#varsity team

[thunderon]

i have many inconsequential thoughts on the yellowjackets pre-crash team and what they were like:

- the yellowjackets, as a collective, are a physical team. they’re the team that you see on your game schedule and groan about having to play against because you know you’re gonna feel like you were in a car crash (or plane crash lol) the next day

- nat is the team’s best penalty kick taker. she definitely fucks around during practice tho and always forgets at least one part of her uniform. lottie always carries spare socks and hair ties for her

- shauna is the absolute dirtiest player. im talking after-the-whistle shoves and cheap digs. her elbow always finds its way into someone’s solar plexus. jackie firmly believes most of it is an accident or just shauna “being a real go-getter” and is quite literally the only person in the state of new jersey who defends shauna’s playstyle

- taissa gets carded for talking back to the refs at least twice a season. van and lottie each have had to pull her away to stop her from getting ejected

- every season there is a team betting pool on whether taissa or shauna end up with the most fouls. everyone knows about it except tai, shauna, jackie, and laura lee

- the betting pool may or may not have been set up by van

- lottie wins the betting pool every year. she has an uncanny ability to predict the number of penalties they each get

- van is the most clutch goalie specifically in sudden death penalty shootouts

- taissa turner is the JV team’s boogeyman they’re absolutely terrified of her

- i know in my heart that mari is the team snack provider. definitely brings homemade food for everyone to eat at weekend-long tourneys

- taissa is def the teammate who gives unsolicited team pep talks/“we need to get our shit together”speeches. half of the time they’re inspiring and the other half of the time the entire team wants to throttle her (except laura lee, who always claps at the end)

- gen and melissa were once forgotten about and left behind by the team bus and became best friends after the experience

[breadandblankets]

you know what would be a great callback? if damian and duke did the flying grayson trick that jay and tim did in robin war, i think that would be a great way to have damian and duke's relationship come full circle

[fishandshesmygills]

no but it really is true that the busier i am, the happier i am, because of just plain inertia. easier to do things when ive been doing things. easy to be happy when i have no time to be sad

[vilksdessin]

Second teen!

Bonus with a varsity jacket, I wanted to see how it looks but I prefer just the soccer uniform

[strangethings-everywhere]

This is Bobby and Don’s dynamic right here i will take no arguments

[hanibalistic]

sing it, troy bolton!

[reinedeslys-central]

"I think you should totally get in the back of my truck, actually," Leo says, linking pinkies with Jason. "What's the line? 'I can show you the world'?"

Jason stares down at where their fingers are curled together, peach on olive. He can't stop looking. "You don't have a truck."

Leo groans. "That was one time. I promise this one's legal. See?" He gently untangles their hands and slips behind the blue Chevy, returning with a slip of wrinkled paper that he triumphantly shoves in Jason's face.

LEO, I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU BREAK MY CAR WHILE I'M IN IOWA I WILL HAUNT YOU TO THE END OF TIME.

Your loving cousin, Nyssa (P.S. You can take your boy for a ride. I'll allow it. There's blankets in the back (and please help yourself to the glovebox). Don't tell me.)

Jason's eyes travel down the sparkly purple pen, catching on the note at the bottom before flickering back up. There's something that aches in his chest at the words 'your boy'.

He's not sure what expression takes over his face, but Leo, for his part, sees him and immediately ducks his head down so he can read the paper too, frowning. Jason follows his eyes down to the same line as they widen and Leo turns a raging, glorious red before hastily re-crumpling the note and sticking it into one of the many pockets of his cargo pants.

He clears his throat awkwardly while inspecting the dying grass at their feet. It looks like it could be good grass if it ever rains again this month, nice and long and thick.

..Yeah, nevermind.

He takes his glasses off and cleans them in an attempt to - what, exactly? It's not like he's got the object permanence of a toddler. It's not like looking away will stop him from thinking about red-hot blushes and bouncing curls and sharp smiles and -

Leo claps once, calling Jason's attention back up to him and the pretty blush staining his freckled nose. He looks just as awkward, laughing bashfully.

