FIC: The Complex Lives of Cheerleaders and Quarterbacks (Part 2)

["S.M. Cilia" <cilia@xxxxxxx>]

Hi!

Straight from my brain, then mauled by my beta-beast Howard, it is the
next part of the Complex Lives of.... damn just don't want to type the
entire title again. So enjoy!

The Complex Lives of Cheerleaders and Quarterbacks
Cilia

Chapter 3: The Dawn of Game Day



The warm dawn crept over Sunnydale on its lazy way to Willow's window.
It burned away the darkness and the morning dew as it went, almost as
if searching for a single window on a single house. Spilling its light
through the curtains, it first caught in Buffy's hair. Finally
reaching her eyes, it caused her to stir from her slumber. She awoke
with slight confusion about her surroundings.

To say that Buffy was shocked when she woke up that morning in
Willow's bed would be a bit of an understatement. It started out as a
full-blown, five-alarm panic. Her terror then slowly settled into a
frantic search for an escape and then finally morphed into guilty
curiosity towards the girl in her arms. 

'Oh my, oh my!' Buffy thought as she looked at the sleeping Willow,
lying next to her with her hair spread out like a flaming red halo.
Buffy's hand, which had been so comfortably and naturally been spread
across Willow stomach, had moved sometime during the night. Now it
embraced the cheerleader, having forced open the final button on her
pajama shirt. 

'I'll have to fix that before she gets up or she'll be so
embarrassed,' Buffy thought. She slowly withdrew the arm that was
wrapped around Willow, only to find that the other was still asleep
and numb.

'Crud, guess we'll test that slayer dexterity, then,' she decided,
pulling Willow's red shirt across her exposed stomach. Getting the
first button closed worked like a charm, even though the constant
brushing against Willow's skin was proving to be a distraction at best. 

'Okay, you can do this, Buffy,' Buffy thought to herself firmly, her
tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth. Her face was a mask of
concentration as she worked on the button just under the curve of
Willow's breasts.


~*~*~*~


Willow was having a very wonderful dream, the kind you have just
before you wake up and that seem to last so long. Somebody was rubbing
their hands over her tummy and it felt so good. Yet, as the hand moved
upwards, the dream began to fade and Willow slowly opened her eyes. 

'Buffy is touching me,' she sleepily thought to herself as she became
aware of both her own body and Buffy's close by. 'Buffy is touching
me,' she thought again this time with a joyful little mental giggle.

'Oh, that's kind of nice, getting dressed like this,' she thought and
then gasped as Buffy's hand brushed against her breast shattering the
illusion. 

Buffy yelped and yanked back her hand. "Willow, I-I--," Buffy
stammered as she fumbled to find a place to put her hand. She stopped
when she noticed Willow smiling.

"Morning, you," Willow said as she stretched on the bed. 

This caused Buffy's brain to short-circuit and her jaw to hang a bit
loose. "Eh...uh..." Buffy tried to speak as Willow's lean form
stretched out before her, the pajamas riding up exposing her tummy.

"Yes, my darling quarterback?" Willow asked with a giggle.

"You're teasing!" Buffy exclaimed as she snapped out of her
Willow-induced mini-coma and bashed her with a pillow. 

"Why yes, I am," Willow giggled as she defended herself and soon
feathers were flying. 

That's the scene Willow's mother walked in on. Well, Buffy straddling
Willow, demanding her unconditional surrender, while she tickled
Willow's bare sides. "Girls, don't you have morning practice?" Shelia
Rosenberg asked, seemingly unfazed by the scene before her. Whether
Shelia was either blissfully ignorant, or just universally accepting
of the situation, her arrival still caused the girls to push apart
with great speed, creating a healthy distance between themselves. She
walked past the girls to fling the curtains open and push out the
windows as they tried to hide their flushed faces.

"Morning practice! I forgot!" both girls exclaimed in unison. The two
burst out giggling as Shelia walked out of the room again. 

Shelia stopped to ask one last thing, "Oh, Buffy? Could you climb back
out the window when you leave?" With that, and without even blinking,
she was gone.


