"What are you doing?" 

 

Jackson rolls his eyes, already expecting this. Of course, there she stood, barely reaching his chin, all muscle, staring defiantly up at him, unwavering. 

 

"Did you hear me, Wang? I said, what are you doing?" 

 

Jackson just huffs, pulling off the frizzy blonde wig, that had been nothing but a nuisance (and Kunpimook's really bad idea) in mock defeat. He can't really do much about his pink, floral shirt though. 

 

"You were a very ugly girl" She snickers, grabbing the wig and promptly tossing it out of the window. 

 

Jackson can only watch his five bucks soar across the campus lawn.

 

"This isn't fair-" He starts, voice whiny, only to be interrupted. 

 

"What's not fair about it? We only get the gym two out of the five days anyway! Now that I've explained this to you for the twentieth time, get out!" She explodes, dropping her dumbbells to guide Jackson toward the exit with a tight grip on his shoulders. 

 

Jackson can only think about how much she must lift to be able to man handle him in such a manner, while doing his best to ignore the giggles and teasing of her fellow teammates. 

 

"We go through this every Wednesday, Wang. I'm starting to think you like making my life difficult." 

 

She's less temperamental when it's just the two of them, Jackson notes. He figures it's his lack of reply that makes her shake her head before slamming the gym door shut. 

 

"Jackson! My name is Jackson!" He shouts fruitlessly at the closed door. 

 

Jackson glances in the gym window to see her, jogging on the treadmill effortlessly, stick her tongue out at him with a secretive grin, before turning back to talk to one of her teammates. 

 

Jackson just shakes his head before walking off to where his Anatomy teacher is poking his blonde monstrosity of a wig with a stick. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

__

 

 

 

 

"It's so cliche" Yugyeom groans, and Jackson is pretty sure he's gonna have some serious grass stains with the way he's rolling around in it. 

 

"What's so cliche about her being a jerk to me all of the time?" He asks, because he's not quite sure what's so cliche about it. 

 

"She's not a jerk to you for no reason" Youngjae speaks up, tossing the football they've been playing with at Yugyeom, who of course misses because he's too busy plucking grass. 

 

"But she is" Jackson points out, exasperated. 

 

"She's really nice to us though" Jr 

shrugs, snatching the ball from Yugyeom who looks like he isn't going to throw it anytime soon. 

 

"Yeah, to you guys!-"

 

He pauses mid complaint because there she is, Skylar Clark, accompanied by her army of Buff Barbies, what Jackson likes to call them. She's chatting animatedly with her co captain, Jackson can't quite remember her name, and she looks somewhat like a decent human being, he thinks, but all too soon it changes and she whips around to regard Jackson with a look of thinly veiled patience. 

 

Jackson just stares, waiting. She looks like she wants to say something, but opts not to and it's like that for a while, both groups staring the other down. 

 

Jackson, of course, breaks the silence, jumping to his feet and eying her with a pointed glare.

 

"What? Do you live in sports bras or something?" He mocks, lamely, nodding at her bright orange Nike contraption.

 

Yugyeom cringes on his behalf, but Jackson doesn't back down. Skylar just smirks, arms crossed smugly across her chest. 

 

"They're really comfortable, something I'm sure you might know since you're so keen on cross dressing" She retorts, pinching the corner of the pink floral shirt he has yet to discard with much distaste, earning various snickers and chuckles. 

 

Jackson isn't really sure how to reply to that, but he doesn't really like being laughed at, or embarrassed in front of his own teammates, so he starts with another insult but Jr interrupts. 

 

"How about a friendly game of flag?" He grins, holding the football up as some sort of peace offering. 

 

Jackson rolls his eyes at the "friendly" implication. 

 

He's only a little surprised when Skylar agrees. 

 

He doesn't really want to play wimpy flag football with the Buff Barbies, but he does want to wipe the smug look off of Skylar's face, so he agrees too. 

 

They gather up whatever football boys they can find and it ends up being a measly ten versus ten but it's the best they can do. Jackson makes sure he's the captain of his team though in regards to the actual team Jr is co captain alongside actual captain, Im Jaebum, but he's absent and Jr is nice enough to let him face off on equal footing with his enemy, who is the actual captain of both of her teams. 

 

They tie red flags around the boys waists and blue around the girls. 

 

Before Jackson knows it the game is starting and of course it's only a matter of time before his team is in the lead. But somehow he ends up getting distracted (most definitely not by Skylar) and they end up tied. 

 

At this point Jackson is a little more than done, and when, in the next play, the ball somehow ends up in Skylar's iron grip and she takes off, he quickly follows. 

 

She's fast, but he's faster, Kunpimook's  not too far behind him too, and, unfortunately, that co captain girl too. Skylar's only a second away from a touchdown when he catches up to her, reaching for the blue flag, but she twists last minute and he all but trips, reaching forward and dragging her down too. 

 

They're a flailing mess of limbs and he's pretty sure she kneed him in the stomach on purpose, but in the end she ends up on top of him. He can hear Yugyeom groaning in the background, "so-"-

 

-cliche, Jackson agrees. 

