Don't Complain If You Can't Win

"So, did you find out yet?" Courtney asked, wiping any excess make-up from underneath her eyes and leaning against her locker.

Leighton continued to rummage through her locker trying to find papers she needed for her next class. "Find out what?" she furrowed her eyebrows at her friend's question then pulled out the necessary papers.

"When softball try-outs are! You've been ranting about them for two days now; have you found out when they are?" she laughed lightly.

Her eyes widened after she heard the reminder and nearly dropped the papers she held in her hands. "Oh my gosh! I completely forgot they were today!" she announced, smacking the notes against her face a few times.

"Today? Do you even have any clothes to change into? You can't wear those," Courtney spoke of Leighton's yellow button up shirt with a black tank top underneath and black skinny jeans adorning her legs.

"Clothes aren't a problem; I remember bringing some to keep in my locker in case I forgot, and quite frankly I'm glad I did," Leigh chuckled and slammed her locker shut. "You'll be there cheering me on, right?"

"Duh!" Courtney said. "Of course I'd be there; I wouldn't let you down," she bumped hips with Leighton which caused a smile to break out on her face.

The girls parted ways when walking to their third period class after making sure to meet at their usual meet spot as soon as they were dismissed from their fourth period class for lunch. Leighton smiled when walking down the hall, politely greeting people who randomly said hi to her along the way.

Biting down gently on her bottom lip, she tried to hold back the permanent smile that showed off her good mood right before someone roughly bumped into her and causing her to bite down hard. Almost instantly Leighton had the taste of blood in her mouth. As part of her shocked and surprised reaction, she brought her hand to her mouth, pulling it back to see the speckles of blood on the tips of her fingers.

"Move you fucking porker!" he yelled at her; that's when Leigh noticed that was one of those boys that has been torturing her for no reason. "You taking up the whole fucking hallway!"

The boy next to him, Matt, began to laugh hysterically because of his friend, Vinny, purposely crashing into her. "That's fucked up, but so hilarious!"

Leighton tried her absolute hardest to turn her hurt expression she held into a harsh glare, or into something that remotely resembled a glare. She ultimately failed and turned on her heel; Leigh didn't want them to see her eyes tearing up because of what the boy did to her.

"What's the matter? What happened to your lip!?" Courtney quickly asked her friend when they met up for lunch.

"I'm not going to be in that focused mindset I need to be in for the tryouts," she replied, sighing heavily as she led the way toward the cafeteria building.

"What'd they do?" At that moment, Courtney just knew her best friend had an encounter with those boys and the look on Leighton's face after she asked only confirmed her suspicion.

--------------------

"What the fuck are we going to do today?" the lanky two-toned haired boy exclaimed when he walked up with the other two boys from Dulaney High at the Towson student parking. "I'm sick of going to that God forsaken mall every damn day!"

"Well, what would you like to do, Jack? And my mother's not an option," Alex pointed his finger at his friend but retracted it quickly when Jack tried to bite him.

"It's Wednesday; there's never anything to do," Matt reminded the group.

"There's girls trying out for softball out at the field," Vinny upped his eyebrows suggestively. "We can watch their tits bounce as they run until we figure out what to do."

"Where's the field? I want to see me some boobies," Jack started walking away from the boys.

"God, Jack, really?" Rian said with a sigh.

"I'm not God, but thank you, Rian."

"Nah dude, it's probably the only way he'll ever get to see boobs because all that fucked up porn don't count," Zack laughed lightly with the other guys agreeing with him.

"I've seen real tits before. Last month at one of Alex'as parties, that one girl at the mall with that fat chick let me look and feel right before she passed out; it was awesome!" he explained, his face lighting up when the field came in view with girls already running.

Each of the guys rolled their eyes at the childish boy and continued walking toward the bleachers at the softball field. While Jack climbed toward the top, Zack shoved him making him stumble and nearly topple over. All the laughter and commotion gained the attention of the blonde sitting at the bottom of the opposite end of the bleachers.

