Chapter 11: Powder Puff Game
Miranda spent the night at Lizzie's house the night before the Powder Puff game. That way they could get up and get ready together. They both had their jerseys and customized sweatpants ready. They had spent the previous night painting their nicknames and seniors on their black sweatpants with fabric paint. The paints were blue and a glittery gold for their school colors. The senior jerseys were blue with gold lettering and the juniors were yellow with blue lettering.
Both girls put their hair in pigtail braids and put their headscarves with the school logo on them. Then they put on their black spaghetti strap shirts with "Go Seniors!" stamped on the front. Then they put their jerseys on over it. Miranda had brought her black eye liner to put marks on their faces like real football players did to keep the lights out of their eyes during games. They checked themselves out in the mirror, and once they were satisfied, they grabbed their backpacks and purses to go and wait for their ride with Kate.
Jo McGuire was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. She had her digital camera ready to take pictures of the girls together. She had a football for them to pose with. Jo had the girls pose together, first Miranda pretended to through the football since she was the quarterback. Then she had Lizzie tuck the football under her arm and took a picture. The girls then sat with Miranda on the bottom step and Lizzie sitting right above her.
"Okay Mom, we need to leave if we aren't going to be late," Lizzie glanced at the clock.
As if he had heard her say so, Gordo rang the doorbell at that precise moment.
"See, Gordo's here," Miranda answered the door.
"Wait, a couple more pictures, please?" Jo gave her daughter the puppy dog look.
"Okay, just a few," Lizzie sighed with resignation.
"Gordo, you get into the picture with them," Jo instructed.
The three friends posed together and then ran out the door. They got to school just on time. It was a good thing they weren't late because all girls playing Powder Puff had to be in all of their classes or they couldn't play.
During third period, all the Powder Puff players were excused to meet in the large gym for the Pep Assembly. Each team was supposed to do some sort of performance for the school. The seniors had a little dance choreographed that made fun of the juniors several times. Also, they figured if the juniors thought they spent a lot of time working on a dance, they wouldn't be prepared for the game. That wasn't true because they spent all their time on the dance outside of practice. They met at school one day when there was no classes to practice even.
The bell rang and all the students filed into the gym. This was one of the few assemblies that most of the school enjoyed. A lot of the other assemblies were pretty boring, but this one happened during spirit week and a lot of people got into it. The homecoming dance and football game were also coming up at the end of the week. The highlight of the assembly was the male cheerleaders performance. The assembly went quickly and since it was fourth period afterwards, Lizzie and Miranda met Gordo for lunch.
"So are you guys nervous?" Gordo asked.
"Nope. Oh, we'll be back here at the school at 3 o'clock. The head coach ordered pizza for us all and is going to show "Remember The Titans" before the game. He figured it would be our last chance to all hang out and have fun since after the game everyone kinda goes back to their cliques," Miranda explained.
"That's one thing I love about Powder Puff," Lizzie stated," all the girls drop their prejudices against one another and get along. We unite in our need to beat the juniors."
"It's also kind of sad though," Gordo said," you guys get along so well, but then as soon as the game is over, you go back to hating eachother."
"I know, during Powder Puff, we are best friends with girls who normally can't stand us, then the game ends and so does the friendship," Miranda agreed.
"This is high school, you can't honestly expect these people to be mature enough to stay friends outside of this game," Lizzie said bluntly.
"True, these girls are pretty catty the rest of the time," Gordo laughed," they just need something to unite them."
"So, what are we doing for lunch today?" Lizzie asked.
"I don't feel like going anywhere today," Miranda said," how about just going down to the cafeteria to have Subway?"
"Works for me," Lizzie agreed," how about you Gordo?"
"I like Subway, let's get down there before the line gets really long," Gordo started heading to the cafeteria.
Once the trio had their lunches they went out into the courtyard to enjoy the sun and warm weather. Since it was October, the nice weather wasn't guaranteed to last. It never got terribly cold in the wintertime, but it got cool enough or windy enough that you didn't want to eat outside.
