rockland | a yellowjackets story

three | i know it won't work like that

1996

the girls were out on the field. hannah was in the midfield waiting for someone to begin the game. her heart was racing. this game would make or break the team. her palms were sweating. the kick off began and hannah got the ball. she passed it to tai and tai passed it to shauna. shauna kicked it into the goal and the team cheered. 1-0.

the game went on. they were tied up. 4-4. last 3 minutes of the game. tai ran down the field with the ball. hannah on the other side. tai passed the ball to hannah. she kept running and passed the ball to shauna. shauna kicked it to jackie. it bounced off her head and into the goal. they won. 5-4. they were heading to nationals.

shauna ran up to jackie and put her arms around her. hannah grabbed her sister and hugged her. they all did a massive group hug and jumped up and down together.

"YELLOWJACKETS, YELLOWJACKETS! BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ!", they all screamed together.

coaches martinez and scott joined them on the field. same with misty quigley. they all kept screaming until they left the field.

~~~~~~~

the next day, the girls were in the locker room getting ready for the assembly. spirits were high. someone turned on music and "Shoop" by Salt-N-Pepa started playing. they all started singing and hannah was vibing by her locker. her locker was across from shauna's so everytime she turned around she would stare at shauna before she turned around. when she did turn around, hannah would quickly fix her gaze on something else instead. sometimes it would be lottie or she would flip around quickly enough to stare at her locker and look for something she knew wasn't there.

this time, she turned around and noticed shauna staring at her instead. hannah felt her face getting red.

"stop it," she thought to herself. "you can't let shauna know."

hannah smiled at her and then she continued to keep singing. she skipped into the bathroom to fix her makeup and hair. van and allie came up behind her.

"can you believe it, hannah? we fucking won!", allie exclaimed

hannah chuckled. "i can't believe it. it's crazy."

van noticed that hannah was feeling sad but she didn't know why. she motioned towards allie to leave and allie swiftly left the room. hannah kept her eyes down at her hands. van came up behind her and put her head on hannah's shoulder.

"what's wrong, hannah? you look like someone broke your poor, little, lesbian heart.", van said.

hannah shoved her off. "i'm just tired. i'm tired of being put to the sidelines. i'm tired of losing everything important to me. did you know that i was set to get a lead role for the new theater performance? i set that aside for this goddamn team and what does it get me? the girl of my motherfucking dreams to push me aside like i'm nothing! i don't know if i can handle it anymore, van!"

van sighed. "jesus, hannah. i didn't know that was happening to you."

"that's because you don't fucking pay attention! you only care about tai!"

"don't turn this back on me! you don't speak up for yourself! that's your fault!"

"stop it, van! see this is why i don't talk to you about everything! it's because you fucking blame me for shit that i don't do! i'm done with this conversation."

hannah walked out of the bathroom. van followed right behind her. she grabbed her sister's shoulder and turned her around.

"we are not done! you need to stop acting like you're the center of attention!", van yelled.