Not Your Average High School Experience

The better side of Elizabeth.

Elaine had yet to say anything about what she had seen, despite the fact that it had been all that she had been thinking about. The image of the two people kept flashing in her mind and the words were constantly bouncing around in her head.

Elaine couldn't help but think back to the day that she had been talking to Elizabeth about the threat of suspension. The fact the Elizabeth didn't seem fazed by the idea of her parents finding out about the suspension suddenly made sense to Elaine. Elizabeth didn't have parents to worry. No one would be waiting to yell or talk about why the suspension had happened once Elizabeth got home and that really hit Elaine hard.

Suddenly, while she had been thinking and connecting Elizabeth's actions to the recent information that she had got, a single question came to mind. Was this the accident that caused Elizabeth to change? If so, Elaine could understand. Something as tragic as losing both parents at the age of 17 or possibly before could definitely change someone. Elizabeth was now having to go through life, fending for herself like she was an adult when she was still trying to make it through High School. At least that's what it looked like.

Elaine finally gave in and decided to see if she could get Elizabeth to say anything because she wasn't coming up with any answers on her own. After a moment of thinking about what she was going to ask, she soon cleared her throat and looked down at her lap. She called Elizabeth's voice out in what was barely above a whisper while playing with the sleeves of the hoodie that she was wearing before clearing her throat once again, this time speaking a little louder.

"Elizabeth, um...this thought just occurred to me, but are your parents okay with what you're doing? I mean, are they okay with me staying over and you leaving the house so early in the morning?" Elaine asked, while still looking down at her lap, nervously playing with the sleeve still because she somewhat feared what kind of response she would receive from the younger girl. For a while Elaine didn't get a response from Elizabeth and had wondered why this was, so she took the chance to lift her head and look over at Elizabeth to see if she was okay with what had been asked.

Immediately the first thing that Elaine noticed was that Elizabeth knuckles were white on the steering wheel, as if she was tightly gripping it and she hadn't been doing that before the question had been asked. Also, Elaine noticed that Elizabeth seemed to be really tense. This was new because Elizabeth had been completely at ease the entire ride up until Elaine had decided to ask the question about her parents.

Suddenly, all the signs of Elizabeth's mood change were gone. As fast as they had shown up, they were gone and Elizabeth nodded her head ever so slightly to answer the question that she had been asked. She was acting as if nothing had bothered her about the question and that in itself bothered Elaine.

"Yeah, they do even though they're gone on business. They've always told me that they don't want me to stop what I'm normally doing just because they aren't around, so I'm allowed to do what I typically do on the weekends even while they are away. Now, I'll have to tell them about bringing you home after you had a little too much at the bar, but I'm, sure that they will be okay with it." Elizabeth said while shrugging at the last part as if the idea of possibly having to explain to her parents why a stranger was sleeping in her bed one night didn't faze her.

Elaine nodded a little before looking back down, biting her lip ever so slightly as she thought to herself. Why was Elizabeth lying about it? Elaine herself had watched Elizabeth move the pamphlet off of her seat when she went to get in, so the younger girl would have assumed that Elaine would have spotted it as well, right? Well, if she did, Elizabeth wasn't acting like it at all. The idea that Elaine seeing the pamphlet as well must not have crossed her mind because she didn't seem to have a need to try and explain who was on the front.

Deciding that Elizabeth clearly didn't want to elaborate on the topic anymore, Elaine decided to stay quiet for the remainder of the ride, which quite frankly didn't last very long.

When the car came to a stop, Elaine couldn't help but allow her curiosity to get the best of her. She was the first one of the two to unbuckle, open her door and step out to see where they were. The moment that she was outside of the car, she pulled the hoodie a little tighter around herself and shivered a little as the chilly morning air hit her. The frown that had been on her face from the feeling of the morning air was soon replaced with a smile when she saw the soccer fields not too far out in front of the car. There were also cars on either side of Elizabeth and there were families sitting in the bleachers around the field while what looked like two different teams were warming up on the field, though there weren't that many from the either team there, yet. Just one or two players from each team.

Elaine was smiling happily as she looked at the field before looking over at Elizabeth who was making her way to the back of the car. Elaine quickly made her way back there as well, the smile still on her face as she saw that Elizabeth was working on getting a stack of smaller cones out of the back of the trunk. Elizabeth got them out and set them on the ground before getting out a sack of soccer balls, setting them on the ground before looking over at Elaine while smiling.

