Mutual Hatred - Love Game (9 page)

"Oh thank you so, so much! You have no idea how relieved I am," she said gratefully, "Are you sure you want me to leave?"

"Yes. You deserve it!"

Mr. Wise seemed almost eager for her to leave.
Impossible
, she thought,
Who the heck would be excited about being with those idiots? Only Mr. Wise.

Shelley decided to drop by the city Community Center where she sometimes volunteered. She liked to work with the kids who were there for the day while their parents worked. They were so refreshing compared to the petulant teenagers she was around all morning.

She waved hello to several of the workers and made her way to the playground where the kids were. Several little girls squealed and ran over to hug Shelley when they saw her.

"Hey Lily. How are you today? And hello Katie!" she cooed.

"Wanna see what I painted during art time?" asked Lily, jumping up and down.

"Sure, Lil. Come on Katie, let's go see what your big sister painted!" Shelley said enthusiastically.

Shelley, with Katie in tow, followed Lily inside to the art room. Lily searched high and low for her painting and pulled it off the bulletin board it had been posted on.

"Ta da!" she exclaimed, "Guess who it is?"

Shelley couldn't help but grin. "It's me, you, and Katie! Wow, you're really good, Lily."

Lily smiled in satisfaction at Shelley's approval. "You can take it home. I'm going to make another one now. Want to paint with me?"

Shelley nodded in agreement. At six years old, Lily and her four year old sister were the little sisters she never had. It was adorable how Katie already looked up to her big sister as a role model. The three girls spent the next hour painting pictures of themselves and their families when Lily suddenly asked,

"Shell-ley, will you braid my hair?"

It was completely random, but Shelley didn't mind. She quickly obliged and was about halfway through the second braid when a voice said,

"Why are you everywhere I go?"

Shelley looked up. Brandon.

"Well it's not like I stalk you. I've been volunteering here for three years!" she said defensively, "Aren't you supposed to be at practice?"

"It ended awhile ago."

"Oh."

It seemed like it was taking all his might not to pick a fight with Shelley in front of the kids.

"Yeah well, I'm gonna go play with the boys and teach them how to play football."

Brandon was on his way out when Lily tugged on the bottom of Shelley's shirt. "Is he your boyfriend?" asked Lily, her eyes wide.

Shelley snorted. "No way!"

"I think he likes you."

"He doesn't," Shelley said firmly, "Besides, don't you think boys have cooties?"

"Boys are stu-pid!" Lily said loudly, "They won't let me play with them."

"Why not?" Shelley finally finished braiding Lily's hair and pulled a mirror from her purse.

Lily examined her hair and adjusted the bows at the end. "Because I'm a girl," she pouted.

"I have that problem too," said Shelley, pocketing the compact mirror.

"Why can't girls play with boys? It's NOT FAIR!" complained Lily, "They won't even share the ball with me even when I tell on them!"

"You have to show them you're boss, Lily. You mean business," suggested Shelley.

"I tried doing that yesterday," Lily said sadly, "I just want to play! Why do boys get to do everything?"

Shelley patted Lily gently on the head. "Things will get better when you're older. Just wait."

"But I don't want to wait! I want to play NOW!" Lily stamped her foot to show her frustration.

Sighing, Shelley took Lily in one hand and Katie in the other. "Come on, we're going to play with the boys."

Lily's big, brown eyes widened. "Are we really?"

"Of course! And if they have a problem with it I'll talk to them about it."

"Thank you, Shelley!" Lily squeezed her hand.

They walked into the bright sunlight and marched over to where Brandon was showing several boys how to throw a football. They watched for a few seconds.

"So you hold it like this, see? With your fingers by the laces like this," Brandon demonstrated, "And then you get in position like it told you. Now throw it. Yeah, just like that Cameron!"

He glanced up, as if sensing Shelley's eyes on him.

"Oh what do you want?" he asked.

"The girls and I want to play football too," declared Shelley.

"No!" shouted the little boy named Cameron, "No girls allowed!"

All of a sudden, everything clicked.

Hands on her hips, Shelley demanded, "Brandon, have you been teaching these boys that girls shouldn't play football?"

Unabashed, he answered, "So what if I have? I gotta teach them at an early age before they become like Nickol and the other girly men we have on the team."

"Let. Lily. Play. With. You," Shelley said steely, "Or I'll tell them how you let me boss you around!" She clapped a hand over her mouth, "Whoops! Too late!"

Brandon scowled. Turning to the boys, he said, "She does NOT tell me what to do. Don't ever let a girl tell you what to do unless she's your girlfriend!"

Lily looked up at Shelley. "I thought you said he wasn't your boyfriend."

"He isn't," denied Shelley.

"But you tell him what to do, and he just said not to let a girl tell a boy what to do 'less she's their girlfriend!"

"Brandon doesn't know what he's talking about. Ignore anything he says," Shelley said, hushing Lily. She glanced at Brandon and said, "So are you going to let us play or what?"

"No," he flatly refused, "Go play with Barbies. Or better yet, teach them a cheer!"

"I'll teach you a cheer," Lily said, her voice barely audible.

She walked over to Brandon, who towered over her so that her head barely reached his waist, and chanted, "Boys are dumb. So are you. See my thumb? See my hand too?"

She held up her hand, and when Brandon was looking at it with a puzzled expression, Lily punched his stomach with her other hand. Hard. Well, as hard as six year old girls can punch.

"Ow!" he doubled over in pain, "Fucking girls."

Shelley high-fived Lily, who looked quite pleased with herself. "Wow, Lil, that was great!"

