𝟎𝟐 𝒕𝒓𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒔

✯☾✯

𝑳𝒊𝒛𝒛𝒊𝒆 𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒍𝒚 as stepped out onto the field. She was dressed in her soccer kit, shin pads, knee high socks and boots. Her was tied up on the back of her head in a messy pony. She walked amongst the other girls towards the coach who was frantically waving them all over. A whistle cut through the air, urging them to hurry up and the girls broke into a run.

"Alright, ladies, I'm going to split you into two teams. Figure out your positions with your team. Me and a couple of other staff are going to be watching you from the side-lines. We'll pick out the best fifteen of you to for the real team. Got it?" The coach yelled over the bristling wind.

A chorus of yes's erupted through the girls and they were divided into teams. Once huddled in a circle with her team, it was determined that Lizzie was to play in defence. Lizzie clasped her hands together and stared up the sky, silently thanking God for letting her be in her actual position.

When everyone was in their positions and ready the coach blew three sharp blows on her whistle signalling the start of the match.

✯☾✯

Isaac wandered through school grounds, enjoying his free period. He had been thinking of the girl he had met a couple of hours ago. In fact, he was still shocked she'd asked to sit with him in chem. He had extremely low self-esteem issues which he could thank his father for.

Chem wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be, he mostly stared at Lizzie the whole time who obviously couldn't be less interested in the lesson. He trooped around the campus of the high school as he had nothing better to do. Mr Harris had set homework, but did Isaac want to do it? Fuck no, he'd probably squeeze it in the night before it was due.

As he wandered past the soccer field a loud shout made his ears prick up a bit.

"Lizzie! Lizzie, over here!"

"Lovely pass, Brown!"

Isaac searched through the mass of girls running around on the pitch before him. He scanned each girl, desperate to find the small brunette although it was proving to be a harder job than he thought given their identical kits.

Suddenly the ball was booted all the way from the bottom of the pitch to the top near Isaac and when he looked, he saw it came from Lizzie who looked slightly flustered and confused as to how she'd managed to do that. The tall boy chuckled in disbelief at the hard kick and moved to sit down on the nearby benches.

He tried to make eye contact with Lizzie or grasp her attention of any sorts, but he had no luck. She was too engrossed in the game. However, after she kicked the ball straight through another player's legs, she noticed the familiar curly haired boy sat amid others. Her features lit up and she raised her hand into an energetic wave to which Isaac returned.

20 minutes later and the match was over. A sweaty, red-faced Lizzie immediately rushed over to where her new friend was seated.

"Hey." She greeted breathlessly. After Isaac had turned up, she'd managed to sneak a few glances to see he was actually watching the game. Watching her.

"Hey, you were great out there." Isaac praised and stood up from bench, towering over Lizzie once again.

"You think?" Lizzie asked nervously as she blushed a little from the light compliment. She reached her hands up to chew her nails. It was a nervous tic she developed after her mom died.

"Yeah, totally. You did really good kicking the ball...very...hard." Isaac made an awkward gesture as if he was punching the air. "Sorry, I don't know much about soccer. I'm more of a lacrosse guy."

"Oh really? You going to try-outs after school?" Asked Lizzie and Isaac nodded in response. "I'll be seeing you there then."

Isaac furrowed his eyebrows. "You're coming?"

"I'm watching my brother." Lizzie replied. There was a shout from the coach calling the team back over and Lizzie gazed over her shoulder.

"Sorry, I think I gotta go. I'll see you at try-outs though."

The short brunette started to back away, still facing Isaac and waiting for an answer.

"Yeah sure, I'll see you then."

Lizzie stuck her thumb up before turning around completely and jogging to join the rest of the girls.

✯☾✯

Lizzie was once again outside by the playing fields round the back of her high school. She sat on one of the free spaces on the cold benches and gazed uninterestedly at the boys running drills before her. Her classes had finished for the day not long ago and Lizzie had left straight to the lacrosse try-outs.

She'd already greeted Isaac with a small wave and her brother with a smile upon arriving. Now, she was sat with her earphones dug deep in her ears with Taylor Swift singing into her soul. As she should be.

Behind her, sat the newly formed strawberry blonde and brunette duo. Lydia Martin and Allison Argent. One stared lustfully at the boys running up and down and the other had her eyes on the lighter brunette in front of her.

"Who is that?" Allison asked her friend. Lydia snapped out of her trance and followed her friend's gaze to the back of Lizzie's head. The strawberry blonde studied her carefully, attempting to match her with anyone she knew in that school (which was practically everyone).

