Canes Venatici
“There’s gotta be another way,” Jackie says as the group is huddled up. It is Monday afternoon, and the vandalized locker room is still the forefront issue for the team. Practice went well; the team seems to be unified for the first time in a while. The coaches decided to let the girls handle the wreckage since they “played like a well-oiled machine” today. No more punitive running.
The team just looks around at each other. Jackie found out that the baseball team was to blame; Jeff had thought this information would win her back, but it, rightfully, made her more upset.
“Nothing else makes sense. We can’t just let them let this slide forever, Taissa speaks up to the captain.
Lottie runs to her bag and brings back a paper to pass around the team. “Here, Travis drew the layout of the boys’ locker room. It might help.”
“Oh my god, even if we keep talking around it, they’re still gonna get what’s coming to them. It’ll just be hurt knees and receding hairlines.” Melissa likes when Shauna is angry and when she’s funny. Maybe Melissa should be thanking the baseball team for this moment. “We know they’re guilty. It’s simple. I say if the guys wanted to play with fire, then…we give them fire.” The team just looks at Shauna, who is definitely the most heated about the situation. The girl just shrugs them off. “What? It’s a fitting form of retaliation.”
“You want us to destroy their locker room like delinquents?” Mari asks with a confused tone. Melissa hopes Mari knows how lucky she is to be already injured because the look Shauna gives her is deadly.
“That’s not justice; it’s revenge,” Natalie says, backing Mari up.
“It’s what they wanted for us.” Melissa wonders when she got the confidence to start talking in huddles, but she has a good feeling she owes it to Shauna, who she makes eye contact with before looking down. That doesn’t mean she can’t feel the girl’s eyes still assessing her though.
“Small attack squad. It’ll be quick. Less of us will get in trouble.”
Van looks at Natalie and responds with a serious voice, “Who’s going to go?”
Shauna adopts an absolutely gorgeous expression, creasing her eyebrows and tilting her head to jump in with “Nat, you’re the best delinquent. Maybe it should be you.”
Natalie looks hurt and worried, but she doesn’t hit back. “It’ll be on campus. Anyone can do it.” Shauna and Natalie engage in a staredown until Nat sighs and looks off. “Whoever wants to go should go.”
“Let’s go back to the locker room,” Jackie decides to help Natalie out, “and we can go in a circle and volun–”
Van cuts the girl off, “Whoever shows their home jersey will go on the mission. Since our “home” was the one affected.”
The team makes their way back to the locker room. Melissa knows which jersey she will reveal. It’s a no-brainer, Earth-is-round decision.
Once everyone is in a circle and has their jersey of choice balled up in hand, Jackie speaks. “Alright. On the count of three, show your jersey to the group. 1…2…3.”
Jackie starts the trend and brings her white jersey in front of her body. Melissa sees the brief look of betrayal on Shauna’s face at this and wonders herself why Jackie wouldn’t want to get revenge on Jeff. Natalie follows and, obviously, has her away jersey, too. Mari, Laura Lee, Misty, Crystal, Allie, and the JV girls are quick to show white, but everyone else reveals their blue jerseys once a smirking Shauna does so with a smug look. The whole room looks at Melissa, who is busy looking at Shauna.
“Space Dork,” Mari calls out, “snap out of it. What did you choose?”
Melissa blushes once she realizes everyone’s attention is on her. She quickly fumbles to show her home jersey and hopes no one realizes who she was staring at. One look at Shauna tells her that the midfielder definitely knows, though. Melissa would admire the self-satisfied look on Shauna’s face if it wasn’t at her expense.
The team breaks off after Melissa’s reveal and starts the post-practice routine. Today, though, most of the girls are excitedly planning for the raid.
“I know I was talking back to Shauna earlier, but I only voted no because of my knee.” Mari starts the conversation among the juniors (sans Crystal).
“Don’t worry, Mari, we know how much you’d enjoy destroying the boy’s stuff,” Gen says with a laugh. “I’m excited, though.”
“Will David be mad at you?” Melissa directs this at Gen.
