Chapter 33: Red Right Hand

"Alright, I know you got your learner's permit with Sam and he took you driving in his car a few times this week, but if you even put a scratch on my baby," her dad paused for dramatic effect as Morgan put her sunglasses on, "it will be the last time you ever drive this car. Capiche?" Dean wasn't joking around.

"Aw, I thought I was your baby," Morgan joked, but it didn't phase her dad. "Alright fine, I promise I will not scratch your car," she told him before turning the keys in the ignition. She felt the Impala roar to life, causing her to check the rearview mirror to make sure it was angled right for her. She checked the side mirrors and glanced down at her seatbelt. Once she was sure they were ready to go, she turned on one of her dad's AC/DC CDs. Her dad seemed stressed, so she left the volume on low as she pulled out of the parking spot. She shifted into drive and pulled out of the garage, slowly and carefully. When they got out of the garage, she started to pick up the pace because she didn't want to be late. The whole time she was driving, even though her application of the breaks were a little touchy, Morgan saw out the corner of her eye that her dad was holding on for dear life. It almost made her want to laugh, but she didn't want to make her dad nervous that she was distracted, so she kept driving.

"Okay, that wasn't that bad. Props to you," Dean told his daughter as she pulled into the school's parking lot.

"Well, thank you, dad," she said with a smile. Morgan knew that he was simply saying it because she didn't scratch the car. It was 7:50 in the morning when they rolled up to her school. She did a slow but decent parking job before she got out of the car and grabbed her backpack. She was happy that the soccer team was big on using the girls locker room so she only needed to stuff some clothes for practice in her backpack.

"See you, kiddo!" Dean called to her as she walked away, backpack and coffee in hand.

"By dad!" she called back. It was one of the warmer days of April, so today Morgan was wearing a well fitted, sleeveless white button down tucked into her high waisted light wash jeans, a thin brown belt, and her white slip on vans. It was just one of those days that Morgan felt like sunshine so she wanted to look like sunshine. Her mahogany hair was perfectly straight and flowing freely down her back. Her makeup even looked kinda like sunshine with golden eyeshadow and perfect black cat eyeliner with thick mascara while her lips dawned a sort of light mauve color.

When she finally made it to the sidewalk, she saw Liam getting out of his car. She felt a smile finding its way onto her lips as Morgan changed her course from heading for the school doors, to heading for Liam. It had been a week since Liam had transferred in from California, and the two had been fast friends. She was finally looking forward to going to school again. The teenage girl finally had someone she was excited to see. She may have been best friends with Madison, but for some reason this was different. Liam noticed her walking up to him, and it was almost immediate that he shared her smile. Every time she saw that smile she went weak in the knees. Though, Morgan now had an encroaching feeling that someone was watching her, and when she looked around, she was right. Her dad was passing them in the Impala, getting a good look at the boy she was standing next to. Normally she was fine being seen next to guys by her dad because usually it was her friends, and he knew that, she knew that. But all of the sudden, Morgan was feeling extremely self conscious, and that was a rare feeling for a teenager that more often than not felt right at home in her own skin.

"Who's that?" Liam asked, looking back at her father as as the Impala drove by.

"That would be my father, what the rest of the school refers to as, one of the town marines. No one really sees them so no one really knows them so they just refer to them as the marines," Morgan laughed. Liam stopped walking for a moment. Morgan stopped with him and looked up, forest green eyes meeting electric blue.

"Your dad is a Marine?" He asked. Morgan was starting to think that Liam was afraid of her dad.

"Yeah? Why?" She asked him as they started walking again.

"That just makes him so much scarier," he told her. The two of them entered the school, Liam holding the door open for her.

"Wait, so he was scary before?" she questioned. Morgan was getting a bad feeling about the direction this conversation was taking.

"I've been meaning to tell you," Liam admitted, "So the whole week I've been here, I've been hearing some interesting things about you-"

"You've… heard about the fights I've gotten into," Morgan sighed. She almost hung her head in shame, nervous that Liam might be bothered by her rather violent freshman history.

