The Best Friends You'll Ever Have | 15: Opposites Attract

[luxken27]

Chapter Title: 15 | Opposites Attract
Prompt: #056 - Game
Universe: Post-canon
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Rating: T
Warning: Language
Word Count: 2,615
Summary: Abby and Logan have always had their differences…

Links: FF.net | DW | LJ | AO3

Written for the "royal blue" prompt on my 2014 Summer Mini Challenge table, as well as for my babysitters100 table.

Welp, this is not exactly how I expected to break my duck, but I'll take it :P Especially since I finally figured out how to work my renewed love for international football, thanks to the 2014 World Cup, into my fanfic! :P

This particular story came to me more or less out of nowhere. One of the few things I remembered about Abby Stevenson was that she was the soccer nut of the BSC, and this gave me a newfound appreciation for her (as well as an idea of how to fill my "Abby Stevenson" prompt on my babysitters100 table). I reread a couple of her books, including #110:



The gist of this story is that Abby was the centre-forward on her team in Long Island, and she's pissed when Coach Wu moves her to centre-back on the Stoneybrook team. She thinks like a striker, not a defensive player, and has a hard time adjusting to her new role, especially when she thinks her rightful one has been usurped. Of course, by the end of the book, she learns to appreciate her new role in the defensive line, which makes her appreciate the beautiful game that much more.

After reading this, I suddenly had a flash thought of her watching this year's World Cup. I wanted her to be a Germany fan (because I am, haha) and her learning to appreciate being a defensive player actually worked in my favor, because suddenly she can see the importance of the whole team, and that defensive players rarely get their due. One of the things this World Cup really highlighted was goalkeeping, and the importance of the role not only as the last man of defense, but also how the good goalkeepers were versatile. Manuel Neuer won the Golden Glove because of his complete gameplay, and he has repopularized the notion of a "sweeper-keeper" or False #1, an extra man actively contributing to the game.

ANYWAY. I liked Abby's friendship with Logan in the books, and decided he'd be a more interesting foil for her in a fic than Kristy. Abby and Kristy are too alike, IMO; the only differences are their senses of humor and their chosen favorite sport. I'm terrible at making puns, but I did enjoy Abby's rather sarcastic sense of humor. I envisioned a fic where she would be good-naturedly trading insults with Logan as they took in one of the USA games.

As it turned out, the GER v USA game was a pivotal one, with all of these extra storylines: the USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann was the GER coach 8 years ago, and is widely credited with their renaissance as an international team; the pressure he was under to have a good WC with the USA team, which is at least one level below the GER team in terms of class and ability, and how he's trying to basically do what he did in GER in the US but was meeting lots and lots of resistence; the controversies of him leaving certain players off the team; Klinsmann vs Loew, his assistant coach back in 2006. Lots of 'human interest', and of course it was a USA game, so ESPN was basically creaming themselves over it.

The fan atmosphere in the US was almost magical during this World Cup - one thing ESPN didn't exaggerate was the large crowds congregating in various open spaces to take in the game together. I know that locally, most of the bars were at capacity for the USA games, which was a pleasant surprise, considering I live in [American] football country. Coworkers cared about the Cup, and it was fun to have people to talk about it with. I tried to recapture some of that in this fic, and I did, at least to my liking.

It was a lot of fun to do some running commentary on the game, and to have Abby and Logan talking about the teams, their style of play, etc. I even threw in the "hot footballers" element, which I find an amusing aside to football fandom, but which was out in full force during the WC. I rewatched the game itself, but also took a lot from this compilation video, including the infamous slow-mo replay of Jermaine Jones's sitting duck (1:53):

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Heh =) Needless to say, Neuer captured himself a whole new audience of fans following this WC.

The SMC prompt "royal blue" was mentioned in two places here - first, as a major color of the USA's away jersey:



The second is an allusion to Schalke 04, a top-flight Bundesliga team:

"" (Watch on YouTube)

I don't know how many BSC fans will know or understand all of the jokes in the fic, but I find it a rather strong comedic offering. I like the idea of Abby taking on all comers in some random Irish pub-style sports bar, and it was fun to write, if only because its the exact opposite of how I'd react in the same situation, LOL. Logan is probably a little one-dimensional, but he was there to serve as her foil more than anything else. The squint-and-you'll-miss-it romantic element is at the very end, when its revealed that these two are dating, lo these many years after middle school :P

This is actually the second fic I've written for the Summer Mini Challenge - better a late start than not one at all, eh? :) I don't know if I'll be able to finish the challenge before the deadline, but I might be able to equal my best showing. Plus, its nice to get the creative juices flowing once again, and to figure out how to incorporate my latest fandom into some of my old ones (and into my writing) :)