“I haven’t spoken to him since my fight with you at Lottie’s party, actually.” Gen looks a little sheepish when she says this, and Melissa has to hide her grin at this news.
“We better not get in trouble; I’m only tagging along to hang out with you two,” Akilah pops into the conversation, saving Melissa from responding.
“Ugh, now I hate Shauna even more for taking this from me. She can–” Mari is cut off from yelling across the room.
“All I am saying is you don’t have to take so much pleasure in this!” Jackie is giving Shauna a look of disappointment by their lockers. “I don’t even know who you are anymore.” Jackie grabs her stuff and is walking out when she says this.
“Well, maybe you never did.” Melissa is shocked Shauna could say this; the girl has always idolized her best friend. Plus, Melissa is pretty sure Shauna just started the Jackie Taylor apology tour.
Jackie gives one look back before storming out the door, leaving Shauna to stare in her direction.
Mari, ever the amazing analyst, comments, “Well, I guess there’s trouble in paradise. Maybe I can bond with Jackie over our mutual Shauna problems.”
☾☾☾
After everyone heads home, Melissa finds Shauna lacing her cleats aggressively on the benches she was journaling on last week. She decides to approach the girl from behind. Melissa knows that Shauna is in a bad mood, and this is a bad idea, but she feels like someone has to be there for the girl.
“Hey…” Melissa can only imagine the eye roll Shauna gives when she hears this.
“Not really looking for company.” Shauna’s definite tone and progressively more aggressive lacing should ward Melissa off, but she’s never been one to let awkwardness stop her.
“Oookay…” Melissa walks closer to Shauna, who looks up at Melissa now. “Here, made this for you,” Melissa places a wrapped gift on the bench before walking off. It was a small bouquet and two shin guards that Melissa spent the weekend working on. The shin guards were raspberry pink, and Melissa drew a small “S” and the Orion constellation on one. On the other, she sketched the two girls watching the meteor shower and plenty of stars surrounding the “#6.” Melissa took special care to find the right supplies so that the drawings would not fade over time, but, now, she’s assuming Shauna is in too bad a mood to appreciate that. Plus, why would Shauna even wear these in games or practice and be embarrassed by the rest of the team? Melissa is regretting the whole thing now. She starts to walk away from the situation faster.
She hears a faint intake of air before Shauna asks, “Why do you even like me?”
Melissa turns around and ponders what to say as she slowly walks back to Shauna. She thanks her lucky stars that she wore her hat today. It offers her a little comfort, all things considered. She wishes she wasn’t wearing her checkered vest, though. It’s not her best article of clothing to pick up girls.
“You say that like there’s nothing to like,” she offers with a shrug of her hands. “And sure, I get it. Jackie kinda treated you like shit. Jeff acted like you were a dirty secret. And you totally let them. But now, I’ve gotten to know you a little better, and I like all the parts of you that you’re afraid to show.”
Shauna looks visibly discomforted by these words and her eyes flit around before she reaches for the shin guards. “Thanks. I actually needed a new pair of these.”
Melissa nods her head a few times and walks off to her car.
☾☾☾
The next day they have PE right before lunch, and they’re not quite the “well-oiled machine” Coach Martinez was complimenting the day before. For the most part, things go fine, but there are definitely cracks in the system. Allie is flubbering around at forward, and it’s obviously annoying Tai, who starts to bypass her. Shauna has rocky communication with both Jackie and Natalie. Other than that, things go fine enough for Coach to be somewhat pleased, but the previous praise is not extended again today.
In the locker room, the team discusses when to strike. During the conversation, Jackie is silent until she moves to Natalie’s locker where the two discuss what Melissa assumes to be anything other than the baseball locker room. The rest of the girls decide to do it Friday after school when the boys have practice. Melissa can feel the anticipatory energy in the room once the plan is set.
☾☾☾
Wednesday morning, Melissa has AmLit first, like usual, and, like usual, Melissa is dreading it in some way because of Shauna. Once she gets to class, though, the senior is looking her way and smiles instead of the usual exterior she puts on in class. Melissa makes her way to her desk with Shauna’s eyes on her the whole way.
