On Saturday, I met Lana at the Arlington High School football field. It was an old piece of land with grass the color of wheat and dented bleacher seats. The football team had been trying to drum up funding for Astroturf for years, but the team wasn't good enough for the school to invest thousands of dollars on fake grass. But our lacrosse team... well, they were actually decent. Not that most people in the world care about lacrosse, but it was nice to have a team to root for that didn't lose Every. Single. Game.

Even though it was just a scrimmage match, there were a surprising number of people sitting on the bleachers. I think part of it had to do with the weather; it was a perfect game day, with a calm autumn sun and the tiniest whisper of a breeze. I found Lana sitting dead center in the bleachers, her eyes glued to the match, which had already started. She was wearing a jean jacket over a T-shirt that read "Arlington Lacrosse." I had seen those shirts for sale in the school bookstore, but I had never seen anyone successfully wear them. They had always seemed incredibly dorky to me, and yet somehow Lana pulled it off.

Demon magic, most likely.

"Sorry I'm late," I said, sidling up next to her. "Taylor is on her date now and she absolutely blew up my phone just as I was about to leave the house. Apparently the girl went to the bathroom and Taylor couldn't wait a moment longer to tell me everything."

"No worries," Lana said, her eyes locked on the field. "Is she enjoying the date?"

"Yeah. I think so. She's going to stop by here afterwards to give us the full scoop." I followed her gaze. Half of the players wore yellow pinnies, and the other half wore blue. It took me a while to find Billy from beneath all the crimson helmets, but after a good minute of searching, I finally found him darting around the field in a loose blue pinny.

"He's a midfielder," Lana explained to me, and when I blinked at her, she sent me a look. "You told me to brush up on the rules of lacrosse. So I'd have something to talk about with him."

"Oh, right." I scanned the field, unsure exactly what I was looking at. I might have told Lana to brush up on her lacrosse, but that didn't mean I knew anything about the sport. The scoreboard wasn't lit so I couldn't even tell who was winning. "How's he doing?"

She smiled. "He's doing great, but his teammates suck. At least, the blue teammates suck. They haven't even scored yet. Yellow is up by two."

"Ah." I fiddled with my shirt fabric, trying to watch the game, but I had a hard time understanding it all. Sports were a lot less exciting when you had no clue what was happening. I normally went to Arlington games with a huge group of friends, most of whom didn't know anything about the game as well. It made it more of a social event than a sporting event. But Lana was completely engrossed in the match, her eyes not only locked on Billy but on the logistics. I could see her hand twitching as the minutes crept by, her mouth moving as if she wanted to yell at the players and coach them herself.

I stifled a yawn and Lana snapped her head to look at me. "You hate this."

"Hate is a strong word," I said. "A more accurate statement is that I don't really know what's going on."

"I thought all humans loved sports? Isn't that how you guys stop yourselves from killing each other all the time?"

"What?"

"When society progressed to a point where you couldn't just kill people for fun, humans created sports to channel all their aggression," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, I must have missed out on that gene," I said,

She rolled her eyes and gestured for my hand. "Here. Just give me."

I passed her my hand, unsure what was about to happen. She squeezed it, and for a moment I thought she was just offering me some sort of moral support. But suddenly my eyesight seemed to sharpen, as if someone had shoved superhero contact lenses into my eyes. When I glanced back at the field, it was like I had previously been living in a black and white world. Now I could see the formations, the way the teams shifted and the players darted back and forth across the green. I saw the shoddy passes, the overconfident seniors, the nervous freshman, the way the ball made a beautiful arc in the air after a sharp throw and then was caught gracefully, mid-stride, by a player...

In a matter of seconds, I had become lacrosse's biggest fan. Lana grinned at me as we stood up in unison and started shouting encouragement to the blue team, critiquing their shots, moving them forward with our cries. When an attacker from the yellow team ran past us, we booed and hissed, and a few choice curses flew from my mouth. My blood boiled every time yellow scored, and my heart fluttered as blue advanced into enemy territory. I had never been enamored by a sport before, and the adrenaline surge was intoxicating. There was a sense of giddiness that made my head swim and moved my body without me being fully aware of it. I waved my arms in the air. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I clapped my hands together, as if I could urge the blue team onwards with just a few simple motions.

The game raced by, and although some part of me knew that almost an hour had passed, it felt like minutes. Suddenly, I could emphasize with my classmates—the guys who would discuss every detail of the football game from the night before—a lot more. This was awesome. Sports were awesome.

In the last few moments of the game, my eyes narrowed onto a figure in blue racing down the field. Billy had the ball. The game wasn't close—yellow was ahead and there was no chance for blue to catch up in the remaining few seconds—but I wanted so badly for Billy to score that I shouted louder than I ever had, urging him forward as he ran. There was almost magic in his footsteps as he weaved through the opponents, his eyes locked on the goal. And then his arms wound back, and with a powerful swing of his stick, he shot the ball towards the goal. It flashed over the goalie's shoulder and landed hard in the net as the referee—the lacrosse coach—blew the final whistle.

I screamed so loudly that I was surprised I could hear my voice echoing through the bleachers. When I turned to Lana, she high-fived me with both hands, a big grin on her face.