The rest of the school day went by quickly. Gordo dropped the girls back off at school at 3 o'clock. Then he promised to be at the stadium in time to see the game. The two girls made their way to where the rest of their team was already eating some pizza. They grabbed themselves a slice apiece and a bottled water and found a seat to watch the movie. All around the girls were talking. Everyone was sitting with their team that they'd be playing with in the game. Hardly anyone was paying attention to the movie. They all liked the movie, but they were too excited about the impending game.
With about an hour before the girls had to be on the bus, most of them found their way into the nearest girls' bathroom. Out of curiousity, Lizzie, Miranda and Kate followed them. They were all painting their faces with black and white face paint. A few girls even had red paint to put fake bloody handprints on themselves.
"Hey, maybe all of us should paint our faces the same," Lizzie suggested.
"That would look cool," Miranda said.
"Yeah, if all of us were up on the offensive line and our faces painted the same," Kate agreed.
"All right, did anyone in our group bring paint?" Miranda asked.
"I didn't think of it," Lizzie told her.
"Oh hey, Belinda, let's get all our girls together," Kate noticed their friend had some paint," then we'll go to a bathroom upstairs so there's less people around."
The girls gathered in a bathroom that was unlocked and took turns painting eachother's faces. They decided to paint their faces all white and do black circles around their eyes. They checked themselves out in the mirror and laughed.
"We look ridiculous," Lizzie laughed.
"Oh well, it's for intimidation," Kate shook her head at her own appearance.
"Hahaha, well at any rate, it looks cool that we all have the same face paint," Miranda concluded.
"Let's go downstairs and see what everyone else looks like," Belinda lead the group out of the bathroom.
Once downstairs, they saw various different styles of face paint. They all made their way back into the movie just in time for the coach to announce," Time to go load the busses!"
The bus ride to the district football stadium was short and the seniors gathered in the home locker room while the juniors went into the visitors locker room. The coaches gave a quick pep talk and then the seniors went out on the field to do their pregame warmups. When the buzzer signaled it was time to return to the locker room for their final pregame talk, the girls all ran to their locker rooms. Everyone sat around with their groups and listened to the various coaches giving their speeches. Then they waited for the announcer to introduce the senior team and they all ran out onto the field and met on the home team sidelines. The bleachers on both sides of the stadium were packed.
Lizzie and Miranda's team was up first as the senior team won the pregame coin toss. The girls had a quick huddle and then the girls into their positions waiting for Kate to hike the ball to Miranda. Once Miranda had the ball, Lizzie ran up the field, easily getting ahead of the unprepared defenders. Miranda stepped back and threw ball to Lizzie, who caught it and ran it to about the 20 yard line before finally getting caught.
Back in the huddle, everyone congratulated her," Good job Liz. That was an awesome opening play."
"Okay," Miranda said taking charge," next play, let's have Sarah here run with it. Girls keep up the awesome blocking in front. Lizzie, run with her and help block. Sarah, make sure your flag isn't going to just fall off."
Everyone did as Miranda directed and they all got on the line. Kate hiked the ball to Miranda who immediately saw the play wouldn't work and ran with the ball herself. She was able to make it to the endzone, where her team met her to celebrate quickly before heading back to the sidelines. The whole team had erupted into cheers when Miranda made the touchdown.
"Awesome opening drive girls," the head coach complimented them.
"Great job, this might be easier than we thought," another girl said to them.
"Yeah, let's just hope our defense keeps up the good work," Miranda said.
"Great move keeping the ball," Lizzie said.
"Hey, wouldn't have been in range if it wasn't for you," Kate patted Lizzie on the back.
By halftime the seniors were up 17-10. They used the break to try and calm themselves down. The coaches made quick, short pep talks and told the girls to keep up the work. Then they let the seniors do their traditional distractions. All the girls got on the adjoining wall to the junior locker room and pounded on it and shouted so it was next to impossible to hear in the junior lockerroom.
Then the girls went back onto the field to continue the game. All of the seniors were having a blast. The juniors had possession of the ball to start the second half. A girl named Michelle on the seniors' defense knew that the quarterback was going to pass the ball. She was really good at reading the plays. When the junior quarterback went back to throw the ball, she ran and intercepted the pass and started running for the endzone. The juniors were caught so offguard that no one was able to stop her in the 30 yards she had to make it to the endzone. The entire senior sideline jumped up and down to celebrate once again.