“I wanted to say thank you for the flowers and shin guards.” Melissa looks around to see if anybody else hears this. “I really like them, and it was really thoughtful.” Shauna turns to the front, but quickly turns back. “Here, sorry forgot to give you this for a second,” she says before handing Melissa her blue pen, like usual. Melissa is at a loss, honestly. She figured Shauna would still be in a bad mood from the whole Jackie thing. Before she can respond, though, Shauna beats her to it. “Also, I wanted to say that I like all of the parts you’re afraid to show sometimes, too.”
Melissa continues to be at a loss, but she manages to smile and thank Shauna before turning away to hide her blush, which only makes Shauna laugh, like usual.
☾☾☾
Even after two classes, Melissa is still thinking about Shauna’s words. She is absolutely no help to Gen in their biology lab, but if the girl suspects anything is up, she doesn’t say it. In Psychology, she can’t focus at all. Who knows what the id does in comparison to the ego? Not Melissa, that’s for certain.
Melissa finds herself once again walking with Mari to lunch wondering about Shauna on a Wednesday. Once again, she spots the senior and gives Mari an excuse about needing to pee to follow Shauna. This time, though, Shauna settles under the tree that the two ate lunch under on Friday.
“You really like to creep up on me, huh?” Shauna seems to always be smirking when she catches Melissa off-guard. When will Melissa learn that she will never be able to observe Shauna without being seen herself?
“Actually, I wasn’t here for you.” Melissa will not comment on the plausibility of this statement.
“I see. Well, now that we are both here, completely independent of each other, what do you say we go to lunch together.” Melissa goes to question this, but Shauna beats her to it. “Before you say anything, just know that I am really really hungry and craving a milkshake right now.”
Who is Melissa to deny Shauna of her cravings?
“I guess I could ask Mari to sign me into unstructured in case we run late getting back…”
Shauna lights up at this and goes to stand up and get closer to Melissa. “Really? Melissa, I hate to say this, but I think I may be a bad influence on you.” Little does she know.
“Whatever, I will meet you at your car. Let me go tell Mari I am cashing in on one of my many favors.”
“What excuse are you going to give her? Lunch with the amazing, brilliant, and jaw dropping Shauna Shipman?”
“I am neither confirming nor denying that description, but I have a feeling she would hold that against me, so no.”
Shauna laughs this off and tells Melissa to hurry before walking toward the parking lot rather quickly.
☾☾☾
It is not until Shauna opens the Tigue’s door that Melissa realizes a flaw in the plan.
“Wait.” Shauna freezes as Melissa turns back to her. “Who is gonna sign you into unstructured?”
Shauna laughs and playfully rolls her eyes. “I’m flattered you’re worried about me, but I already asked Lottie to handle it. Don’t worry.”
With that taken care of, Melissa goes to sit in the booth from last time with Shauna trailing her. They order their milkshakes and a special to share.
Melissa’s not sure what Shauna was planning to say because she cut her off by asking, “Have you done all your college applications yet?” She really knows how to woo a girl with her flirtatious commentary.
Shauna looks around in an exaggerated manner before saying, “Last I checked, this is not school, so why are we partaking in a scholarly conversation?”
Melissa fixes her with a look and decides to let her silence bait Shauna into answering her question, which seems to work recently.
“Don’t worry, Hat Girl. Jackie already reviewed my application and submitted it to Rutgers.”
“...and?”
“What?”
“Shauna, you have to apply to multiple schools.”
“Well, I’m not an idiot; I also applied to Seton Hall.”
“Shauna, no offense, but that’s crazy. You’re, like, mega smart. You could get into any school. Even ivies. Why limit your options?”
“If that’s the case, then, I’m gonna get in and room with Jackie at Rutgers. We’re still deciding on the color palette. Well, we were before everything went down…”
“You’re telling me Rutgers is your dream school? Is their English program even that good? I thought they were known for sciency stuff.”
“Rutgers has just always been the plan. When I was younger, I wanted to attend Brown, though.”
“There we go. After we finish this ‘Mad Hatter Platter,’ we’re taking my delectable milkshake and your smoothie over to the computers in the back and starting a Brown application.”
