Girls Can't Play

Over Confident Princess

The odds of meeting hazel eyes again should have been a big fat zero. And yet here she was. Still as tempting as she’d been at the grocery store. For a moment Griffin had actually thought that he'd conjured her image after having been distracted by thoughts of her since Stella’s. But that he'd realized was plain stupid because images were not supposed to be annoying, which she was being currently and ruining his day…his life.

He usually held his temper in check on the pitch, but two seconds of her presence and Griffin was ready to punch someone.

“Captain?” She turned to Warren and Griffin couldn’t decide which annoyed him more. The unbelief in her tone over his prized position in the team or the fact that his coach was actually considering letting a girl try out for his team. A girl!

"Yep.” Warren answered.

"Coach, are you sure he is the–”

"What, got a problem with that?” Griffin hissed. It shouldn’t have mattered what she thought, but annoyance prickled when she sounded like she didn’t think he was worth the position.

"No." She bit her lips innocently and damn his brain for getting distracted, again. "It's just that pretty boys aren't usually–"

"Pretty boy?" He'd been called many things, but pretty boy? He ground his teeth when she only shrugged at his question. “You and me. On the pitch. Right now!” He was going to show her! He marched back out on the pitch without another word, hands balled into fists. It was so unlike him to get this riled up, but he was not about to back out now.

“Is that a yes then?” She called after him a few steps later and he couldn’t help but think he’d been played. When he swung around to face her, an annoying smirk was pasted on her lips, his coach’s and his best friend’s. Traitors!

“I know that you want to get on with this…challenge, but will you come back here for a bit?” His coach gestured towards Griffin and while he hated wasting the steam firing him at the moment, he couldn’t disobey a direct order from Warren.

He walked over with less enthusiasm than usual. "Coach?"

"That tone is not meant for me, I presume." Warren kept his eyes on his notepad after dismissing the girl and the little crowd of his teammates who’d found his outburst amusing.

“Sorry coach, but a girl, really?” Griffin huffed.

“Her name is Jamie.”

Griffin struggled to ignore the fact that he thought her name fit her perfectly and that he liked the sound of it. “She doesn’t belong here.”

“And you think I don’t know that?”

“Then why is she here?”

“Because Nadine is being Nadine.” Coach Warren sighed.

“Miss Nadine?” Whatever Griffin expected, it wasn’t that. He knew Principal Hill’s secretary was always on his coach’s case, but she hadn’t interferred with the team before. “What does she get out of this?”

“The satisfaction of annoying me, for starters.” His coach ran his hands through his hair. “Look, Nadine aside, the kid is new and passionate about the game. I saw it in her eyes.”

Now that he thought about it, that tackle at the grocery store could have only come from someone good enough. But that did not mean she belonged on a boys team… his team. “I will not go easy on her, so don’t ask me to.”

“I’m not.”

“You are not?” That was a surprise.

“I promised I’d let her try out. Her ending up part of the team is up to you.”

“Good enough for me.” Griffin smirked and began to move away but stopped a couple of steps later.

“What now?” Warren arched a brow.

"Top benefactor?" Griffin hated that. He would pick captain, even pretty boy or whatever any day over the guy he didn’t want the world knowing about.

"Not exactly top secret info–"

"For my team. Not some…" Hot babe in a Midburn High's track suit? His brain quickly filled him in and needing to focus, he shut that part of himself down before he got distracted. "I do not even know what to call her."

“I guess that depends on whether you can still keep your scoring sheet pristine.” Warren smirked as he waved him towards the pitch.

“Ooh, this is going to be good.” Michael reappeared by his side. “I can’t believe she took you up on the challenge.” Griffin smirked, happy to put the over confident princess in her place.

"Oh man!" Michael suddenly froze at his side, forcing Griffin to a stop too.

"What now?" Griffin rolled his eyes at his friend's drama that was so typical of him, but Michael simply cupped his jaw and turned his face to whatever it was that had got his attention.

"I do not care what you say, but having a girl on the team will definitely be good for us."

At the sight of Jamie, Griffin's mouth went dry. She was stretching, albeit innocently in that tight Midburn High track suit. But there was nothing innocent about that very noticeable fine backside. Triple damn! She still had her back to him when she dipped ever so lower and he couldn't help but imagine standing negligible inches behind her with his hands cupping her hips. Preferably without any fabric between them.

"Dude, I've never wanted you to lose so badly." Michael said and Griffin surprisingly agreed with those sentiments. He wanted her just as much as he'd had back at the grocery store. And not just that saucy mouth this time around. "Now that's more like it, I was beginning to think you were going all priest on me." Griffin found Michael grinning at him like a cheshire cat and that got his head out of the gutter.

“This is exactly the reason we can’t have her on the team.” Griffin marched towards the pitch, barely ignoring all there was to see in front of him. What was that he'd said about her not being his type?

“How do you want to do this?” She asked when he came up to her.

Preferably back in my room. Definitely with less clothes and–

“Captain?”

“Penalties.” Griffin masked his distraction with a cough. “Five should be enough to prove yourself?” He gestured towards the goal post while he signaled for someone to hand him the ball. “If it gets too much, just say so and–”

“I’m no quitter, pretty boy.” Despite her annoying tone, Griffin noted the passion underlying her words. Very few who came to try out for the team had that. Most were only taken by the success of his team, nothing more. It was a shame she couldn’t stay. A real shame. A part of him that itched for her attention twitched.

“You sure you can keep your eyes on the ball?”

“Buzz off.” Griffin glared at his best friend. “Don’t you have warming up to do?”

“No way I’m missing this show. Right boys?”

What the hell? Griffin hadn’t noticed it before, but the entire pitch had come to a stand still, with every eye now on Jamie. Surprisingly, he hated that.

“Good luck babe!” Becca called from the stands and he hated that too. And for whatever reason, he watched Jamie to see if she’d seen any of it. If she had, she did not care for it as she put all her efforts into readying herself. That settled him as a whistle blew.

“Now here are the rules.” His coach said as he walked over.