Chapter Two - Try-Outs
The day flew by quickly but not quickly enough.
Athena had found a sign up sheet for the girls soccer team and had forced Megan's hand into signing up with her.
They were recruiting only a select few to replace the old seniors and other drop-outs of the previous year.
"I am so uncoordinated and I'll look stupid. Why don't you go and I'll support you?" Megan was hating the idea of having to run around and most likely fall over the ball.
"No, no, no. You have to do it or else I'll look like a loner on the field"
"Fine" Megan knew there was no point in arguing with Athena, she would always win.
As the girls walked down to the back fields Megan was starting to get anxious.
Her teachers were always telling her to do more at school like sports or the writing club but she had always been too afraid to join up.
What if they didn't like her, told her she wasn't good enough or she made a new enemy.
That wasn't what she wanted to do at all so she just didn't bother but apparently today she would break that pattern.
It was 3:45 when they arrived and the other girls were already warming up on the field.
Megan looked behind her to see Athena's eyes light up with joy.
Athena dragged her by the elbow to the change rooms.
By the time they stepped out of the room it was 4 o'clock and the try outs were about to start.
Coach stepped out on to the middle of the field and gave Megan an interested look.
She knew that Megan wasn't very athletic and was just as surprised as Megan that she was standing in front of her.
"Ok listen up" started Coach "we're going to start with some foot work drills. Get into a line and grab a ball. To the other end and back, in and out of the cones then when you finish two goals. Ok ready, set, go!"
At the whistle everyone ran to the ball bag and did as they were told.
Megan kept to the back of the line knowing she was going to mess up.
As the ball hit her feet and she rounded the first corner she lost control of the ball and it flew away from her so that she had run to get it back before it crossed onto the middle field where the boys team was training.
They looked up at her arrival, Megan grabbed the ball and ran back to the girls try-outs as fast as she could though she did notice a couple of guys looking at her, including Tommy.
When she got back everyone else was coming back on the other side. She raced to keep up with them, not without losing the ball once or twice more.
When she finally got back to he other side she went for her two goals.
She severely missed and earned her some snickering from the other girls.
Athena did well getting both of her goals in.
Coach planned a few more running and scoring drills. At the end she announced the girls that had made it into the second part of try outs.
"Savanna, Beth, Georgina, Isabelle C, Isabelle G and Athena. Thank you to all the other girls that tried out." When coach had finished talking Athena jumped into Megan's arms.
She didn't have enough breath to talk but Megan could tell that she was over joyed.
What surprised Megan the most though was that she actually felt a little upset that she didn't make it on to the soccer team.
She knew that it was silly because of course she wasn't going to make it but still.
Something clicked in her head at that moment and without realising it she had just changed.
Athena was being picked up by her mum so Megan was going to catch the 4:30 bus by herself until she surprised herself again today which felt like the hundredth time and started to make her way to the soccer fields.
Coach hadn't packed up the nets and the balls were still out.
Megan threw her bag onto the bleachers and walked out to the middle of the field picking up a ball on her way.
For once she wasn't going to quit or leave it at that.
No, Megan wanted to be good at something and this was her chance.
No pressure to get in a team just the reward of succeeding.
She set the ball down and started the first drill from try-outs, though the cones were packed up she marked where they would be with stones, sticks and leaves.
At first it went worse then it did in try-outs the ball kept flying out from underneath her feet and landing on the other end of the field, it even made it to the running track which was almost 200 meters away.
Instead of giving up though she just started again and again until finally at just after 6pm, she got through the whole drill.
She had skipped the shooting goals but she was able to dribble the ball in between the marks one way and sprint down the other, with the ball still in control.
Megan had forgotten that it wasn't her ball so as she saw coach leave the staff car park she felt a bit bad.
She walked over to the locker rooms and placed the ball in front of the equipment shed.
Just then she realised the time and thought she better get back.
She picked up her bag and started the walk back home.
* * * * *
It was a quarter to 8 when she arrived back home.
Megan would have been back by around 6:30 if she hadn't walked through the shops to look for a store that was still open and sold soccer balls.
At last she found a small sports store that was just about to close up when she begged for them just to let her purchase one thing.
They agreed and after little discussion and some useful information from the store owner Megan left with a black soccer ball that had large lime-green circles covering it.
When she got home neither Claudia or Donald was anywhere to be seen or heard for that matter.
The older kids in the orphanage were eating dinner, as the younger ones had already been sent to sleep.
Dinner was spaghetti from a tin.
Jess had saved a seat for her and placed several pieces of fruit in a bowl for her.
"There you are, where have you been? Oh and before you think C&D have been abducted they just went out to the bank." Jess was the one asking the questions but from all the looks that I was receiving, everyone wanted to know.
"Athena made me try-out for the soccer team so we had to stay back after school for try-outs and then afterwards I offered to help coach pack up. Then I had to go to the shops and pick up this" Megan was so relieved that the bag the ball cam in was plain black so she could pass it off as anything "It's new school sneakers and now I'm back. By the way thanks Jess for the fruit." Megan was a vegetarian and was used to eating fruit for dinner, thought even if she weren't vegetarian she wouldn't eat that canned slop for dinner, though everybody else doesn't seem to mind.
At around 8:30 most people started to get up and the people that were on washing duty asked for all plates.
When she got back to her room Megan slipped into her PJ's, grabbed a towel and ran to the bathroom.
This time she wasn't so lucky and Mitch got in before her.
She waited outside the door for around 10 minutes until it opened again, by then there was a line going back around the corner.
Megan slipped in, had her shower while trying to scrub all of the mud off her feet and hands.
It took for what felt like ages and she stopped finally when her hands were too sore to keep going.
She jumped out of the shower and brushed her teeth then dashed out of the bathroom and into her room.
Jess was already sleeping so she had to be as quiet as possible.
After 5 minutes she was in bed and starting to feel the heaviness of sleep sweep over her.