hearing damage | YELLOWJACKETS

seven.

Quinn Galen | 1996
Wiskayok, New Jersey

Quinn surveyed the bleachers before setting her sights on Talia who was sitting by herself. She moved down the stairs of the bleachers toward her before taking a seat beside her. Talia looked up to see Quinn sitting beside her.

"What are you doing here?" Talia asks with a smile.

Quinn shrugs nonchalantly, "Thought I'd see what the hype is about."

"Well they won conference and they're now in the playoffs to make it to states," Talia says, "They win those next five games and then they're on their way to nationals."

"That's impressive," Quinn says.

"Yeah," Talia says, "It's all Taissa talks about these days. We can't go three minutes without her mentioning nationals. She's started to sleep-talk plays." Quinn laughs and Talia smiles before nudging Quinn, "Also congratulations on Harvard!"

"Thank you! Congrats to you on NYU," Quinn responds. The past couple of weeks letters of acceptance had been coming in. Jackie had already gotten into Rutgers and so had Shauna, but Quinn knew there was another school she wanted to hear from.

"Thanks," Talia says with a smile.

"So shouldn't you be down there taking pictures?" Quinn asks as she looks at the field.

"I've taken so many pictures that I could probably write articles for the next eleven years," Talia says and Quinn lets out a laugh.

"Well you're an amazing writer and I know that news reporting isn't the medium you want to pursue but hell, you're very good at it," Quinn states.

"Thank you," Talia states, "And it's been an honor working with you. If you ever want to again just let me know."

"I certainly will," Quinn says with a smile.

The whistles blow on the field and the soccer match begins. Taissa and Natalie lead the attack up the field running their way through the defense. Along the sideline, Shauna was running her way up the field and Natalie passed her the ball.

"Come on Shauna," Quinn says softly, "Come on."

Shauna nears the goal and as she is about to kick it, one of the girls comes out of nowhere and slide tackles Shauna, sending the ball out of bounds and Shauna to the ground.

"Oh come on ref give her a yellow card!" Quinn yells as she rises to her feet. She earns a few looks from the people in the crowd and she slowly sits back down. She glances over at Talia to find her looking at her as well.

"Didn't know you were such a huge soccer fan," Talia states.

"I'm not," Quinn says, "But that clearly was a foul."

"Right," Talia responds.

Quinn clears her throat and crosses her legs as she regains her composure and plans to watch the rest of the game in silence.

But she isn't able to do that as Shauna gets the ball once again and has another opportunity at attacking the goal. Quinn is on the edge of her seat when Shauna passes the ball to Taissa who passes it back to Shauna who kicks it in the goal.

"Yes!" Quinn exclaims as she jumps up cheering. Shauna embraces Taissa on the field and then Jackie. She glances over at the bleachers and does a double take when she sees Quinn standing up clapping her hands.

Quinn watches as a smile spreads on Shauna's lips and Quinn offers her a wink which causes Shauna's already flushed cheeks to darken as she returns to her side of scrimmage. Talia notices the look, but she doesn't comment as Quinn sits back down beside her.