The Child Who Holds the Power

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I slept better that night knowing I didn't have to worry about being hated at school. I admittedly even had a dream about Josh, but all the same I slept well and was ready to kick butt in soccer. When I arrived at school Carly was waiting at the main entrance and she tossed me a jersey. 

"It's going to be 20 minutes on field and then a 10 minute break. Then back on for another 20 minutes. The goal is to be in front the whole time so we don't have to go into a shoot-out," she explained the strategy.

I nodded, "Sounds like a good idea. How many people have we got in total?"

She frowned, "We only have 13 in total. That leaves us only 2 subs so everyone is going to be on for most of the game."

"That's ok. We can manage that can't we?" I nodded enthusiastically.

"Yeah we can, but the boys have more people and they play football a lot longer than we play on the field," she added.

"We'll be fine," I assured her.

The referee blew his whistle long and loud signalling half time. Both teams walked off the field to take a break. I walked over to where I had put my drink bottle along side all the other girls. I was surprised at how many people had turned up to watch the game. Apparently the soccer match had been scheduled a while ago and people were really hyped.  The first half of the game had been pretty close and was tied on four all. We'd been hoping to lead from the start but the boys were really good.

So far I had scored one goal and Carly had scored two. Our forth goal was scored by another member of our team, Chloe. Josh had also scored twice and Carter had scored twice too for their team. A couple of times I'd caught Carter giving me a death stare on the field and I could not figure out why. I took a drink and walked slowly over to the rest of the team. I was thinking that it was about time I used my special trick. If I could still do it.

"Jez, any ideas on how we can make a convincing win?" Carly asked uncertain.

"I do have an idea actually. Put me near goals and kick the ball up high to me," I instructed much more confidently then I felt.

A couple of the girls looked at each other skeptically, so to gain some trust I decided it was time to tell my team what I could do.

"When I played soccer at home, I was well known for doing a Bicycle kick," I explained.

At first there was dead silence before the smiles started to creep across faces.

"WHAT?! Why didn't you mention this earlier? Ok here's the plan. Jez you're down near the goal and everyone else is out in the field getting the ball down to you. Remember kick high," Carly drilled the team.

There were nods of agreement. Then the ref blew the whistle signalling we had to get back on the field. We all wished each other good luck and ran back on and took our positions. Josh was smiling at me and I got a bit distracted and missed the whistle for the start of the second half. My head shot up and my eyes widened because somehow, in the first few seconds of play, my team had managed to get possession of the ball and it was flying high in the air towards me.

I had seconds before it was about to land in my face so I gather my wits and jumped, did a half flip and slammed the ball with my foot. I landed on my feet just in time to see the ball sail neatly into the top left hand corner of the goal. The whistle blew and we got another point. People in the crowd were cheering, my team mates were whooping and some ran over to high five me.

The boy's team quickly took in the fact that I actually had some skill and decided to distract me by putting Josh down near me. He jogged over and stood right next to me.

He lightly bumped my shoulder with his, "When you said you could play soccer I didn't think you meant you could do that."

I smiled and turned to him, "I couldn't tell you otherwise you would use it to your advantage. And plus, I want to win."

He turned to face me and laughed, "So do I."

Both teams played hard for the next fifteen minutes. Josh was really a good soccer player which made it extremely hard to get another goal. Some of the other players on my team got close to scoring too but the boys were always hot on our heels. Eventually Chase managed to level the score again and time was running out. Both teams were desperate for an outright win and it was down to the wire.

In the final minute Carly and another of our players Mia cornered and confused Josh. I managed to give him the slip and another of our players kicked the ball up high to me. I didn't have time to think about whether my timing was right. I jumped off the ground and flipped, kicked with all my might and hoped for the best.

I made a clean landing but not in time to see the final result. But I didn't need to. The whole team was screaming and cheering. The crowd was too. I smiled broadly as the whistle for full time blew. The team went wild even more than they already were. They ran up to me and hugged me. A couple of them went over and jokingly tried to console the football team for their loss.

After a few seconds I shook them off and walked over to the boy's team.

I held out my hand to the first guy I came across, "Good game."

He shook my hand and nodded dejectedly but smiled all the same.

I went round to all the other boys and shook hands with all of them. The rest of my team eventually did the same thing. It's what my soccer team at home used to do. Our coach always said it was good sportsmanship and he was right. I went up to Carter and held out my hand. He glared at me coldly, turned his back on me and walked away.

I saved Josh for last, so I walked up to him. He was standing in the middle of the field away from the others. I stuck out my hand and said good game. He shook my hand enthusiastically and said the same back. Josh had a strange expression on his face that I couldn't quite read. He opened his mouth and then closed it. He did the same again before he finally got something out.

"Uuh, there is a dance at the end of the month for Halloween. I don't know if you do Halloween in Australia, but I was wondering if you would like to go with me?" Josh asked doubtfully.

My face lit up with the biggest smile ever and I ask incredulously, "You want to go with me?"

He laughed at my surprise, "Yeah, that's why I'm asking."

"Yes I'll go with you," I was almost delirious with happiness.

"You will! Great I'll-" he was cut off.

"Come on Jez! Before we run out of time to shower before class!" Carly yelled over to me.

I turned to Josh and made a face. He laughed. I held out my arms for a hug without thinking. Josh smiled mischievously and leaned in to hug me. He hugged me tight and for the first time since I left Australia I felt like I was somewhere I wanted to be, somewhere I felt safe. In Josh's arms it almost felt like home. That was until I figured out why he was smiling so evilly. He was all sweaty!

"Eeewww! Josh you're all sweaty! Let go!" I wriggled in his embrace.

He wasn't letting go though but I didn't really mind. I started laughing uncontrollably and I could not only hear him laugh, I could feel it too. His laugh reverberated through his chest as he hung onto me. That was when I truly knew my home was no longer back in Australia. Even after only knowing him for a few days, I knew, without a doubt, that being with Josh would come to feel like home.