Playing For Love

by Dana Burkey

  At lunch, it was nice to catch up with my friends and fill them in on everything. Since next weekend is the dance, we started planning a shopping trip this weekend. Taylor said she went to the mall and scoped out a few places where we can look for dresses. I don’t know for sure what kind of dress I want, but I am working on figuring it out.

  “Do you think I could pull off strapless?” I asked, looking through the magazines Taylor had with her again.

  “Maybe,” she said slowly. “You can try on a few and then we'll know for sure.”

  “Or we can get you a padded bra,” Corra offered.

  I knew my face must have turned bright red, even though she was right. I have always been pretty flat chested, so dresses that showed off that area of my body were not likely to look great on me. And I guess it’s not a big deal really. But it feels like I need to do anything I can to get Jordan’s attention at the dance. Sure, I don’t need to wear something super revealing, but at the same time I want to make sure he sees me as more than a sister type.

  We talked about dresses a little more, then decided that we should go Saturday morning. We also decided we should have a slumber party the night before after we go to the football game. Taylor was the one who suggested the game, and after how much school spirit I seem to have thanks to the soccer team I figured it'd be a good idea! So, we planed to go to the game, then stay at Beth’s house, and then after that go dress shopping Saturday morning. Well, that was the plan at least, until I went to leave school.

  “Fiona!” someone called out to me as I was about to get into Ross’s car. I stopped and turned around in time to see Skyler jogging towards us. “Did Torri tell you about the game?”

  “Uh, I don’t think so,” I said after a second. “I haven’t seen her all day.”

  “Good thing I caught you,” she said with a laugh. “A bunch of girls on varsity and JV are going to go to the football game tomorrow and we're all going to wear our new shirts. Coach said they get in tomorrow morning so we should we can wear them and cheer for the guys and everything. And I can give you a ride to the game if you need one.”

  “We were already all planning to go so that works perfect,” Ross jumped in before I could respond.

  “Perfect,” Skyler said with a massive grin. “I’ll see you tomorrow then!”

  With that she was gone and I was left to climb into the car a little shocked and confused. Ross and I hadn't talked about going to the game at all, so it was a little weird when he announced we'd already been planning on going. Once he started driving out of the parking lot I decided to ask him what this “plan” was all about.

  “So, we're going to the game?” I asked, leaning forward in my seat so Ross would hear me over the music coming from the radio.

  “Jordan and I are, and I was going to offer to take you too if you wanted, but Skyler kind of beat me to it,” he said casually after turning down the music. “You’re okay with going with us, right?”

  “Of course,” I said quickly, not wanting to miss the chance to spend more time with Jordan. “It’s just that I was planning on going with Corra and Beth and Taylor.”

  “Oh,” he said flatly. The math was easy enough for everyone to see there was not enough room in his car for all of us.

  “I can see if my mom will let me borrow her van,” Jordan offered, turning in his seat to face both of us as Ross pulled to a stop at the exit to the school parking lot.

  “Perfect.” Ross grinned. “Then we’ll have room everyone!”

  And with that, our plans officially changed! Ii was kind of shocking that Jordan was willing to drive his mom's mini van! I’ve heard him make comments about how much he hated driving the thing last season during basketball, so the fact that he was willing to actually be seen at a school function it in was pretty amazing. And then, on top of it, he was willing to drive it so he would have room for all of my friends to fit in the car! I was so floored by it all that I didn’t know what to say! Instead I started a group text to update everyone right away.

  After some initial scrambling, everyone decided it would work out great. The girls would all come to my house to get ready after school and then we could all eat dinner before it was time to go to the game. Later, since we'd all be dropped off at my house after the game, we would stay at my place for the night before dress shopping. So, all in all it wasn't a lot of changes, but pretty exciting ones all the same. This means that I get to hang out with Jordan during the whole game, and more than likely before the game since Ross mentioned we should order pizza and stuff for dinner so I think Jordan will come over for that too! I'm so excited already! Now I just have to get through school tomorrow, and I’ll finally have a chance to impress Jordan again!

