two                      miss congeniality 

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It would have been easier to say that Ali didn't know how she ended up in an empty parking lot, staring at the carpeted ceiling of Jonah's car as his fingers trailed over the tattoo on her ribcage, but she knew exactly how she ended up in that situation.

She had been restless for days before Abby finally said she could go to the hospital to get cortisone shots, which had immediately prompted more restlessness, because Ali had spent nearly her entire summer at the court watching from the bleachers while Kevin played Exy by himself and she couldn't start with her tumbling drills before the Vixens came back from summer break.

So Andrew dropped her off at the hospital to get the cortisone shots while he went to pick up Neil Josten at the airport, and he wouldn't be able to stop there again before they dropped his things off at Wymack's apartment, so Ali needed a ride.

"Hey," she greeted. She dropped her bag in the car through the open window, swinging the door wide open before she hopped inside. "Thanks for picking me up. My cousins' got a thing."

When he looked at her, one arm propped out the window and the other casually resting on the stick shift, she knew where this was going.

"It's no problem. Do you have anything important to do?"

And she didn't. The doctor said she was supposed to give it at least a day before starting her cheer practice (because he knew her well enough to know she wouldn't be able to wait much longer than that), and there was nothing more interesting for her to do. Which was how she wound up laying on his backseat, her head bent at an uncomfortable angle while the door handle jammed into her neck.

He had asked her what the horses on her ribcage meant, and she remembered that he had asked the same question on the first night they hooked up, long before she had judged herself to be miserable enough to hook up with him again. The horses didn't mean anything, she said, but that was not the answer he wanted. It was very clear that he thought she was one of those girls who would do anything for a boy's attention, and she had gotten bored of him months ago.

Ali's shoulder and knee still stung in the places where the needle had pierced her skin, injecting a few weeks' worth of relief into her muscles and joints. It wasn't a strong enough dose to kill the pain completely, but it should have been enough to get her to stop thinking about it.

It wasn't working very well.

Through the window, she saw the sky fading from the bright blue of the summer afternoon into the pinks and oranges of the evening. Andrew had probably already arrived from the airport with the new addition to the Palmetto State Foxes. They had probably already shown him the stadium and were now heading to Abby's house for dinner.

And this guy had his mouth between her thighs and all she could think about was that she had missed an entire day in which she could have been practicing. Ali could feel her heartbeat everywhere beneath her skin, her hands and feet begging for the roughness of the mat, her muscles aching for the heat of effort. Even the thought of it was more intense than what that guy was doing in the backseat of his car.

Ali moved her leg, prompting him to stop and look up at her. She propped herself up on her elbows and stared at him, unimpressed.

"I have that dinner thing tonight," she said, sitting up as he backed away in the cramped backseat. "So I should probably get going."

He looked disappointed, but Ali couldn't bring herself to care about him. He was nothing but a distraction, and not a very good one at that.

"Sure," he said, and Ali looked away, impatient.

On the way to Abby's house, Jonah kept a hand on her knee while Ali kept wishing she could melt into the passenger's seat. He put on a romantic song on the radio and asked if she had had fun that afternoon, and Ali hoped she had never been as out of touch as he was being, because it was so fucking embarrassing.

Ali was already opening the door and jumping out of the car when he stopped in front of Abby's house and leaned in for a kiss. She did not mean to linger much longer, considering that she could hear the cutlery clinking inside the house and she could smell the tomato sauce — and she was starving — but he said:

"Hey, do you... Do you think I can see you again any time soon?" He smiled half-heartedly. Ali put her hand on the open window and pursed her lips. "I feel like I only see you when you need a ride."

He tried for a laugh, but Ali just stared at him with a blank face.

"I'm going to be honest with you," she started, already knowing she was about to lie. At least about part of it. "I would love it if we could see each other more often, but I'm going to be pretty busy once the Vixens' arrive from break, so..."

"Yeah, of course. I'll see you around, I guess," he said.

"I guess," she replied, one hand on her waist, watching him as he turned the key on the ignition. She stood there watching him drive away until his car disappeared on the corner, just to make sure he wouldn't come back.

The door to Abby's house was partially open, letting in the evening breeze. On the inside, something metallic fell to the floor, clanging and rattling followed by Abby's muffled voice chastising Nicky.

When Ali walked into the dining room by the back of the house, with the french doors open out to the backyard, she saw Abby bringing in the lasagna while everyone else got ready to sit at the table.

"I'm here!" She said, in lieu of a greeting. "What did I miss?"

"Hey, sweetie," Abby said, pulling out the chair beside her for Ali to sit down. "You're right on time. Neil, this is Aileen, though I'm sure these guys have already told you about her. Ali, this is Neil Josten."

"Nice to meet you, Neil," Ali said.

"It's nice to meet you too," he nodded, and Ali noticed how his gaze shifted from her to her cousins, like he was trying to assess her. She could almost see his thoughts shifting inside his brain.