Lizzie's team had the ball in good position near the end of the fourth quarter. The seniors had a 24-17 lead now and it was pretty close. Miranda decided on another passing play because the defense they were facing was having trouble blocking on passes. She spotted Lizzie in the endzone and threw the ball to her, but it slipped out of her hands before she could get control of it.
In the huddle Miranda spoke," It's okay Lizzie, same play, that should throw them off. I'll try and make a better pass this time. Come on girls, if we do this I think we can win. Break!"
Lizzie made it untouched to the endzone again and Miranda threw the ball right to her. She caught the ball this time and they celebrated wildly. There was only about 2 minutes left in the game and the juniors would have no chance of catching up in that time. The sidelines were going wild when they returned.
"Congratulations girls! Good job Lizzie! Nice pass Miranda! Good blocking!" was heard all around.
The senior defense held the juniors at bay until the final buzzer and the seniors ran to the center of the field in celebration. They got into a circle and began chanting, "Seniors! Seniors! Seniors! Seniors!" Then they lined up to do the traditional handshake with the juniors. All along the line people were saying "good game" and "nice job" and "way to go". Then the juniors cleared the field and the seniors kneeled in a large group to have their picture taken. All the girls smiled and gave the number one sign. The coaches took pictures on all the cameras that were tossed in their direction and then they headed back to the locker room.
"Congratulations seniors!" the headcoach was grinning at his team.
"WOOHOO! Yeah!" the girls all cheered.
Once things quieted down again the head coach spoke," I'm so proud of you girls. You all played so well and you were a classy group. You didn't resort to cheating and you kept your cool when they were almost tied with us. You played a great game and I want you all to know how proud of you I am. Now get out of here and take the bus back to school!"
Back at Hillridge, families and friends were awaiting the senior team. The juniors had beat them back to the school and were mostly gone by the time the seniors arrived again. Lizzie spotted Gordo with her parents and Matt.
"Congratulations Liz!" Gordo ran to meet her.
They embraced, but didn't kiss with Lizzie's family watching," Thanks Gordo, but I'm starving!"
"Lizzie, we are so proud of you," Sam clapped his daughter on the back.
"My baby girl kicks butt at football!" Jo exclaimed, which sent Lizzie into a fit of laughter.
"Good job big sis," Matt congratulated his sister," who would have though old Lizard Breath would be a great football player."
"Hey now, don't be making fun of me," Lizzie smacked Matt playfully," and guys, I'm starving."
"Well, it's only 8:30, so why don't you and Gordo go out to eat," Sam suggested, handing his daughter a twenty dollar bill.
"Thanks Dad," Lizzie kissed her father on the cheek.
"Be home by ten since you have school tomorrow," Jo told her.
Lizzie and Gordo found Miranda who was talking to her parents.
"Hey Randa, we're gonna go out to eat, want to come with?" Lizzie invited.
"All right, is that okay with you folks?" she asked her parents.
"Sure dear, go have fun, but don't stay out too late," her father told her.
Her mother handed her some cash for dinner and the three headed for Gordo's car. They decided on a hamburger and headed for the 50s diner a few blocks from the school. Once inside, Lizzie and Miranda realized embarassingly that their faces were still painted when everyone stared at them. Lizzie dragged her best friend to the bathroom to clean up while Gordo got a table for them.
"Much better," Gordo said when they returned.
"We still have our jerseys on, but it's better than our faces being painted," Lizzie laughed.
"You kids must be from the high school," a waitress said as she got ready to take their order.
"Yep," Miranda said, then sarcastically," however could you tell?"
The waitress laughed then said," So what'll it be this evening kids?"
