chapter nineteen
fuck the patriarchy
KNOCK! KNOCK!
Jules groaned in annoyance, rolling over in her bed and pulling her blanket over her head. She hopes whoever is at her door will stop and go away, but it didn't stop.
Knock! Knock!
Knock! Knock!
Letting out a loud sigh of anger, she sat up in her bed and looks over at Connie who was still asleep, thank God. Crawling out from the warmth of her sheets, she takes the blanket on the top and wraps it around her shoulders, not very happy that someone woke her up. The girl pulls open the door to reveal Adam Banks who was carrying a blanket and a sweet and irresistible smile. "What?" He was too joyful for her taste, raising a brow.
"Not missing me?" He asked with a sad frown, Jules sighed, pulling the door open to let him in. Adam grinned, shutting the door behind him and crawling into her bed.
Juliet sleeps basically up against the wall, the blanket still hugged tightly around her body and head turned away from her boyfriend. He frowns, wondering why she didn't want to hug but just shrugged and shut his eyes. Jules can hear his breathing start to slow as he slips off to sleep, she knew that he was missing laying beside her so she turned over and snuggled into his side. Banks peeked at her threw one eye, lifting his arm and tucking her neatly under his arm as she placed her head onto his chest. He pressed a light kiss to her head, "Night, gorgeous." She curled her hand into his jumper, nestling a little further into his chest as they slipped into a kind sleep.
Jules hadn't actually realised how late he'd come to their room, and it felt like five minutes later when Connie was shaking them away because they'd slept threw two alarms. "One, Adam's not aloud to be in here, two... it's like seven thirty and classes start in an hour."
"Oh, shit." Barnes shoots up, her hair a mess whilst Adam just groaned, "Lazy bones, get up and go get ready for school, come on. I need to get dressed." He huffed, taking his blanket and got up to leave. He stopped in the doorway, turning back to look at her, she sighed and walked towards him, gently kissing him before pushing him out so she could get dressed.
Connie thankfully hadn't paid much attention, she was too busy finishing her hair. Jules picked out some low waisted flare jeans with dark blue martial and a navy blue henley shirt with a white vest underneath with a delicate lace sweetheart neckline. She'd curled her hair, styling her bangs quickly and slapped on some makeup before heading down to breakfast where the Ducks are sat around a table, munching on the toast and whatever they could find.
The two girls grabbed lunch and then took the two empty seats, between Guy and Adam who had clearly been saving them spaces, "Who has math with Mr. Chance first?" Luis asked, looking up from his timetable.
"I do." Fulton, Julie and Charlie said, munching on their food. Adam and Guy had Social Economics first. Connie, Russ and Goldberg had Criminology. Averman, Kenny and Dwayne had Chemistry whilst Jules had math with Ms. Spellman. With a sigh, the team set off to their separate classes. She looked around the class as she walked in, wondering who it was that was teaching. Ms. Spellman looked like a sweet woman, she had long blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes, Jules felt good about this class.
She took a seat towards the back, setting her bag on the floor and pulling out her notebook when some Varsity players walked in, "It's good to see you Mister Riley." Jules lifted her head when someone who looked like Rick Riley walked in, he was a tall brunette guy with defined features and was wearing a red letterman jacket, she wondered if she'd get one because she's in Varsity now.
There was a chill in the air, so Jules decides to put the hoodie in her bag on. It was Adams, of course, but she didn't realise she picked out his old USA team hoodie and felt a little stupid with it on, maybe even like she was showing off but no one took any notice to that fact. As she pulled the thing over her face, the girl was shocked to see the guy staring at her staring back at her, "Have you got a pen?" He asked, pursing his lips. Juliet licked her lips before reaching into her bag and pulled out one of the spare pens she had, "Thanks. You look like an American flag."
"Yeah, I know." She mumbles, sitting back in her chair, "You must be Rick Riley's brother, sí?" The boy turned back around, not expecting the conversation to carry on.
"How'd you know?" He asks, raising a brow.
Jules looked him up and down, "You all have the same smell." The boy was intrigued, "The pretentious douchebag smell." The Riley brother made an offended expression, placing a hand over his chest, she just raises a brow.
