Bend It Like Becker

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Chapter 3 - WARDROBE WORRIES

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The next morning Becker paused as he started to pass by Lester's office. It wasn't to take in Jess's latest frock, although its purple and lime paisley design was rather eye-catching. Instead, he paused because he could see that Jess & Lester were in the midst of a heated argument. He sighed - obviously the dress code policy was being put through after all, and her current ensemble would be the first casualty, even though this frock was at least a few centimeters longer than yesterday's "magical" skirt.

But as he watched through the plate glass window, he saw that Lester was starting to back down. Jess, however, pressed on aggressively, pointing sternly at the phone. Finally Lester threw his hands up in defeat, and Becker couldn't help but smile, confident that Jess's legs would continue to be on display every day.

Yet Jess hadn't yet budged. She was still standing there, her hands upon her hips, tapping her foot impatiently, something Becker found an amazing feat in those high heels. At last Lester rolled his eyes and picked up the receiver. Jess waited until the call was complete before she turned and exited his office, saving her satisfied grin till she was safely outside.

Becker immediately caught up with her as she strode towards the hub. "So what was that about?"

"What? Lester?" She shrugged, rolling her eyes. "Wardrobe choices."

Becker nodded - he'd guessed right.

"But it's okay," Jess continued. "His wife is bringing by his kit this afternoon, though I still don't know what he's going to do about shoes - can you believe he doesn't even own a pair of trainers?"

"Wait - what?" Becker was completely lost - she didn't seem to be discussing the dress code after all.

"Lester was planning to practice in his suit this afternoon - can you imagine?" Jess gave a frustrated sigh as she shook her head and mumbled, "I simply don't know what to do with him sometimes."

But Becker was too busy imagining Lester, dressed in his pin-striped suit and fancy Italian shoes, standing in the midst of a green lawn with a football rolling his way. Last night, when he and Jess had made plans for the practice today, Becker hadn't really thought about who would actually be doing those activities, and it suddenly occurred to him what an uphill battle they were about to face.

"At least the others are excited," Jess went on as she hopped up into her chair.

Becker raised a skeptical eyebrow, and she instantly modified her statement. "Well, at least Abby is - she's looking forward to getting more exercise. And I heard her giving Connor a pep talk this morning, promising him he needn't worry about being picked last because he's already on the team. Of course, Emily's always keen to learn new things. And Matt, I imagine, can't wait to finally get to follow your lead."

Jess couldn't even keep a straight face long enough for Becker to properly glare at her. He hated that Jess knew his one weak spot.

Well, ONE of his weak spots anyway. Clearly she wasn't aware just how distracting he found her legs or else she'd never wear such short skirts every day. Although he was slightly disappointed with how long this one seemed.

"So who'd you get for the others?" Jess was asking.

Becker really needed to stop focussing on her skirts and pay more attention when she was talking. He gave her a questioning look, and she prompted, "Other players? For the team? We need at least eleven, you know."

Becker nodded. The first thing he'd done after leaving Lester's office yesterday morning was go talk to his soldiers to find out who would be willing to play. Only one had actually played footy on a team before, outside of schoolyard scrimmages that is, but Becker had been able to recruit (or, more accurately, bribe) several other athletes who would hopefully counterbalance Lester and Connor.

"I got Duggan, Ghani, Scott, and O'Rourke. Can you believe it - out of all my men, Ghani's the only one who's played proper football and she's-"

"What, a girl?" Jess finished for him, her eyes flashing with anger as she hopped off her chair to face him. "Girls can be athletes, too, you know!"

"I was GOING to say she's Hindi, like Parminder in the film last night."

"Oh." Jess's face had turned a bright shade of red.

"Oh, but THAT's right," he couldn't help but tease. "You SLEPT through the film."

Jess rolled her eyes and walked away, making it painfully clear just how much longer this skirt really was!

...

Jess sighed as she watched the window on the monitor slowly count down the number of seconds left for the upload.

"3...2...1...0."

The window instantly closed, and Jess's fingers flew across the keyboard. Another window popped up on the screen, beginning the countdown once again.

"45...44...43..."

This was the most frustrating way possible for her to be spending the afternoon, but these upgrades needed to be done. Unfortunately, they were taking FOREVER! Each one took exactly 45 seconds, and while it was running, she couldn't do anything else on the computer. That meant she'd spent the last few hours stuck here in her chair, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for each new window to close so she could set up the next one.

And she was more impatient than usual because she'd hoped to sneak out a few minutes early to check out the park where they'd be practicing this week. However, this was going so slowly that she'd finally asked Abby and Connor to go in her stead, to look over the place and post the signs from the car park to lead the way to the practice field.

Lester had left early as well, no doubt to fortify his strength with a touch of whiskey before practice. And after their lunchtime conversation about Lester's kit, Emily had insisted that Matt take her shopping for gym clothes and trainers (and a sports bra, at Abby's suggestion). All this meant that Jess had had to endure this insufferable boredom without her friends to help distract her, and she wondered if she'd ever survive these last 10 minutes.

Of course, after that she'd still have to change into her kit before driving over to the park. If only she could change into it now, it'd save her some precious time after work.

