(sophomore year)

What the hell?

A big crowd was forming in the hallways. Alfie and I were on our way to the parking lot to get ready for tonight's game. We just left from Coach's lectures. We just wanted to get home and chill, but we got stuck up with all the commotion here.

"What's going on?" Alfie asked a random guy.

"Cat fight."

I automatically exchanged looks with my best friend. He looked just as alarmed as I was.

"You don't think . . . ?" he trailed off, cocking his head to the side.

I got what he meant, and I nodded in answer.

Without word, we pushed our way to the eye of the crowd. It was easy. In no time, we were in the front row of the show. Confirming our thoughts, we immediately saw Connie on the floor, straddling another girl while she grabbed her hair and slapped her face with no mercy.

"Shit," I muttered, dropping my gym bag and pulling Connie off the girl.

Alfie pulled up his hands and blocked the other girl from attacking, saying, "Pull in the claws, babe."

I frowned. "What the hell, Con?"

She struggled to get away from my grip, but I was too strong for her. "Her ugly fucking ass is jealous because I hang out with you guys a lot," she hissed, looking more pissed than her usual bitchy self. She tried to get her arms free.

No way. I wasn't letting her go in that state.

The other girl scoffed, raising an eyebrow at Connie. "'Hang out'? Is that what you call it, sleeping with the whole football team?"

I stared at her. She was one to talk. I recognized her from being one of the many 'bang bunnies' of the upperclassmen. I might get crabs for even just touching her.

"They're called friends," corrected Connie slowly. "Something your tiny little brain won't understand seeing as all it can register is whoring around."

This was beginning to be an issue.

See, Connie was a bit like me. Her older brother, Drew Anderson, was a football hero. Naturally, any player on the team knew about him. He was a sophomore when he started taking her to parties (that was around the time we met) because no one was at home to look after her. And let's face it, their stepmonster was crazy.

If being exposed to that kind of thing was kinda traumatizing for me, how more do you think it affected her? So yeah, she'd rather hang out with us on the team because she knew we all treated her with respect.

No judgments. No drama.

Just plain old fun.

Hence, why she didn't have any female friends.

"You're just a slut," added the bang bunny, waggling a finger. "And you know it."

I looked over to Alfie. He shrugged. I felt Connie shaking so I turned back to her. Her expression was screaming bloody murder. She looked ready to pounce.

"Call me a slut again, bitch," warned Connie, with gritted teeth. "I dare you."

This wasn't gonna end well. We were attracting too much attention. Any minute now, a teacher will come and bring back order. No one would like that.

"What seems to be the problem here?"

I sighed. Speak of the devil.

The bang bunny ran to the teacher and sobbed as if she was the damn victim, grabbing his arm for effect. Well, she only looked the part since Connie did a number on her.

"She attacked me!" she whined.

Connie shook her head and laughed bitterly.

"Is that true?" asked Mr. Holowitz, our resident Algebra teacher. He was skinny and gloomy, and teaching was definitely not for him because he was boring as fuck.

"Depends on your definition of 'attack'," replied Connie. "Verbal or physical?"

Mr. Holowitz only stared at her. Probably deciding he didn't want to deal with girl drama, he instead told them, "Go to the principal's office. Both of you. Now."

Connie crossed her arms and held her chin up as she walked away. I didn't give a shit to look at bang bunny because she was beginning to be an eyesore.

"See you later at the game, Con," I called out. "Your ass better be there."

She looked back with an incredulous expression on her face. Rolling her eyes, she said, "Well, duh."

I grinned, grabbing my stuff and turning to leave when Mr. Holowitz's eyes landed on me. I looked at him questioningly. He raised an eyebrow.

"You have something to do with this, Oz?"

My jaw dropped.

Is he serious right now?

"Wha - I fucking stopped the fight!"

"Language," he warned, giving me a stern look before finally leaving.

"Unbelievable," I grumbled.

How dare he act all high and mighty when he's as scrawny as a stick? Just because he's a teacher? Fucker. I hate authorities.

But then again, that shouldn't surprise me. People expected me to get into trouble. And I did often times. Still, though. A little bit of some benefit of the doubt would be nice. I wasn't entirely made of stone.

"Hey," whispered a soft voice.

I closed my eyes, knowing who that voice belonged to. I took a couple of deep calming breaths before I turned and saw my girl. For a moment, I was left staring at her. She always managed to take my breath away. Of course, there was no way in hell she'd know that.

"Don't worry," said Snow, offering a sad smile as she reached up and gently ran a hand through my hair. "I'll make sure she's fine."

Before any of it could sink in, she left and followed after the two girls to the principal's office. I didn't even get any chance to savor the fact that she openly talked to me in public.

Holy shit. She talked to me in public!

We haven't decided whether or not to let other people know that we were officially dating for a few weeks now. I had no problem with sharing it, to be honest. But there were a lot of complications, starting with her brother. She was really worried about that one.

Even though she knew my friends didn't approve of her, it was nice to know that she was still willing to help and befriend them.

