Happily Ever After

30: Championships

The Latina had her brothers, sisters and nieces, giggling as they picked out toys and furniture, and were ready to do anything for her. She looked at the sky at her papi, knowing that he was smiling down at her.

———

Meanwhile, the Royal's break was flying by. 

Before Sarah knew it, the team was warming up for their next game. Their opponents were seen to be more strategic, which made them more challenging. Alexis warmed Sarah up, the two girls switching positions. Sarah's red curls clashed with her orange keeper jersey, but she was feeling confident.

The girls let out their cheer and ran onto the field, and the redhead smiled as she heard her family's whooping cheers for her, along with the kids' incoherent screaming.

As the game began, it became clear to Sarah that this one would be much trickier. The Vermont Voltage weren't rough, but more strategic, elegant passers, and their shots were precise and on target, making them much tougher of an opponent.

Sarah found herself much more frazzled in the net, constantly on edge of an attack.

During a scramble in the keeper's box, Ariana had gotten frustrated and had straight up shoved an opponent to the ground. Sarah could have screamed in frustration when the referee called a penalty shot, as these shots were the most challenging for the goalies.

Essentially, keepers had almost no chance to save the ball. Goalies were required to stand on the goal line, while the opponent stood thirty six feet away, having a massive advantage to sink the ball somewhere the keeper couldn't reach, which was pretty much anywhere.

As the ref reminded her of this, Sarah stood on the line and tried to make herself look big. She stood on the balls of her feet, ready to spring in any which direction. Sarah felt her thoughts slow as she focused on the ball.

It happened in slow motion. The ref blew the whistle, and the girl ran at the ball, kicking it towards the right hand corner. Sarah attempted to catch it, but the ball was travelling so fast that it just rebounded off her hands, and the opponent got her own rebound, sinking it in the back of the net.

The opposing team cheered, celebrating their goal. Sarah sighed in frustration and defeat, but her teammates quickly converged on her, reassuring her with hugs and pats on the back.

"It's not your fault, Sarah,"

"You got the first one, which is the hardest one to get,"

"It's okay, you did well,"

Olivia, her midfielder, wrapped her friend in a quick hug. "You can't get them all. Stand tall, you're keeping us in this," she insisted, squeezing the redhead's shoulder. Sarah squeezed her friend's hand, took a quick squirt of water, dusting herself off.

She tried her best, and sometimes things didn't work out. 

Before her biological parents died, that thought would have torn her apart. Some days, it did. But now, with her moms, she knew that was okay. It was okay not to be perfect all the time, that it was alright to make mistakes. Sarah met their eyes and nodded. 

I'm okay. I'll get it next time.

———

After a narrow 4-3 victory, the Royals were done for the day. 

Sarah had a much needed hot shower, scrubbing off all the mud from the hard day of playing. They all went back to the Bishop-DeLuca house; Maya, Dean and Jack were barbecuing some chicken and veggie dogs, while Vic and Miranda were putting Prue to bed.