  SEPTEMBER 19TH-FRIDAY

  This morning I woke up and put my school uniform on, including a new grey cardigan since it’s a little colder today, and started in on my hair and makeup. I knew I'd have time to touch things up before the game, but did my best to put on nice makeup and actually curl my hair with a wand. I used what felt like half a can of hairspray so it won’t all look like a total mess, and in the end it looked pretty cute! And clearly Jordan thought so since he totally did a double take when he got in the car this morning! I’m pretty sure my face turned bright red as a result of it, but thankfully he was sitting down facing forward by that point so it was okay I guess.

  The morning was pretty normal and boring. But then I got to lunch and Skyler stopped by our table to give me my shirt. It has a big white polar bear on the front striking this awesome pose with its hands on its hips and a soccer ball under one foot. In case I didn’t say it yet, the polar bear is our school mascot! Anyways, all around the bear was a bunch of gold glitter like almost shooting out from behind it in this cool burst. Then, around the bear and the gold burst in bold black letters was “North Mckinley High School Girls Soccer.” Finally, on the back, we had our name and jersey number printed in white with another gold burst around it all. My number is 8, and for my name it says, “Fabulous Fiona.”

  Now, I should explain that when we ordered the shirts a few weeks ago, right before I left for Italy, I asked for mine to just say Fiona. So, since it has my nickname that I didn't have back then, it means that someone either changed the order somehow, or they re-ordered a new one. Either way, I was so excited when I saw it! And now, I get to wear it to the game tonight! And I have the perfect long sleeve shirt to wear under it so I'll be warm enough while still getting a chance to show off my awesome shirt!

  As soon as the final bell rang a few hours later, I all but ran to the car so no one would have to wait for me. In fact, I got there so fast it was a few minutes before Ross and Jordan showed up.

  “Have you been waiting long?” Ross asked as he unlocked the doors so we could all climb in.

  “Only a minute,” I lied. It'd been more like ten minutes!

  “Are you excited for tonight?” Jordan asked, opening the door for me.

  “Yeah,” I said casually. “It'll be nice to watch a game for once instead of playing."

  And that part was for sure true! The idea of getting to watch sports without sitting there in sweaty clothing from the JV game was a novelty! Sure, football isn't my favorite sport, but I already knew it was going to be a super fun game hanging out with everyone! And I'm not just talking about Jordan! Sure, hanging out with him is awesome, but I was also excited to be with my friends, teammates, and even my brother just having a fun night!

  After we dropped off Jordan and made it home, I ran straight to my room to start getting ready. I put on a cute pair of jeans and my new shirt then dug through my closet until I found an older pair of green sneakers to wear to complete the look. Then, I touched up my makeup, and added a LOT more! I did some heavy black eyeliner that extended out into a cat eye that make my eyes look really dramatic with the gold eyeshadow I added. I figured this game was a chance to be a little over the top, and no one was going to tell me otherwise! By the time I was finishing up with my makeup Bet
h arrived and I started helping her get ready too. We straightened her hair, which took a lot of time and almost a full hour even with Corra and Taylor helping when they arrived as well.

  When everyone saw my makeup, they all decided to do a similar style, which made me feel good and like I wouldn't stand out in case other people at the game didn't go overboard like I did. It was kind of fun to be the one helping Corra and even Taylor do makeup since before all my tutorials with my nose I never would've had anything useful to teach them! Finally, I re-curled some of my hair so it looked as good as it had in the morning and sprayed some on gold glitter hair spray to make it even more fun.

  I don’t really know how we managed it, but we all got ready with time to spare! In fact, we hung out in the kitchen taking selfies and snacking on chips and candy for a bit before Jordan showed up with pizza. And, as soon as he walked in the door, the amazing evening really began!

