CHAPTER FOUR
[4]

song: voices carry by 'til tuesday

"THAT ONE." Jen says, pointing to one of the two t-shirts in Daisy's hands. "And wear your black frill jacket over it."

"K." Daisy says, putting the other shirt away and putting her Rocky Horror Picture Show shirt on over her bra.

"Are you nervous?" Jen asks, sitting on Daisy's bed.

Daisy walked over to her dresser to put her jewelry on. "There's nothing to be nervous about." Daisy inhales sharply.

"What if he tries to kiss you?" Jen widens her eyes.

Daisy spins around and looks at her with raised eyebrows. "Jen." She says sternly. "Tommy and I are just friends. We have been since we were little." She turns back to her dresser.

"Fine." Jen rolls her eyes, plopping back on Daisy's bed and letting out a sigh.

Daisy puts her jacket on, although it was barely September, the temperature was quickly dropping into fall weather. "Okay I'm ready." Daisy nods towards Jen.

Jen rolls off the bed and the two stride out of Daisy's room, whispering amongst each other as George and Susan converse near the front door.

Susan looks up at them and smiles widely. "Oh, my girls." She says happily. "Your last first high school football game." She frowns.

Susan was very sentimental about high school, she made it out to seem like the 'best time of your life' when it was actually quite the opposite. Daisy was just glad she wasn't peaking in high school, because those who do end up doing nothing with their lives, like Susan. "Let me get my camera, hold on." Susan says.

"Oh my god." Daisy mutters and Jen laughs quietly.

"Daisy you don't seem like the football type." George nods.

"She isn't." Jen says, shaking her head. "But Tommy Joseph wants her to go so she's going."

"Jen." Daisy says through gritted teeth. "Shut up."

"Tommy Joseph?" Susan says, striding back toward the front hall with her camera. "I didn't know you two were a thing? Why don't you talk to me anymore?" Susan frowns.

"Oh my God, we're not a thing." Daisy swallows. Jen snorts and Daisy punches her arm.

"Smile!" Susan says, holding up the camera and snapping a picture of the two on the stairs. "Jen, I'll make your mom a copy when I get it developed."

"Thanks, Miss Hendrix." Jen nods, following Daisy down the rest of the stairs.

Susan sighs, then sends Jen a smile. "Okay, have a good time." She nods. "Go Wasps!" Susan cheers, throwing a fist in the air.

Daisy felt a pit grow in her stomach from embarrassment, before shuffling Jen out the door before Susan can say anything else.

"Jesus Christ." Daisy mutters, getting in Jen's car and driving to the game.

—

The game had already started by the time the two arrived, which was fine with Daisy. She didn't really understand football, and she didn't really care to. The more she missed of the actual game, the better.

Cheering erupts from the crowd as they make their way toward the bleachers, the bright field lights working as their only source of light as the sun began to set way earlier now.

Jen pulled Daisy through the crowd of supportive parents, past alumni who just need to move on with their life, and current students decked out in maroon and yellow to support the Wasps.

Daisy sat down on one of the freezing cold bleachers, watching as the football continued. They say that all that armour in football just encourages the kids to hit each other harder, you can't see the bruises but their little brains get rattled around in their skulls causing bruising and damage. She didn't know how people found this entertaining, but a lot of people could say the same thing about her interests.

"Which one's Tommy?" Daisy asks, leaning towards Jen who sat beside her.

"Uh." Jen looks around on the field. "I think he's on the sidelines right now— number twelve."

Daisy follows Jen's gaze all the way over to Tommy, who stood with his helmet off, panting and sweaty. He was even attractive when he was far away. He was just built— attractively.

"Tommy!" Jen yelled, standing up and waving her hands frantically to get his attention.

"What the fuck!?" Daisy whispers, latching onto Jen's arm and trying to pull her back down. "Oh my god, stop." She mutters, as she turns to see Tommy looking around to where the voice was coming from.

As he finds Jen, his eyes trail down to Daisy, who sat embarrassedly beside her. He smiled at her embarrassment. "Hey guys!" He yells back.

Everything he did was cool. The way he just yelled over the cheering and chaos of a football game gave Daisy butterflies.

Jen finally sat down. "Do you live to embarrass me?" Daisy whispers.

"I try my best." Jen says. "Oh shit, look." She gestures towards the cheerleaders, who stood on the running track that wrapped the field.