Little Cameron and his buddies were pointing and laughing at Brandon. "You got hit by a girl!" they shouted gleefully.

Brandon glared at Shelley. "And is this what you've been teaching the girls? Boys are bad? She'll never get a boyfriend that way," he said, pointing at Lily.

"And you'll never date a decent girl if you're sexist," she retorted.

"There you go, being all feminist and shit on me again. Go get laid!" he spat.

"You do realize that these kids are hearing inappropriate language, don't you? What kind of good example are you? Oh, their virgin ears are scarred forever!" Shelley said sarcastically.

Brandon shook his head. "Why don't you just leave? Less problems for everyone."

"No way! I got here first!"

"And you've overstayed your visit long enough."

Shelley seized the football from the ground and handed it to Katie.

"Come on, Lil, let's go play
real
football," she said smugly.

"Hey! We were playing with that!" Brandon protested.

"Not anymore," smirked Shelley.

It was so fun watching Brandon seethe like that. That was one of the things that made life worth living.

"If I ask nicely can we PLEASE have it back?"

"If you ask nicely maybe I'll let you play with us," she answered casually.

"Up yours!"

Shelley gave him a toothy grin. "Don't I already have a stick shoved up my butt?"

"Screw you!"

"If I were you I think I'd like to screw me too."

Brandon was silent, as if trying to process her sentence. "You're so annoying."

"You're one to talk," she scoffed.

"I don't need to stand here and listen to this. Let's go boys," he motioned to the kids to follow him, but they were rooted to their spots.

"No," said a dark-haired boy, "We want to play football!"

"Well we're not going to play with
them
," explained Brandon, "They're girls. And we don't like girls, do we?"

"I like Shelley," said Cameron, "And she's a girl. Does that mean I like girls? Ew!!"

"You can play with us if you want, Cameron. You too, Luke," Shelley beckoned the boys to come forward.

"You're just trying to corrupt them," said Brandon.

"You've already done that. I'm only trying to undo it all."

"Whatever," was Brandon's careless response.

"Play, Brandon, play!" yelled Luke, "Play with us!"

"I don't think Shelley wants me here. It's cool, I'll just go do something else," said Brandon.

Luke, Cameron, and their friends looked at Shelley with pleading eyes. How could she resist that?

"Sure, whatever. Brandon can play."

"Yay! Hey, we should play little kids against big kids!" cried Cameron.

"Yeah!" agreed Lily.

"How about girls against boys?" suggested Brandon.

"No!" the kids shouted in unison.

"You and Shelley against me, Luke, Lily, Katie, David, Martin, and Timothy," Cameron said firmly.

Brandon didn't look too happy about the arrangements, and neither did Shelley. This meant they'd actually have to work together. And talk to each other!

Shelley glanced at Brandon, who nodded. She clapped her hands together and said, "Okay, we'll play. First team to get to five touchdowns wins."

"What do we get if we win?" asked David.

"Brandon will buy all of you ice cream if you win," Shelley said quickly.

Brandon scowled at her as the kids cheered. They separated to have their group huddle before beginning the game. "I hope you're not planning on letting them win," Brandon growled.

"Not feeling confident about your game?" Shelley said, feigning concern.

"I got more game then a playstation!" he scoffed, "We're gonna cream these kids."

"They're kids! Go easy on them!"

"A game is a game. Show no mercy to anyone."

"No tackling, Miller. Seriously. You're big enough to crush one of them!"

"Fine,
Mom
. I'll play nice."

Shelley fondly patted him on the head and said, "Good boy! You deserve a cookie!"

Brandon only glared at her and yelled to the kids, "Come on, let's play!"

It was the most interesting game of football Shelley had ever played. Of course, she hadn't expected it to be a real football game; the kids playing changed all the rules. There were actually only two rules: no tackling and anything goes. So that meant they could do whatever it took to win, and to the kids, that meant jumping on Brandon and Shelley if either of them had the ball. It took the combined effort of Brandon and Shelley to score two touchdowns, while the kids already had four. Timothy was throwing the ball to Lily, but Brandon intercepted it and promptly tossed it to Shelley. The two played keep-away from the kids as they sprinted down the patch of grass, alternately tossing the ball to each other.

"TOUCHDOWN!" yelled Brandon.

The kids didn't care. Martin had already scooped up the ball and was running towards his goal line. Brandon took off after him and effortlessly stole the ball. Shelley was still standing on the other side, so Brandon threw it to her. She caught it and took several steps.

"Touchdown again!" she said happily.

The kids groaned. No way were they going to miss out on ice cream! This meant playing dirty. And playing dirty meant tackling.

When Brandon got the ball back again, Cameron led his team as they charged at Brandon. He fell down and Lily managed to grab the ball. She ran as fast as her short legs could take her and scored the final, winning touchdown.

"We won! We won! We won! We won!" the kids screamed.

"And that means you owe them ice cream, Brandon!" Shelley reminded him.

"Yeah, whatever. You know, we kind of make a good team, Sinclair."

Shelley gave him a dirty look. "You're shitting me."

"I shit you not."

They laughed together as the kids looked at them expectantly.

"When do we get our ice cream?" Luke asked impatiently.

"I'll go buy it now and come back, okay?" asked Brandon. He grabbed Shelley's hand. "Come with me," he ordered.

This sudden change in his behavior made Shelley suspicious. First, they had actually laughed about something,
together.
Second, he had grabbed her hand. And now he wanted her to go with him?

Oh, definitely up to something.