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When she reached us, she hovered over me and I smiled to reassure her. That must have given her some sense that I was alright so she turned her attention to my pathetic antagonist and reached her hands for the back of his shoulder pads and before anyone could react she yanked him to the ground.
He more than likely dropped out of sheer surprise, his heavy body slumping to the grass. She deftly maneuvered around his grounded girth and placed her foot onto his chest plate. She kept her hands calmly at her side, kept her back straight as an arrow, tilted her head toward him and began to quietly threaten through her teeth. The kinds of things Jules had never thought, let alone said aloud. She had the patience and virtues of a saint, but when it came to the important things everyone knew not to cross her, too bad he didn’t know that.
He started to push her foot off his chest and began to call her bluff. The referee knew that would have dire consequences, for the boy, and pulled her off of him. She fought uselessly to get back to the idiot. I’m guessing she had more to say. She pointed in the boy’s direction and silently stared her warning. It was so powerful that it peeled around him and began to wash over all the boys on the field. She scared the living daylights out of us, but I had never wanted to kiss her more.
When she reached the edge of the field the referee set her down and she hopped the fence in response to something he said but turned our direction once more. She straightened her hair and clothing, turned toward the direction of my truck and attractively sauntered until she was out of sight. I was laughing so hard by then I couldn’t even stand up. Soon, the stands joined me, forgetting our amazing last minute victory.
I finally regained enough control to trot toward the sidelines and because my nose was bleeding, I handed Coach my helmet and with an approving wink fled the field toward Jules. I heard applause but I knew it was for her only. The intensity in that girl’s heart.
I jogged across the parking lot, removing my jersey and shoulder pads, leaving my plain white t-shirt, to a sedately lounging Jules scattered across my hood, her back to my windshield, one hand behind her head, the other twirling the end of a lock of her long hair. I threw my pads and jersey to the gravel and stopped a few feet short of the truck.
“Come here,” I said with a smile.
She melted off the hood of the truck and carelessly strode my way. Her hips had a bit more swing than usual. She stood about a foot in front of me, her head high with confidence and shrugged her shoulders, a slight grin pulled at the right corner of her mouth.
“Well, well miss Jacobs. Care to explain yourself?” I teased.
“It was impulsive,” she said, her face slightly blushing. She gritted her teeth to prevent the obvious grin.
“Oh, yeah, impulsive,” I winked at her. “I have to say, I’ve never seen that side of you before. It was tremendously sexy.”
“Shut up Gray!”
Her face became an instant shade of deep pink.
“Yeah Jules! Especially when you stepped on his chest plate like that,” I closed my eyes and pursed my lips in satisfaction. “Very Joan of Arc of you,” I continued, “charging in like that, by the way. All that was missing were your brave soldiers. I have a feeling, if the referees hadn’t torn you off him, you would have gotten those soon enough.”
“You must think you’re so hilarious Gray.”
She bit her lip trying to keep the smile from her face, but she was failing. The corners of her mouth turned up and they were too strong for her teeth to contain. Finally, she burst into laughter and I followed suit.
“I’m so embarrassed,” she said. “I have no idea what your mom thinks of me now. She’s already on edge about me as it is. My dad is going to kill me and I have the distinct feeling I’ll be receiving the ‘lady like’ convo from my own mom as soon as we get a moment alone.”
“You were so cute Jules I almost kissed your face in front of God and everyone.”
“I’m glad you restrained yourself. At least one of us did. I couldn’t help myself,” she said. “It was like I had no awareness of the people around me. All I know is I saw you bleeding and that ridiculous pinhead was responsible for it. I immediately ran to your side but when you smiled at me all I could feel was this rage inside me as I saw the blood stain your face. Suddenly, it was my job to do something about it, so I did. It was instinctual.”
“Imagine how you felt, babe, quadruple it and that’s how I felt about what happened at Tanen’s. Come on, before everyone bombards you here under these scorching lights,” I said, grabbing her hand, scooping up my pads and jersey and leading her to the passenger side of my truck.
Everyone from our side of town decided to switch things up a bit and piled into Babe’s restaurant in Bluefield. Jules and I got there a little earlier, for obvious reasons, and we sat at a long table with a million chairs. Eventually our fellow Greenbacks, the ones I considered loyal anyway, came streaming in and one by one they began to tease Jules.
She blushed in horror but finally things settled down. It was crazy busy and it was beginning to look like it would turn into a really fun night. Jesse came and sat at our table with us and Greg and four other guys and two random girls who arrived before him.
“Hey Elliott,” Jesse said, totally disregarding Jules. “What do you think? Huh?” He asked pointing to the new tattoo on his neck.
“What’s up Jesse?” I said, throwing a subtle nod toward Jules.
“Hey Julia”, he said sweetly, eyeing her strangely.
She ignored him and enthusiastically greeted him like she did with everyone, sweet and sunnily.
Jesse was icy cold to Jules but had recently ceased being outright mean to her. I didn’t quite get Jesse. I was starting to believe something was seriously wrong with him. His behavior was so erratic.
“So?” He asked again.
“Oh, I wondered why you had a bandage on your neck during the game. Is that why you skipped school today?”
“Hell yeah it is! Don’t say anything to my mom, though, she doesn’t know.”
