Bad idea!

Beth stared at her phone for the 100th time that day, staring at the “message” text box on Viv’s Instagram profile. 

“If you change your mind just give me a ring,” Viv had said. The words repeated in Beth's head. 

“Give me a ring.” 

The way Viv had said it, like it was the most natural thing to do. Like they had done it before. Like it wasn't just the past week where they'd had more interactions than ever.

It was currently Friday night, and Beth had a big math test coming Wednesday the next week, and she was not feeling too good about it. She had been attending after-hours tutoring, which had arguably helped a lot, but not nearly as much as she needed to. There were still so many things she didn't understand. Basic concepts that she had never really grasped and couldn't move forwards without. Easier units in maths that she didn't understand no matter how many times it was explained to her. In all honesty, it made her feel incredibly stupid and embarrassed.

She wanted to ask her friends for help, but she was too proud to do it. Steph wasn't the best at maths. She wasn't bad either, but she didn't have the means for explaining everything to Beth, and she would definitely pity her. They had tried once, and Beth had nodded along to everything pretending she understood, feeling too bad to tell Steph otherwise. Kim was in her last year, and Beth wasn't going to bother her with this when she had so many other things going on. Keira wasn't bad at maths either, but she had terrible patience for explaining things to other people, and if you were teaching Beth…well, you needed lots of patience. And then, there was Leah, who was actually pretty decent at maths, and who would happily help Beth. But Beth was too embarrassed to even try. 

So, she was left with Viv, who of course, was a math prodigy on top of everything else. 

She had started texting Viv about 100 times, too, but every greeting and message she came up with just didn't sound right.

“Hi Viv, how are you doing? It's Beth from Arsenal,” she began typing out, before deleting it. Well, of course she knows it's you Beth, she can see the name of who texted her, you know? 

Yeah, but we've never spoken before so it's good I introduce myself.

Okay, you're right. 

So, she had the greeting settled down, then. What could she write next?

“Hi Viv, how are you doing? It's Beth from Arsenal,” she typed out again. “Remember when you said you wouldn't mind helping me out with my maths homework? I hope you still mean that, because I've come to the conclusion my relationship with it is in need of some desperate saving, and since you're a math prodigy and whatnot, I thought maybe you could help. Obviously don't feel pressured to, it's totally fine if you can’t or don't want to :) Anyways, I hope you're okay :)”

Before she could think too much of it, she pressed send, tapping her fingers against her phone in anxiety before throwing it on her bed altogether. Since when did she care so much about a text? Since when did she become this anxious mess of a person? She layed on her bed, crashing defeatedly onto her pillow, biting her nails already. Before she could spiral any further though, her phone rang with a message, and she scrambled to grab it from where she had thrown it. 

“Hi Beth from Arsenal :)” Viv replied.

“Ugh. I knew I shouldn't have said that 😒. You're laughing at me, aren't you?” she typed back.

“Maybe…” Viv replied.

“I should have known 🙄.” Beth typed.

“>_<” sent Viv.

“Anyways, are you going to help me or not???” Beth replied playfully.

“Only because you said I'm a math prodigy :D”

Beth let out a laugh and rolled her eyes. “Ever so humble, you,” she typed. 

“You know me ;)” Viv sent. 

Beth smiled to herself. After a minute or so, her phone chimed again. 

“When do you need my services?” asked Viv.

“Ew, Viv. That sounds sexual,” she typed back. 

“It could be. After all, your math homework and yourself invited me into your threesome,” she typed.

Beth's cheeks flushed, and she laughed.

“Don't get too excited,” she typed back. “You're more like the marriage therapist, in this case.” 

“Oh, I see,” Viv replied, playful.

“Is there any way you are available tomorrow, after lunch? I know it's a bit short notice…” Beth typed.

Viv started typing, but then the typing bubble disappeared, leaving Beth seated in her bed with anticipation. Five minutes passed, and nothing. 10 minutes…still no reply. Then, finally, after 20 minutes, her phone chimed again.

“Sorry, I had to ask my mom. Yes, tomorrow after lunch is fine :) What time approximately? And where?”

Beth breathed a sigh of relief. “Is 2 PM okay for you? And if you don't mind, just come to my house. Here, I'll send you the location,” she replied, before sending her location to Viv. 

“Perfect, you're not too far away,” Viv replied. “Should I bring anything?” she asked. 

“Nope :) Just yourself and your big brain,” Beth replied.

She didn't get a reply from Viv, but Beth was sure she was rolling her eyes at her phone. 

“Good night Viv. And thank you. For your services and all :)”

Viv’s reply was immediate. “You're welcome. Good night, Beth :)”

It was settled, then. Viv would be coming tomorrow, after lunch, to help her with her homework and study for the test for a couple hours. Nothing else. God, she didn't even check if it was okay with her mum and dad. 