A/N: Like I said, this story will jump forward in time a bit, I hope you don't mind. The next chapter should be about the Homecoming Dance. I plan to write it soon, within a couple days at most. As always, thanks for reviews, they are never taken for granted. Please let me know what you think of my latest chapter. T18
Miranda spent the night at Lizzie's house the night before the Powder Puff game. That way they could get up and get ready together. They both had their jerseys and customized sweatpants ready. They had spent the previous night painting their nicknames and seniors on their black sweatpants with fabric paint. The paints were blue and a glittery gold for their school colors. The senior jerseys were blue with gold lettering and the juniors were yellow with blue lettering.
Both girls put their hair in pigtail braids and put their headscarves with the school logo on them. Then they put on their black spaghetti strap shirts with "Go Seniors!" stamped on the front. Then they put their jerseys on over it. Miranda had brought her black eye liner to put marks on their faces like real football players did to keep the lights out of their eyes during games. They checked themselves out in the mirror, and once they were satisfied, they grabbed their backpacks and purses to go and wait for their ride with Kate.
Jo McGuire was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. She had her digital camera ready to take pictures of the girls together. She had a football for them to pose with. Jo had the girls pose together, first Miranda pretended to through the football since she was the quarterback. Then she had Lizzie tuck the football under her arm and took a picture. The girls then sat with Miranda on the bottom step and Lizzie sitting right above her.
"Okay Mom, we need to leave if we aren't going to be late," Lizzie glanced at the clock.
As if he had heard her say so, Gordo rang the doorbell at that precise moment.
"See, Gordo's here," Miranda answered the door.
"Wait, a couple more pictures, please?" Jo gave her daughter the puppy dog look.
"Okay, just a few," Lizzie sighed with resignation.
"Gordo, you get into the picture with them," Jo instructed.
The three friends posed together and then ran out the door. They got to school just on time. It was a good thing they weren't late because all girls playing Powder Puff had to be in all of their classes or they couldn't play.
During third period, all the Powder Puff players were excused to meet in the large gym for the Pep Assembly. Each team was supposed to do some sort of performance for the school. The seniors had a little dance choreographed that made fun of the juniors several times. Also, they figured if the juniors thought they spent a lot of time working on a dance, they wouldn't be prepared for the game. That wasn't true because they spent all their time on the dance outside of practice. They met at school one day when there was no classes to practice even.
The bell rang and all the students filed into the gym. This was one of the few assemblies that most of the school enjoyed. A lot of the other assemblies were pretty boring, but this one happened during spirit week and a lot of people got into it. The homecoming dance and football game were also coming up at the end of the week. The highlight of the assembly was the male cheerleaders performance. The assembly went quickly and since it was fourth period afterwards, Lizzie and Miranda met Gordo for lunch.
"So are you guys nervous?" Gordo asked.
"Nope. Oh, we'll be back here at the school at 3 o'clock. The head coach ordered pizza for us all and is going to show "Remember The Titans" before the game. He figured it would be our last chance to all hang out and have fun since after the game everyone kinda goes back to their cliques," Miranda explained.
"That's one thing I love about Powder Puff," Lizzie stated," all the girls drop their prejudices against one another and get along. We unite in our need to beat the juniors."
"It's also kind of sad though," Gordo said," you guys get along so well, but then as soon as the game is over, you go back to hating eachother."
"I know, during Powder Puff, we are best friends with girls who normally can't stand us, then the game ends and so does the friendship," Miranda agreed.
"This is high school, you can't honestly expect these people to be mature enough to stay friends outside of this game," Lizzie said bluntly.
"True, these girls are pretty catty the rest of the time," Gordo laughed," they just need something to unite them."
"So, what are we doing for lunch today?" Lizzie asked.
"I don't feel like going anywhere today," Miranda said," how about just going down to the cafeteria to have Subway?"
"Works for me," Lizzie agreed," how about you Gordo?"
"I like Subway, let's get down there before the line gets really long," Gordo started heading to the cafeteria.
Once the trio had their lunches they went out into the courtyard to enjoy the sun and warm weather. Since it was October, the nice weather wasn't guaranteed to last. It never got terribly cold in the wintertime, but it got cool enough or windy enough that you didn't want to eat outside.
