Practice started the next week and Ash was more than pumped for the beginning of the football season.

After school hours found her on the field with the rest of the girls dressed in training gear and warming up while they waited for coach.

In the middle of a warm-up lap, Ash realized that she had a spectator. Hailey was seated alone in the bleachers with a sketchpad in her lap.

She looked up from the sketchpad, noticed Ash staring and looked back down immediately, appearing quite flustered.

Ash knew she had that effect on people but with Hailey it was just too cute.

She waved and Hailey waved back.

Maybe it was time to have that talk about what happened that night, Ash considered since coach was yet to arrive.

Before she could take the first step, Maddie intervened.

"Hey babe!" she yelled.

Ash turned.

"Penalty shootout, you and me," she said.

Ash flashed Hailey an apologetic grin and walked up to the penalty box.

"Yo Ginny!" she yelled to one of the defenders, "Ball!"

The girl picked up the soccer ball she had been free-styling with and threw it.

Ash trapped it midair and controlled it then ran with it over to the penalty spot.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I will not hold back," Ash said.

"I would be disappointed if you did."

"I'm going to cream you."

"Babe, come on. Not in public." Maddie said, faking embarrassment.

"Ooh!" the girls echoed.

"Callate perras!" Ash said.

They quietened as they gathered in a loose circle to watch.

Ash stretched a little, placing a foot on the ball.

"Ready when you are, princess," she said.

"You aren't getting anything in."

"Isn't that what you said last night?"

"Burn!" Kira; the resident fuckgirl, screamed.

"Best two out of three?"

"You're on, butter fingers."

"I don't remember you complaining when they were in you."

Before the crowd could react, Ash drew back her right foot and shot.

Her aim was the top right corner where it would be extremely difficult to reach.

But just as Ash was the best striker in the district, Maddie was the best goalie.

She took a mad dive and caught the ball then hit the ground and rolled.

The cheers were deafening.

Maddie was incredible, even Ash could not deny that.

But she wasn't done yet.

Maddie tossed the ball back as she resumed her position.

She gave a 'come at me' gesture and smirked.

Ash returned the smile.

She took another shot, this time only a little to the side but with so much force feeding it that by the time Maddie darted to catch it, it was already in.

The next shot shared the same fate with Maddie's fingers only grazing the ball as it flew home.

The girls went wild.

Maddie's cheeks grew red and redder still as Ash blew her a kiss and flipped her the bird.

"Best five out of seven?"

"Whatever you say." Ash laughed.

Four shots later and Maddie caught three of them.

Ash was still smiling.

"Best nine out of eleven?" she asked.

"I can do this all day," Maddie said confidently.

Then she failed to catch any of the following four shots.

"Best seventeen out of-"

"What is going on here?"

"Oh shit," Maddie muttered.

Coach was here.

The crowd spaced as the young woman in a T-shirt and shorts showing off perfect skin and legs to die for walked into the penalty box.

"Heyyy coach," Ash said, scratching her head slowly.

The older female shook her head.

"Penalty shootout?" she asked.

"Yes," Ash answered.

"Who's ahead?"

"She is," Maddie lamented.

"Good to see you're still in shape, Ash. How about one more before we start training?"

Ash shrugged. Maddie just glared furiously as she threw the ball back.

"Don't blink, sweetheart," she teased.

"Bite me."

"That can be arranged."

Ash took a step back then she shot.

Maddie dived for all she was worth, following the path of the ball like a guided missile. But she just wasn't fast enough.

She punched the ball but not far enough to get it out of danger zone. It hit the bar and ricocheted into the net.

"WHAT'S MY NAME????!!!!!" Ash screamed as she took off running.

The team chased her and piled on top of her like they were celebrating a real match victory.

It took a while to get them to settle down by which time Maddie was done pulling up the grasses.

Ash walked up to her unable to conceal the self satisfied smirk on her face.

"Oh come on you knew I was gonna whoop you, bebita." She laughed.

"You're lucky I like you."

Maddie grinned in reply and lifted her off her feet from the legs then spun her around.

As Ash hovered off the ground, she caught Hailey smiling. It was a sad smile. Like she was happy for her but still sad.

If she didn't want to know what happened before she did now more than ever.

*****

Training lasted a half hour more comprising mostly running laps and free passes.

"Alright, alright, gather round," Coach said at last.

They did as she asked.

"I have an announcement to make," she said.

"You're dating again?" Kira blurted.

"Shut up, ho," Tiana said, following swiftly with a smack to the head.

"Yeah shut up, the coach is mine," Brandy added.

"Bran, we've been over this before." Coach sighed.

Indeed they had. Every year Brandy tried her luck with the coach and every year the coach turned her down.