"Well, that's just Nyssa. Uh, she probably wouldn't actually haunt me, she doesn't believe in ghosts - not, I mean, if you do -" his words trip over each other, diverting the original innuendo that was definitely just meant to tease Leo since Jason's never even met her, not to mention he's not his, finally ending with - "but as you can see, it's clearly perfectly legal. So."

Jason raises an eyebrow. "Somehow I doubt that." Leo groans. "Oh, come on, dude, live a little, why dontcha?" He sidles up to him again, draping a warm arm over his shoulders and drawing him over to the car doors. "I know, you know, your dad's in California, your mom's in Paris, and your sister's at a party."

Jason opens his mouth to protest again and -

"- and before you say that you have homework," Leo scoffs, "allow me to remind you that we did our homework together yesterday, and you're already done your math homework for tomorrow, because you're a nerd."

Jason closes his mouth. "It's a school night," he offers weakly.

"Yeah, and every minute you have us waste out here is another minute we're not in the car, ergo another minute we're wasting, on a school night." Leo steps around him and holds his hands out again, eventually latching on to Jason's wrists and tugging him closer so he can peer into his eyes.

Jason may or may not forget how to breathe.

"Are you tired? You don't look tired," Leo frowns. "If you really don't want to go, I won't force you, y'know."

Jason forces his lungs to expand, contract, expand, so he can blurt out, "No, I mean, you got me. I'll go."

Leo grins as bright as the setting sun and twists around, whooping. He not-so-gently pushes Jason towards the car door before jogging over to hop into the driver's seat.

It takes a while, once they're actually on the road and leaving their neighbourhoods behind, that Jason finally goes, "You know, I'm just as concerned with how legal this is as I am with the fact that you still haven't told me where we're going."

Leo glares at him through the mirror. "Hey, if I told you then it wouldn't be a surprise, now would it?"

Jason hates surprises. "For all I know, you just kidnapped me for a surprise road trip to Toronto, and I didn't even pack my toothbrush."

Laughter bubbles out of the boy sitting at the wheel, quickly escalating into a full guffaw. "You're funny," Leo gasps, wiping away tears at a red light. "How did I not notice that you're funny?"

Jason's definitely never been told that he's funny. He might joke, sure, but being 'funny' is reserved for people like Percy, people like Leo or Cecil, who carry humour on them like sugar on a pastry, baked into their laughs and sprinkled over top with how clever they are.

No matter how hard Jason's tried, he's never been very clever.

Leo's still laughing, now more of a soft giggle as he pulls into the left lane to make a turn. He tries not to let it affect him.

"You should joke more often, dude. Bet all the girls would love that."

Jason looks outside at the trees and farms they're passing. Judging by the position of the sun, they're heading pretty much due south. There's nothing down south for them to be doing, though, especially not this late at night.

Skinny dipping, maybe. He wouldn't put it past Leo to suggest something like that and actually go through with it. But dragging him along? They barely know each other. What's a couple months on all the other people he knows?

"You wanna turn the radio on?" Leo says. Jason looks over to see him watching him with an odd smile. "Shotgun's choice, right? Don't worry, I won't judge. Even though I bet you listen to those 24-hour 'nature recordings' for fun and don't know what real music sounds like."

Jason rolls his eyes and plays with the dial until the 106.1 comes on. Leo groans. "Seriously? They keep playing, like, the same six artists over and over. Sure, Top 40's fine, but show a little variety, you know?"

He shrugs. It's like Leo said - he doesn't really know radio stations. His dad - when he deigns to drive the family places - is much more of a silence-of-doom, or failing that, an ominous-car-conversations person. "You put something on, then, if you're so set on it." He replies.

The warm light from the street plays over Leo's knuckles as he switches the wheel to one hand, blindly flailing the other one towards Jason until he hits the box behind the gear shift. "Pick a CD from here, whatever's fine. Eh, maybe not the Chopin or Metallica though. Might shift the vibe a bit too much."

Obligingly, Jason tugs at the black, faux-leather box until it comes open with a muffled thunk. Inside is a stack of CDs, spanning everything from Katy Perry to Vivaldi to Iron Maiden to Monsta X.

