CHAPTER THREE : welcome bashes

( pilot , part iii )

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     BRIDGET SCOTT SHOULDN'T FEEL as out of place at this party as she does right now. Sure, it's a high school party and she's not in high school, but she graduated last year. She's only a solid two months older than the oldest high schooler here — some super senior named Craig, or Todd, or something.

And, why the hell shouldn't she be here, anyway? At least she's actually friends with Jeff Sadecki, which is more than half of the guests at his rager can say.

     So, she stands on the sidelines with a bottle of cheap beer, leaning against a tree, dirtying the back of her purple-and-white raglan shirt. A warm breeze from the fire pit just across from her warms her mostly bare legs —  only partly covered by her cutoff jean shorts and her Doc Martens. Her hair's become mussed up from the wind, curls tangling together in front of her face. She's already had to rip some knots out just to be able to tuck it behind her double-pierced ears.

"What're you doing hiding in the shadows, Bridge?" Jeff Sadecki asks as he approaches. Just over his shoulder, Bridget can see his girlfriend and her best friend chit-chatting, leaning against the back of a pickup truck.

Bridget takes a swig of her beer, cringing at the taste. "Watching the high school kids like a pervert, apparently," she responds. She's smirking, and the glint of a joke is there in her eyes, but her voice is deadpan — deadly serious.

Jeff scoffs and shakes his head, even tuts his tongue at her as if she's a child. "You're, like, nineteen. Not much of a pervert, if you ask me."

"Pretty sure you can be a pervert at any age," Bridget argues — only for the sake of being right and not letting Jeff think he's outsmarted her. She doesn't really want anyone thinking she's some kind of perv.

Jeff nods, conceding. "Okay, let's stop talking about perverts."

"Agreed."

"Now, you—" Jeff reaches out and lightly grabs Bridget by the arm, "are coming over here with me." He all but drags Bridget behind him, only releasing her when they arrive at the pickup truck.

     It takes less than a second for Jeff's girlfriend, Jackie, to throw an arm over Bridget's shoulders. "Hey, Bridge! Long time, no see!"

     "I literally watched practice last week," Bridget replies, shifting Jackie's arm off her left shoulder with a wince.

     "Coach Scott 2.0," Shauna murmurs over the rim of her red solo cup.

     Bridget laughs. "I'm not a coach yet. And, besides, I might not need to go into coaching, my physio says I'm recovering well, on track, all of that."

     Jackie drops her arm and nudges Bridget in the side. "I bet you're gonna heal fine, seriously. How long do you have left?"

     "Two more weeks of a four-month jail sentence."

     Take that, rotator cuff tear.

     Bridget reaches up to rub her shoulder — all the talk of the rehab making the phantom pain of the moment she'd been injured come flooding back. She can feel the puckered skin of the five little scars through her thin shirt and pictures the pale-pink things growing redder with the anger of being reminded of their existence. Through her distracted haze, she watches as Jeff and Jackie hurry away to a different car parked just across the way where they greet another couple — Bridget remembers them as Brad and Phoebe. That leaves her and Shauna, but Shauna looks like she doesn't want to talk. Moreover, she doesn't look like she wants to be here at all.

     So, Bridget sets off, back to her tree to watch from the sidelines, muttering a quick "see ya," to Shauna as she leaves. The younger girl returns the words between sips of her drink.

     As she disappears into the space between light and dark, a group of four girls step right into the brightness of the party.

     Olivia regrets wearing her strappy heels the second she steps off of the road and the heel sinks into the mulch, and Gina, who had anticipated as much, pulls a pair of pink Converse and white frilly socks out of Andie's black tote bag to pass to her. The group stops as Olivia changes, unhappy to have been so predictable once again, yet secretly happy that her friends had known her so well as to be able to help.

