Chapter 17
Eliza decides to drive down the next day, arriving just after school lets out, getting a jump on the weekend. She even surprises Ruby by being the one to pick her up from soccer practice. The teen is very excited when she notices Eliza leaning against the front bumper of the car. She drops her bags giving Eliza a big hug before jumping in the car, knowing they need to hurry if they're going to make it to Lena and Kara's on time.
Ruby talks the whole way home, about Sam and Alex, school, soccer, and especially about their first game of the season tomorrow, against the team they beat at the end of last year to win it all.
When they pull into the driveway, Ruby finally finishes her story and hurries inside to shower quickly before they have to head to family dinner. She hangs her soccer bag by the door, taking her backpack with her as she stops by the couch kissing both Sam and Alex on the head before rushing upstairs.
Eliza grins watching the interaction as she hangs her key, happy to see her daughter have the family she always dreamed of.
"I feel weird not taking anything for dinner", Eliza says, as she rounds the end of the couch to take a seat in the corner.
"Aw, Mom, don't feel bad. Lena said they've got it covered", Alex says, turning to face Eliza.
"Besides, she gets mad when you don't follow her orders", Sam jokes, nudging Alex, "remember when you brought the wrong wine".
"To be fair, I do not know wine pairings and you're the one who told me which one she was talking about", Alex says.
"I don't remember that part", Sam says, smirking.
"Convenient, that selective memory of yours", Alex laughs.
They continue talking until Ruby comes thundering down the stairs.
"You guys ready", she asks, sliding her shoes on and waiting by the door, "Come on we're gonna be late…again".
"Hold your horses kid", Alex says, as she grabs the keys off the hook, "We'll be fine".
Sam kisses the top of Ruby's head using her to steady herself as she slides on her own shoes, "It's just family dinner, I know we haven't had big ones like this before, but everyone there already loves you and Alura and Zor-El are no different… I promise", she whispers, hugging the teen before marching her out the door.
Alex and Eliza follow, climbing into the car before Alex starts it and quickly backs down the drive.
They get there only five minutes late and Alex tries to blame it on the elevator. Kara reminds her they have a private elevator and Alex smacks her, and then Eliza breaks them up while Alura smiles at the sisterly relationship, reminding her of the little quarrels she and Astra would have when they were younger.
Lena quickly shoos both sisters out of the kitchen as she finishes up with Eliza and Sam's help. The rest of the group heads into the living room, Zor-El with his nose in a book only looking up to greet Alex and Ruby as they settle on the couch, Ruby tucking herself in the corner pulling Alex down practically on top of her. Kara sits at the other end giving her mom the seat beside her dad and quickly gets a conversation going.
Eventually, Ruby eases up a little, and follows along adding in comments slowly. Alura turns to her asking about her classes, which Ruby opens up about.
Then Alura asks, "Now this game we're going to tomorrow… soccer?", she says with harsh Kryptonian like accent on the c, "I'm afraid we didn't have many sports on Krypton".
"Soccer is a pretty common game on Earth, more so in Europe and South America although they call it Futbol", Ruby replies, over pronouncing the word. "There's a lot to it but the main point is to get the ball into a big square net which sounds easy, but you have to get around all the defenders and a goalie whose only job is to block shots". Ruby really opens now explaining the basic points of the game, even Zor-El listens a little closer, eager to learn.
"And you are very good at this soccer?", Alura says, pronouncing it almost correctly, "At least that's what Kara says".
Ruby blushes at this, "Well I've been playing for a while now, so I've got the hang of it, and it helps that we have a really good team as well. There are always ten other girls out there with me, so I don't have to do it all myself", she shrugs off.
Alex nudges her, "Yeah but tell them what you figured out today", she prompts, smiling proudly.
"Since our first game is tomorrow, we had to go ahead and pick a team captain…", she starts only to be interrupted by Kara's squeal. All eyes fall on the blonde who has what would be a white knuckled grip on the pillow if that wouldn't have torn it to shreds, trying very hard not to ruin Ruby's moment. They all roll their eyes at her as Ruby continues, "Coach brought it up and I got nominated by Julia, my best friend and one of the best players on the team, and they all pretty much agreed instantly", Ruby finishes, blushing hard.
"Yayyy! Go Ruby!", Kara shouts, throwing her hands in the air, with the pillow still in them. Thankfully it bounces harmlessly off the ceiling, narrowly missing the fan and Kara shrinks back down, catching it before settling on the couch. "No one tells Lena", she says, glaring at each of them.
"No one tells me what?", Lena says, hands on her hips as she comes around the corner, eyebrow raised.
"Ruby's big news", Kara blurts quickly, "she should get to tell you herself". She rushes down the hallway, washing her hands before coming back and helping move the food to the table.
"What'd you do now?", Sam asks, knowing Kara only helps set the table rather than immediately dig in when something is wrong.
"Nothing", Kara squeaks, before clearing her throat and trying to cover, "Congrats to Ruby though, that's great".
The pride in Sam's voice as she starts to ramble takes the pressure off of Kara as they finish transporting the food and everyone sits down to eat.
Alex, Sam, Ruby and Eliza leave relatively early in order to get home and get to bed so they don't risk being late to Ruby's game in the morning. Alex loves watching her daughter play but she does not love the early Saturday morning games. "Saturdays are for sleeping", is her go to groan as Sam gently nudges her awake.
Lena retires early as well, eager to settle down and hopefully trick baby boy into settling down as well. He must have known that most of the conversation was about him as he was very active having fun kicking everyone's hands as they took their turn trying to feel him move. Lena didn't mind the close contact as much as she thought she would, although that may have had something to do with them being the people she considers family and Kara's reassuring arms around her.
