k a r r i s

✖

Despite having a rough morning, school was going by swimmingly. Berkley was by my side for most of the day and my fellow classmates ignored me until it was time to interact during group discussions. I was doing a swell job of staying out of the spotlight and I think it was because no one was purposely putting me beneath the illumination.

Then lunch happened.

Berkley and I sat on one of the outside tables in the quad, enjoying the fresh air and sun rays. As we delved deep in conversation about upcoming concerts we wanted to save our money for, we were unfortunately interrupted. It first started with Berkley's eyes. They grew wide by the second, her lips parting in puzzlement as her line of vision drifted from me, to whatever was behind me.

"What are you..." I gazed at Berkley with narrowed eyebrows before slowly turning my head over my shoulder. That's when I saw them, "holy shitaki mushrooms."

Calum, Luke, Michael and the rest of the hockey team (excluding Ashton) were marching straight for our table. In their hands, they grasped red buckets filled with God knows what. Each of the members wore neon pink shirts that looked three sizes smaller than their norm, and out of the twenty members, twelve of them had large, bold numbers printed across their chest.

"What the hell is going on?" Berkley questioned, dropping her sandwich from her hands.

"I don't know," I felt my stomach churn into acidic knots, anxiety prickling my skin.

I was so unsure of what was going on; what was to come and I became more nervous by the second. I kept my eyes pinned to the plastic buckets in their hands, wondering what was sloshing around inside. What if this was going to be a remake of the humiliation in the locker room? What if Ashton was nice to me this morning only to bring my guard down, just so he could make his stupid hockey cronies harass me in front of the entire student population?

I felt sick.

Thank God I had Berkley with me, because as the hockey team approached, my best friend stood in front of me. She acted as a barricade, her arms crossed above her chest and her eyebrow raised in ire. That Latina fire inside of her ignited, and if the hockey team knew better, they wouldn't dare try to mess with either of us.

"Take another step forward you fuckboys and I swear," Berkley's voice was strong, commanding, and it slightly turned me on.

"Calm down princess," Luke chuckled, completely disregarding Berkley's wrath. He leaned forward, placing his lips ever so slightly to my best friend's left ear and continued at a deep whisper, "I'm not gonna hurt her."

I got the chills and I knew even Berkley was susceptible to Luke's charming disposition. My best friend's guard dropped at an instant, and I think her panties did too, as she watched in mesmerization. Luke let out another chuckle before walking passed Berkley's failed attempt in blockading me from the rampage I knew was going to come.

"St-stay a-away," I stammered, cowering among the hockey team who towered above me.

No one spoke at first, only re-assembling themselves. I observed in confusion, and it wasn't until they stuck their chests out did I realize that the numbers on the shirts weren't random. The numbers were oddly familiar and as I sat there staring, my brain's synapses firing up into overdrive. My deep thoughts were interrupted when Calum suddenly opened his mouth to speak.

"Karris we win first place for douchebags of the year," he declared, his voice loud and prompting the people around us to pull out their phones. "The team hasn't been the same since you left us."

"Whatever," I scoffed, rolling my eyes and crossing my arms.

"He's right Karris," Michael pipped up. "We're all talented hockey players individually--"

"--some more than others," Luke interjected with a smirk, causing Michael to scowl at him.

"--but," Michael continued with annoyance before looking back at me, "you're the one who makes us play as a team."

"You're the missing element," Luke stated, an apologetic gaze in his eyes.

There was an emphasis to his last word, and I knew he didn't pick that word on a whim to put on the forefront. I thought about it for a moment, and that's when it hit me like a ton of bricks. Or should I say hit me like an explosion caused by sodium and water. The numbers on their shirts were numbers that corresponded to elements off of the periodic table: 9, 92, 6, 19, 92, 16. 90, 53, 16, 16, 52, 95.

"I told you she'd get it," Calum leered in Luke's direction, a delighted smirk on his face.

And he was right. I did get it. I quickly grabbed a notebook from my backpack and penned down each number, writing down the element correlated with it. My eyes darted from their shirts down to my notebook as my brain worked in solving the creative puzzle. And upon the college-ruled, lined paper was a phrase only the hockey team before me could come up with: FUCK US. ThIS IS TeAm

"This is team," Michael reiterated. "This is a team; our team; your team."

I looked over to Berkley, who was just as shocked as I was. She shrugged her shoulders, unknowing of what to do. She did however give me a reassuring smile, and I knew that whatever decision I chose, she'd support me. The thing is, even though the hockey team took their time to concoct such a creative way to apologize after I denied their first attempt, it still wasn't enough for me. I appreciated the effort, I really did, but what they did to me in that locker room was more than humiliating. They completely dehumanized me, treated me like swine, and made me feel like my life was unimportant.

"I don't know if can I forgive you right now," I shrugged.

A disappointed sigh escaped the lips of every member on the team. They looked to one another for reassurance, not uttering a single word. When Luke and Calum nodded their heads, that's when the following event took place without a hitch. It was something so unexpected and if it weren't for the several phones recording the occasion, I wouldn't have believed it actually happened.

BBQ sauce.

The same one that was dumped all over me that one afternoon in the locker room, was suddenly plummeted all over each member of the hockey team. Their eyes were screwed shut as they held the overturned bucket above their head, the gooey texture slowly dribbling down their bodies. My jaw was dropped to my chin, completely shocked by what was happening before me. It was crazy, amazing, beautiful.

"Best. Day. Ever," Berkley breathed, a cynical smile painted across her face as she held up her phone towards the mess before us.

"Agreed," I high-fived my best friend, shock still wavering upon us all.