Carol Lawrence stood in the front row of the cheerleaders, shuffling her pom-poms against each other as she glanced in between Daisy and Tommy with a pissed off expression on her face.

"Yikes." Jen scoffs. "It's almost been a year. She needs to get over herself."

Daisy watches as Carol turns back to the crowd, replacing her scowl with an over exaggerated smile, before kicking a leg up in the air and letting out a cheer.

Carol and Tommy dated for two years before they broke up toward the end of junior year. It was nasty, and the entire school knew about it. Mostly because Carol was crying for weeks over it, and everyone pretended to care to get on her good side.

Because being on Carol Lawrence's bad side made for a very very bad time.

There was no way Daisy could compete with her, and even looking at her made Daisy think this whole thing between her and Tommy was just some over imagined scenario she made up in her head.

A group of people begin to walk in front of the bleachers, looking for a seat. And Daisy immediately recognizes that it was the Parker family, all of them.

"Damn." Daisy says, looking at all the sets of twins that followed their parents. She then found herself looking for Kai, who would seem to stick out amongst his blonde siblings, but he didn't seem to be there.

"Josette!" Jen says, Daisy follows Jen's gaze over to Josette, who walked in beside Kai, a little behind their family. The poor girl looked so awkward, she clearly didn't want to be there. But she smiled brightly when she saw Jen and Daisy. "Come sit with us." Jen gestures for her to sit.

Josette had sat with Daisy and Jen all week at school, and Daisy had actually really grown to like her. She was sweet, and quiet, and the complete opposite of her asshole brother.

Josette mutters something to Kai before walking towards the two. Kai wore blacked out sunglasses, even though it was nine o'clock at night. He paired it with a long black trench coat. Daisy scoffed, was he trying to look like an asshole?

Daisy expected Kai to follow the rest of his family, but instead he dipped into one of the stairs leading out of the sports complex by himself, meeting Daisy's stare before disappearing from her view.

"Hi." Josette smiled, Daisy scoot over a bit and made room for Josette.

"Hi, Jo." Daisy returned her smile. "We didn't think you were coming."

Jo sat down and took a deep breath. "Yeah it was a last minute thing. My parents thought it would be fun to come and see our high school." She shrugged.

"You have a lot of siblings." Jen commented.

"Yeah." Jen sighed, looking a bit embarrassed. "Twins run in the family."

"I can see that." Jen laughed a bit. "I'm hungry. Do you all wanna split a thing of nachos?"

"I can go get them." Daisy says.

"Okay, be quick— I think Tommy'll play again soon." Jen says.

Daisy nods before stepping in between people to get down the bleachers. She would be lying if she said she wasn't mainly getting up to get food to save her short attention span from football.

She quietly pushed through a crowd of people to get to the concession stand under the bleachers, ordering a plate of nachos with extra cheese.

"Thank you." Daisy spoke quietly, as the man handed her her order and she turned around to walk back to her spot.

She quickly caught glance of Kai, turning a corner and disappearing once again. Without hesitation, she followed him. She wasn't sure why, but she mainly just wanted to catch him in the act if he was doing something stupid. Daisy liked to have things to hang over people's head.

She turned the corner he had previously disappeared behind, only to see him leaned up against a brick wall, lighting a cigarette.

He didn't see her at first, so she took that as a chance to get away without being talked to. "Are you following me?" Kai asks, smugly.

Daisy stops in her tracks, turning back around to face him. "Are you wearing sunglasses when there's no sun out?"

Kai scoffs, putting the cigarette in between his lips again. "You never been high before?" He asks.

"I have." Daisy responds defensively, like it was some proud achievement she had.

"Didn't know you and Josette were friends." He says, blowing the smoke out of his mouth, then holding out the cigarette for Daisy.

Daisy accepts it and takes a quick puff. "Yeah." She nods, handing it back to him.

"I'm surprised." He shrugs, turning to look at Daisy. She didn't like not seeing his eyes under those glasses.

"Why?" Daisy asks.

He shrugs again. "She must be really desperate."

Daisy's mouth gapped open and she scoffed. "You are such a dick." She shakes her head in disbelief.

Kai shrugs, for the third time in a row. Daisy turns on her heel, before walking back to her seat with her blood boiling. What he said wasn't even that bad, but it was just the way he acted, the way he felt like he was better than her, that's what pissed her off.