FIC: The Complex Lives... (Part 3a)

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

Hi!

Well here is more of the Complex Lives of Cheerleaders and
Quarterbacks, broken up into two chapters. 

As always this story is edited by Howard and proofread by Dutch before
posting. So my thanks to them once again for putting up with me :P

Enjoy!

The Complex Lives of Cheerleaders and Quarterbacks
Cilia

Chapter 4: On the Green Field of Glory


It's hard to describe the atmosphere that forms at the opening game of
any sports season at any school. It's a heady mix of pride, ego,
adrenaline, and truly garish colors.

Buffy could hear the dim noise drifting down into the cheerleaders'
dressing room as game time neared. Her stomach was calm as she gripped
the football in her hands. She was already dressed in her pads and
uniform. Her gloves, a gift from her mother, smelled new and squeaked
as she worked her fingers.

'I can do this. Just dodge and don't knock them over,' she thought to
herself. She stood up and ran her hand across her tied up hair. It
would have been picturesque to have it flowing behind her from
underneath the helmet, but Coach Landis had quietly suggested she keep
it tied up. No reason to give the jocks of Sunnydale High a bigger
insecurity complex by having the quarterback take the field with her
long blond locks flowing behind her. That would be just plain evil.

"Buffy," somebody--well not just somebody--a very delicious looking
Willow whispered from behind her.

Buffy almost jumped out of her pads. She dropped the ball, then
fumbled to catch it again before turning around. She came face to face
with Willow; her hair done to perfection and her pale face brought
forth by just the hint of makeup. Buffy softened on the spot. "Willow,
you look...wow!" she said.

The cheerleader blushed a bit and hid her face in her pom-poms.
"Cordelia and the girls did it," she explained.

Buffy pushed down the pom-poms to study her friend better. 'Wow.
Willow has always been pretty, though,' Buffy thought to herself. She
touched Willow's cheek, causing the other girl to blush even more.

"Yes, I am real," Willow giggled as she put down her pom-poms. She
held up a canister with something very black and sticky in it. "For
under your eyes," she explained as she opened the container. She took
a black smudge onto her fingers and gently applied it under Buffy's
eyes. Letting her hand linger there after she'd drawn the second line,
Willow tried to remember to breathe.

Buffy captured Willow's pale hand in her gloved one and held it to her
face. "You'll do great," she told her friend firmly.

"So will you," Willow said right back and gave Buffy a kiss on the
forehead. Then she reluctantly withdrew her hand, lingering with her
fingertips before letting go. "Well, we're up," she said and shook her
pom-poms. "Wish me luck," she said.

"Good luck, Wills," Buffy said and smiled as Willow skipped off with
her skirt swishing around her legs.

As Willow was exiting, Coach Landis entered the cheerleaders' locker
room. She smiled at Willow when she skipped past and then gave Buffy a
more knowing smile. "The boys are dressed and waiting for you," she
told her.

"Err, Coach..." Buffy started as she looked up at the woman who'd
earlier that day told her about her own wife and daughter.

"You care about her, don't you?" Coach Landis asked as she studied the
quarterback.

"Yes, yes I do." Buffy confessed and looked down at the ball in her
hands and gave it a good squeeze.

"I think she cares too," Coach Landis told her as she patted her
shoulder. "It'll work itself out," she told Buffy as she led her out
across the hall and into the boys' locker room.

Buffy entered the room and felt very small for the briefest moment as
she shouldered her way past the defensive team. She approached Coach
Jameson standing at the blackboard. "Coach," she nodded, taking her
seat in front of her locker. It was reserved for her, despite her
dressing in the other room.

"Good, we're all here," Coach Jameson said as he looked around at the
team he'd assembled for the season. Many things could be said about
the Sunnydale High Razorbacks' that season, but the cruel joke would
be that they were tall, lean, mean and busty. Coach Jameson only saw
potential that day: A truly unorthodox team put together by an
unorthodox coach.

"We've got some new faces with us this season. Some are no longer with
us and we're sad for it, but we also rejoice at these new arrivals,"
he said and allowed his eyes to scan the group. "Each one of you
brings something different to this mix. Some of you might run faster
then a speeding train, if you tried. Others might be able to tackle a
raging bull to the ground, if you tried. Some of you could hurl a rock
to the moon, if you tried," he paused and looked at the slightly
confused team, the juniors more so than the seniors. "I guess what I'm
trying to say is, you can do anything if you just try," he explained
as he scratched the back of his head.

Coach Landis stepped up and gave him a good pat on the back before
facing the team.

