Ash trudged into the kitchen late in the morning in a midnight blue bathrobe and giant flip-flops, trying to block out the dawn chorus coming through the open windows.

As expected, Caleb was up and about in actual clothes when she got there.

"The Dark Empress has awoken. Good morning, sleepy head!" he teased, raising his mug.

He took a seat at the counter to watch her.

"Why are you so loud!" she moaned.

"Why are you so grumpy?" he retorted with a smirk.

He was full of all that cheery morning energy. It was disgusting to behold.

Ash had had quite the interesting night but he didn't see her infecting anyone with her giddiness, did he?

She snatched the mug from his hand, satisfying herself with the small pleasure of watching the smirk disappear.

"You realise there's more over there, right?"

He pointed in the direction of the coffee maker but she wasn't looking.

She sat across from him.

"Yours is better," she whispered innocently, batting her eyelashes at him over the brim of the mug, "I love the way you make it."

"Yeah sure." He rolled his eyes.

She took a long sip before she spoke.

"Why are you up so early?"

"We are going shopping," he said.

Her groans could have been heard from outside, and that was a long way.

"Most girls would be excited to go shopping."

She flipped him the bird as she took another sip.

"We have Maria for that. By the way, where is she?" she said.

Maria was their babysitter slash maid slash responsible adult in Caleb's absence or as Ash had put it after one too many Batman comics: their butler.

It was not that they needed any one of these things. Their father had insisted and Maria was fun to be around. And to be fair it really was a big house.

The mansion that was their home stood tall on quite the plot of land with more rooms than would ever be used than its two occupants. But to be fair, it hadn't always been them two alone.

Fun or not, Maria hadn't been necessary until their mother had taken ill. Back then she was a temporary arrangement but when she had finally passed away over the summer, their father's last action before he threw himself back into work oceans away was to make sure they were taken care of. Not that Ash cared what he wanted.

Maria was mostly around in the mornings as Caleb usually relieved her of most duties for the rest of the day.

"She's gone for the day."

"Bummer for you. I'm not going."

"I had a feeling you would say that. I'll make you a deal. I'll get the boys together and you bring your girls. Two hours of soccer practice if you come with me."

She stared him down but he matched her gaze evenly, until finally,

"Ah fine! But I won't like it," she said, getting off the stool.

She walked over to the fridge and pulled it open.

"I could not care less." he laughed.

"Caleb? About your game night..." Ash called as she peered into the fridge.

"Mmm?"

"Do I wanna know why we're out of whipped cream?"

There was no reply for a long moment.

"I'll be waiting in the car," he said, bolting from his seat and grabbing his keys.

"Yeah you do that." Ash teased.

*****

The trip to the mall was not a fun event for Ash but she did trail wordlessly behind her brother likea loyal pup as he crossed things off his list and the pile in their shopping cart grew bigger. She raised a brow when a small carton of condoms then another landed in the cart and again when he picked up a few lady products-Ew!-but she said nothing.

At the end he rewarded her with a bar of chocolate the length of her face and the stress was forgiven.

Two hours later and it was time to fulfill his end of the deal.

As soon as they got back home, she took it upon herself to dump the bags at the door and return to the car to avoid delays. Their gym bags were in the booth already, courtesy of her.

"Full speed ahead!" she shouted as soon as she was back in the vehicle.

Caleb laughed his head off but obliged at once, setting a course for their new destination: Green Valley High School field.

*****

"Next time, I'm driving," Ash said as he pulled up in the parking lot, "I mean could you drive any slower?"

"You don't like my driving, drive yourself," Caleb retorted with a laugh, "You have three cars, Ash. Pick one and and stop being mad at the old man." He ended by rolling his eyes.

He spoke lightheartedly despite the fact that he really did wish their dad and Ash could settle their issues. Well she was the one with the issue but to be fair he put an ocean between them to avoid her. Fair was fair.

Point was Caleb knew that their issues were bigger than petty tantrums.

She ignored him as she started to change into her jersey.

