THE DRIVE TO WENDY'S WAS done in complete silence. The only time they spoke was when Lorraine leaned over to order through the drivethru. She ordered a box of four nuggets and a small Coke zero. Lottie got a wrap and another collection of nuggets that she left very pointedly on Lorraine's lap.

They ate in the parking lot and neither of them spoke to each other. Lorraine liked that about Lottie, their silences weren't awkward, they didn't need to fill them constantly. Lorraine loved Mari more than anyone else, but that girl never stopped talking. Lorraine preferred to listen, most of the stories she could tell about her own life ended up in the conversation taking a rather morose turn if she was honest.

If Lottie wasn't a gorgeous rich soccer player, she'd probably be known as the weird quiet girl. She didn't like big groups, she went to parties and just sort of found herself a quiet corner to people watch in. When they were in elementary school Lottie used to spend her recesses catching butterflies in a glass jar with holes poked in the lid. One time she'd found a lizard outside and had kept it in her cubby, feeding it apple slices until their teacher came across it.

"I know you didn't eat breakfast," Lottie said, swirling the straw around her Sprite. "You should eat those."

Lorraine wasn't as sneaky as she'd give herself credit for. Either that, or Lottie was just really observant. 

"I'm not hungry," she tried, shuffling in Lottie's heated seat to move the box of extra chicken nuggets.

Lottie shook her head, turning to face Lorraine. "Cut the crap," she said gently. "If you pass out at nationals none of us will ever forgive you, you know that right?"

She wasn't going to pass out, she'd been doing this for months. But, she also really didn't like seeing Lottie's already sad eyes look so desperately at her. She opened the box with quivering hands. She already hadn't intended to eat what she had, but an extra six felt like some stupidly impossible task. 

She didn't want to start anything, so she ate them very slowly, chewing deliberately. Lottie seemed satisfied with that, waiting until after she was done to start the drive back to school. Lottie was one of the few people on the team that didn't get on Lorraine's nerves, she didn't want a fight.

Predictably, the moment that Lottie and Lorraine returned to school, they were immediately brought into an argument between Natalie and Taissa.

Nat was the one who butted heads with people the most out of everyone on the team (other than maybe Allie). The girls on the team definitely didn't like each other. They weren't friends, they didn't hang out on weekends.

Four months ago, Lorraine would have said the only friend she had on the team was Mari. They respected each other... mostly. Pretty much every girl liked Van and Lottie, Jackie and Shauna were best friends and everyone thought Misty was just kinda weird.

They didn't need to be friends, though. Because they were a well oiled machine, and they won regardless of whether or not they liked each other.

Lorraine didn't dislike any of the other Yellowjackets, per se, but she wouldn't ever voluntarily spend time with them. Van never took anything seriously, Nat was kind of a bitch who tended to put herself on this high horse, and Taissa was a lot to deal with most of the time.

Normally, Lorraine knew better than to put herself in the middle of a fight between the two of them, but Lottie approached so she followed.

"She can't handle it," Taissa was saying. "She's dragging us down."

"That doesn't give us the right to be dicks about it," Natalie shook her head. "Allie made the team for a reason."

"Allie made the team because no one else tried out." Taissa dropped her bag on the concrete harshly.

"She's not bad at soccer," Lottie said carefully. "But she just doesn't get that we're a team."

Lorraine knew about Allie's behaviour more than any of them. She'd delt with the girl dozens of times either solo or with Jackie. Allie was good at soccer, but she wasn't good enough that the way she acted off the field made up for it.

"We are though," Natalie said. "And she is on the team, so we need to let her be on the team."

"It's like you don't even care," Taissa snapped.

"Are you kidding me?" Natalie scoffed. "You're being insensitive."

Taissa huffed. "This is what we've worked for all season. You really want to take that chance?"

"Yeah," Natalie responded. "'Cause I'm not a fucking asshole."

"What are you guys talking about?" Shauna came up beside Lottie.

They were all silent for a moment, unsure of whether or not to trust Shauna with it. Shauna and Jackie were best friends, and Jackie would shut it down immediately.

"What about her?" Shauna glanced over to where the freshman was talking with two members of the baseball team.

"Did you black out at states? She totally choked."

"She's a freshman, Tai." Natalie cut in.

"She's a liability." If anyone should have made captain, it was Taissa. She was cutthroat, and she didn't care about hurting feelIngs.

Lorraine didn't like Allie, but she also felt kinda bad for her. She was overcompensating to fit in with the rest of the team, all older and - if she was honest - better at soccer than her.

"So what do you want to do about it?" Shauna asked.

