YOU ALWAYS LOOK FIT, KEELEY. YOU'RE A MODEL FOR A REASON.

[  season 1 — episode 03  ]

DAISY WAS LOUNGING IN ONE OF THE NICE RECLINERS that was set up in the office space connected to her father and uncle's shared office. She would have to leave in a few hours to go to work but was watching as her dad started writing down plays she didn't understand on the whiteboard while she and Beard watched.

"All right. Let's see what we got here. I've got this fella up here, the goalie. Then all these guys over here, okay? And going over here, going over that way. This son of a gun's gonna go all the way down here."

The arrows and x's meant nothing to Daisy, but Beard seemed to be comprehending it all.

"Crystal Palace kicked our booties last week," Ted claimed, earning a quiet 'Mhmm' of agreement from his assistant coach.

"But at least Jamie scored a goal," Daisy reminded him. Losing by three points was better than four.

"True," Ted said, pointing to her. "But this here is our current offense that we are running, and I think it stinks! Get rid of it!"

As Ted began erasing all the stuff he'd just written down, Beard made a fart noise and did a thumbs down in agreement.

"Why'd you do all that?" Daisy asked, tilting her head.

"That, Oopsie Daisy, is because I believe in symbolic gestures, and you should too," he told her.

Beard then let out a big yawn, speaking through it. "As do I."

Both Ted and Daisy looked at him, raising their eyebrows. "Oh? What time did you get home last night?" he asked him.

"Didn't," he admitted shamelessly.

"Ooh," Daisy cooed in a teasing tone. "Tell me everything, B."

"Later," he said, waving his hand at her.

"Now, look, our whole offense right now is all give-and-go. Give the ball to Jamie and everyone else can go to hell," Ted said what they already knew. "So, I am officially on the prowl for any new ideas, you hear?"

Nate, who was getting the trash from the office caught their attention, having been listening in clearly. He was crouched over and kept going back and forth between that and standing, clearly wanting to say something but not having the courage to do so.

"Yeah, Nate?" Daisy asked, smiling at him softly. "Got an idea?"

"Uh, no," he denied, shaking his head. "So... No. No. God, no. Never mind, I'm sorry."

"Come on now," Ted said encouragingly. "You're one of us. Let's go. Fire away. What do you got?"

Nate took a second before digging in his pockets. "Okay, right. Well, it's just — No, other pocket." The kit man riffled through his jacket pockets, pulling out many crumbled pieces of paper, none of which the one he wanted. "It's just something that I thought of. Sorry. Jesus. Not that one." Finally, he pulled out a small piece of orange paper and handed it to Ted. "You know what, it's not even very good. It's probably really bad. It's embarrassing even. I just—"

"Sorry, Nate," Ted cut him off. "I have a real tricky time hearing folks that don't believe in themselves. I'm gonna ask you real quick again. Do you think this idea will work?"

"Yeah, I do," Nate declared in a soft tone.

In sync, Beard, Ted, and Daisy all covered their ears as if he had shouted. Beard even dramatically fell out of his chair while Daisy curled up in hers.

"God!" Beard exclaimed.

"Why you screaming at us, Nate?" Ted asked him loudly. It made Nate smile. "We're right here. All right, come on now. Walk us through it."

Daisy stayed seated, knowing she wouldn't really understand as Nate began pointing out and explaining all the things he'd written down. "Okay. So, I thought if we started the attack on the wing, Jamie could run through nearside, then when the defense follows, Sam could fill his spot."

"So, use Jamie as a decoy?" Beard asked, simplifying it a bit.

"No," Nate denied, chuckling. But then he grimaced. "No. Well, yeah, in — yeah, in this case, yes."

"Oh, he's gonna hate that," Daisy said under her breath.

"Oh, definitely," Ted agreed before giving the paper to Beard. "Let's give it a shot."

Nate looked at him in surprise. "What, you're gonna use my play?"

"Yeah. I mean, we're gonna try it on, see if it fits. You know, it might not. Then again, it might be a very flattering silhouette, and I might wear it right outta the store. Makes me feel good and I start to strut," Ted told him, beginning to sway his hips and strut as he did so. "I'm like, 'I like this. I like the way this makes me feel.' Show him your strut, Coach."

