*

"Kate!" Victoria called as I started to move off to get back to my room to start on my damn mountain of homework. I spun with a less-than-happy expression and saw her tilt her head at it before I straightened out my face. "Come to the library with us." She insisted, making me deliberate for a minute. I could feel Izzy and Shane's eyes on me among others as I considered Victoria's request.

"Yeah, okay." I answered after a moment. I regretted my choice as we moved off toward the library and I felt very much like a sheep. I tried to think about it differently, like it should be a good thing that they wanted me around, but I didn't exactly feel like friends...

Despite having had a successful gathering/party on Saturday, I had a strong feeling in my gut that I couldn't really trust Victoria. It didn't help that rather than asking me to come to the library, she had commanded me. I never ended up having her 'tutor' me even though I thought about it after seeing a few of her A+ papers come back in Calculus and Literature. My B's were starting to bum me out since I knew I was better than that. I knew I wasn't stupid, so then why were my grades not as good as friggin' homophobic Victoria's and pain-in-the-ass Melissa's?

Shane and the others had started to keep me at arm's length and I caught them a few times talking about me when I went to join them. Rossie and Izzy were the ones who seemed to have the biggest issues with my hanging out with Victoria and although Margaret and Shane seemed to have had a good time, I got the feeling they were still being poisoned against me. The only thing I had overheard was Izzy saying that she didn't think I was a 'good person'. I wanted to walk in and say 'I'm definitely not a good person, but who the fuck are you?'. I ended up being uncharacteristically non-confrontational and I just went in to join them and pretended I hadn't heard anything. Izzy had become scared to look me in the eyes and it was starting to piss me off.

"You don't get good grades..." Michelle's voice dipped low as she frowned at my most recent test that I was looking over. I looked up to see her and a few others rejoining Victoria, me, and Melissa with sugary drinks they had bought at the café that was located in the same building as the main library.

"I got all A's in public school with very little effort. It might take a while for me to adjust, but I'm not an idiot." I insisted in a hard voice. "I'm sure I can bring up a 3.5." I shrugged, making Victoria hide a smile that felt more like she was laughing at me than agreeing. When my hard eyes turned to her, she was able to wipe it from her face, but I could still see the wicked delight in her eyes.

"A B is a 3.0." Melissa pointed out, sounding like a bitch.

"Well, I have a B+ in the class." I sighed, seeing no reason for the damn teacher to mark me off for having an opinion out of the ordinary even though I was able to support it well and write convincingly. He had taken off points for one of my cases because he didn't like one of my points and it was way more off than I felt I deserved. Damn Montgomery... I thought as I put my test away and took out my lap top to try to get my long Research paper for history done. The oddest thing was that I was actually doing better in Calculus than any of my other classes. Something about there being only one right answer in math helped remove any subjectivity from the grading process and even though the homework took me outrageously long to get done, it was enough to actually teach me the concepts which helped me get mostly A's on my tests.

I got tired of Michelle and a girl named Tia making straw noises as they sipped the last of their drinks, so I decided to head back to the room.

"Leaving already? Did you finish all your homework?" Victoria asked, sounding like she was brimming with happiness that she knew I hadn't finished, or maybe she was happy that I was leaving.

"Yeah, I'll see ya." I answered automatically. Of course, I hadn't finished, but they didn't need to know that. As I got up from the table, I couldn't help glancing up to the best vantage point in the library, Mr. Montgomery's spot. To my surprise, part of my uneasiness could be from him watching me. His grey eyes seemed to be watching me like a cat, but when we made eye contact, a smile pulled at his lips. Did he expect me to look up? Did he want me to look?

It was his sexy, grey-eyed gaze that was occupying my mind when I made my way to dinner. Shane and the others had already eaten, so after I ate a quick bite at the cafeteria, I went to the room to find Shane and Jenna making out on Shane's bed. They both look flustered when I swung the door and Jenna's usually perfectly neat pin-straight locks were sticking up in loops on her static-y head. Her lips were swollen and her cheeks, even with her dark tan skin-tone, were blushing.

"Heeey..." Shane said awkwardly after she had rolled off Jenna, to sit up in bed with all the buttons undone on her white shirt.

"Damn, sorry." I sighed, collapsing back on my bed after dropping my backpack and suppressing the cringe about the fact that I had my lap top in there.