     Nat leads the charge through the hordes of people, heading straight for a table laden with cups and bottles of alcohol and mixers with a keg next to it. She's courteous enough to make drinks ( pour straight liquor from the keg into red solo cups ) for each of the girls before making one for herself. Then, she disappears into the crowd, beckoned away by her guy friends, and Olivia and Andie team up to shove Gina away in Bridget's direction.

     Tai pushes past the two remaining girls to get to the keg and refill her cup. "Sorry, were we in your way?" Andie asks, even as Olivia grabs her arm and begs her to stop.

     "Yeah, kind of," Tai responds, not bothering to take her eyes off her cup for even half a second.

     "I admire your resilience, Tai," says Shauna, who nobody had even noticed arrived. Tai looks up slowly, then rises to her full height. "Can't be easy, knowing you fucking crippled someone today."

     Tai doesn't bite. "Cool. Good talk," she says, turning around to push between Andie and Olivia once again. Andie steps closer to Olivia, arms brushing, to stop her. If she wants to leave, she has to go around this time.

     "Just admit you did it on purpose," Shauna demands.

     Okay, whoa. It was a shit move to ice Allie out, but Andie hardly thinks a whole compound fracture was a calculated manoeuvre. The situation is made all the more tense when Lottie and Van roll up on the scene, also just trying to refill their cups.

     "Excuse me?" Tai asks, eyes narrowed.

     "You heard me," Shauna says — challenges.

     Tai steps forward. "You're wasted."

     Shauna mirrors her. "And you're a fucking sociopath."

     Van reaches a hand out to stop Shauna in her tracks. "Whoa! Calm down," she says.

     "No!" Shauna exclaims, arms flailing to get the team's attention. "Listen, you guys, we don't have to worry about the Allie problem anymore because Taissa fixed it for us."

     "Shauna!" Andie cries out, stepping away from Olivia. "There is no way in hell a person could plan an injury like that. The human body can't even plan an injury like that," she explains, trying to keep her voice measured and calm. This is a delicate situation and she knows it.

     "What? What's she talking about?" comes a voice from behind Andie. The group turns to see Laura Lee standing next to Nat, already back from her meeting with Kevyn.

     Nat sighs. "She's talking about Taissa's little plan," she explains.

     Tai rolls her eyes. "Oh, please. Since when do you give a shit anyway? Don't you have a bong to hit or a dick to suck?"

     "Hey, leave her alone!" Olivia shouts. Everyone stops moving, stops shouting, and stares at her. The thing about Olivia Portman is that, unless she's on the field, she doesn't raise her voice — ever. This is new territory.

     Shauna nods along once she regains her bearings. "Yeah, don't talk to her that way."

     "Oh, fuck off, Shauna. I don't need you to defend me. Last time I checked, you were fine with the whole "freeze her out" strategy," Nat argues, stepping closer to the brunette.

     Laura Lee looks around between the girls. "Okay, seriously, what are you talking about?"

     All at once, presenting a united front for the first time in forever, all seven girls shout, "Shut the fuck up, Laura Lee!"

     Yeah, even Olivia.

     "Somebody needs to take her wasted ass home," Tai says, taunting Shauna.

     Shauna closes in on Tai, and if it weren't for Van getting between the two, she'd be all up in her face. "Say that again, bitch. Say that again," she demands.

     "I will say it again!" Tai shouts.

     Van throws herself between the girls, separating them long enough for the shouting match to gain a crowd. One of the dudes, Randy or Trent or Brendon, shouts out about the catfight, so just about every guy in the vicinity comes to watch the Yellowjackets go at it. He also gets the attention of the non-participating Yellowjackets ( and Yellowjacket adjacents ) at the party — namely Jackie, Gina, and Bridget — who all come storming over at once.

     "That's it!" Jackie shouts. Nobody pays her any attention, so she tries again. "Enough!"

     The girls fall silent.

     "Yellowjackets, with me! Now!"

