𝐂𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐎𝐟 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 ~ 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐭

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝘄𝗲𝗹𝘃𝗲

"Bambi go! Favorite bath bomb!"

"Uhhhh," She paused for a moment to think about it, "Anything with pine in it really... make me think of the house I grew up in as a kid."

"Yeah I like pine too, Beard?"

"Crème brûlée honey."

"Honey? Is that an ingrdient or something you just called me?" Ted questioned.

"Ingrdient." Beard responded his face turned sturn looking at the man.

"I was hoping it was the other one. But that's kind of a fun idea. Maybe we start calling each other little pet names. You know? Uh, like "honey" or "babe", you know? It might be nice, right? What do you think, Bambi?" Ted turned his attention back towards the girl in the hobbit hole.

Tallulla stuttered still trying to make sense of this confusing Lasso rather than their usual sane one, "It's— Uhh, it's definetly an idea that... that you just had."

Tallulla thought it might be best if she just tuned him out till he left the office so thats what she did. Luckily, it was only a minute after she had stopped listening that he had walked out, presumably to meet with the press about last week's game.

"Is he okay?" Nate asked looking back at Beard after the Coach had left.

"No!" Beard chuckled.

A HOUR OF EMAILS LATER

Tallulla was still in a good mood even after doing the many emails she had, as Ted walked back after finishing doing his press conference. He was talking to Beard about a new player when Jamie's name made her head pop up from behind her computer. "He says he can't practice today." Her eyebrows furrowed. "He says he's hurt."

Tallulla's eyes followed Ted out to the locker room where some of the players had begun to show up including one, Jamie Tartt. Tallulla pushed her rolly chair to spy out the glass window along with Nate and Beard as they watched Ted walk over to the football star. "What do you think he's going to do?" The girl asked nervously.

"I think Jamie's finally going to get the talking to he deserves." Beard stated propping his head up on his hand as they watched. At first Ted had said something and Jamie said another thing and Ted had started to walk away. Not much could be heard through the glass just some mumbled from the other players. But then Jamies voice could be heard very clearly saying,

"Relax Ted, it's just practice."

Tallulla's person was now going to be in some very deep shit. She could feel it. The room's chatter instantly went quiet. Ted slowly turned back around and faced Jamie once again. The played that were once around Jamie left as Ted approached, leaving it one on one.

"Hey. If you can't practice, you can't practice. If you're hurt, you're hurt. It's as simple as that." Ted went to turn back but stopped himself and continued again, "But it ain't about that... at all. You're sitting in here. You're supposed to be the franchise player. And yet here we are, talking about you missing practice. We're talking about practice. You understand me? Practice."

Jamie's signature smirk was falling as Ted voice got higher and angrier. "Not a game. Not the game you go out there and die for. Right? Play every weekend like it's your last, right? No, we're talking about practice, man. Practice! You know you're supposed to be out there. You know you're supposed to lead by example. You're just shoving that all aside. And so here we are, Jamie. We're talking about practice. Not a game. Not the game. We're talking about practice, with your team. With your teammates. The only place we get to play together, we got control over."