Keep Your Eyes On Me

- 9 -

"Ghost." She walked over to Bob, giving him a high five.

"Junior."

John looked over at Liz, giving her the 'I'm watching you' signal with his fingers, already taking his shirt off revealing a few army-based tattoos on his arms and chest. Liz leaned over to Bob.

"You want more strength." Junior was a 6'5" beast of a man. They would need someone else who could match up to him.

"Coyote," Bob called, making her nod. That was a good choice. They both high-fived Javy when he got over to their side.

The rest of their team was Maverick, Rooster, Harvard, and Omaha. Mickey picked Hangman, Halo, Yale, and Fritz.

"Discuss your strategies with your teams," Maverick said, handing Bob a blue ball and Fanboy a red one.

The two teams huddled together. Liz checked her watch to see it was already going on to 10:30 am. Within seconds, she was hearing different strategies being thrown out, with terms she had no clue what they meant... It was really throwing her off. No matter how many times her father had sat her in front of the tv to teach her how football worked, she still had no clue.

The first half of the game started with Liz deciding to just try to block people from getting to the person with the ball. Tackling people and holding them down successfully made a few members avoid her including Jake, who already knew what the full force of her strength could muster. However, the blue team was not doing very well. Team red already had 13 points and the blue team had 10. Liz received the ball and immediately sprinted to the other side of the beach, just barely making it to a touchdown before being tackled by Natasha.

"Touchdown!" Hondo said, blowing his whistle.

"Alright, alright, break time. Go get some water and something to eat. Meet back here at 13:00," Maverick called out.

Natasha helped Liz up before going to join some of the others. Liz brushed herself off, frowning at how stained her t-shirt had become. The wet white fabric hugged her skin, further revealing the muscles underneath. She sighed, slipping her shirt off. As she did, she caught a glimpse of Jake watching her closely. He shook his head and walked off towards one of the food trucks parked by the pier. Her eyes followed him, not noticing Javy walking over with her Hawaiian button up.

"Didn't realize you were so inked up," he hummed as she took her shirt from him and slipped it on.

"Yeah, I kept them to only be visible if I rolled up my sleeves," she explained. Javy nodded as she adjusted herself.

"Jake's really sorry, you know," he started. "I wasn't supposed to say this but... he went to Rooster and Maverick separately to apologize." Her eyes shot to the tall brown aviator. She knew about Bradley. Not her father. "Jake doesn't apologize for much unless he means it. You know that better than others," he said, glancing at the others. Liz followed his gaze, finding Jake laughing with Yale by the food truck.

"You're not allowed to say this to him, but I'm sorry I punched him in the face."

"Don't be, he deserved it," Javy said before patting her on the shoulder.

John came walking over to the two of them, but Liz decided to walk over to Jake, who was now making his way to the beach again. His hands were full of food.

"Hey," Liz said with a tight-lipped smile.

"Hey sunshine," he smiled back, eyes looking over her face.

"You guys are crushing us," she said with a little laugh, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck.

"Yeah, we are," he said. He grinned a little before eating his cheesy fry. "Though I've got to say, I've never seen you so out of your depth in all the time that I've known you."