 

She looks a little dazed just staring at him, and Jackson is a little uncomfortable, not used to anything but irritation or anger from her, so he uses the moment to reach for the blue flag wrapped securely around her waist. 

 

She seemingly snaps out of it then, slapping his hand away as she stands. 

 

"Game over" She murmurs, so quietly he almost doesn't catch it. 

 

The change in her mood is quite obvious but even her teammates are puzzled. Jackson stands and watches her stalk off, her teammates following with a mixture of confused and worried glances toward their captain.

 

Only the co captain is left and she offers a timid smile before following. 

 

"What was that about?" 

 

Their captain, Jaebum, has arrived now, fresh from his dance classes, serious face in tact as he regards his team wearily. 

 

He receives various shrugs and muttered replies, but all he really notices is Jackson's silence. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

____

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Skylar ignores the concerned and quizzical looks of her teammates as she stops in the student parking lot. 

 

"Practice tomorrow at four" She mumbles, grabbing her Nike sports bag out of the back of, Logan, her co captain's truck. 

 

They all take it as their dismissal, splitting up and going their separate ways, still shooting questioning glances at their captain. 

 

"They're just worried about you" Logan says tenderly, patting Skylar's back sympathetically. 

 

"I don't need anyone to worry about me" Skylar snaps with no real bite. 

 

Logan just nods, not even remotely offended. 

 

"How is your brother?"  She asks, opting for changing the subject. 

 

"Crap!" Skylar's eyes widen and before Logan can even blink she takes off, Nike bag slapping against her thigh. 

 

"I gotta go! See you tomorrow!" She calls over her shoulder as she rounds the corner from the school. 

 

Logan just watched her go, waving slightly. She watches her disappear around the corner before shaking her head. 

 

 

 

___

 

 

 

 

 

Skylar doesn't make it far before she gives up running all together. 

 

She may be an athlete but she's exhausted, really. Three hours in the gym and flag football had cut it for her, that, and the black Nike bag slapping her thigh every so often was quite heavy. 

 

She's about forty minutes from her destination on feet, which only makes the fact that she's late worse. 

 

She pauses, dropping the bag and ping it. She grabs a random black shirt, pulls it on, and just as she zips the bag back up she feels it, the drops of liquid. 

 

All too soon it starts pouring down, and Skylar, being her unprepared self, of course, doesn't have an umbrella. 

 

Lugging the bag back on her shoulder, she continues on, getting drenched in the process. It's a little chilly now too, she's freezing and soaked, late too, and she figures things can't get any worse. 

 

She's wrong. 

 

The next thing she knows the downpour stops, at least over herself, and she finds a black umbrella being held over herself. 

 

"Unprepared? That's not captain behavior!" The source squeals, in a mock shrill voice, and of course it's Jackson Wang. Skylar's luck is just that bad. 

 

"Leave me alone" She grumbles with the roll of her eyes. 

 

"You'll get sick if you stay out here" He mutters, sounding almost pleading. 

 

"If I didn't know any better I'd think you actually care about my well being" She sneers, but his next reply stops her dead in her tracks. 

 

"I care about everybody's well being, and as hard as it is to believe, yes, even yours" His frustration is evident this time and Skylar only notices his black Suv when he jerks his thumb toward it. 

 

"Now shut up and get in, wherever you need to go, I'll take you" 

 

Skylar wants to argue further, that he can't talk to her like that and she doesn't need help, especially his, but, unfortunately, she does.

 

"Only because I'm already late" She says, sliding in when he opens the door for her. 

 

"Yeah, yeah" He rolls his eyes, slamming it shut and closing the umbrella as he shuffles toward the drivers side.  

 

The drive there is shorter than the forty minutes on foot, and its, surprisingly, silent. She looks lost in her thoughts and Jackson doesn't want to bother her, especially when she looks so troubled. She told him she needed to go to the hospital so he didn't question it, just took her straight there as he promised. 

 

It's what happened when they got there that really surprised him. She had paused in exiting the truck and mumbed, so quietly that he almost didn't catch it.

 

"Thank you .. Jackson"

 

Then she jumped out quickly, slamming the door shut before he could even process what had happened. 

 

 

 

___

 

 

 

 

 

"Look who's decided to join us"

 

Skylar's only just made it into the waiting room but her mother is already there, clutching her brother by the collar as if afraid of skin to skin contact. 

 

"Sister!" He calls out to Skylar, face lighting up as he reaches out, only to be yanked back by their mother. 

 

"I'm so-" Skylar starts, approaching the pair, but her mother cuts in sharply, face set in an almost permanent sneer. 

 

"Skylar, I need more responsibility and less excuses. I shouldn't have to even be here." She snaps, glaring menacingly, before she tugs the boy along out the double door, disappearing out of the hospital all together, leaving Skylar to stand there amongst the chaos in the waiting room by herself. 

 

Skylar sighs shakily but refuses to cry, adjusts the straps on her bag, exits the double doors, and begins the long walk home.