"You know the plays, you've trained hard, and you've got the will to
win," she said in a much firmer voice. "We've got everything we need
right here," she said and beat her first against her chest and was met
by a chorus of, "Yeah!"

At first, Buffy found it a bit awkward saying, 'Yeah,' as Coach Landis
started to walk around the room.

"We've got everything we need right here," she said and patted a big
linebacker on the shoulders.

The shouts grew louder and Buffy started to feel herself swept along.

Grabbing Buffy by the arm and raising it into the air, Coach Landis
looked around. "We've got everything we need right here," she said as
Buffy blushed a bit at the attention. "So get out there and give 'em
hell!" she exclaimed and the team exploded and Buffy felt herself
being pushed out of the room by a wave of bodies.

"Sorry, J.J," Coach Landis said as the team followed them out.

"It's okay, Julie. They need to hear something fiery every now and
then," Coach Jameson answered with a saintly smile as he watched his
team race through the tunnel leading to the field.


~*~*~*~


The Razorback cheerleaders were whipping the crowd into frenzy. Willow
felt like she was dreaming; the calls of the crowd barely registered
with her as she went through the routines. Never in her life had she
suspected that she'd be chanting and shaking her hips like this, but
now she was out there and she loved it. She was standing on the
sidelines as the announcer was introducing the opposing team. The
whole stadium held its breath. There was a brief pause, followed a by
a drum roll from the band. Willow couldn't shake the feeling that one
of the flute players looked very familiar somehow.

"Ladies and gentlemen! Please welcome the pride of Sunnydale High
School: The Mighty Razorbacks!" thundered over the speakers. The crowd
jumped to its feet and the noise was overwhelming when the Razorbacks
burst from the tunnel. Willow jumped to her feet and started her
routine, but her eyes were fixed on the petite quarterback with the
number 9 and 'Summers' written on her back.

The two teams' quarterbacks approached the center of the field. The
referee flipped the coin, Buffy called, "Heads," and the three watched
as it landed heads-up on the green turf. After a single word from
Buffy, the referee exclaimed, "Razorbacks choose offense!" he turned
back to the team captains, "Now, shake hands."

The Bulldogs' quarterback, decked out in white and blue, leered at
Buffy as she offered him her hand. "Shouldn't you be cheering?" he
asked as he took Buffy's offered hand.

Buffy just smiled at him and shook his hand firmly. "You know, I was
going to ask you the same thing," she answered and winked at him,
causing him to glare.

In the huddle, Buffy talked the team through the play and tried not to
sound too nervous or giddy about the whole thing. "Okay, we'll go with
Red Three on one," she explained. She looked at the Smith Twins.
"Boys, those guys really don't seem to like girls as quarterbacks,"
she said with a grin.

Her comment was met by denials like, "No way!" and, "Why not?" from
the team.

"So, do your best to stop them," she said.

The twins nodded and looked at each other grinning.

Yes, the calm and usually quiet Smith Twins really came alive on the
field. They took great pleasure in smashing the other team into the
green turf with as much force as they could muster. It was either that
or cow-tipping.

"Wild Bill, stay sharp. The ball will be heading for you this time,"
she said.

Wild Bill nodded as he tugged on his gloves. 

Buffy looked around at her teammates and smiled at the hope she saw,
it brought the butterflies back to her stomach in swarms. They really
were counting on her to lead them to victory. Every boy was hoping
against hope that maybe, this year, they'd reclaim their pride and
dignity. "Now, they don't like us and we don't like them, but let's
try to play a good, fair game," she said. After one look at the
stunned faces of her teammates, she broke into laughter. "Let's make
them wish they'd never passed the county line!" she shouted.

A chorus of, "Hell yeah!" answered her.

She thrust her hand into the center of the huddle. "What are we?" she
shouted as other hands joined hers. 

Coach Jameson had explained this ritual to her earlier. He'd said that
it was a long standing tradition for the quarterback to ask that
question, once hands were joined in the huddle. He did not elaborate
on it, he only asked her kindly to keep the tradition alive. Sometimes
Buffy felt she needed a Football Ritual book to go along with her
playbook. This game was just full of little things that made it as
complex as any spell from Giles' books.

"War Pigs!" the team shouted as they raised their hands into the air
and took the field.

A shrewd person would have noticed the Black Sabbath reference; it had
been the Razorbacks' war-cry since the early eighties and it somehow
stuck with the team, although its origins were one of those High
School legends. Some said a metal fan had once been the quarterback
back in '87. Others said it was because the mascot back in '81 had
gone nuts and rushed into the field--tackling four and causing much
injury and mayhem--before being brought down by both teams.