~*~*~*~


At that morning practice, the sight of the two girls running out from
the locker room a little late caused some eyebrows to lift. It only
got worse when they separated and headed for their respective groups.
Buffy had it easier.

Coaches Jameson and Landis were the first to approach Buffy as she
jogged out onto the practice field in the early morning sunshine. 

"Sorry I'm late, coach," Buffy said. "Overslept a bit. Must be
jitters," she explained.

"Don't make a habit of it, Summers," Coach Landis reminded her.

"Good, you're here. We need somebody to run Wild Bill and Harry a
while," Coach Jameson said, apparently oblivious to, or just ignoring,
the signs that were screaming at him. The man really was too nice to
be a football coach.

As Buffy walked towards the group, Coach Landis placed an arm around
her shoulders to stop her. "Buffy, are you aware of the consequences
of what you're doing?" she asked the quarterback.

"I don't know what you mean, Coach," Buffy stated in all honesty.

The older woman gave a maternal smile and patted quarterback on the.
"Well, when you do find out, you can come and talk to me about it,"
she told the girl. She pulled a ring on a golden chain out from
underneath her jacket, took it off, over her head, and handed it to Buffy.

"Read the engraving, easier to explain that way," Coach Landis said
with a loving smile.

Buffy's eyes went wide with understanding as she studied the ring
between her fingers. The ring was engraved, easily readable to her
eyes, 'Andrea and Julie 14/02/85'

"You?" she asked and looked between the ring and the coach.

Coach Landis smiled and nodded at the confused quarterback. "Andrea
and I met in college. Fell in love. We've got a nice, little house not
too far from where you live, and our daughter Litni is on the squad
with your friend." She looked over to where the cheerleaders were
stretching and beamed with pride as Litni waved at her. "So we
understand each other?" Julia asked with a small smile.

Buffy nodded her head and handed the Coach back her ring. "I'll talk
to you if things get wiggy," Buffy managed to get out before getting
mobbed by her receivers.

"You work fast, Cap," Harry commented. With a lop-sided grin, he gave
her shoulder a playful punch, but not the throwing arm mind you.

"It's nothing like--" Buffy started as Wild Bill came up and slapped
her on the back with a cheerful laugh.

"Must say, you've got great taste, ma'am," he said as Buffy spun
around and glared at him. Her anger eased when she realized that they
were just being happy for her.

"It's not like that, though," she tried to explain. "And, Bill, it's
Buffy. 'Ma'am' makes me sound all old and stuff," she told the
grinning receiver. 

Giving the twins a look, she asked, "What, no comments from you guys?" 

The two huge boys just shook their heads and smiled knowingly.

"I'm telling you! We're just friends!" Buffy exclaimed and stamped her
foot on the turf.

Even the defense had come over to join in the chorus of, "Sure you
are," followed by the classic nudge-nudge, wink-wink as they elbowed
each other.

Buffy pouted, "Really, that's all," as she crossed her arms.

"Ok, break it up, please?" Coach Jameson asked thus saving the entire
team from Buffy's wrath. "Let's run some plays, shall we?" he said as
he handed Buffy a red jersey. "Put this on, that way the defense knows
not to tackle you," he explained.

"Thanks, Coach, but don't worry about me," Buffy said as she slipped
on the red jersey. "I'm made of pretty solid stuff," she added as she
took the field for the practice. 

Coach Jameson looked after her as she left.

Coach Landis placed a hand on his shoulder. "She'll do fine, J.J." she
told him firmly.

"We'll see, we'll see," Coach Jameson said. He watched as Buffy called
the play, then came the thud as the ball connected solidly with Wild
Bill. "But, my golly, that girl can throw," he stated to Coach
Landis's amusement.

Buffy took her position to start calling the plays. Then she locked
eyes with number 78. It was one of the defensive ends--and Xander's
old nemesis--Larry Blaisdell. She could just feel the disgust and
anger coming off him.

"Blue 32, blue 32, hut, hut!" she shouted. As soon as the ball was in
her hands, Larry made a beeline for her. She just knew he was going to
try and tackle her. Backing up, she waited. She watched as Larry
crashed through the twins and then, as he came flying, she dodged to
the left at the last second, sending Larry crashing to the turf. Then
she pulled back her arm and let then ball rip into Harry's waiting hands. 

