LORRAINE HAD ACTUALLY SLEPT THAT night, the full recommended eight hours. She and Mari had shoved all of their stuff in the back of the car the day before, they needed to be at school by eight the next morning to catch the bus with the rest of the team. It was an away game but they were only going about 15 miles away, less than half an hour outside of Wiskayok, to Evans High School. Evans had made state finals the year before, but they'd lost by a lot. Lorraine wasn't too worried, but she was ready to play better than she had in her entire life.

This was her senior year, if they didn't win states then she wouldn't get another chance. Being the Vice Captain of the state champion girls soccer team would look a lot better to Yale. Early acceptance letters had been mailed out, so it was just a matter of waiting to see if she got one. If not, then she needed this win.

They were one of the first ones there, and Mari hadn't stopped chattering nervously since Lorraine had picked her up. They were matching, track jackets over their navy and yellow uniforms. Mari wasn't wearing the bracelet Lottie gave her.

The only other people were Shauna and Jackie, and they were talking in low voices against the hood of Shauna's car. Jackie looked happy, Shauna looked pensive. They decided not to approach them, instead hanging back by Lorraine's car with their stuff.

Slowly over the next thirty-minutes the other teammates started trickling in; Taissa and Van, Laura Lee, Nat. By the time Coach Martinez was ready to load the bus, they were all there, filled with nervous energy.

Mari had crammed herself into the window seat and Lorraine was leaning against her, feet sticking out into the aisle. She only moved them once everyone was on the bus so she wouldn't be blocking the way, so when somebody nudged her foot she supressed a groan.

Lottie was sitting across from them and she'd kicked Lorraine with the toe of her keds. "Here." She had something circular wrapped in paper lining. "Turkey sausage and cheese."

Why was Lottie giving her food? It was usually the other way around, quite literally, Lorraine worked in food service. Lorraine felt her stomach churn uncomfortably. She was starving, but she couldn't eat, not right before the game.

She chanced a look backwards at Mari. Her eyes were closed and she was sitting with her head leaning against the window. She was mostly asleep.

"Thanks, Lot. I'm alright, though." She grimaced out a smile. "That's really generous, though."

Lottie threw it at her, and Lorraine caught it in surprise. "I'm not gonna let you fuck us by playing on an empty stomach." She said sternly. "I know you don't like eating in the mornings."

She hadn't realised until just now exactly how much time she and Lottie had spent together. Lottie wasn't wrong either, most mornings Lorraine felt nauseous, and today was no exception. But she took the sandwhich from Lottie gratefully.

Lottie seemed to be content with that, and she sat with her back to the window, curling up on the seat. She had a book on her lap but she didn't open it, instead just looking at her shoes. Lorraine took small bites and spent as long as she could chewing them. Mari awoke from her half-sleep at Lorraine's insistence and stole a few bites, which Lorraine was supremely grateful for.

Lorraine didn't know what to do with herself when they arrived. They were given a locker room to huddle in, all eleven of the team members, three JV members who Lorraine didn't care about enough to learn their names, and Coach Martinez. Misty hung awkwardly around the sidelines, clearly wanting to join in.

"Girls, this is the second most important soccer game of the season." Coach Martinez said seriously. "So get yourselves ready, me and Misty will see you out there. Jackie, made sure everyone's at their best."

Jackie nodded. The girls were all mostly dressed in their uniforms, so it was a matter of putting their boots on and tying their hair up. Lorraine sat on a bench, tying and retying her laces as she watched Mari put her hair into a high ponytail. Lorraine felt like she was going to puke.

Laura Lee led everyone in prayer, despite the fact that she was pretty much the only person in the group who actually believed in God, like, properly. Lorraine wanted to, but she'd never really known as much about Christianity as she'd have liked. It wasn't like her dad was going to teach her, and she felt too awkward asking Laura Lee about it. 

Jean had been religious. In the photo Lorraine kept in her locker, her mother could be seen very evidently wearing a cross necklace. There was definitely a chance that she'd only been doing that to appease her parents, but Lorraine vaguely remembered her dad tearing pages out of a bible and swearing at Jean after she'd left, at least, she thought it was a bible. 

Taissa cleared her throat and everyone groaned. Taissa had a habit of giving speeches before every game, and she had about a 60% success rate. Sometimes, they were great, and other times... well, they didn't land as well as she wanted them to. "Alright, team. Listen up! We've been working towards this all season, and we're not gonna let Evans stop us. We're the best fucking team in the state, so we're gonna go out and play a lot better than we do in practice. Come on, let's hustle!"

Van let out a whoop, but aside from that, most of the girls just gave her determined looks.

"You heard the woman!" Jackie beamed. "Come on! Get hyped!" Lorraine decided to let loose, to get some adrenaline pumping in her veins.

