Soccer Women Ch. 2
On the way home from the Airport, Katie and Melanie got a text from Jo. Melanie's car was able to read out the text and the electronic voice said to them, "
Can you guys come to the dorm when you get back. We had a little issue over the break and Margaret would love to have the company.
" Katie texted her back that they had left the airport and they would come right to the dorm.
When they got to Jo's dorm room, Margaret was in the bathroom. This gave Melanie the chance to ask, "So what happened?"
"Well, it seemed that her mom, or I guess technically her step-Mom...I didn't know that her mom had died when she was a baby."
"I knew." said Melanie. When both Jo and Katie looked at her in shock, she added "She knew about my dad, so we talked a little bit about that before. It's not the kind of thing you talk about with others much, but it was something both her and I could relate to."
"Well, anyway. We didn't say anything or do anything really but somehow her stepmom kind of figured out that we were an item and she wasn't happy about it."
"Because you're a woman?" asked Katie.
"Actually, I don't think that was it. I think she didn't want Margaret doing anything but studying. She apparently was very much against the cheerleading too. She's not a bigot, just a control freak and maybe trying to live a life she didn't have through Margaret. I don't know."
"How did things go with Margaret and your parents?" Melanie asked.
"Oh fine. My parents loved her but they didn't suspect a thing. There was nothing that they said about Margaret and me as 'us.'" The only thing my mom said was she knew I had a major decision in my life ahead of me and that I should go with my heart, not my head. She knows I am going to start hearing from law schools soon about getting accepted."
Melanie thought that maybe Angelina Napoli was a lot more perceptive than Jo realized and that her mother's advice had nothing to do with which law school she should choose. But Melanie did not say anything to Jo about it.
When Margaret came through the door, she saw Katie and Melanie and gave out a very loud shriek. She ran over to Melanie and threw her arms around her. "What are you guys doing here. I didn't think I would get to see you until tomorrow night at dinner."
Melanie said "We didn't want to wait that long to see you and Jo. So, we came right over." Melanie pulled Margaret into a tight hug again and whispered in her ear "
and because Jo asked us to come and say 'Hi' to you."
Margaret then went over and gave Katie a very big hug as well. Then she went over to where Jo was sitting in a chair and sat in her lap and put her arm around Jo. Melanie had whispered to her because Jo had called surreptitiously, just for Margaret's sake. Jo was not looking for credit and she wasn't going to tell Margaret that she had done it. But Melanie felt that Margaret should know that Jo was thinking about her happiness and so were Katie and her.
They spent the next hour talking about the wedding dresses and did not talk about how things had gone at Margaret's home. It was getting late and tomorrow was the first day of classes for all of them so Katie and Melanie said good night. They offered to walk Margaret back to her dorm, but she said "Well, if it's okay with Jo, maybe I'll just spend the night here."
"That sounds like a great idea to me." said Jo and so Katie and Melanie went back to the car and drove home.
Katie and Melanie lay in bed, too tired to do much but not quite ready to go to sleep. Katie was lying on her back and Melanie was cuddled up beside her with her head on Katie's chest. Katie was slowing running her fingers through Melanie's hair. Melanie said, "I feel bad for Jo."
"Why Jo? This seems to be more Margaret's issue."
"It is. But Margaret has Jo and she has us. She'll be okay. When my dad died, I had my mom and my grandparents. When your dad died, you had your whole family and you had me." At that moment, Katie leaned down and kissed the top of Melanie's head. "But when whatever happened with that girl in high school with Jo, she didn't have anyone. It must have been so rough."
"Well, now she has Margaret and she has us."
"For now. But next year Margaret, you and I will still all be here and we don't know where Jo will be."
"No sense in worrying about that now. When we find out where she is going, we'll make plans then. You've said it yourself; she and Margaret are too important to us to let them just drift off. And who knows where we'll be the year after that. Maybe we'll be really close to Jo, and Margaret can come see the three of us."
This spring semester was going to be a lot less stressful than the last one. Melanie did not have the pressure of having to get the 3.5 GPA and now that the Soccer season was over, the girls had a bit more free time. That did not mean that Soccer was over. Although rules limited what they could do formally as a team, the girls could get together voluntarily if they wanted to do so.
Right away, Katie started to get texts from various team members about when they could all get together to work out. Tradition had been that the Team Captain set up the times and was basically in charge. Again, this was all voluntary, but a strong Captain set a strong example and the whole Team assumed Katie would have an active off season for them. The thing was that, to a woman, they were all looking forward to that. Katie was very pleased and very proud to see that winning the National Championship had left the team wanting more and that no one was going to rest on their laurels.
Katie set up the first work out and everyone was there. Even Melanie and Jo. It was not uncommon for seniors who had played their last game to not always come to these. It was not their love for Katie that got Melanie and Jo to come to the workouts, but their respect for her as a soccer player and as the Captain. Katie was very happy as she knew this set a good example for the younger players.
At the end of the workout (they couldn't officially call it a practice), the question arose as to when the next one would be. Katie's response was, "I don't know. Neve, when do you want us to come next." Katie had already spoken to her and asked her to step forward now since she was the natural leader for the team next year. And for the rest of the semester, Neve led these sessions and Katie did whatever Neve said and so it was clear to everyone that the torch had been passed to Neve.
The lighter schedule also meant that Melanie was able to come to the basketball games and watch Margaret cheer. When they reached the part of the routine where Margaret is lifted up high, she scanned the crowd for the three of them and gave them a wink. Then she was thrown upwards and spun and twisted her body, landing in the arms of her partner before yelling, "GO TEAM!"
There were a few boys a couple of rows below them in the bleachers who had been convinced that Margaret had winked at them. And they began making some lewd and sexually suggestive comments about Margaret and what they would like to do with her and to her. Katie actually got up to go confront them, but Jo pulled her back down. After what they had just said, Katie was surprised to see Jo smiling and almost laughing.
"Think about it Katie. Half the stuff they were saying, we've actually done that with Margaret. Some night, they'll be spanking themselves in their bed, with some tissues as their only companion, wishing they were doing what at that moment you and I might actually be doing. I think that's hilarious."
Katie began to laugh as well and so did Melanie. She had been feeling a little guilty because when she heard the comments, her first thoughts had been that she very much wanted to do some of those same things the boys had said. She felt like maybe she should have been thinking about Margaret's feelings rather than thinking about feeling Margaret. But hearing what Jo said, she felt less guilty. In fact, she was feeling aroused.
As February rolled away, Jo started to hear from law schools to which she had applied. She got into her safety school, but that was all the way back near her parents' home in Boston. The school that had been the closest to their school had put her on the wait list. The next closest had rejected her outright. It was hard to say who was more disappointed, Jo or Margaret.
The pressure of the very real possibility that Jo would be going to the whole other side of the country for school next year was really getting to both Jo and Margaret. Finally, at one of the work outs, Jo was being so snippy that Neve asked her to go out for a few minutes to cool off. Katie said, "C'mon Jo. Come take a walk with me."
