Mutual Hatred - Love Game (8 page)

James Watkins' mouth dropped open. "Fucking brilliant," he declared.

Brandon glared at him. "Are you my friend or what?"

"Well yeah," James said hastily, "But you gotta admit, she's ruthless."

"Whatever," said Alex, "This means war, doesn't it? I know that look, Brandon."

Brandon nodded fiercely. "We're going all out this time. It'll be nothing like what we did to Nickol."

"We almost fucking ruined the bastard!" said James, "You want to destroy Shelley too?"

"I can't do that to a girl," said Alex gravely, "Especially our coach."

"We're not gonna fucking fuck her up, shitheads. We're just going to mess around with her; play a couple pranks on her. You know, the usual. Only worse."

James laughed evilly. "Then she ought to be afraid.
Very afraid
."

- - - - -

Taryn saw Shelley reenter the house and immediately pulled her inside an empty room.

"Shell!" she said urgently, "Everyone's talking about you and Brandon!"

This was somewhat surprising, yet so expected. Word traveled fast at parties like this. "What are they saying?"

"Well first I heard that you were making out, but then people were saying you were drunk and asked him to have sex with you."

Shelley laughed unethusiastically. "I didn't ask him to have sex with me!"

"Did you make out with him?"

Shelley diverted her eyes to the floor. "Yes," she said meekly.

"May I ask why?" Taryn demanded.

Suddenly, what Shelley had thought was a brilliant idea turned into a stupid idea. Taryn wouldn't be amused. "I just wanted to get back at him for the shaving cream. You know? Kiss and run. Get them all horny and ditch 'em," she explained.

Taryn groaned. "Shelley! Brandon's definitely not going to take that lightly! You do know this means war, right?"

"Of course. And I've got a few tricks of my own up my sleeve."

"And what, pray tell, do you have planned?"

"I'm going to hit Brandon where it'll hurt the most," Shelley said proudly.

"You're going to kick his balls? Oh yeah, that's going to do a lot of damage," said Taryn sardonically, "Actually, it will. But I mean, that's not enough! You're going to need more than just that!"

"I didn't mean 'kick his balls' as you have
so
kindly put it. I meant…" Shelley quickly told Taryn her plan. Taryn's eyes widened in shock and fear.

"You do realize the risks of that, don't you?" she asked.

"I do. And I'm willing to go through with it if it comes down to it."

"Shelley, that's so mean. That's worse than what you did to him tonight!"

"That's the point. Save the best for last."

Taryn shook her head sadly. Shelley was her friend, but she sympathized for Brandon.

Poor guy wasn't going to know what hit him.

Chapter 7 – Up Yours!

The rest of the weekend went by quickly and Shelley found herself dreading practice Monday morning.

Was she afraid of Brandon?

Of course not.

Well, maybe just a
little
bit.

And maybe kissing Brandon wasn't the way to go. But it seemed like the perfect revenge at the time.

What could he possibly do anyways? She had Johnny and the gang on her side.

And Brandon had everyone else.

So much for unity.

- - - - -

Apart from Brandon making snide remarks every once in awhile, practice was fine. The boys did as they were told and everyone was happy. There were a few times Shelley would have liked to beat Brandon with a baseball bat. For instance, she and Joshua had been talking about how Shelley's face sometimes got oily. Brandon had overheard and suggested,

"It wouldn't make a difference if your skin
wasn't
oily, Sinclair. You'd still be ugly."

Fucker.

"No one asked you," growled Joshua.

That annoying smirk was back. "Don't hate me because I'm good looking."

"You wish! The first time I saw your face I thought 'Is it Halloween already?'" Shelley had retorted.

She had gloated when he merely scowled and stomped away.

And life was good.

- - - - -

Shelley should have known the peace wouldn't last long. It didn't last longer than a week, in fact.

Disaster, as Shelley liked to refer to it, struck Friday.

She was exaggerating again. It wasn't a disaster. Brandon's 'prank' wasn't clever. And he wasn't stupid, she'd admit that much. He could do much better than that. She supposed he just wanted to start small and work his way up.

Do you want to know what it was?

No one showed up for practice Friday.

Not a disaster. But it put Shelley in a bad mood. Who would cancel practice?

Shelley found out after calling a half-asleep Kyle.

"What are you doing calling me at such an ungodly hour, Shell?" he asked groggily.

"I want to know why no one is here for practice!" she shrieked.

"Brandon called everyone last night. He said you cancelled it and asked him to tell all of us," explained Kyle.

Shelley was fuming now.

"And you actually believed him? IDIOT!"

"Well it sounded okay to me. I wasn't about to argue with no practice."

"Did God give you any brains? If he did, WHY AREN'T YOU USING IT?!? I
hate
Brandon," she emphasized, "Why would I ask him to do something for me if I could do it myself?"

Silence.

"Idiots. All of you. Absolutely outrageous!" she cried hysterically, "Don't you think I would have told you myself if practice was cancelled? I would NEVER cancel practice, for the love of football!"

"Um, are you going to make us all come today?" Kyle asked hesitantly, as if expecting her to go off on him.

And Shelley probably would have if she hadn't been plotting her revenge.

"No," she decided, "You won't."

"Score! You rock Shells," said Kyle.