"Your cousin's got quite the music taste," he tosses out, rifling through the stack while giving periodic glances out the window to make sure they're not, like, five seconds away from a crash or something.

If there was anything Beryl Grace taught her kids, it was how to be a responsible passenger.

Almost on autopilot, Jason digs the pink-purple Teenage Dream CD out of the pile and then has to hastily shove the polaroids that spill out from underneath it back between the surrounding paper disc-sleeves (Mamma Mia!, he sees, and ..Heng:garæ? Whatever that means). That can't be safe for the discs, especially in a moving card, but then again who is he to judge. He doesn't even own any CDs.

They've fully left the town behind now, sailing down the open road with nothing but trees, farms, and the occasional streetlight in sight. He leans over and pops the disc into the CD drive, wondering again for the hundredth time where Leo's taking him.

Leo rolls to a stop at a four-way and watches him skip over the first two songs. "Whadya choose?"

Jason smiles. "Is now a good time to tell you I was born in Pasadena?"

The open bars of 'California Gurls' start to play, and Leo's warm, penny-brown eyes widen before he laughs, bright and a touch wild, incredulous.

It's weird. It's so weird. Maybe this is what his father meant when he said not to get any weird ideas in his head so close to finally reaching the decade-long goal of an Ivy League school. Maybe this is what his mother meant when she'd chastised him, saying hormonal teenagers got more impulsive with puberty and he should take care to keep listening to his parents, lest he lose everything he's worked so hard for.

If anyone else had tried this, he thinks, he wouldn't have said yes. He would have stayed at home, studied ahead for bond enthalpy and subjunctive Spanish, made tomorrow's lunch and cleaned his room. Adhering to routine. Acting - being normal.

You have to be normal, Jason. That's how they love you.

I will not tolerate an abnormal son.

Oh, Jason, it's like you just don't understand. What will people say? About you? About our family?

Leo isn't normal. Or maybe he is. Normal doesn't exist, when he's with Leo. He likes that about him.

He takes a risk and rolls the window down halfway so he can lean his head out and watch the sky, crisp wind tousling his hair. Leo smirks at him and switches the wheel to his right hand so he can roll his window down to match.

"Ten minutes," he says. "Look alive, buddy."

"There must be something in the water", Katy Perry croons.

also from 'burning like a glowing star', this valgrace fic I'm writing.

more stuff: Writing Directory

[avianii]

possibly just sprained my ankle 🤡

reminder to never play tennis while sleep deprived

[burtlancster]

Burt Lancaster in A Child Is Waiting, 1963.

[supercantaloupe]

what’s a fun fact about you that people may not guess

i am not anyone's idea of athletic. however since my social circle is like 90% other honors student orchestra losers, i technically qualify as a jock given that i have six years of experience playing field hockey

[jaeyxns]

Jake ★ Flying Board Game

[savvylittlecoxswain]

“Like jockeys, coxswains often went to extraordinary lengths to keep their weight down— they starved themselves, they purged, they exercised compulsively, they spent long hours in the steam room trying to sweat off an extra pound or two. Sometimes oarsmen who thought their cox was weighing them down took matters into their own hands and locked their diminutive captains in the steam room for a few hours. "Typical coxswain abuse," one Washington cox later said, laughing.”

- The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

[kpop-bbg]

[varsitybro18]

Teamwork makes the champ dream work 💪🏼🏈

[coochiequeens]

The girls team with the boy was going to compete against girls who could not interact with him for religious reasons without any prior communication.

By Anna Slatz January 8, 2024

A girls basketball team from a Muslim high school in California may have canceled a game after the school’s board was made aware that the opposing team had a trans-identified male player.

On Thursday, January 4, Averroes High School was set to compete against San Francisco Waldorf in a girls varsity basketball event, but the event was abruptly canceled. While the school has not provided comment on the reason why the sudden forfeiture took place, the decision was reportedly the result of the institution being made aware that a male player was participating on the Waldorf girls’ team.

Averroes is an Islamic school in the Bay Area, and sources close to the matter speculate that the hesitancy to compete against Waldorf was due to religious objections regarding the Muslim girls risking physical contact with the male player.