  “Wow, you look great,” Jordan said as he sat the pizza down on the counter. I watched him as he said that, and I'm happy to report Jordan was looking right at me, not at me and all my friends! And I’m pretty certain of that since after I gave him a nice grin he looked around and saw everyone else finally. “Oh man, you girls went all out for tonight!”

  “Anything to show support for the team,” Taylor jumped in, stepping closer to Jordan. “I don’t think we’ve officially met yet. I’m Taylor.”

  “Oh, are you Lizzie’s sister?” Jordan asked, opening one of the pizza boxes and spinning it around so it was facing where Beth and myself were sitting.

  “Yup,” Taylor beamed, taking another little step towards him.

  “Cool,” he nodded, moving to grab one of the cans of pop we had pulled from the fridge then sit on the stool next to me. “I have Math with Lizzy. She mentioned you the other day I think.”

  “Good things?” I asked, turning to Jordan as he opened his Dr. Pepper.

  “I think so,” he shrugged. “You know, I’m going to look pretty lame walking in with you ladies all decked out.”

  “We can put some glitter spray in your hair if you want,” I offered, reaching to grab a slice of pizza. Everyone else was also digging in, although Ross was still nowhere to be seen.

  “I don’t know about that,” Jordan laughed.

  “We could do face paint,” Corra offered. “You and Ross could do like gold lines on your cheeks like the football players always have.”

  “That would work,” he agreed. “But do you have gold face paint? Or just lots of glitter?”

  “I’ll go grab what we have,” Corra offered before hopping off her stool and headed up to my room where we had left all of our makeup and various other slumber party items.

  “So who are we playing tonight?” Taylor asked, grabbing what had to be her third diet coke from the counter.

  “Crestview,” Jordan said after both Beth and I said we weren't sure.

  “Wait, didn’t we lose to them really bad last year?” I asked, remembering people talking about the terrible defeat all season.

  “Yeah,” Jordan nodded with a frown. “The final score was something like 53-0 I think. It was pretty bad.”

  “They must be a really good team then,” Taylor said in shock.

  “Not really,” Ross explained as he came into the kitchen finally. “Which makes it even worse.”

  “There you are,” Jordan said with a sigh. “They were threatening to put glitter on me!”

  “You said yes didn’t you?” Ross asked, leaning between Beth and me to grab some pizza. I leaned away a bit so he would have room, inadvertently making myself even closer to Jordan.

  “He agreed to some face paint!” Corra corrected. She had returned to the kitchen and had white, gold, and green tubes of face paint in her hand. “What color do you want?”

  “Can I get one while and one gold?” Jordan asked, pointing to his cheeks for each color.

  “Oooh!” Ross jumped in, setting his pizza down and walking over to Corra to look at the colors a little closer. “Can I have a big green hand print on my face like Braveheart?”

  “Seriously?” Corra asked, laughing even as she said it.

  “Yeah!” he replied immediately. “It'll be perfect! Gotta show Crestview that we mean war!”

  This one had us all laughing, but got us moving as well. Corra started helping Ross decide if his hand or her hand should be on his face. They decided to use hers so it would leave a little space to still see his skin, which Ross decided to paint gold. We all laughed as Corra and Beth painted Ross’s face, before handing Jordan the gold paint to use for his much less intensive makeup.

  “Do you need help?” Taylor asked, setting down her pop and walking closer to where he and I were still sitting.

  “Yes please,” he smiled. “What do you say, Fi? Will you be my makeup artist and make me fabulous too?”

  I nodded in reply and then looked down at the makeup he handed me in an effort to hide my no doubt bright red face. I was somewhat aware of Taylor making a little huff then grabbing a slice of pizza, but I was too happy to really think much of it. In an effort to stay calm I focused all my effort on putting the makeup on Jordan’s face, which wasn't easy. He kept moving around and insisted on eating pizza while I worked, mostly just to mess with me. In the end, it took me twice as long to finish putting the two bars of colors on his cheeks then it should have.