Daisy covered her eyes in embarrassment as her father and uncle began to strut around the office, getting into it.

"Yeah, there you go. Oh, yeah. Yep, that's how to strut," Ted said, cheering Beard on. "Let me see you strut, Nate. Come on."

Daisy peeked through her fingers and watched Nate as he held his hands together and then began a weird walking motion that she supposed counted as a strut no matter how awkward it looked.

"There you go, Nate. Yeah, that's one way to do it. There you go," Ted said while strutting from the office. "C'mon and strut, Daisy. Not gonna let you keep coming here if you don't join in."

Daisy sighed, not really that annoyed based on the smile on her face as she got up and began to strut, swaying her hips and throwing her hair around.

"Ooh, you got a model strut," Beard told her as they got in the hallway.

"Nate, you look a little angry, but that's all right," Ted told him. Then he realized that they weren't heading to the field, so he turned around and the others followed. "That's my fault. I forgot the pitch is right this way. Come on, let's go. Strut this way. Here we go."

Daisy toned down her strut as they started passing other people. But they never actually made it to the field, as Keeley, who was just saying goodbye to Jamie, called for her father.

"Ted! Hey, have you got a minute?"

Ted looked back at her, letting Beard and Nate go out to the pitch to begin explaining the play to the team. Daisy stayed back with her dad and went over to Keeley, smiling at the woman.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Everything okay?" Ted asked her.

"Yeah, yeah. No, it's fine, yeah," Keeley said, looking around anxiously. But when she saw that the hallway was empty, she lowered her voice. "It's not fine. Everything's shit."

"Oh, no," Ted mumbled with a frown.

"What's wrong?" Daisy asked, worried about her.

Then Keeley showed them her phone, which had a photo of Ted feeding her a burger at her photoshoot from the day before, both of them laughing. "This was gonna be the front page of The Sun today. 'Manager Shags Star Player's Girlfriend.'"

Ted frowned at the picture. "I think a more accurate headline would be, 'Manager Innocently Feeds Young Woman Whose Relationship Does Not Define Her.'"

"Ted, this is really bad!" she insisted while looking back at the photo. "Except I look insanely fit in this picture."

"Yeah, no, it's beautiful light," he agreed.

"You always look fit, Keeley. You're a model for a reason," Daisy added, smiling a little.

"My friend who works at the paper said he can hold this story for one day as a favor. When this shit hits, Jamie is going to go mental. There's going to be photographers
all over us," she explained, getting more upset. "The next picture of me will not be this perfect. I am gonna be mid-sneeze face, like—" Daisy couldn't help but giggle as she made an unflattering sneeze-face. "Guess what the headline will be?"

"Gesundheit?" Ted guessed.

"'Jamie's Tart Breaks Tartt's Heart.'"

"Did you just come up with that?" he asked her, surprised by how catchy it was.

Keeley nodded. "Yeah."

"That's really good," Daisy said. "Everyone would read that."

"Of course, they would. You two have no idea the power of rhyming in this goddamn country!" she exclaimed. Then she was throwing out another headline. "'Lasso Makes Passo and Creates Team Fiasco.'"

"Woah, Keeley's got bars," Ted said, grinning.

"You should be making slogans and stuff," Daisy told her.

"Yeah, I'm cute as a button and I can rhyme my ass off," she told them. Then she began to pout. "God, it's no wonder they want to destroy me."

"Look, I'm sure there's something we can do," Daisy told her, not wanting her upset. "I mean, maybe if we just talk to Jamie and explain before the article comes out?"

"No, it can't be printed," Keeley said, grabbing her shoulders. "Jamie is so fucking jealous even if he never admits it. And he already hates Ted."

"I feel like hate is a strong word—"

"He hates you, Daddy," Daisy cut him off, knowing there was no use sugarcoating. Half the team still hated him.

"Well, I know just who can handle this," Ted said, managing a smile. "Rebecca will know what to do. So, let's go find her."

Though Daisy wasn't really involved, she still stuck with Ted and Keeley as they ran up to the top floor of the facility. Rebecca's door was closed, and Higgins' briefcase was on the floor outside, so Ted grabbed it, not really sure why it was there. Then he knocked on the door and let himself inside.

"Hey, boss."

