Let's Do This! #SEP2016

One- Shot#SEP2016

I could smell the sweat and humidity in the air as I walked towards the synthetic, green grass. 

Home of the Free Birds the grass read. Soccer balls flew past my head as I stood and observed how all of the players on the team were aiming at the goal. I heard the whistle blow, snapping me out of my trance. I ran towards the coach.

 "Now listen up everyone I want fair play and a nice clean match. Those of you who get a red vest take the left side of the field the rest of you take the right side." The coach yelled at us. 

I felt myself receive a red vest and quickly sprinted towards the left side. I scanned the field to see the team we were up against. My team was mostly made of the new kids, all looking nervous, some scrawny. 

I immediately could tell my team was the worse one. 

On the other team I noticed all of the jocks who worked out and were definitely not freshmen. They were going to test us out against the older and more professional players.

 "Good, a little competition." I heard someone next to me say, as he had also noticed that they were an all-time winning soccer team. I was told that this soccer team had never lost a match. I examined the position of the players facing us and tried to copy it "Let's do this" I whispered. 

The whistle blew and time seemed to stop. 

I saw the ball and headed for it. I seized the ball and sprinted. I was racing towards the goal and I could hear everybody behind me; some cheering and some screaming. Suddenly I was alone facing the goal; the goalie looked ready to catch anything headed towards him.  I stood for a moment, took a deep breath and kicked the ball.

I closed my eyes only to hear my team cheering my name for scoring.

I hesitantly opened one eye and saw the goalie paralyzed with shock, his mouth hung open as if an alien had come down to take over the planet. I ran back down to the other side again to continue playing. I had been playing soccer since I was 2, so I had a pretty good grip on the ball. Since I was a bit short and not really full of muscle I was used to being underestimated. Once again I rushed for the ball and swiftly took it from the opponent. I dodged most of the other team and managed to be one again alone in front of the goalie. 

It kept going on like this until I was shoved down, kicked, and couldn't stand up. 

Someone had kicked my shin and it wasn't feeling good down there. I pulled my knee sock down to see a purple bruise starting to form down there. I quickly examine how severe it was and stood up only to feel a rush of pain come from my right leg. 

I placed all my weight on my leg. "O.K. so it's not too bad." I whispered and positioned myself back on the field. The match resumed and the guy who had shoved and kicked me allowed my team to receive a penalty kick and he had earned a red card.  

The player who earned a red card try to come back to the field and teach me a lesson, but the coach was very serious about fair play and a clean match. So much so, that he grabbed the guy by the ear and dragged him to the bench.  He wanted so badly to get back on the field that he began to whine like a child not receiving a toy.

Some of the players began to laugh but I just felt sorry for him. 

Since we were winning 3-1 I let my guard down thinking it would be easy to defeat the all-time winners. I started to slack when dodging the players and started to get very conceited.

Big mistake.

They noticed that I was slacking and not putting enough effort into handling the ball and hastily made their move. Suddenly everything went wrong. The moment the opposing team regained the ball I knew we were toast.

They scored so many times I lost count and we ended up losing at least 20-3. I was embarrassed to have let myself get lost in my cloud of conceitedness.  This always happened when I was caught in the rush of scoring. 

"Good game." I muttered as I shook the opponents' hands. My team looked bitter since we had lost but in the end it was just about having fun. I just hope I make the team and am allowed to play this season.

I walked off towards the changing room, it was now 6:00 pm.  The tryouts started at at 4:30 pm, just an hour after school ended. I proceeded to go home since the tryouts had tired me out. 

The results from the tryouts were tomorrow, so I had to get a goodnight's sleep. 

The Next Morning:

I walked down the halls and saw a crowd around the tryouts board. Yesterday the school held many tryouts: from The Arts to Sports.  

I tried to squeeze into the mess of a crowd. Thank my lucky stars I'm so skinny. I quickly dragged my finger across the paper and saw my name. There it was David Wilson. What did it say? Did I dare look? What if I didn't make it? I mean not many freshmen made it. Alright, here goes.

I did it.

I made it.

"Yes!" I exclaimed throwing my hands up in the air. I, David Wilson, had managed to make it into the Free Birds Soccer Team. I pushed through the crowd and started walking towards my class with a smile that went from ear to ear. 

All I had wanted this year was to play for the Free Birds, just like my brother. I was one of the freshmen that made it.