"So, what do you think of sports now?" she asked.

"Amazing! That was so crazy," I said, feeling my heart slow back to its normal rate. "I can't believe I'd never seen sports like that before."

"You're welcome," Lana said, giving me an exaggerated bow.

I pressed my hands to my head. "And at the end, the way Billy scored that goal... It was incredible. He moved like... like time didn't exist for him. It was like magic."

At this comment, Lana's grin dimmed just a little. "Yeah, about that..."

I paused, looking at the guilty expression on her face. "You did that?"

Lana held her hands up defensively. "I didn't mean to."

"What do you mean you didn't mean to?"

"It just slipped out," Lana said. "I was so caught up in the game, and I wanted him to score, and I think I just wanted it a little too hard so it happened." She must have caught my worried look because she added, "Don't worry about it. No harm done. It's just a scrimmage game, and Billy's team still lost. Plus, it totally still counts under my loophole."

"How so?"

"Billy just scored an amazing goal, so he'll be in a better mood for the party tonight, which means he'll be more receptive to me flirting with him, which gets us closer to our goal and you getting your reward."

Her comment didn't put my concerns to rest. "You directly affected Billy. Doesn't that mess with free will and stuff?"

"It's fine," Lana said again. "It was a mistake. I won't use my powers on Billy again. I'll be extra careful, promise."

"Okay," I ceded. "But no funny business tonight at the party. Okay?"

"Okay," Lana said. Then she looked over my shoulder at the field and frowned. "Damn it," she muttered. "He's gone already!"

"It's okay," I said. "I'm sure he saw us in the stands."

"I think I'm going to head out, then," Lana said, starting to slide out of the bleachers. "I need get my thoughts together and figure out what to wear tonight. Is it still okay if I swing by your place beforehand to get ready?"

"Of course," I said, waving at her. "I'll see you later."

Lana waved back, and soon she had disappeared.

I sat on the bleachers for a few minutes by myself, checking my phone to see if Taylor had texted me, but there were no new texts. After a few minutes of scrolling through Instagram, I was finally about to get up and leave when someone grabbed me from behind, their arms wrapping around my waist.

"Ahh!" I screamed, but when I turned around, I saw that it was Taylor.

She laughed as I smacked her arm.

"Oh my God, Taylor you scared me," I said, pressing my hand to my chest. "How was your..." I started, then trailed off when I realized she wasn't alone.

Standing at her side was a girl with fiery red hair, clear blue eyes, and a spattering of freckles: Clarissa, her date.

"Jessa," Taylor said, her cheeks flushed from the cold, "this is Clarissa. And Clarissa, this is my best friend Jessa."

Clarissa was even more beautiful in person. Her hair, of course, was her most striking feature: she had big, bright curls that moved like flames in the wind. She wore a stylish, beige trench coat much too nice for a casual lacrosse game. But it was her eyes that caught me: they were a deep, Caribbean blue that seemed to swallow you, like an ocean devouring a ship.

"How was the coffee?" I asked, pulling my gaze away from those sea blue eyes. I was surprised Taylor had brought her date with her to the game; when she had said she wanted to debrief, I thought she wanted to talk alone.

"Amazing as usual," Taylor said. "I got my mocha. But Clarissa got a chai tea—I'd never tried it before and it's actually really good." She looked at her date with a smile. "We had such a good time. And then we realized we both didn't have any plans for the day, so I brought her here."

"I go to Willis," Clarissa explained. "Our lacrosse team sucks and I've never seen a game before."

"Did you like the match?"

She shrugged. "I mean, there were guys with sticks and balls and running."

Taylor laughed, but Clarissa's comment rubbed me the wrong way. I think Lana's sports-loving magic hadn't entirely worn off yet.

Luckily, I was able to hide the grimace on my face and turn to Taylor. "By the way," I said, "you're still coming to the party tonight, right? Let me know if you wanna come over early to get ready. I'm helping Lana pick out her dress and make up and everything and could use your artistic styling skills."

Taylor frowned. "Ahh I wish, but Clarissa and I were thinking about grabbing a movie before we go."

For a moment, I was so focused on the thought that they were going to see a movie—after already hanging out with each other for at least four hours—that I missed the end of her sentence. Before we go.

"Oh," I said, looking at Clarissa. "You're coming to the party tonight too?"

"Yeah," she said, reaching down and holding Taylor's hand. "Taylor invited me. She said your class is pretty chill, so I figured I'd come along."

My eyes fell to their clasped hands. "Oh... Cool." I didn't know what else to say. It was as if I had forgotten how words worked. "Um, well, I should probably get going..." I stood up, nearly losing my balance as I did so, and I felt heat rise up onto my cheeks. "It was nice meeting you. And have fun at your movie?"

"Thanks, Jess!" Taylor said, squeezing my arm with her free hand. "See you tonight!"

So I slid out of the stands and started walking home by myself with a strange feeling in my gut that I couldn't quite place.

- - -

Wow. I get a little nostalgic when I think about high school sporting events. Did you/do you go to games for the sports, or to hang out with your friends and drink hot chocolate? Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter! I had fun with Lana's magic ;) -Bdicocco