"Ted!" Rebecca greeted, seeming a little jumpy as she shut her laptop quickly. "And Keeley. Daisy. Hello."

"Hey, I found that in the hall," Ted told Higgins, handing him the briefcase. Daisy almost thought she heard him make a little gagging sound. "Yeah. So, we got ourselves a situation here. Go ahead, show her the picture, yeah."

Keeley was ready, flashing her screen to the club owner right away. "See? And The fucking Sun is running it tomorrow."

"Honestly," Rebecca said, shaking her head, "these people, they just have no regard for people's privacy and dignity."

"Yeah," Keeley agreed. "I'm gonna find the piece of shit that took this and who hired them."

"No, no. Not necessary," she quickly stopped her. "I know the owner of the paper. I can get this stopped with a phone call."

Keeley had an amazed look on her face. "Really? Oh, my God. Thank you."

"You're amazing," Daisy said with a grin.

"See, what I tell ya, huh?" Ted asked them, pointing at Rebecca. "This woman right here is strong, confident, and powerful. Boss, I tell ya, I'd hate to see you and Michelle Obama arm wrestle, but I wouldn't be able to take my eyes off it either."

Rebecca truly didn't know how to react to that. "That's not a compliment I've had before."

"You do have perfect action figure-y arms," Keeley added.

"Yeah," Daisy added, studying Rebecca's form. "You're, like, in amazing shape, seriously. You're like Wonder Woman."

"There's another one," she muttered, looking between Keeley and Daisy. "Anyway, glad to help."

The three of them thanked Rebecca repeatedly before leaving, knowing that the woman saved them from an epic Jamie Tartt meltdown. Granted, after learning that he was about to be used as a decoy, he'd probably be close to one anyway.

✵︎

Daisy still had another forty-five minutes of free time before she'd have to leave for work, and so she stayed with her father and uncle, watching the first bit of practice. She'd leave once they took a break so that the players could get their required workout for the day in before lunch. While trying to work things out with the photographs, Beard and Nate quickly explained the new play to the team, which they were running now for the first time.

"Okay, here we go. Sam lays it for Dickson," Beard narrated. Daisy just watched them run around — she'd know it was working if the ball got past the goalie.

"Okay, nice touch," Ted said, pleased with what was happening.

"Switch to Bumbercatch. Jamie decoys through. Sam wide open."

Sam executed everything perfectly, kicking the ball right into the net, scoring the goal.

"There it is!" Ted exclaimed.

Daisy couldn't help but clap and grin, seeing how all his teammates ran up to Sam and hugged him, jumping around over the new play. The only one that wasn't excited was Jamie, who was pouting and kicking his feet on the other side of the pitch. She felt a little bad for him but then reminded herself that he scored goals all the time. Sam deserved his chance to shine.

"Nice play, Nate. How you feel?" Ted asked him.

"I just don't know. So many new feelings," he said bashfully. He never thought anyone would listen to his ideas.

"Kinda like getting your first pube, right?"

"Yeah," Nate agreed instantly before frowning. "What?"

"Ew," Daisy mumbled, stepping away from her father. Beard just chuckled and nudged her side.

"Here we go," Ted said before blowing his whistle. He grabbed onto Daisy and dragged her along to meet the team. Her hair was already thrown back, knowing what was coming. "All right. Hey. Nice work. Okay, now, gentlemen, here's the other thing we're gonna start focusing on Making quicker transitions from offense to defense. Y'all gotta start making your hellos goodbyes. You understand? Easiest way to get that done well is to do it well. But aside from that, you gotta be in great shape, right? So, we are all gonna run two laps around this field."

Daisy held her right leg behind her to stretch it out, getting ready to run. It would be a nice warm-up before having to teach a more advanced class of eighteen-year-olds.

"Now, Daisy here was a track star back home. So, anyone who loses to me or Daisy has to run four more. Let's go!"

Then Daisy took off, the team still a bit confused. But then Ted threw his whistle down and started running too, along with Beard.

"What's going on?" one of the boys asked.

"Look at her go!" Ted shouted as Daisy got several meters ahead of him. "I was not joking about those extra laps!"

Finally, the rest of them started to run, following after Daisy and Ted. Some of them were shoving and yelling at each other to try and get ahead of each other.

"You're catching up. Don't cut that corner!" Ted yelled as Winchester was the first to pass him. "Come on. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man."

