Soccer Girl

Chapter 11- Mr(s). Bigshot

If I have to ride a bus for another hour with these idiots I will kill every single one of them. But to my disappointment, as always, fate fell short this time and we WEREN’T hit but a speeding truck. Cheerleaders sat on the laps of almost every single lap of the guys, the sounds of ‘Wanna hangout out over the weekend and wanna ‘hang out’ this weekend’ were everywhere and I’m not sure if half of the girls realized the difference between the two phrases.

We were already late as it was. The coin toss was set for 3:30 and it was an impending deadline that was only growing closer with each passing minute. Literally. I felt the bus jeck to a halt, so I glanced out the window to see where we had stopped. You would think that I would know if we had arrived, but with how poor traffic was we could still have been stuck in the stop and go downward spiral. Luckily we had arrived at our intended destination with ten minutes to spare. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. I shot up, grabbing my kit and whistled loudly to get the idiots attention;

                “Yo! We have ten minutes to get onto the field for the toss. Get your arses off this bus in one minute, and if anyone is not on that field By 3:25, you’ve got 3 extra laps next practice.”

“That’s not that bad.” Snorted Ryan, one of our smaller mid-fielders.

         “Around the track.” I narrowed my eyes at the now groaning boys. I saluted at them and ran of this bus, sprinting as fast as I could in slides with my kit smacking harshly against my back. I broke through the gates to the locker rooms and set my bag down in the guest lockers. I carelessly threw off my slides and pulled on the only cleats I currently owned. Believe it or not I was a big believer in using a pair into the ground before wasting money on a new set. I readjusted the captain’s band on my calf and slammed the door leading to the field shut, towing my bag with me. The clock next to the scoreboard read ‘3:24’, so I casually scanned the bench to my right to see if all of the boys were there. Most were, but Harvey and half of his ‘crew’ were still absent. I could feel the tops on my ears heating up in anger at the sight of the idiots walking to the bench without a care in the world. Mathers had also arrived, roster in hand.

        “You four, you’ve all got extra laps for next practice. You break my rules and you get punished. Complain and you will not play in this game.” I glared harshly at the smirk on Harvey’s smug face.

        “Geez Sammy-Whammy, go easy on the poor guys. Here’s the roster.” I snached it from Mathers, turing my glare on him.

         “Do not call me that old man.” I was saved from answering to his miffed expression at my comment when a cubby, short ref blew his shiney silver whistle.

        “Captains on the field please.” He called. I heard excited whispers from girls as Chance stepped onto the field. Other girls were more daring and chanted Harvey’s name, assuming that their beloved soccer star was the captain. I rolled my eyes and flicked my ponytail in Harvey’s direction, catching a glimpse at his sour expression. As the Northridge team lined up off to the side for the pre-game handshake, I walked, head held high, to the refs, standing in the center of the field.

         “We called for the captain's little girl, not a cheer leader.” I snapped my eyes in his direction and handed him the roster.

        “I’m well aware, sir, that’s why I’m out here and not Harvey River.” Chance sent a bright grin at me, mouthing the word ‘congrats’ to me, nodding at the ‘C’ on my chest. The rest of His team wasn’t so... accepting? Their emotions ranged from incredulous to pissed. I could feel the rage rolling down from the stands, coating the field  like a hazy fog. Fangirls, their wrath is not something to mess with. I lazily moved my eyes to meet the wide ones of the head ref.  

         “Are we ready to being or what, boy?” He whipped a chubby across his shiny forehead and nodded at me.

        “Shake hands and introduce yourselves.” I Stuck my hand out to Chance, but he didn’t return the gesture.

              “Come on Sam. You know better than that.” I shared his grin and we wrapped our arms around each other in a brief hug. We had both been raised around soccer player dads and famous teams. It was a normal thing to hug your opposing captain to show respect and solidarity for the other team. It was also a promise to kick eachotehrs asses. I heard a low scoff from someone behind me. I turned my head and locked eyes with Harvey. The idiots had managed to line up behind me, readying themselves for the pre game handshake as well. I glared at him and he didn’t hesitate to return it. I looked back at Chance, well, looked back up at chance since he was much taller than I.

        “Sam, is it? Call it in the air.”  I nodded and called ‘tails’. It was heads. Northridge was given the first kick and I selected the side of the field that our benches were on. Chance and I knuckle punched and walked past each other saying ‘Good luck’. After we all slapped hands we all took position. I stood behind the dome shaped center line in the center. Harvey was playing right forward. We had decided early on that we were only going to have two forwards, so Harvey and I were put into each respective position. Ryan played right mid, Marcus right center mid, Kevin left center mid, and Jack was on left mid. Our defensive line went from left to right; Jack, King, Olly and Dan. Finn as our resident keeper. Both keepers on either side of the field held their hands up in the ‘thumbs up’ gesture. The ref proceeded to blow his whistle and the game begun.