“Fine,” Shauna relents with a smile, “but it’s not a smoothie.”
☾☾☾
Shauna gets Melissa back to school on time, but, truthfully, Melissa wishes they could blow off the whole day. What good is English IV anyway? She spends the period brainstorming locker room destruction with Gen, who is flabbergasted Melissa skipped two unstructureds without telling her. Melissa knew Mari couldn’t be trusted to keep it between them, but she is surprised the girl noticed Melissa's absence the first time. She just hopes Mari doesn’t put the pieces together on who she is skipping with.
While Gen and Melissa are walking to the locker room to get ready for practice, someone runs up behind them and flips Melissa’s hat off her head, scaring the crap out of her.
“Dropped something, Pinkett,” Shauna remarks before walking ahead of them without a second glance. Melissa doesn’t have to see the cocky look on Shauna’s face to know it’s there, and the thought brings a smile to her own face.
Gen, on the other hand, does not appreciate the encounter. “What’s her deal? Still in the doghouse with Jackie?” Melissa has to school her expression before Gen sees the remnants of jubilation on her face.
“C’mon. We’re gonna be late to practice.” Melissa jogs off, hoping Gen will ignore how Melissa ignored the topic of Shauna.
☾☾☾
The day finally comes. Despite the Jackie-Shauna and Shauna-Nat drama, PE goes well. Most of the girls are eager to get their revenge. The seniors send Britt, Robin, Gen, and Melissa ahead to survey the surroundings and make sure no one is lingering behind to catch them. Melissa crosses her arms because why does she have to do the dirty work, but it’s whatever. Plus, Robin is already crying, and they haven’t even walked in yet. The coast is clear, though, so Melissa runs down the hallway to bring the others in. She does so by locking eyes with Shauna and nodding, and this eye contact invigorates Melissa even more. That locker room is getting destroyed.
When they get back to the other girls, though, they are met with David, the guy Gen was with at that party, staring at them.
“What the fuck are you guys doing?”
Robin is crying even more now. Melissa admires Britt’s resolve because the girl is not shaken at all. Gen looks scared, and Melissa wants to run to her side, but David is blocking her.
“I’m not gonna stand here and watch you ruin our locker room.”
The Yellowjackets are at a standstill, looking around at each other as they start to circle David. They’re not just going to give up now, right? Before Melissa can even think of a plan, she sees Van nod her head toward Gen.
“You all can leave now.”
Van nods again, and the sudden movement from across the room takes Melissa, and David, by surprise. Gen grabs the guy from behind and throws him through the supply closet door Van had opened.
“You don’t deserve that.” Wow, Gen has seriously moved on from him. Melissa has to smile, for her brother’s sake, of course.
David is screaming something about monsters and banging on the door, but it’s locked, and the girls can finally start. The only problem is everyone is waiting for someone else to start the destruction first. Robin has finally stopped crying, but Melissa is sure she won’t be the one to take the lead.
“Here,” Shauna says, handing Taissa one of the water balloons filled with paint. “Our captain isn’t here, so you’re the next in line, Tai.”
The room is buzzing now. Tai is cocking her arm back to throw the first balloon, and everyone is leaning forward in anticipation. Tai is hesitant, though, and looks around for her target. It’s a pretty big decision, but Melissa sees her eyes stop on the team banner. Perfect choice.
“Tai, what if we get in trouble,” Van whispers.
Tai is visibly in the zone and says, “It will be alright.” Pretty badass, Melissa cannot lie.
As Tai goes to release, Lottie rushes in and knocks the balloon out of her hands.
“What the fuck, Lottie?”
“You can’t do it,” Lottie breathlessly responds to Tai. Akilah rushes in now; Melissa had wondered what was taking the two so long to get here after scouting the baseball field. “They know. They know. Akilah overheard it.”
“Allie–Allie was telling her boyfriend about our plan.” Everyone is upset at Akilah’s warning. “Allie told them, and they’re on their way with the principal.”
The team rushes to get all their supplies and get out of there.
“Wait, what about the paint on the ground?” Robin is crying again.
