AN: Lori is short for Loreena, sorry for any confusion! I hope you like it! I haven't had as many reviews as with my last fic

2. Tackle!

The girls ran onto the pitch, Nikki with her borrowed stick, Followed by Susie and Loreena. The rest of the team were already stood waiting for them, coach Roberts, a formidable lady with her hair scraped back into a plait which accentuated her pointy features even further. Jenny was stood next to her with a clipboard and pen in hand. She looked ready for action her blonde hair was in a practical ponytail, which was firmly clipped into place, a Hockey Jersey which had her last name on the back 'Wood', it was cut off at the sleeves so that it was a kind of tank top vest showing off her toned arms. Jenny was team captain so it was her responsibility to choose the line up for the various fixtures that had been organised; Nikki, Susie and Loreena of course always made first team.

Jen looked up from her clipboard to see her friends had joined the team, she smiled and waved at them but Coach Roberts wasn't as forgiving,

'Girls! You're late! I won't tolerate this sloppiness, 4 laps of the pitch for you, before we even start!'

Susie groaned, there was no point in protesting though so the three girls set off around the perimeter of the pitch. Pitying her friends, Jen took out her gum shield. 'Coach, do we really have time for them to run 4 laps? We should be practicing drills, I mean, we do have some important matches coming up' she said sweetly, gesturing to her clipboard of matches.

'good point Wood' the coach said 'Girls!' she barked, causing Jenny to wince. 'come back, we'll get straight into a practice matches!' Nikki, you grab the red bibs and Susie you take the green ones.

And so the girls split into two teams, Susie, Lori and Jen all on the green bib team and Nikki was on the red team, which was being captained by Cath, who took her team into a huddle to discuss tactics. Nikki rolled her eyes, they wouldn't win, not against those three and the others. Cath then made them do that thing where they all put their hands in the middle and then on three you have to shout something stupid.

The pitch was particularly muddy that day the mud was being flung everywhere as sticks clashed and studded boots churned up the soil. Susie however had made use of this and had rubbed mud on her face as a kind of war paint, She roared and the rest of her team followed suit, soon everyone was caked in mud much to Coach Roberts's disgust.

'come on girls! Tackle! Close her down!'.

Nikki's team finally has the ball, after a wonderful jab tackle by felicity who then passed it hard, square to Nikki, she ran with the ball, straight down the middle of the pitch and for a second the felt like she was invincible. She looked down at the ball still almost glued to the bottom of her stick; she looked up again and saw a blonde figure running towards her. Jenny. This stopped Nikki dead in her tracks, she wanted to carry on running but she couldn't, she watched as the flawless figure came closer and closer, flawless? Where did that come from? Nikki thought to herself, 'Get a grip Boston, you can't think about your best mate like that' Everything seemed, to be in slow motion as Nikki's eyes were fixed on Jenny, she was not in love with her best friend.. She wasn't… Nikki could hear shouts from her team mates, mostly Cath, 'Nik, I'm right here! Pass it!' she couldn't have passed the ball if she wanted to, she as good as gave it to Jen.

'Fuck sake Nikki! I was right there!' shouted Cath, throwing down her stick

'Fuck off Cath' said Nikki walking away.

'Language on the pitch!' shouted the coach before blowing her whistle 'Nikki, go and sit on the reserves bench.'

Nikki huffed, threw down the school stick and stormed off her pitch, feeling the glares of her team mates scald her skin. She plonked herself down and only half watched the rest of the match, all she could think about was that moment, trying to come up with any other explanation for it.. anything other than fancying Jenny.

The match finished and the girls trudged off the pitch carrying bibs and sticks, poor Loreena had been the unlucky enough to be the one to carry the bucket of balls back down to the store cupboard so she wandered along behind. Jen broke away from the group sauntered over to The bench where Nikki was sat, she pushed a ball along on the end of her stick as she walked. In her other hand she carried Nikki's stick that she had thrown off the pitch.

'Hey, what's up with you, you let me win that tackle on purpose'.

'Nothing' said Nikki getting up and taking her stick, 'you would have won it anyway'

Jen looked at the ground as they walked, 'its just not like you that's all'.

Nikki smiled at her friend's concern, before flicking her stick in front of Jenny's taking the ball from her, she sprinted a few hundred yards before She was caught as Jenny dived to retrieve her ball, tripping Nikki up in the process

They lay next to each other in the muddy grass just looking at each other, their chests heaving from the run until Jenny broke the silence.

'Oh so you can bloody tackle now!' she stood up and offered a hand to help Nikki up, they laughed and ran in to the showers.

AN: please let me know what you think as well as any suggestions/requests/questions..