     Jackie walks away, and like the good colony members they are, the rest of the Yellowjackets follow. The girls gather further in the woods, away from the music and the chatter and the bright lights. Jackie paces for a moment, just looking at her girls before she speaks up. "I don't know what the fuck that was, but I do know that it's over. We're about to go to nationals. And based on what I'm looking at right now, we might as well not even bother getting on that plane."

     Nobody says anything. Most of the girls look at their shoes or the trees in the distance except for Andie and Nat, who continue to sip their drinks while looking anywhere but at Jackie.

      "All right. Everybody line up." Nobody moves. "No, I'm fucking serious. Line up! Come on!" Jackie claps her hands together until the girls fall in line. "Here's what we're gonna do. I want each of you to go down this line and say one nice, true thing about every other girl on this team."

     Tai rolls her eyes. "What is this, fucking Girl Scout camp?" she mutters. Van and Gina both snort.

     "Who wants to go first?" Jackie asks.

     Laura Lee raises her hand, bearing a genuine grin. "I'll go, Jackie." Jackie gestures for her to go ahead, so Laura Lee leaves her spot in the line and heads for Tai, standing the furthest to the right. "Taissa, you are beautiful in the eyes of our Lord." Tai takes the compliment with a half-hearted, sarcastic hum. Laura Lee moves down the line and repeats the sentiment to Van.

     "Oh, my God!" Van exclaims as the rest of the girls burst out laughing.

     Jackie sighs. "Okay, Laura Lee, fall back."

     No sooner does Laura Lee return to her spot in line does Andie suddenly drop to her knees, spilling her drink all over the ground as she presses the palms of her hands to the sides of her head. The girls swear, falling out of formation to crowd around the brunette, but she just stays like that. She doesn't move, doesn't speak, doesn't bleed, doesn't appear hurt in any sense of the word.

     Nobody knows what this means except Gina, who drops to a squat in front of Andie and stays there until her eyes pop back open — now bloodshot and glassy. She starts shaking her head and can't stop it, mumbles of "no, no, no, no," falling from her lips. Gina turns to look at Jackie, eyes wide, and Jackie nods and waves her hand to permit Gina to take Andie elsewhere.

     Gina takes Andie by her biceps and pulls her to her feet, helping the girl stagger out of the small crowd to an even less populated part of the woods. She plops her down onto a tree stump and crouches in front of her.

     "Hey, hey, look at me." Gina repeats the words until Andie's eyes finally focus and her trembling stops. "What was it?"

     Andie shakes her head. "It can't be real."

     "That's not an answer. What was it?" Gina asks.

     It takes Andie a minute to find the words, and not one during that minute does Gina try to rush her or coax the words out of her any faster than they naturally come.

     "They were eating her," she whispers.

     Gina freezes. Eating her? Eating who?

     "Eating who, Andie?"

     Andie's wide eyes widen further. "Jackie. They were eating Jackie." Gina can't mask her shock before it registers on her face. "It can't be real."

     Gina takes a breath. "What happened?"

     "There was snow, and a forest, and a cabin. And Jackie was burnt," Andie stammers.

     "Burnt?" Gina presses.

     Andie's eyes wander. "Cooked? I don't know. I don't know." Her hands start to tremble again.

     Gina rubs the back of her neck. "Okay, I'm taking you back to mine, is your shit packed for tomorrow?"

     She reaches out to take Andie's hand but Andie grips her wrist as hard as she can manage. "Did you hear me? They're going to eat Jackie," she hisses.

     Gina gestures around with her free hand, trying to mask the pain shooting through her arm. "There's no snow here. And we're not going to be in a snowy forest with a cabin anytime soon. You're right, okay, this one can't be real. Is your shit packed?"

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     Despite the roughness of the previous night, Andie's up bright and early for the flight. She spends the morning helping Gina's mother out around the house, cleaning up dishes left around the living/dining area and taking various chemicals to the bathroom utilities. Tanya Archer has long since given up trying to stop Andie from playing maid. If she gets a kick out of it, who is Tanya to stop her?

