Disclaimer: Nope I don't own Bend it Like Beckham nor do I own David Beckham if I had either of them some things ... would turn out just a little differently.

Author's Notes: Yes I know they are British, but since I am pretty sure I can't pull off a British vocabulary well, I just won't... sorry.

Summary: Sometimes, off the field life isn't as easy as it should be, and during those trying times of the "heart" and "spirit", you wake up and realize something. You've just got to get over it and just bend it!

Just Bend It

Chapter One: Home Welcoming's and Hickeys

Jessminder Bhamra, aka Jess, sat on top of "her" washing machine in Santa Clara's dorm. Next to her, on top of another washing machine was her fellow soccer teammate and best friend Juliette Paxton, aka Jules. Both females sat comfortably on top of their respective machines in sport bras and pajama pants with water bottles near by.

"Got a four?"Jules said peaking one eye from the top of her cards. Jess stuck her tongue out at the girl and handed her a four. Jules smiled and put down her pair of fours. "Got a queen?"

Now it was Jess' turn to smile. "Nope!" Jules and Jess had been attending Saint Clara for three years so far, now both woman were twenty-one and no longer eighteen. Their soccer team was the top ranked college team in America after the three years Jess and Jules had joined. They both gradually adjusted to the California lifestyle, but they both always went back to England on any vacation they could. "Got a thr-" BEEP. Jules and Jess' washing machines went off simultaneously, the two climbed of their machines and began to load their clothes in a basket. They walked to the other side of the laundry room and dumped their clothes in a dryer, started the machine, then climbed on top it to finish their "high stakes" game of go fish.

"Got a three?" Jules threw the card at her. "How about a jack?" Another card was thrown in Jess' direction. "A six?"

"You're cheating aren't you?" Jules said as she passed Jess a six of spades, Jess gladly accepted the card and put down her pair of sixes.

"Nope just pure luck."

"Y'know I'm glad spring break is just a day away... we can go back to England... visit family... talk to friends... and you can go see Joe." Jules had a grin from ear to ear and her blue eyes held a playful sparkle in it. Jess looked at her friend then rolled her eyes.

"You have been using that trick ever since we got here, three years ago. Don't you think it's getting a little old?"

"Nope definitely not. But are you trying to tell me that you are not looking forward to seeing your secretive boyfriend?"

"It's not secretive around here since you told about how many people. "

"Oh only our team... and a few others. And it's your go." Joe and Jess continued to date each other for the last three years, however, they had failed to break the news to her parents. Although Pinky did know, after catching them kissing, and Jess got a funny feeling that her father might be catching on. While Joe really wanted to tell them, after beginning to play cricket with Jess' father, Jess would chicken out every time the decided they should. On the other hand Jess had met both Joe's mother and father... and they both loved the Indian girl to pieces. Joe always wrote her letters that said how much his parents were pestering to bring Jess over again.

"Got a ten?"

"Finally! Go fish." Jules blew a raspberry at Jess before she began to survey her cards again. "Got a five?"

"Go fish. Aren't you sad that you are going to be separated from your dear Liam, captain of the boys soccer team, Mr. Perfect all around?"

"Don't forget shaggable all around!" A wicked grin sneaked onto Jules' face.

"I don't know how you are going to stand the separation, it must be devastating. Two."

"And just when I thought you were off your winning streak."

"What can I say... other than, I'm the best!" Jess looked Jules in the eye with a 'confident' gaze.

"Some one here is a bit cocky. May be I should cool you off!"Jules dumped the water from her bottle onto Jess' head then immediately took off running when the Indian girl shrieked. Jess threw down her cards then ran after the blonde calling for retribution.

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"Jackets?"

"Uh-huh."

"Luggage?"

"Yup."

"Bags?"

"Yup. Can we go now?" Jules asked impatiently.

"I wonder how I ever put up with you."

"Because you love me!"

"Keep on dreaming, one day it might come true."Jess snickered as she slung her backpack over her shoulders and grabbed her suitcases from the tile floor. She started to head off towards the gate exit and Jules followed her lead.

"So who do you think is picking us up, your parents or mine?"

