Love, Blood and Wilderness | YELLOWJACKETS

Chapter 1

    Girls were screaming to each other across the grass. The benches were exploding with cheers and hollers. The field was filled with clapping, howling, and the screeching of ref's whistles.

    1996, the YellowJackets girl's soccer state championships. There were only three things at Wiskayok High School that were responsible for this much school spirit, and that was homecoming, prom, and soccer. The whole school and the entire town of Wiskayok were present to watch the YellowJackets play in the state championship, the biggest game of the year.

    The crowd was fixated on Taissa Turner, sprinting down the, sweat visibly flying off of her forehead. I watched her pass the ball to Natalie Scatorccio, who handed it off to an armature freshman, I think her name was Allie, who for some reason, Coach Martinez thought was a good idea to have on the field for the last few minutes of the game. The freshman missed the pass and the ball rolled out of bounds, our team groaning. The ref blew his whistle, which was hard to hear over the crowd wailed in defeat.

    "Time out!" Coach Martinez shouted, and we ran towards the benches.

    Myself and the other ten starting girls swallowed our water as if it were oxygen, panting heavily as we sat on metal benches, which felt glacial against our warm legs. We all looked at the score board, the 2-2 score with Somersed Academy burning in bright red letters.

    "Damn it girls, there's three minutes left of this game and I'll be damned if we don't win it," Coach Martinez sneered, as he began to demonstrate a new play that was to be executed. "There's a new line up for the last few minutes. Ben?"

    Ben Scott, assistant coach, clutched a clipboard in his hands, a determined smile plastered across his face.

    "Jackie, Shauna, Tai, Lottie, Taylor, Nat, Mari, Laura Lee, Akilah, Gen, Melissa and Van in net. Let's go girls!" He pumped his fist.

    Akilah looked shocked. Gen and Melissa shared equal reactions. The rest of the benched juniors gave them encouraging looks and grins. Of course, they were the YellowJacket's best juniors, and they were even on the roster to accompany the rest of the team if we were to fly out for nationals, but it was still shocking that Coach Martinez benched the rest of his seniors.

   I saw in the corner of my eye Jackie Taylor grabbing Shauna's hand, and I could've sworn I saw a blush sweep across Shauna's cheeks. But that was insignificant as Lottie Matthews tucked her hand under my arm, which caused me to probably blush even harder than Shauna.

    Lottie squeezed my bicep and shook it gently, indicating that she was excited. She leaned close to me, her breath tickling my ear. "We're gonna win," she smiled, and turned to Laura Lee to share the same excitement.

    It was a running joke that Lottie Matthews was a psychic, as she predicted the outcome of every single game we've played so far this season. So my mind unintentionally eased a little when she said that.

    The ref blew his whistle and the crowds started to cheer uncontrollably once again. The starting eleven stood up and ran back out to our positions on the field. The girls on the bench jumped and whooped and shrieked, not even bothering to remain seated for the remainder of the game. We waited impatiently as the super tall girl from Somersed was holding the ball over her head, getting ready to throw it back inbounds.

    As the ball flew towards one of her teammates, Mari cut in front of her, allowing the ball to hit her chest, causing a thump. The ball fell to her feet and she kicked it far across the field to Nat. Nat forwarded the ball to me and I started sprinting upfield.

    "Go Tay!" I hear Lottie call from behind me, and I bite my cheeks as I run to hold back my smile. I hit the middle of the field and handed the ball off to Tai. Tai began sprinting towards the net, but Somersed's girls were right on her heels.