A/N: Chapter Two is up. Here's a little plot twist and a good deal of Lily getting a little wild when Oliver isn't around to keep her in check. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Can you believe I forgot to put a disclaimer on Chapter 1? I'm probably going to get sued considering how often I've had close encounters with the law regarding my legal ownership of published works. Again, Hemmingway, my apologies.

Chapter 2: No Sweepstakes

It was an incredibly cold day for September. On the morning news Lily'd overheard her dad watching during breakfast, the weatherman said it'd drop as low as 50 that afternoon. 'Yeah, well, he didn't realize that it gets pretty damn windy in these bleachers,' Lily thought to herself as she shivered.

"Cold?" Harvey, standing on her right side, asked her as she jumped a bit on the metal stands.

"Clearly," Maya leaned over from her left to inform him.

"You guys should wear more clothes," Harvey advised them, having no qualms about the unnecessarily large unsightly bright orange down coat that he was wearing.

"Sorry, I have an image to keep up," Maya laughed, "Traffic cone does not fit the description."

"But blue-lipped and shivering does?" He teased.

"Shhh!" Lily called suddenly, "The second half is about to start."

The group quieted down as the Blazer team, well-dressed in maroon and white took the field, followed quickly by the yellow and black Wasps, who Lily had to admit, looked pretty intense. They played that way, too. The score was 4-3, them. Lily wasn't sure when someone had scored that fourth goal, but she leant that to the fact that she couldn't see particularly well from row MM of the stands. But it was worth being late if it meant her hair was done just a little more neatly and her clothes matched just a bit better.

Unfortunately, this meant that she was also having a little bit of a problem keeping up with the action. She couldn't tell who was who from way up there, and was straining to find the painted "24" on the back of a jersey that would indicate Oliver. Or the "3" that would tell her "worked up sweaty" Mike was down on the field, too.

Lily reached inside her maroon sweatshirt's pocket to find an empty bag of Skittles. Man, she'd eaten those fast. And having had only those since breakfast, she was feeling a headache coming on. 'I'll go get some pizza and water after the third quarter.' At least that would almost be food. It could help, she hoped.

"Can you tell who's who?" Harvey leaned to her to ask.

"Absolutely not."

"Good. I though it was just me. And they're making us do those eye tests in the nurse's office on Monday. I'm not getting glasses now."

"And you think I spend too much time on my hair? Who's the vain one now?" Lily laughed and moved her elbow to nudge Maya, hoping for someone to laugh with her, but Lily was surprised to find Maya quite occupied with Jess, who was now standing on the far side of her, near the aisle.

Lily leaned back to Harvey, "When'd he get here?"

"Dunno." He was already distracted with the game.

'Great,' Lily thought, 'I can't see what's happening, Harvey won't talk to me, Maya's occupied, I'm freezing, and I have no Skittles left.'

"Score!" called an announcer from the glass box at the top of the stands.

'I bet it's warm up there,' Lily noted duly.

"The Blazer's tie the score at 4-4 with Greg Allen, number 43, assisting Mike Bagley, number 3, with a goal." The voice boomed loudly across the field as her side of the crowd got pulled up into a wave and enthusiastic cheering.

A loud buzzer sounded to indicate the end of the quarter.

"I'm gunna get some pizza," Lily turned to Harvey and stated, "Wanna come with?"

"Too far," Harvey grumbled, pulling at the sides of his coat, perhaps because he was a bit warm.

"Suit yourself," she shrugged, racing down the metal stairs so she wouldn't miss a minute of the action she couldn't see.

At the bottom it was a few corners to turn followed by a long stretch of grey cracked pavement to cross before she reached the snack bar, so she decided to play a little game with herself. She found a crack nearest her and began to follow it, hoping that by some lucky turn of events, the path she chose would bring her right to her pizza.

She watched her feet carefully, knowing she always had to take the thickest crack so she couldn't cheat and get there too easily. She looked up to see how far she'd made it just in time to find herself face-to-face (Well, more face to chin. He was a good six inches taller than her) with a certain sexy blond-haired debate boy. Lily reminded herself not to faint, and decided instead on turning an unnatural shade of pink.

