Testing My Feelings

Chapter 13

When we go to the school it was 9:50 AM. The traffic in town was really bad for some reason, but at least we made it there ten minutes before I had to be there. Coach wanted us to come a bit early so we'd have time to warm up anyway. I ran into the stadium leaving my mom and Josh behind. When I got inside, I made my way through the corridors out onto the field. I went and put my bag down behind the bench and took my cleats out. I sat down on the bench, swapped my slides with my cleats, and strung up the laces. I threw my slides over by my bag and went to find the rest of the team and Coach Shiller.

"Captain! Hey Captain!" a voice a squeaky young sounding voice called out.

"Captain?" the voice called again, from behind me.

I turned around and said while limply pointing at myself, "Oh right, that's me."

I focused on who was talking to me. It was a short, pale, boy with his pale blue eyes were staring at me while he twirled his curly brown hair. It was number eleven, Jacob Evans, or Jake as we usually called him, one of our midfielders.

"Andrew, I see you're still accustoming yourself to your new role. Are you ready for today's game," he asked me.

"Of course I'm ready," I said to him confidently.

In reality, I was absolutely terrified. I wasn't sure I was ready to be captain. I made sure to present myself as ready, for the team's sake.

"Where is everyone else?" I asked.

"They're around. Over there by the goal is where most of the team is," he answered.

I nodded and walked away. I saw that most of the team was sitting in the goal on one end of the field, just as Jake had said. Some of the boys were stretching and doing some warm-ups of their own. Others were just sitting there talking to each other. I stood there watching my teammates pump themselves up and get excited for the game.

"Andrew!" Coach Shiller called to me.

"You're in charge of running warm-ups for today," he ordered me as he threw me a brand new whistle.

"You've got fifteen minutes to warm up," he informed me as he walked away.

*PHEWWWWWW!!!!!!!! PHEW!!! PHEWWWWWW!!!!!*

I blew the whistle as I walked closer towards the rest of the team. I was so nervous. I had no idea if they were going to listen to me. What would they think of me? Would they like me as captain? Will they think that I am serious? Despite my Despite my self doubts, I made sure to compose myself accordingly as captain, or at least as best as I knew how.

"Listen up! We're doing two laps around the field. Don't go nuts and tire yourselves out though," I commanded my teammates.

Most of the team happily and willing obliged and carried out my command. There was one notable person who was not too thrilled with my role as captain.

"Why of course Captain," Jason said sarcastically with a smirk on his face.

Jason Willow. He is an arrogant, stuck up, self-centered, entitled, piece of shit, but he's our ace striker. Despite how much the team despises him, he scored most of our goals last season. We wouldn't have won any games last season without him. If I had to guess, he's still salty over Coach picking me as captain over him. I guess he figured that he'd be guaranteed the job. We also have a new striker this season named Juanito Martinez. He recently moved to Belden Falls from Barcelona, and although he's from Spain, he speaks both English and Spanish fluently. He used to be quite the soccer player back in Spain and I have a feeling that Jason is jealous and worried about his spotlight being taken from him.

*PHEWWWWWW!!!!!!!!*

"Alright! I want everyone to grab a ball and each take two shots on Lucas and then another two on Jayden. After that, everyone will take one shot on me," I instructed and explained to everyone.

Lucas Pascal was our main goal keeper. He is six foot three inches tall and has long arms. Both of these contribute to his success as our keeper. He's not perfect though. Last season, he accidently scored and own goal. Jayden Wallis is our reserve keeper. He is not as tall as Lucas nor as good but since the club's is primary goal is to have fun, the two of them usually get an equal amount of play time each game, although sometimes Jayden only gets to play as a defender. Then there was me. I'm the only other player on the team that has any experience as a keeper, besides Jayden and Lucas of course. I've never been called upon to play as out teams goalie but I make sure to prepare a little bit each game, just in case. Even so, I am nowhere near as experienced as our real keepers so the defenders would have to pick up the slack. Thankfully it has never come to that and hopefully it stays that way.

As I stood there in the goal, I had noticed that out opponents from Bluerock Cove Soccer Club had arrived. There wasn't much time before the game would start. I looked around the stadium to try and find Josh and my mom to make sure that the found a seat. When I spotted them they were sitting on the west side of the stadium.

"Alright. That's enough warm-up," I said to the team.

I walked over and put the whistle that Coach had given me into my bag. Before I could even sit down, the referee called for the captains. This was it, my first coin toss. I ran out to where the ref was on the field, where the other team's captain was already waiting.

The ref flipped the coin and it had been determined that our opponents would start with the ball.

I went and huddled up with my team to give my first pep talk.

"This is our first game. Remember that our score isn't what matters to me. Just make sure to have fun and enjoy yourselves. That is what matters to me. Give it your all and let's win this!"

It was a pretty cheesy first game pep talk, but everyone seemed into it and supporting.

"Everyone. Hands in...On three...One...Two...Three...Belden..." I began.

"FALLS!" everyone shouted out.

Lucas, Jason, Jayden, Juanito, Jacob, a few other of our teammates, and I ran out to our positions on the field. Jake and I were center midfielders. Lucas was keeper with Jayden back in defense playing center back. Jason and Juan were up top in offense as our strikers.

With everyone in position, I stood there, clutching and grasping my left arm, waiting for the starting whistle to be blown by the referee.