“Candace.” She said simply and the tanned girl nodded.

“Alice.” She bit out with a slight Spanish accent, folding her arms against her chest. Craning my neck I looked past the two enemies to the back of the Leche’s squad, finding the pair of eyes that I could feel was on me. She looked away again as I caught her staring at me.

“I challenge you to a Chocolate vs. Fiesta football game.” Candace announced and Alice looked back at us before checking out the contents of the crates.

“Flag?” She asked and Candace nodded. A moment of silence passed before Alice jabbed her hand through the air. “We’re in.”

Candace shook the pro-offered hand, then swept her own over the equipment they’d brought.

“La Leche in blue, Chili Crotches in red. Got it?” Alice glared at her but accepted the terms and quickly beckoned us over.

“Grab your belts ladies, time to deliver a nice and spicy Fiesta-style ass kicking!” There was a flurry of activity as we attempted to separate the tangled yellow belts, adorned with rectangular plastic tabs in either red or blue, then grabbed the right color helmets and retreated to our respective sides of the field. I hung at the back of the group, still searching the Leche’s for her. Candace instantly started barking out orders as Alice grabbed a stick and hit the dirt, starting to sketch out some sort of primitive play calling book.

“Jessica, you’re QB, I’m running back, Carmen you can play wide reciever.” I started as she pointed at the girl who’d been treating me like I had the plague. Carmen…I rolled the name around on my tongue, savoring the sound of it, and wondering what it would be like to say it out loud.

“I’ll play corner.” I offered abruptly, poking my head back into our little huddle. Alice gave me a blank look.

“Huh?” Tasha rolled her eyes, though a smile played at the edges of her lips, as she explained.

“Corner backs follow the wide receivers and try to stop them from catching the ball.”

“Oh. Oh yeah that’s fine. Hey maybe you should coach us.” She offered up the stick to Tasha, who took it and knelt down by her side.