Cardin Winchester lined up off of the left tackle on the line of scrimmage. The ball was snapped. Cardin shot forward out of his three point stance… and promptly got pounded into the dirt by the left tackle. The running back from the other team shot through the hole that Cardin had left wide open, and scored a touchdown, ending the game. Cardin picked himself up and jogged over to his bench where his coach patted him on the back saying : "It's alright Winchester, we'll get 'em next time".
Cardin nodded and dejectedly, gathered up his things in his sports bag and went to the bus for the ride home. He got on the bus and heard one of his teammates yell: "Good job getting busted up Winchester" followed by much laughter from the team. Cardin sighed sadly as he sunk down in his seat on the bus. His team, the East Vacuo High School Cougars, were currently on a 8 game losing streak, out of the nine games they play in a season. They had just one more game to prove that they were at least not the worst, but for the next game, they were playing North Vale, the defending conference champions.
"Maybe a miracle will happen, and we'll score a point" thought Cardin as he slipped into a restless sleep.
Cardin woke up to the bus stopping, as they arrived at a McRemnant restaurant, where the team seemingly forgot all about how they lost and went into the restaurant happily as could be. This pissed Cardin off to no end.
"How could they be so happy right now" Cardin wondered. "I mean, food is good and all, but we just got our asses handed to us. We should not be celebrating like this" Cardin thought angrily.
Cardin walked out of the McRemnant's and sat back on the bus, enraged at his fellow teammates for not taking the game seriously, but most of all, angry at himself for not being good enough, big enough, or strong enough to be able to make a difference about it. Cardin Winchester wasn't by anybodies standards a person who would be described as big, strong, or intimidating in any way. He was 5 feet 10 inches tall, and 185 pounds, which for a defensive end, is tiny, but since EVHS didn't have many football players, people played positions that they were completely not suited for.
As expected, Cardin's last game against North Vale went abysmally, with EVHS getting blown out 80-3. The only reason EVHS was able to get a field goal is because North Vale put in their 16th string defense. After the game, Cardin packed up his things per usual, got onto the bus, and slept. When he woke up, the bus was about to get into the locker room, and people were messing around, as if they had not gotten destroyed. Cardin was so angry at this that as soon as the bus pulled up to the locker room, he quickly got his things, was the first one to put all of his pads back for the season, and he ran home. When he got home, his mother greeted him, trying to console him for the horrible performance that his team had put on. His father, on the other hand, was not so kind.
"Well son, you sucked, and it's unacceptable, but you have to face it. Now move on and try to not be a failure in the future".
Cardin was outraged at this, but knew better than to try and confront his father. After all, he would probably just get beaten. Cardin took a shower, then proceeded to lie in his bed and think.
"I, Cardin Winchester, vow to never suck at football ever again".