The newest window closed, and Jess quickly launched the next upload. As she sat back in her chair to wait once again, her eye caught on the door to the server room. It was only a few feet away, in the wall behind the hub, but it blended in so well with the surrounding decor that most ARC members probably weren't even aware of its presence. Due to security precautions, only a handful of people had access to it, including Jess. As such, it suddenly occurred to her that it would make a perfect changing room! She could just nip inside after setting up each upload and change into her practice clothes at 45-second intervals. That way, the moment the uploads were complete, she could take off for the park without delay! It was perfect!

So as soon as the current window closed and she'd launched the next, Jess hopped out of her chair and ran to the locker room. She grabbed her bag and ran back to the hub. The newest window had long-since closed, so she instantly set the next upload running and then hurried over to the server room. She absently scanned her wristband and let herself inside, upending her bag to dump its contents on the floor. She kicked off her shoes and removed her tights and then ran back to the hub barefooted. However, she'd returned too early, which meant she had to stand there for over 20 seconds before she could launch the next scan.

Determined not to waste further precious time merely standing around, Jess started counting in her head: "1-1000, 2-1000, 3-1000...," as she hurried back to the server room and let herself inside. This time she pulled her shorts on underneath her frock and then sat down on the floor to put on a sock and a shoe. Her head-count reached "44-1000", so she stood and hobbled out to the hub with only the one shoe on. She was closer, but obviously she'd been counting too fast because the counter on the screen was at "9 seconds left".

After waiting to start the next upload, she set off for the server room again, determined to count slower this time. She sat down and put on her other shoe and sock. With loads of time still left, she grabbed up the shoes and tights she'd already discarded and stuffed them into her bag, hoping to save time repacking afterwards. She also yanked off her headband and pulled her hair into a high ponytail. She then went back out and was pleased to note her improvement - the counter was only at "4 seconds left" - but was determined to get it dead-on next time!

She launched the next scan and then hurried back to the room, trying to keep her counting at a speed similar to last time. She unbuttoned her frock and started to pull it over her head, but the decorative buckle at her waist caught on her security wristband. Jess struggled to unhook it, feeling quite the fool with her frock pulled up over her head, but the buckle simply wouldn't come free. Finally she removed the wristband - after all, she wouldn't need it whilst practicing - and managed to get the frock off.

Her head-count was already to 45 as she dropped her frock on the floor and reached for her t-shirt, but it wasn't there. She picked her frock back up to check underneath it, but the shirt simply wasn't on the floor. She grabbed up her bag, frantic that her count was now up to 50, and realised her shirt was at the bottom, underneath her repacked shoes and tights. By the time she emptied out the bag and got her shirt on, she'd be well over her 45 seconds, and she was determined to be on time. Besides, it was the end of the day, and no one had been in Ops for the last half hour.

"Screw it," she said as she ran out to the hub just in time to see the window flash "0 seconds left" before closing.

"Yes!" she cheered, glad that she'd done it, despite the difficulties. She set up the next upload - the last one of the day - and then hurried back to the server room to put on her shirt and collect her kit. She absently swiped her wrist against the scanner and pushed on the door, but it didn't budge. She went to try it again, but this time she realised why it wasn't working - her security wristband was no longer on her wrist but was instead now sitting on the floor of the server room! She'd locked herself out! And now she was stuck in Ops without a shirt!

As if to add insult to injury, she suddenly heard her mobile ringing from inside the server room. Jess hoped it wasn't Abby, calling to say that the field was a disaster, but with the way things were going, Jess wouldn't be surprised.

Quickly she ran through the short list of people who had access to the server room. Unfortunately, most of them had already left, which meant she had no other choice.

She hurried back to the hub and dialed Becker's mobile number from memory.

"Becker, PLEASE tell me you haven't left the ARC yet."

"No, I just got to the car park. What's up?"

"As head of security, you have access to everything, right? Even the server room?"

"Yes," Becker said warily. "What do you need, Jess?"

Without thinking, she blurted out, "I need you to come rescue me."

The connection ended abruptly, and Jess watched as the final window on the monitor finished and closed.

"Jess!" Becker called as he ran into Ops a split second later, clearly having taken the stairs three at a time to get there as quickly as possible. "What's hap...pened...?" he trailed off absently as he caught sight of Jess.

She self-consciously crossed her arms over her bra, blushing from the sheer embarrassment of it all. "I...uh...was changing in the server room, and I was trying to beat the clock, you see, so I ran out without thinking, but my wristband was still inside because it'd gotten caught on the buckle, which is purely decorative anyway, so now I'm locked out, and hardly anyone has access to the server room, and Lester and Matt and Connor are already gone, so I didn't have anyone else to call."

As she'd been blathering, Becker had calmly walked over to the server room door and, scanning his own wristband, opened the door for her.

"Thank you SO much," she said, rushing over and holding the door open with her foot. "So I'm...uh...yeah, I'm just gonna, you know, put my shirt on now, and then I'll meet you at the field in a few, okay?" she said awkwardly as she let the door shut.

She immediately put her wristband back on before pulling her red shirt out of her bag, realising the colour would coordinate nicely with her flushed face!

...

to be continued