Hidden Gem

1

"You"

I walked towards the team that I had been selected by.

Middle school sports goes like this;

First picks: The ones that everyone wants on their team, best at running, dodging, whatever.

Middle picks: The ones that aren't aren't amazing or terrible. They're unimportant to the outcome. It won't make the team better or worse. They're kind of invisible.

Last picks: scrawny, snotty, uncoordinated disadvantages. You choose them and your team could lose-let me rephrase that. Crushed.

Middle schoolers do not like losing.

"Choose your bib colours." Ms cackle shouted.

There were split between girls and boys, and then two team were created out of that. Two boy teams and two girls teams.

Figures blurred past me as my team rushed past me to race to get to the pink bibs first.

Unfortunatly they did. I sighed and pulled on the hot pink bib that had been placed in my hand.

"Alright kids, choose a goal keeper, girls against girls first match. Choose your side of the pitch."

I followed my team to the left side of the indoor soccer pitch "you. Goal." McKenzie pointed at me.

That's a mistake. While I'm pretty good at soccer I'm rubbish in goal. It wasn't so bad with the girls, but the boys boot it so hard that my hands tingle and go red after I catch the ball.

"Right, you, you, and you. Attack. Brittany and Michelle, you can do defence with me." McKenzie ordered.

Nobody put her in charge, but I guess that how McKenzie is, bossy. The only reason she put herself on defence with Brittany and Michelle is so she can talk to them while the others do the work. AKA 'you, you and you'. She didn't see the point of learning peoples names if she didn't think they were important to her.

Ms cackles whistle commanded the start of the match with a shrill note.

I, on the other hand memorized every name I could. It was kind of a talent to remember someone's name for as long as I could from only hearing it once.

I was good at remembering faces too.

A soccer ball came slowly rolling into the goalies semi circle. I watched for a second at the ball trundled in, as if it had been invited for a picnic.

Who the hell kicks that softly? I knew it wasn't slowed down by the defence because they were at the other side of the pitch in a small huddle giggling about something.

I picked up the ball and rolled it onto the pitch. One of the attackers caught it and passed it to someone further up the pitch.

The key to soccer is passing and in order to do that you needed a spread out team that would be able to receive the ball in good amounts of time. And if you in an inside pitch, like this, using the wall helps. It's like an extra person.

Our offence lined up to the goal and shot. The opposing goalie jumped the other way just as the ball hit the back of the net and the whistle blew.

"Off the pitch girls, next match is blue boys against yellow girls team."

We sat on the floor as the next match began. The game was faster and more interesting than ours.

"Who's he?" Michelle squeaked from beside McKenzie.

Brittany rolled her eyes from the other side of McKenzie "That's Archie booth. He's part of the family that just moved here." She stated matter of factly.