"Ouch, girl, that hurt." He chuckled, obviously playing about, "Leo Riley, and... wait, I know." Leo tilted his head to the side in thought, one eye sitting as her name comes to his name as if he was some form of mind reader. Jules folds her arms over her chest, leg bouncing up and down, waiting for his answer, "I want to say Vanessa." She rolls her eyes, she'd heard the boys say that Vanessa is easily the hottest name out there, "No?"
"Was that an attempt to flirt?" Juliet questions, crossing one leg over the other as she shuffles in her seat. Leo shrugs, "I'm gonna take that as a yes." Leo pressed his lips into a thin line, she wasn't quite sure what was going on, "Okay, I'm gonna set it out flat. I have no intention of telling you my name, but if you do something worthwhile, maybe I'll tell you." She was surprised he didn't know her name, not because she was sort of famous or whatever, but because the Ducks were hated a whole lot throughout the Varsity hockey team, it was very clear they were hated by Cole bullying them relentlessly and they'd only been in the school for two days.
Leo took the challenge, "What do you want me to do, mystery girl?" Jules smirks to herself, wondering what she could do with this boy wrapped around her little finger, "But I draw the line at running down the hall naked."
"Damn, I was gonna ask you do that." She jokes, hitting her hand on the table with a click of her tongue against the roof of her mouth.
"Oh, I see... you just wanna know what I look like beneath these clothes." The boy smirks, wiggling his brows. Jules shakes her head, sitting back in her chair again, "Don't play with me, mystery girl, I know you want a piece of this." Barney raises her brows, looking him up and down, just to mess about with his little boy brain, "See, you want a piece of the Leo-Pie."
"Um..." She was instantly repulsed by that little comment, "Not very much, thanks."
Leo bit on his bottom lip, "Sorry, that was a stupid thing to say. Can we start over? I'm Leonard Riley, but everyone knows me as Leo. I'm nineteen and I play lacrosse." He extends a hand for her to shake, Jules looks at his hand and sighs.
"I will admit, I was pretty repulsed by the 'Leo-Pie', but you brought yourself back. I'm Jules." Leonard tilted his head with a kind smile, she expected him to be a douchebag, but he was turning out to be alright. However, she wasn't going to tell him who she plays for and her last name, because she didn't want to ruin whatever she could see going down between her and Leo. Although, she knew Adam probably wouldn't like her making friends with the Captain of the Varsity teams little brother.
"That's a nice name." Leo nods, "And you are... like, really pretty." She smiles, thanking him quietly but it's obvious she's not attracted to him because she doesn't blush from the compliment.
Miss Spellman suddenly appears, "It's truly amazing to have you in class, Leonard, but please... for the love of God, don't distract my new students or I will have you on community service." She raises her brows, telling him that she's serious, "For the entire semester." Leo just grinned up at her, rather charmingly.
"Sorry, Ms. Spellman, I'll focus now." He glances over his shoulder at Jules, who just shakes her head in disbelief, and hides the smile that's forming.
"FUCK!" Jules yelled, messing about with the team and pretending to be utterly terrible at hockey. Her and Adam came up with the plan, and then she'd just show them all up after a little while. Rick Riley had flipped her over and stolen the puck, she just happened to be on his opposing team and well, it was rather hilarious watching him get cocky against her.
Rick skated back beside her again, "Darling, you'll need to get used to that if you want to play Varsity." She narrowed her eyes, not liking that nickname, "Face off."
She was against him in the face off, thankfully Adam was on her team. To be frank, she was surprised that they were put on the same team, especially because of their reputation and Jules was sure that Varsity had done their research of their new freshman players but it seemed that they hadn't. The girl whistles before the puck is dropped, she slams into Rick, hitting the puck between her legs when Adam skates up, taking the puck and swoops left when Jules breaks right. The Dynamic Duo was back again, he twirled around the two defenders, hitting the puck to Juliet who caught it and sped up ever so slightly, hitting the puck past Scooter who huffed when he missed it.
Rick looked baffled, and he continued to get his ass whipped by Juliet, even when they took Adam off, she scored at least fifteen goals, flipped over a bunch of them, and just basically showed them who was boss. Coach Wilson blows the whistle when she makes Cole and James into each other, and scores a goal.