Coach Landis blew her whistle hard. "Blaisdell! What the hell was
that?" she demanded. "You know well enough, red means stop!" she
exclaimed.

"Good run," Buffy said as she offered him her hand only to have it
swatted away.

"Larry? Five laps, if you please," Coach Jameson said in a voice that
was the closest he got to anger.

"Sorry, Coach. Just seeing what the QB's made of, that's all," he
apologized as he jogged off. As he went past, he gave Buffy a very
nasty sneer that clearly said that she belonged in a short skirt, in
the backseat of a car, and not on the football field.

Perhaps it was too much to hope that everybody would accept Buffy as
the quarterback. Many a jocks ego had been bruised and, as the news
had filtered out to the other teams in the division, the response had
ranged from amusement, to shock, to pure outrage. One thing was for
sure, nobody was going to go easy on the new Razorbacks' quarterback
just because she was a girl. Aside from the Christian High School two
counties over, of course.


~*~*~*~


Willow's reception at the cheerleaders' group was a bit different. It
didn't help matters that she was blushing from all the attention and
potential embarrassment that their little late-arrival scene had
stirred up. There was stunned silent as they just looked at her for
the longest time.  No one was ready to accept that nerdy little
Willow--brought into the squad at last minute through a mix of
pressure from above and a mysterious disappearance--had snagged the
female quarterback, not even one game into the season.

"What happened?" Cordelia stepped up and demanded, not fazed by the
apparent Sapphic loving going on.

"Uh, we're just friends," Willow said as she looked at the stunned
faces of her fellow cheerleaders. 'Well touchy-feely friends, but
still friends,' she thought to herself.

"So, no kissing or second base stuff?" Cordelia asked as she looked
Willow up and down looking for the usual: bite marks, hickeys, and
bruises. This was the slayer after all.


"I don't even know how to play baseball," Willow answered truthfully.
That broke some of the tension as Litni burst out giggling, followed
by the other cheerleaders.

Having confirmed that the quarterback was still eligible, despite
being a girl, the group quickly formed up at Cordelia's command. The
real trouble regarding cheerleaders, at least for our quarterback, was
soon to come. 


~*~*~*~


While taking a break from hurling balls at running men, Buffy leaned
back against the stands. She kept out of sight as she watched the
defensive team run drills that involved running at high speed into a
padded obstacle. She itched to join them, but a petite quarterback
bowling over heavy equipment would certainly raise suspicions. 

"Hey there," Cordelia said as she approached the quarterback,
seemingly a little unsteady and nervous to Buffy's eye.

"Hi, Cordy. Are the cheerleaders ready?" Buffy looked up at the head
cheerleader and smiled.

"We'll rule out there," Cordelia stated with some measure of pride.
"We're just too pretty not to," she added with a smile as she edged
closer to Buffy.

'What is she up to?' Buffy thought to herself as she felt Cordelia's
hand brush against her leg and linger there.

"Buffy--" Cordelia started.

The light-bulb went off above Buffy's head as she felt where
Cordelia's hand had wandered. "Whoa!" Buffy exclaimed. "Cordy, what
are--" she was cut off by Cordelia's lips on hers. Freezing for a
moment, then pushing Cordelia off of her, she gave her a stern look as
she firmly gripped the cheerleader's shoulders. "What on Earth are you
doing?" she whispered harshly. "You're straight, for goodness sake!"
she hissed as she looked around. She dragged Cordelia even further out
of earshot. The whole meeting had gone thankfully unnoticed.

"But, but..." Cordelia started. "You like girls don't you?" she asked
and Buffy's face fell.

'Cordy knows,' she thought to herself. "How--how long?" Buffy asked as
she let go of the cheerleader.

"Not long. It shows when you look at Willow, though," Cordelia
explained with a shrug.

"But why did you kiss me?" Buffy asked, not letting this go.

"To see if I could," Cordelia answered and blushed a bit and shuffled
her feet. "It felt kind of nice," she added batting her eyelashes at
Buffy.