“Leave it,” Shauna asserts. “We’ll be back.” With that she shoos everyone out before unlocking the closet door for David. Melissa rather wishes they could leave him in there, but she knows it’s for the better.
☾☾☾
The team got back to the locker room to find Jackie, Nat, and the ones who didn’t want to go sitting in their lockers as their coaches stand in the middle. Luckily, Tai had the idea to store their raiding supplies in her car before returning.
Coach Scott is the one to take the lead on admonishing them while Coach Martinez stands tense beside him. Melissa isn’t quite sure why the girls’ soccer team is in trouble when they’re the real victims here, but the baseball team has always received unwarranted devotion.
“This is not who you are.” Melissa guesses the others are paying as much attention to Coach Scott as she is because he ends his tirade with, “You’re gonna have to look me in the eye. Promise me you will not continue with these antics. Principal Reynolds has already assured me that serious consequences will come to any of you who step foot in the boys’ locker room from now on.”
“Well, what about our locker room?” Gen is brave today, and Melissa is enjoying her outspokenness. Unfortunately, Coach Martinez is not as approving and fixes his stare on her best friend. Melissa hopes taking Gen’s hand will be of some comfort. She thinks it does because Gen squeezes back, offering Melissa one of the few genuine smiles they’ve shared since Lottie’s party and refusing to release Melissa’s hand for the rest of the talk.
Of course, Coach Ben’s talk does nothing to disturb Shauna’s rage, so once the coaches leave, she hops up to tell everyone that she still plans on carrying through with their revenge. This time, though, everyone is united in their disdain for the baseball team. Even Jackie is nodding along
☾☾☾
Once night falls, the girls reconvene in the school parking lot and Shauna steps to the center.
“They said anyone who goes in the locker room will get in trouble, so I will handle that while you guys take care of the dugouts and field.”
“I wanna go with you!” Melissa may have said it a tad bit too eagerly because the others do turn to look at her, but Shauna takes the heat off of her quickly.
“Fine. Melissa can come but everyone else to the field.” The team looks around and doesn’t move for a second, which prompts Shauna to demand, “Go.” While the rest of the girls scurry off, Melissa and Shauna walk side by side to the locker room, using Misty’s keys to get in.
“You do it.” Shauna says this without looking at Melissa. Instead, she just hands her the first paint balloon.
“No–I–I can’t.”
Shauna turns to fully face Melissa. The two regard each other for a moment before Shauna assures her. “You shouldn’t be scared. I will take the blame if anyone asks.” She reaches down to grab Melissa’s arm and place the balloon in her hand.
Melissa, to Shauna’s pleasure, throws it aggressively at Jeff’s locker before walking over to the team’s trophy case and knocking it to the ground. It only held team pictures anyway; the baseball team has never been good enough to win anything. Melissa looks up to see approval on Shauna’s face, and she does not hold back her smile at this. The two continue splattering paint all over the room and scattering toilet paper around before tossing all of the bats into the toilets. Shauna, in her intellectual way, thought it would be funny to mismatch the cleats within each locker. Finally, they gather the jerseys and bring them back to the parking lot. The others had returned already and look to watch Shauna lead the way back.
“They won’t be cleaning that anytime soon.”
“You don’t have to enjoy it that much.” Melissa isn’t sure why Natalie and Shauna seem to be at such odds recently, but she steps forward to defend Shauna. The girl has it handled, though, and dumps the basket of baseball jerseys at Nat’s feet.
“And you don’t have to act like such a fucking saint.” After she says this, Shauna reaches for Melissa’s hand. Before she fully clasps it, Shauna smears the red paint on Melissa’s hand onto her own in a smooth motion. Melissa isn’t completely sure why Shauna is doing this in front of the team, but she is on a high from the locker room and doesn’t mind it right now.
Shauna leads Melissa to her car while everyone talks about the night’s adventures. Before she opens the door, Melissa looks back to see a shocked Van. Jackie, Nat, and Gen are the only ones who seem to have noticed their interlocked hands, but Melissa doesn’t care about anything other than the lingering feeling of Shauna’s hand at the moment.