"Hey Lily," he laughed good-naturedly, looking down at her with green eyes that pierced her heart. She opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. Besides, he beat her to it. "Having fun?" He raised one eyebrow in a teasing question.

"Oh, yeah," she laughed, "Just getting some pizza. I can't see from up in my seat, so I'm keeping myself occupied down here with my own games," she joked not-so-jokingly.

"Got it. Well, you know, if you want to you could come sit down with us. We're in row R. That's probably a lot closer than wherever you're sitting" He gave her a grin that made her insides turn to gravy. 'Hold yourself together, girl,' she scolded herself.

"I might take you up on that. Who's 'us'?" She replied smoothly. 'I've got this.' She mentally patted herself on the back for her easy reply. But thoughts didn't stop there. 'Oh shit. What if it's Angela?'

"Just me and some of the debate guys. We all came from a tournament earlier today, so it was just convenient to sit together."

"Tournament, eh? How'd you guys do?" 'Damn I'm good at small talk.'

"Pretty well, I think," he stepped a little closer to avoid a group of running middle-schoolers. Lily found herself not minding, cleverly noting that he was not talking from his well-toned chest, so she should stop ogling it now that he was looking at her again. "No sweepstakes, but individually we won a few things. David took third in OI, I was fourth for LD."

'Who's David?' Lily found herself wondering, making a mental note to look up the specifics of speech and debate when she got home. She had no idea what he'd just said. "Congratulations," she smiled, shivering involuntarily.

"Thanks," he eyed her carefully, "You cold?"

"Uh," she started, blushing, "Just a bit."

He laughed. It was a beautiful laugh. Lily wondered for a moment if she'd ever heard anything better sounding. All twinkling and low and lovely. "I'll never understand why girls come out to things like this without anything warm. You know you're not proving anything by being immune to the weather," he chided, and she laughed in return. "My little sister is a competitive ice-skater, and at competitions all those girl fans are walking around the stands in t-shirts. Always gives me a good laugh."

"You're little sister figure skates? That's so sweet! I wish I had younger siblings," Lily cooed enthusiastically.

"You say that now…" he groaned, but laughed, "Naw, I'm kidding. She's a really good kid. You don't have any brothers or sisters?"

"One older brother. He's in college now, though. Studying to be an engineer," Lily found herself leaning against the brick wall of the bathroom building. She couldn't remember how she'd gotten herself all the way over there, but somehow she didn't much care.

"That's cool. Well, listen, I'll let you get back to your pizza, but if you want to, we can make some room up in the stands. Row R." He smiled.

"I just may see you up there, thanks," Lily reminded herself to add an extra scoop to that bowl of ice cream when she got home because of how well she'd done talking to a boy. Speaking of ice cream, God, was it cold. She shivered violently.

"We might even have an extra Debate jacket up there if you do." He walked away, a low chuckle rumbling under his breath.

Lily felt her knees go slack and had to catch herself before she really made a fool of herself. She'd just been invited to hang out with Will Giordano. Granted, she couldn't. It would ruin the whole appeal to take it more than just a tiny bit at a time. It would be WAY too awkward to have to go talk to him now.

She could just see it, she'd walk up and smile nervously at all the Speechies and Debaters, holding her pizza out so everyone knew she was hungry, then she'd get weird looks from every one of them until Will, who'd be conveniently the farthest from her, realized she was standing there and invited her over. Then they'd have ten minutes of game to discuss between her bites, but really, it just wasn't going to cut it. She'd see him Monday.

All this thinking got her to the front of the snack bar line without much impatience, where she happily placed her order, "One slice of pepperoni, please."

The boy behind the counter had long dark hair that was so oily it was slicked down across is forehead. Atop this was a restaurant head-set that was really too high tech for a tiny snack bar, but she figured it must be part of the look. He looked over his right shoulder, "One pepperoni."

After a moment someone replied, "All out. Just cheese."