Coach Henderson was a patient woman and she must have found Brandy amusing, either that or she thought it to be just a harmless crush.

Ash knew it was more than that.

"Not enough times," Brandy replied.

"I'm older than you."

"Yeah..." Brandy sighed dreamily.

"Seven years older than you."

"Yes, I know that and I'm sorry you had to wait seven years for me but I'm here now."

"I'm also your teacher."

"You want me to get kicked out? Cos I'll do-"

The rest of her sentence was cut short as Tiana grabbed her by the neck and covered her mouth.

"Please go on Coach."

"Thank you. Now, you have a friendly match with East High in a few weeks."

"Those guys? Please," Kira said.

"We do not look down on any opponents, that's the quickest way to lose."

"Agreed but we're talking about East High. Those guys literally stay at the bottom of the tournament tables," Ginny stated.

"She does have a point," Maddie shrugged.

The coach sighed.

"Vamos señoras, you guys are tiring out our boss lady," Ash spoke up, "Don't worry coach, we promise to try and take them seriously. No te preocupes, mami."

It probably did not help that she ended her sentence with a snort as it set the whole team laughing out loud.

"Training next tomorrow after school. Don't be late again."

"Uh we weren't late Coach, you were."

"Let me say what I want to say," the woman sighed, "And by the way, I do have a date tonight. Hit the showers, ladies!"

"Ayayay! Is he hot? Is it a he? Is it a she? It's a she isn't it?"

Maddie continued to rapid-fire question the woman as she followed her off the field.

Brandy on the other hand walked away sadly muttering something about someone standing in the way of her love.

Ash took off her shirt, grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler, took a sip and poured some on her head.

She stalked over to Brandy and emptied the rest on her head then took off as the broken hearted girl chased her around the field.

*****

Tattoos were not totally disapproved of at Green Valley High, especially when they were not visible in normal clothes, still Hailey did not expect Ash to have so many.

As she ran around the field, dripping wet in a sport bra and shorts like something straight out of Hailey's fantasies, Hailey checked her out.

To be fair, who wouldn't?

Even her teammates stared once in a while. Hailey though was drooling.

Ash had ink on her back, trailing all the way to halfway up her left arm. Hailey couldn't decipher the tattoos from the distance but they were beautiful. Splashes of red, green and black.

Hailey wanted to draw them. To draw on them. She wanted to travel along then with her fingers. She wanted to know what each of the drawings meant.

Just when she thought the Latina girl of her dreams could not get any hotter, this happened.

Why was fate this cruel?

The offended girl eventually caught up to Ash and tackled her to the ground where they rolled around wrestling for control.

Finally, Hailey could no longer stand the jealousy and the stirring in her centre. She gathered her things and performed her most popular trick: the disappearing act.

If she had had the nerve to pull a Lot's wife, she would probably have seen that she was not the only one staring.

*****

Cait was sitting on the hood of her truck when Hailey got to the parking lot.

"Where were you?" she asked.

She slid down and folded her arms as Hailey withered under her accusatory glare.

"Around?"

"Around where? I looked for you everywhere you could be."

"I got detention," she lied.

"You've never had detention a day in your life, Hailey. You don't even know what it's like."

"Well maybe I'm trying out new things, like detention or maybe watching soccer."

"You were at the field," Cait surmised.

Hailey nodded.

"Why are you so defensive about it? And since when do you like soccer?"

"Since the holidays."

"Oh yeah? Name three soccer players."

Now Hailey realized she had screwed up.

"Anthony Joshua."

"He's a boxer."

"Marshall Mathers?"

"That's Eminem. We will discuss how you know that later."

"Ramsey Gordon."

"The chef guy? Are you even trying?"

"Grover...Underwood?"

"Now you're just making stuff up." Cait said.

"No...that's the goat guy from Percy Jackson," Hailey confessed in a small voice.

"O...kay, we will also discuss that later. But what is going on with you?"

Hailey couldn't meet her eyes. She wanted to be anywhere but there.

Somehow Cait read her silence perfectly like she always did.

"It's a girl isn't it?"

Hailey's eyes grew to the size of pennies.

She walked away to the car and got in.

"Oh no you don't. We are so having this conversation," Cait said.

She was in the passenger seat before Hailey had the key in ignition.

"Talk to me."

"Yes it's a girl, okay?" Hailey yelled, her frustration getting the best of her.

"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it right now," Cait said.

She took the key from Hailey's shaking hands and fixed it in then turned it.

The old hunk of metal coughed and sputtered and finally roared to life.

Hailey wasn't fooled. No way was she getting away that easy.

"But you're gonna tell me which girl right now," Cait finally said.

Hailey sighed.

