Cliché: A Chaelisa Football AU

Chapter Six: Cold as Ice

"It's 2nd and 10 at the 20-yard line with only 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter. Tampa Bay has the ball and the chance at their 4th touchdown of the game!"

Even though I was wearing my helmet, I could hear the announcer's voice loud and clear. The chilly wind only carried his voice towards me and I had to refrain from shivering. It was a big jump going from 80-degree weather to the current 31-degree weather surrounding Seattle. It normally wasn't this cold here, but there was a good amount of windchill, which I despised.

The ball whizzed by and into our quarterback, Derek's hand as he threw it to Brent. Brent ran for a good five yards before he was tackled down by one of Seattle's linebackers. I winced, but he seemed unharmed by it.

We didn't have much time left to score. At 3rd down, we were at a minute and a half on the clock. Seattle was close on our tail with a score of 17 in comparison to our 21. The whistle blew, signaling for us to commence with our next play. I scampered out from behind Derek and was able to get free of all the other opponents. I waved my hands, hoping he'd throw it to me, but he didn't. Instead, he let himself get tackled by another one of Seattle's linebackers.

The referee hurried out onto the field from the sidelines, causing me to raise an eyebrow. He adjusted his mic as the jumbotron above focused on him.

"Timeout. Tampa Bay."

Timeout? We wouldn't even need a timeout if Derek had passed me the ball. I was wide open! Nonetheless, I still ran to the sidelines where the rest of the team was huddled. Including Derek. I took my helmet off as well as my mouth guard so that I could give him a piece of my mind.

"What the heck, man?" I glared at him. "I was open!"

He scoffed. "You would've dropped it."

"And that's somehow worse than you getting obliterated by that linebacker?" I argued. "I think not."

"You trying to pick fights now, Barbie?" he jeered.

"Call me Barbie one more time and I'll hurt you more than that linebacker did."

"Hey!" Coach stepped in. "What's going on here?"

"Nothing, Coach." I gave Derek a look. "Nothing at all."

The team huddled together to formulate a new plan for 4th down. The wise move would be to go for a field goal and call it a day, but Coach didn't like that. He wanted us to carry out a pass that could go entirely wrong if not done correctly. We were planning to do a fake-out play in which Derek would seemingly throw to Jeremiah, but in reality, he'd be passing it to me to run around the crowd.

"Coach, are you serious?" Derek questioned. "That won't work."

"And why do you say that?" Coach raised an eyebrow.

"Barbie here will get tackled by those defensive ends. She can't hold her ground," he argued.

"You little bitch," I murmured under my breath.

"Her name is Lisa, Derek," Coach said. "And last I checked, you've been tackled more times than she has."

A grin formed on my face as Derek stood there in silence. Coach always had my back when it came to these sorts of situations. Derek and I had never seen eye to eye, and I think I knew why, but he'd never admit it. When Coach wasn't looking, I flipped Derek off, causing him to glare at me.

We ran back out to the field, arranging in our positions for the next play. I was behind Derek, who was clearly not enjoying the whole ordeal. Brent gave me a wink from his position as a guard.