VIRAGO

ensorcel

"How much older is your brother?" He asked her.

"He's twenty-two. He's starting his senior year at State this coming week. And I just got a text back from him saying he's gonna try and make every game." She told him with a smile as she read the text to herself. "He only gets to see me play a game or two a year with school. When he was still in high school he was my number one supporter and came to every game. He played too for a long time, but then he tore his ACL at the end of his senior year and hasn't played since."

"That's a shame. If he played as good as you do, I bet he couldv'e gone d-one."

"He almost did once his ACL healed, but then he met a girl and fell in love and decided to focus on school."

"Well good for him then. Do you like her?"

"Nicole? Oh, yeah for sure. She's a junior at State, they met through a mutual friend at a party and clicked instantly. He brought her home for Christmas his sophomore year, and she became part of the family."

"That's always the best. When I first brought Rachel home to meet my family, I was real nervous, but my parents instantly treated her as a daughter, and I'm forever grateful for that."

"Yeah, parents who make things hard for their kids are a nightmare."

"True that."

--

They got settled into the hotel a few hours later, for traveling by bus always made the trip an hour longer. Being the only girl, she was in her own room, which she did not mind because that meant she had the whole place to herself, even though she knew it might become 'party' central since it was the furthest room from their coach. A half hour after getting settled into her room, there was a knock on her door, and she opened it to finding some of the guys on the other side.

"What's up?" She asked.

"I think we're doing team dinner. You comin'?" George informed, and she nodded eagerly, the sound of food sounding amazing. She grabbed her lanyard with her wallet on it and her phone, her room key in the back of her case. She followed the group toward the elevators, and she knew that even though this was a team dinner, they would be discussing business and what to look for in their nine in the morning game. Samantha was excited, for she loved tournament weekends - especially with the possibility of scouts being present. She had offers from three different NCAA Division I schools, but if something better were to come along, she would take it in a heartbeat. She just could not wait to get out of her own home - her brother was lucky he had not had to deal with their father for the last two years. She was considering her UCLA offer just to get as far away from her father as possible.

They arrived at the restaurant ten minutes later, deciding to walk since they decided on a place that was just down the street. The staff seemed a little overwhelmed with such a big group coming in, but they were seated rather quickly and drink orders were taken. They all got nothing but water, for they needed to get hydrated for their game tomorrow. They all got a dinner that was loaded with carbs, Samantha settling on shrimp alfredo.

"Alright, so we've got a big weekend, and hopefully long weekend ahead of us. Our first game we're facing a team from Sagniaw, and I'm not gonna lie, they have some of the best soccer around. I got some insight that they're gonna be hard to crack defensively, so we're gonna have to pick our battles. We've got a defensive minded team as well, but we've also got some star power offense. We're a team from BFE, so they're probably gonna expect an easy win - let's prove them wrong." Coach Wallace told them all as they waited for their meals. They all started pounding on the table in a rally, but they quickly stopped so they would not get thrown out of the restaurant.