The Jock and The Bookworm

(Alternative Title: High School Sweethearts Not)

The whistle blew, and Yang smirked, knowing she was about to destroy the opponent's team.

Her teammate threw her the ball, and she caught it effortlessly. She ran, and she dodged, and she taunted others to try and tackle her. She enjoyed the look on everyone's faces. They knew they would never defeat their opponents, not while she was one of those opponents, yet they still tried anyway. For what reason? Yang neither cared nor knew. Perhaps they did it out of humiliation and pride.

As Yang neared her destination, she made sure to look at the audience, spot a certain beautiful girl named Blake, and wink.

Yang didn't need to keep on looking to know Blake's response was to roll her eyes and subtly smirk.

Hell yeah.

Yang won, to no one's surprise. Some boys cheered through their helmets while others glowered in jealousy. All of the ladies, of course, were as supportive as ever - running down the steps to surround her, touch her, subtly ask her to make out with them, and all the other shenanigans.

Man, it felt good to be Beacon's most popular football player.

Everything was great.

Well, the coach did try to pull her aside and tell her not to be cocky or whatever, but what did he care? Yang laughed and waved him off and returned to soak in her fanclub's admiration of her.

"Yang, you were so great!"

"Amazing as usual, Xiao-Long!"

"You should come to my place, Yang!"

"No way! Come to mine!"

"I really need your help with this math homework, Yang!"

Ah, it was fun being popular.

Not even Blake glaring at her fangirls and shooing them away was enough to rain on her parade. Yang was sure nothing could rain on her parade.

With an unamused stare, Blake dragged Yang to a more private place, which was the shower stall. All players were supposed to regroup and have a little cool down after the match, but those players weren't her. She wouldn't get in trouble for it, too. She was the star-athlete. They wouldn't dare piss her off.

Yang chuckled. "What's wrong, kitty?"

Blake blushed at the nickname, but shook her head. "Your dad's been calling me."

Yang took it back; something could (and did) rain on her parade.

Blake looked at her, expecting her to give some sort of response. But Yang had nothing to say. She stripped out of her soaked clothes, leaving her with only her bra, and caught the blush that rose to Blake's cheeks.

On other circumstances, Yang would've laughed and teased her for it. Instead, she said, "I just don't get him. I thought I'd made it clear I want nothing to do with him and his wife."

Summer Rose was her name. Easygoing, bubbly, kind eyes and kinder smile were her game.

"Yang, they're going to drive their baby home soon." Blake put her hand on Yang's shoulder. Yang wanted to shrug it off, but didn't have the energy to. Blake was her best friend, and Yang ought to listen to her. "You have a sibling now. You're a big sister."

Yang winced. "Yeah, and by the time that baby'll start using his brain, Big Sister Yang be off to college, away from this shitty life."

A small pause, then- "She."

Yang snapped her gaze towards Blake. "Huh?"

"The baby. It's a she."

Yang's throat bobbed. She wanted to retort Blake's words with something witty and sharp, but one look at Blake and all words seized and died. She was only looking out for Yang. No need to take it out on her.

"Yeah. Okay."

A sister. A brother. What difference would it make? Yang wanted to stop thinking about it, to stop thinking period and try to enjoy the chaos that was high school, but the hand on her shoulder tightening its grip forced Yang to look at Blake again.

"I know you hate her, Yang-"

"I don't hate her." That was overkill.

"But you should be there for your father, at least."

"Why? It's not like he was ever there for me." Anger flared, and despite not wanting to antagonise Blake, Yang glared at her. "He kept comparing me to her, the bastard who gave birth to me then left, and all I heard from him was how great she was and how much he missed her. And suddenly he's marrying another chick, and now they're having a kid together."

Her voice echoed through the hollow walls. Yang could hear the faint buzzing outside of everyone talking and laughing, which cued in that they were done.

Blake noticed too, which was why she stared ahead, looked back at Yang, gave her a smile that told Yang all was forgiven, and left.

Man, Yang was super lucky to have her.

Yang took long in the shower. Normally, she'd enjoy it, but she found herself thinking anxiously. Should she come and visit the hospital, just to see her brand new baby sister? Would it be worth enduring Tai's attempts to get her to love him back again and Summer's pitying looks.

They'd created a new family for themselves, and that was fine by her. What was not fine was the way they kept pretending she was still part of that family. She wasn't. She knew it. Blake knew it. They knew it. Everyone in Vale knew it.

Yang shrugged off her thoughts. Today was all about celebrating. She'd won another match against Shade Academy. Blake and she had planned to have a girl's day out together to do girly things like going to the mall, maybe watch a movie at the local theatre, all that fun stuff. She should be happy.

It took Yang 20 minutes to finish getting ready to spend the day. She walked out of the school and sighed when the autumn breeze greeted her, warm but strong.

Blake was there, twirling Bumblebee's key in her hand, looking at her with that expectant look in her eyes.

There was something about Blake. Something she'd begun to notice, recently, that she was surprised she hadn't noticed before. She'd known Blake for years, and Blake was her closest and realest friend, but recently, she'd been giving butterflies to Yang's stomach with only a look and a smile and a hug-

"Hi."

-like right now. The worst part was that Blake never realised it. "Good evening, M'lady." Yang placed a hand behind her, another on her chest, and bowed. "May I have the pleasure of taking my keys from you so I shall partake and embark on a journey with you towards the mall?"

Yang worried, for a moment, that she might've taken things too far, might've been a little too flirty for it to be casual, but when Blake chuckled sardonically and said, "Sure. Why not?", she knew she'd done herself right.

Yang straightened herself and was about to continue playing the prince/knight from the medieval times when her phone buzzed loudly. She rolled her eyes, turned it on, only to pale.

"Yang? Yang, what's wrong?"

"It's… an emergency call."

Yang looked up at Blake, and found her pale as well. Yang opened her mouth, closed it.

Yang put the phone on her ear.

Yang dropped her phone.

Yang ran.

Yang didn't stop running until she arrived at the hospital.

I'm not sorry.