"Her?" Lydia pointed in front of her, and Allison nodded. "I'm not sure who she is. Why?"

"Oh, she's just in my English class." Allison brushed off. She held her stare in front of her for a couple more seconds before standing up.

"Where are you going?" Lydia questioned at Allison's sudden movements.

"I'm going to sit with her." Allison smiled but Lydia pulled her face into a grimace.

"Why would you wanna do that?"

"Because she's all on her own." Allison shrugged her shoulders. She didn't want to make things awkward with Lydia and she didn't know the full reason why she wanted to sit with the mysterious girl, but she decided she wanted to at least introduce herself. Lydia pouted, clearly confused as to why her new friend wanted to be near anyone other than her.

"But if you leave then I'll be all on my own."

Allison only just managed to fight the urge to roll her eyes. "Lydia, I'm sure you of all people could find at least 10 other kids on these benches alone that would be desperate to sit with you."

Lydia only replied with a huff as Allison hopped down from her bench and took the seat next to Lizzie. The petite brunette flinched at the surprise presence that appeared next to her. She tentatively reached up to remove her earphones and dropped them onto her lap. She craned her neck to see who it was that was beside her and she recognised her as Allison Argent. The new girl.

Allison grinned as politely as she could. "Hi, I'm Allison." She extended her hand for the smaller girl to shake.

"Lizzie." She replied and shook the offered hand.

"You're in my English." Allison pointed out. She regretted not planning out what she was going to say before she sat down as the conversation was already starting to get awkward.

"I am, yeah." Lizzie replied. Her eyebrows knitted together with confusion. The new girl was talking to her. Hadn't she already been snatched up by Beacon Hills, respective Queen Bee?

"The teacher's a bit uptight, don't you think?" Allison joked, leaning towards Lizzie slightly.

"Oh, just you wait until exam season and then you'll see just how uptight he can get." Lizzie said causing Allison to chuckle.

"You watching your boyfriend or-" Allison started before she was cut off.

"Ugh, no. God I wish. No, I'm watching my brother. Over there." Lizzie pointed her finger in the general direction of Bobby.

Allison followed her finger. "How old is he?"

"17." Lizzie scrunched her nose up as she answered. "Who are you watching?"

The dark-haired girl shook her head. "No one I'm just here with uhm- Lydia. You know Lydia Martin? She's watching her boyfriend."

Lizzie nodded her head slowly although she was clearly not convinced. She was one hundred percent sure Allison had been eyeing the shaggy haired boy that had handed her a pen in English since she got here. "Hm, I don't believe you."

"What do you mean?"

"You've not been watching that guy over there then?"

"What guy? Oh- no. Just- I must have just been looking in that direction."

Then came a pause before Allison added. "Who is he anyway?"

Lizzie broke out into a huge grin. "I think he's Scott but I'm not sure of his last name."

"Scott." Allison echoed.

"I'm hearing wedding bells." The light haired girl sang, spreading her arms out wide and almost hitting the taller in the face. Allison's pale cheeks were suddenly flooded with a noticeable crimson colour.

"No. It's not like that. I mean- I-...shut up."

Lizzie giggled and turned back to the field. A whistle was blown, and the players lined up in front of the goal. The first ran forward towards Scott, who was playing the goalie, and shot towards the net. The ball caught poor Scott by surprise, and it hit him square in the face, causing him to fall back into the goal and onto his ass.

The players and spectators around Lizzie all burst into laughter. Lizzie, however, stayed silent. She felt sorry for the poor boy and silently willed him to get back up and try again. He did just that. Another shot was taken but this time Scott caught it in the net of his lacrosse stick perfectly. His once embarrassed facial expression had now contorted into a shocked one. It almost mirrored Lizzie's expression when she'd managed to kick the ball a bit too hard at soccer try-outs.

Scott flawlessly saved the next shot that was taken. And the next. And the next. Each time the crowd of watchers grew louder in the volume of cheering.

"He seems like he's pretty good." Allison commented.

Finally, when Scott had stopped every shot exquisitely (including Issacs's and Bobby's), it came Jackson's turn. And boy was he determined to get that ball in the goal.

Lizzie held her breath as Jackson sprinted down the field. He leapt into the air, recoiled his stick back and belted it as hard as he could at Scott. The ball flew through the air in what felt like slow motion, hurtled towards the goal and straight into the net at the end of Scott's stick.

