The Rest Is History | ✓

13 | the match

It was only a few days now before Christmas holidays began.

Everyone was buzzing with excitement, ready to go home and celebrate with their families. Archer and I, in the meantime, also completed our remaining work and satisfied Mr Richards enough for him to say, "No more work for you two during your holidays. You can spend it enjoying with your families without any burden of schoolwork." And as we were exiting his office, he also added, "I'm really glad you two are leading the school. Despite your...erm, differences, you've managed to form an extremely efficient partnership. You should be proud of yourselves." He beamed at us, which only made us more flustered. All this talk about partnerships was just...not comfortable to hear with a certain boy standing next to me.

After thanking him and coming out into the hallway, Archer turned on his heels abruptly and left for his friends without saying a word to me. I rolled my eyes and continued in the other direction.

On the morning of our last day of school, I was training with the other girls of our football team, and Heady, our coach, was yelling at us as we tried out different formations.

Heady had been coaching our female team since god knows how long. We'd won four interschool championships under her and needless to say, she was very popular among the students. We always called her Heady because even though she was in her late 30s, she insisted we call her by her first name. We all loved her and basically treated her like family

The football pitch at Bloomwood was huge, much larger than your average pitch, and so it was divided in two, for the boys' and girls' teams to practise in the different areas, which were separated by a fence.

On the last day of school, as we were playing a practice match, I was in my regular position as attacking midfielder, when I suddenly heard loud laughs coming from the other side of the pitch, where the boys were training. I glanced at them to see they were currently taking a water break, and most of them were constantly looking over at us and laughing.

Even as I ran with the ball at my feet, my blood started to boil hearing their mocking laughter. I was probably not focusing much, because Evelyn suddenly tackled me and I went hurtling to the ground. Heady blew her whistle as the laughter increased.

Heady walked over to where I was planted on the ground. "Get your arse up and play like a bloody woman, Wentworth! What happened all of a sudden?"

I looked at the boys once more. "They happened."

Heady rolled her eyes. "Those twats will never learn. Why don't you ignore them and focus on your game instead?"

I nodded and got up. This time, as the play resumed, I performed much better, with concentration. I even assisted one of my teammates in scoring a goal, but right after that I missed a golden opportunity myself. I groaned in frustration, and just at that moment I again heard the laughs and jeers directed my way, from the boys.

This time, I couldn't keep my cool.

I strode up to the fence separating us, ignoring Heady's calls, and shouted out to the boys, "Find something funny?"

Archer, who was captain of the boys' team and one of the people laughing, smirked at me. "Yes, in fact we do."

"Care to share the joke?"

"Just look in a mirror, you'll see what we're laughing at."

I crossed my arms across my chest. "You know Archer, it's really pathetic how you have to resort to petty insults and jeers to cover up the fact that we're better than you."

"Who said you guys are better?"

"Well, nobody said that, but I think the silverware cabinet speaks for itself."