Once the last drop of BBQ sauce was coated upon every inch of the hockey team, did they drop the buckets onto the ground. Then, in the puddle of the smokey confection fit for a grill, they dropped to their knees. Each laced their fingers together, and in one unison voice, they all chanted,

"Karris is queen! Please come back! Karris is queen! Please come back!"

I could never get used to this. This was a moment in life I never wanted to forget, nor did the rest of our fellow classmates. People walked by, snapping photos or taking video as they passed by the begging hockey team. As messed up as it sounded, I was proud of all of this. I was also proud to know that I had made such an impact on the team that they had to go through all of this just to get me back. It was wonderful.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Ashton came out of nowhere, suddenly appearing before us all with a disgusted expression on his face.

"Your teammates really want me back," I giggled, a slight pompousness to my tone.

"Are you going to come back?!" Calum asked, well, shouted, as I think the BBQ sauce was beginning to burn his eyes.

"Please come back!" Michael shrieked. "Hemmings I told you to get the mild sauce!"

"This is mild!" Luke screamed back.

Berkley and I bursted into hysterical laughter, holding onto each other to keep from toppling over. Even though they were suffering from burning eyes and will probably smell like a Texan BBQ festival for a week, I was thoroughly enjoying this sweet form of torture.

"Karris! Are you still there?!" Calum screamed, his eyes still closed tightly. "Please be our coach again!"

"On one condition!" I bellowed, a mischievous smirk forming on my face.

"What do you want?!" Luke yelled, his voice cracking. I giggled in his expense as he let out an agonizing breath, "oh my gosh, this shit hurts."

Even Ashton wasn't immune to the silliness of it all because his annoyed scowl quickly morphed into a fit of giggles-- something I never knew the cold hearted captain was even capable of. But that's when I turned to look at Ashton with an impish expression beaming all around me like a glowing aura. When he finally noticed my mischievous glare, his giggle faded into silence.

"What?" Ashton questioned, taking a step back, unbeknown of what was lingering in my mind.

"I'll come back as coach," I started, "if your captain, number 15, Ashton Irwin gets coated in BBQ sauce too."

"Oh fuck that Karris!" Ashton argued, holding his hands up in defense.

"Get him!" Michael let out the most dramatic battle cry to ever fill my ears. He accompanied the theatrics with a pump of his arm towards the sky.

"Don't you guys fucking dare!" Ashton took a step back, shaking his head with a warning scowl.

When Michael and the rest of the team squinted open an eye, trying to keep from anymore BBQ sauce to enter their socket, Ashton suddenly hurdled himself across the quad in full sprint. This was not an obstacle for the boys, as they all jolted after their pretentious captain. The entire team raced across the quad, towards the large water fountain, donated to the school by some rich alumni. One of the goalies pummeled right into Ashton, the two athletes falling right into the circular water abode.

A huge splash erupted from the impact, and before another second could pass, the rest of the team jumped into the fountain too. They forced Ashton into a group hug, rubbing the excess of the BBQ sauce onto the curly-haired captain. He shrieked, as if he were being dunked into a vat of acid.

"Stop guys! Please!" Ashton pleaded.

"Not till Karris is back on the team!" Luke negotiated, grabbing some of the BBQ sauce off of his now-flattened hair and rubbing it onto Ashton's face.

"Karris! Help me!" Ashton screamed, something I was not expecting at all.

"Wow, I never would've thought I'd be alive to see the day Ashton Irwin asks for my help," I raised a brow.

"Please! I'm sorry Karris! Come back on the team!" Ashton continued to escape the grasps of his fellow hockey team, but when it was twenty against one, number 15 had no chance.

After watching this beautiful moment for another minute, I finally decided to halt the rest of their endeavors. The water in the fountain was turning brown from the sauce, and the hockey team was now completely soaked. Though Berkley and I weren't exactly complaining as we could perfectly see their chiseled bodies.

It was Abs-R-Us in the motha' trucka'.

"You can stop torturing him now!" I dictated with a laugh. "I'll come back as Coach Karris!"

It was these words that ceased their movements, and smiles to replace their angry frowns. It was these words that snapped the team's attention to me and excited jeers to escape their lips. Then, without letting another second pass, Ashton suddenly jumped out of the fountain. While I expected him to stomp away like the dramatic princess he was, it didn't happen. Instead, Ashton sauntered straight over to me, and before I could even have time to react, his strong arms easily lifted me off of the ground. He threw me over his shoulder and marched right back to the fountain.

"Oh my God, let me go Ashton!" I yelped, kicking my legs aimlessly, while trying to keep my glasses from falling off of my face. I did get a nice view of Ashton's bum, but I couldn't let his nice cheeks distract me from the bigger problem at hand.

Ashton unpredictably let out another round of giggles, and I decided at that moment it was one of my favorite sounds. He climbed back into the fountain and the moment Ashton put me down, was the same moment the rest of the team cheered joyously, all while splashing BBQ-tainted water. I laughed, joining in on the splash fest, and for the first time I wasn't the victim of Ashton's laughter. He wasn't laugh at me, instead he was laughing with me. And although we were seconds away from getting in trouble from faculty who were parading their way over to us, I couldn't help but to deem this day as anything less than wonderful.

It was perfect.

✖

I think this is one of my favorite chapters I've written for this story. It was so much fun for me. The words flowed so easily from my mind to my fingertips that it took me no more than two hours to write. Also it looks like Ashton is slowly coming around. He's still a jerk but he's slowly coming to terms with the idea of Coach Karris. Also, team BerLukley? LuLey? Buke? Berke? Haha I don't know.

I hope you liked this chapter as much as I liked writing it. Thank you for voting, for commenting and for adding it to your reading lists, I seriously appreciate it!