She remained silent as she strapped herself in and gestured for Cait to do same.

She did as Hailey asked but it was obvious she wasn't dissuaded.

"Fine, I'll guess till you tell me. There's only so many of them," Cait said at last.

"Jesus Christ, Cait just let it-"

"Brandy?" Cait guessed, "No, she's into Coach Henderson."

Hailey sighed.

"Kira? No, you would not dare."

"Excuse me?"

Now Cait was ignoring her.

"Maddie? No. She's too much like me."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"Girl you barely stand me."

Hailey thought it over for a second.

"Tiana? No she's straight. But that black is most certainly beautiful."

"So I can't like a straight girl?"

"You're in love, Hailey, not stupid."

"Some people would say they are the same thing."

Caitlin just waved her off, looking out at the window as she ran a mental list of the soccer girls.

"Emil-No she's into that hunk Caleb. And they are just too cute for you to go messing around there."

"It's not her."

"It's definitely not Ash either. You'd have to be off your rockers."

It was a vain effort to even hope that Cait wouldn't notice her total silence at the mention of the name, or that her knuckles had turned white from squeezing the steering wheel too tight.

"Are you insane?" Cait asked.

"What?"

"Of all the girls in the entire school. Ash?"

"I didn't choose her okay? Even you know you don't choose these things. It's not my fault she's way out of my league."

"I didn't say that."

"You think it. I know you do."

"Well yes I do but what do you expect? The girl is another level. She's popular, she's intimidating, she's hot and I'm straight as a rod but I could bend like a rubber pole for her. Not to mention, she's also the typical bad girl."

"You don't know her like that."

"Oh yeah? Remember Miss McCarthy?"

"Yes, why?"

"She had one period with Ash in her class and had to see a therapist after."

"You're making that up. Besides she stayed a full year and only left because she wanted to further her studies or something."

"Who knows how many therapists it took to help her last that long?"

Hailey didn't know what to believe. While Cait didn't lie to her, her news sources weren't exactly trustworthy.

"I didn't want to tell you in the first place okay. It's not like we shared a moment when she was drunk and she doesn't remember it or anything like that."

That was Hailey's curse. She blurted when she was nervous and Cait knew it. That did not however prepare her for the confession Hailey dropped.

"You WHAT???" she screamed.

"Jesus, Caitlin. I'm driving here!" Hailey scolded.

"You kissed her when she was drunk? Do I need to tell you all the reasons why all of this is wrong?"

"No, Caitlin, I've already done that. Besides, she kissed me! I know, it's hard for you to believe that someone like that would want to kiss me."

"I'm not attacking you, Hailey, why are you so defensive?"

"Maybe because I want you to. I want you to tell me how stupid I am for thinking I have a shot. For thinking it would change a thing if Ash remembered. For not being able to stop thinking about her!"

She pulled up in the driveway of her house, parked and got out without waiting for Caitlin to say more. She was already upstairs when Cait entered the house.

"Hello, Mrs Smith, you look lovely." Caitlin's voice trailed from downstairs as she ran into Hailey's mother.

Hailey shut her bedroom door hard and threw herself face down on the bed.

"Never mind that. We're just having a little misunderstanding-Ooh do I smell cheese? Lovely." Caitlin's voice continued to draw nearer.

Hailey counted the seconds until the door opened and Cait walked in.

The bed sank as Cait lowered herself onto it beside Hailey.

"Oh honey, come on."

"Go away," Hailey said but it came out muffled and incomprehensible.

"I can't hear a word you just said, you're going to have to lift up your head just a little."

Hailey did.

"Go away," she repeated.

"Oh that's what you said. Well I'm not going anywhere. Now sit up and talk to me, you're not seven."

Hailey did that too but she had a pouty face on.

She took of her glasses and cleaned it with the hem of her sweater.

"Do you think I'm being stupid?" she asked as she slipped them back on.

"More than usual?" Cait asked.

Hailey frowned and Cait raised her hand in mock surrender.

"You're not stupid for believing in love. You're not stupid for being hopeful-even though you did jump several leagues to get to that particular big apple. But no. I'm sorry if I made you feel that way but you're a smart, funny, beautiful girl who really needs new frames made for this generation. I'd probably date you if I swung that way."

"No, you wouldn't. You'd be into cheerleaders."

Cait didn't bother denying it.

"True," she shrugged, "The point is don't be ashamed. So what if you're crushing on her? So is more than half of the school. But besides Madison, I don't see any of them talking about having shared a kiss with her, drunk or not."

Hailey smiled. That was true.

"Now, we're going downstairs. Our Mom's making mac and cheese."

"I think you mean my mom."

"That's...what I said." Cait frowned in confusion.