Operation Beautiful

Chapter 21: shirts versus skins, yeah?

Chapter 21: shirts versus skins, yeah?

"You nervous?" Spike asks me, pulling his goalie jersey on over his bare chest.

"A little. I mean, it's not the championship or anything but..."

"But coach will kick our asses if we lose," Spike says with a laugh.

"Yeah. Who came up with this idea anyway?" I ask. "An interscholastic tournament to see who got the extra money in the district's athletic budget? Who does that?"

"Stupid politics. Adults can't decide anything for themselves," Spike jokes.

"Where's Trevor?" I ask as we head out of the locker room.

Spike gestures to the benches. "He and Haley were having a little heated discussion over that-a-way. Trevor probably wanted to go to the bathroom with her.” We both laugh.

The shopping trip was last week. Haley and Emma have gone shopping a couple times since then, and Trevor and I have tagged along, hanging out at the food court while they go do...whatever it is girls do at a mall. In fact, Trevor’s been pretty much glued to Haley’s side since her little “mall mishap”. I guess it’s been bugging Haley a little. I see him give her a hug. She smiles and points to where she’ll be sitting.

“Let’s go kick some ass!” Trevor says, jogging up to us with a grin.

The set up of the tournament is really...weird. Our team is split up into three groups of eleven so we can play against the different schools in the tournament. The money will, apparently, be split according to who wins the most scrimmages. Each scrimmage is an hour long and we have three scrimmages going on at once.

Tweet!

I take up my position as a mid-fielder: not far enough down the field as the three forwards, but right in the, well, middle of the, you know, field. Hence the name.

The Trumpton High Tigers are on the other side of the field. They start off with the ball, pushing past Trevor and Duncan, two of our forwards. Jason, our third forward and the cocky idiot making eyes at Jessica, charges up to challenge the guy with the ball.

His challenge gives Trevor and Duncan enough time to make it down the field to guard two open players. We’re playing man-to-man: meaning each guy from our team is defending one guy on their team. I see the forward on the other team motion to one of his players on the other side of the field.

“Michael!” I call to a midfielder guarding the player in question. “Watch him!” Michael nods, putting his arm out to feel the position of the guy behind him. The red jerseied offender behind him fakes right and left but Michael follows.

But in the commotion of watching Michael I let the guy I was guarding slip away, giving the forward someone to pass to. With an ease borne of practice, Trevor runs past me to take up my guy while I slide backwards to guard his. But despite Trevor’s defense, the guy barrels towards the goal. Spike jumps to reach the ball, but it tumbles into the goal just out of his grasp.

We pat each other on the back and I look up to see Emmaleigh flash me a thumbs up. I can’t help the grin that spreads on my face as I jog back to position.

The game continues. The coach split the team up into groups based on ability. So it’s the best boys on our teams versus the best boys on their team. End result? A hell of a game.

By half-time we’re already sweaty. I flop onto the bench as Spike tosses me a sports drink. The other team is smirking at us from their bench: cocky about their as-of-now 1:0 lead. The coach is off monitoring some other group.

“I don’t like their faces,” Duncan says, heaving himself onto the bench beside me.

I can’t help but laugh. “We can’t expect them to be as good looking as us,” I joke.

“True dat,” Jason mumbles from around an orange slice. He spits the peel out onto the ground and gets an evil smile on his face. “Why don’t we show them what they’re missing...” He tugs his jersey off and lets it fall next to his orange peel. “Shirts versus skins, yeah?”

I laugh. “You’re such a douche,” I say, leaning back against Duncan. I snap up suddenly at the feel of wet skin. “Dude?” Duncan’s already stripped his jersey.

“Come on, man!” Duncan says with a grin. “Let’s wipe the cocky smirks off their faces.”

I look over at Trevor who just shrugs, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouths. “I guess we don’t have much of a choice, dude,” he says, putting his jersey on the bench.

“You just want to show off in front of Haley,” I point out with a laugh. “Wait...hasn’t she already seen you shirtless at the soccer tryouts?”

Trevor smirks. “She tried that excuse when I dragged her out of the cafeteria that one day,” he says. “I said it didn’t count because we weren’t dating at the time. Now hurry up and take your shirt off.”

“Damn, Trevor, no need to get all excited,” Jason jokes. We all laugh and I tug my jersey over my head. If you can’t beat ‘em...

The second half starts with an enormous cheer for our team. From people on both sides. Including their cheerleaders. I look up to see Haley laughing and Emmaleigh turning bright red as she stares at me. I guess this wasn’t such a bad idea after all...

“Feeling better already,” Jason comments, taking the ball and dribbling it up the field. The moral boost comes with a goal for us, tying up the game. But playing without shirts is a little harder than expected, at least when it comes to bouncing the ball off our chests.

“Damn that hurt,” Michael mouths at me. I just laugh and start dribbling up the field. It’s a switch in position the other team won’t be expecting. It’s not something high school teams usually do. Michael and I switch with Jason and Duncan. They become mid-fielders, we become forwards. Trevor stays in position for now.

We pull this in the middle of the play, throwing their zone defense a little out of whack and giving us the smallest bit of edge. In the confusion and their taking of the ball back to our side, no one notices the fact that Duncan lags behind us. Until I steal the ball. I pass to Jason and he sends it flying to Duncan, who starts running towards their goal in order to catch the ball.

“Shoot he might be offsides!” I hiss.

Off sides is one of those rules no one but a soccer fan cares about. Essentially, if you are going to get the ball, there better be two people between you and the goal before you catch it. Otherwise, you can park some dweeb by the goal all game and just send it flying to him every time. It’s not that big of a deal for the little kids, but when the field is as big as a football one, it’s easy to get a guy where the defenders can’t reach him quick enough.

So, essentially, Duncan is running right past the defense. And if he passes the defense before the ball hits his foot, it’s a penalty. Thankfully, the defense is still some ways ahead, so there’s a small chance he’ll make it.

Everyone on our team just kind of stares at Duncan, hoping.

He takes enormous strides towards the ball, the defense barrelling towards him as well. He gets the ball inches before the defenders and slams it past them and into the goal.

“It was off sides!” one of their forwards yells. But the referee doesn’t think so and neither do we. It’s our goal.

“YES!” I yell, jumping onto Duncan’s back. “Dude! How did you do that?”

He shrugs and grins at me. “‘Coz I’m ninja.”

The game ends a few minutes later. A victory, of course, for the shirtless ones. 

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Wah! It's been so long! I'm sorry. And a big thank you to all who sent me swift kicks in the behind :)