Taissa had the tact to at least pretend to look guilty. "She can't screw up if she doesn't get the ball."

Shauna stared at her. "You want to freeze her out?"

"At least we'd know what we're working with," Taissa defended.

Both Lottie and Shauna glanced over at Lorraine. She shouldn't let it happen - if Jackie were there, then it wouldn't even have been an option. "Okay, I can admit that she's not the greatest, but we really, we shouldn't." Lorraine didn't know who she was convincing, probably herself, but it definitely wasn't Taissa.

Lottie crossed her arms. "She kind of sucks, but... I don't know."

Natalie laughed, stunned. "That's because it's bullshit!"

"Oh, yeah?" Taissa turned on her. "What's your plan, then?"

"I don't know, play like a fucking team and win? It's worked so far."

Taissa sighed stiffly. She was very tightly wound, which was usually a good thing, she was never unfair, just slightly harsh. Natalie, despite her dark eyeliner and rough exterior, was one of the kinder people on the team. Sure, she could be a bitch, but Lorraine would take what she could get. "Everything works until it doesn't." She took a step back from Natalie. "And, for the record, you smell like a wino. Get your shit together."

Natalie inhaled sharply, her wide smile more out of shock than anything. "You know what?" she said calmly. "Fuck this." She stormed off.

The rest of them stood there in silence until Lottie shifted uncomfortably. "Doesn't feel right." She agreed, heaving her bag onto her shoulder.

"She needs to learn how to play on a team," Lorraine acknowledged. She was mostly talking to Shauna, not looking at Taissa as she followed Lottie, who had caught up to Nat.

Natalie huffed. She wasn't one to talk shit behind someone's back, she was more likely to call you a dick to your face. "Are you just gonna let her do that?"

Lorraine realised with a start that Natalie was snapping at her. "What am I supposed to do about it, Nat?"

"I don't fucking know!" Natalie threw her hands up. "Talk to Jackie- talk to Coach!"

Lorraine didn't really... want to do either of those things. "It'll just start shit. We need Tai more than we need Allie, I mean."

Natalie scowled at her. "You're fucking useless, aren't you?"

Lorraine didn't know why she or Jackie had been tasked to lead the Yellowjackets. Lorraine wasn't good at the whole diplomacy thing, and Jackie was a good soccer player but nowhere near the best.

She felt bad for Allie, definitely, and she wasn't going to join Taissa in freezing her out. But at the same time, maybe she needed it.

They had one more practice after school, and Lorraine was just desperately hoping that Allie picked up her game before they left.

"We'll be late for fourth period," Lottie coaxed her gently. "We should get going."

Lorraine had calculus and she nodded, going over towards the gym. Lottie raised her eyebrows but didn't say anything to her, instead heading off towards her English class. 

Lorraine didn't really had to actually go to any of her classes that week, they had two days of school and then they left for nationals the next day anyway. Her teachers weren't going to actually care if she did work or not. And who was the school going to call at home to tell them she wasn't in class?

There was a gym class out there, but Lorraine didn't care. She was in her track uniform anyway for practice later so she decided now was the perfect time to run some laps. The chicken nuggets felt like she'd swallowed a twenty pound weight, and usually she'd cut her losses and throw them up. This time, though, she wanted to keep them down, even if it was only so she could tell Lottie that she had. If they had to stay, though, she'd run them off. 

Everything in her head had been so hectic recently. She had her unopened Yale letter still in her car, they were leaving for nationals the next day. Lorraine had pretty much no idea what she was doing in her life, so she resorted to doing what she always did. It was a routine that while, yes, it could be physically painful, it was familiar. The feeling of her lungs burning from sprinting was much preferred than the feeling that she had failed.

She'd clear her head, practice would go smoothly and everything would be fine.

────────── ⋆˚✿˖° author's note
hi lovely people now that i've started college again time is rlly slipping away from me to be honest if i didn't have different classes every day then i wouldn't know what day it was anyway, but i am currently unwell so i've spent pretty much all day in bed so i had quite a bit of time on my hands to do very important things. like make this meme 

i watched this gameshow episode today, the show is called um, actually and i usually don't watch it very often BUT this episode had the word Yellowjackets in the episode so i did watch that one, the question was about laura lee and they all got it wrong </3 justice for my girl

i can't wait for the last practice. everything is going to go so smoothly, no one is going to get hurt at all. things are great!

i hope you enjoyed this chapter, you actually have to because i'm very unwell and staring at my computer screen so much is giving me a headache so ur legally obligated to be very nice to me anyway i love you all <3333333