Just Platonic

03

The game was going to start soon. Collynn was in the locker room getting ready and Jackie was at the concession stand getting water for Haily.

As she was walking back she heard a voice call her in the distance. Turning around with Haily in her arms she spots Morgan. When Morgan gets close they finally take in Jackie's outfit.

"You're a cheerleader?" They ask.

"Yeah." Jackie nods her head.

"Who this?" Haily softly asks, her doe eyes staring at Morgan.

As if they just now noticed the child at her hip they look at her with wide eyes. "You're a mom?"

Jackie laughs. "No, god no. This is Haily, Lynn's little sister. Hay, this is Morgan."

"Hi," Haily greeted, waving at Morgan.

"Hi," they repeated and waved back. Haily smiled at Morgan.

"So, uh...." Morgan shifted from foot to foot. "Do you think you could.... Introduce me to the coach? Of the um, cheerleaders? I wanna ask them something real quick."

Jackie couldn't help but notice how nervous Morgan was being. She wondered what he would want to talk to the coach about.

"Yeah sure." They started to walk towards the side of the field that they would be cheering on. "As long as you aren't going to complain about the captain I'm fine." Jackie didn't think Morgan got that she was playing with him, or that she was the cheer-leading captain.

"I, I tried to joke. You know, because I am the cheer-leading captain."

"Oh, sorry."

"It's okay you didn't know and it wasn't actually funny."

Jackie set Haily down on the ground by her bag before she waved over coach Mel.

"Yeah Jackie?" Coach Mel asked as she walked over, her black curly hair waved back and forth in her high ponytail.

"This is Morgan and he wanted to talk to you?"

Morgan wanted to tell Jackie that they weren't male. They didn't even know how the Coach would react to them joining the team, let alone the students. But they promised his Momma that they would ask about the team since they missed the tryouts. Momma told them that just because it's a new town, they shouldn't let the fear of being different hold them back. It was their last year of high school, they had to make the most of it.

"Hello, Ms?"

"Oh, Mel is just fine dear. Why don't we talk over there where it is a little bit more private?" She offered. Morgan nodded and they walked over further down the field where it wasn't as loud.

Whatever they were talking about, Morgan seemed nervous and Mel was nodding her head. Jackie wondered what serious topic they were talking about when the opposing team came out as the game was about to begin.

Jackie checked on Haily before she joined the other cheerleaders as they started cheering for their team.

Morgan sat next to Haily on the ground, happy with how the talk with Coach Mel had gone. She told them that she would come in tomorrow at twelve to see what they have.

*~*

Collynn was anxious as they neared their side of the field for the game. While this wasn't a big game, the pressure was still on. If they wanted to make it to the finals they could only afford to lose three games at the absolute most.

Coach led them into a huddle and gave them another motivational speech. When Coach was done Collynn ran out to the middle of the field. He got laces as the other team had not wanted them. The referee threw the football up into the air and it landed laces up.

Collynn ran back over to his team and they huddled up.

"Okay. Just remember, win or lose, we have this championship in the bag. Look out for Ava, let's try not to let them hit her. Wouldn't want someone to end up with a bloody nose like last time," Collynn gave Ava a pointed look.

She rolled her eyes. "It's not my fault they were being asses and I had enough of it," She scoffed.

"Any excuse so you don't have to admit you have anger issues," Fisher teased.

"Fisher," Collynn warned.

"Sorry," Fisher mumbled.

"Okay. From watching the tapes from last year we know they have a loose right-end, we need to keep an eye out on that. If they have stayed the same then we know where to hit them if we fall behind."

"Now, let's go out there and kick some ass!" They all hit each other on the backs and on the heads as they disbursed from the huddle onto the field.

*~*

Jackie was surprised at how quickly Haily had warmed up to Morgan. While the girl wasn't always shy, she usually took a while to warm up to strangers. She still wasn't comfortable around Ava and she regularly saw her.

"Jack!" Haily squealed when Jackie approached the two. "Morgi is funny. He's wearing makeup, and boys don't wear makeup."

Haily started giggling. Jackie noticed how Morgan tensed as soon as the words left Haily's mouth. Jacki didn't notice how Morgan had already received a nickname, only that what Haily said wasn't nice.

"Haily," She sternly said as she crouched down to their level. "That's not nice to say. Boy's can wear makeup if they want to. Makeup is for everyone, okay?"

"Okay." Haily looked sad. "I sorry Morgi." She gave Morgan her puppy dog eyes.

"I-It's okay kiddo. You didn't know." They gave her a tight smile before she started to point out onto the field where Ava was about to make a touchdown.

Jackie gave Morgan a questioning look before she went back over to the other cheerleaders.

*~*

There was ten minutes left in the game and they were down by two. Collynn didn't know what to do. Everything they have tried in the last quarter hadn't budged them. He noticed that Lys was talking to Coach Jakson. He seemed to like what she was saying as he was smiling and nodding his head.

Coach gave them the sign for Collynn to fake a hand-off to Ava and for him to run it straight to the end-zone. Everyone else would make sure Collynn had a clear path to get to the end-zone. They were thirty yards away. Collynn didn't think the play would work but he replayed the message to the others.

"I say we actually give it to Ava, who then throws it to Hunter, who runs it a little bit before throwing it to Fisher," Dominic offered.

Collynn shook his head. "It wont work. If this play doesn't work then we can try that, but we are wasting time. Just get out there and get ready for a twenty-three blast, no debout that was what Lys was saying to Coach. The girl knew very little about football, but she loved sad movies.

"Ready, Steady.... Hike!" Collynn called out. He faked the pass to Ava as he started to work his way towards the end-zone. He started to pick up his pace as the path was being made, but when he was at the five yard marking he was tackled from behind.

They only had one more play to go before it was switched over to the opposing team, and they were running out of time fast.

*~*

"Are you going to come get ice-cream with us?" Jackie asked Morgan as the game ended. They had won by five points at the last second when Fisher intercepted the ball and ran to the end-zone.

"Sure," they shrugged, "why not?"

"Okay. We just have to wait for Collynn."

They were waiting by the boys locker room when Collynn's mom came over.

"I am so sorry Jacki," she apologized as she picked Haily up. "I feel terrible for doing this to you guys again, but someone messed something up at it's a huge deal that I have to close."

"It's fine Jieun, really." Jackie rolled her eyes. Sometimes Collynn and his mother were so much alike. "Haily is a sweetheart and she likes helping me cheer."

"Oh, honey. Here, I know you and Collynn were going to go get ice-cream afterwards." Jieun handed Jackie a twenty. "I am going to take her home and get her ready for bed."

"Ice-cream?" Haily mumbled, making all of them smile at her. She was tired and was about to fall asleep.

"Yes baby. I will get you ice-cream on the way home." Haily smiled as she snuggled into her shoulder. She would fall asleep once in the car.

"Hey! Where's Hay?" Collynn questioned looking around for his little sister.

"Your mom came and picked her up. Morgan is coming with us to get ice-cream."

Collynn nodded towards Morgan. He couldn't help but notice how his black skinny jeans clung to him. Shaking his head they headed towards Jackie's car.