Sorry it took me a while to update guys. Life's back to being busy with job hunting, writing my own book and cosplaying, not to mention having writers block, but I finally got this chapter finished. Plus side is that I actually wrote the chapter the comes after this and started writing the chapter after that before I finished this one, so I will be posting the next chapter in a day or two once I go through it. It's funny how I knew exactly what I wanted to write in the next two chapters, but this one was a big pain in my ass.
Still, I hope you guys enjoy it and I'll make up for how short it is in the next chapter.
Christine's Pov
Tonight was the homecoming game, which meant that Chase, Darius, Ford and Michael were pumped, along with the rest of the football team of course. It also meant that it was the cheerleading teams first big event. I was really looking forward to it, though I had to help out around the house first. Right now I was outside, handing the clothes on the clothes line – we had a dryer but why use it when it's a beautiful day. Gretzky was lying at my feet, his head resting on his paws – he was such a well-trained dog. He never jumped on people, he slept inside in a basket but spent most of his time outside through the day because he loved the outside. He wasn't as energetic as he used to be, but considering I was six when Dad brought him home and I was now sixteen so he was getting pretty old.
"Come on boy, let's get inside." I said as I finished hanging the washing and I headed inside, Gretzky following after me. I went in the back door and into the laundry, placing the basket down before patting Gretzky on the back before he padded off to his basket.
"Come on Christine, we should get to your school." Dad said from the front door and I walked there, seeing that both my parents were already ready to go. I had gotten ready before I hung up the washing.
"Dad, it's a bit weird that you're more amped about the homecoming game than the team is." I said, though I really shouldn't be considering my dad is an avid football fan. Actually, more like sports fan – he loved more than football, he enjoyed hockey, basketball and baseball too. "Still, I'm surprised you're coming Mom."
"I find it important that I support you in things you care about, and support your school. I know I didn't attend many football games last year, but I want to try to understand why school sports are so important to you, though I'm sure it's for the same reason Booth does. I'm also going to be there to cheer you on next week at your first game." Mom said and I had to smile. Well, considering her previous attitude to sports and Dad's obsession with them, this was progress.
"I'm glad Mom, but we better go because I don't want to miss the start of the game." I said, because I had four friends involved with this game and my boyfriend.
X
By the time we got to my school, parked and got to the football field it was already getting pretty packed. We managed to find Angela, Hodgins and Katherine in the crowd and I was quite happy that my mother was keeping her promise so far – I had made her promise that she would leave the science speak at home and just enjoy the game like any other parent.
"Hey, it took you guys long enough. The game is about to start." Angela said and I just shook my head as I sat down beside Katherine.
"Do you think Michael's team will win?" Katherine asked me and I shrugged.
"Well, they won against this team last year, but neither team has all the same players. I know they're going to try their hardest to win, considering the demon coach is breathing down their necks." I said, because I knew that those boys were not going down without a fight.
"Demon coach?" Mom asked and I looked at her, smiling.
"Yeah, that's what everyone at this school calls coach Jackman. He's a real hard ass when it comes to football, and I mean that. He's been worse lately though and no one can work out why." I explained, though I didn't add that he was as focused on football as she was on her work.
"Worse how?" Dad asked and I shrugged.
"He gets more aggravated when any of the guys screw up in training and has been really putting a lot of crap on the new guys on the team. He wants this to be his fifth championship his team has won, but he's pissing all the guys off." I explained since Dad obviously wanted to know. There was something really off with the coach's behavior, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was. I knew it had to be something more than something wrong in his personal life, but I didn't know what.
"Explain this later, there getting ready to start the game." Hodgins said and all I could do was shrug, before looking out at the field. I'd much rather watch my boyfriend play a sport he loved then talk about stuff like this.
X
(A/N Okay, so I've never seen an American football game and football here in Australia is different so I'm not going to write the whole match. I'm basically skipping to the end of it because writing a whole football match honestly is too much work and would bore me, and this chapter has taken long enough to write already.)
The game was coming to a close and I will admit it was a close game and had been the entire game. Right now, our team was in the lead, but with thirty seconds left on the clock they had to prevent the other team from getting a touchdown in order to stay in the lead. The field was filled with cheering from both sides, but even over all the cheering you could still hear the cheerleaders. I'll give it to Kate; she took being the captain of our school's cheer squad very seriously and always made our school stand out in a good way.
The game unfortunately hadn't been injury free for our team. Chase had been taken down by, well for a teenager he was pretty muscular, a guy from the other team and had to be taken off the field, which pissed off coach Jackman a lot even though this wasn't the first time someone had gotten hurt playing football. It had made Angela wince though – she was never perfectly okay with Michael playing this sport because he could get hurt and had been hurt before.
I watched as our team huddled together and planned their play. They broke apart and lined up across from the other team. It started and I watched it all unfold. There was a lot of chaos for a while, but finally I saw Darius get the ball and he threw it across the field, where Ford caught it and practically sprinted across the line, getting another touchdown right before time was up. The crowd started cheering and clapping and I joined in as the boys celebrated winning their first game.
I got out of my seat and ran down the bleaches to go join my boyfriend after some time had passed and the other team had moved away. I ran over to him and he turned around just as I reached him, catching me in his arms.
"So, you won again. You and this team are amazing." I smiled and he grinned.
"You know me, football is one of the sports I'm good at and happen the love." He answered as he placed me down. "Were you impressed?"
"Very, though more that you didn't get hurt at all this time from what I saw." I said and he chuckled as he scratched the back of his head.
"Yeah, I did get hurt a lot last season. Mom nearly killed me." He said and I couldn't help but laugh.