The rest of the school day went by quickly. Gordo dropped the girls back off at school at 3 o'clock. Then he promised to be at the stadium in time to see the game. The two girls made their way to where the rest of their team was already eating some pizza. They grabbed themselves a slice apiece and a bottled water and found a seat to watch the movie. All around the girls were talking. Everyone was sitting with their team that they'd be playing with in the game. Hardly anyone was paying attention to the movie. They all liked the movie, but they were too excited about the impending game.
With about an hour before the girls had to be on the bus, most of them found their way into the nearest girls' bathroom. Out of curiousity, Lizzie, Miranda and Kate followed them. They were all painting their faces with black and white face paint. A few girls even had red paint to put fake bloody handprints on themselves.
"Hey, maybe all of us should paint our faces the same," Lizzie suggested.
"That would look cool," Miranda said.
"Yeah, if all of us were up on the offensive line and our faces painted the same," Kate agreed.
"All right, did anyone in our group bring paint?" Miranda asked.
"I didn't think of it," Lizzie told her.
"Oh hey, Belinda, let's get all our girls together," Kate noticed their friend had some paint," then we'll go to a bathroom upstairs so there's less people around."
The girls gathered in a bathroom that was unlocked and took turns painting eachother's faces. They decided to paint their faces all white and do black circles around their eyes. They checked themselves out in the mirror and laughed.
"We look ridiculous," Lizzie laughed.
"Oh well, it's for intimidation," Kate shook her head at her own appearance.
"Hahaha, well at any rate, it looks cool that we all have the same face paint," Miranda concluded.
"Let's go downstairs and see what everyone else looks like," Belinda lead the group out of the bathroom.
Once downstairs, they saw various different styles of face paint. They all made their way back into the movie just in time for the coach to announce," Time to go load the busses!"
The bus ride to the district football stadium was short and the seniors gathered in the home locker room while the juniors went into the visitors locker room. The coaches gave a quick pep talk and then the seniors went out on the field to do their pregame warmups. When the buzzer signaled it was time to return to the locker room for their final pregame talk, the girls all ran to their locker rooms. Everyone sat around with their groups and listened to the various coaches giving their speeches. Then they waited for the announcer to introduce the senior team and they all ran out onto the field and met on the home team sidelines. The bleachers on both sides of the stadium were packed.
Lizzie and Miranda's team was up first as the senior team won the pregame coin toss. The girls had a quick huddle and then the girls into their positions waiting for Kate to hike the ball to Miranda. Once Miranda had the ball, Lizzie ran up the field, easily getting ahead of the unprepared defenders. Miranda stepped back and threw ball to Lizzie, who caught it and ran it to about the 20 yard line before finally getting caught.
Back in the huddle, everyone congratulated her," Good job Liz. That was an awesome opening play."
"Okay," Miranda said taking charge," next play, let's have Sarah here run with it. Girls keep up the awesome blocking in front. Lizzie, run with her and help block. Sarah, make sure your flag isn't going to just fall off."
Everyone did as Miranda directed and they all got on the line. Kate hiked the ball to Miranda who immediately saw the play wouldn't work and ran with the ball herself. She was able to make it to the endzone, where her team met her to celebrate quickly before heading back to the sidelines. The whole team had erupted into cheers when Miranda made the touchdown.
"Awesome opening drive girls," the head coach complimented them.
"Great job, this might be easier than we thought," another girl said to them.
"Yeah, let's just hope our defense keeps up the good work," Miranda said.
"Great move keeping the ball," Lizzie said.
"Hey, wouldn't have been in range if it wasn't for you," Kate patted Lizzie on the back.
By halftime the seniors were up 17-10. They used the break to try and calm themselves down. The coaches made quick, short pep talks and told the girls to keep up the work. Then they let the seniors do their traditional distractions. All the girls got on the adjoining wall to the junior locker room and pounded on it and shouted so it was next to impossible to hear in the junior lockerroom.
Then the girls went back onto the field to continue the game. All of the seniors were having a blast. The juniors had possession of the ball to start the second half. A girl named Michelle on the seniors' defense knew that the quarterback was going to pass the ball. She was really good at reading the plays. When the junior quarterback went back to throw the ball, she ran and intercepted the pass and started running for the endzone. The juniors were caught so offguard that no one was able to stop her in the 30 yards she had to make it to the endzone. The entire senior sideline jumped up and down to celebrate once again.