"What's up?" Shane asked, as Jenna turned towards me and focused on smoothing out her wrinkled shirt and doing up the buttons that had been undone to reveal her lacy black and red bra. I peeked over at her to see her nipples still hard against her shirt and tried not to glance at the underwear lying around the bed. I never understood how two girls could really have good sex. Sure, oral was nice, but how can they reach that spot deep inside without a dick or a dildo?

"Nothing. I'm sorry I interrupted you guys..." I sighed, feeling so not in the mood to go somewhere else to study with more people staring at me. I was pretty sick of the eyes on me all the time.

"We're just glad you're not Melissa." Jenna breathed, running her fingers through her hair and licking her red lips.

"Yeah, Melissa freaks out." Shane agreed. "You seem stressed. Is it just school? Today was a rough Monday..."

"Yeah, my grades aren't really what I thought they'd be. Montgomery has been grading me so friggin' hard and then my History paper is like a piece of shit..." I grumbled, looking at the ceiling and feeling a headache surface.

"I should work on my History paper." Shane cringed. "Making out is a good stress reliever." She laughed, making Jenna smirk.

"I'll have to try that some time." I joked half-heartedly.

"Well, both of us wouldn't mind making out with you if you ever want to." Jenna told me with a laugh, making a slight smile pull at my mouth.

"I'm one of those people whose mind wanders when I get stressed. I guess I'm more likely going to make-out when I'm not stressed. What do I usually do to relieve stress?" I asked myself. Shoot guns, spar with my brothers, go somewhere warm and tropical for the weekend... "Exercise, I guess." I answered my own question.

"Well, we have soccer practice tomorrow." Shane said with a shrug.

"Yeah, but I should be doing more than just an hour practice. If we don't play an actual game, I don't really get that much exercise." I insisted. Since we had split up Junior Varsity and Varsity teams, I'd had a better time when we scrimmaged with the better players, but we didn't have that many players so we tended to do drills more often than play. We had half the number of practices because the coach had to split his time between us and JV. I was a little annoyed that Amelia wasn't on Varsity with me, Shane, and Gina. I was actually sad about Margaret not being on Varsity because I found I actually enjoyed her company more than I expected. She was right on the cut off and the Coach said if anybody got injured, she'd have to move up. I considered for a dark moment injuring an annoying redhead named Lola, but I didn't want the Coach to kick me off the team... That'd be embarrassing...

"I have to finish my Calculus homework." I sighed, sitting up like a zombie. "You guys can make out- or fuck all you want, I'm just going to play some music. I don't really give a shit." I laughed, seeing the surprised smirks on their faces.

"Dude, you are the weirdest chick I've ever met." Shane announced.

"When you're less stressed, we should totally have a threesome." Jenna insisted, biting her lip as her lusty eyes looked over my body. I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd never given a girl oral and probably would never want to, so I just stayed quiet with my usual poker face on as I turned to my desk and heaved my bag over to pull out my books and my ipod.

*

I ended up going to the gym super early in the morning and I was so mad that I was dumb and wore shorts and a tank with deep slits on each side, because the fall breeze blew right to my skin under the loose-fitting top and my legs were covered in goosebumps as I strode miserably to the Sports Complex across campus. I was glad it was quiet, with only a couple girls running on the many treadmills. I lifted a few dumbbells in the weight room, but when Mr. Montgomery walked in looking as hot as shit, I ended up abandoning my weights and going to the treadmills. His grey eyes were on me, but I avoided them as I slipped out. I couldn't help looking back through the glass windows as he bent to put his water bottle down and my eyes ran over his toned calves and perfectly proportioned ass as I slipped away before he could see me staring.

I had spent the whole morning trying to make up for the fact that I had taken too long at the gym because my mind had wandered while I was on the treadmill and I ended up cutting it close when I took a shower before heading to class. I still felt like I was in a hurry on the way to my fourth class of the day and decided to take a chance and use the bathroom that was labelled as the men's room because I figured there was a low probability that it was actually a men's room at an all-girls school. When I swung the door open, my eyes went wide as I walked in on Mr. Montgomery. It was a single bathroom...

"Oh, god, I'm sorry!" I cried, stepping back and closing the door with the sight of his penis seared into my mind's eye.

