As Lydia had previously stated, the new girl was very cute. Pretty, in fact. She had dark hair and eyes which seemed to draw you in, practically screaming innocence which only added to her feminine appeal. However, even though the jacket was admittedly nice, Lydia had not been joking about the lacking in sense of style. We will definitely have to work on that. Having both eyed up the new girl for a minute or so, Lydia and I both walked up to her, smiling warmly in order to appear friendly. "That jacket is absolutely killer. Where'd you get it?"
"My mom was a buyer for a boutique back in San Francisco." Oh? So her mom was the secret behind the jacket, I like it. This was turning out to be a golden find. The new girl was pretty, clearly came from money and had access to high end fashion. She was totally coming with us.
"No kidding, it's super cute, I would totally wear something like that." I mused as I swept my eyes up and down the new girl, Allison, as I had learned. "You're new here, right? I'm Cordy and this is Lydia." Just as I had introduced us both, Jackson himself seemed to materialise out of thin air as if sensing that we were up to something. He went straight to Lydia who greeted him in her usual manner. Again I rolled my eyes. I couldn't help it, it was almost a reflex action by this point, though I warmed to the new girl a little when she gave me a shy and slightly awkward smile. Ah, she's adorable.
"So, this weekend, there's a party." Lydia informed Allison, clearly intending to keep the new girl close so that she didn't fall into any other cliques other than ours.
"A party?"
"Yeah, Friday night. You should come." Jackson agreed, shooting me a smirk beforehand whilst he knowingly got closer to Lydia just to try and test my nerves and irritate me. What a moron, I hope he gets a ball to face later, or somewhere worse.
"I can't. It's family night this Friday but thanks for asking."
"You sure? Everyone's going after the scrimmage." Frowning a little at the unfamiliar term, Allison asked if Jackson was talking about football, however the insinuation that the great and oh-so-mighty Jackson would stoop to playing such a supposedly unmanly sport such as football caused him to grimace in distaste. "Football's a joke in Beacon. The sport here is lacrosse. We've won the state championship for the past three years." Yeah, because lacrosse is so manly. Jeez.
"Because of a certain team captain." Lydia reminded, stroking her boyfriend's hair as he smiled at her briefly before turning back to Allison, inviting her to practice. She began to protest, however once Lydia has an idea in her head, there's no stopping her so she quickly grasped hold of the new girl's wrist and began to pull her along after us as we led the way. "Perfect, you're coming."
"Don't fight it, just accept your fate." I teased her with a grin, pushing on Allison's shoulders so that she really had no choice but to come with us. Jackson soon split off from us in order to get changed for practice, so Lydia and I took charge of Allison, taking her to the stands where we could sit and watch practice. Sitting either side of Allison I turned up the collar of my coat so that it covered the back of my neck, pulling into a lose ponytail at the nape of my neck as the wind began to catch on it. I had little interest in the game lacrosse and even less interest in try-outs or practice, so soon enough I was completely zoned out and thinking about what outfit I was going to wear Friday.
"Who is that?" It was only when Allison asked a question that I instinctively drew myself back into the conversation, not wanting to miss out. She had gestured towards the guy who had taken up position in goal, though from where we were sitting and due to the fact he was wearing a helmet and face guard, I couldn't make out who it was.
"Him? I'm not sure who he is. Why?"
"He's in my English class." Had Allison already decided on a guy that she liked? Wow, the girl sure moved fast. First up was of course Jackson, sweeping up the ball and shooting it towards the goal like a pro, however the guy protecting the goal seemed to be having a fit of some kind, grasping hold of his ears as if they were burning or something. What the heck is his problem? It was when Jackson called out a taunt to the kid after his shot smacked him in the face that I knew who he was. Scott McCall, just a nobody.
"His name is Scott McCall. He's been playing lacrosse since last year but has never actually played a game. He's always on the bench so he's no good." I informed Allison helpfully, making her blink at me in surprise before asking how I knew all that. "I make it my business to know things, and people, and things about people." I gave her an almost sinister smile. "I know pretty much everyone in school." When we heard a sudden cheer rise up from the crowds, we looked to see that McCall had actually managed to catch the next ball that had been thrown at him. Huh. A lucky catch.
That luck seemed to extend, however, since he caught the next one, and the next one and the one after that. What is going on here? "He seems like he's pretty good." Allison mused with a slight suggestion that I had been wrong. I sat up a little straighter, now taking full interest in the practice before me, watching carefully as McCall caught one impossible shot after the next.
"I stand corrected." I admitted graciously, lacing my gloved fingers together in order to devote my full attention. Seeing that someone else was beginning to demonstrate impressive lacrosse skills, Jackson got himself all worked up, cutting the line in order to take another shot at McCall and ruin his streak. I smirked to myself. Now I didn't exactly dislike Jackson, but the two of us seemed to have a friendly rivalry going on so I didn't mind the thought of him getting humiliated by some benched loser like McCall who suddenly seemed like a total pro. Where had all that come from? I simply have to find out.
Jackson lined up his shot then tore down the field, running with increased speed and power in order to launch the ball at the goal but to no avail. McCall caught the ball at the last possible second, earning a raucous cheer from the onlookers. Not bad. Not bad at all. Looks like Jackson's going to have to work harder to maintain his position as star player if McCall continues in this manner. I noticed that Lydia was on her feet, cheering for the previously unnoticed loser with added enthusiasm, not seeming to care that her current boyfriend was looking at her. If anything, she seemed to enjoy the fact that she made him jealous.
After practice was over, I couldn't help but pull Lydia aside for a moment, looking to her then gesturing towards the field. "Um…what was that?"
"What was what?" She returned in all innocence, arching her eyebrow at me but I merely laughed.
"Okay Lydia, you know it's useless trying to play coy with me. I saw you just now. All of a sudden you're cheering for this kid who's name you don't even know and shooting looks over at Jackson? Is something going on between you two?"
"No, not at all. It's just fun to keep them guessing sometimes, don't you think?" Now I knew Lydia well and sometimes, when she played dumb it annoyed me because she was anything but dumb. In fact, I would even venture to say she was the smartest person in school. She just preferred to hide it because it didn't work with her popular image.
"Well…okay, but if something was wrong you'd tell me, right?" For a hate love relationship, I really did care about Lydia. No one knew her like I did, knew what she went through when her parents got their divorce. It was me who had helped her get through it all, covered up the fact she would cry in the girl's bathroom by keeping the dryers going so that no one would hear her, stay with her all night to keep her company when she felt lonely and didn't want to call Jackson, would rush over to her house even in the early hours of the morning if her parents were fighting. It had been me beside her since childhood, and when it comes down to it, Lydia Martin was someone I would not tolerate anyone upsetting. Especially not that asshole Jackson.
"Of course I would, but honestly there's nothing wrong. I'm just…playing the field." She returned rather smartly, dipping her hips before turning and sauntering away with Allison in tow, lacing her arm through hers in order to talk. Well, if she says she's fine then I guess that's that. Better get started on helping her plan that party Friday. My god, I can't wait for it.