~*~*~*~


Willow watched from the sidelines while she cheered for the
Razorbacks. She smiled when she saw Xander in his pig-suit hamming it
up for the crowd: Doing pratfalls and being a total pig at the
Kool-Aid counter. He was giving the waterboy no end of grief as he
kept stealing the cups.

"Go 'Backs! Go 'Backs! Take on those hacks," Willow cheered and shook
her hips, without any hint of being uncomfortable. For as long as
Buffy was out there she'd be here. 'Oh, that's so cute,' she thought
when she spotted Giles and Joyce in the stands, almost missing her cue
to link up with the rest of the squad. She executed a back flip and
finished off the routine with her pom-poms raised high in the air,
shaking them and cheering her team on.

Giles and Joyce watched from the stands. Giles was in full tweed
regalia, but with a Razorbacks scarf, and looking very much the
perfect English gentleman among the American barbarians. "Tea?" Giles
offered Joyce as he poured himself a cup from his thermos.

Yep, Giles was going about this in as dignified a manner as possible,
and he was not going to sit through all this without his tea. Of
course, he'd brought two cups, just in case.

"Yes, thank you," Joyce said absently as she accepted a cup. Joyce,
the proud mom, was wearing a very silly hat that read, 'My daughter is
the QB,' and carried a Razorbacks' pennant. She kept a close eye on
her daughter out on the field.

The kick-off went off without a hitch. The Bulldogs'
kicker--half-mule, some said--drove it deep into the Razorbacks' end
zone. Harry Kim caught it and ran forward, reaching the fifty yard
line before he was taken down.

The teams formed up for the next play. Buffy took her place and looked
over the Bulldogs' defensive line. She could easily see that, for the
most part, they were either nervous newbies in their first game or
bored veterans. The old hands obviously suspected a cakewalk against
the team with the biggest losing record in the past fifty years.

'Well, I'll give them cake,' she thought as she crouched low. She
called the first play of the game. "Red Three! Red Three! Hut!" she
yelled. The ball flew into her hands as the field exploded into a
melee of clashing pads, helmets and bodies.

The Twins did their job well as they brutally and efficiently kept the
defensive ends away from her. Still, one got through the wall that was
the Smith Twins.

Buffy backed up for the throw and watched Wild Bill take off like he
had wings on his feet. The defensive end went flying towards her,
screaming something very rude about her butt. Buffy just allowed
herself a small smile as she waited until the last second.

Joyce and Willow both gasped when they saw the defensive end hurl
himself at Buffy, while Giles just watched calmly, hoping that she'd
dodge instead of just swatting him away. Coach Jameson gave a quick
Hail Mary.

Buffy dodged and rolled, then came up and let the ball fly into the
air. The stunned crowd watched as the ball sailed into Wild Bill's
hands, then came to life with a roar when he was taken down at the
thirty yard line by the scrambling Bulldogs' defense.

The play had resulted in a twenty yard gain and Coach Jameson cracked
a small smile as he heard the crowd behind him in the stands go wild.

The game dragged on by yards, feet, and sometimes inches as the teams
moved back and forth across the green field. By turns, the crowd
cheered and booed as just about everyone that could be, got slammed to
the ground. But through it all, the Twins stood like rocks while
Buffy's aim was true and always dead-on target. Coach Jameson was
calm, despite the fact that the first win in a long time was in sight,
while Coach Landis chewed her nails down to nothing as the clock
ticked on. The cheerleaders cheered throughout it all.

Trouble began at the start of the third quarter. With the 'Backs
leading twenty-one to seven, they were on their third down with over
twenty yards to go. A lone, frustrated linebacker--a big boy wearing
the number 79--charged Buffy before the ball was in her hands. He
managed to break past the surprised Twins and slam into Buffy sending
her to the ground. The crowd gasped as one when the linebacker stood
up but Buffy didn't. Willow almost rushed out onto the field only to
be restrained by Cordelia who kept a worried calm. Xander grabbed his
head--well his fake-head--while Joyce was running down to the field
with Giles trailing behind her. The announcer, momentarily stunned by
the sheer brutality of the move, snapped out of it and grabbed the
microphone. "Foul, flagrant foul!" he screamed. Buffy lay still on the
green field, staring up at the blue skies with a frown on her lips as
the referee blew the whistle.

"Malicious unnecessary roughness! Number 79! Fifteen yard penalty!
Player disqualified!" the referee called out.

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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