"I figured you're dad had to be something pretty intimidating to make a daughter as badass as you," he finally told her. Morgan looked up at him, surprised at the second turn in the conversation.

"Well thanks," Morgan laughed. Though, she had a question in mind for him. "Though, if you've heard about the fights, I'm sure you heard about the more prevalent stories about me…" Morgan trailed off. Liam didn't say anything. "You know, don't you," Morgan was the first to stop walking this time.

"Yes, but I'm not going to judge you for it," He told her, but she wouldn't look at him. "Morgan." He tried to get her attention, but she still kept her head down, staring at the floor. "What's wrong with me knowing?" He asked her. Morgan shrugged, looking up from the floor to meet his eyes.

"There's nothing wrong with you knowing, everyone already knows. I just thought I had more time to be friends with you before you became like everyone else that couldn't decide between me being a murder or a pathetic girlfriend," she admitted. His confused eyes softened, most likely out of pity for the girl before her. Morgan tried not to dwell on why he was looking at her like that. In her mind, it couldn't be good. So what Liam said next shocked her, just like everything else about him.

"Morgan. I don't care what everyone else thinks about it. I'm friends with you, and your truth about something in your past, is the only truth that matters. I just think it makes you look stronger, getting hurt like that and still coming back to show them that it's true, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," he told her. She let her confusion be expressed in her face, though she would rather her confusion be visible over him knowing that he was making her really happy with what he was saying. The kind of happy where tears are involved, and she was doing her best not to cry in front of him.

"What do you mean, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger? I haven't been strong, I was a hot mess for months," Morgan inquired. Subconsciously trying to combat his statement.

"You wanna know what they also talk about? How even after what happened to you, you still broke Lainey's nose. How even after what happened, you still came to school and showed that you weren't afraid of what people were saying. You knew your truth. Did you know that the kids in our grade, even some upperclassmen, are intimidated by you? Some even scared of you. The freshman who kicks ass as a soccer goalie and even took down a girl for punching you, and you didn't even have to hit her back?" Liam was making her so emotional in that moment. Instead of letting her respond, the teenage boy just took her into his arms and gave her a proper hug, one that made her feel like she was being snuggled by a teddy bear. When he let go, she looked up at him, calming down. "Come on," he whispered, "We don't want to be late for homeroom." Liam flashed her a smile and just like that, the two of them walked off together.

It was after school. Morgan was on the soccer field, standing in the goal waiting for the next player to take a shot. One of her teammates, Chloe, who was also the captain of the cheerleading squad this year, decided to charge her instead of taking a shot from far out. Morgan copied her tactics, charging the girl as well. Morgan screamed out in a deep yet menacing voice, calling for the ball. Chloe was so distracted and somewhat scared of the sound, though not as scared as she was of Morgan, that the girl mistouched the ball just enough for Morgan to dive, her body snatching the ball and trapping it against the turf with her keeper gloves. She had knocked down Chloe in the process, the girl tripping over the ball where Morgan's hands had trapped it. She was lucky that she had the ball firmly planted, or else what would have tripped Chloe over her face and Morgan would not have been very happy if she got a cleat to the face.

"Yeah, Morgan!" She heard as she stood up, the drill resetting. Morgan looked over and saw Liam. He was with the lacrosse team on the other half of the field. The coach made an exception for him so he could join the team mid-season since he transferred in late. Morgan waved, but it almost distracted her from the next player taking their shot. Morgan decided to show off, looking Liam straight in the eyes as the girl took her shot. Without taking her eyes off her best friend, Morgan dove straight to left side of the goal, snatching the ball out of the air without even looking at it. Some of the girls on the soccer team were surprised and Morgan could see Liam's impressed expression from across the field.

