Taking My Penalty

18: The Star

I turned myself around just to be greeted with more floral scents and a tall puckered blonde.

Bleach blonde.

With her lip gloss glinting and her face buffed with makeup, I immediately recognised her from seeing her constantly with Reece.

She was the one that I was itching to be in the position of since she always seemed to be within proximity of him.

I gulped as I looked at her, glaring at me and the girls for an answer as she blinked her false eyelashes.

She was beside me this whole time and I didn't see?

"Yeah, we are," Maeve answered back to the blonde who had appeared beside me, putting a slight grit in her voice as she added another question. "What would you know about it?"

The girl chuckled with a scoff. "Fucking hell, Diallo, calm down." She looked Maeve up and down with a dirty look as she popped a pink bubble of gum. "I was only going to tell you that Scotty's been booted off the team."

"How'd you find that out?" Camilla queried as she ducked down for better hearing through the noisy surroundings.

"Liam told Emma about it after the team's last practice," The blonde grumbled out with her whiney tone. "It all because of some girl— That fucking cousin that Felix told god-all was coming to Leland."

She's talking about me.

I found my words choked up in my throat as the girl twirled her hair around her finger and continued to speak.

"God, what's her name— Oh, Natalie."

Without even thinking, I shook my head and corrected the wrong she put on my name. "It's Natalia."

The girl looked at me and widened her eyes. "I didn't even notice you were there!" She poked her head out forcibly. "I've never met you before. Do you know Natalie— Oh, oops, I mean, Natalia?"

Her tone was noticeably more snobbish and drawn out when she spoke to me.

She thought she was better than me.

Funny joke.

"I am Natalia." I plastered a smile.

Like she had just seen a ghost, the girl's eyebrows raised. "Oh, you?" She slithered her arms to cross over her chest.

For some reason, I had an awful feeling that this girl did not like me for reasons I couldn't even think of.

Sure, I'd seen her around but we had never spoken a word.

What could I have done?

"Got a problem with that, Lexie?" Delilah interrupted the glare the girl had, learning Lexie was her name.

"Oh, no, of course not." Lexie denied with an unsettling smirk at me. "Just surprised to meet you in the flesh."

"GOAL!"

The crowd of uniformed students cheering reminded me of the atmosphere I was in before bumping into this girl.

"Kennedy scored last fucking minute!" Camilla grabbed my shoulders from behind, still fixated on the game. "Your boyfriend's fucking winning it for Leland tonight!"

My attention drew back to the field, watching Reece stand still while being run after by his teammates from the other side of the pitch.

Then he looked up to the stands.

Right at me.

Even as the swarm of the team surrounded him in a group hug, our eyes remained locked.