"You're fine. I should've locked the door." He said with a smirk as he opened the door after zipping his fly.

"I should've knocked!" I breathed, covering my smile with my hand as he washed his hands. "I didn't expect a men's room at an all-girls school-" I stammered, trying to stifle a surprised laugh.

"You're fine. I'm done." He said running his hand through his hair as he looked at me with amusement. "Don't forget to lock the door." He joked as he stepped close to me in the doorway, leaving me spinning from the intoxicating scent of his cologne before he left me alone in the bathroom still dumbstruck.

Of course, it had to be his class that I was going to when I walked in on him... It took me forever to shake off the embarrassed smile and I knew it'd be hard to walk into his classroom without blushing. I was never one to really blush, but I could feel the heat in my face just the same and always felt like others could see it too. I was able to slip by before the bell without looking at him, but when class started, I found myself preoccupied with dirty thoughts about him and his large...

*

Danielle was eyeing me when Coach Beals pulled me aside after practice. He had a smile on his chiseled face and something untrustworthy in his blue eyes.

"You did great, today!" he told me as he moved to stand just a tiny bit too close. "I'm really glad you cleaned up your game." He put his hand on my shoulder and I glanced at it before looking back up to meet his eyes and realizing that what bothered me about them was lust. "I'm proud of you." He insisted, as I held tightly onto my poker face and refused to step back because it felt like a sign of weakness.

"Thank you?" I said hesitantly, hearing the slight coldness that came across in my voice. It was enough for him to nervously take his hand back, but he was still grinning as he rubbed the back of his tanned neck.

"It was a compliment." He practically whispered, leaning his head closer to me like he was telling me a secret. "If you ever need to talk to someone, you know I'm here for you, right?" he murmured, with a tone like he was trying to be seductive. I was more shocked than anything, but I was still good at hiding my true feelings and I nodded resolutely. His eyes strayed a little bit to my lips before he straightened up with another overly wide smile. "I'll see you on Friday for our first game." He said brightly, putting his hand on my back softly as if he was guiding me back toward the building. I followed his silent guidance and started moving back towards the others, but I could feel the seriousness and annoyance on my face as Danielle had a suggestive smirk on her face.

*

Danielle wasted no time in telling Victoria about Coach Beals' interest in me and before I knew it there were rumors about us having already had sex. It was one of Victoria's cronies, Tia, that asked me how he was. I told her I wasn't into him, but she said 'Oh, that bad, huh?' I just rolled my eyes and tried not to take it personally. So what if a bunch of randos though I was doing the coach?

Friday came fast after a week of studying and wishing I was home instead of sharing a crowded bed room and eating dog food in a cafeteria full of bitches gawking at me.

"Hey, so..." Shane started as I accompanied her, Gina, and Izzy to the parking lot outside the Sports Complex to get on the bus to go to our first game. "I heard you and Coach...?" it was almost a statement, but the look I shot her which was halfway between no-way-in-hell and don't-you-dare-say-it made her face turn to one of confusion.

"I didn't. It's only a rumor." I told them as the Coach singled me out to shoot me the most excited smile, as if proving me wrong. I struggled to return a tight-lipped smile and swallowed the huff of exasperation as we approached with our cleats clacking on the sidewalk and our bags hanging loosely on our shoulders.

"Hey, Chernoff! You ready?" He asked, clapping me on the shoulder as I started trying to get on the bus. Pretty much all the players were judging me before I could even spit out a lack-luster 'Yeah, totally'. "You'll be fine." He tried to assure me in a soothing voice, that made me feel more like he was embarrassing me further. His blue eyes seemed to bore into mine as I once again focused put on my most effective poker face.

I joined the others on the bus to find that they all looked up at me when I found myself alone in the aisle with no one to sit next to. I made eye contact with Shane, whose eyebrows furrowed in concern as she sucked her lips in her mouth tensely. I collapsed in one of the seats near the front even though I was more of a back-of-the-bus type person and to my utter dismay, the Coach sat in the bench across the aisle from me with his body angled towards me. I put my Bluetooth ear pieces in and had my ipod playing the angriest-sounding punk rock emo bands before the bus had even started moving and I pretended to scroll through my phone so no one would talk to me. The Coach tried until he noticed the black buds in my ears and I pretended not to hear him.

