"You're the best, Nat."
I smile at the sincere look in Andrei's eyes as he checks Miriam's bag for the fifteenth time, to be certain that she has everything she could possibly need for the next two and a half hours.
She sighs, stomping her foot on the ground, waiting for him to give us the go-ahead. "Hai, mă, omule," she complains.
Andrei's sigh matches hers and he passes her the bag. "Să fi cu minte, copile, bine?"
She just sticks her tongue out at him and climbs into the passenger seat of my car.
I turn back to my friend and smile reassuringly. "I promise I'll bring her back in one piece."
He laughs, nodding. "I know. Thanks so much for this. It'll give me a sec to just sort some things out and do some shopping without her whining as she follows me around. I can even go to the Eastern European shop across town."
Despite having left Romania at only ten years old, I know there are many things that Andrei misses about it. Occasionally, he splashes out and buys something from there, particularly any 7 Days snacks that both he and Anita love so much.
I shrug easily. "Honestly, any time. Coach was totally chill with it, so if Miriam enjoys it, I can always take her another time, all right?"
Andrei's lips twitch as he crosses his tattooed arms over his chest. "Don't offer that until you see how this goes, all right?"
I laugh, nodding. "Sure. I'll see you later."
"Just call me if anything happens," he says as I get into the car. "I've got my phone on loud."
I wave out the window as we pull away and Miriam lets out a dramatic sigh of relief.
Laughing, I gesture to the stereo system on my car. "You can choose the music, if you want."
Despite only really speaking Romanian in their home, Miriam's English is pretty good. She was only one when they moved here, so her whole schooling experience has been in English.
She's a bilingual queen and I'm here for it.
I'm definitely an advocate for knowing as much about your culture as possible. I do kind of wish that Dad had taught me Korean when I was growing up, but it just didn't happen.
I know the odd phrase, but nothing to write home about. We're not really close with any of the family in Korea, so don't really visit either. Anyway, with Dad's garage, it would be pretty difficult to find the time to go away.
Miriam picks a radio station and hums along to the Rhianna song playing on the radio.
It doesn't take us long to get to practice, thankfully. Andrei lives in a fairly run-down area of Vancouver, not that far from campus.
When we get out of the car and head over to the field, I notice some of the guys loitering around, about to start their practice on the field next to us.
I'm clutching Miriam's hand, pulling her along with me and my other hand is making sure my duffel bag stays on my shoulder, so I just tip my head at them.
"Natty!" Carlos shouts, grinning widely. "Don't tell us you've had a kid this whole time."
I scoff, my hand tightening around Miriam's, in case she feels awkward. "Shut up, Carlos."
"Băieții ăștia," Miriam mutters under her breath, her voice dripping with disdain.
If only I could understand what she'd muttered. I imagine it's probably funny. I'll have to ask Andrei later. The only Romanian I know are the swear words he snaps when something goes wrong in the garage. I can only hope those aren't in her vocabulary yet.
Still, she lets me take her on a detour, so that we're standing in front of Reuben, Carlos, Chase and a few of the other guys I'm not so familiar with. I think they're freshmen.
"This is Miriam, my co-worker's younger sister," I introduce her, still holding onto her hand tight. "She's just coming to practice with me tonight."
Chase looks down at the young girl. "I bet you'll have a great time. The girls are lots of fun."
Miriam positively beams at him, her sour mood from Carlos' words disappearing as soon as it came. "I'm going to beat them all."
The boys chuckle at this and Reuben crouches down to high-five her. "You're definitely a lot better than Natty here," he teases, winking at me.
Not minding that they're bonding with her at my expense, I just laugh along.
"I bet that we'd be a lot better than you," Miriam challenges, tipping her chin up and eyeing them all, daring them to counter her.
Chase's eyes light up. "Okay, kiddo, how about we have a competition once practice is over? We'll see who the real winners are."
I'm so enthralled at the situation and the way Miriam has opened up to these guys, that I almost miss Josh sidling up to us, his face curious.
Almost.
"Okay," Miriam agrees stubbornly. "Nat's on my team. Us against you."
My eyes catch Josh's and he winks at me, his mouth curving into an affectionate smile.
My stomach bursts into flames, of course.
"We'll get a few more of the girls involved, so that the teams are a little bit bigger, how about that?" I suggest, reaching down and smoothing Miriam's dark locks and trying so, sohard to ignore the heat creeping across my face at Josh's actions.