Alura and Zor-El join Kara in her midnight snack/fourth dessert, tonight's special is an extra-large slice of pie with a quart of ice cream, a healthy mountain of whipped cream piled high on top and of course a red cherry, Kara enjoys showing her parents how to tie the stem, before they retire to guest room as well.
They are all up bright and early, Kara energetic as always, while Lena sips her tea, hoping to wake herself up without coffee.
"The one morning the baby doesn't wake me up", Lena grumbles into her mug, careful not to use gendered pronouns in case superhearers are listening, while Kara flits around the kitchen.
"Well at least you'll feel ok for the game", Kara says, always seeing the silver lining, "I know how exhausted you always are after a bad night's sleep made worse by waking up and having to make a run for the bathroom".
"This is true", Lena admits, feeling a little more awake and thankful that Kara always makes her feel better.
Kara sets Lena's plate of bland toast and eggs in front of her, sweetly kissing her forehead before grabbing her own plate piled high with eggs, topped with cheese and bacon bits, strips of bacon and several pieces of toast with a pile of jam on top.
Alura and Zor-El join them, eating similar portions and they have a fairly calm morning, heading out with plenty of time to arrive at the game, not that three supers could be very late.
When they arrive, Sam is clearly nervous, her knee bouncing nearly sloshing the coffee out of her cup. Alex has a gentle hand on her thigh trying to calm her but is clearly still half-asleep, face buried in her own travel mug. Eliza carefully watching warmups on Alex's other side. Kara plops down behind her sister, putting a comforting hand on each of their shoulders, "they're gonna do great and it's just the beginning of the season. Rao forbid they do lose, they can learn from it and get to play again next week, it's not like the end of the season like last year".
Both of them nod and some tension dissipates. Kara beams, proud of herself as she turns her attention to the player warming up, the clock saying 3 minutes until game time.
Lena kisses Kara's dimpled cheek as she sits close, wrapping her arm around Kara's.
Alura and Zor-El sit on Kara's other side and are eagerly trying to find Ruby. Alura quickly spots her. "There, number 10, working on dribble moves", she says proudly, remembering the correct term.
The group is very nervous and excited for the teen. They are definitely the loudest cheer section whenever a Davis High player scores or Julia makes a good play in front of their goal to prevent a score and Alex and Kara very much enjoy calling the refs blind when they fail to give fouls or cards to some of the other teams' player especially when Ruby goes down pretty hard. She gets back up fairly quickly but not before Alex jumps out her seat, pushing off Sam's calming hand and is only restrained by Kara's hold as she whispers, "look she's fine, she's ok Alex, she's not hurt". Even Eliza shows a little indignation at the refs, joining her daughters in yelling when she believes her granddaughter is hurt.
The rest of the game goes similarly, the refs doing everything they can to give the other team the game. Julia makes miraculous saves on unwarranted penalty kicks, saving every shot on goal except one that barely grazes her fingertips, almost enough to push it out but it just slips past. Ruby has an amazing 7 shots on goal, one of which goes in and has the group up on their feet cheering, even the baby is kicking in Lena's stomach.
It's a tie game going into the extra 7 minutes given by the refs and even the parents shout "Go Cards" on Ruby's count.
The girls are obviously tired but adrenaline and the chance to defend their home turf against the team who they've previously beat keeps them going.
The other team plays tight defense on Ruby barely letting her touch the ball but with 6 seconds to go, she's leading a break, their other striker running with her and only two defenders in front of them. Ruby feints towards the goal sending both defenders to try to block the kick and crosses it off her back heel to her teammates who has an easy goal on the unprotected side of the net. The goalie goes for it but misses it by a foot and the crowd erupts with the swish of the ball hitting the back of the net.
Ruby is the first to hug her teammate, but the rest of the team quickly crowds around them as they all run up in celebration. The other team slumps towards their bench in defeat. They quickly shake hands with the other team and head back to the locker to celebrate and wrap up before dismissing to their parents.
Everyone is beyond proud of Ruby when the team comes back.
"That's why you're captain, kiddo", Alex says, clapping her on the back.
"I am very glad we got to see you in such an exciting game", Alura says, giving the teen a high five.
"It was a finger biter", Zor-El says, to which Kara laughs and corrects him, "nail biter, Ukr, but close".
Julia and her mom come over to invite them to a team celebratory lunch and to congratulate Ruby on her score and assist.
"Me?", Ruby says, "Jules, without you we'd lost by 8 at least, those PKs I don't know you always know which way they're gonna go".
Julia shrugs, blushing and says, "thanks. You are coming to lunch, right? Can't celebrate without our fearless leader".
Ruby glances at Sam who nods and says, "Yep I'll be there".
"Cool", Julia says, giving her another high five before they leave.
"What time is game night?", Ruby asks not wanting to miss it or the gender reveal.
"Not until 6", Lena says, "You have plenty of time to eat and celebrate with your friends".
"Oh eat", Kara cheers, "me too. I wanna eat".
They all laugh and Lena smiles, "Of course darling you get to eat too".
Kara does a little happy dance and they all separate, Kara, Lena, Eliza, Alura and Zor-El headed to their place and Sam, Alex and Ruby head to lunch.
AN: The team's mascot I got from a shot of the front of the school off of the arrow fandom sites Davis Middle School page, assuming the middle and high have the same mascot and Ruby's soccer number, we're pretending she was able to get the same one from S3E4 where you can catch a glimpse of the back of her jersey after her goal… I had to deep dive guessing episodes and scrubbing through for that one as none of the fansites list her number.
Nonetheless, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I don't have a set number of total chapters because I don't know how many extra scenes I'm going to write but just know there are at least 7, likely much more than that.