I ended up texting my closest friend and cousin, Lena.

It's C. I'm having an awful time at this crap school. How's everybody at home? I was so desperate when it took her forever to reply to the foreign number, that I even considered texting one of my brothers about coming to threaten the Coach so he'd lay off, but Papi told me not to contact anyone. It was a little stupid of me, really.

Hey. I miss you so much! I forgot you had to ditch your phone! Lena finally answered.

I don't really have friends... as usual... I texted her in self-pity, seeing the little dots telling me she was answering right away.

Maybe I can call you from a burner? What are you doing now? She asked. God, she types so quick. I smirked.

I'm going to a soccer game. I'm on the team. We should talk tonight. I just need someone to talk to ☹ I answered, leaning back and looking at the grey ceiling of the bus as I tried to decide where I'd be able to talk to her with no one listening.

Yah! Def. Does 11 work? I know its late...

11's fine.

I looked up from my phone to catch the Coach watching me, but he looked away to my relief. The ride to Princeton Prep took almost an hour. I ended up wanting to flop over and sleep in my seat, but I had an uncomfortable feeling like somebody would take a picture or catch me drooling. I ended up laying back with my head on my bag and my cleats on the seat as I pretended to read something on my phone while I actually spent the ride picturing Mr. Montgomery and trying to decide how I could ever pursue a teacher without using my training as a spy to find out where he lives...

"Ready?" Coach Beals called, glancing down at me when the bus stopped and I had taken my earbuds out.

"Sure." I murmured, looking out to the pristine lawns surrounding the huge parking lot at Princeton Prep. Unlike Golds, it was a coed private school and it wasn't a boarding school. According to Shane, they were our biggest rivals and we lost to them every year.

"Dude, we have to win this year!" Shane insisted when she joined me on the sidewalk with the rest of the team.

"Kate, you're going to be our secret weapon." Gina joked, getting my attention after I found myself eyeing a small group of students hanging out and smoking cigarettes under the bleachers.

"Yeah, sure." I shrugged as the Coach came over close behind me and put both his hands on my shoulders. I had a hard time keeping my face straight then.

"Come on! You need more spirit than that." He chuckled, making me take a deep breath to keep from shoving him back and then kicking him in the balls.

"I think I need a cigarette actually." I mumbled, making the team eye me with judgment and surprise. The Coach just laughed and thankfully took his hands back after giving me a shake.

The other team was in mostly white jerseys with green and yellow accents and we were wearing out bright red jerseys and black and red shorts and socks. I preferred the red and black over the green and gold the other team looked over with intimidation when they saw Shane and me as the first to approach our bench to put our bags down.

When we started our warm up, jogging and practicing a few drills, the other team started shouting out like a damn cheerleading squad. My eyes went wide and an abhorred look took over my features as I looked over at the other team. Shane laughed at my expression.

"What the... fuck?" I said with distaste as their shrill voices shouted out in a well-rehearse super embarrassing chorus and their eyes watched us for our reactions like they thought we'd be intimidated.

"They do it every year to psych us out." Gina explained with a laugh.

"They sound like idiots." I cringed with my lip curled and my teeth clenched.

"We should do our cheer back." Izzy hissed with vigor.

"No. Way. In. Hell." I answered with stilted words.

"Yeah, Kate doesn't know it yet. We never taught it." Shane agreed, sounding unwilling.

"We don't need everyone to say it. We should just give them a taste of their own medicine and Kate can stand with the Coach or something." Danielle suggested.

"God, I think I'll crawl in a hole..." I muttered, still horrified at the goofy dance moves the other team was aiming at us- like we were in a scene from Step Up or something.

"Let's just beat them quietly." Shane insisted, wrinkling her nose as their shouting got louder.

"We won't look like a good team if Kate stands on the side." One of them insisted.

"I won't be caught dead cheering. That is the lamest thing I've ever seen." I insisted, making a couple team members laugh.

"Yeah, I hate cheering. What are we cheerleaders?" Gina asked, crossing her arms and thankfully siding with me.