She twists to look at me. "Only if they're nice. Otherwise they're on the boys' team."
I toss my head back in laughter, unable to help myself. Feeling Josh's eyes on me, I keep mine trained on the girl in front of me. "Don't worry, all the girls are great. All girls are, you know."
"I know," Miriam agrees without persuasion. "It's boys that suck."
I stick my tongue out at the boys in front of us, my eyes lingering on Josh's smouldering eyes for a second too long. "So there."
"Challenge accepted, Miriam," Reuben counters enthusiastically. "We'll see you after practice."
It's Miriam that starts to drag me away and as we leave, I twist my head over my shoulder and mouth a thank you at the boys, who just send me a few dismissive waves.
Practice itself goes pretty well and all the girls are adorable with Miriam, as I expected.
Coach includes her in the drills and when she's too tired, she just sits on the sidelines and watches over us as we work ourselves hard.
She actually ends up helping Coach to ref our game at the end, calling all the shots.
We spend a lot of the session just laughing at how adorable she is. I can't believe that Andrei was worried that it would be hard having her here.
Coach corners me at the end of the game, when Miriam is helping Grayson put the footballs away in the bag. "Your sister's a delight, Choi."
Miriam and I look nothing alike, and clearly have different ethnicities, but Coach doesn't discriminate based on that.
I laugh, shaking my head. When I phoned her to ask the other day if I could bring Miriam with me, I didn't really explain myself very well. "She's actually my co-worker's sister, Coach. I just offered to help out for the evening. I hope it was okay."
Coach smiles, shrugging easily. "I think we both know that it was great, Nat. Obviously it won't be ideal to have her at every session, but don't worry about bringing her every now and again, if that'll help your co-worker out, all right?"
I smile gratefully at her, feeling my eyes well up a little. Sometimes, when people just offer their support like this, so blindly, it makes me emotional.
I also started my period this morning, which isn't exactly helping. "Thanks, Coach. I'll bear that in mind."
She smiles, then. "Anyway, what's this I hear about you having a grudge match with the boys after practice? I hope you kick their asses."
I laugh, my gaze flickering to the field next to us, where the guys are finishing up. "Yeah, we definitely will," I reply confidently. "We've got Miriam on our team, we're bound to win."
Only Gray, Farah, Kat and I can stay, so we grab our stuff and head over to the field where the boys are. It's getting a little dark, but the floodlights on their pitch are still on, so hopefully we'll be able to play for a while.
I quickly shoot off a message to Andrei, to let him know we're staying a little later and promising that we're going to be back soon.
He immediately responds to tell me that's okay, just to not be back too late.
"We won't stay for too long," I tell Miriam as we make our way over, slipping my phone into my jacket. "Your brother won't be happy."
She scoffs and dramatically rolls her eyes. "Dar el îi prost," she mutters under her breath.
"I'm not entirely sure what that means, Miriam, but it doesn't sound good," I say, letting a warning tone slip into my voice.
"Scuze," she mumbles, not looking at me.
"Ah, here they are!" Chase shouts eagerly, when we get close to them. "I hope you're ready to lose," he grins, wiggling his eyebrows at Miriam.
She scoffs. "Just you wait."
Only Chase, Reuben, Carlos and Josh stayed behind, so our numbers work out pretty perfectly. Just like us, it's not a surprising combo: while we both get on well with our teams, we're tight-knit little groups within that.
"Yeah, you wait," Gray kicks in, popping her hands on her hips. "You're about to get your... Butts kicked," she smirks, quickly amending her words to be more child-friendly.
"We'll see about that," Reuben goads, reaching out and pinching Kat's waist.
She slaps him away, scowling, and he just laughs.
Josh glances at me, amusement dancing in his eyes. "I just hope you're on top form."
"We are," I reply confidently. "I think we just do first to ten goals. I need to take this kid home after that."
We set up a small pitch, using our bags as the goals, so that we don't need to work too hard.
Both sides play without a goalie and no real positions either, just floating around depending on where the ball is.
We have a real advantage having Miriam on our team, because while the boys don't ease up in the slightest when they're up against us – which feels like a thing of respect and seeing us as real competitors – they positively melt when Miriam is within five feet of them.
It's like the parting of the Red Sea, the way she can dribble the ball in between them all and get a clean shot on goal.
Soon, the boys start using a rotating goalie, because their real downfall is that the defenders don't have the heart to take the ball off Miriam.
Still, the goalie doesn't help much, because it's not like they ever really have the heart to try hard enough to make a save.