Misty was the one who started the chant (which happened often, to be honest), but for once everyone joined in. "Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz!" Mari gripped Lorraine's hand. "Fuck yeah!"

Now, it wasn't the super bowl. It was high school soccer - girl's high school soccer at that. There was about twenty people in the crowd, but as they ran out onto the field, her ears rang. Jackie waved to her parents like she was Princess Diana, and to be honest, she might have been.

Evans was good, really good. They got a goal within the first fifteen minutes, and Lorraine cast a worried look to Jackie. Jackie gave her nothing but hardened resolve back. By halftime, Evans was up, two to one. Misty handed out orange slices that no one touched and tried to start another chant.

"Allie needs to pass the goddamn ball," Taissa muttered in Lorraine's ear as she walked past her back onto the field. There had been three seperate instances where someone had been wide open but Allie had taken the shot anyway. They'd only scored one point, and that had been Taissa.

They managed to get back up over the next thirty-minutes, finally pulling ahead three to two. Shauna got one goal and Lorraine got the other one. Evans may have been good, but they were becoming predictable, they didn't have as diverse of a playstyle as they did. Shauna almost got fouled for bodyslamming two seperate players, and that was well under the usual number that late in the game.

"She's just passionate," Jackie defended her to the ref, who seemed unimpressed. One more strike and she was out of the game.

"Buckle the fuck up," Lorraine threatened her. "You get red-carded, I kill you. Understand?"

Shauna ignored her, but she kept her hands to herself for the rest of the game.

They had to go overtime, both teams at three. All they needed to do was score one more goal, and they would be the state champions. Which is why Lorraine's heart sank when Allie got ahold of the ball.

She kept it for as long as she could until one of the Evans girls intercepted it.

Taissa got the ball, slamming into the Evans player, stealing the ball right out from under her feet. She managed to pass it inside to Shauna, and Shauna did most of the work getting it down the right side of the field. Once she was there, it was back to Taissa.

Taissa passed to Lorraine, and most of the girls had to just stop and watch, too far away and too heavily guarded to be much help. The girl who was defending against Lorraine was tall, and she had no qualms about tripping her over. The goal was open but if she took the shot there was no way it would go in from that distance.

"Lo!"

Lorraine didn't have time to think, launching the ball into the air towards the sound of Jackie's voice. It hurtled towards the team captain, heading straight for her face.

Jackie threw her head forward and the ball sailed right past the goalie and into the goal.

Shauna was the first one there, running into her best friend with force and wrapping her arms around them. Lottie joined them with gusto and Lorraine was too full of adrenaline to process what had just happened until Laura Lee was pulling her in.

They had won.

The Wiskayok High School Yellowjackets were the New Jersey 1996 state champions.

Lorraine couldn't hear anything except her screaming teammates as they seperated from their group hug, staying huddled around the goal.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz!"

Lorraine let out an ecstatic laugh as she joined in. She didn't think she'd ever been so excited. They were fucking champions. They'd won. Mari was screaming in her ear but Lorraine didn't care. Everything was muffled anyway, the blood rush too loud to process anything. 

"We're going to nationals!" Shauna was the first one to start yelling anything other than hysterical buzzing, and even then, Lorraine didn't come down from her high until they were back in the locker room.

It hadn't computed yet, they had won. Despite Allie's ball-hogging, despite Shauna's tendency to get red-carded almost every game, despite everything, they were the state champions. Lottie offered to pay for a team trip to the nearest Denny's, and the girls all crowded into two booths, talking loudly and acting as though they had just won the world cup. 

Mari squeezed Lorraine's hand under the table as the bemused waitress piled stacks of pancakes onto their tables. Lorraine caught Lottie's eye across the booth. She just smiled. Lorraine couldn't help but smile back. 

────────── ⋆˚✿˖° author's note
is it obvious i know nothing about soccer lmaooo which is actually kinda sad considering i used to play soccer (it was eleven years ago, okay, i'm sorry) i had to do some insane trawling of the yj wiki page just to sort of make sure everything about the team was as canon accurate as i could, so lorraine's #3, she's a full-back which, as far as i'm aware is mostly a defensive position, but it also requires some offensive plays, so i thought that fit her well as someone who pay not be the fastest or the most agile but probably has the most stamina out of everyone. also, watching the game as best i could tell i think gen is actually part of the team, she might also be a bit younger cause she obviously seems to be closer w the jv girls rather than the rest of them, but all the other girls are canon confirmed to be jv whereas gen is never specified so i made an executive decision in the sake of them actually having 11 people anywayyyyyy
we've officially started season 1, there'll probably be a few chapters between now and the plane crashing (when lorraine said taissa's speeches don't land as good as she wants them to-), but obviously the pace will be well and truly picked up now that we've started ep 1, thank you for being patient with this chapter i've got a lot of college work that i finished in the last week, i'm almost done w the first term though and then i am all yours i love u all make sure to comment i love reading them <3333