Jack caught her gaze while the others took their seats; he winked at her and kissed the air, only to earn a scoff and an eye roll.

"See dude, the ladies don't like you. Just go gay and save yourself the trouble." Alex told Jack as he lifted his lanky frame up to sit down.

"I'll only go gay for you, Alex, you know that," he said seriously. Alex shuddered making Jack's serious stare fade into a smirk.

"I'm friends with idiots," Rian mumbled, looking to his left before pulling his phone from his pocket when receiving a text.

"Rian, Rian, Rian, just stare at the bouncing boobies," Vinny spoke up. "They'll make you feel better."

"I bet only Kara's boobies make him feel better, Vin," Jack sang with a goofy smile on his face,

"Jack, if you keep talking about my girlfriend's chest, I'll have Zack kick your skinny ass," he warned; Zack smiled and nodded, cracking his knuckles just because.

"Okay!" he clapped his hands and scooted closer to Matt and farther from Zack. "Well, I'm bored!"

"Do you ever shut up?" Matt asked, moving to the seat in front of where he was originally seated since Jack got too close.

After a round of snickers erupted from the boys, their talking ceased as they watched the tryouts. At that point, the girls were nearly finished running to show their endurance and speed. A few girls were ahead of the bunch, the majority of them were in a group a little way behind, a few more further back, and one straggler that was on the verge of being lapped.

The coached yelled out to the girls further behind the group to hustle up, and that comment stirred up the boys on the bleachers. All of them but Rian yelled out to them to hurry up while laughing loudly and obnoxiously.

"Dude, that fat chick is right there!" Vinny announced as he stood and pointed, leaning forward to put his hand on his left knee while he burst with hysterics because she was struggling to keep up with everyone else.

"Run, fat ass, run!" Alex cupped his hands around his mouth as he hollered.

Matt and Zack started shaking the set of bleachers as best as possible when she was getting closer to home plate near where they were, earning harsh death glares from the blonde who happened to be Courtney. Jack, Alex, and Vinny continued with the fat jokes and yelled out "earthquake" at the top of their lungs.

"Would you guys shut up!" Rian snapped. "Why do you guys make fun of her? What kind of satisfaction do you get from hurting someone's feelings?"

As soon as the boys ceased their obnoxious antics, Courtney began to eavesdrop. She couldn't help it; they were silent and Rian's voice was raised. Even if she was angry, she was thrilled that one of them was sticking up for Leighton.

"What crawled up you butt and died?" Jack questioned.

"You guys! Stop making fun of her!" he demanded.

"Or what, dude?" Vinny pushed on, standing straight up from having not sat back down previously. "We need entertainment somehow; we're all laughing and having a good time until you ruined it. Quit having such a shitty sense of humor."

"Not when it's at the expense of other people!" Rian was upset with his friends and it took them a bit off guard. "I wish you guys would just stop and leave her the fuck alone!"

After he finished what he had to say, all the girls exited the field for a quick water break. Leighton walked over to Courtney with an exhausted yet hurt look because she had heard all of their crude comments. Courtney gave her a sympathetic look and handed her a towel to wipe the sweat off her face.

"They're assholes, Leigh, all of them with the exception of the one with the buzz cut," she told her lowly so the guys wouldn't hear. "He was defending you."

A small smile twitched at her lips. "Really?" Courtney nodded. "That's gr-"

"Hey fat fuck, good luck getting on the team!" Jack called out while they climbed down from the bleachers.

"Yeah, but you'll be better off joining an eating contest with all the other ugly tubs of lard!" This time, Zack called out and their comments only angered Rian some more.

"I just want to go home." Leighton said as her eyes teared up.

"But you're doing so well! You don't want to finish?" Courtney didn't want her friend to give up now especially because of the boys tormenting her. "Just finish, Leigh; you have a good very good chance at getting on the team. Show those assholes what you're really made of!"