But if she expected me to do the same, I'd rather serve my balls in a silver platter.

* * *

She was here. At my game. In public.

It wasn't that hard to spot her on the bleachers, with all that red hair surrounding her face. I couldn't believe my eyes. Fuck me if I wasn't so damn happy about it.

With the crowd cheering nonstop, players warming up on the field before the game, Friday night lights blaring, Snow smiled and waved when she saw me looking.

And get this, she's wearing my maroon jersey jacket over her white shirt. She looks all red and sexy. It will take all of me not to go over there and claim her.

I grinned back at her instead, feeling so high and pumped up.

"Digging your own grave with that one," teased Alfie, noticing Snow.

I faced him, he was shaking his head as he passed the football to Kurt. I threw a towel at him, and said, "Fuck off."

He only laughed and made a face, tossing back the towel to the nearby bench. I shook my head and did some stretching.

"Oh, shit. Is that who I think it is?" asked Kurt suddenly, squinting his eyes back at the bleachers. Even they knew how big a step this was for Snow.

"Indeed, my friend," confirmed Alfie, answering before I could. "As you know, our dear brave Oz is dating Snow Crimson without the knowledge of her brother. But since she publicly showed up to a football game instead of her brother's sissy sport, I assume there will be hell to pay on Monday."

Kurt sniggered. "Look at that, Connie's talking to her."

I snorted. "You're shitting me."

"I shit you not," he replied, grinning now.

I looked over my shoulder, skeptical.

Damn.

He wasn't kidding.

I watched, dumbfounded, as Snow and Connie chat like normal teenage girls. There were no bitterness in Connie's eyes, while Snow looked like she was having fun with the company. I looked up at the sky to check if pigs were flying.

"You think Connie's getting the dish out of her?"

I got a text from Connie saying she only got a week's worth of detention. She told me not to worry and to say thanks to Snow. For what, she didn't tell me. She sure as hell didn't mention getting chummy with my girlfriend. Honestly, I didn't know how to feel about that.

I mean, it's good that Connie's finally met a girl that she gets along with. But I'm not really sure if Snow can handle it. Sure, she's strong-willed and all. Still, Connie can be pretty out-there sometimes.

"Uh-oh, looks like we don't have to wait for Monday," sang Alfie, nudging me on the ribs as he stared off to a distance.

I followed the direction of his eyes. And there at the edge of the bleachers, in his glorious white basketball uniform, was Scout Crimson. Huh. He was alone. He was clenching his fists and his expression screamed war.

This wasn't the conversation I was looking forward to, especially when I had a game tonight. But I knew I was gonna have to face him sooner or later.

Letting out a bored sigh, I removed my helmet and walked across the field. A few first-stringers looked at me with what-the-fuck faces. I only nodded to them.

"Where the hell are you going, Lacy?" yelled Coach when I passed by.

"I'll be back, Coach," I assured him, flashing a grin.

He turned his head and saw where I was heading at, then he stared me down.

"Better make it quick, boy," he spat.

I nodded and continued walking. I ignored the eyes following me as I left the field, probably wondering what the heck I was doing leaving when the game was about to start.

When I was near enough, Scott led the way to the parking lot until we were away from the prying eyes. The parking lot was full, but empty of people.

I watched his stance. I was taller than him by a few inches, wider and more built. He was more on the lean side. He was visibly shaking in rage. His face was pink, closing in to red - which was fucking funny considering he also had a red hair.

I would've laughed at his ridiculous face, but I wanted to get this over with.

"Speak up, Crimson," I sighed.

"At first, I didn't believe it," he started, his jaw clenched and his tone was controlled. "I didn't want to believe it. My sister was smarter than that. I thought she was just busy with her books. But then . . ." he trailed off, shaking his head as he gestured behind me.

I knew Snow was there before I even turned. When I did, she was biting her lip. She looked worried and ready to step in between us. I smiled at her to assure her that everything was cool - so far. She shook her head and stepped beside me, her eyes on her brother.

"This is why I didn't want to tell you before the game, Scout," she told him.

"I'm glad I got it out of you on the way to school," he replied firmly, frowning at her. "Otherwise, I might have looked like a complete idiot wondering where you disappeared to." He paused to run a hand through his short red hair, shaking his head in disbelief as he stared on the ground. When he looked up, he looked dejected. "Why him, Snow? Of all the guys, why Oz? You could do so much better than him."

Well, that stung.

"He didn't give up," she answered simply, her shoulders were squared but her voice cracked a bit. "He made me feel like I'm worth fighting for," she added, holding my hand while her eyes were still trained on Scout.

With my thumb, I rubbed the back of her hand to soothe her. Even though she had on her usual tough facade, she was close to crying. I could see that much.

"I need to talk to your brother alone, babe," I told her, leaning in to kiss her hair and quickly savoring her sweet smell.

She took a deep breath and nodded.

"Don't fight," she told us seriously. "You both have games tonight."

I wasn't making any promises so I kept my mouth shut.