While the name of the male student will not be released at the request of sources, Reduxx has reviewed past game footage featuring the boy on the Waldorf team. He is seen towering above his female counterparts, boasting an obvious height and limb length advantage. According to team rosters, the male student has also retained his “masculine” name.

SF Waldorf playing a match against another California high school in November.

Speaking to Reduxx, Julie Lane of Women Are Real, an independent, California-based women’s advocacy group, revealed that information on the Waldorf player was first brought to their attention by a concerned father in November of 2023. His daughter had played a game against Waldorf, and had been left “traumatized” by the experience. Following the tip, Lane scouted out a Waldorf event to see for herself.

“The boy had an obvious advantage,” she says. “[The girls] didn’t necessarily run their offense through him, probably because they didn’t want to be targeted. But he got most rebounds and was able to jump much higher than the girls.”

She continued by noting that the male player “was not particularly skilled,” but that he had a longer range of arm reach and could jump significantly higher.

“They were at a complete disadvantage,” Lane says. “I caught one scramble for the ball with another player and my heart stopped. She was more than a foot shorter than him and could have been seriously injured.”

According to the statistics tracked by MaxPreps, the Waldorf Wolverines Girls Varsity team has won all but one game it has participated in over the past year.

Determined to raise awareness of the Waldorf player, the team at Women Are Real looked into the school’s upcoming games. Learning about their scheduled appearance against Averroes, a religious school focused on Muslim youth, the group then contacted the school’s board to alert them to the presence of a male on the opposing team.

“I was hopeful and thought there was no way this board would let their female athletes participate with a boy,” Lane said, noting that she never received a response from Averroes.

On January 4, Lane and some members from the Women Are Real team arranged to attend the match between the Waldorf and Averroes teams. But upon arriving, Lane was unable to locate the girls’ event. Confused, Lane approached some parents for answers, and was directed to speak to a female Waldorf student who had been sitting on the bleachers watching the boys’ game.

But Averroes has avoided providing a concrete, official answer about their motivation for abruptly canceling the match, and did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Jean Berns, another representative with Women Are Real, believes the confusion and silence surrounding the cancelation suggests Waldorf’s male player was the cause.

“As the school hasn’t made an official statement we can’t say for sure why the game was canceled. However, none of the multiple reasons we have heard from various sources make sense. We heard from the school director that there were not enough athletes to field a team, yet they played a game two days later with more than enough players. We heard from others that the coach was ill, yet he was able to coach the boys team the same evening of the cancelation. All this mystery and secrecy leads me to believe that the true reason for the cancelation most likely involves the male athlete,” she said, adding that she was “relieved” when she learned the game had been called off.

“On one hand, I feel strongly that no girl’s safety should ever be compromised and that no girl should be competing against a boy unawares. On the other hand, I’m saddened that the result is girls quietly self-selecting out of sports,” she continued.

“Will girls’ sport die a silent death here in California? Seeing that the boys game went on made me angry. Nothing has happened to them. What message are we sending these young girls?”

Speaking with Reduxx, Marshi Smith of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports speculates that the confusion surrounding Averroes’ forfeiture may be the result of concerns about potential penalization from the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF).

“The CIF falsely claims that boys who say their ‘gender identity’ is ‘female’ have legal entitlements to girls’ opportunities and access to girls’ teams, dorms, locker rooms, scholarships, titles and records,” she explains. “Families and schools like Averroes are wrongly told they’ll be in violation of federal law if they don’t force their daughters to compete against or with males. Tragically, feeling powerless, teams will quietly forfeit more and more.”

But Smith says CIF’s threats are “false and unethical,” and calls on schools and families to push back against gender ideology-based policies.

“Families must boldly oppose this injustice against women and girls now. There are millions of Americans ready to champion them.”

UPDATE: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that SF Waldorf had won “every single” game it had competed in over the past year. This has been updated to reflect a single loss.

[selfwayapparels]

Factory Made Trendy Streetwear Letterman Jacket with Logo Patches Stylish Embroidered Patch Varsity Jacket for Men & Women