He turned back to Lily and gave an expression that rivaled even his earlier "I'm soooo bored" look. He opened his mouth more slowly than Lily thought was possible. 'I would have to make myself move that slowly,' she thought. "We're all out of pepperoni. We only have cheese."

"Thanks," she replied sarcastically, "I know. One cheese please." She smiled happily knowing she could turn this easily into another game.

He called the new order back and returned to face her. "That will be two dollars." He held out a hand impatiently.

"Two dollars?" Lily pretended to be seriously offended. "That's ridiculous! Straight up highway robbery."

"I don't make the prices. It's two dollars or no pizza." He pulsed his hand as a reminder of the money she owed him, but Lily was nowhere ready to give it up.

"How much was the pepperoni?" She pulled her best "concerned mother arguing for the sake of her child" face and pressed on.

"Two dollars."

"Then shouldn't the cheese be less? If I were willing to give you two dollars for cheese and pepperoni, then I should get a bargain for not getting the pepperoni, besides the fact that you should be willing to help me as much as you can because I didn't get what I really wanted." She breathed sharply for the first time thus far. "At some restaurants I've gotten my meal free when I didn't get what I wanted. One dollar and fifty cents is what I'll give you."

"The price of the pizza is two dollars, ma'am." Lily loved that workers had no choice but to address their customers with "respect" and that she was now being called ma'am. "If you don't pay the two dollars, I cannot give you any pizza."

"Is there a lesser ratio of cheese to crust to sauce on the pepperoni pizza or something so the mass of the it and the cheese pizza is the same? Then it would be okay that I'm paying two dollars for both."

Lily heard a distinct foot-tapping sound behind her and decided to hurry it up. Emo-boy was glaring her down, anyway.

"Here's two dollars," she said proudly, handing over the money with fake dignity, "No change, please. I've included your tip in my price."

The cashier gave an exasperated sigh and handed over the plate of microwave-warmed square pizza whose grease had already soaked the little paper plate the put it on. Lily moved as if she were going to walk away.

"Uhm, Sir?" She asked sweetly of the cashier.

"What?"

"I'd like some water to go with this." She smiled brightly and innocently. He replied by annoyedly pointing up into the stands.

Lily decided it would be best if she just walked away. Besides, he headache was strangely absent now.

Xxx…xxX

"I can't believe you missed the whole last quarter," Oliver whined to Lily in the Stake n' Shake around the corner from the fields.

"I can't help it if the mindless kid at the register was giving me a hard time," she sighed, taking a stab at her milkshake with her straw.

"I bet that was it," Maya rolled her eyes.

"Hey," Lily waved a fork in her direction, "At least I was doing something more productive than sucking the face off of Jess Stevenson."

Maya turned fuchsia.

"Harvey," Mike tried in an attempt to distract everyone from the blossoming argument, "You're the only person I know who eats french fries with a fork. And these little tiny stringy ones, too. You're crazy."

"What can I say?" Harvey smiled proudly, "I'm a man of my own accord."

"Lily," Oliver shot her a pathetic look, ignoring the busy conversations taking place around him, "You missed my goal."

Lily's mouth opened a little, and stupidly she shut it. She'd completely forgotten to ask about the score, and that two of her best friends were helping make it. "You made a goal?" she asked, apologetically.

"Oh man!" Mike jumped in, now clearly excited, "Did he ever! Greatest thing I've ever seen. It was like the movies. Last ten seconds, we didn't think he could do it. The Wasps block him, but he turns and SCORE! Freakin won the game, Oken," Mike was happily clapping him on the back, and Oliver, who seemed to forget that Lily hadn't seen it happen, was beaming.

After the tab was paid, Lily helped herself to the front seat of Oliver's car that took her home to the tune of two best friends catching up.

A/N: Well that was certainly fun to write. I hope you're enjoying this so far. I promise in the next chapters we get to see more Lily and Oliver. I have to write this to get the point across now, though. Romance and some questionable situations to come very soon. Thanks for reading! Please review!