"We'll talk about this later," declared Scout. Snow just waved a hand. As soon as she was out of sight, he spoke again. "You will never be -"

"Mufasa?" I guessed innocently, facing him again.

"I don't have time for this, Oz."

"Same here. So do you mind getting to the fucking point?"

He scowled. "Don't use my sister to get back at me."

I looked at him coldly. "I'm not that low."

He impatiently let out a breath and shook his head.

"What do you want, Oz? Stop playing games."

"Who said I was?"

He stared at me for a moment, the stern face slowly shifting to a disappointed one.

"You changed the moment you quit basketball last year."

I cringed at the memory, my knuckles went white and numb from the hardening grip I had on my helmet.

What a fuck up that was. I joined the basketball team because I wanted to be like Ethan Tyler. He was my role model, more of a brother to me than my own.

I tried to be nice and get along with the rest of the team. But then one day, I found out they were talking about me behind my back. They were only friends with me because I had money. The truth? They really feared me. That wasn't enough. Like an icing on the cake, they compared me to Scout fucking Crimson. The fact that they couldn't tell that to my face told me so much. They were sissies.

So no, I didn't change when I quit the basketball team. I was already a car wreck waiting to happen. That tiny incident only pushed me off the edge.

Joining the football team served some sort of saving grace, though.

It was an outlet.

The greatest thing? Guys on the team didn't do bullshit. If they liked you, you were good. If you showed even an ounce of weakness, you didn't belong. They helped you toughen up in and out of the field. They didn't complain about you behind your back like a fucking girl. They got a problem with you, you'd fucking know about it. They didn't judge you based on where you were from. They judged you based on what you show them.

And that was exactly what I needed.

I learned that being nice didn't earn me true friends, only meaningless company. Real friends? You know you got 'em if you do some stupid shit, and either they join you or stand by you when shit gets real. Loyalty.

"Sad," I replied sarcastically.

He genuinely looked concerned. "I don't like who you're becoming."

That is exactly why we don't get along. You're such a good boy.

"It's fun. You should try it some time."

He shook his head, as if remembering his purpose by coming here and talking to me. When his eyes landed on me, they were grim. "Just stay away from my sister."

"No."

"You have tons of girls waiting in line."

"They're not her," I shrugged.

He scrutinized my face. I stared back, not backing down. Deciding that I was serious as hell, he said, "I don't get the fascination. And I don't like that she seems to feel for you, too."

"I don't get it either," I admitted, looking away.

When she gave in to that ride home weeks ago, I thought that was the only chance I'd get with her. But then she started to give in more and more. My hopes skyrocketed.

I didn't feel alone anymore. I had someone to run to when things got too much. She listened to me rant and just let it all out. She was there for me.

Of course, there were times when she wouldn't have my shit and talk back, telling me what I should've done instead. She was honest and direct. You know what, though? She seemed to see something good in me, but I wasn't really sure if that side existed.

I don't know. She just believes in me.

At the end of the day, that was all I really asked for.

I returned my eyes on Scout, and added, "But fuck me if I'm letting her go."

He didn't speak. He only looked at me without any expression on his face. I took his silence as an acknowledgment. I leaned my head back and tilted my head.

"Are we done here?" I asked, putting an end to this talk. "I've got a game to play, Crimson. Unlike you, we actually got a shot at State."

He took a step closer threateningly and pointed a finger at me.

"I swear if you break her heart -"

"That won't happen."

I didn't wait for him to respond. I turned around and walked back to the field, passing by the bleachers. When I saw Snow look at me with a cute little worried frown on her face, I couldn't help it anymore. I ran to the edge to where she was leaning on, and then hopped on the railing. Several people gasped, but I didn't give a shit.

"Are you okay?" she asked sincerely, her warm breath fanning my face. Her eyes scanned the rest of me, probably checking for bruises or something.

"My lips hurt from all that talking," I said with a low voice, leaning closer. I flashed her a crooked smile. "Make it better?"

A slow smile made its way to her lips, as she rolled her eyes.

"A lot of people are watching," she reminded me.

"Awesome," I smiled confidently, as if she just announced the best news. "It's the perfect time to let everyone know you're mine."

Her green eyes twinkled as she laughed. I watched her for a moment, enchanted by this beautiful girl in front of me. I loved every little thing she did, even that little crinkle on her nose whenever she laughed or giggled.

"Just this once, okay?" she smiled back, when her laughter died down.

I had a full on grin now, knowing for a fact that this wouldn't be a one time thing if I could help it. I closed the gap between us and kissed her with a strong but gentle force. I felt her smile against my lips, making me do the same.

I suddenly remembered Scout's warning about breaking Snow's heart.

If anything, Snow's the one who had the power to break mine.

_____________

Tadaaah! I think I ship Snow and Oz. HAHA. You gotta admit, that last scene was so cute.

Sorry for the late update, y'all. A lot of things got in the way. But this is a pretty long chapter, eh? ;)

Next update: Next week (for sure)