Their coach was an intense-looking woman and when I stepped up for the kick off after the players took the field, her eyes were on me with anticipation. The girl I was facing was big and tall and I guessed it meant she was slow too. She had a snotty smile on her face like she thought she was going to win. I considered doing what the Coach said I should do and letting her take the ball and then getting back from her when she didn't expect me to- one of my more effective fake-outs, but the look of her big meaty legs made me decide to save my fake-out for someone faster. When the whistle blew, I snagged the ball before she could even move. I used my foot to roll it to the side out of the way while she did a humongous kick in mid-air and it off-balanced her, making me laugh as she huffed and tried to right herself as I took the ball down the field like a damn cheetah. The Coach was screaming at Shane to get to a place for me to pass to her, but I was feeling so full of energy as I zipped by a few players with some showy moves that no one had a chance to catch up to me. If it wasn't so early in the game, I wouldn't have attempted a 'rainbow' over the last defenseman, but I figured I didn't have much to lose. I flipped the ball up in the air behind me, making the girl's eyes go wide as they tried to locate the ball and then I dashed around her and aimed a desperate kick as the ball hit the ground and bounced. It had too much bounce and my kick was aimed to quickly, so the ball went higher in the air than I meant and ricocheted back from the corner of the goal with a metallic clang. The goalie had jumped to the corner, but she was caught off guard when my aim was off and came down with a thud as I took a second kick and aimed for the opposite side of the goal. It went flying in to hit the net in the most satisfying goal ever.

Shane's skinny arms came around me and a cocky half-smile was on my face.

"Fuck yeah, Kate!" she cheered, before we went skipping back down the field and the other team watched with anger on their faces.

"What the hell are we going to do when they have two Shanes?" I heard one of other team's girls ask, sounding hopeless.

"Awesome, Kate!" The Coach called, clapping his hands loudly.

"You do the kick-off." Shane told me with a nod.

"I'll let her take it and go sprinting up the field. You follow me up and get the ball." I whispered to her before taking my place at the center of the field across from a small skinny girl. She looked disconcerted as she faced me, and I couldn't help smiling because she made a perfect target for our next tricky play. She seemed so focused on me that I probably could've gotten the ball from her just by doing my usual technique of standing there motionlessly.

The whistle sounded with crisp, shrill tone, and I bolted around the girl up the field without a look back. One of their midfield players was looking at me like I was insane until I heard Shane's laugh. Then the midfielder's eyes turned away from me and she went thundering after Shane. I barely had to look back and wave an arm when Shane sent the ball whizzing up to me past the midfielder and their coach was going hoarse screaming as I dodged a defenseman and looked up to see Shane at the ready as she slipped by the players that were all coming to me. I had to dribble towards the middle of the field to get close enough to aim a kick to Shane and the goalie was focused on me when I faked a kick towards the goal just to send it to Shane. The goalie stumbled toward me as Shane slammed the ball into the goal.

"Dude, that was priceless!" Shane laughed, giving me a high five as the other players eyed us with outrage.

She stuck her tongue out at a particularly nasty girl as we made our way back down the field with her arm over my shoulders.

When the big no-longer-grinning girl was the one across from me for the kick off, I wasn't surprised when she slammed into me as I took the ball and knocked me off my feet to the grass. I was surprised when both the coaches were screaming and the whistle sounded right away to stop the game. Coach Beals came jogging over as Danielle helped me up.

"Kate, are you okay?" he asked as the girl was given a yellow card while I wiped the grass off my hip.

"Yeah, I can take a hit." I shrugged, looking up to his concerned blue eyes. He had his hands on his hips as his eyebrows pushed down and he aimed a look at the other girl.

He had Shane take the kick off across from a girl who was short and squat with a pixie-cut. Shane seemed to know her and they exchanged a few cocky greetings before Shane was the winner and I went zipping up the field, before a girl tried to trip me. I jumped her leg, but the referee sounded the whistle again and I stood in confusion as the game was halted again and another yellow card was given out to the player that tried to trip me. She cursed under her breath as her coach threatened her with being benched if she tried it again. I was all off my game after the odd pause, but they had Shane do the kick and I had to headbutt the ball in the air to avoid getting taken out by their humongous, surprisingly fast defenseman. The other team was practically in slow motion as I glanced at the goal before catching the ball between my feet before it hit the ground and Shane was like a damn mind-reader when she was right where I needed her. I flicked the ball back at her and then ducked giving her a clear shot at the goal. She took it and I watched the ball soar over me, but the goalie caught it.

