I'm sorry if some of the move sports described here aren't specifically correct, because except for tennis and football, I don't know much.

Chapter title: Warriors by Imagine Dragons


Blurryfaces


Chapter two – We are the warriors that built this town

She blocks the punch that came to break her nose, twists the man's wrist. Her other hand with rigid fingers strikes like a scythe at the side of the opponent's neck, but before she has the time to bend with force his shoulder, he sweeps her legs with his feet as he's about to fall, and she face-plants on the mat. She lets out a groan, brings a hand to her nose that sends her painful vibes.

"Still not quick enough, McGougal. You could have easily overpowered me if you had just stopped thinking of what to do next."

She gets up, her nose between her fingers. "It's not easy!" she complained.

"Life ain't easy, miss. Stop thinking and act. Your muscles learn by themselves and it ain't up to the brain."

"Ugh, I think I'm bleeding."

"You'll be fine. Go grab a towel. Simmons, your turn."

Amy walks to the bleachers of the small gymnasium. She sits next to Charlie who hands her a tissue.

"I'm going to have ugly bruises on my shoulders for the formal." she says as she wipes her nose.

"You're the one that chose to train yourself." Charlie reasons her.

"I know." the redhead sighs, now wiping off the sweat off her brow. "One day I'll save all of your beautiful bums and you're going to deify me."

"Not gonna happen."

Todd comes back from the toilets with the water bottle he filled up, and hands it to Amy who gladly drinks from it. "We already praise you, if that's any consolation." he says, eyeing her red nose.

"Thank you." she whispers with a sniff. "You do know how to cheer me up."

"Glad to be your servant, majesty." he replies as he turns back to the fight in front of them between the Simmons kid and the Krav Maga Coach. The poor boy receives a nasty blow to the stomach, but hey, he signed for it. "That is exactly why I play lacrosse." he comments.

Charlie frowns. "Uh, isn't lacrosse a violent game?"

"It's less life-threatening than what you do. And I muscle my arms! And it taught me to have a nice aim!"

"But you don't know how to defend yourself in case of emergency!"

"Emergency!" he scoffs. "Nothing ever happens in this town."

Amy winces. "I beg to differ. Murder last week?"

"Mountain lion killed by Mr Argent?" Charlie adds, rubbing it in with a smirk.

"Girl cut in half by her own brother?"

"That last one is incorrect." Todd replies back. "Derek Hale was discharged a month ago. It was a wild animal that killed the girl."

"But still! Now I can defend myself from a wild animal, isn't that right Charlie?"

The dark-skinned girl opens her mouth and freezes for a second, wheels turning in her head. "Actually..." she begins. "You can fight back against a man, but an animal is usually smaller and quicker, and you're used to fight someone who's a head taller than you and has a fake gun aimed at your head..."

"Thank you so much, you're my best friend in the world." Amy says, tensed.

"What about me?" Todd asks.

Amy gets up. "I hate you both."

"I didn't do anything!" he says, revolted, as the British girl comes back into the line of students waiting to get punched. He turns his head to Charlie who shrugs. "See, that's why dogs are better than humans. They aren't hard to get."

Charlie nods. "At least someone in our group can come to the rescue if one of us is in a precarious situation."

"We should give her a superhero name." Todd thinks out loud.

Not really familiar with superhero comics or even the movies, Charlie tries to think of imaginative names but comes up with nothing. "Like what?" she finally asks.

"I have no idea." he lets out. "I was hoping you could help me out. I don't have your imagination."

"I don't even know who Steve Lev is."

Todd dramatically slowly turns his head toward her. "Are you kidding me right now?"

"What?"

"Steve Lev." he repeats, pinching the edge of his nose. "Steve Lev. Kill me."

"What is it?"

"It's Stan Lee, not Steve Lev."

"Well excuse me, professional geek, if I'm not familiar with comic books."

"That's not even it! Everyone knows about him, even the ones that never go out of the bookstore." He sees her deadpan look, and chooses to save his life. "Meaning the ones that are not you, of course. You know plenty of things... you just don't have time to include comic books to your vast knowledge."

She tilts her head in a sarcastic thank you, and Todd likes to barricade himself into a comforting silence. They watch the teens struggle to fight their teacher until it's Amy's turn.

Todd tenses up when the coach throws his arm to hit the side of her head, but the girl takes a step backwards, the closed fist brushing past her red perky nose. She grabs the wrist, contorts it, slaps the coach's neck with her other hand and immediately twists his shoulder so he has to bend over to not make dislocate it. There, pinned to the ground, unable to move, he smiles.

"Alright!" he shouts as Amy lets go of him and carefully replaces a strand of red hair that had the misfortune to escape from her ponytail. "See what McGougal did? I want you to repeat it in your head until we see each other again in two days. Memorize the position and the way you have to twist the arm without breaking it. Maybe review your anatomy lessons, it can always come in handy. Dismiss now."

Amy struts to her friends who congratulate her with claps and broad smiles.

"I take back what I said." Todd says as soon as she reaches them. "You're not a majesty, you're a knight in shining armor."

