Julie Taylor stood paralyzed in her kitchen. Her mind was trying to process what had just happened. Had Tim Riggins really just admitted to buying her flowers and then winked at her? Had she really been wrapped in his arms, feeling his warm breath on her neck! Oh my God, she thought, OH MY GOD! She got all girly like a 16 year-old is wont to do and turned around to finish the dishes. She was doing a little dance and singing a song to herself when her mom walked in.

"Hey, honey," Tami remarked while throwing her arm around Julie's shoulder, "it looks like you have everything in here handled."

"Yeah, mom, I'm good...almost done. Did you get Gracie down OK?" Julie responded, trying to act as normal as she could when feeling normal was as far away as it was.

"I did, the little angel, thanks for asking. Your dad and Tim still battling it out in the garage?"

"I think so," Julie replied nonchalantly. She knew he was still out there, but didn't want to seem that interested to her mom.

"Alright, well I'm going to go take a bath and relax a little bit before bed, but I wanted to let you know I really appreciate you taking your punishment with such maturity. You were really nice to Tim tonight too. It was good having him back over for dinner, wasn't it?"

"Uh, yeah. It was fine." It was so much more than fine! Julie thought back to how she had maneuvered her leg closer to his under the table. She was hoping he would respond how he did and was surprised she was able to concentrate at all during the rest of the meal. She was still trying to grasp that she and Tim Riggins were flirting with each other. A grin spread across her face and she almost giggled.

"I'm just going to say good night to them and then I'm heading to the tub, alright sweetie?"

"Great, mom. Enjoy your soak. I just need to wipe down the table then I'm going to finish up some pre-calc."

Tami leaned in for a hug and kissed Julie on her forehead. "Good night, Jules."

"Night, mom."

--/--/--/--/--/

Julie was sitting at the table absentmindedly staring at the flowers, having forgotten about the homework in front of her. She snapped back to reality when she heard the door from the garage open.

"We could go best three out of five, if you're not too tired, Coach."

"No, no...you won, fair and square. I concede." Eric cried, throwing his arms up in defeat.

They both noticed Julie sitting at the table and Tim could tell she had been looking at the flowers. She saw that he looked pleased.

"Well, I should probably head on home now." Tim offered.

"Yeah, it's getting late. Get a good night's rest and I'll see you at practice tomorrow. We have a big week in front of us." Coach responded.

"Yes, sir. Thanks again for dinner and the...ah, workout." he joked.

"Night, smart ass." Coach threw back at him with a grin as he walked into the kitchen.

"Night, Julie." Tim said looking intently at her.

"Goodnight." Julie said returning his gaze then watching him turn and leave the house with a quick stride.

Julie's dad sat down next to her at the table and took a drink of his beer. He was staring at her and giving her one of his patented 'here comes a speech' looks. "You did good, honey. I'm proud of you."

Julie shot him a quizzical look and raised an eyebrow.

"No, I'm serious." He continued, "You were polite and social and cleaned up without a fuss. I appreciate you putting in the effort to make tonight a pleasant night."

"Sure, dad."

"Mom in the tub?"

"Mmhmm." Julie nodded.

"I'm going to watch some game tape, so why don't you go finish this up in your room." He gestured to her homework.

Julie gathered her books up and they said a quick goodnight. Eric picked up his beer and sat down with the remote and his notebook and turned on the TV. Julie started heading toward her room and quickly returned to the table for the vase of flowers. They were spending the night with her.

--/--/--/--/--/

Waking up the next morning Julie felt an excitement she hadn't felt in a while and the first thought that ran through her mind was Tim. This had been such a weird weekend and last night's exchange had only made it that much stranger. She hustled into the bathroom to shower before her dad got in there, she wanted to spend some extra time getting herself ready today.

Standing in front of her closet, wrapped in a towel, Julie flipped through her clothes. Nothing seemed right. She wanted him to notice her, but not notice that she'd done anything too noticeable. Ohh, this was so frustrating. She finally grabbed a cute jean skirt and a peasant top layered over a tank. She was learning how to find tops that didn't accentuate her new found fullness, but she thought now, maybe she wanted to do just that. "You're not a rally girl, Julie!" she told herself in the mirror. Seriously, what was she thinking? There had to be some mistake. Tim Riggins could not be interested in her.

--/--/--/--/--/

Julie got out of her dad's car and started walking toward the entrance of the school, her bag slung over her shoulder. She tried not to look around for him, but saw him pull into the parking lot and jump out of his truck. Julie did a quick check of her appearance and hoped she could keep it together. As he strolled up to her she felt herself go a little weak.

"Mornin', Julie."

"Hi, Tim."