  “There, all done!” I finally laughed, stepping back and taking a deep breath. It had been pretty hard to concentrate when I was so close to Jordan when I was able to look so deep into his perfect brown eyes. For a while there I thought I might fall on the floor if I stayed that close to him for much longer since it was for sure effecting my breathing.

  “Okay, how do I look?” Ross asked, turning to show off his now expertly painted face.

  “That's awesome!” Jordan said walking over to get a closer look and give Ross a high five. “I almost wish I would've done it too….almost!”

  “What time are we leaving?” Taylor suddenly asked, looking up from her phone. “My sister just text me that the game's starting pretty soon.”

  “We should have plenty of time to get there,” Ross assured her. “But we can leave now if we want.”

  “I need one more slice of pizza first,” Corra announced as she washed the extra makeup from her hands.

  “We can bring it in the car,” Jordan told her, picking up one of the bags of chips from the counter. “That way if we're hungry after the game we have something to snack on!”

  “Perfect!” Ross agreed, grabbing a few cans of pop and another bag of chips. “Let’s load up!”

  With that we all headed outside and piled into the van. Ross of course sat up front, so I took the seat behind him so if Jordan looked over his shoulder he'd be able to see me. During the ride to the school us girls chatted a little bit about who else we knew that was going to be at the game, but it was a quick enough ride that before we knew it we were pulling up to the stadium.

  “Wow, there're way more people tonight than last week!” Taylor commented as we parked and climbed out of the van.

  “Yeah, everyone’s hoping that since we won last week we'll be able to beat Crestview this time around. I bet half the school is here.” Jordan said this as we all started walking towards the ticket booth. I just nodded along, since I was at home with a broken nose and missed the last game!

  “How many?” The woman at the ticket booth asked as we got up to the gate.

  “6,” Ross told her, pulling out his wallet.

  “We have money, Ross,” I reminded him, reaching into my pocket for the money I'd brought with me.

  “Don’t worry about it, sis,” Ross smiled at me.

  I was so shocked I didn’t know how to respond. Instead I held out my hand to get stamped by the woman in the ticket booth then followed Ross as he lead our group into the stadium and towards The Pit. As expected, we were heading for the cheering section, where the soccer team and all of Ross and Jordan’s friends were no dou
bt already hanging out.

  “I'm so excited right now!” Taylor announced, linking her arm with mine as we walked around the track to The Pit.

  “Me too,” I grinned. And it was really true. There was something different than two weeks ago when I was at the game with my friends. I felt more welcomed at the event now, as if being a real part of the soccer team gave me a place to fit in at school and school events as well. All of that also made me more excited to watch the game and be with my friends. Sure, some of that was also the fact that I was there with Jordan, but I honestly think that even if he wasn't there, I still would've been just as excited.

  “Fabulous Fiona!” a chorus of voices called out to me when we were still a few feet from The Pit. I couldn’t help but laugh as Skyler, Hayley, Torri, and Dee ran towards me to give me hugs and compliment my hair and makeup.

  “Okay, you need to show me how to do my makeup like that for next game,” Dee, a varsity soccer player gushed.

  “Of course,” I grinned.

  “Come on, you guys need to stand with us over here!” Skyler insisted before turning and heading back into The Pit and to the front of the ropes that kept the fans from going onto the field or the area where the cheerleaders were cheering. As I followed her, I noticed that Ross reached forward and took hold of her hand as they were walking. Apparently there was something going on between the two of them!

  By the time we got to the area where Skyler and some of the other soccer girls were standing, the teams were lining up to get started. And once the football game finally began, The Pit went crazy! Everyone was cheering and screaming and as loud as they could! It was hard to even hear myself think at some times, so any plans to actually “hang out” with anyone was out the window.

  Half time gave us all a little bit of time to chill and relax some. I pulled out my phone and used the camera to check my makeup, which Taylor thought was me taking a selfie. She scooted in closer, so I snapped a photo. Then, seeing that we took a selfie, Corra jumped in for one as well. That was followed by Beth joining for a group selfie. And that was when things got even more amazing.