Amy high-fives Charlie and throws a toothy grin to her best male friend. "Thank you, peasant."

His mouth hangs open comically before Charlie rolls her eyes and forces it close with one finger underneath his chin.

"Okay, I agree to the fact that I spend too much time with Charlie..." Amy begins and her friend her a 'are you kidding' look which she ignores as she slides her schoolbag and her sportsbag on her shoulder. "You are not my peasant. You are..."

"A suitor?" he murmurs hopefully while grabbing his satchel.

"A valet!" she ends in an enthusiastic yell. She slides an arm in his and does the same with Charlie's. "Now, we have your game to see tonight and – don't you dare groan Charlie – and I have to clean myself because I smell like a polecat. Can I take a shower at yours, Todd?"

"Yeah, you know it's no bother at all." he replies as they strode. "And I let my stick home, so it's a win-win."

"Perfect! I feel like this evening will turn out to be magnificent."


The girls sit in the bleachers, on the front-left of Allison Argent's family. Charlie can't help it, but when she sees Allison's dad, she remembers the merciless look on his face when he had pulled out the gun and shot the cougar that night after the parent-teacher meeting. She quickly shrugs the memory off and rubs her hands together.

"I didn't think it would be that cold." she complains.

Amy eyes her black beanie and scarf. "Please, you must be boiling under all that."

"I'm freaking freezing my ass off."

"This is gonna be so awesome!" Amy lets out with a little squeak as her eyes dart to every corner of the lacrosse field already surrounded by fog. "Look, Todd's out there! Hey Todd!" She gets on her feet and waves energically, hoping the boy sees her through the mist. A little embarrassed by her friend, Charlie pulls on her sleeve.

The woman sitting next to Allison Argent - probably a family member, notices Amy's excitement and asks, bending forward to reach their height: "Your friend is on the field?"

"Number seventeen!" she points out, glad to talk to someone who enjoys talking about sport. "He's one of the three defensemen."

"Oh, I see his brown head." the woman says, beaming. Amy likes her right away. "If you want to, I'll cheer for him. He'll probably hear me, I'm quite the screamer."

Charlie squints and Allison grabs the woman's wrist, letting out an embarrassed shout. "Oh my god, Kate..."

"It's high school, Allie." replies back the so-called Kate. "I bet your friends here have some skeletons in their closet."

Allison fakes a smile and turns obligingly her head toward Amy and Charlie. "Sorry about my aunt. I love her but sometimes she's tough to control."

"Runs in the family." prompts aunt Kate.

Allison bites her lower lip, heat running up her cheeks.

"It's okay." quickly says Amy with her toothy grin. "It is high school, to be honest."

Kate claps her hands, contented. "See? Been there, done that. And not so long ago, I'm not an old hag."

Charlie loses interest in Kate as soon as, when Allison points at Jackson, the woman shouts how of a hotness he is. She doesn't want to hear again how people enjoy more what they can see than what they can read in people.

"She's nice." Amy sing-songs.

"Okay." Charlie simply replies.

"You don't like her." It's not a question, it's a statement.

"I don't know her." she says.

"Okay."

Charlie can instantly tell that Amy's frustrated. So she looks down and makes a hangdog expression. "Sorry."

"Yeah." Amy sighs. "I know. You're hard to make friends with."

Charlie likes staring at the players better than trying to come up with excuses. She's not good with them anyway. Amy eventually gives up too, knowing that her best friend is somewhat very antisocial and isn't up to change.

A roar comes from the red players brought together around their Coach, who asks: "What are we?"

"WE ARE LACROSSE" screams Beacon Hills' team before splitting up on the field with the opposite team.

"Hell is going to break loose." murmurs Charlie, biting her nails.

"Cheer up." Amy says as she applauds. "This is Todd's first game!"

"He's not a very resistant kind of guy..."

"Oh, I'm sure he's hiding some biceps under all these protection pads!"

Charlie keeps biting her nails as Mahealeni intercepts a particularly quick ball. Amy stands up and applauds with the Argent family.

"I don't like this sport." she lets out. Amy nudges her. "And I don't like crowds!" she continues, really decided to sulk.

"Oh my stars - HE HAS THE BALL!" the British hollers as, indeed, Todd catches the ball and starts to run right to the blue goal. Two menacing opponents block his way and he tosses the ball to McCall, who somehow manages to literally flip a guy with sheer strength to score right between the goalie's legs. "YES!"

"Already?" Charlie says, surprised.

"Guess Todd was right about Scott's skills! This chap's brilliant! C'mon, get off your arse and clap with me."

With a grunt, Charlie obeys and vigorously applauds under Amy's watch.


"Hell yeah!" Charlie howls, her fist raised high. Amy lets out a scream that was probably meant to be a cry of victory but that instead felt like a strangled cat. "We won this freaking game, I can't believe it!"