"Well I'll leave the keys with you. I, on the other hand, will go use the locker room. I love my privacy."

"The glass is tinted, you prude."

He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead then ruffled her hair.

"I meant privacy from you. I'll see you on the field."

"You can get a head start on the tears because we will beat you boys out there," she said, lifting her legs onto the dashboard as she eased out of her jeans.

Caleb raised an eyebrow at the legs.

"Put a scratch on my baby and I'll murder you," he said.

"Oh please. The Aston is your baby, this is more like your side chick."

"Fair point. Be careful still," he said, popping the trunk and getting out of the car.

*****

Somehow Caleb was already at the field when Ash got there. So were the other soccer guys and girls.

The girls were huddled in one spot and the boys in the other.

The girls were all present: Brandy 'would-be Henderson', Tiana the dark-skinned beauty (and partial ho by association), Kira the actual ho, Ginny 'Ginger', Emily the sister in-law with the wicked left foot, Debbie 'Usain Bolt'; the fastest girl in the entire school, Hannah 'Banana' (so named not because of her love of the fruit), the twins Ariana and Briana (their parents were out of names for them and to be fair it was understandable, they were the last two of twelve children), and of course Maddie, Ash's most recent-because if she just said ex she'd be talking about her and half of the hot girls in this school-ex.

The moment Kira laid eyes on her, she ran and jumped on her.

Ash would probably have dropped her if she wasn't used to it, instead she caught her while she wrapped her arms and legs tight around her.

"Easy there, bunny." Ash said.

Kira responded by kissing her on the cheek.

"Hey sweetheart!" she replied waving right in front of her face.

"Yes I see you, ho," Ash replied in a bored yet amused tone, "can I put you down now?"

She nodded enthusiastically.

Ash let go of her and she landed on her feet then put her arm around her shoulders.

"So what have you been up to over the weekend?" she asked, then added in a hushed tone, "I heard about you and you-know-who. Real bummer."

Ash nodded.

"Hey guys!"

Their response was a chorused 'hey'

"Tiana, I see you let the bitch off her leash."

"Yeah she's a slippery one."

Kira let go of Ash and returned to her place by her best friend with a side hug.

"Get away from me." Tiana said, pushing her face away.

"Alright, we still got time for a warm up. One lap?" Ash asked.

"Sure thing, captain." Brandy said.

*****

"Heads or tails?"

"Heads." Ash replied.

The captain of the boys team who happened to be none other than her brother tossed the coin and caught it.

"Heads it is," he announced, "Now we couldn't get a referee but I want a clean friendly game. That means no scratching, no slapping, no biting, no rough play of any kind and certainly no shaolin soccer." At that last one his eyes were on his sister.

"Oh Jesus, Caleb that was one time." Ash groaned.

He was making a reference to a 'friendly' match the girls played last term against one of the schools in the district where Ash had (and this is admittedly not one of her finest moments) dropkicked a girl right into the ICU. In her defense, the girl hit her first...just not at all in any life-threatening manner.

"Tell that to her broken ribs." he snickered.

"Alright get your smart mouth away from me."

He did as Ash said and Debbie; Her left winger came up to the centre line.

She passed the ball to her and the game began.

*****

They lost.

It was a one goal difference which might as well have been a tie considering that the boys had an undefeated streak in the championships for over a decade. All the girls had lost was bragging rights which meant Ash still had her dignity intact.

All in all, it had been a good game. Ash had scored twice with Debbie taking the third goal. Caleb had somehow managed to bag a hat trick which was no mean feat against Maddie. The winning goal had been a free kick by one of Caleb's friends; Chad.

Stupid Chad.

Okay maybe Ash was still bitter. But that was not a problem for long. They went out for ice cream; the boys paid of course, then her own brother ditched her to go make love or something. Ick!

That meant two things. He owed her a free ride other than to school and back, and it meant she had to get one of her girls to drive her home.

In hindsight she could probably have asked one of the boys to drop her off; an option she somehow refused to consider, and she should have.