"Oh, Cordy," Buffy sighed and shook her head. "But Xander and--" 

Cordelia promptly interrupted her, "Xander's great, but he's secret
and you're the--"

"Don't say it," Buffy groaned.

"But you are the quarterback. That means that people will expect us to
be together. It's the rules," Cordelia explained dead-pan as she
teased Buffy by running a hand through her hair. "If you want, we
could just publicly be a couple. You know, holding hands and kissing
after the game. While I still kept seeing Xander, right?" she asked.
> From the sound of her voice one could almost think that this was the
most normal thing in the world to her.

Cordelia moved in on Buffy again, using all of her come and kiss me
moves, although she'd never used them on a girl before. In theory they
should still work, or so she thought.


"It'll be fun, kissing, cuddling, going to second base," she whispered
as she placed Buffy's hand on her chest. "Great for when we hit the
road," she added.

Buffy resisted the urge to slap her. "Cordy," she stated calmly as she
lowered her hand. "Even though I'm the quarterback and all that, it
doesn't mean you have to do this. This isn't you, if it really was
you'd have felt me up a long time ago," she explained. "And what about
Xander and Willow, think they'll just take it?" she demanded as
Cordelia's face fell a bit. "Be with the guy or girl you want to be
with and all this social stuff be damned!"

Cordelia took a few moments to digest what Buffy was telling her and
then broke into a grin.

"You like Willow," she stated. 

Buffy groaned and buried her face in her hands. There really was no
talking to this girl sometimes. 'At least she's giving up on the
quarterback claim-age and the going all girl-on-girl for the sake of
tradition,' Buffy thought ruefully. "Maybe. Now promise me, no more
kissing me," she said in surrender. 

"Ok," Cordelia agreed after some protest. "But your lips are so soft
and taste fruity. What kind of lipstick do you use?" she asked. 

Buffy just shook her head with a laugh. She then led the head
cheerleader back to the field, giving her the details of where she
bought her lipstick. 

> From not too far away, Litni Speed watched what was going on with a
frown. It seemed like a certain head-cheerleader needed to be put
straight, no pun intended, about some things at the first opportunity.


~*~*~*~


As the cheerleaders did their splits and the football team built up
their spirits for the coming game, the third pillar of the team, that
one person that the game can't be without, was getting dressed.
Filling the mighty suit of Herbert the Razorback was a scrawny boy,
and often an accidental hero, named Xander Harris.

'God, that little pig must be laughing at me up there in hog-heaven
right now,' Xander told himself as he got into the costume. Picking up
the head and examining he sighed. 'At least nobody will recognize me
in this thing,' he reminded himself as he placed it on his head. 

He took a few experimental steps and looked around. "Okay. I'm an
overgrown pig. No biggie. I've been in worse places, I think," he said
inside the suit and then looked down. 'How am I supposed to pee in
this thing?' he thought in panic. 'Man I'm sure that pig is laughing
at me up there right now,' he thought as he cast his eyes upward.

He turned and left the dressing room for the field only to slam head
first into Giles. "Sorry, G-man," he apologized as he helped the
watcher to his feet. 

The Watcher gave the young man a glare, but then the dry Brit inside
him stirred to life. "I say, I've heard the phrase, 'You are what you
eat,' but aren't you carrying it a bit too far?" he asked the young
man with a perfectly stoic face. With a grin, he took his glasses off
and polished them.

"G-man, I thought we had an understanding," Xander hissed under his
breath. He knocked himself on the head while he was trying to put a
finger to his lips, forgetting the big suit he wore.

"Oh, yes. I'm mum as the grave about your breaking with kosher habits,
of course," Giles replied dryly. He gave a chuckle as he watched the
young man stomp off in a huff. 'Even watchers can have fun now and
again,' he thought to himself, then he went whistling on his way.

As the day drew on, and stomachs started to flutter, a lone bus sped
past the Welcome to Sunnydale sign. It was carrying The Bulldogs: the
visiting team and a highly favored contender for the state championship.

tbc...



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"It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
"I kinda love you."
Buffy & Willow, 'Choices'

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