Five years ago, Ali looked like a girl who couldn't get into trouble if she tried. Now, she looked like trouble itself. After she had moved in with her uncle Luther, she got five tattoos (and counting) just to spite him. She'd also gotten her nose and belly button pierced, and her clothes got increasingly shorter, as if to match her temper. Now, Ali no longer lived with her uncle, but she kept experimenting with her appearance, particularly after she experienced life-changing trauma.

Most recently, she had gotten her hair bleached blonde by Renee, though the dark roots were still showing, fading softly into the near platinum shade that she was carefully maintaining with purple toning shampoo. Ali had spent so much time watching the footage of her accident at Daytona, seeing her own body dropping from twelve feet high in a flash of orange and a flowing mass of dark-brown hair... She no longer wanted to look at herself in the mirror and recognize that girl. So bleach-blonde it was.

While it seemed like Ali had been doing everything in her power in order to stand out, it looked like Neil had been doing the exact opposite. His hair was the sort of dark that Ali knew could only be achieved with hair dye and he wore plain, gray clothes. If she had to take a guess, she'd say the Foxes' uniform was the most colorful outfit he had ever put on.

"Where were you, by the way?" Nicky chimed in, filling in the silence that fell between them after Neil and Ali had been introduced to each other.

"At the hospital," Ali replied, matter-of-factly. "You knew that."

"Duh," he rolled his eyes, mostly because he must have guessed what she had been doing that afternoon. "You did not spend the entire day at the hospital. Where were you after that?"

She looked at him, smiling sweetly, though her voice dripped with scorn, "It's none of your business."

Nicky stuck his tongue out at her as Abby said, "You know you're supposed to rest after you get the cortisone shots, Ali."

"I wasn't doing anything particularly exciting. Or fun. Don't worry about it," she retorted, tearing a piece of Abby's homemade bread and dipping it in the tomato sauce. "Why are we even talking about me, anyways? What's up with you, Neil?"

Ali turned to look at him, and realized he had some sort of deer in the headlights look. She quickly averted her eyes to look at Andrew's reaction, who must have noticed that much sooner than she did, but judging by the look on his eyes, he was saving his opinion for later.

"Oh. Nothing much," he replied, suddenly going quiet again.

"Neil is Kevin's mini-me," Nicky said, his words muffled around a mouthful of food.

"Ew," Ali frowned. "Nicky, you've barely even met him. Wait a while before you start insulting him, will you?"

Kevin audibly sighed, and said, "I hardly think that's an insult."

"Of course you don't," Ali sneered. "Why would you think of yourself as anything less than perfect?"

"That is not what I meant," Kevin tried, but the collective groan that filled the dining room made him stop in his tracks.

"Sorry, Kevin. Did I hurt your feelings?" Ali pouted. "I'm not in a very good mood today."

"Are you ever?" he rebutted, and Ali thought she could actually feel her blood blistering inside her veins. "I have yet to see that."

"You never will, because it's impossible for me to be in a good mood when I'm around you, Miss Congeniality."

Kevin opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something more as Ali almost leaned over the table to glare at him, challenging him to continue.

"Kevin," Abby intervened, exchanging a look with Wymack on the other end of the table. "Let's try to be civil."

"But she started it," he protested.

"Oh my god," Ali rolled her eyes, but she knew that he was right. She had never been one to bite her tongue, but it was even more difficult when it came to Kevin, and she couldn't figure out why. It was one of the things that annoyed her about him, even if it wasn't directly his fault. She couldn't remember the last time she had been in the same room with him without barking out some biting remark. It was like he took away all of her impulse control — which was already scarce, if she had to be honest. "Are you five?"

"You both are behaving like children," Wymack said. "Can we have a peaceful meal for once? I don't get paid enough to deal with this."

Ali sat back, still incensed. The bread she had been nibbling on was left in pieces on her plate, and she had lost all of her appetite.

"We should have given you a heads-up," Nicky started, looking at Neil with an apologetic look. "These two are madly in love with each other, but they don't know it yet. In fact, we have a bet going on about them, too, if you want to get in on that. But trust me, this is not the worst they have been to each other."

Ali snapped her head to look at him, shoving her hand on his face and pushing him away, "Shut the fuck up, Nicky. Don't listen to him, Neil. He doesn't know what he's talking about."

"Uh... Alright," he said, glancing between Ali and Kevin, both frowning.

The conversation quickly dwindled to a lull, ebbing and flowing as they divided the table in three. Kevin and Wymack talked about spring training and recruits from other schools and Nicky, Ali and Abby gossiped and discussed movies they'd watched together while Andrew, Aaron and Neil simply listened.

Ali couldn't wait for that day to be over.

NOTE 

heyyy! chapter two is up and shows a little bit of who Ali is as a character and how she is with Kevin! I'm already working on chapter three so hopefully I'll be able to publish it next week, but Im also gonna try to work on my other fics that I've been neglecting lol 

anyways, hope you guys liked it <3