followed by a cloud of steam that quickly evaporated in the cooler air of the room.

"Well, either way, she we're at war," Val said.

"For Tyler?"

"I guess so. I mean, the look in her eyes was just creepy. It's like, 'Go away or else', stressing the 'or else'." Val sighed. "I mean, can't she just go for Anthony or something?"

"No." Emilia seemed to be in deep thought. "No, because Tyler's the first string wide receiver. She wants the wide receiver. The receiver on Panthers is Gerald Hunan, and I think he's having an ankle problem, and if she can manipulate Tyler… they could win. Because Tyler subsiding would mean victory for Gerald Hunan, and victory for the receiver is victory for the team."

"She wouldn't do that to Tyler!" Val felt like something was choking her. Brittany was going to get Tyler and once the game was done, she would dump him like a bag of wet matches. And even if Tyler liked Val then… it might be rebound. So, in the end, she would be cold and alone and Brittany Ashton would have gotten her way.

"Oh, she would."

Val's voice was hard and cold when she spoke next: "It's war, then. Utter and complete war."

*

"What happened to Val?" Hank asked, watching the blonde limp towards them, clutching her stomach.

"No idea," answered Tyler, "but it sure looks painful."

"Very good, Connell," remarked Hank dryly. "I'm sure you're going to win a Nobel Prize for your observations." Tyler ignored him.

"Hey, Val! What happened?" inquired Tyler once she got close enough. Val groaned and pulled the bottom of her shirt up, exposing her stomach.

Tyler and Hank grimaced. Her skin was blistering and mottled, pinkish and raw.

"Someone put something on my shirt while the cheerleaders were practicing an hour ago. Do you know how hard it is to stand up straight when your stomach has blisters on it? I don't know what it is, but I think I'm allergic to it."

"Yeah… looks like an extreme type of contact rash to me," Hank said. Tyler touched her stomach gently.

"That hurt?"

"A little." Val prodded the rash an inch over. "Hurts more right there."

Tyler poked it again. "There?" Val winced.

"Yeah. I don't know what it could be…"

"Are you allergic to anything?" Hank cut in. Val bit her lip in thought.

"I think I'm allergic to an ingredient used in some kinds of perfume," she said. "But I don't know. People also use it in a type of soap."

"That's probably what it is," Tyler stated. Hank nodded agreement.

"Yeah. It'll subside in a few days if you take medicine or put cream on it."

Tyler looked at Val.

"I'll go with you to the pharmacy," he volunteered. Val smiled slightly.

"Sure." She rolled her shirt down over the rash. Tyler gently put an arm around her shoulder for her to lean on.

"Okay, come on…"

They walked off together, Val gritting her teeth through the pain that had become, miraculously, lessened by the fact Tyler's arm was around her shoulder.

But it still hurt.

Hank chuckled to himself. They're just such idiots when it comes to each other. Val thinks Tyler doesn't like her, Tyler thinks Val doesn't like him, and in reality they're both completely, totally, 100 percent head over heels for each other.

Oh well. Life.

He sighed and turned away.

*

"Hey, Val, mail!" Emilia said as she opened the door to the room, picked up the envelope with Val Lanier scrawled on it in ink the color of blood.

"Huh?" Val bounded off the bed where she was reading her book and took the envelope from Emilia, ripping it open. The torn, white paper drifted to the floor as she unfolded the note, written on matching, typical white paper.

Val's face went pale as her eyes ran across it.

"What is it?" asked Emilia. "Who's it from?"

Val tried to respond, but her jaw was clenched and quivering at the same time, biting her lip like the world was going to self-destruct in the next five seconds. Emilia took the paper from Val's shaking fingertips and read the letter neatly typed:

Val,

I think you know who this is. I think you know what I want. I think I saw it in your eyes the instant I interrupted your touching conversation with him. Who's he? I think you know that, too. Wait. Scratch think. I know you know.

I'm going to get him. Tyler's mine. Get away before you really regret it. That stunt with the perfume rash? Ha. That was nothing compared to what I can do. I can do things you couldn't even imagine. I can wrap him around my finger. And then I can crush him. Leave him to me. You can relax. He won't be dating anyone for a while once I'm through with him.

Morals are for fools, Val. I'm not a fool. Ethics are for idiots. I'm no idiot. You may have a crush on him, but don't forget—I'm me!

--Your Enemy, Brittany Olsen Ashton

PS—In case you haven't noticed, my initials are BOA. As in, BOA CONSTRICTOR. Tread with care.

"Oh my God. I can't believe she… Val? Are you okay?" Emilia looked up to see Val staring, shocked, at the door.

"She's going to hurt him," Val said, worried. "You saw it! She's going to crush him! I can't just—stand back and watch!" She reached for the doorknob. Emilia stopped her.

"Wait. Look, I want to hurt her as much as you do—though maybe not for the exact same reason—but if we barge in like elephants, she'll get us all the more easily. Snakes can kill elephants."

"Is Tyler an elephant?" asked Val. "Well, I mean, in the figurative sense."

"He's kind of like the bird that sits in the nest and doesn't notice anything. Except a male bird, not a female one that sits on the eggs."

"What do birds have to do with anything?" Val asked. She sat down on the bed. "I don't want Tyler to get hurt," she told Emilia. "And if she takes any further steps towards him, I'll stomp on her. Elephants can stomp on snakes, right?"

"Crush the head first," advised Emilia. "The body will follow."

"Disgusting," Val said bluntly. "That's just gross."

"I think we're getting off the topic," said Emilia. "Okay, think of it this way. Brittany wants Tyler."

"Yeah," agreed Val, taking the letter from Emilia. "Yeah, and just so that her team can win." She crumpled the letter in her fist, then unfolded it and crumpled it again, trying to imagine it was Brittany.

"You like Tyler."

"You're just trying to get me to admit that," Val said, smashing the paper again.

"You like Tyler," repeated Emilia. Val sighed.

"Yes. Yes. I like Tyler. I like him a lot." She swung her legs up onto the bed and crossed them, resisting the urge to fold them up and hide her vulnerability. "And that's the whole problem. If I didn't like him, then this wouldn't be such a big deal. If I didn't like him, the only thing I'd have against Brittany is her—well, flaunting of certain features, I guess you could say. If I didn't like him, I wouldn't have a rash on my stomach." Val was about to say something else, but couldn't choke it out.

"It's fine, Val," Emilia said, sitting down next to her. "We're going to get Brittany. And then you and Tyler can kiss and live happily ever after."

"Yeah," Val said dully. "Sure."

"You know, if you showed this letter to Tyler…" Emilia hesitated. Val shook her head violently.

"No, because then he'd know I had a crush on him and if he knew I had a crush on him then he might think I wrote the letter to make him hate Brittany. Then I'd be even worse off. No. I'll find another way to make him find out."

Ha. I am capable of cliffhangers, if this counts as a cliffhanger. I wouldn't know. Actually, I just got tired of having writer's block on this story and decided this was the end. So… erm, let me think about what's next in the plot… huh. I'm getting to that.

Okay, and I have to say: This is not, in any way, shape or form, a copy of It's Just A Girl!, by Sunnymelon. This was originally Play The Diamonds, but then I made up this instead, so…THIS WAS ORIGINALLY PLAY THE DIAMONDS. IS NOT A PLAGARIZATION OF "It's Just A Girl!", which is a great story by Sunnymelon. Good. That's covered.

Well, PLEASE review! I just lurve reviews. Lurve lurve lurve lurve. So review and make me happy!!!

-----IVY LEAVES