She quickly barged out of her room and down the stairs, where her parents were sitting in the living room. 

“Mum? Dad?” she asked.

“Yes, sweetie?” June replied. 

“Viv is coming over to help me out with my math homework tomorrow. Is that alright?”

June and Richard did a poor job of concealing the surprise on their faces. Beth had never really mentioned Viv as a friend. Didn't really mention her at all, really.

“Viv? The Dutch girl who plays really well from Chelsea?” her dad asked.

Beth rolled her eyes, letting out a frustrated sigh. Of course her parents knew Viv as the star player from Chelsea. 

“Yeah dad, her,” she replied. 

“Mhm,” Juned hummed. “Didn't know you guys were friends,” she said. 

Beth didn't know what was worse: telling her mum that they weren't friends, that this was just a…friendly favor, or lie and say that they were friends. She settled for the latter. “Yeah, we're friends, mum.”

“Well,” her mum said. “She's more than welcome, then.”

“What time is she coming round, dear?” her dad asked.

“After lunch, at 2,” she replied. 

“Oh, ask her to stay for supper, Beth! It's the least you can do if she's going to help you!” June exclaimed. 

Beth sighed internally. She knew her mum was right, but she wasn't sure she wanted Viv to stay for supper. 

“I'll ask her,” Beth said, resigning to the idea. 

“Well, good,” June replied. “You want to join us for a movie, sweetheart?”

“Nah, thanks mum. I'm going to go tidy-up upstairs.”

“If you change your mind, you know where to find us,” replied June. 

“Yeah, thanks mum,” she said before sprinting upstairs. 

Gosh. She had to tidy her room, and clean the bathroom. She didn't even know how to clean a bathroom!

Already, she could feel the anxiety in her chest and stomach. Viv was coming to her house tomorrow. Viv Miedema would be in Beth's house, and Beth wasn't sure she knew how to deal with it.

In a frenzy, she started to clean her room and bathroom, already knowing sleep would not come easy to her tonight.

After finishing up lunch and showing her mother that yes, she had completed all her homework for the next week, Viv plugged-in her headphones and stepped onto her bike. Beth's house wasn't too far away, around 15-20 minutes on a bike, and Viv was more than happy to ride there. There weren't that many opportunities where she got to use her bike, but she took them whenever she could. Riding her bike reminded her of home, of riding to hockey practice with her brother, or riding to her Oma and Opa’s, of going into town for grocery store runs. Plus, it was a moment in which she could tune everything out and focus on the road in front of her and the wind that hit her in the face. She loved it.

She wouldn't lie and say she didn't feel extremely anxious about meeting up with Beth. They hadn't had that many interactions in the past, and all in all, she didn't really know her, just as Beth didn't really know Viv. What if she wasn't able to help Beth in the way that Beth had hoped for? What if she didn't know what to give to Beth, like Beth had known so well what to give to Viv? What if once they were sitting next to each other on the desk, they would go back to apathy and indifference like how they had been with each other for all these years on the rink?

At the same time however, Viv couldn't help but feel…settled with Beth. She didn't know why, but the English woman’s energy, amiableness and simplicity made her feel safe, like they had been friends for years. Like she could let her guard down. 

About 5 songs in, Viv reached Beth's house. At least what she thought to be Beth's house, as all houses looked exactly the same and the location wasn't that exact. 

She took out her phone and messaged Beth: “I’m outside.”

Beth's reply was instant: “Okay, I'll be right out.”

Viv stared ahead, lost in thought, until she heard Beth's voice call out to her. 

“Vivianeeeee,” she called out. 

When Viv raised her head to look at her, she found out that indeed, she was standing in front of the wrong house, and that Beth's house was to her left. She maneuvered herself and her bike to Beth's door. 

“Hey,” Viv said. 

“Hi, yourself,” Beth replied. “Here, come in,” she said, holding the door open. She was in an old sports shirt, what seemed to be football shorts, and socks, which made Viv feel more comfortable. She left her bike propped up on the wall, following Beth inside. Quickly, her eyes roamed around the room. Stairs stood to her left, the kitchen to her right, and what she assumed was the living room ahead. The house was cozy, filled with picture frames of Beth's family, paintings, and what could only be labelled as typical mom deco. 

“I can't believe you biked here,” Beth said, pulling Viv out of her trance. 

Viv looked back at Beth. “Yeah, well, it wasn't that far,” she replied.

“Mhm,” Beth said. “I guess nowhere is that far for a Dutch person on a bike,” she joked. 

Viv playfully rolled her eyes in reply. 

“Well, come on then, let's go upstairs. I have some very impatient homework waiting for us,” Beth said.