By the time she did consider it, it was far too late and the one person she was avoiding had volunteered to take her home.

Now Caleb's words were coming back to bite her in the behind. She really did need to start driving herself.

Maddie's car was otherwise silent save for the serenading rhythm of some song she was not familiar with blasting from the radio at medium volume.

The fact that Ash was stuck in a vehicle with her for the next fifteen minutes didn't mean they had to talk. Not that there was anything to talk about really.

To prevent Maddie from getting any ideas, she stuck her head out the window and watched the houses go by with feigned interest.

She would have taken riding on Stupid Chad's motorcycle over this.

Fortunately Maddie either didn't have anything to say or didn't have the nerve to say it so the entire drive took place in awkward silence.

She pulled up in front of the compound and killed the engine.

"Thank you." Ash muttered, grabbing her bag from the backseat.

She was almost out of the car when Maddie grabbed her wrist.

She turned back and stared at the hand in disapproval.

"Can we talk about what happened?"

"There's nothing to talk about, Maddie. I believe you said all there was to say." Ash said.

She pulled away slowly but firmly and Maddie didn't resist.

She didn't turn back as she opened the gate and got inside the compound, stomping up to the house.

She started to take off her clothes dumping them in every room she passed as she made her way to the shower.

Why did Maddie have to touch her? Her arm still tingled where Maddie's fingers had been seconds ago.

Fucking hormones!

Ash knew it was pure lust, but it didn't make it any easier to deal with. The cold water washing over her didn't help in the slightest.

She came out soaking wet yet hot and bothered.

She needed to get some action real soon before she lost it.

That saying about getting over an old girl by getting under a new one was about to be tested.

*****

"Good evening, may I take your order?"

Ash raised her head to take in the waitress. It was the same girl from last night.

"Oh it's you," She made frantic, not-so-subtle attempts at arranging her hair and outfit and smiled wider, "Hey."

"Hi."

"I see you're here alone."

"Yes I am. Wanna join me?" Ash offered.

The girl bit her lips as she considered it.

"I'd really love to but I'm working now."

"Bummer. I'm sure you can spare a minute," Ash said gesturing across the table for her to take a seat, "What are your specials?"

The girl sat and proceeded to list without glancing at the menu but Ash wasn't interested. Not really.

When she was done, Ash leaned back.

"Well I might have spaced out for a bit there but I didn't hear your name on the list."

"Pardon?" the girl choked out.

Ash leaned forward till their faces were dangerously close and stared into her eyes.

"Well I'll be straight with you-oh wait, no I won't. Poor choice of words. Here's the thing, I'll take a chilli cheeseburger with fries any day but I'm more interested in a different kind of buns tonight if you know what I'm saying. If that's on the menu that is."

The girl's eyes roamed Ash's facial features as she tried to decipher if she was tying to prank her.

Ash didn't give her time to draw her own conclusions. She was here for something and she was going to get it.

She freed her foot from her sneakers and stretched it under the table till she felt the hem of her skirt.

"What are you-"

"Don't move." Ash basically commanded.

"Okay."

She moved further, inwardly grateful to find no more obstacles as she trailed with her big toe up the girl's thigh, satisfying herself with the sounds of her shivers and muffled moans. She climbed higher, tickling her skin as she went, till she touched lace.

Ooh fancy!

She moved her toe up and down slowly, noticing at the third stroke as she felt a certain wetness seeping through the fabric.

The girl looked up at Ash's face. It was still an emotionless mask as she looked into her eyes.

Ash surprised her with a sudden smile, at the same time she reached for the waistband of her panties and tugged.

The girl reacted reflexively. Her hand shot downward and grabbed the leg.

She let out a sigh as Ash retrieved her leg from her grip.

"I'll take the chili cheeseburger to-go."

"Ch-chilli cheese...burger and fries coming right up." she stuttered and vanished.

As she stumbled away, Ash caught a whispered gasp.

"Oh fuck!"

Ash smiled to herself as she waited for her return, playing with a packet of ketchup.

'Oh fuck!' was right.

*****