By half-time, it was four to zero and the coach was beaming when Shane and I went to get water. Danielle was the one to get the last goal after I had gotten slide tackled and the girl got a red card for it. I looked across the empty field to see there were actually students gathered to watch us. They were mostly boys and their eyes were on me as they laughed to each other, but when they caught me scanning over them, they smirked at me.

"Kate, you take the kick off." Coach Beals said, patting me on the back when half-time was over. I looked back at the bench and saw two players hadn't even played.

"Nah, let Izzy take it. She hasn't even played. I can do midfield?" I suggested, seeing the discontent in his eyes as Izzy sat up straight with hope on her face. He looked stern, but nodded and gestured for her to take the field before he pulled Lola out and I took her place.

Shane had never-ending energy as she bounced on her toes while waiting for the game to restart. Izzy lost the kick-off, but I slid in behind her.

"Hey, look!" I exclaimed, making the girl look up at me in surprise as I kicked the ball from between her feet, horizontal across the field right into Danielle's grasp.

"You bitch!" the girl roared, trying to shove me. I leaned out of the way and pulled her arm so her momentum made her fall on her face as I started jogging up the field to get in position.

Izzy was slow and I ended up flying past her to aid Shane after Danielle desperately kicked the ball as a girl shouldered her off balance. I had to slide-tackle the ball to get to it in time and it went rolling unceremoniously into the goal, making the goalie groan in disappointment.

The cheering was louder than I expected and I glanced to see the boys on the sidelines hooting at me. Shane looked disconcerted as well.

"I like you so much better when you're on our team." Danielle laughed as we made our way down the field.

"Dude, they're cheering for the wrong team..." Shane insisted, with a sideways look at the students in their beige pants with green and yellow ties. Some of them even had friggin' sweater vests and I wondered what the Bartholomew's boys wore for their uniform.

*

When the game ended, the other team looked absolutely disheartened as we lined up to shake hands.

"You have a lot of skill. Congratulations." Their coach said as she shook my hand at the end of the line.

"Uh, thanks." I answered, half distracted by their boys team as they started jogging over to take the bench.

"City girl!" I heard a familiar voice, making me spin with a grin to see Dwayne waving from where the Bartholomew boys were making their way through the field. I jogged over with a smile.

"Hey, D!" I called, letting him pull me into a half hug.

"Did you guys win?" he asked with a grin.

"Yeah, we pulverized them." I joked as Shane and Gina joined me.

"They were trying to take out Kate. They got two yellow cards and a red card." Shane told the four guys and Dwayne that stopped to greet me. Their eyebrows raised as they studied the other team and Dwayne seemed to be looking over my uniform as if he was checking to make sure I hadn't gotten hurt.

"Wow, bitches." One of the guys behind Dwayne said, before his eyes slid back to me.

"I guess we can't stay to watch your game, huh?" I asked with slight disappointment as Coach Beals' eyes turned to us after he shook the other coach's hand and had accepted her compliments.

"That would be awesome." One of the guys grinned.

"Definitely good for morale. Princeton Prep usually beats us." Dwayne agreed.

"Too bad you don't have Kate on your team." Gina chuckled, making me shoot her a smirk.

"Maybe Shane could pass as a guy. She got more goals than me." I joked, making Shane blush.

"You assisted. That's the more difficult job." Shane argued as the coach seemed to thunder up to us.

"Come on, girls. We have to get on the bus." He said sternly as Dwayne started telling me how we should still try to scrimmage sometime. The coach practically pushed me away from Dwayne with a light but persuasive hand on my back and I almost wanted to make a scene, but I resisted.

"We'll talk about it later. You have my number." I reminded him, as I dodged Coach's hand. "Good luck!" I cheered with a reassuring smile.

"Thanks. Yeah, I'll text you. We should hang out." Dwayne nodded, his straight white teeth showing from between his smiling dark lips.

"Totally. Au revoir." I told him as I trotted off as the Coach was calling to me like I was breaking a rule by talking to them.

"You are such a player." Gina told me quietly as I watched the Coach storm onto the bus.

"What? I am not!" I argued, knowing she was trying to tell me that Dwayne had a thing for me and I was trying desperately to pretend we were just friends.

I was glad to get to sit next to Shane on the bus ride back and everybody noticed the Coach's change in attitude as he sat sternly at the front.