     Her pretty blue suitcases sit in a neat pile by the door, next to Gina's tattered grey duffle bag. Is it a tad excessive for her to bring two bags for a days-long trip? Possibly. But she knows for a fact that she's still got less baggage than Olivia — and at least one of Olivia's bags will be Louis Vuitton.

     Tanya gives the girls a ride to the airport and kisses them both 'goodbye' at the gate. They're carted away with the rest of the Yellowjackets and their personnel to their plane. Andie's brows furrow when she gets a good look at it.

     "I thought we were flying commercial," she ponders aloud.

     "Lottie's dad got us a private jet," Melissa says, unable to keep a giddy little grin off her face.

     Andie nods but her brows furrow regardless. She never saw a private jet in her visions. What is happening to her?

     Everyone boards the plane, splitting into pairs as they choose their seats. Andie grabs Gina's hand to pull her down into a seat to claim them before anyone else can. "You know we're gonna get the same view regardless of where we sit, right?"

     Andie shrugs. "Old habits die screaming, I guess." She's too used to fighting for the back window seat on the bus on the way to local games.

     Coach Martinez pushes through the aisle, followed by his sons — Travis and Javier. Travis takes up two whole seats by himself, making his younger brother find somewhere else to sit, and puts on a pair of headphones to drown out the noise of the plane.

     "Ugh, the boys are coming," Andie groans.

     Gina shrugs. "You know, some people on this flight actually like boys," she replies.

     "Ew," Andie mutters. "I hope you don't mean the child." She has to defend herself against a smack to the face with a neck pillow.

     "You know I didn't mean the child," Gina says, trying not to burst out laughing.

     "All right, hustle up. It's gonna be a long flight," Coach Martinez announces as he takes his seat.

     The beep-boop of the PA system rings through the cabin a moment before the Captain's voice comes through the speakers. "This is your captain. Our flight plan to Seattle has us going a little bit farther north than expected. We're gonna try to avoid a storm system that's coming in. Should get some great views of the Canadian Rockies. So, sit back, and enjoy the flight."

     "Even longer flight than expected, huh?" Gina mumbles.

     Andie rolls her eyes. "Good thing I can fall asleep just like that," she replies, snapping her fingers on the word that.

     "You don't want to see the Rockies?" Gina asks.

     "Only thing I want to see is the back of my eyelids, and then Winona Ryder's face in my dreams." Andie lolls her head to the side and closes her eyes to complete the joke, but the second she shuts her eyes, she snaps them back open, sitting up straight.

     Gina's eyes widen. "Okay, what was that?" she asks.

     Andie takes a breath to stabilise herself. "Nothing." Not nothing. "Muscle tweaked in my neck all weird." Saw the plane nosedive into the woodland by the Rockies. She keeps her mouth shut. Her visions have clearly turned whackadoo.

     She shuts her eyes again and sees nothing but the reddish-black of the back of her eyelids. And she continues to see nothing but the reddish-black of the back of her eyelids for hours, until all of a sudden, she doesn't. She sees the plane nosediving again.

     She jerks awake and within a second, she's standing, a scream ripping out of her, tearing her throat to shreds. And everyone turns to look at her, confused and concerned, because the plane isn't nosediving into anything.

     Until, seconds later, the plane dips and a siren blares and the view from the windows stop being entirely sky and turns into the tippy-tops of trees.

     Until that vision turns very, very, very fucking real.

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a/n:
no i didn't speed-finish this chapter so that this fic would be eligible for the fanfic awards wdym??

i actually wasn't planning on updating this until after christmas, as i'm currently working on my super special surprise, but hey, i was inspired.

i don't have a ton to say rn, it is INCREDIBLY late and i need to fix my sleep schedule, so goodnight my loves, i hope you enjoyed the chapter!! mwah mwah!

published : december 14, 2024
word count : 3k