People stood from the benches, cheering and clapping. That included Lydia Martin, who gave a loud whoop, and Scott's friend Stiles yelling, "That's my friend!"

Both Allison and Lizzie applauded politely in celebration and as for Scott, he used his newfound confidence to literally dominate the rest of the try-outs.

As practice ended, Allison stood up first to get back to Lydia. "I'll see you tomorrow, Lizzie. It was nice talking to you." She spoke.

"You too." Was what Lizzie replied with. Allison and Lydia wandered off behind the boys towards the locker room and Lizzie soon followed suit.

Lizzie had decided she really liked Allison and very much wanted to see her the next day. She could also definitely see a brewing romance between Scott and Allison in the near future. However, she didn't get her hopes up as she had still come up with the question as to why Allison had wanted to talk to her anyway.

She leant on the wall just by the door of the boy's locker room, waiting for Bobby so they could walk home. The stench of sweaty boys filled her nostrils and Lizzie frantically send her brother a text to get his ass out here.

The door eventually swung open, but it wasn't Bobby who walked through it. It was Isaac. When the taller boy spotted the girl leaning against the wall, he gave her a short but sweet smile.

He had changed from his red lacrosse jersey and into a comfortable looking pair of sweatpants and a hoodie which Lizzie was extremely jealous of, the buckle of her belt had started to rub against her skin a while back. His hair was still wet from the shower and a couple of rouge droplets slipped down the side of his head. Lizzie decided that wet hair was a very good look on him.

"You played awesome. I saw that pass near the end." Lizzie did her best to praise him like he had done so kindly to her at her own try-outs.

"Really? I thought you'd be watching the Whittemore and McCall show." Isaac deadpanned. It was evidently true that he and most of the other boys had been kind of mad that after Scott's surprise performance, everything became about him and Jackson's fresh new battle for the alpha male of lacrosse. Isaac watched Lizzie's face as it shows signs of understanding.

"Yeah, I know, the rest of you could barely get a shot in." She agreed. Unfortunately, Coach's main priority was to find the best players and the best players only for his squad, even if that meant focusing on two particular boys for the entirety of the 40 minutes played out on that field.

"I managed to grab a spot in the first execution on Wednesday though." Isaac lifted both hands above his head in a weak, fake cheer.

Lizzie clasped her own dainty hands together and planted a grin on her face. "That's great!"

The door burst open again, only more aggressively, this time almost hitting Isaac in the face. He stepped back from the proximity of the door and allowed the rabble of boys to walk through. Lizzie's brother being one of them. Bobby spotted his sister after a few seconds and pulled away from his group of rowdy friends.

"L! Did you see me? Tell me how great I was." Bobby teased and playfully pushed his sister's shoulder a little.

"Bobbs, you know dad teaches us not to lie." Lizzie shot back at him with a sarcastic smirk.  The other Brown sibling hit her shoulder again harder and provoked a very dramatic "Ow." from the girl.

"Now, come on, let's go, dad's making pizza." Bobby ushered as he side-eyes Isaac who was once again standing awkwardly and watching the discussion unfold before him.

"No, his pizza sucks. He never cooks it long enough and technically it's not even a pizza, it's just bread with ketchup and cheese on." Lizzie whined; cooking was not one of their dad's strong suits.

"Exactly. We gotta get back to stop him. Say bye to your friend and let's go." Bobby grabbed a hold of Lizzie's arm and started to drag her down the hallway. The girl struggled against his grasp but was ultimately unsuccessful, so, she opted for turning her head back to Isaac as she we was being dragged down through the halls.

"Sorry- see you tomorrow, Isaac." She called back and Isaac nodded his head as he watched the girl disappear through the double doors. He let out a small sigh and stared at the spot Lizzie had stood and just casually chatted to him. Like they were friends. Were they friends? No- they'd only know each other a day but Isaac still found himself thinking about the bubbly brunette for the rest of his evening.

Once Bobby had dragged Lizzie out the doors of the school, she'd manage to rip her arm free of his grasp.

"That was unnecessary."

She rubbed the sensitive spot on her forearm where his hand was previously clamped around just a second ago. Bobby rolled his eyes and groaned as the siblings bounded down the steps and out the school carpark.

"What? Did I interrupt your chat with your boyfriend?" He scoffed.

"Boyfriend? I met him literally today." Lizzie snapped back at her brother. The two fell into silence, walking in step with each other. Lizzie shivered slightly in the cold evening wind. Fall was coming which meant from then on, the temperature would drop considerably.

