Quicker update, but shorter chapter. Here's another Bellamy POV, I know some of you were hoping he'd come back around soon.

Title is from "Giant" by Vampire Weekend.

Please note, this is PART NINE of the series. Make sure you are reading from the beginning! Here is the order in case you're a new reader. :)

1. I can't help the fuss, I'd trade it for quiet (Clarke POV)

2. there are answers here, they're just harder to figure out (Bellamy POV)

3. I am quiet now, and silence gives you space (Jasper POV)

4. was using loneliness, and now it's using me (Clarke POV)

5. now I feel so saturated, oh I'd rather be serrated (Octavia POV)

6. so i will smile, and i'll keep you close (Monty POV)

7. you can walk all over me, just don't you walk away (Wells POV)

8. a part of me is sad, but a part of me is having such a good time (Clarke POV)

And now this one! You can find all of the stories just by clicking on my username.

It takes five games - five ninety minute blocks of getting the snot beat out of you - before you finally win one. You almost would have been satisfied with the tie - anything was better than yet another crushing defeat. You hadn't just lost the last four games, you had been annihilated, so ending the game at zero-zero, well, you figured you could live with that.

You'd gotten to thinking that this season was going to be one long disappointment, a drawn-out disaster. You weren't living one of those underdog stories, the kind they make into inspirational sports movies, your team was just flat-out terrible and only getting worse, somehow.

Then Monty scored a goal, right there at the very end, and you actually won. It seemed impossible, but half an hour later you were at Waffle House with your team, and with a reason to celebrate. All of a sudden your entire perspective had changed, because now that you knew you could win, you were going to make sure you did it again.

That's why you're back on the soccer field at 7:32 on Saturday morning. The sun is shining, the sky is clear, and somebody has apparently swamped your soccer team for a bunch of zombies. You're still riding the high from last night's victory, you've got this thrumming in your veins and a renewed sense of purpose, and they're all shuffling around and looking barely conscious.

There was talk of an after-after party, when you were all leaving the Waffle House last night. You'd opted out, mostly because you'd picked up Octavia after the game, and you were determined to take her back home, especially after you caught her and Jasper making googly eyes at each other in the parking lot. You wouldn't have brought her at all if you'd known he and Clarke would show up, but that's a problem that you aren't going to think about right now.

Looking around at your team, and into bloodshot and squinting eyes, you're guessing that maybe half of them made it to Murphy's house last night - obviously those guys had a little too much fun, and they're paying for it now. You think Diggs might actually be asleep standing up, and Drew looks like he's going to hurl.

"I hope you had a good time last night," you tell your gathered teammates. Sterling elbows Diggs in the ribs, hard, and he jolts awake. "You earned it. We played hard, and it paid off. We deserved that win."

"Yeah!" somebody cheers from the back of the group, probably Myles. You ignore him.

"But now," you press on, looking into the tired and hungover faces of your teammates, "the celebration's over, and we have a lot of work to do."

Miller clears his throat. "The coach isn't even here yet," he points out, but you wave him off, because that's irrelevant.

"We don't need him," you answer, and it's true. You aren't sure the coach even knows which sport you play, most days. "All we need to do is remember what it felt like to win that game last night. Don't you want to feel like that again?"

You get a couple of cheers, from Sterling and Myles and Connor, and mumbled assent from everyone else. Diggs is asleep again. You're in such a good mood that you don't actually care.

Your team isn't conscious enough for epic speeches, but they can run wind sprints and drills, sort of, so you set them doing that instead. You've got a lot of work to do, if you're going to make it through this week with anything resembling your dignity intact. These next three games are going to be the toughest of the season.

On Monday, you've got another home game, up against the team from your rival school. You drove out and watched the Grounders play last weekend, just to see what you were up against. Most of those guys looked like actually giants, and they've got a cheering section that's as intimidating as they are enthusiastic, and they follow them to every game.

Watching that crowd chanting and shouting had made you think about your own little supporter's group, if you could even call it that. Clarke and Jasper have made it to every game this season, but you weren't sure that they'd show last night, not after the fiasco that was Octavia's study date. All she texted you was an address, so imagine your surprise to find Clarke Griffin behind that front door. If you'd known it was her house, you would have just stayed in the car - but you figure that's exactly why Octavia didn't tell you.

If your sister is out for revenge, then she got it, but if she's trying to get you to work things out with Clarke, then she is out of luck. You aren't going to apologize for this summer. It was an accident, just like you told Clarke, and just like you keep telling yourself - and you're thinking Clarke won't have anything to do with you without an apology, and maybe not even then. Except, you guess that you and Clarke have a common goal, for once - keeping your sister and her step-brother apart. You've got your reasons - you don't want Octavia wasting her time with any of these clowns populating your school - and Clarke has hers. You're guessing mostly it's because of you.

You shake your head to focus. Thinking about Clarke and all of that drama isn't going to help you win these games, and you're going to need a lot of help.

As if playing the Grounders this week wasn't bad enough, on Thursday and Saturday you've got away games. The first is up against the Reapers. It's not a bad drive, at least, but it'll be a rough game. The Reapers are notorious for dirty fouls that lead to serious injuries. After you played them last year one of your midfielders was out for the rest of the season with a broken leg. At any given time at least half of the Reapers are sitting on a red card.

Saturday's game is up against the Mountain Men. It's an hour and a half drive to probably lose, and lose badly. The team isn't particular vicious, at least not compared to the Reapers, but they are number one in the league. You're not exactly feeling optimistic.

Honestly, you think, watching your team trudge off the practice field and into the locker room, some of the stumbling and still a little hungover, it'll be a miracle if you all make it though the week in one piece.

I'm starting on the next chapter ASAP, it will probably be another Jasper POV.

Thank you so much for reading! :D