The feud continues

With football season around the corner, a few of the star players already started their conditioning. They ran sprints, practiced routes, and critiqued each other’s performances. Brandon, Trent, and Scott were joined by the massive Russell Stanley. A large stocky jokester, Russell was the star of the offensive line. An often-thankless job but his skills weren’t lost on recruiters. Rumor had it that he has more college interest than any of the other boys.

“Would you run faster if a Twinkie was waving in the endzone?” Brandon Cole mocked the boy.

“Is Twinkie another nickname for your sister? …Yeah, I could find some motivation for that!” the large guy chuckling at his own joke. Brandon heaves a ball at him that he luckily dodges. The other two guys not hiding their amusement.

“Looks like you’ll have some competition there Russ. After that Bishop guy stole Brandon’s girl, he’s now moved on to Madison.” Trent said with a smirk, while side eyeing Brandon to catch his reaction.

“Do you ever shut the fuck up?” the flustered quarterback responded. Trent lazily shook his head no.

“That fucker hasn’t done shit with Ashley and Maddie wouldn’t ever fall for that nerd. I doubt he even likes girls.” Brandon coldly responded, possibly trying to convince himself more than the others. None of the other boys were buying his story.

“That’s not what I saw.” Trent teased, looking in the other direction for dramatic effect. “I could be wrong, but it almost looked like Mad Maddy was sitting on his on his lap at the diner.” Trent exaggerating to get Brandon riled up.

A now irate Brandon huffs before kicking the ball next to his foot towards a ducking Trent. “Trent, you can go f…” He started before Russell’s face caught his attention.

“Fuck. Russ, are you bleeding?” The other boys suddenly turned towards the jokester and saw a red drip running down his forehead.

Russell, thinking they were messing with him at first, grew concerned when he noticed their serious expressions. He pulled his helmet off. The other three boys erupted in laughter, nearly falling to the ground. “Well, I hope I’m not dying, you assholes!”

The three could barely contain themselves, before the normally quiet Scott spoke up. “Why the hell is your hair pink?”

Russell ran his hand through his normally short blonde hair and then observed the light red dye that was currently on his palm. Before defending himself, he looked up at the other three and laughed in return. The other boys were slightly caught off guard. Noticing the sweat marks, the lineman responded. “You should probably take off your helmets assholes…”

The three quickly pulled their helmets off seeing the pink sweat drip off their faces, that also stained the inside of their practice helmets. Scott pulled the padding out of his helmet, finding the remnants of a color tablet, and three signatures. Brandon found the same and became enraged, slamming his helmet on the ground.

“I’m going to kill those fuckers!”

Luckily Brandon, Trent, and Scott have dark hair and it wasn’t too difficult to wash out. Poor Russel was in the shower for an hour trying to scrub his now pink hair clean. Frustrated and tired at one point, he almost just accepted it as his new normal.

The next day at school, Zack noticed a few extra glances and whispers as he walked the halls. Unknown to him at the time, rumors of their prank spread like wildfire. Surely exaggerated but it brought some unexpected attention to Zack, as well as the other two. Being that he was the target of Brandon’s initial prank, he somehow received the majority of the credit for the payback, which slightly miffed Ralph as he was the mastermind. He quickly let it go, not doing it for the attention but the glory of creating chaos.

“Zack are you stupid?” Chloe said from behind, catching him off guard. “You know this is only going to make them retaliate!” Paris who was standing next to her couldn’t fight back a grin.

“I think it’s hilarious actually.” Paris admitted while giving him a fist bump, catching a glare from Chloe. “What? Those assholes had it coming.”

Zack himself, was actually split on how he felt. He hadn’t planned on getting **** and being tempted by Ralph of all people definitely surprised the boy. He had to admit that it did feel good to have the laughter and mocking off of him and back at his rivals. As the three bickered a surprising newcomer was walking by.

The newcomer being Scarlett. She locked eyes with Zack and gave a smiling nod of approval. “Good work Bishop. I didn’t know that you had it in you.” She said with a sexy parting glance as she made her way down the hall. Zack basically frozen, until he felt a flick on the side of his face from Chloe.