"Probably yours, my mom is probably at home cooking a full meal saying 'Jessminder hasn't had a proper meal in months in America!'." Jess said in a very exact imitation of her mother from the accent, to the tone, to the hand expression, and the face expressions. To others it would be a little eerie but to Jules and Jess, it was pure comedy.

"That definitely leaves mine, knowing my mother she'll have the 'perfect' family dinner set up at home waiting... Waiting to grill me on Liam."

Jess looked up at the taller girl with a look of feigned innocence. "Yeah, maybe I should let a few hints drop here and there.. Y'know just to help the process along and all."

Jules stopped walking and stared at Jess with blues opened wide and jaw nearing the floor. "You wouldn't!"

Jess stopped and tapped her chin with a finger, looking deep in thought. "I don't know... maybe... she might reward me with a few cookies. Like the ones she sent you last time and you didn't let me have any."

"I did so give you some, you nearly ate of the whole package! I am still wondering where your hiding it!" Jules was nearing the point of hysterics and people were beginning to stare at the poor misguided blonde.

"Joking Jules, calm down. I wouldn't tell your mom about your dear Liam, unless you asked me to."

Jules became relaxed immediately and sighed in relief. Before she realized what, or rather who, put her through the stress she had experienced. "That. Was. Not. Funny." She stormed pass the now laughing Jess.

Jess stopped laughing once she saw that Jules was far past her down the hallway. "Hey, wait up!" Jess jogged to catch up Jules and matched her long strides with her own shorter ones. "Don't tell me you're going to be sore about that little joke are you."

Jules smirked at Jess. "Nope, but I won't be so sure when we see Joe though."

'Uh-oh.'

The two females looked around the lobby they had just reached for the pair of an exuberant blonde haired woman and a relaxed silver haired man, but instead their eyes found a caramel brown hair of a man.

'Joe!' Jess thought in shock as she stared at the gray eyed man calmly sitting in one of the waiting chairs.

"Hmmm, speaking of the devil. Aren't you going to greet lover boy, Jess?" Jules received no answer from the suddenly mute Jess, so she decided to take matters into her own hands. "Hey, Joe!" She shouted from across the room.

Joe looked around the airport confused until he found the source of the call, smiling he got up from the chair and jogged over to the duo. He situated himself in front of the amused Jules and the shocked Jess. Shocked was only putting it mildly though.

"Hey Jules." Jules gave him a short wave. "Hello Jess." Jess stared at him with vacant dark honey eyes. "Jess?" Joe waved a hand by her glazed over eyes.

Jess blinked. "What are you doing here?" Jules had to walk away to compose herself before she started to laugh like a madwoman in the airport, although snickers seemed to be escaping her mouth on their own accord. Joe simply rolled his eyes and suppressed a sigh.

"And hello to you too, Miss. Bhamra." Silver eyes stared at Jess in mixture of half amusement, a quarter of patience, and a quarter of annoyance.

'Annoyance?... oops.' After thinking for a few moments, Jess finally realized why Joe was slightly annoyed... she really was a horrible girlfriend at times. She put her palms on his black leather jacket. "Sorry I didn't mean it like, what it sounded like... at least what it sounded like to you, that is."

'Only how many seconds back in good old England and you're already a bumbling fool while trying to talk to your boyfriend, didn't take you very long, eh?' Jess though sarcastically.

Keeping eye contact with Jess, Joe took one of her olive toned hand from its resting place on his jacket and kissed it as he massaged it. "Now would be the appropriate time to put together a complex sentence, love."

Jess snatched her hand out of his and gave him a slight push on his shoulders. "What I meant was, that I am shocked to see you picking up Jules and I. We were expecting her parents to come pick us up."

Joe shook his head. "Nah, your parents were going to pick you two up and your father and I had just finished playing cricket when your mother told him it was time to pick you up. She said she couldn't come because she was sure that you haven't had–"

"A proper meal in months." Jess finished off the sentence for him.

"Yup. So I volunteered to come and pick you two up."

"How sweet of you. But I know you're just trying to get on my parents' good side, aren't you?"

Joe pulled Jess towards him wrapping his arms around her shoulders as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "Yes, but I had other motives. Such as seeing you first." He moved his face closer to Jess' face.