"Darling, you'll need to get used to that if you want to play with me." Jules mocked as she skated past Rick Riley, who was totally shocked by that whole thing. Adam skates onto the rink, the two doing their iconic handshake, stick tap and butt bump.
Wilson raises his brows, calling Jules over. She shrugs and skates over to him, stopping with her feet in the shape of a 'T', "What was that?" He asked, raising his brows and tilting his head to the side. Jules frowned, confused on what he meant, "Hunny, Coach Orion may think that you're front line material, but in my house, your riding the pine pony material. These boys have worked years to get this good, and they don't need to be shown up by a... by you."
"But, Coach--" Jules shakes her head.
"No, Barnes." Wilson shushed her, she scoffed in shock that he shushed her, "I'm putting you on the rink because of Coach Orion, but you better not pull any stunts like that again or I'll take you off the rink permanently, do you understand?" Barnes nodded, "And you don't get any special treatment in that locker room, you want to be Varsity, suck it up, darling." She skated away, to the locker room, feeling incredibly upset and angry towards their coach.
Adam was stood at his locker when she slammed her stuff into her own, thankfully beside his. "What's the matter?" Jules just shook her head, fighting tears. She just wants to play hockey, and she knew that it would be hard but right off the bat from playing well, and showing up some boys, it disgusted and angered her.
She can't bring herself to take off her undershirt or trousers, so just packs away her stuff and leaves as quickly as she can. Banks frowns, wondering what the hell was going on with her. Juliet feels like her chest was about to explode as she races down the halls, just wanting to leave the stadium and go back to her dorm and just... she didn't even know. She just needed to leave before she hurt someone, badly or burst into tears and cry like a baby. That was the last thing she wanted.
Jules had experienced the patriarchal bullshit that make men feel entitled to put women down because they feel superior before, how could she not of? But to experience it when she just wanted to play hockey, and she played amazingly as well... it was inexcusable.
Juliet trembled with anger as she threw her duffel bag into the corner of the room, thankfully Connie wasn't there so she could do whatever in peace. She hoped Adam hadn't tried to follow her because he wouldn't get it, he just wouldn't. The girl curled her hands into fists, creating a line of half-moon crescents in her palm in attempt to distract herself from the overwhelming anger that was taking over. She wanted to punch something, someone, but she couldn't, she just couldn't give herself another injury.
The anger and the hurt was so painful, it made it hard to breathe. Juliet felt like her lungs had been cemented into place, making her paralysed. Her clothes were too close to her body, her hair was touching her to much, everything was touching everything and she felt so claustrophobic. It was stupid, it was so stupid. Jules wasn't any different from the next woman who experienced the same thing. She just wants to play a sports
"Fuck!" She screams, giving in, twirling on her heel and slamming her fist into what would've been the door if Adam hadn't of opened it and gotten it square in his face.
Jules fell to her knees, when he took a step back, not expecting to be punched and he was stunned into shock from the sheer force of it, However it didn't last long when he heard Barney's faint cries as she grips her hair, crying over something so stupid.
Adam knelt down beside her, shutting the door and going to pull her into a hug when she pushes him away, crawling into the corner of her room, hugging her knees close to her chest and facing away from him. Banks frowns on concern, the last time she did that she went into a ten month long depressive episode after her father died so it scared him.
Connie opened to the door, she looked between them. Adam was bleeding, Jules was silently crying and her fist was bleeding. "Juliet?" She whispered, stepping past Banks, "Hey, what's wrong?" Her voice was so calm, so sweet, Jules instinctively turned towards Connie.
"I-" She went to explain, but the words got caught in the back of her throat and Jules couldn't seem to tell Connie what had happened, leaving the younger brunette to only worry even more, especially from the circumstances she'd found then in. Anything could've happened, anything at all but Connie feared the worse.
She turned to Adam, "Can you step out for a minute? I don't know if you caused this or not, but you can't be here right now. Something had happened and you aren't making the situation any better." Adam went to protest but stopped himself and left at Connie's words. "Jules, what happened?"
"I just want to play hockey, Connie." Jules told her, before bursting into tears again. It took a lot to break Juliet Evans, but whatever Coach Wilson said to her seemed to have broken her entirely.
NOTES: yeah, may not cause pain between julam but jules is going to go threw it this act, sorry.