Viv nodded, following Beth upstairs, and as she did, she looked at the family pictures in the stairwell. A very small-looking Beth, smiling cheekily in ballet clothes. Beth, in a Manchester United kit. Beth, smiling proudly with her hockey uniform. Beth, what she assumed was her mom, her dad, and her brother at the beach.

Looking at Beth and her family…Viv couldn't help but feel like she was missing out. 

Beth, ever the sensor, saw Viv looking at the pictures, her shoulders slouched and her gaze far away, deep in thought. She decided to do what she did best, avert, in order to distract Viv from whatever was going on inside her. 

“Please don't spend so much time looking at my childhood photos,” Beth said.

Viv laughed. “I can't believe you ever wore ballet attire,” she breathed out. 

“Ugh, don't remind me,” said Beth. “Most mortifying year of my life, those ballet lessons.”

Viv laughed lightly again. “I can imagine,” she said, and then, she continued going up the stairs, signalling to Beth that she was ready to continue. 

They reached Beth's room, to which Beth dramatically indicated with her hands. “Tah-dah! This is where the math doesn't take place,” she said with a grumble. 

Viv laughed, surveying the room. It was very…Beth. Messy, but in an organized, put together way. Very sporty, filled with pictures of different hockey players, men and women, on the walls, as well as different ice-hockey rinks from around the world, places where Viv could only assume Beth wanted to play someday. A book cabinet, filled with books and awards, medals and certificates from Beth's ice-hockey accolades. A small desk, with a framed picture of Beth with the rest of the ice-hockey team. A cork board with family and photo-booth pictures with friends. Some dirty clothes peeking out from under the small bed, which Viv could picture Beth trying to stuff away before she came over. 

The desk was prepped with two chairs, notebooks, pens and pencils, and the GCSE maths textbook, which Viv herself knew all too well. 

Beth sat down coolly, and so did Viv right after her, although a little less tranquilly. 

“You can relax, Vivianne,” Beth said. “I don't bite. Although the maths textbook might,” she joked, which earned an earnest laugh from Viv, who seemed to relax a little. 

Viv turned her body in the chair towards Beth. “Where should we start?” Viv asked. “Is there anything in particular you don't understand?”

“Anything? No. Everything? Yes,” Beth said. 

“Come on,” Viv coaxed. “There's got to be at least something you understand.” 

“I guess I'm decent at geometry. That's about it though,” Beth said. 

“Well, that's not nothing,” Viv smiled. “Is the test based on something in particular?” she asked.

“Bloody statistics,” grumbled Beth. 

“Mhm,” replied Viv. 

“What?” said Beth. “If you say how easy it is for you, I'm kicking your ass out of here-” Beth began. 

“No, no,” said Viv, shaking her head. “I'm thinking about how I'm going to explain it to you,” she admitted, her brow furrowed in concentration. 

“Oh,” Beth replied. “Sorry.”

“It's fine,” said Viv. 

“Well, what is it about statistics you don't understand?” Viv asked

“Everything,” said Beth. 

“Okay,” Viv said. “How about we solve some past papers together and I'll talk you through each exercise? I'll try to break them down for you.”

“Yeah, sounds good,” Beth said. “Although I think you'll be solving them more by yourself.

“Haha,” Viv said sarcastically. “At least try to help,” Viv said more kindly. 

“May I?” Viv asked, signaling to Beth's computer. 

“All yours,” replied Beth. 

Viv quickly pulled out statistics exercises from a past paper, and wrote down “exercise #1” on Beth's notebook, in very neat handwriting. 

“Okay, box plots,” Viv began. “They look more complicated than they are, trust me”, Viv continued.

And so, Viv began solving each exercise slowly, explaining each step in her thought process to Beth and how to use the information in the problem to get to the solution, drawing numbers and calculations in the notebook to explain every detail to Beth. Beth found herself not to have too many doubts, and actually being able to follow Viv’s explanations relatively smoothly. She even found herself chiming in occasionally to provide reasonings of her own, to which Viv smiled happily. 

“What?” Beth said. “Did I say something stupid?”

“No,” Viv replied, looking up at her with a smile and a twinkle in her eyes Beth had never seen before. “You're actually making sense,” she said. 

“Oh,” Beth breathed out, relief coursing through her. “That's a new one.” 

“Well,” Viv said. “I am a math prodigy, after all,” she joked. “And a pretty decent teacher, too, it seems,” she said with a small smile, looking up at Beth, and- wait, was Viv flirting with her?! Or was Beth just absolutely delusional and developing a massive crush at a very alarming rate? 

But at the same time, it was so easy for Beth to get lost in Viv’s eyes, that twinkle so captivating, so refreshing and heartwarming to see after being used to Viv’s usual coldness, to her being so guarded and tense all the time. 

And then, as they were staring into each other deeply, Beth’s bedroom door was thrown open, and Viv and Beth, who were sitting so close to each other over Beth's notebook,, jumped apart a foot in the air, putting a new and upsetting distance between them.

