Rating: T. Well, eventually probably up to T, with some sexual content and language. This chapter is probably more like PG though.
Disclaimer: I don't actually own anything to do with Bend It Like Beckham, unfortunately. So, I'm not even going to try to claim them.
Summary: It's a story about having some fun, and the romance that starts between Jules and Jess, and how they fall for each other despite everything they have to deal with first to realize it.
Feedback: Thanks to everyone who sends feedback. I appreciate it, and it gives me incentive to write more.
Author's Note: As I said before, I'm not British. I've never gone to England either (at least until this summer) so I apologize if something sounds completely off. (Actually, I'm trying to edit some of this story, at least grammatically, so now I've officially been to England...though, I'm not promising any awesome British slang to come spilling out of me now.) Hopefully, it comes together well enough. Sorry that it took me a little while to update, but I'm working on getting these updates up as soon as I can. Anyway, enjoy.
Jess awoke to find that Jules was already up and packing her bags. "We have to leave soon." Jess sighed, and stretched before climbing out of bed as well.
"Look, Jules," she began before being interrupted by Jules herself.
"I'm hungry. I'm going to go grab some breakfast, k?" And like that, Jules was off down the hallway. Jess would have followed if it wasn't for her still wearing her pajamas, and she still had to pack all of her stuff. Half an hour later, Jess was properly packed and freshly showered. However, Jules still hadn't walked back into their room yet.
Faint laughter was heard down the hall, and soon Jules and Mel appeared in the room. So, that's what Jules was doing! She was going to avoid Jess, so that they never had to discuss Joe. Jess resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Hey Jess," Mel greeted while Jules silently got her bags.
Jess gathered her stuff as well, and headed down to the bus with them. The whole way to the airport, everyone was talking to each other. Well, except for the one girl who had fallen back asleep, and Jess and Jules who didn't seem very talkative either.
When the team reached the plane, the girls all settled into their original seats, next to their best friends. Jess, who had gotten on last, found her previous seat to be taken by Mel. Mel's original seat had been next to Joe, because she had been discussing team plans with him. Jules looked up to see the hurt in Jess's face. "I thought you might like sitting there better." Both girls bit their lip from saying what they really felt, and stuck to what they believed they were supposed to be feeling. It was 'normal' if they were to have a crush on their coach, but having a crush on another player...That would surely be balderdash.
"Hey Joe," Jess settled into her new seat, and the awkwardness still hung in the air with them too. Luckily, they were able to realize quickly that neither was going to bring up the topic of last night, not right there in front of the team. So, soon Jess was fast asleep. She didn't wake up to find anyone's head on her shoulder this time.
"Jess, Jess, wake up. We're here." Jess opened one eye sleepily and looked around. Joe was looking at her, waiting for her to get out of her seat, so that they could get off of the plane. The rest of the team was getting up too. Mel was awake and moving around happily, but Jules still looked a bit off. For a moment, Jess wondered if Jules was sleeping as badly as Jess had been.
They all scrambled off the plane, and again Jess ended up sitting alone, without Jules. In fact, Jules scrambled off the bus just as quickly, before Jess had a single moment to talk to the blonde. The brunette sighed heavily as she stepped off the bus, but quickly sobered up when she noticed her family there waiting for her.
Jess laid on her bed later looking at her poster of Beckham. Some help he was. Everything was screwed up royally. She wasn't supposed to go play football anymore, things between Joe and her were awkward, and Jules wasn't talking to her. If Jules had been with her, perhaps together they could have thought of a way around Jess being off of the team. If Jess was back on the team, she'd have a chance to talk to Joe, and make things normal again. Every girl needs her best friend, and for the first time ever, her best friend in question wasn't Tony.
Jess dashed over as soon as she could. Actually, soon was not as soon as some would think. It had been three days at home, learning to cook, and helping around the house, being a good Indian girl. Three days without Jules and without football. Three days since she had decided that Beckham wasn't helping her, and she took him off of her wall.
Jules had been miserable since she had come home from Germany. They had lost, but she would have gotten over that soon enough. Her best friend was kissing the guy that she had liked for a while. Not to mention that that guy was their football coach, very off-limits football coach. What made her feel even more miserable, was that she wasn't sure that not having Joe was the thing that was making her sad. She had gone to football practice, sure, but even there, she seemed to be a bit off in her own world where she wasn't letting anyone in, unless the person happened to be the bed that she seemed to be sleeping in all of the time now, even during the day. She never had much energy; Jules had become one to lie about and sulk in bed, then sleep some. Even her mum had noticed.
That's why when Jess arrived at the door, Mrs. Paxton greeted her very cheerily. Jess was a good Indian girl, and secretly the blonde hoped that her daughter's mate would perk her daughter right up. Immediately, Jess was allowed to go up to see Jules. "I'll bring you two up some tea in a little bit." Mrs. Paxton said graciously, but she received no answer. "Right then," and then off to the kitchen she went.
Jess wasn't really listening, she was just staring at the door that she knew led to Jules. It was three long days without her best friend. She hesitantly knocked on the door then walked in the room. "Mum, I told you I'm not hungry." Jules didn't even bother to roll over to look at the door. The only person who had been venturing into her room lately had been her mother when she was making her eat some food or drink something. Her dad tried to on the first day, but after that he let his daughter be, and he simply assumed that it was girl stuff that would be worked out all on its own.
"Hi." Jess said simply, enough to let Jules know that it was definitely not her mum in her room.
Jules opened her eyes wide and sat up immediately looking towards the girl that just walked into her room. "What are you doing here?" Simple enough question, but there were so many different ways that Jess could answer that.