"Faster, boys!" Beard yelled as several got past him. "You're not catching Daisy Chain, though!"

✵︎

Actually, less than half the team caught up to Daisy, but even still they were only ahead by a few meters when the two laps came to an end.

"My god, Daisy, you are fast," Sam told her as they entered the locker room.

"Yeah, but you're faster," she said, grinning. Nate then handed her a bottle of Gatorade. "Thanks, Nate."

"His legs are too long. That is why," Bumbercatch said, passing them. He was out of breath, one of the ones that had to run the extra laps.

"All of us are taller than her, mate," Jamie said while going past. He was another that beat Daisy, something he'd gloated about at length as soon as he ran ahead of her near the end of the second lap. "You're just slow as shit. Even Grandpa nearly beat you."

Though Roy easily beat Ted and Beard, it was still made clear that he was amongst the slowest on the team after the laps. And his knees were killing him by the end even though he didn't let anyone know as he sat down at his locker.

Daisy didn't want to get involved as Jamie tried to pick at his teammates, so she just gave the water bottle back to Nate and then went to her dad's office and sat at the edge of his desk.

"How ya feelin'?" Ted asked her. He was still catching his breath too.

"Feel ready to murder my toes for five hours in the pointe lessons today," she said, wiggling her toes inside her sneakers. "Oh, and Allora found a company that makes brown shoes and has some waiting for me, so they'll match my skin tone!"

"Oh, that is great, Darlin'," he said, grinning brightly. The whole point of pointe shoes was to extend the lines of the dancer, but growing up, Daisy could only ever find pink ones meant for people with lighter skin. "I'ma buy you ten pairs 'cause I know how fast they wear out."

"Thanks," she said before sliding off the desk. "I'm gonna have to head out in a few minutes, but thanks for letting me come this morning."

"Well, thanks for whipping those boys into shape," he told her. Then he left his office along with Beard to talk to the team. "Okay, way to run out there today, fellas. You guys are much faster than me — except Coach Beard. What's going on? I thought you ran track in high school or something."

"Chess team, Coach," he corrected. "Illinois State Champs, baby."

"Okay, yeah. Illinois is a state, fellas," Ted clarified. "And don't be too bruised up about Daisy beatin' some of y'all — she was runnin' and dancin' before she could walk. One last thing, there are some gifts up in y'all's lockers. In your little cubbies up there. So, hope you enjoy 'em."

Daisy watched through the window as all of them excitedly opened their cubbies, finding the items wrapped in green wrapping paper that Daisy helped fix the night before. Some began to shake them, trying to figure out what was inside, but others tore into it like it was Christmas. But it was the equivalent of opening socks on Christmas morning for some of them as they saw they each got a book.

Ted put a lot of thought into each one, choosing stories that had lessons that would be applicable to each player even if it wasn't obvious at first. A few began flipping through them curiously, but Jamie tossed his in the laundry basket that Nate was pushing around, not at all impressed as he left to start his workout.

"I'm so gonna sneak it back into his locker," Daisy muttered, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, you'll probably have to do that about fifty times before he gives up," Ted told her while sitting at his desk. "Or maybe he'll think the book is haunting him."

"Oh, I hope it's that last one," Daisy said, grinning now.

Then Roy came in, knocking on the open door as he did so.

"Hey, Roy," Daisy greeted, smiling at him.

He nodded to her with a grunt before looking at Ted. "Yeah, I just thought you should know that your boy Nathan's being harassed every single day by Jamie and his little... side-pricks."

Ted wasn't surprised by this — none of them were. "Right."

"So you know already?" Roy asked, clearly annoyed.

"Yep."

"So, you'll take care of it?"

"No," he replied, shaking his head.

"What the fuck?" Roy asked, getting more upset. He glanced between Ted and Daisy, who was looking down at her nails to avoid eye contact.

Ted sighed and got up. "Roy, I learned two pretty big lessons on the rough-and-tumble playgrounds of Brookridge Elementary School. One, if little Ronnie Fowch offers you a candy bar, you immediately say no, and you get the hell outta there. 'Cause there's a good chance that little son of a gun has just pooped inside of a Butterfinger wrapper. No one ever saw him do it, but a couple people ate it."