Amy throws herself into her friend's arms as half of the stadium continues to explode in either joy or despair depending on the side chosen. A bunch of screaming girls hurtle down the steps of the bleachers and swarm around the winning team, who's too busy singing their hymn and punching each other friendly, galvanized by their victory. Allison follows those girls as Beacon Hills' players head to the locker room, and Amy pulls Charlie's sleeve.

"Come on, Todd needs his friends to cheer him!"

The girl doesn't find an excuse to complain this time and, hand in hand to not get lost in the overexcited sea of supporters.

"STATE! STATE! STATE!" shouts Troye Johnson, a fist in the air. "WE'RE GOING FOR STATE, BITCHES!"

The lacrosse stick under his arm almost knocks out Isaac Lahey as the two friends get carried away by the waves and they both duck as Johnson starts to dangerously jump up and down, unaware of the accidents he might cause with his stick. Despite all this, Amy laughs uncontrollably and Charlie opens wide eyes in front of the mad crowd. She almost bumps into Allison before they barge into the corridor that leads to the locker room, but the girl doesn't seem to mind, too busy looking for a special someone.

"Todd?"

Charlie's shout gets erased by Johnson's screams of joy, and she can feel herself boil with annoyance as Amy follows the boy's lead and raises her fist too. Of course Charlie's glad their team won, but she's not a big fan of stampedes. She's not a big fan of crowds at all.

They run into the locker room along half of the team that is already taking their clothes off and throwing it above their heads (Charlie sees a sock end up on one of the neon lights on the ceiling and she wonders if it will stay up there forever). Without embarrassment, Amy smiles widely as she sees Todd who's chatting feverishly with Danny Mahealeni, and immediately jumps on him.

"STATE!" she hollows, echoing Johnson who is still screaming in the hall, before she kisses his cheek on the spurt of the moment. "You made it to State! You did it!" she continues as she takes his arm and shakes it vigorously.

Charlie cracks up at her friend's excitement and puts a hand on her shoulder to incite her to calm down, but this expression doesn't exist in the British's vocabulary.

"YOU BLOODY DIT IT!" she repeats while Johnson barges into the locker room and starts singing.

Todd's smile can't get any wider as he looks down at Amy, and Danny chuckles before turning away and leaving the trio to maybe look for Whittemore.

"You can't be here." Todd says even though his grin contradicts his words. "You're not allowed to be here, guys."

"Who gives a bollock?" Amy yells. In the corner, Johnson is now singing at the top of his lungs in front of Greenberg who's trying to make himself as small as possible. Charlie laughs internally at the scene before eyeing her two best friends curiously. "It's your night! You won! You won this game!"

"Technically, it was Danny, he scored quarter half of the points..."

"Yes, but who was there to prevent the enemy team to score?"

"An hint." Charlie whispers at Todd's ear with a smirk. "His number's seventeen."

"Me?" he says, almost intimidated.

Amy punches him lightly in the arm and he groans. "Yes, you!"

"Easy, someone kicked me there!"

"It was amazing!" Amy continues without paying attention to his complaint. "It was a delight. It was crazy, it was like a real professional game – and you were brilliant! You were all brilliant – Jackson tossed the ball in mid-air and Scott was there to catch it right back – I've never seen someone jump that high! - and then he tossed it at you, and you literally dived to get it and then at one point Isaac ended up with the ball in his nest, without knowing what to do and three players from the other team tackled him – by the stars, I thought he was going to die. Poor lad. I hope he's okay. Anyway, our team retrieved the ball somehow and it was Luis who scored into the goal – that. Was. Extraordinary. Remember, Charlie?"

"I most certainly do, you squeezed my hand so hard I thought my bones were going to break." replies Charlie with a genuine smile.

"I did!" Amy shouts, eyes open wide. "And then remember when this wank from the other team, don't know his name, tried to score?" She turns to Danny who is taking his shirt off without much modesty. "You blocked the ball like a pro, Daniel. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen."

Todd looks a little jealous but Danny is too busy smiling wide at her admiration. "Thanks, Amy." Charlie turns away when he starts taking his pants off. Today is not the day she intends to check out a gay man's butt. She has too much respect for the guy. Danny is like her sass mentor, he doesn't take any shit from anyone and she worships him for it. She just wishes they were closer, but since he's Todd's friend, she can work with what she has.

Meanwhile, Todd's cheeks turns red tomato and he wonders if he should drop the shirt too until Amy looks back at him with her big toothy grin and her sparkly brown eyes.

"Hurry, get dressed!" she says with a quick pat on his torso. "I'll be waiting for you at mine tonight. Let's celebrate this victory!"

They end up throwing fries at each other in Amy's room after she assured them her parents were out for the night (her parents were often absent, Charlie noticed, but she kept her mouth shut this time). Todd is exhausted but he laughs until he thinks his ribs will implode, Amy tries to bounce on her bed but she ends up breaking a slat, and Charlie attempts shoving down her mouth twenty curly fries at once until her conscience reminds her that she might choke and die.

It's only when the time to go home comes that she remembers that someone was missing on the lacrosse field. Someone important to some, someone trifling to her.

Where the hell was Stilinski?