× Horan
Experiments had to be controlled, focused on a single factor and that factor alone to get the proper result. When options were laid out in front of me, all I knew how to do was run tests, one by one, until I had certainty.
And that was exactly what I did, ever since Lynn came to my room after I kissed her in the arena that first time. I didn't have any answers that she had demanded, so from then on I was going to find them. All of the little things; taking Lynn out for pizza, talking to my chemistry teacher, standing up for Lynn in front of Bradley, and finally telling her about my rich childhood.
Now that I had taken action to get the result of that final test, it had all gone to shit.
All heads turned in my direction when I finally walked in the men's locker room for Coach's pep talk. I was a few minutes late thanks to Lynn's soft hands rubbing up my thigh. I had to stay behind in the woman's locker room to fix the problem she had created. I held my knee brace in my hand and hadn't bothered to fix my unruly hair that I had continually ran my fingers through.
"Glad you could join us," Coach said as he looked over at me.
I caught his eye but quickly looked away, not wanting any confrontation at the moment.
Across the room I spotted Lynn leaning against a locker. Her hands were in the pockets of her baggy sweats and she was refusing to look in my direction. She had managed to put her hair up in a ponytail again, but I could tell that it was hastily done because loose strands were framing her face.
I stood next to Jace at the end of the group and crossed my arms, giving Coach the OK to continue.
"As I was saying," Coach said, giving me a look before scanning the eager faces of his team. "We all know about Loughborough University, but for Lynn's sake, I'm going to recap. They're known to go after weaknesses. If someone isn't very strong on defense, they use that to their advantage. If someone on the opposing team is smaller than everyone else, they gang up on him. It's something they have done in the beginning, and as much as it pains me to say it, it's effective."
Loughborough University was one of our biggest rivals, maybe even bigger than the Doncaster Rovers. They always seemed to find our weakest link every game and pulled it until it snapped.
"There isn't a doubt in my mind that they will think Mercury is our flaw," Coach continued. A few heads turned in her direction, but Lynn continued to watch Coach expressionlessly. "But we all know that they would be mistaken."
Jace leaned over to me and whispered in my ear. "What's going on with you and Lynn?"
I looked at him, wondering how obvious it was that there was something going on, but Jace only smiled.
"I only ask because I knew you went looking for her and the two of you came back in a huff."
Coach continued talking as I chewed the inside of my cheek. Across the room, Lynn was intently staring at Coach, taking in every word. Every once and a while James would lean over to say something to her, but even then, her eyes never looked away. It was an excuse, I knew. A reason not to be tempted to look over at me, and that was when I knew I really, really fucked up.
"I took you're fucking advice," I sneered back at Jace quietly. "And it blew up in my fucking face."
"Horan!" Coach shouted. "You get here late and then proceed to be rude. Care to share what's so important that you couldn't wait to talk to Layton about?"
Out of habit, my eyes landed on Lynn, and this time she was looking back. Her deep blue eyes were hooded and there seemed to me a permanent frown on the ends of her lips.
"No, Coach," I said.
"Then belt up."
I could feel eyes on me, burning through my clothes, but I just clenched my jaw and forced myself not to look at them. I stood there, listening as Coach went on to tell us that we only had one more game left after this one until the BUSA and that from then on, we were going to be working harder then we have been before. Which sucked, because ever since Lynn joined the team I had already been giving 110%.
"What are we going to do when we get out there!?" Coach shouted after he was done with his speech. "We're not going to show them our weaknesses!"
William snorted from the back of the group. "What weaknesses?"
Coach grinned. "Exactly! We're going to show them nothing but aggression, determination, and strength! Now get you're arses out there and make me proud!"
I was the first one out of the locker room, not wanting to challenge any of my teammates that might have the guts to ask me what the fuck was going on with me. But more specifically, I didn't want to face Lynn again.
Jace was right beside me as we walked down the hall to the pitch. "After the game is over," he said, leaning in closer so none of our teammates could eavesdrop, "you're going to tell me everything that happened."
I just waved him off as I opened the doors. My ears were instantly filled with all the sounds of the large crowd that had gathered and the smell of fresh rain that had started to pour down, making everything glisten in the stadium lights.
× × ×
"They figured out that Lynn wasn't our weakness, and instead our advantage," Coach was saying from beside me, twenty minutes into the game. He was watching the field in front of him as he chewed his nails in anticipation, the rain drenching his black hair. "So they're making her our weakness - wearing her thin, having her work harder than the other players. At this rate, she'll be too fatigued to play by half time."
