Carmen started every day the same: Wake up, do fifty crunches, go on a jog around her neighborhood, come home, shower, eat two eggs (scrambled), then do whatever else this life requires her to. Today life required her to do a pep rally, which, she was not looking forward to.

"Good morning, Carmen," Her father said, rubbing his eyes from his recliner which he oh-so-often fell asleep on. With his plump stomach hanging over the belt that he had forgotten to take off the night prior. 

"Morning Daddy," Carmen smiled politely, walking over to the front door, "I'm going to Lottie's after school, so, don't wait up,"

"Oh! Tell Malcolm to call me, I have an offer for him," He said, craning his neck towards the door, "And, uh, be safe and all that. You do leave for nationals tomorrow,"

Carmen nodded on her way out of the door closing it softly, walking to school as she began to think of all that she would have to do today: pep rally, practice, and then the party that she had only agreed to go to because she knew it would make her look 'weird' if she didn't. She was never the type to like being in the spotlight, not since her mom had left. 

Whenever she was a kid her mom would spend hours doing her makeup and teasing her hair to the point of tangles being second nature, only for her to walk down a stage, blowing kisses to men in their fifties to only get second place. The pageants stopped whenever she got to be eleven when her mom finally decided she didn't want a daughter who never brought home a trophy and a husband who came home every night having beer lingering on his beard. Whenever she came to this realization she packed her bags and moved to New York where she started her new family. 

       The day trudged on like it always did, Carmen keeping to herself as much as she could, until she got to science class. She didn't mind it as much as her other classes, but it still wasn't at all that interesting, the only thing that sparked her interest was her lab partner Misty. Don't get me wrong, Misty was weird. But Carmen truly didn't mind the girl's eagerness when it came to the dissection of the baby pig or toad that was placed in front of them. Today was an easy day for the girls though, as the teachers were giving everyone a break for the big day, "Are you nervous?" Misty asked smiling over at Carmen through her glasses.

"Honestly, no," She breathed as she propped her head up on the table, "Not as much as I am dreading the stupid pep rally I have to go do,"

"It's not that bad!" Misty hurriedly tried to reassure the girl, "Trust me! Everyone is going to be so excited, I mean, I know I am!"

"Yeah, I know you are," The girl laughed lightheartedly as she dragged her hands down her face, "You think if I can find some hair chalk you can go as me?" When she opened her eyes she saw Misty contemplating if it would work, "I'm just joking, get that look off your face."

Misty looked down at the table, face turning red as the other girl laughed.

Shoop, Baby,

All the girls in the locker room singing and dancing before they had to go out on the floor, Carmen found herself singing along and bopping her head to the music as she watched her teammates thrive. Coach Ben knocked on the wooden door before leaning his head in, eyes closed, "Hey, Ladies, can someone tell Taylor to see me in my office?"

"Gotcha Coach," Carmen agreed, pushing herself off the floor as she walked to where one of the freshmen was getting an insect painted onto her face, "Jackie, Coach wants to talk to you," The Taylor girl nodded with a smirk as she winked to the freshman and walked away, bumping shoulders with the taller Bruce girl on her way out.

"It's not fair you know?"

"Oh, I know," Vanessa Palmer, who was arguably one of the prettier girls on the team said to comfort the struggling freshman.

"It's so unfair, my dress was going to be amazing," The girl replied, looking back at Carmen who was walking over to them both.

"Well, hey, you can wear it next year,"

"You don't get it, Van, because nobody asked you," the freshman girl said cockily whenever Carmen flicked her in the side of her temple.

"Shut up freshman," She said as she tipped her head sharply to the door with an irritated look,

"Jesus Christ.." Lottie Matthews laughed airily as she strolled in after the girl left the room with Taissa, just as the other two girls just shook their heads as they giggled simultaneously, "Does someone maybe want to tell Kelly Kapowski to maybe worry less about prom and more about not fucking up nationals?"

"I think it's more than prom, I think she just sucks," Carmen added as she began pulling her long hair into a ponytail.

"Yeah, don't worry," Taissa grinned crossing her arms, "Not going to happen," as she strolled out of the bathroom.

The girls then began lining up outside of the gymnasium doors as they listened to their principal cheer on the Boy's baseball team (who could barely hit a damn ball all season) until they heard who the Pep Rally was really for.

"Now, our next act doesn't need any introduction, let us make some noise for our New Jersey State Girls' Soccer Champions!"

The Girls ran out: Jackie, Carmen, Lottie, then Shauna, and so on. The cheers made Carmen nervous, but she knew no one was specifically looking at her, dissecting her with their eyes ready to give her a rating on how big her smile was. When they had all finally got out on the floor she heard Misty chanting "Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!" trying to get the crowd to join in, and as they did, Carmen looked down the row at her teammates until her eyes landed on Shauna; who noticeably also looked nervous, gave a brave smile to Carmen.

There was an early dismissal, fortunately for the girls, but as Carmen started walking out of the building she felt a hand on her right shoulder, to be met with her teammate, Taissa.

"Carmen, I know you care about nationals more than most of the girls on the team," understatement of the century, Carmen thought, I probably care more than all of you, "Which is why I need you to be on my side on something,"

"What is it?"

"You know that Freshman that froze up at State? We need to do something about her,"

Carmen considered for about a millisecond when she nodded her head, "Okay," she agreed as Lottie and Natalie joined them.

"What are you guys talking about?" Lottie asked, lips curling. 

"Allie," Carmen told the girl, "Taissa and I have agreed that something needs to be done, so she can't screw up at nationals like she did at State."

