ensorcel (v.) - enchant or fascinate
After being on edge for the last twelve hours, she was relieved to be stepping onto the bus that would be taking them to Lansing. They would play three games throughout the day tomorrow then finish out group play Saturday morning. If they topped their group, they would go into the quarter finals that evening, and then the semifinals, finals, and consolation matches were all on Sunday. They hoped to be playing in that final game on Sunday, and they were eager to show their worth in this tournament. It was all guys varsity soccer, and they were one of the only small towns going to participate. They did have high schools coming from all over Michigan to compete, so there were forty teams in eight groups, randomly generated so they did not skew who was playing who.
Samantha sat in the second to last seat on the bus, her two bags on the seat in front of her and Nash was sitting in the seat across from her, on the phone with his girlfriend. From what she had gathered, he was one of the three guys on the team who were tied down, and her name was Rachel. She was a senior like they were, and they had been dating since the middle of junior year, so not too long. From what she had heard amongst the team, they did not like her very much, but they never said it to his face.
"You want a piece?" Nash asked her, handing out a bag of jerky to her. She shrugged, taking one and thanking him.
"How's Rachel?" She asked him, for he had just gotten off the phone with her a few minutes ago.
"She's good. She's a little bummed we're gonna be gone all weekend, but she said she was gonna try and make it Sunday if we make it." He told her as they both munched on jerky.
"Oh that's cool." She responded curtly.
"Do you have a boyfriend?" He asked out of the blue, and it caught her a little off guard, but she shook her head.
"Nope." She sighed.
"That's a shame." He commented as he looked away to go back to his phone. "What about your family?"
"What, trying to write a book about me?" She asked with a chuckle, getting him to smile.
"No, no. I'm just trying to get to know you, Reed. Build chemistry." He defended, but the word chemistry stuck out to her for some reason.
"I have an older brother who goes to Michigan State, and my dad." She told him. That reminded her to text Jason to see if he was going to make it to any of her games. It was the weekend before they started classes, so she was sure he was going to be partying all weekend, but he had promised he would come see her play when he could, and this would be the perfect opportunity since she was going to be close.
"If you don't mind me asking, what about your mom?" He asked, and she sighed.
"My mom died in a car accident two years ago." She told him curtly.
"I'm sorry to hear that." He said, and she gave him a small smile.
"Yeah, me too." She responded, huffing. "What about you?"
"I have a younger sister and my parents. She goes to our school too, you'll probably meet her this weekend." He informed, and she nodded.
"Nice. I always wished I had a sister, but Jason is probably my favorite person in the world. I wouldn't trade him for the world." She responded with a small chuckle.
"You can have mine then. She's always trying to get into my business and can't just mind her own." He answered with a laugh himself.
"Oh I was the same way for a long time when we were both younger. I always wanted to play with the guys." She said, laughing with him.
"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.
"To play it safe, I'd suggest we be defensively aggressive in the first five or ten minutes to lock things down, but then if we don't see a shift, switch onto the offensive and try to get something on goal." Samantha suggested to them all, and Nash agreed, backing her idea as the captain of the team.
"I agree with Reed. It'd be our best shot since we don't know anything about this team. That's what sucks about the first game - no one has seen each other play and don't know what to expect." Nash explained as their waitress came out with food, followed by another staff member to help out.
"Then we'll plan on doing that. Good insight." Wallance answered as his dinner was placed in front of him. They all ate and talked, Samantha getting to know her teammates a little more. They had been having team bonding moments, but there was still so much to learn about them. They all knew one another fairly well, but she still had more to learn. After they were done eating, it was around eight that evening, and their coach wanted everyone in their rooms by ten, giving them two hours to do what they wanted. Someone had suggested going down to the pool before it closed, and she was down. She loved swimming, especially the night before a game. It allowed her to loosen up, get her muscles moving. She had a feeling, however, that that would not be the case with a group of rambunctious teenage boys. As predicted, she was only able to get a down and back in before she was disturbed by the guys that had come down. They all hopped into the pool, and she just laughed as she started getting splashed with water. She splashed them back, of course, getting in on the fun. They had two hours to kill, and if it meant an entire two hours in a pool to themselves, they were down with it.
--
They unloaded from the bus at quarter after seven, having to get to the fields a little early to check into the tournament. Samantha had her earbuds the entire time, only taking one out when they were calling out names by number, her number being called first. The tournament officials were a little thrown off with their goalkeeper having long, pin-straight blonde hair, but they knew that it was not against the rules, so they did not question it. Of course they double checked, though, for they could never be too careful, especially with the awaited complaints from the teams they would be versing. It was better to be preemptive than thrown under the bus.
Their tournament was on a slew of grass fields, all next to one another and all over the place. They were high school regulation size and a little spaced out, but it reminded her of her club days back home. Sure, most of the teams here normally played on turf, but grass was a welcomed treat. They made their way to the sidelines of field three, where a team was finishing up their first game of the day. They all stretched out and got loose while they waited, and as soon as the field opened up, they went and ran their warm ups focused on shooting, getting Samantha warmed up as well as the rest of them. The center referee blew his whistle to get them into starting positions and ready to go. Coach Wallace gave them a few words of wisdom and the eleven starters broke off to head out to the field while the other five substitutes took a seat on the raggedy wooden bench that looked like it had been sitting there for twenty years. Once both teams were out on the field, the referee blew his whistle, signalling the start of the game. Since they were determined the home team, the Saginaw Trojans got the kickoff and instantly sent it out wide to a winger already making an early run. Hunter, their right winger, tracked him down easily, jockeying and able to dispossess the midfielder and send it back across the field to Nash, who played centerback. He took a moment to assess the field, then found Jack open on the left side and sending it up the sideline. There was a bit of back and forth play for the first part of the half, Samantha staying on her toes and watching the entire field. She knew that the guys on both her team and their opposition wanted to see what she could do in a game setting, and she could not show any sign of weakness. She assumed the other team figured she was just there to fill the spot, but she and the rest of her team knew that she was there to play the best soccer she could.
Just before they went into halftime, one of the midfielders picked the ball off of Ted and chipped it up to their forward, who was clearly offside, but the sideline referee let the play go as their forward came on a breakaway. She watched as he began to slow, trying to draw her out, but she was already halfway in the box as he geared up to take his shot. He tried to fire a shot over her in anticipation that she was going to come sliding out, but she waited for the shot and flew in the air, taking the ball straight to the gut and deflecting it as she went to the ground. By now Nash had tracked back and cleared the ball, the referee calling the half. She knelt on the ground for a moment, having the wind knocked out of her, and Nash stood by her, patting her back.
"Nice save Sam, come on, up on your feet and get your arms up over your head." He told her calmly and cooly, and she nodded, allowing him to help her to her feet and lifting her hands up. Air swept through her lungs and she coughed for a moment as she caught her breath, walking over to the rest of the team.
"Thanks." She told him as she grabbed her water bottle out of her bag.
"Don't mention it."