[ story is best read in Georgia font and the black background/white text option ]

début.
ties that bind.
summer 1996 — winter 1998.

" THEY WERE CHAMPIONS. "

cast + character blurbs.

annie sun as malia sun

MALIA SUN was Coach Martinez's favorite player. She was the best, simply put. Shauna might be faster, Taissa might be smarter, but Malia was the most well rounded player on the team. She could see moves three steps before anyone else did, and could predict the other team's passes like it was second nature, making her the ultimate defensive player. She could weave her feet in ways that you couldn't even see with the naked eye, and that was something special. Coach Martinez had told her that he would talk to the science teacher that gave her detention for two weeks if she would agree to stick around for extra practice three days out of the week; and, well, Malia hated writing the same sentence in cursive in the silence of detention, and actually enjoyed running around on the soccer field.

            She was a troublemaker as much as she was talented, or at least, that's how everyone made her out to be. Her father, Wiskayok's most famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) pastor, often labelled her the 'problem child', even though she was his only child. He held such high expectations for her, envisioning her life for her from the moment she was born, and of course, God would give him a daughter that wanted the exact opposite of what she was supposed to want. Malia was an eccentric child, curious and wanting to know everything even if she couldn't understand it, and her father wanted her to be nothing more than an obedient, compliant child that never questioned anything she was told.

           As Malia grew older, the more strained their relationship became. He wanted her to join the church choir in her freshman year, so Malia joined the soccer team instead. Despite his annoyance by her rebellious nature, Pastor Sun still showed up to her games, albeit forcing a smile and noting every mistake she made for the conversation on the drive home. He made her hang out with Laura Lee, perhaps the most God-devoted teenager Malia had ever met, in hopes that she would rub off on her, while Malia could only ever nod and politely smile at anything she said. Malia could've been worse, she could've done drugs, or drank, or slept around the entire school just to piss her dad off, but she didn't want to do that, she just wanted to exist without someone telling her how.

          In her most recent act of 'misbehavior', Malia got into a physical altercation with another girl on the JV team— or, as she put it, she "totally fucking beat her ass!". She wouldn't tell Coach Martinez, Principal Berzonsky, or her father why she did it, so the latter two came to the conclusion that she did it for shits and giggles. Coach Martinez didn't agree, but his hands were essentially tied, and he had to bench his best player from participating in their Nationals championship game.

          But, he didn't get rid of the permission slip her father had already signed, allowing her to still go with them.

taylor russell as francesca 'franny' rose-dellwood

            FRANNY ROSE-DELLWOOD was trying to adjust to her new, hyphenated name. She'd been an only child her entire life, all sixteen years of it, until now. Her mother finally remarried after the death of her father, which had plagued their lives for the past three years. His presence still stalked the halls, haunting every creak of the floorboards and chilling the morning air that leaked in from the open window. It had been an unexpected death, one that sent both Franny and her mother reeling into their own personal vats of despair.

             But life still moved on, with or without you, which Franny learned very quickly. She had to adjust, and in doing so, had to find something else to focus on—to cling to. She needed something to make her forget about her dead father or her distraught mother, at least while she didn't have to be forced to remember it at her house. Franny found that solace in the team captain of her soccer team, Jackie Taylor. Jackie was, for all intents and purposes, perfect, at least, in Franny's eyes. She was pretty and talented, friendly, popular, she checked all the boxes on the list of who Franny wished she could be.

              Franny was a relatively shy and meek person, but that didn't stop her from pursuing a friendship out of Jackie; it was easy, especially since she seemed to at least make an attempt to befriend every girl on the soccer team. Jackie saw an opportunity to take someone frail under her wings and ran with it. Jackie would help do her hair in the locker room, give her tips on how to keep her cleats' laces from loosening while they ran, and let her borrow her clothes when they had to dress up for away games. Then, after all that was said and done, Jackie would return back to her best friend, Shauna's, side, and Franny would go back to watching at the sidelines.

              She didn't mind, though. She was happy to have Jackie's friendship for the sparing moments that she got, though she'd be lying if she said she wasn't envious of how close she and Shauna were. Still, Franny would go home to her haunted house without a complaint, and find her mother, and her new stepfather and stepsister inside, and wait for the next day to come so she could go to school again.

erana james as charlotte 'charlie' dellwood

            CHARLIE DELLWOOD was sick of changing things. In seventh grade when she moved to Wiskayok, she had to shorten her name from 'Charlotte' to 'Charlie' because there was already another girl named Charlotte in her class, and it would've been far too confusing, even though she already went by her own nickname of 'Lottie'. In sophomore year, she fractured her ankle so badly that the doctor told her she couldn't be as aggressive on the field anymore, meaning she had to change her playing style. And now, in her senior year, so close to being free of the societal restraints of high school, she was told she'd have to change her last name because her father was remarrying.

            Charlie didn't even consider it, she shut it down instantly, even though all her father wanted her to do was hyphenate her name out of respect for his new wife and daughter. She didn't care, though, as far as she was concerned, they were just strangers that lived in the same house as her. Charlie hated the idea of being forced to accommodate two new people into her family, and therefore decided to pretend that she didn't have to, causing unnecessary tension between her and her new stepsister, who happens to be one of her teammates.

           She told herself that it would be okay, eventually. She didn't have to face the problem now, it could be later, like after the Wiskayok Yellowjackets win the 1996 Nationals Championship in Seattle. Or she'd find that there was more underneath the surface, and something she was missing the whole tome. She just needed the right environment to see it.

xxx.

warnings.
language, violence, cannibalism, murder, sexual insinuation, torture, trauma. basically anything you would warn someone about before they watch Yellowjackets itself.

xxx.

note.

I'm here with another yellowjackets fic what can I say. really I wanted to do this because I wanted to write a more connected relationship with Natalie tbh and also bc I'm impatient to wait until season three is finished to write doomsday so I'm hoping this will fill the gaps for me.

Malia and Charlie are both sorta into Natalie in different ways, and I'm really interested to write those dynamics. One is like the devil on her shoulder bc she's literally insane no supernatural influence needed lol and the other is an unexpected angel. Franny is a Jackie Taylor fan girl that becomes a little unhealthy after some..traumatic event happens

Franny and Charlie are also stepsisters that literally can't stand each other lol

it'll probably be updated slower than doomsday for that reason but we'll see. anyways, I hope yall enjoy this one as much as doomsday even though that shit's my pride and joy

tried a new format here as well, might end up changing doomsday to fit it as well. I've held back on reformatting it til now because there's like 70 parts and I don't wanna spam everyone lol