Alright, I'm back. Sorry it took a little long, I had a math competition last weekend. Well, I had the chapter written up on Sunday, but I was at a friend's house and couldn't post it. And yesterday I just… forgot. I'm really glad y'all liked the game, 'cause it took me forever to make up.

But because this is late, the other chapter WILL be updated by Sunday. WILL.

Yes. For the answer to all of your questions, I did make up the game. You can't waltz outside and play crunchball and not look out of place. Unless, of course, you do weird things all the time. Then I can't help you.

Summary: After she gets into the LEP, Holly cuts her hair. Each auburn lock falling to the floor makes her think about choices, and especially their consequences. What will happen after?

Disclaimer: I don't own.

Haircut (tee hee, it looks funny)

Chapter Ten (!)

After work, she headed straight towards the men's locker room, waiting outside for Trouble. Their houses were pretty close together, so normally they'd walk together to the fork in their neighborhood. But today, she'd have to stay late for the tryouts.

He emerged from the room, looking rather tired and passing right by Holly at first. Suddenly, he seemed to realize so and turned around.

He smiled at her in ways of greeting. "What is it?"

She scowled back. "Can't I just wait for you? How do you know I need to tell you something?"

"I just do." Holly would never tell anyone, but she really felt pleased that he knew so much about her.

"Well, fine. I'm going to the crunchball tryouts and won't be able to walk with you."

His face lit up. "Crunchball? You're trying out?"

"Why? Are you?" Maybe things would be better if Trouble was also on the team.

"No, of course not," he shook his head slightly, "Crunchball is way too dangerous for me, but I love to watch it. I'll stay and watch the tryouts."

Her heart sank. Now she had a feeling that she was going to make a fool of herself. "Alright then, let's go."

They made their way towards the crunchball court (yes, there was one) and Trouble talked animatedly. She half-listened and half-watched him, drinking in his appearance and habits. Lately that was happening more often.

Holly noticed he talked more with his hands then other people, moving them about to express his words. She could also tell his accent was a little more inclined towards Australian then others, and mentioned this casually.

He seemed surprised that she'd noticed. "When I was really young, our family went to Australia, in a remote region with no Mud Men, only fairies, for vacation. My mother loved it so much; we didn't leave for about thirty years. The fairies there all spoke with an Australian accent, so I picked a little of that up. I guess it never really went away."

"That's cool." She stopped, right in front of the gym doors.

Suddenly she wasn't sure this was all worth it.

Trouble looked at her inquisitively. "Aren't you going to open the doors?" When she made no indication of responding (she was too deep in her own thoughts), he opened it for her.

They were a little early, and Holly parted with Trouble to go sign up. He went over to the section of the audience seating area that was being used.

She took a gulp and signed her name on the sheet. The coach (he was a pretty old guy, grayish hair but still looking fit) looked at her strangely, probably wondering why this girl was trying out. Well, she'd show him. She'd show all of them.

Feeling a bit more determined, she took her place standing next to the other people who were trying out.

Since they didn't know what position you'd be good at, they started you out with the basics. There were tasks you'd do, and the judges would see how good you were. The tasks were throwing hard balls at targets and cracking the balls, throwing balls into moving baskets, running at full speed, dodging, tackling, and catching.

Holly wasn't pretty good at most of it, except for the catching and the tackling. She couldn't catch for anything (it was like the ball just slipped out of her hands), was too small to really tackle, but could run rather fast.

She looked around at her competitors. She only knew a few, like this one guy who looked like he was half troll. He was huge, looking about four feet tall—and had the shoulder width of Holly's height. Or at least, that's what it looked like. With his small feet, it looked like he was a walking upside-down triangle. A rather funny picture, if you weren't intimidated by the sheer humongous-ness of him.

Finally, they started to play a short scrimmage. Holly was placed as SRW, or second right winger.

The whistle blew. All three team's dunkers ran towards the ball, glaring furiously at each other. The big guy (Holly then decided to call him the Hulk) got there first and simply lifted the ball up into the air, where nobody could reach it. Holly chuckled lightly as she sidestepped over to the right goal, where she'd wait to score.

Since the Hulk wasn't on her team, she watched apprehensively as he looked for somewhere to throw the ball. Actually, he was quite smart, as big guys go. He finally decided on one of Holly's team-mate's head.

It hit with a sickening 'crack', and Holly winced. The elf slumped to the floor, and as soon as the mob was gone (chasing after the Hulk), some medics dressed in purple scurried out on the field to take the poor thing.

This went on for a while, with the score still zero-zero-zero. The coach's finally decided it'd be first score wins. Holly had actually gotten a few good shots, but the Hulk somehow always managed to get in front of the goal. And when he was in front of the goal, he blocked the whole thing and the crunched ball simply bounced off him. It didn't even leave a mark.

And suddenly, finally, the Hulk put them all out of their misery and scored. Holly trudged out of the gym, exhausted and sore. She was bleeding in several places from the crunched ball hitting her.

Trouble caught up to her, smiling. "You did great! I can't say you were the very best, since that big dude swept everyone, but you were still great!"

She smiled back, too tired to sleep. Trouble kept on talking.

"Wow, you look horrible, no offense. Let's get you to the medics."

He led her there, and when she finally came to rest outside the medic door (Trouble had to leave and there was a pretty long line, not surprisingly), her heart was beating pretty fast—from the exertion, and something else.

END OF CHAPTER TEN

Woohoo, chap ten is DONE! Hope you like it… and if you have suggestions for Recon team's names, please tell me!