Lizzie's team had the ball in good position near the end of the fourth quarter. The seniors had a 24-17 lead now and it was pretty close. Miranda decided on another passing play because the defense they were facing was having trouble blocking on passes. She spotted Lizzie in the endzone and threw the ball to her, but it slipped out of her hands before she could get control of it.
In the huddle Miranda spoke," It's okay Lizzie, same play, that should throw them off. I'll try and make a better pass this time. Come on girls, if we do this I think we can win. Break!"
Lizzie made it untouched to the endzone again and Miranda threw the ball right to her. She caught the ball this time and they celebrated wildly. There was only about 2 minutes left in the game and the juniors would have no chance of catching up in that time. The sidelines were going wild when they returned.
"Congratulations girls! Good job Lizzie! Nice pass Miranda! Good blocking!" was heard all around.
The senior defense held the juniors at bay until the final buzzer and the seniors ran to the center of the field in celebration. They got into a circle and began chanting, "Seniors! Seniors! Seniors! Seniors!" Then they lined up to do the traditional handshake with the juniors. All along the line people were saying "good game" and "nice job" and "way to go". Then the juniors cleared the field and the seniors kneeled in a large group to have their picture taken. All the girls smiled and gave the number one sign. The coaches took pictures on all the cameras that were tossed in their direction and then they headed back to the locker room.
"Congratulations seniors!" the headcoach was grinning at his team.
"WOOHOO! Yeah!" the girls all cheered.
Once things quieted down again the head coach spoke," I'm so proud of you girls. You all played so well and you were a classy group. You didn't resort to cheating and you kept your cool when they were almost tied with us. You played a great game and I want you all to know how proud of you I am. Now get out of here and take the bus back to school!"
Back at Hillridge, families and friends were awaiting the senior team. The juniors had beat them back to the school and were mostly gone by the time the seniors arrived again. Lizzie spotted Gordo with her parents and Matt.
"Congratulations Liz!" Gordo ran to meet her.
They embraced, but didn't kiss with Lizzie's family watching," Thanks Gordo, but I'm starving!"
"Lizzie, we are so proud of you," Sam clapped his daughter on the back.
"My baby girl kicks butt at football!" Jo exclaimed, which sent Lizzie into a fit of laughter.
"Good job big sis," Matt congratulated his sister," who would have though old Lizard Breath would be a great football player."
"Hey now, don't be making fun of me," Lizzie smacked Matt playfully," and guys, I'm starving."
"Well, it's only 8:30, so why don't you and Gordo go out to eat," Sam suggested, handing his daughter a twenty dollar bill.
"Thanks Dad," Lizzie kissed her father on the cheek.
"Be home by ten since you have school tomorrow," Jo told her.
Lizzie and Gordo found Miranda who was talking to her parents.
"Hey Randa, we're gonna go out to eat, want to come with?" Lizzie invited.
"All right, is that okay with you folks?" she asked her parents.
"Sure dear, go have fun, but don't stay out too late," her father told her.
Her mother handed her some cash for dinner and the three headed for Gordo's car. They decided on a hamburger and headed for the 50s diner a few blocks from the school. Once inside, Lizzie and Miranda realized embarassingly that their faces were still painted when everyone stared at them. Lizzie dragged her best friend to the bathroom to clean up while Gordo got a table for them.
"Much better," Gordo said when they returned.
"We still have our jerseys on, but it's better than our faces being painted," Lizzie laughed.
"You kids must be from the high school," a waitress said as she got ready to take their order.
"Yep," Miranda said, then sarcastically," however could you tell?"
The waitress laughed then said," So what'll it be this evening kids?"
A/N: Like I said, this story will jump forward in time a bit, I hope you don't mind. The next chapter should be about the Homecoming Dance. I plan to write it soon, within a couple days at most. As always, thanks for reviews, they are never taken for granted. Please let me know what you think of my latest chapter. T18