"are you even listening?" aspen groaned, looking at scarlett.
scarlett wasn't listening. she was looking at nancy. she did have cuts and bruises. but there's no way scarlett could have done that. they're too perfect.
she watched as nancy got up from her table and walked out of the cafeteria. scarlett ignored aspen, slowly getting up and following nancy out of the cafeteria.
she waited for nancy to come out of her stall after using the bathroom. "oh, look who it is." she smiled sweetly as nancy jumped in surprise. "no need to be scared. i'm not here to attack you again." scarlett scoffed.
"get away from me."
"why did you do it? why did you lie? seriously, what is your problem with me?" scarlett asked, genuinely having enough at this point.
"i didn't lie."
"nancy, if you don't drop the fucking brat act you will have actual cuts and bruises from me. i don't know what you think you're playing at, but it's gonna backfire." scarlett said watching as nancy rolled her eyes, washing her hands.
she looked at herself in the mirror and ran her finger over a cut, fixing it up. scarlett rolled her eyes and scoffed.
she let nancy go back to her table and decided to follow behind her. she grabbed a cup of water from her table—aspen yelling at her because she took her water, and walked over to nancy's table. adam rolled his eyes and jack gave her a confused look.
scarlett just walked up and dumped the water in nancy's face, without saying a word. "oh, sorry. let me help you clean it up." she took a napkin and smeared it over nancy's face, the cuts and purple bruises coming right off. "looks like your face was a little dirty." scarlett held up the makeup filled napkin, giving adam a dirty look before throwing it onto the table and walking away.
he looked shocked. he was always gullible so scarlett knew why he always believed nancy. but this was just stupid.
scarlett walked back to her table where aspen was sitting with an open mouth. "uh, did you just dump my water on her?"
"yes."
"and she didn't melt?" morgan leaned over, coming into the conversation. scarlett huffed, grabbing her books.
"surprisingly, no."
"shocking." anna mumbled, staring at nancy as her and adam fought back and forth.
"guys." abbie said, even though she knew they were right.
"yep. i've gotta go, see you guys at practice." scarlett mumbled, getting her stuff and going to her locker. she decided to skip her last class. she didn't feel like going. she had better things to do anyway.
-
everyone gathered into the gym for cheer practice. scarlett watched, waiting for everyone to be there.
she pulled nancy aside, which was a difficult thing to do. "i don't want you on my team." scarlett said simply. she waited for too long to do this
nancy looked appalled that she would even say that. "uh, excuse me?"
"you heard me." scarlett nodded.
"you can't do that!" nancy squealed, stomping her foot. a couple people looked over at the commotion.
"i can and i just did. i already talked to nicole, she agreed with the decision." scarlett said, crossing her arms.
"the team won't agree."
"i honestly don't give a shit what the team says. i'm the captain. we can take a team vote, though. either way you still have to go." scarlett shrugged. waking over to the team. nancy shuffled behind her.
once everyone was there, she spoke up and said that she needed to have an announcement. "i wanna make a couple team adjustments. now, we can take a team vote, because your opinion matters to me, but just know i won't be listening." she shrugged sweetly as everyone laughed quietly.
morgan and anna shared a confused look, shrugging at each other.
"who here votes that nancy is off the team, a show of hands." scarlett said and watched as hands go up.
some people didn't even hesitate, their hands shooting right up. others slowly put their hands up, scared of what nancy would do or say.
nancy's minions looked at each other, then slowly put their hands up. nancy looked at the two, shocked. "put your hands down!" she yelled at them, but all they did was shrug.
"it's not like it would make a difference," scarlett
smiled. "you're off the team." she said finally.
nancy glared at everyone, let out a shriek and stomped out of the gym. her footsteps echoed with each stomp she made. some people laughed, others looked around awkwardly.
scarlett sighed, feeling an immediate weight off her shoulders already. "alright, so now that that's over, let's get started." scarlett smiled as everyone laughed quietly.
-
the next day before varsity had the rink for hockey practice, the j.v captain jogged up to scarlett in the hallway outside of think rink. "what the hell is wrong with you and your team?" he asked and scarlett grew extremely confused.
"sorry, what?" she asked, not comprehending where this is coming from.
"taking all of our gear before practice? real clever. you're lucky we don't take your scheduled practice time." he complained and scarlett knew immediately what had happened.
"first, you would have to practice in the bathroom before you'd get our time on the rink. second, how do you know it was even us?" she crossed her arms, trying to play it off. it had to be the team, who else would be stupid enough to steal their gear?
"varsity rules? sound familiar?" he asked with a scoff.
what a bunch of dumbasses, scarlett thought to themselves. she had a feeling they weren't trying to be obvious with the prank, and that was just dumb. "no, actually, it doesn't. we didn't take your gear, kid. we don't need your cheap equipment, thanks though." she rolled her eyes, walking away from the boy and into the rink.
she walked into the locker room and stood at the door with her arms crossed. everyone looked over slowly to see her standing there. they knew immediately that they were busted. after a minute of pure silence averman spoke up,
"it wasn't me!"
"yes it was!"
"it was literally your idea!"
"well, i didn't do anything."
"me neither!"
"everyone shut up!" scarlett yelled, making everyone silent. "i don't care who did what, okay? taking their gear? seriously? that's like the dumbest thing ever." she shook her head.
"they weren't supposed to know it was us."
"yeah!"
"oh, they weren't?" scarlett asked sarcastically. "then maybe don't leave behind varsity rules written on their walls." she said obviously.
everyone looked over to fulton and dean. "seriously?"
"what?"
"we told you not to do that!"
"they needed to know who's in charge!"
"yeah!"
"just stop, enough." scarlett silenced everyone again. "get out there, let's go." she nodded towards the door, and everyone slowly got up.
"whatever you say, captain."
"aye, aye, cap."
"yes, ma'am.
she rolled her eyes at every remark made. this was going to be one long practice.
-
"why do we have to do laps?" goldberg groaned, throwing his head back.
scarlett was skating near him with aspen, trying to avoid adam. he's been trying to talk to her for the last two days. he felt horrible for believing nancy. which he knew was dumb, but it all fell together.
jack asked scarlett go just talk to him, because even he felt bad for his been friend. adam let's the guilt of even the smallest things eat him alive.
"because you refused to block the pucks, goldberg. if you're not gonna do your actual job, you're gonna do laps." scarlett said finally, skating backwards by him. "also, don't steal gear you're not gonna use. you don't even use your own." she rolled her eyes.
"careful, goldie. she's not afraid to just kick people off of teams they've been on for years." charlie said, skating by them—obviously referring to nancy.
"she deserved it, charlie. you know that." adam said once charlie skated by him. charlie rolled his eyes and looked at adam.
"you need to stop defending her, man. you two ruined whatever you had with each other. just give it up." charlie—in all his miserableness, shook his head and sped up a bit, skating away.
adam stopped slowly, staring at the ice. scarlett watched from behind them, frowning at interaction. she knew charlie just let out all of his miserable feelings on adam, and it didn't look good.
scarlett had aspen blow her whistle, only because she loved doing it so much, and had everyone gather in. adam skated in with a frown, and scarlett couldn't help but having her eyes keep drifting back to him.
she told them all to be ready for their first game on thursday, and that they did a good job despite the fact no one listened to her at all.
-
i just finished the last chapters for this series.
i need to process that, be right back.