Friday, September 24
“Are you ready?” Travis asked as we started walking out of French.
“Of course,” I responded. We walked down a different hallway, going to my locker. Travis waited while I unlocked it and opened it to get my soccer bag.
“Hey,” Declan said, coming over to meet us. I nodded my head, and Travis gave him a high-five. “Is Paul coming to the party?”
“Probably not,” Travis said as we walked towards the locker room. “Did Alex tell you what he did to the poor kid?”
“What?” Declan looked at me. “What did you do?”
“Nothing!” I lied.
Travis punched my arm. “He kissed Paul.” Declan looked astonished. “Yeah. And Paul didn’t even say he could.” This time it was Declan’s turn to punch me.
“You know better!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t raise you like this!!”
“You didn’t raise me! And both of you stop punching, slapping and kicking me!”
“Oh. Is that why you have a red mark on your face?” I touched my cheek and glared at Travis. Declan chuckled and we walked into the locker room to see the Junior Varsity team finishing their pep talk.
“Alright! Let’s go out and kick some ass!!” Coach Garcia exclaimed as all they started running out of the locker room.
“Ahh,” Declan sighed, putting his stuff on one of the benches. “Remember when we were like that? So full of ambitions.”
“You’re still like that,” Travis said, putting his foot on the bench and stretching.
“Yo,” Kevin said, walking in with Kyle. They wore their backpacks on their back and their soccer bags over their chests.
“Hey,” Travis said.
“Are you going to watch the JV game?” Kyle asked, dropping his stuff off at the bench.
“Yeah after I change,” I said, taking my uniform out of my soccer bag. The others nodded as I went to change. I heard the others coming into the locker room chatting and being rowdy teenagers.
“Hurry up, Alex!” Declan called. “Travis and I are leaving without you!” I pulled back the curtain of the changing stall I was in.
“Don’t leave your captain here unless you’re asking to be punished!” I exclaimed, making Declan and Travis run out of the locker room. I quickly put my regular clothes in my soccer bag before taking my phone and running after them.
Today the air was warm, but there were clouds in the sky. I just hoped it wouldn’t start raining until later. I saw Travis and Declan disappear under the bleachers, hoping they wouldn’t be found. I sighed, jogging through the open gate of the fence surrounding the field. I saw a lot of others from school, and a few teachers as well. There were a lot of parents that also came to watch their kid or kids play.
“They’re under there,” Charlie said, pointing under the bleachers. I nodded, and walked over to see the two of them crouching down, trying to stay out of sight.
“Found you,” I said, making them jump. They slowly turned to look at me, their faces pale. I frowned at them, folding my arms and shaking my head. “Whatever. Let’s just watch the game already.” The three of us walked out from under the bleachers and over to the shorter fence surrounding the track. We looked on the field and saw the Junior Varsity players waiting for the whistle.
“He’s a really good center back,” Travis said, pointing at one of the players when the half-time whistle blew. He was stretching his arms up in the air, the rest of us waiting for the field to clear of the JV players. “I’ve seen him play before, but Charlie and Liam have better footwork.”
“He’ll make it next year,” I said to him. I turned to the other players, and shouted, “Let’s get warmed up!!”
Everyone ran onto the field to kick a ball around to warm up their legs. I passed to Travis a couple times and then we switched drills. As half time ended, the JV players jogged back onto the field, and the rest of us walked off. The game resumed and we went into the locker room to have our team meeting.
“These guys are good,” Coach said as we finished the debriefing. “They’ve got good teamwork and a strong defense, but there’s no way you can lose. Captain? A few words if you will.”
I stood and turned to look at my teammates. “We can't lose our first home game of the year. It will make us look bad.” Some of the others chuckled in agreement. “We’re gonna go out there and do our best because we can do anything we put our minds and souls into.”
There was a very long pause as my teammates comprehended what I said.
“I’m sorry?” Ethan asked.
“Did we hit you too hard?” Declan asked.
“The first part was okay,” Kevin said.
“What’s up with the second part?” Kyle added.
“Sorry,” I muttered. “I just thought it would be good to try something different.” The others made a sound of worry. “Fine!” I took a big breath. “Let’s go out there and win!”
“Yeah!!”
As we all got into our 4-2-1-3 formation for the kick off, I glanced at the inner fence and saw Paul and Charlotte standing together. Charlotte was waving at a benched Ethan and Paul was jut writing stuff in a notebook. I looked at Declan who just shrugged at me. The referee blew the whistle and the game began.
We were on defense first, and we pressured them from the beginning. They didn’t have a very strong offence, so I was able to steal the ball easily. After running for a few seconds, their defence was all over me. It was hard to find and opening to pass, and the defender wasn’t letting me get by.