On the pitch, Lynn was giving her all into the game considering the weather conditions, but at the rate the opposing team was ganging up on her, her "all" wasn't as much as it was in the beginning of the game. She was running behind everyone else, trying desperately to keep the pace. And whenever Lynn had the ball, four or five players were right there, trying and succeeding to get the ball away from her. They were persistent and strong minded - something to admire, I had to admit.
It was a close game, but unfortunately Loughborough University had the upper hand at 3-5. They always had the upper hand.
"Put me in," I said to Coach. "With the two of us, we would be unrelenting."
Coach looked me up and down, eyes landing on my knee brace before looking back up and into my eyes. "Your knee better? You know I can't have you playing if it's acting up on you."
What Lynn did in the locker room with my knee had helped, but it wasn't enough for me to not be worried about it. I didn't want to, but I ended up telling Coach about it, knowing damn well I would be sitting out on one of our most important games of the season.
"It's better," I lied through my teeth.
"Coach, you really need to get Lynn out," William said as he stood up next to me. His red hair was a mess on top of his head. "She's getting beat up out there."
To prove his point, when Coach and I looked back onto the field, I spotted Lynn easily with the ball between her feet in the field with purple jersey men surrounding her. She was only a few feet away from the penalty line. All around her there wasn't a sign of any of the London Lions, leaving Lynn to fend for herself as the four Loughborough men moved in on her.
The biggest of the group, number 5, was suddenly behind her, trying desperately to get the ball away from Lynn - trying so hard that he even grabbed onto her shoulder with one hand and used the other to place on her stomach to pin her to his chest. At this point, all the players on the bench were standing up to get a better look along with everyone in the stands.
Lynn was holding her own pretty well considering she was trapped - moving her arms to get out of his grasp, moving the ball closer to her so one of the other Loughborough players couldn't get it. She was using all her weight to push back on the lad who was holding her and eventually stumbled out of his clutch only to fall flat on her stomach from the momentum.
It all happened in seconds, and the moment it was finished, Coach, my team, the crowd in the stands, and myself were shouting at the refs to do something.
"What the fuck was that!?" I heard Reese shout from somewhere to my left.
One of the Loughborough players who was nearby got to the ball and started moving quickly down the pitch to our goal, which only made the angry shouts louder, demanding a foul play. As soon as Lynn got back up on her feet, the whistle finally blew and everyone stopped what they were doing on the field to face the ref.
He held up a yellow card and pointed to number 5, and everyone on the sidelines near me sighed with relief and took their seats on the bench once again.
"Should be red," Coach mumbled.
I watched fixedly as the lad who trapped Lynn walked over to her and stood his ground, using his height and weight to his advantage. He said something to her; face filled with raw anger. But Lynn didn't seem like she was very intimidated by him. And then the tosser walked off to his side of the field, huffing and puffing as he went.
Before the clocks could start up again and Lynn got her free kick, Coach signaled for a timeout and ushered his players back to discuss the next action. Lynn was obviously tired as she wearily jogged her way over, grass stains on her socks and elbows, loose hair sticking to her face from the rain.
She was shivering, just like everyone else on the team. It was November nineteenth and it was starting to get rather cold, and adding in the rain only made everything worse. Soon enough, the rain would be snow and I was sure no one was looking forward to that.
"You alright, Mercury?" Coach asked as she stood in the huddle, hands on her knees as she took deep breaths. "You've been getting a right beating out there. Should I pull you out?"
Lynn shook her head and stood up straight. "No, I'm doing great," she said with bated breath and flashed a bright smile.
"You're tough, and I like that," Coach said. "But I can't push you to keep going like this."
"What if I said I had an idea to beat them?" Lynn offered.
"Alright. Humor me."
Lynn grabbed Matt's phone and started watching a video, the sound barely audible through the shouts of the crowd and the pouring rain. Coach made it a rule that a player at all times had to videotape the game so in times like these, we could go back and re-watch it.
After finding what she was looking for, Lynn paused the video and held it out in the middle of the huddle so everyone could see.
"They're doing the four-three-three formation," Lynn explained, pointing to the video. "It's an amateur tactic; it means they're confident they'll win. The extra player in midfield allows a stronger defense, which risks them greater fatigue."
Coach crossed his arms over his chest. "What are you getting at, Lynn?"
"That's the play Barcelona revived," I said, making everyone look over at me. "The formation boosts the defensive midfielder." I grabbed the phone from Lynn and skipped forward a little until the opposing teams forwards were running alongside each other. "If you see here, they're interacting with each other with constant hand motions and passes to confuse us. Just like Barcelona did when they won their championship game."
"Wait, hold on," William interrupted. "If they're signaling to distract us from what they are actually doing, then how the hell do they know what they're doing?"
"They talk about it before the game and during their timeout," Lynn answered. "They're going through every scenario they can so they know what to do."
