You Make Me Begin

Chapter 1

A mild breeze blew through as Ahaana tightened her cleats. Tying her slightly long raven hair in a ponytail, she grabbed her partner's hand and bounced to her feet.

The two jumped slightly in their place before lining up with their teammates. The 10 girls took their positions in the field and waited for their coach's whistle.

It was their second time playing the actual game since the coach insisted on increasing stamina before playing a match.

The ball was in the opponent's possession and Ahaana chased after them, wanting to claim the ball for her team. She signalled Jesse, her partner to cover the left and cut in from the right, giving a hard time to the opponent team player with passing the ball. Within a fraction of a second Ahaana managed to kick the ball to Jesse who passed it to their forward who smoothly sent the ball flying into the net.

Grinning, she clapped her members on their shoulders. Football is a tiring game. All games are but this required a lot of running around, but it was her safe haven. Something she was best at, something that gave her a sense of freedom. It made her feel worthy and her parents appreciated that. With limits, but it didn't bother her much.

Soon the game came to an end with both teams scoring equally.

“Good game. Ahaana and Jesse, good strategy. Others, your footwork was amazing. You're improving. It's sad this is your last game with us Ahaana, but it's fine. See you again someday” the coach said with a small smile on his face. He wasn't great with words, but his face expressed everything they needed to hear.

“Definitely sir. Let me finish school. We'll play during the summer again” she promised making everyone chuckle and nod.

“Alright. Warm down and go home” he instructed before going to collect his things.

Ahaana said goodbye to everyone individually after warming down. I'll miss them all, she thought as she picked her bag up.

The summer morning was the usual- hotter than the night, cooler than noon. The already rose sun shone on Ahanna's tawny skin, sweat still on her hairline from the previous match.

Watching the random passerby and avoiding stray dogs, not wanting to be chased again, Ahaana walked in a fast pace towards her home.

“Oi Ahaana!!” yelled a voice, making the girl squint and turn around wondering who the fuck it was.

Oh, it's this idiot she thought, watching a black haired girl jogging towards her. She stopped and waited for her best friend to reach her.

“Will you ever start walking slowly?” Aadhira questioned angrily, her wavy hair bouncing in a ponytail as she jabbed a finger at the other girl's chest.

“Ow!” She slapped Aadhira's hand away in annoyance before rolling her eyes. “You know I don't walk slowly especially when I'm alone”

“Yeah yeah whatever” the shorter one responded nonchalantly. She was still breathing heavily from her little run, so she ignored Ahaana's bored tone and wiped small drops of sweat off her wheatish skin.

“Okay, what are you doing here? And what a surprise, you're awake!” Ahaana mocked, earning a shove and laughed.

“My mom woke me up to study. I was on the balcony and saw your idiot self walking, so I'm here” she grinned widely.

Ahaana simply swatted her arm at the remark, used to the banter. “At least one of us is studying. I'm just going back from practice”

“Yeah I know. You stink by the way” Aadhira pointed out with a short laugh making the younger girl scoff and flick her forehead. Ahaana who was younger by roughly 9 months never showed a hint of respect through words. Their friendship is made of playful banters. They respect each other as an individual obviously, but just not in words. Typical friendship.