"Really." Jess pulled back slightly. "And here I thought you were just trying to make sure when they find out about us, that they would remember all the good things you did and let you go with a few limbs missing instead of committing complete homicide on you."

Joe moved closer to Jess once more until their noses were touching. "We wouldn't have to worry about that." He moved closer and now Jess could almost feel his words against her mouth. "If we just told them, right away." Joe saw that a comment was about to roll off of Jess' sharp tongue and decided to capture her mouth, tongue included, in order to stop it from escaping. He only wanting to spare others from hearing her brutal tongue lashing, a noble cause of course, no ulterior motives at all... right...

Jess' mouth was quivering against Joe's assault over her mouth, she could feel him tugging her closer and closer to him. There bodies were molding together, Jess was slowly floating into her own abyss, and then...

... he stopped.

And Jess was flabbergasted with her mouth on fire from Joe's evil and purely selfish act and her waist no longer had the warmth of Joe's arms around them. Jess frowned. Joe saw her frown, smiling pecked her on the nose.

"I have to get you two home, don't want your parents going batty because their daughters are missing now don't we." Joe used one hand to grasp Jess' cheek and move up and to say 'yes'. "Good then, let's go. Ready Jules?"

"Uh-huh." Jules said from the 'sidelines'.

"Okay then." Joe gave Jess' hip one gentle squeeze before he started to lead them towards his car. "Let's get going." Jules picked up her bag and followed Joe. Jess stood frozen still frowning at the spot Joe had once occupied.

'That was so... evil...'

Joe turned around once he saw that Jess wasn't following. "Jess aren't you going to follow?" Jess watched as a pink tongue darted from inside of his mouth and followed its trail across his soft lips.

'Cruel and evil...' Jess, at a slow and steady pace, picked her bags and trudged behind Jules and Joe, on the journey to Joe's car.

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"Bye Jules!" Jess called out. Jules grabbed her bags out of Joe's car before she walked over to the passenger side window.

"Bye Jess, bye Joe."

"See ya Jules."

"I'll see you tomorrow right Jess?"

"Yeah, I'll meet you at the park around seven."

"Okay, see you then. Now you two don't do anything that I wouldn't do." She wagged a finger at Jess and Joe. Jess had to fight hard to keep her face from heating up and turning a shade pink while Joe rolled his light gray eyes.

"That doesn't leave a lot of room, now does it, Jules?" Joe asked.

Jules waved. "Bye-bye tiger!" She picked up her bags and basically bounced off towards her house. After seeing she was safely inside, Joe started to drive off towards Jess' house.

The car was completely silent. Joe concentrating on driving and Jess staring out her side window at the colors being thrown against the sky as the sun disappeared into the horizon.

"So..." Joe started.

Jess brought her attention away from the sky to look at Joe's profile. His full gentle mouth ever so slightly parted, white teeth peeking out from the inside. Long dark thick lashes, that most girls Jess knew would kill for, fluttered slightly as he stared ahead at the road. Pale gray eyes completed the dirty blonde's perfection. "So?"

"So...I beginning to get tempted and pull up to the side of the road and do exactly what Jules wouldn't do."

The small tension from the silence dispersed. "Really?" Jess raised one black eyebrow over a dark eye.

Joe took his off the road for a moment to look Jess in the eyes. "Yes, very tempted."

"Sure you are."

"You don't believe me?"

Jess shook her head 'no', even though he probably couldn't see the action. "Nope. I don't, that would be too risque for you, Joe Richards."

"Really?"

"Yup, you wouldn't take the chance knowing the police could pull over at any moment, find us, and we would both end up in trouble.

"Really, you think so?"

"Really."

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Jess had come to terms that Joe Richards, her boyfriend, was risque enough to pull over to the side of a road and make-out with his girlfriend for a good twenty-minutes not caring that police could pull over, find them, and get them both in trouble. Jess never imagined herself as a teen to be a girl making-out in her boyfriend's car, only a few blocks away from her parents house, she never even gave it a second thought. So why at the age of twenty-one was she doing said activity... Jess didn't quite know why but she was... and she did enjoy it.

A lot.