Matt scuffed. "Sounds like a lot of work to me."
"Maybe, but it worked for Barcelona."
"So what did you have in mind to win?" Coach asked.
"Don't think about it," Lynn and I said at the same time.
Our eyes locked then, and I wasn't sure if the rain was just obscuring my vision, but I swore I saw a hint of a smile on her lips.
"Any tactic or formation, any theories or setups are irrelevant to win this game," I explained.
I couldn't even believe those words were coming out of my mouth. My whole life was based on those points, and there I was encouraging my teammates to abandon those thoughts. I was glad that I didn't have to play because I wasn't so sure I could follow my own advice.
"They're going to be giving you one thing and then do another," I continued. "Just ignore them and don't think about anything."
"So... we're just going to leave it up to fate?" Dylan asked from across the huddle.
Fate. That was one word in my vocabulary that I didn't have a definition for - wasn't even part of my terminology, really. But that was exactly what I was telling them all to do. Leave it all up to fate and hope for the best.
Right then, one of the refs came over. "Coach, you ready to start?" he asked.
Coach looked at me and then at Lynn. "You really reckon this is the wisest choice we have?" he asked. When we both nodded, he sighed. "Okay, alright, I'll trust you two."
Lynn nodded and Coach called the end of the time out. Everyone went back to their rightful positions as the players on the sideline sat back down on the bench, no doubt not wanting to miss anything from here on out.
This would be a first for our team, probably a first for every team. We had a notebook full of formations and as I watched Coach flip the notebook closed on his clipboard, I was having doubts. This was no time to be tempting fate. We were only a game and a half away from the BUSA and Lynn and I may have just jeopardized our chances.
Four Loughborough players stood in a line in front of their goal as Lynn took her spot behind the ball where the foul happened. There was a hush in the crowd as everyone waited in anticipation for the free kick.
Lynn wrung her shoulders out and loosened her arms before finally running toward the ball. It went flying around the players in a perfectly curved sideways arc as it steered right past the goalie and into the back of the net.
The crowd along with my teammates celebrated, but we knew that it was a small victory. We were still down one with a little over half of the game left. Everything was up in the air.
The game went on from there. The Loughborough players were doing exactly what Lynn and I had said; signaling one thing to a player and doing another. Our strategy of not having a strategy seemed to be working, and I knew this because Andrew got another score on them, making it 5-5.
By the time halftime was over and there were only ten minutes left of the game, half of the Loughborough players were wearing thin, nearly collapsing on the turf from exhaustion.
"This is mental," Thomas said from beside me. "It's bloody brilliant, actually. My hands are shaking just thinking about the outcome."
Two minutes left in the game and the ball was on our side of the field. Our defenders and midfielders were working their hardest, pushing players out of the way and stealing the ball right out from under their feet.
When a player from the opposing team kicked the ball at the goal, our goalie blocked it with his hands and ran up to the penalty line and threw it to Andrew. The clock was ticking down as he ran down the field, dodging players. He was almost down to the other side of the field and the opposite team rammed into Andrew, pushing him to the turf. The player snatched the ball away, and not even a moment later Lynn was right beside him and they started playing footsie with the ball.
"Oh dear God, I can't watch this," Coach said as he turned his back to the field.
Lynn got the upper hand of the ball and stole it away. By then, everyone was on their feet for the second time that game.
Lynn got closer to the goal, the eagerness grew higher and higher in the crowd. But as soon as Lynn was about to kick the ball, she slipped on the wet grass and fell, water spraying up around her. There was a collective gasp and then encouraging yells for Lynn to get back up and take the last stride, but a Loughborough player got to the ball before Lynn could even get on her knees. However, before the crowd could even boo, James came out of nowhere and snatched the ball away and booted it into the goal just as the seconds ticked down to zero.
The crowd and my teammates jumped up from the bench and cheered from the sidelines. Coach - who was now looking back at the turf - had his hands in the air like he couldn't quite believe what he just saw.
James was jumping up and down as my teammates on the field surrounded him. Lynn was a few feet away still on the wet ground, but now she had rolled onto her back and was laughing with the widest smile on her face, no doubt happy that her slip didn't cost us the game.
We left it all to fate, and fate was either feeling generous or felt pity, but either way, my belief in destiny as a whole had changed, but just a little.
We won another game, which meant we were still classified to be in the BUSA, and in all honestly, we wouldn't have gotten this far if it wasn't for the girl lying in the mud.
× × ×
Game Theory is a mature story, this is the last time I will say it. I won't be putting warnings before chapters that have smut in it. So if you don't want to read that, you're just going to have to keep an eye out for it.
-Jess