“Sorry girls,” June laughed. “Didn't mean to scare you or interrupt. Just wanted to say hi,” she said softly with a smile. 

Viv immediately tensed in her chair, not exactly sure how to greet Beth's mother. She wasn't the best at mothers… 

“Hi Mrs. Mead,” she said, bowing her head in greeting. “Pleasure to meet you,” she said politely. 

“Oh, Viv,” June said laughing. “Please call me June, Mrs. Mead makes me feel old.”

“You are old,” Beth chimed, trying to ease the tension she could see practically oozing from Viv.

“Bethany!” June exclaimed, although she wasn't mad. 

“Anyways,” June continued. “Supper will be ready in half an hour, and we would love for you to join us, Viv, especially after helping this one with her homework,” she said. 

“Oh,” Viv replied, surprised. “Are you sure? I wouldn't want to impose…”

“If I wasn't sure I wouldn't be asking,” June said. “Please stay and have supper with us.”

Viv thought about it for a second. Her mom had a night shift at the hospital today, so she wouldn't be at home. Would it really be so bad to say yes?

“Okay, then,” Viv said. “Thank you.”

“You're very welcome. Make sure you're downstairs in 30 minutes, girls. Sunday roast sounds okay for you, Vivianne?” June asked. 

Before Viv could reply, Beth chimed in. “Gosh, Viv, you need to come around more often if this is what's on for dinner.”

Viv smiled lightly, rolling her eyes at Beth. “It sounds perfect, June. Thank you.”

June smiled before exiting the room, slowly closing the door behind her. 

Some of the initial tension seemed to wear off, although the dynamic in the room wasn't the same as it was before June had come in. 

“You won’t regret staying for dinner after you've tried my mum's roast,” Beth said. 

Viv shook her head fondly, not sure what to reply, before turning back to the notebook. “Okay, we have two exercises left in the paper. Let’s try to finish them and you'll do this next paper all on your own, okay?” Viv said. “If you have any questions just text me and I'll send you a video explaining the exercise.”

“Please don't tell me you have a whiteboard for these kinds of things,” Beth said, and Viv stayed quiet. 

“Ugh, you totally have a whiteboard!” Beth said. “Nerd.”

Just as they finished up the paper, June called them from downstairs, signaling that dinner was ready. Beth saw how the tension returned to Viv. 

“Hey,” Beth said, putting a hand on Viv’s shoulder before she could stop herself. “I know we might seem like an overwhelming bunch, but we're really nice, I promise. My mom may interrogate you. But at least you'll get to hear some incredibly embarrassing stories from my childhood.”

Viv smiled lightly. “Thanks, Beth,” she said. And as an afterthought: “I don't think your family is overwhelming. They seem very lovely, actually.”

Something warm stirred in Beth's chest, and she smiled. “Well, we are,” she said. “Let's go.”

They went downstairs together, and sat next to each other on the table. Viv met Beth's dad and brother, and was impressed at how well genetics had done their job in Beth's family. Beth was mostly a spitting image of her mother, although she had plenty of her father too, and the same thing happened with Beth’s brother, although he looked more like their dad. 

“So, Viv,” Rich began. “You play for the enemy,” he said with a laugh. 

Viv smiled lightly. “I do,” she said. The conversation around the table mostly flowed around hockey, and where in the Netherlands Viv was from, and how it was like being away from home, away from her father and brother. Beth could sense that Viv was getting uncomfortable, that the topic of family was making her retreat into her head, so she quickly changed the topic back to hockey, to the school rivalry, to that time last year Viv had absolutely finished off Arsenal. 

Viv shot her a very thankful look, and before she knew it, dinner was over, and Beth was walking her to the door. 

“Are you sure you want to ride back?” Beth asked. “We could drop you off, you know?”

“For the 100th time, yes, I'm sure. I take every chance I get to ride this thing,” Viv said. 

“Okay then,” Beth said, leaning against the door frame and staring at Viv, who had already put both of her hands on the handlebars. 

“Thank you for dinner,” Viv said. “You were right, that might have been the best Sunday roast I've ever tried,” Viv admitted. 

“I told you so,” Beth snarked back. “My mum will be delighted to hear that, I'm sure,” she said. Then, after a pause: “Thank you for explaining maths to me. You're a pretty decent teacher.”

“Well, that means a lot coming from Miss “I’m terrible at maths” herself,” Viv said.

A quiet settled over them, and it was clear they both wanted to say something else, but couldn't find the words to. Finally, Viv spoke out. 

“Good night Beth. I'll see you around,” she said, mounting her bike. 

“Good night Viv,” she said.

And just like that, Viv took off, riding into the night, leaving Beth with an overwhelming amount of feelings she'd never felt before.