"You help coach these kids?" Elaine asked, while looking at Elizabeth curiously. The curious look on Elaine's face was soon replaced with one of confusion when she watched Elizabeth shake her head. Elizabeth bent over and picked up the bag and slung it over her shoulder before picking up the cones as well. When Elizabeth stood up completely she smiled at Elaine before doing her best to close the trunk of the car. Elaine saw her struggling and went ahead and closed the trunk for her.

"I don't help, I do coach these kids." Elizabeth stated before heading down towards the soccer field, Elaine following closely behind while looking at Elizabeth closely. The 'school rebel' and the kid who didn't seem to give a damn was coaching a kid's soccer team on the weekends? There was definitely two sides to this dark haired beauty walking in front of Elaine at the moment and as the day moved on, Elaine was finding that she liked the side she was seeing outside of school a whole lot better.

"Where did the idea of coaching this kids even come from? I mean, not most teens spend their weekends teaching kids to play sports." Elaine commented while walking a little faster to keep up with Elizabeth's long strides. While waiting on the answer to her question, Elaine pulled the hood of the hoodie over her head and hugged herself while looking up slightly at Elizabeth.

"I didn't want them to turn out to be like me." Was all that Elizabeth said about it before they reached the field and a boy with spiky black hair walked over to the two women and smiled. To Elaine, the boy looked to be about 14 or maybe even 15. The moment the boy saw that Elizabeth had looked at him, he gave her a hug, which Elizabeth didn't hesitate to return as best as she could.

"Thank you so much." The boy said softly, after he pulled away from Elizabeth, looking at her with a look that Elaine could only describe at the time as pure gratitude. Elizabeth smiled happily at the boy, clearly delighted to hear the thank you.

"Anything I can do to help Dom, you know that. I'm taking it that everything went well?" Elizabeth asked, and this got Elaine thinking about what it could be about, though she quickly stopped wondering when she knew she would never figure it out. When Dom nodded Elizabeth smiled a lot wider before telling the boy to go back to practicing.

Elizabeth then started walking across the field towards the coach's side of the field, Elaine following her without really thinking about it. When they were both over on that side and Elizabeth was starting to sit her stuff down, Elaine seemed to notice that she had followed to this side of the field and immediately looked at Elizabeth with a sorry look on her face. Elizabeth saw the look and just shook her head, smiling softly as she opened the bag of soccer balls and got a few out.

"You're okay to stay over here. If anyone has something to say about it, I'll make sure that they understand you have a reason to be over here on this side." Elizabeth said while smiling as she looked back at Elaine once more, smiling happily still. Elaine raised her eyebrows slightly as if to ask what reason she had to be over on the coach's side gaining a shoulder shrug from Elizabeth showing that at the moment she didn't know, but she was sure to come up with something sooner or later.

Elaine was happy that she hadn't have to go over to the side where the parents were because being on the side with Elizabeth allowed her to spend more time with her and find out how much different she was when she was around the younger kids. It was something that she couldn't wait to see, and it didn't take very long for Elaine to get what she wanted.

When the rest of the players for Elizabeth's team (the blue team with the name of the Sharks) arrived, Elizabeth called them all together and led a stretching circle so that the kids were ready when it came time to warm-up. Once the circle was over Elizabeth led the kids in a few practice drills that would get their heart rates up and they were a little more ready when it was time to start the game. After they had been through a few drills, Elizabeth must have decided to mess around a little bit because suddenly all of the kids were trying to get the ball away from Elizabeth, who was doing a great job of keeping it away from them. However, there were a few times when Dom and a rather tall brunette were able to get it away from her, laughing as they did so.

Elaine couldn't help but notice how happy Elizabeth looked when she was playing with the kids. It was by far the happiest that Elaine had seen Elizabeth so far and as Elaine sat there on the little metal bench, holding the team roster, she wished that she could see Elizabeth this happy all of the time. When Elaine had first met Elizabeth she'd met a girl that came off as a hardass and never wanted to do what she was told. Elaine had met a girl that didn't give a damn about getting suspended for something that she didn't do and wasn't worried about what would happen to her once she got home to her parents. Now, however, Elaine was starting to understand why Elizabeth acted the way that she did in school. Every day that Elizabeth walked through the halls, Elaine could already tell that she was bullied for being different than everyone else at the school and maybe that was the reason that Elizabeth was so harsh to everyone.

Elizabeth was a completely different person outside of school and it was making Elaine practically fall in love with her. Outside of school, Elizabeth was a guitar-playing singer who liked to draw and offered her clothes and home to strangers that needed it. She also worked in a bar where she did her best to keep drunks off the street, only to wake up early the next morning and come out to the soccer fields of Camden to coach a youth soccer team.

There were clearly two different sides of Elizabeth and Elaine was starting to see that the Elizabeth she saw outside of school was going to be the death of her.