"Daddy, nobody wants to hear that story," Daisy told him, cringing a bit. "Please stop tellin' it."

"Number two, if the teacher tells the bully not to pick on someone, it's just gonna make it worse," he explained.

Roy raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "So, you're not gonna do anything?"

"No," he said simply.

Since he was getting nowhere, Roy scoffed and left the office, clearly still mad at the situation.

"Why you winding him up?" Beard asked, watching Roy, who was fuming by his locker.

"He's the one, Coach," Ted told him. "If we're gonna make an impact here, the first domino that needs to fall is right inside that man's heart. Besides, this is just like what happened with Daisy when she was little, right?"

"You think this is gonna be solved by Roy transferring teams to get away from Jamie?" she asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Well, obviously we don't want no one to leave," he said. "Which is why we're not gettin' involved too much. Like I said — don't wanna make things worse for Nate."

✵︎

Daisy's feet were hurting from work but she still went to the facility with her father the next day. She had on a thick set of fuzzy white socks and a yellow pair of Crocs, not caring how unfashionable it was when paired with her sweatpants. And when she and Ted met Rebecca outside of her office, the older woman eyed her feet, raising a judging eyebrow.

"We can't all be fashion models, Rebecca," she told her as Ted set the box of cookies on her desk.

"Here you go," Ted said.

"Thank you," she said while taking a seat. "And Daisy, I'm sorry, but I can never forgive wearing Crocs, let alone with socks on as well."

"If you ain't sockin' while you're Crocin', then you ain't truly rockin', my friend," Daisy said while shaking her head.

Rebecca stared almost dumbly at her, not entirely sure how to react to whatever the fuck she said. The words flowed a little too smoothly, so she feared Daisy had told that to someone on more than one occasion. So instead of questioning her, she turned and looked at Ted.

"So, I spoke to the owner of The Sun."

"You spoke to God?" he shouted in disbelief. Daisy couldn't help but snicker.

"No, the newspaper," Rebecca corrected, sighing heavily.

"Oh, right," he mumbled.

"How'd it go?" Daisy asked her.

"He has agreed to not run the photo of you and Keeley," she told them.

Ted instantly began jumping around and chanting, even doing some high-kicks that Rebecca thought was far too early in the morning for.

"MVP! MVP! MVP! Left leg! Right leg — not as good!"

"Yes. Okay, thank you, Ted," Rebecca said in a tense tone, not wanting him dancing around her office.

"Sorry. Yeah, no," he said, calming down. "You were saying. Go ahead."

"In exchange, I've agreed for his more reputable newspaper, The Independent, to do a profile on you — One-on-One with Coach Lasso," she explained.

"Yeah, okay."

"The writer will be Trent Crimm, and he's very good, and the supporters really listen to him."

Daisy chewed the inside of her cheek at the mention of Allora's uncle. Even Ted was a little caught off guard but got over it. "Oh, no. I know Trent, yeah. He's a tough cookie."

"Really?" Rebecca asked, making them figure she'd never really dealt with him before.

"Yeah, but that's okay," he said, shrugging. "You know what you do with tough cookies, don't ya?"

"No."

Daisy grinned at her. "Dip 'em in milk."

✵︎

Ted would've appreciated a longer warning than forty minutes, but they'd make do. Trent met them out on the pitch. Ted and Beard were standing, watching the team run the plays while Daisy was sitting on the turf, leaning back on her hands.

"All right, let's run that new one!" Ted shouted at the team before noticing Trent, who walked up to them. The reporter removed his glasses and nodded to them. "Hey, there he is."

"Hello, Coach Ted Lasso from America," he greeted.

"Hello, Trent Crimm from The Independent," Ted copied while shaking his hand. "Hey, excited to spend the day with ya. Gonna be fun. And please, call me Ted."

"Morning, Trent Crimm from The Independent," Daisy said leaning forward to look at him and smile.

"Good morning, Daisy Lasso from Richmond Dance," he said, the corners of his lips turning up.

"All right, let's go!" Ted then shouted at the team.

Just as they did the day before, they set up to run Nate's play. Jamie went in as the decoy so that Sam could be wide open for receiving the ball and going to the goal. And just like yesterday, Sam made the shot before anyone could stop him.