We make it to ten goals in no time, with the boys only managing to get four in reply, which, with or without Miriam, still feels like an achievement. We were fairly solid defensively.
We shake hands like we've played a real match and I can't help but grin smugly when each of the boys glare at us, as though they ever had any intention of taking the ball off Miriam and winning, anyway.
Grabbing our bags, we make our way to the car park together, Miriam happily chatting with Farah and Chase about all the goals she scored.
My heart swells and I feel myself choke up a little at the scene in front of me. Each of the people here just took Miriam's presence in their stride and even stayed late after practice, just to entertain her a little bit more.
I've always thought that I've been pretty good at choosing friends, but moments like this make me say that with more and more confidence. I have amazing friends.
Chase, Reuben and Carlos each receive a hug from Miriam when we reach the parking lot – and each of them pick her up and spin her around, earning a shriek from her.
Josh, surprisingly, indicates his car sitting two away from mine, so Miriam bids the girls goodbye with big hugs, who are parked at the other end of the lot.
Then, the three of us make our way to our cars.
"You didn't come with the boys?" I ask in surprise, glancing at Josh.
We've spoken quite a bit over text over the last few days, but he didn't phone me last night, or even message to say that he was struggling to sleep. Most of our conversations have been relatively arbitrary, with no mention of anything deeper or serious.
If that's the kind of friendship that he needs right now, then I'm okay with that.
"Nah, I came straight from a library in town, because I needed a book from there," he replies, shaking his head. "I'm just trying to get a lot of stuff done for this essay I've got coming up, before I work this weekend."
Deciding that right now, in front of Miriam, isn't really the moment to question about whether he's actually going to work or not, I just nod. "Fair enough."
I unlock the car and Miriam beams up at Josh. "Are you coming with us?"
Shaking his head, he crouches down so that he's nearer her height. "No, sweetheart," he replies, tugging on a lock of her hair gently. "I hope you come to practice again, though. I can already tell you're going to be a pro soccer player."
Her grin couldn't get any bigger if she tried. "I know," she replies confidently, before turning and hopping into the car.
I laugh, shaking my head. I know she's beginning to get tired and I should probably take her home. Still, I don't make much of a move to leave Josh's side.
Josh stuffs his hands in his pockets and glances down at me. "It was nice of you to bring her for your co-worker, Nat. I know the boys had a lot of fun with her."
I smile. "Thanks. Coach said I could bring her around more often, which is good. It just helps him out a little bit, you know? Gives him a sec to get himself together and if she enjoys it, then I don't see the problem. It's not like I'd bring her every week."
If at all possible, I think Josh's eyes soften. "You're just always so ready and eager to help people out. It's one of your many admirable qualities, Nat."
Feeling a blush creeping onto my cheeks, I look at the ground in embarrassment. "Thanks, Josh. It's also great of all of you to stay and entertain her like that. You didn't have to."
Almost instinctively, he reaches out and gently tugs on a stray lock of my hair, something he clearly likes to do. "Like I said, we all had a really good time, so don't worry about it."
I nod, glancing at the car, where Miriam's sitting waiting for me. "I should probably go."
He blinks, stepping away from me. "Of course. I'll see you soon."
"See ya," I throw over my shoulder, opening the trunk of my car to put my bag in and making my way around to the driver's side.
The drive back is pretty quiet and it's obvious that Miriam is tired. She doesn't even sing along to the songs on the radio.
When we pull up outside of Andrei's place, I cut the engine and open my door.
Andrei comes out of the house and smiles at me. "Thanks so much, Nat. I got lots of shopping done, cleaned the house and helped Mom do some good physio stuff. I really do appreciate this, you know."
I shrug, punching his shoulder lightly. "It's all right, Andrei. Any time."
He opens the passenger door and smiles down at his sleepy sister. Given that she's pretty small for her age, he picks her up effortlessly and drapes her arms around his neck. "I'll see you tomorrow night for work, Nat. Thanks so much again."
I wait until they've entered the house before getting into my car and driving home, turning the music to full volume.
---
Isn't Miriam great?! All translations of what she said are in the comments.
Again, I'm aware of how many characters there are in this book, but the eight in this chapter are the core of the soccer team and the only ones who will really get a mention from here on out, mostly to make it easier to keep up: Gray, Kat, Farah, Josh, Chase, Reuben, Carlos and Nat, of course. Hope that makes sense.
Let me know what you thought of the chapter!