Natalie scrunched up her nose at the girls, "Are you guys serious? That's fucked up,"

Carmen shrugged at the blonde girl as Taissa got defensive, "It's like you haven't noticed that she has her head so far up her ass she can't even kick a damn ball right,"

"Well, what are you going to do? It's not like we can forbid her from going to nationals with us," Lottie said concerned,

"She doesn't need to get the ball, just with the four of us right here, we could make that happen." Carmen said with a sigh, she didn't understand the reason of why they even had to make a big deal out of it. Not everyone is good at everything.

"That is so fucked," Natalie added shaking her head.

 "Oh please, it's like you don't even care," Taissa said, starting to get aggravated with the girl standing across from her. Carmen straightened up as she put her hand on Taissa's shoulder now, feeling the tension grow.

"Are you kidding? You're being insensitive," Natalie said in disbelief,

"This is what we worked for since our freshman year, some of us before then, you want to take that chance?" Taissa added as Shauna Shipmann started walking towards the group.

"Yeah," Natalie said, Carmen rolled her eyes, "Cause I'm not a fucking asshole,"

"What are you guys talking about?" The doe-eyed girl asked, concerned with the tension in the air.

"Allie.." Lottie said with a sigh,

"What about her?"

"Did you black out at State? She choked," Taissa said shaking her head,

"She's a freshman, Tai,"

"She's a liability," Carmen spoke again, done with Natalie's sensitive 'let's all get along' bullshit.

"So what are you going to do about it?" Shauna asked the two girls,

"She can't screw up if she doesn't get the ball," Taissa shrugged,

"You want to freeze her out?" Shauna said with hurt in her voice,

"At least we would know that we're working with!"

"I mean, she sucks," Lottie said, "But, I don't know.."

"That's because it's bullshit!" Natalie said,

"Oh yeah, Natalie? What's your plan?" Carmen said, past annoyance at this point,

"Oh, I don't know Carmen, play like a fucking team and win?"

"Shut up Natalie, and, for the record, you smell like a wino- Get your shit together!"

"Fuck this," The blonde girl said rolling her eyes,

Lottie followed quickly after with a nod of her head, "Jackie's not going to like it," Shauna said as she folded her lips.

"Then don't tell her," Carmen sighed as she took her hand off Taissa's shoulder and moved both of her hands to Shauna's shoulders, "Keep it quiet, Shipmann." Shauna sighed and shook her head with a smile as her cheeks flushed a light shade of pink.

As the girls headed to practice Carmen broke away from the group and began stretching on her own before running around the edges of the field, as Coach Scott blew his whistle she finally jogged back to the group.

"Okay, so, JV is going to help us practice today in a little scrimmage, Coach Martinez is handling a little family business, So JV grab a pinny from Misty, and let's get started!"

"Excuse me, Coach Scott, shouldn't we say a prayer before we start?"

Coach sighed and said, "It's just a scrimmage, Laura Lee," the girl shrugged, "But, uh, yeah, sure, knock yourself out."

As the other girls bowed their heads Carmen closed her eyes politely and waited for the collective 'Amen' to open her eyes, Coach snapped his fingers and pointed to the field as the girls eagerly got up to start the 'game'.

As the scrimmage started Carmen had her eyes on Allie, she turned back to Taissa and cocked he head towards the freshman girl who was visibly nervous about a simple scrimmage. Whenever Natalie- who Carmen and Taissa had expressed their concerns about Allie trying to pass the ball to her, and the younger girl missed the ball; something had to be done.

"Come on Allie! That ball should have been yours,"

"I want to switch sides, I'll take Allie." taissa said to coach as Allie stood there, holding her arm like a lost puppy,

"Alright Varsity, Taissa wants to see you step it up, and quite frankly, that makes two of us. Let's see some hustle!" As one of the JV girls handed Taissa her pinny, Carmen saw the look on Jackie Taylor's face and knew she was in the process of finding out what the girls had planned.

When the game started back up, it was like Taissa and Carmen were one, with their mission to show Allie that she needed to be tougher, stronger, and, hell, just a lot better overall than she was playing before she could even touch the turf at nationals.

Whenever Taissa had shoved Allie, Shauna approached Carmen and said, "You know this isn't going to work,"

"If we aren't going to freeze her out then she has to learn how to play under pressure, you know this," Carmen said tight-lipped to the Shipmann girl as she turned and flipped her ponytail, "It's part of the game," From then on, the game grew a lot more tense, with Carmen pushing Allie to the point the underclassmen was practically fighting with her knees to stay standing, and then when she finally got the ball.. Fuck. Carmen thought as she watched Taissa slide into the shorter girl, her shin breaking the skin, blood flowing.

Carmen watched the young girl writhe on the ground as Misty came running from the sidelines, "Apply pressure!"

"Jesus, Misty! Go get the phone in Bill's office, we need an ambulance!" Coach Scott began yelling, shoving the blonde girl off of Allie.

"You mean Coach Martinez?"

"Jesus Christ, yes!" He said exasperated at the question, Misty took off running as he said, "Keep her calm, don't move her!"

Coach Scott took off running as the other girls began rushing to Allie's side. Carmen took a step back, This is not what I wanted, she thought as she began frantically pulling out a strand of hair from her ponytail. She felt tears prick her eyes but she knew it wouldn't do anyone any good if she started acting like a baby.

After the ambulance came and the girls headed back to the ambulance, a cloud held itself over the team, especially Carmen. Taissa had tried talking to her saying how she didn't mean to, and Carmen knew that she didn't. But, that didn't make it any easier. Carmen turned to the corner to change her shirt as she heard the other girls discussing Allie's injury, "I mean, the lord works in mysterious ways.."

"Nice work, Taissa," Natalie scoffed as she stomped her way out of the locker room.

After Carmen had shrugged on a light sweatshirt, she picked up her backpack and got ready to leave. As she began walking out, Lottie Matthews grabbed her hand and asked, "You want to come over?" with a soft smile. Carmen grinned and nodded, "let's go,"