“Hey!” Declan called, running behind my defender. I kicked the ball to him and he ran down the field. I ran as well, my defender at my side. He blocked any path for the ball, and I grit my teeth.
“We know a lot about you, Alexander White,” he said as we past the line in the center of the field. “This school came in third in the State Championships last year. There were only three seniors then, weren’t there?”
“So what?” I asked, skillfully getting past him and running towards the goal. I noticed Aidan was also running, and Declan prepared for a pass. Aidan and I were both ready for it, but we watched in shock as Declan tapped it under the defender’s legs.
“No fair!” Aidan called as Declan ran for the goal. There was the center back of their team waiting, but Declan passed it to me. I was completely open. Kicking the ball into the upper right corner, it flew into the net.
“Nice one!” Declan said, grinning at me.
“What the hell are you so happy about, Showoff!?” I exclaimed, putting my arm around his neck and rubbing his hair. “I totally thought you were going to pass to me!”
“Or me!” Aidan chimed in, jogging back towards his defence position. Declan and I went back to defend, the ball going towards Aidan’s side.
“Hey!!” I called, but Aidan started dribbling down the field himself. Brayden, Declan and I followed for backup. The defenders ever very determined, trapping Aidan at the sideline. I couldn’t shake my defender which annoyed me. Declan was also having a hard time, but Brayden maneuvered around to get open. Aidan passed, and Brayden was in scoring range.
“Pass it back!” I called, but Brayden passed it back to Aidan. He kicked the ball, but the goalie got his fingers on it. The ball flew off the goalpost and right at me. I bumped it off my chest and then positioned myself to score.
“Behind you!” Brayden called, but it was too late. I felt someone grab me from behind, and the two of us tumbled to the ground. The ref blew his whistle, pulling a yellow card out of his pocket.
“It’s only been five minutes!” the other team’s goalie yelled at the guy who pulled me. “What’re you thinking?”
“Shut up!” the boy yelled back. “You saw how strong this guy is! Come on! I had to stop him!”
“Not like that!”
“Now now,” their team captain said, going over to regroup. Aidan and Declan came over to help me up.
“Are you alright?” Aidan asked.
“That guy grabbed you hard,” Declan pat my back.
“I’m fine,” I said, stretching my arms. “It wasn’t too bad of a fall.” I turned to look at the others. “Alright! We knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but let’s keep going and score some more goals!”
“That’s your job, Captain!” Liam called from the defensive line. I gave him a thumbs up and we went back to continue the game.
Attack after attack, both us and the other team tried to score more goals. The other teams’ offence was really bad, and I couldn’t help but wish their defense was bad as well. Every time Brayden got the ball, two defenders were on me. I was unable to dribble or shoot, so Brayden stopped passing to me. When the ref blew the whistle for half time, a vein was popping out of my forehead.
“Brayden!” I shouted, making him flinch. “Why aren’t you passing to me!?”
“Hah!?” Brayden looked at me like I was stupid. “You’re seriously asking me that!? They’ve got two defenders on you, and I can’t get a pass through!”
“That’s not true! You just want to try and score yourself!”
“Now now,” Declan said, putting his hands between me and Brayden. “Calm down.”
“Easy for you to say!” I exclaimed. “Brayden has already passed to you ten times but you haven’t even made one shot go in!”
“What!? You wanna go!?” Declan grabbed the front of my uniform.
“Bring it pal!!” I shouted, grabbing the front of his uniform. We both raised our fists, but Travis cleared his throat. We froze.
“As amusing as this is,” he started, his voice menacing. “I would like to talk about what we should do next.”
“That’s what I was going to say,” Coach Johnson said. Declan and I glared at each other once more before letting go of our uniforms. “As we can tell, their offence is really weak. I want you to change to a 4-3-3.” He picked up a white board with a diagram of half the field. “Max, sub in for Cooper. Kevin, Kyle, Liam and you will stay in the back. Brayden, Sam and Charlie will be in the middle, and you three will stay up top. This way we will have a stronger offense. And still keep a good defense.”
The whistle blew and we hurried back onto the field. We did what coach told us to do. Sam Murdick was a sophomore midfielder. He and Brayden used to play little league soccer together. Sam had always looked up to Brayden, and became great teammates and rivals in high school. Max Logan was also a sophomore. He played center forward but was really shy and didn’t like talking to the others. I heard from others that he had moved here in middle school. When he joined their soccer team, he was head and shoulders above the others. They had a hard time keeping up with him. He made it on the team as a freshmen, the same year Declan, Travis and I were promoted from JV to Varsity.
“Come on, Alex!” Declan called when Brayden started dribbling the ball up the field. I started running, but the defenders were blocking me from getting a pass.
This was going to be more difficult than I thought.
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