"I can't believe you." Jess said as she tried to fixed her disheveled look that she knew would scream throughly kissed to her family if she stepped into her house as she looked. Her was falling out of its customary high pony-tail, her lips were redder than usually and definitely swollen. Her button down shirt was wrinkled, the collar was out of shape, and as she inspected her neck she could swear she could see red marks forming on the skin.

"You have said that about a millions times in the last five minutes." Joe pulled up to the curb and parked his car. His appearance was no better than Jess' with his hair mussed more than usually and his normally neat clothes very wild.

"I think I have a hickey!"

Joe smirked. "Consider it a love bite, love."

"I can't believe you did that!"

"You didn't seem to mind so much a the time."

"Joe!"

Sigh. "Not done reminiscing yet? If you want we can relive it right now and right here."

"In front of my parents house! Thanks, but no thanks Joe but I do intend on attending Santa Clara's in next few weeks."

"You shouldn't be complaining about a hickey I have your lip gloss all over me." Joe complained.

"You didn't seem to mind so much at the time." Jess said, throwing Joe's own words back at him. Joe leaned over and kissed her flush on the lips without pretense or warning.

"No I didn't. But may I just suggest something?"

"What?"

Joe licked his lips. "I think you should go back to your strawberry flavored lip gloss, it tastes much better than..." Joe paused before he kissed Jess once more and Jess followed his tongue as her licked his lips again. "... cherry flavor. I'm not much of a cherry fan." Joe popped the lock to the trunk open and exited the car to get Jess' bags.

Being left alone in the car, Jess shook her head as she finished tidying her appearance before she went to get her backpack from the back of the car.

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There were many hugs and kisses as Jess got passed around from her mother, to her father, to Pinky, to Teetu, and even two year old Megana Ghana, Teetu's and Pinky's daughter, joined in. No one noticed seemed to notice Joe's or Jess' unkempt appearances, with the exception of Pinky, now a very happy and content housewife. Jess just knew from the look of curiosity and glee in her older sister's eyes, that she would be pumped for information later... now she finally understood what Jules was going through early that morning.

The family along with Joe, who was invited to stay by Mr. Bhamra, sat done around the dining table and eat dinner until their bellies were full. Jess told everyone about California over desert after she cleared the table. Later on Jess made her discrete good-bye to Joe and headed up to her room. Looking around the room walls covered by the 'skin-headed man' David Beckham, Jess was hit by sudden nostalgia.

She had just picked up a soccer ball in the corner and began to dribble it back and forth on the floor between her feet when Pinky walked into the room in a flurry of chaos of words and hand movements.

Pinky straightaway studied Jess' facial expression. "So Jess, how is your little goreh doing?"

Jess rolled her eyes, so the information pumping chronicles have begun! "He's fine."

"I'm guessing the reason you two were late wasn't because of the 'traffic' you guys experienced coming here, eh?" Pinky's eyes remained glued to Jess' face.

Remaining aloof, Jess danced around her sister's question. "Really, you don't say?"

"Yea, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you two were making out."

"Really?" Jess' eyes opened wide in false shock. "You don't say."

"Yea, and there were some lip gloss stains around Joe's neck and disappeared down into his shirt. Now, you wouldn't know anything about that now, would you?"

"Hmm." Jess shrugged her shoulders impassively.

"Both of your clothes looked a bit off you know."

"Uh-huh?"

"Yea."

Jess knew her older sister was trying to get a rise out her, but Jess wasn't going to let her succeed like she had in the past. "Hmmm, interesting."

"Well, I'll be leaving now." Pinky turned to leave.

"Bye Pinks."

Pinky stopped at the door. "Oh and by the way..."

"Yea?"

"...Your goreh sure does leave some clear love bites. You better watch out... it looks like you have a mighty big hickey by your collarbone."Pinks smiled in satisfaction as Jess nearly shrieked bloody murder and her hands immediately found their way to her collar. "Bye now." Pinky left the room in a confidence driven swagger and Jess flew to her mirror to inspect what damage was done to her collar by Joe.

Pinky was right... she did have a hickey...

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That's it for this chapter. Reviews? Praise? Critique? Praise the shiny button on the bottom.