"Let me finish. All of you will be putting in an extra two hours every day next week just for that little stunt. And if you're mad, tell everyone its Brandon's fault. Because it is!"

Kyle groaned. What a fucking nighmare. If he thought ten hours a week of practice was bad, twenty was going to be hell.

Damn damn damn damn damn!

Fucking Brandon.

Mother
fucking Brandon.

Four hours a day! Twenty hours of football! Christ! Would any of them survive to see the weekend?

Probably not. They'd be lucky if they even survived the first day. Because knowing Shelley, she'd make them practice even more than they had before.

But she had seemed satisfied and Kyle supposed they deserved it for believing Brandon. And who was he to argue with a pissed off coach?

- - - - -

An uneventful weekend went by and Monday came. Shelley was determined to shape up the team. If they thought they could drive her crazy, they had another think coming. Shelley was going to drive
them
to the brink of insanity.

Unfortunately, she was going to have to yell at them first. Almost every single person had shown up late and all of them looked like they had hangovers.

Shelley eyed the lord of the fools. "Brandon, do you remember what I said about punctuality?"

His eyes didn't meet hers. "You bitch about people being late," he mumbled.

A couple chuckles were immediately silenced when Shelley glared at the owners.

"Would someone like to explain why you are all late and hungover?"

No one answered, so Johnny decided to speak up. "We had a bonfire last night…" he said guiltily.

"On a Sunday night?" she asked dryly.

"Uh, yeah. Didn't he say last night? It was pretty dope!" Brandon said gaily.

"Maybe I should be telling Mr. Wise about this," said Shelley, "I'm sure he'd be furious if he knew you guys were drinking and showing up to practice like this."

"You wouldn't," Brandon said fiercely.

"You're right, I wouldn't. I doubt he'd be able to take the disappointment. But what the fuck is going on in your tiny brains right now? What went on when you decided to go to a bonfire and get drunk the night before practice? NEW RULE, FUCKTARDS!!" she screeched, "Go have your fun on Friday or Saturday night. But if you do something on Sunday night and come to practice like this again, I guarantee you will be off the team faster than you can call me a bitch."

Shelley's outburst seemed to get through to the boys. Not one of them said a word, but then again, it could have been because they all had hangovers. What would it take?

"I'm going to admit, you boys drive me insane. I mean, could you get any dumber than you already are?"

"What kind of coach talks to their team like this? Aren't you supposed to be supportive and encouraging?" Brandon asked angrily.

"Not when I've got you lot for a team," retorted Shelley.

Brandon made his contempt obvious when he exchanged glances with Alex and James. They nodded at him and he turned his attention back to Shelley.

"Maybe we'd be better if you didn't PMS all the time," he said defiantly.

"Maybe if all of you didn't suffer from IMS I'd be nicer," Shelley said sweetly.

Brandon blinked at her, confused. "What the hell does IMS stand for?"

The corners of her lips twitched. "Irritable Male Syndrome."

Johnny let out a big, hearty laugh. "True statement," he said, nodding.

"Shut up, fag," snapped Brandon.

"Brandon do I have to sit you in a corner for time out?" Shelley said angrily.

"Oh god, take a Midol!" said Brandon crossly.

"Yeah well get the fuck out of my face. Two laps, Miller."

His hands had formed into fists. "I hate you."

"No you don't, you just think you do," she smirked, "Deep down you love me."

Brandon's face flushed. "Bull shit."

"Hey, cut it out children!" Kyle had finally decided to stop the madness before it began. Good timing too, because Brandon was centimeters away from Shelley, who looked like she wanted to punch him.
So close
.

"You still owe me two laps, Brandon."

"Whatever."

Her eyes lingered on his retreating figure. Unconsciously, she licked her lips.

Looks like someone's got the hots for Brandon Miller, eh?

In his dreams!!

Shelley clapped her hands together and tried to give the team her warmest smile. "Okay, let's get started with practice, shall we? I don't care how tired you are; that's your fault, not mine," she added when some of the boys started complaining.

After the first two hours of grueling practice, Shelley was beginning to regret making the boys stay for four hours every day. She couldn't stand half of them for more than three seconds; but most of them deserved it. Where was Mr. Wise when you needed him to take over? Now she could see why he wanted to retire. Twenty years of coaching boys like Brandon and co.? It was stressful just trying to be their coach. Keeping them under control was another story. Shelley wasn't about to give up, though. She was a girl on a mission, and she'd rather go out on a date with Brandon then fail this 'mission'.

"How are things going today, Shelley?" asked Mr. Wise as he surveyed the team practicing offense.

Saved!!

"Well Coach Wess couldn't be here today for offense, so they're driving me insane," she grinned.

"I'm sorry I haven't been around lately. My wife hasn't been too well recently," he said apologetically.

"Don't be sorry! It's not a problem at all. But I can see why you want to retire. Those boys are a handful."

"What have they done this time? Partying on a Sunday night?" Mr. Wise suggested.

"Something like that."

"Have patience, Shelley," he admonished, "I learned that the hard way."

Shelley sighed. "Some days I just want to quit. But I don't want to let you or the team down, no matter what."

"That's the spirit! You know, if you'd like, I'll take them the last two hours this week," said Mr. Wise, his eyes twinkling.

"Would you really?"

Mr. Wise nodded. "If you could handle them for four hours a day, I'd say you weren't human."