Girls Can't Play

Yes Captain

Griffin had never dreaded training before, but he did today because he was too damned excited. Which was kind of weird. How did dread and excitement fit in one sentence? Jaime Parker happened to be the answer to that weird question. Because today, there would be no escape as she had done during and after classes, leaving him hanging between the feeling of good riddance and wanting to escort her wherever she was headed.

Even that in itself was weird because he was supposed to be mad at her. For putting him in that shitty spotlight on Insta. The damn video was still racking up numbers. It had already smashed some of the best videos of his team and was still going. Soon he had no doubt it would be one of the most watched videos in Midburn. And while that was infuriating as hell, he couldn't deny the positive side of it. Coach Warren had been hailed for being an all inclusive coach by the local T.V station and Miss Nadine. Praised for not letting a young girl's dream die when she was faced with that possibility. And Griffin had gotten someone to challenge him. If only that ended with football.

He cursed when a part of him that had no business being part of this conversation stirred by that simple thought.

"So what, are we just supposed to pretend that we don't have some weak girl on the team?" A chorus of protests drew him back to his other current problem.

"Of course, not." Griffin held the bridge of his nose. His teammates were being unreasonable, which he understood, but they were also wrong. Jaime was no weakling. Or maybe the memory of how perfectly she felt and fit in his arms had left him a little biased.

"We can always run her off." Marcus suggested from somewhere behind Griffin. The first choice goal keeper had not said anything until now.

"Run her off?" Griffin couldn't keep himself from growling, because between the store and the try outs, his bumping into Jaime and the fall out, he had come to the conclusion that he wanted her...close. As foolish and as weird as that was, he did. She intrigued him with her continuous choice of avoiding him. Even during times when, against his better judgement, he'd made it clear he wanted her attention or something. And he damn well needed to restore his clean slate and for that he would need to beat her every chance he got. All that couldn't happen if she wasn't part of the team.

"Not happening. We'd be undermining Coach Warren's decision." A perfect excuse for Griffin.

"The coach doesn't need to know." Marcus made a sweeping gesture, casting his gaze around at the other teammates for support. "I mean, how many things have we done without Warren's knowledge and we all came out unscathed. Most of which were your ideas." His goalie raised a brow at Griffin, making him curse internally. So much for being the leader of mischief.

"What exactly are you proposing?" Griffin asked reluctantly, knowing he'd be doing none of it.

"We are men, she's a girl, pretty sure we could get creative on that front." Marcus shrugged.

Normally Griffin would be totally on board with such a plan, but this was his Jaime. His Jaime? Now where the hell had that come from? He internally scolded himself before making a sweeping gesture of his own over the team. "Not happening-"

"Hey, did you start without us?!" Michael's raucous arrival only meant one thing. He was here with Jaime and he was warning them to shut up, because, obviously his best friend could tell what was going down.

"You are late." Griffin arched a brow, hoping to God it hid his thirsty look over Jaime's appearance. She was a sports person no doubt, but nothing about her body looked any less feminine. And damn that Cougar's jersey for fitting her so perfectly... sinfully perfect. Griffin wasn't sure how he was going to be able to keep himself from looking.

He also hoped that she had heard none of their conversation too, but he was not that lucky, if the uncertainty swimming in her eyes was anything to go by.

"Not my fault," Michael defended before looking over at Jaime. "The lady here had to make sure she picked just the right size of jersey-"

"Let's not forget to mention that your valued opinion over each change was taking rather too long each time." Jaime scowled at his best friend, and Griffin had never seen a more attractive scowl.

"Of course, there was that too." Michael grinned. "...but it wasn't my fault that the earlier try-ons were kind of distracting-"

"Mikey!" Jaime punched his best friend, clearly mortified and for once Griffin didn't care if one of his team members got hurt.

Mikey? They were best of friends, but Griffin hated Michael bantering with her and how free and relaxed she was with him. And as much as he hated to admit it, only he was entitled to be nicknamed by Jaime.

"Let's not waste anymore time." Griffin bit out, forcing Michael and Jaime who'd been laughing to sober up.

"Of course, Captain." Michael grinned, clearly taunting him. Griffin decided he would deal with him later.

"May I say something?" Jamie asked just when Griffin was about to make introductions.

"Sure, go ahead." He nodded.

"I know I'm not welcome here," she said while placing her gym bag down. "I know you all don't want me here."

Griffin swallowed the denial that furiously bubbled in his throat. "Then why are you here?" He mentally kicked himself for asking that.

"For the love of the game, I guess." Jaime shrugged, but Griffin easily saw past that. Past the simplicity of her answer. There was passion there, enough to know that she was terrified of stopping to play for any reason because this was her life. He could relate because he knew someone like that too and he finally understood why Warren had even considered the idea of having her playing on the boy's team. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Year, sure." Griffin practically worked on toning down the excitement he felt for being singled out.

"I wanted to apologise." Jaime started, surprising him with her nervousness. "For ruining your reputation." Was that pity in her voice? It soured him quicker than Marcus' suggestion to run her off the team. He was not the type the world felt pity for and he wasn't about to let her think otherwise.

"What, you think that little victory of yours was enough to ruin me?" Griffin snickered.

"Well, that's not-"

"Five laps, everyone!" He didn't wait for her to explain before jumping ship and before he said something regrettable.

Someone protested his instructions. "Wait, why? We already-"

"Do you want to be the captain, Anderson?" When the guy only stared at him dumbfounded, Griffin turned away from him, fuming. "I didn't think so. Five laps. That goes for you too." He shot Jaime a sharp stare.

"Yes captain."

Griffin expected her to protest or something, not fall in line with her new teammates, chatting along as if she had been here longer than him. The whole thing tasted like sand on his tongue.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." Griffin barely kept himself from hissing at his coach.