"Go, Sam!" Daisy cheered, clapping for him as she jumped to her feet. Everyone was congratulating him again, hugging him, and patting him on the back as they did.

"Thataway, Sammy," Ted told him while jogging closer. "How'd that feel?"

"Oh, wonderful, Coach. I felt that one in my penis," he said, grinning.

Daisy had been in the process of joining them to hug Sam, but after hearing his answer, she stopped short and grimaced, close to where Jamie was still pouting about not getting to be the star of the play. He had his hands balled up underneath the fabric of his jacket, a sign she was beginning to realize signaled that he was really upset.

"Yeah. No, that sounds about right. That's good. Yeah," her father said. Then he looked over at Jamie. "Hey, Jamie, you gotta sell that run-through hard, baby. Make the defense believe you. Watch, like this." Ted then began running sideways while waving his hands and shouting. "Ball! Ball! Give me the ball! I want the ball! Give me the ball! I would like the ball, please! Make it a performance. I want you winning an Oscar at the ESPYs next year."

Daisy was ninety percent sure that 'Ball! Ball! Give me the ball!' was what played on a loop in Jamie's head to begin with.

"You want me to run decoy?" Jamie asked, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"Yeah, that's right," he confirmed.

"It's a joke," he said, scoffing. "Unfortunately for you, though, no one thinks it's funny."

Ted looked back at the rest of the team. "That true?"

"Agree to disagree," Roy said while coming to stand next to Jamie and Daisy. "I find it hilarious. I thought it was funnier than Step Brothers."

"High praise," Ted noted, and Daisy just laughed a little.

"That scene where the bunk bed collapses —I used to think that was the funniest thing I'd ever seen," Roy went on. "But then I just saw that and now I'm gonna have to rethink my order of what I think is the funniest thing I've ever seen." He heard Daisy still giggling and looked at her with a hardly-noticeable smile, liking the sound of her laugh at Jamie's expense.

"Yeah, that's when sports and art combine, as far as I'm concerned," Ted agreed with him. "All right, fellas, let's run it again. Let's go."

Ted blew the whistle, and all the boys got back into position. Though Daisy grinned at Roy as he passed.

"Thought the end fight on the playground would've been your favorite," she told him.

"Oh, yeah," he laughed. "That was just as fucking hilarious as this."

Daisy then followed her father back to the sidelines, shooting a thumbs up at Sam, who was excited to keep running the play that let him show off his skills.

"Yeah, they're getting it. They're getting it," Ted assured Beard, who nodded.

"Interesting play, Ted. Did you come up with this?" Trent asked, surprised that he found himself complimenting the man so quickly into the day.

"Oh, no, no, no," he quickly denied. "This is all cooked up by our very own Nate the Great."

"Who's 'Nate the Great'?"

Beard pointed to his left where Nate was stacking cones. "Oh, yeah. There he is," Ted added.

"Someone's been walking their dog here!" Nate yelled at them. "Found another poo."

"Okay!" Ted replied happily.

"Nate's the best," Daisy added, looking pointedly at Trent.

"What exactly does 'Nate the Great' do?" he then asked, not entirely understanding.

"He's the kit man," Daisy answered.

"Oh, yeah, kit man," Ted echoed. "Wasn't exactly sure what his title was. But there ya go."

Trent was so surprised that he walked over and studied Ted like he was a foreign object. "Do you mean to tell me you're entrusting a Premier League team's attack to the kit man?"

Ted just nodded confidently. "That young fellow's forgotten more about this sport than I'll ever know. Heck, might be a genius. Anything to add, Coach?"

"Good kid," Beard said simply.

"Ooh! Boy, oh boy. If you knew Coach Beard, you'd know what a big deal that was. You mean that, don't you?" Ted asked him excitedly. And Beard just nodded, which made Daisy grin. "Well, hell. There's your story right there. Got a headline and everything. 'Man Nods Head.' Watch your back, Gay Talese. There's a new iconic profile about to be typed up by one Trent Crimm."

Then Beard suddenly shouted over them, startling Trent a little. "Tighten up those lines!"

"Let 'em know, Coach," Ted encouraged.

"Richard! You can move faster than that!" Daisy yelled from her spot on the ground.

"No, I can't!" the Frenchman yelled while passing her. "My pride is still recovering from yesterday."