She winked before trying to carry on with her practice, but then she saw Liam make eye contact with her. He winked back before charging the lacrosse goalie and making an insane backshot with went right through the space between the goalie's arm and torso, nearly grazing the pads over his ribs. The teenage boy bowed and it immediately triggered something within Morgan. Game on. It became a game of one upping each other. She'd make an impressive save, he'd make an impressive shot. It just kept going on like that until Morgan made a save that he couldn't compete with. Someone in the soccer drill tried to chip the ball over the back line of the defenders to get it directly to an open offender. Instead of the intended offender receiving the ball, Morgan intervened. She planted herself firm, just like her dad had trained her to do when fighting a bigger opponent. She made sure that her weight couldn't be used against her. The timing was perfect. Before the offender could get to her, she balled her right fist and punched straight through the soccer ball that was flying right to her. Her fist connected with the ball and the force sent the ball flying. She punched it so hard, and at just the right angle, that the ball soared straight over the girls' half of the field, right into the boys' half. The ball nailed one of the boys in the back of their lacrosse helmet.

"That's what I'm talking about!" One of the coaches, Ephraim Beard, called out, giving Morgan a thumbs up. He was starting to be her favorite coach, with was an easy choice considering he specializes in warming her and the other keepers up for playing and he trains them when the Head Coach, Neil Curran, couldn't. Morgan looked past everyone and saw Liam, laughing and giving her applause from the other side of the field. Morgan bowed once again. Checkmate.

After practice, Morgan found herself in the locker room, taking off her sweaty practice gear and stuffing it into her locker. She took her hair out of her ponytail and brushed it out, ready to go. She kept her shorts and t-shirt on, leaving her practice keeper jersey in her locker. She loved her keeper jerseys, they all had elbow pads. Morgan put on her gym shoes and grabbed her bag, ready to leave. When she stepped out, she ran into Liam, who was also on his way out. He pursed his lips together and shook his head. Morgan stifled a laugh.

"I was right earlier when I called you a badass, but i didn't know how much of a badass until i saw you at your practice today," he complimented her. Morgan rolled her eyes.

"Thanks." she tried not to blush at the compliment. "You're pretty good too. I don't normally see a lot of good lacrosse players at this school," Morgan returned the compliment, but all it did was make Liam laugh.

"I'm only good when I'm trying to show off," he explained, trying to play down what Morgan believed without a doubt was his natural ability to excel in sports. She decided to go along with it.

"Let me guess, you're starting in your next game?" She inquired, an idea already turning the gears in her head.

"How'd you know?" He raised an eyebrow. Morgan smiled.

"Well, if you only do well when you're trying to show off, how about I go to your next game?" she offered. He laughed again, making Morgan smile. She loved his laugh, as it made her want to laugh.

"That would be really nice," he told her as the two of them walked through the school doors to the parking lot. Morgan could already see her dad, and she could already see the Liam's father's car, waiting on them.

"Yeah, well, I'll see you tomorrow then," Morgan flashed him a warm smile and started walking towards her dad, who was leaning against the car with his eyes on his daughter and the boy he's barely heard a word about.

"Hey, Morgan?" He called after her. She stopped and turned back to face him.

"Yeah?" She asked, knowing she shouldn't be keeping her dad waiting. She didn't want to be the fool who stood between him and his pie down at the diner. They were picking one up to take home and eat after dinner tonight.

"After the game on friday, there's gonna be a party. Since I don't really know anyone, do you wanna come with me?" He asked. Morgan froze. She didn't really have the best track record at parties. But, it was Liam and he was right. She was the only person for miles that he really knew. It had only been a week and she was only able to get to know him so quickly because of what she theorized as the ladies in the Highschool Office trying to play matchmaker and only succeeding in making good friends. But then Morgan made a decision.

"What kind of party?" She questioned.

"Our captain is throwing a party at his house," he answered.

"Fine, but if I have to rub your back from you not being able to hold your liquor at the end of the night, I will kill you," she laughed. Liam gave her one last smile.

"See you, tomorrow," he laughed.

"See you, tomorrow."

-Author's note: Thank you to whoever has made it this far! I wanna know what you guys think about Liam so it would be helpful if you guys reviewed or PMed me so I know what you guys are thinking. Thank you again for reading, and please review :)

-redwoodoriginal