Across the hall was a small group of friends observing the teasing.

“Aren’t you related to him?” An unimpressed Naomi Collins asked Harrison.

“Don’t remind me.” Harry rebutted. “I can’t stand the idiots on either team, so I don’t know why anyone else gives a shit anyways.” The disgruntled, broody guy continued. “Maybe it’s time we bring these losers back down to reality.” He replied with a mischievous grin, that caught the attention of an intrigued Sharon. “Amber, babe, you think you could do a favor for me?” Harrison asked with a disguised innocence. The pressure she felt from Sharon and Naomi not helping, she reluctantly nodded. He then whispered his plan into her ear.

Seeing the bickering three, Ashley did her best to bring peace while Heather simply smiled in amusement at the drama. “Finally, maybe you can get through his thick head Ashley and remind him how dumb his prank was.” Chloe nearly demanded.

Ashley locked on to Zack’s expecting face for a few seconds, before a grin broke out on hers. The surprised Zack smiled back in return. Chloe could only roll her eyes at this point. Heather suddenly butted in. “Touché Bishop. I may actually claim you after all.” The group laughed and teased each other until they heard the first bell. They suddenly said their goodbyes and went in their separate directions. Zack, lost in thought, walked down the hallway, suddenly being brought out if it by the hot breath in his ear.

“Hey you!” A teasing Madison added while leaning close to her crush.

Zack looked back at the smiling girl, slightly perplexed. Being that she came with Brandon to Alfred’s, but also seemed to offer an apology, he wasn’t sure if she was a part of the prank or not. He glanced at her slightly before gulping.

“Are you here as a friend, or a distraction? Is this to help your brother make a fool of me again?”

Madison halted at his insulting comment. “Wait! What the fuck did you just say!?” Zack was caught off guard by her aggressive tone. He turned towards the saucy girl, intending on apologizing but was interrupted before he had the chance. The angry Madison stepped up to him, nearly touching faces, stopping him in his tracks. “I’d never have let those assholes do that, If I’d known about it.” She continued to fume with her fists drawn.

Zack realized quickly how stupid his remark was and that it honestly didn’t seem like something she’d do. “Look Madison I’m…” He started before she stopped him once again.

“To think, I took a risk even coming over to see you! And then we were both…” Madison’s already red face now starting to blush. Zack started to panic as their interaction seemed to be drawing some attention. Taking advantage of her being lost in thought he gently pulled her around the corner away from all the gazing eyes. Now focused on trying to quiet the irate girl, he made possibly the second dumbest decision of the morning.

Madison was mid rant when she suddenly felt pulled into her current target, Zack Bishop. Her rant continued until she felt his lips press into hers. Losing all thought of what she was saying before, she nearly melted, while thankfully being held up by Zack’s surprisingly strong arm that had wrapped around her lower back. Zack gently pulled back and winced, hoping he hadn’t misread the temperamental cheerleader. “You’re an asshole, Zack.” Was the dreaded response from Madison. As he went to open his eyes and face the consequences, he felt the girl mash her lips back against his even harder. This time he felt her tongue invade his mouth, which he welcomed and did the same in return. The kiss was short but passionate being that they were in school after all. Madison was still pressed up against him. As scared as she was at being caught, the threat made this interaction all the hotter. “I’m still pissed that you’d think I’d help those assholes. Especially if it was to harm you. Luckily, I’ll give you one chance to make it up to me. You’re going to be at Heather’s Friday night, right?” She now sweetly asked in which Zack nodded back. “Good!” She grinned back at him “I convinced my family it’s a cheerleading event and should be left alone for a few hours. You better have a good apology planned…” She teased before quickly leaning in for a pop kiss and being on her way.

Zack was more confused now than ever. He stopped, to try and calculate who’s mad at him, who’s proud of him, and all that’s in-between.

Finally, it was Friday, the night of Heather’s ‘Get Together’. She avoided inviting any of the football players, which included their new number one fan, Victoria. Not normally one to avoid drama, as she can find it entertaining, she did want her house to still be standing at the end of the night.

Heather had a gut feeling that there would be plenty of drama regardless…