Fall was Lizzie's favourite season. She couldn't describe the fuzzy feeling that resided in her stomach when the leaves fell from their trees. Maybe it was the autumnal colours she favoured the most. Or, maybe it was the thought of sitting and reading on a park bench one morning, wrapped up in her warmest clothes. Maybe it was even the excitement for Halloween, the pumpkins, the chestnuts, the gorgeous sunsets. She didn't know what it was exactly about the particular season that piqued her interest, but she'd loved it ever since she had learnt what it was.

Lizzie gazed around at the trees that passed her as she walked. They were still pre-fall and only the tips of some of the leaves had faded into an orangy brown. Eventually, the trees thinned out and were replaced with the urban buildings and main roads. Cars sped past the siblings; the drivers focused on getting home for the dinners they didn't even think twice about their surroundings.

The loud engines of the cars became all Lizzie and Bobby could hear which prevented them from starting any kind of conversation. The smaller girl used the time to think back to Isaac. Technically, he was only the second friend she'd made since freshman year. Luckily for her, said boy, who'd she'd bumped into, seemed perfectly sweet and capable of being a friend. Lizzie found herself smiling at thought.

When the duo finally turned off the main road and down the familiar backstreets they knew so well, they could begin talking. The two gave detailed and energetic recounts of how their first days had gone. Lizzie's obviously included her antics with Mr Harris in Chem, her anxiousness for the soccer team to be announced and her thoughts on Isaac. Bobby told completely different stories. Apparently, he'd spilt his strawberry milk all down his shirt at lunch ( he'd even pointed out the stain halfway down his plaid shirt). He'd also mentioned a couple things that Jackson had said which Bobby found funny however Lizzie tuned out just at the mention of Jackson's name.

They were slowly trapsing down their own road when Bobby brought up Lydia's party.

"Oh yeah, it's on Friday. It's a kinda back to school celebration sort of thing," Bobby had replied when his sister had questioned. "I could get you on the guest list if you want to go."

Lizzie shook her head, the last time she attended one of Lydia Martin's famous parties, she ended up being sick all over Kayla's designer shoes and accidently falling into one of the house plants. The night finished with Bobby carrying the very drunk lightweight home at three in the morning.

Plus, she didn't like social events.

"I think I'll pass."

Bobbie clucked his tongue in disapproval.

How did he know she was going to decline?

"Come on, it'll be fun. Kayla will probably be there."

Lizzie shook her head for the second time. "It's a definite no. I do not want a repeat of last time. It sounds stupid anyway. Who throws a party to celebrate the fact that we are back in prison?"

The pair neared their front door and Bobby walked in front a little. Lizzie dodged round their dad's car which only just managed to fit on the driveway. That made Lizzie wonder how the hell they were to fit Bobby's on when he finally passed his drivers exam after over a year of failure. 

He pushed down on the handle, flinging the door open after it was confirmed it was unlocked.

"Daddd!" Bobby yelled at the top of his voice in attempts to let his voice echo throughout the household. The results were satisfactory and both siblings entered the house through the doorway.

"Put the Pizza dough down!" Lizzie yelled too when she'd dumped her school bag on the wooden floor in the hallway. Bobby left to make sure the Pizza hadn't been put in the oven yet and Lizzie clambered up the stairs at the rear of the hallway.

She entered her bedroom with a sigh. The walls were painted an ashy white and floor was hard wood with a few fluffy rugs covering bits. Her furniture was basic, the same pieces she'd had since she was about 10. Her bed, strewn messily with quilts and pillows, was up near the window on the far wall. It's metal frame backed up to it.

Tucked in the corner was a small desk with loose pieces of paper carelessly thrown over the surface. Her poetry. An average sized wardrobe stood beside the door and a large bookcase next to it. The ceilings were covered in fake vines and fairy lights, the walls were plastered with posters and photos, and the window ledge above the bed was dotted with small pot plants. It was a small room for a small girl.

Lizzie adored it.

She flopped down on her bed next to Mimi. She lay staring at the ceiling whilst one hand absentmindedly stroked the cat's midnight black fur. She never told Davis this, but she knew Mimi liked her best. She was always there on her bed, awaiting the young girl's return from school. Even though she had her own special cat bed at the foot of the actual bed, she still preferred to sleep closer to Lizzie.

Lizzie didn't mind though; she babied and spoiled the hell out of that cat. Mimi was the closest thing she had to her mother.

╭── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──╮
edited ✓