They fell into an easy stride and walked into the building together. Julie could feel his arm swinging back and forth as he walked. Their fingers brushed a few times and there was some noticeable interest in this pairing by the buzz that followed them down the hall. Tim stopped where Julie's locker was and turned to her.

"See you later?"

"Yeah, for sure." She replied looking up at him. She had never wanted someone to kiss her so badly. He gave her a sly grin. This information obviously wasn't news to him.

Julie watched him stroll down the hall of Dillon High. Some of the other players went up to him and they moved on in a pack. She turned around to open her locker when she heard someone come up behind her.

"What in the hell was that?"

Julie turned to see her friend Tyra standing there with an indignant look on her face.

"What?" Julie offered lamely.

"What! Really? You're going to play that with me?" Tyra laughed. "Oh honey, you are like one of those books you always have your nose in. Totally readable."

"It was nothing. We just walked in together."

Tyra threw her head back and laughed in Julie's face. "Sure, OK. It was nothing." Calling back over her shoulder as she headed off to her class she added, "'Nothing' sure got you nice and flushed though, didn't it?"

Julie took a quick peek at herself in the mirror she had hanging up inside her locker. Great. Just great. She was blushing like a whore in church. The bell sounded and she headed off to her homeroom.

--/--/--/--/--/

Lunch mercifully came and Julie sat down with her tray across from Lois. All of this stress had her famished but she couldn't bring herself to eat anything.

"Oh my god, Julie. What's going on? I was too scared to call your house and you didn't text or email. I figured your parents murdered you and buried your body in the yard or something when you told them about everything."

Julie began to wonder if Lois was always this dramatic. "Things went better than I expected, but" She knew she wasn't ready to talk about anything related to the developments with Tim, but her best friend deserved know that they wouldn't be spending any time together outside of school in the near future. "I'm majorly grounded."

"What's that mean?" Lois inquired.

"No phone calls, no Internet, no friends over, no going out unless it's with my mom to games or something team related – gotta have a united Taylor front supporting the Panthers, right?" She offered up with an eye roll. Continuing on she added "I am only allowed to go to dance practice and then straight home. Serious restriction until further notice."

"Oh that sucks, Julie." Her friend added supportingly.

Julie's attention was diverted to the door of the cafeteria. He was standing there looking her way and Matt and Smash were standing with him. Tim directed them to a table near where Julie was sitting and positioned himself so he could look at her. They gazed at each other to the obvious amusement of those seated around them.

"Julie. Julie. Hello...Julie? What are you doing?" Lois followed her eyes and quickly whipped her head back around. "Are you kidding me!" She squealed.

Julie came back into reality and knew some attention had been drawn their way. She saw Matt looking back and forth between them and the whole time Tim just sent her a look that caused her whole body to quiver. It was those damned green eyes!

"Julie, oh my god, are you flirting with Tim Riggins?" Lois croaked.

It was fairly common knowledge that Lois thought Tim was to die for, but Julie knew there wasn't a chance in hell that would ever work so she hadn't felt guilty over her developing feelings for him.

"I don't know what we're doing. Honestly, Lo." Julie stated looking up at her friend with confusion.

"Well, he certainly seems to be interested in you. I don't think he's even blinked since sitting down."

Julie managed a weak smile at that. Glancing back up at Tim she saw he was still giving her a gentle gaze. She smiled brightly at him. She wanted him to know that his attention made her feel good and it did. While she was totally confused she was still on cloud nine.

The bell rang not long after that and they got up to dump their trays. Tim sauntered over and took hers. "Walk you to class?" He asked.

Julie turned to Lois with a stunned look on her face. Lois urged her to say something so she replied with a quick "Yeah, great."

The pair walked out of the cafeteria with the entire room watching them.

--/--/--/--/--/

Julie could not believe this was happening. Tim Riggins, THE Tim Riggins was walking her to class.

"So, uh, how are you?" She asked. She knew by trying to fill the silence her nerves were showing, but she couldn't help herself.

"I'm good, Jules. You?" He replied with a small chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm good too." She knew she was blushing all the way down to her toes. They walked a bit more in silence, but found a comfortable pace.

"Your dad filled me in on you being grounded and all."

"Really? Yeah...I'm pretty much in social Siberia." She regretted saying that the second it came out. What if he lost interest in her because dating (she wanted to date Tim Riggins!) would be impossible?

They walked up to her classroom and he leaned her against a wall. He brushed a lock of hair from her shoulder and rubbed his finger along the sleeve of her blouse. His hair was falling into his eyes and Julie felt like she was looking into the face of a Michelangelo sculpture. For the second time today the urge to kiss him was almost too much to handle.

He gave a quick glance around and smiled down at her, "I wouldn't be too worried about that."

AN: Thank you so much for reviewing this!