"Hey Christine, what did you think of our routine?" Kate asked me as she came over with Darius' arm over her shoulder. Many called them the cliché couple because he was the quarterback and she was head cheerleader, but they were not cliché at all if you asked me.
"You were amazing Kate and the routine was perfect." I said and she beamed with pride.
"So, does it change your mind about cheerleading?" She asked and I sighed. Kate had always wanted me to become a cheerleader and be on the squad with her, but while I could easily do it I didn't want to be a cheerleader.
"I have nothing against cheerleading, I just don't want to be one." I shrugged, since it was that simple.
"Well you girls continue this fun conversation, Michael and I should go get out of these clothes." Darius suggested as he grabbed Michael around the shoulders now and led him away.
X Monday
It was now my first time to lead a team into a game and I'll admit I was a little nervous about it. I had been on a sports team before, but not in the captain capacity. I pulled my hair up into a small ponytail before pinning my fringe back so it didn't get in my way during the match. I then sat down and tied up my cleats.
Despite being nervous, I was actually looking forward to getting out there and playing. I didn't think that getting too serious was a good thing in any sport, I wanted to have fun while obviously trying win. Watching the guys win in football had made me excited to finally be playing a sport again, even though Chase's shoulder ended up being dislocated and I really didn't want that to happen to anyone on my team, though it shouldn't since soccer was not a contact sport.
"Hey Christine, coach is calling us together." Danika said and I nodded as I stood up, following her.
Michael's Pov
It was kinda funny that for the first-time Christine and I had switched positions. I was now on the bleachers, waiting to cheer her on as she went against a soccer team from another school. Normally it was her cheering me on in all my games, but for the first time I could cheer her on. Christine was honestly pretty good at soccer thanks to playing it before and playing with Parker, which was probably one of the reasons she became team captain so quickly and easily. The girls' soccer team hadn't won a championship in the last six years, so it would be impressive if they even got to the finals this year.
"Seems we got here in time." Booth said as he sat down beside me, Brennan right beside him, and I nodded.
"Yeah, but only just." I said as the girls came out onto the field.
After a moment the girls got into the positions on the field and I was kinda impressed by how focused yet calm Christine was.
The ref blew the whistle and I watched as the game started.
X
As I watched the game get closer to a close, I was trying to work out which sport was harder – I was coming to the conclusion that soccer might be. In soccer, you couldn't touch the ball with your hands, if you did the other team got the ball. Physical contact wasn't allowed, if it happened the other team got the ball. It was hard to kick the ball directly into the goal, because if you didn't get it in it was either because you missed or the goalie deflected the ball. Football could be dangerous, that was a main point of the sport, but soccer definitely took a lot to be good at.
So far the teams were tied in goals as it was 2-2, which wasn't a good thing considering the opposing team currently had the ball and Christine's team was struggling to get the ball back. Christine had been doing great, but this was their first game as a team and they were obviously still adjusting.
A girl on the other team kicked the ball, but thankfully our school's goalie caught the ball in-between her hands, landing on the ground with it in her hands since she jumped to get it.
"What an amazing catch!" Booth said and I had to agree with him.
The girl tossed the ball out, since she could obviously touch the ball, and Christine took control of it, keeping it close to her feet as she ran towards the other team's goal. A girl tried to get the ball off her, but Christine did a quick spin and dodged her, keeping the ball.
"Go Christine." Booth cheered.
"That was quite impressive." Brennan said as she watched.
Christine kicked the ball over to another girl, who was the vice-captain Danika if I was right, when she ran into two girls and Danika kept moving with it as Christine got past the girls. She kicked the ball back to Christine as got closer to the goal and Christine kicked it straight past the goalie and into the goal, causing everyone to cheer, including her team. Damn was Chris good at this, she had gotten two out of the three goals the team had gotten.
After a small celebration, the trading of the ball began, but considering there were only twenty seconds left it was more like a game of keep away from the other team, giving the win the Christine's team. Everyone started cheering, including Brennan, as the girls who won started celebrating. They seemed really happy the they'd been able to win.
Things passed quickly after that, Christine shook hands with the captain of the other team and they traded pleasant words from the looks of it, coach Haven congratulated them on their win and both teams shook hands with each other. Now I was waiting with Booth and Brennan for Christine to come out.
She ran out of the school, still in her soccer uniform with her bag over her shoulder, and ran over to us.
"Hey, thank you for waiting. I know you two need to get back to work." Christine said and Booth just chuckled, ruffling her hair, which made her give him an unimpressed looked.
"Works important, but I wasn't leaving before I congratulated my daughter on winning her first game." Booth said and Christine smiled.
"Thanks. It was close for a while there, but we managed to win." Christine said and I saw a smile cross Brennan's face.
"You were amazing Christine. Your team would have lost if it wasn't for you." Brennan said and Christine blushed a little as she shrugged.
"Well, I've always been good at soccer and I'm the team captain. I'm kinda supposed to try my best." She said simply as she let her hair down and I smiled, wrapping my arm around her shoulders.
"Well, why don't we go get something to eat? You can't tell my you're not hungry." I said and she smiled.
"Honestly, I'm really hungry, funnily enough for something fattening." Christine said and I tried not to laugh. Soccer and junk food, not a normal combination but considering we were both so fit it didn't matter.
"So, I'm assuming that means McDonalds?" I asked and she nodded. "I can handle that."
"Well we'll leave you two to that, we have to get back to work." Booth said easily.
"We'll be home after dinner, so just make something for yourself." Brennan said and Christine nodded.
Her parent's left and I took Christine with me considering my girlfriend wanted to eat. I doubted she'd have to worry about cooking tonight, because Christine wasn't shy about her appetite. She ate what she wanted and didn't let anyone tell her she couldn't.
