A/N: Er… WARNING! Most of this chpt is basically just a soccer game… I just felt like writing it. Question, is there such thing as a soccer team with different year levels in it? I dunno. Here in Melbourne, Victoria, we play in 3 levels, Junior (7&8), Intermediate (9&10), Senior (11&12). But anyways I just decided it would be so neat to have all levels play on the same team… so yeah…
A/N2: Uh…I shall shut up now! Hope you still enjoy it.
Part 13: First Game
Soccer Field (Thursday – Two weeks later)
Eli agreed on going to the game for moral support, Grace was undoubtedly going to be their, since she and Jessie has bonded for the better. Predictably, Sam and Katie each had their little 'fan club'/cheer squad, consisting of 20 or more students, holding up banners on the spectators stand. Sarah wasn't that far from the 'fan club' thing, because she herself had a little group of ten or so people cheering for her.
For warm up, the team walked out in a straight line and waved at the crowd. There were lights beaming down at the field, the spectators' stands were quite full and everyone was cheering and wearing school colours; Green and Yellow for Upton Sinclair, Red and Blue for the opposition school. In the crowd, Jess spotted Grace and Eli, who waved vigorously at her. Eli yelled out, "GOOD LUCK LIL SIS!"
Katie and Sam paused for a moment and flashed their charming smiles and bowed to their respective little clan of fans, whom were holding their banners. Then Jess saw Becky wave at somebody, following the direction of Becky's gaze, she finally found who she was waving at… glasses… brown hair… nicely styled… Justin.
"Hey… So you and Justin?" Jess whispered into Becky's ear incredulously.
Being so selfless, Becky smiled and said, "Yah… ain't he cute!"
"Good for you," Jess said rolling her eyes at her friend.
"He asked me out for ice-cream, you know… to say sorry for my little incident…"
"When?"
"Uh… Friday… when you went to watch a movie with Grace"
"Oh… That Friday." Jessie said with a grin, reminiscing what happened at the movies.
I just felt like doing this, because I personally love playing soccer, it doesn't matter if you don't understand... Oh and the games I play in school doesn't sound as glamorous as in the story – the crowd the lights etc... But what the heck.
The line was in the order of:
Sam: Star player, Captain, plays centre midfield, a junior in school
Katie: Star player, Centre forward, a sophomore
Sarah: Vice Captain haha… I'm so mean, Centre defender (sweeper), a sophomore
Jessie: A Rising Star forward, on the right wing, the youngest player, a freshman.
Becky: Midfield left wing, a freshman
Kerrie: Forward left wing, a senior.
Sophie: Right Midfield, a senior.
Isabelle: Also Centre Defender (sweeper), a junior
Veronica: Defender Left wing, a junior
Claire: Defender Right wing, a junior
Annie: Goalie, a senior
Bench players:
Caroline: Midfield, a senior
Jennifer: Forward, a junior
Brianna: Midfield, a junior
Rachael: Defender, a senior
Dina: Goalie, a junior
First Half…
"Sam… over right!" coach yelled.
With a strong kick, Sam had booted the ball all the way to the far right for Jessie. Jessie stopped the ball with her stomach, and began dribbling it down the sidelines. Practically on her heals was one of the defenders from the opposition school. Jessie being small and agile, did a quick stop with the ball, and tricked the other player. Jessie called in for Katie, "Kat!" before she passed the ball down to her who was inside the goalie box.
Being taller than the defender of the opposition team, Katie jumped up and head butted the ball into the left corner of the goal, and the whistle went off for half time. "One-Nil!" the referee called out.
Everyone cheered and patted Katie on the back, Jessie ran and jumped into Katie's arms, Sarah who was also cheering suddenly stopped when she saw the sight of Jessie and Katie hugging. But before she had too much time to think she had to assemble back to starting position for second half.
Second Half Whistle
And the ball was passed between two players of the opposition team. They got well into Sinclair's half of the field before the ball was tackled off them by Isabelle, but sadly the ball flew into the wrong direction and was caught by a midfielder of the opposition team. Sam quickly caught up to that girl and both were running at high speed trying to get the ball. Trying but not succeeding Becky tried to catch up, but their speed was just overwhelming.
"Left, Here!" called Sarah.
With one great surge of energy, Sam tapped the ball off the other girl, and the ball flew into Sarah. Being sweeper, with one huge kick, the ball went flying back down the opposite end of the field, and was caught by Kerrie at the far corner.
Being a little to far away from the goal, Kerrie passed the ball into the middle of the offenders half of the field, and was caught by a running Becky. Dodging a girl by tapping the ball to her left with the outside of her foot, Becky continued to run a little closer to the goal, and passed the ball off to Jessie, who was standing just outside the right hand side of the goalie box waving her hands in the air.
With one strong kick, without allowing the ball to touch the floor, Jessie knocked it hard and fast into the goal's direction. Sadly the goalie was just a step too slow, or could be that she wasn't tall enough, because the ball just missed her fingers and flew in. With that, the whistle went off, and the ref called out "TWO-NIL."
Being very proud of her girl-friend getting that beautiful goal, Katie blew a kiss towards Jess' direction. Catching the 'kiss', Jessie did the same.
Once again the ball started off with the opposite team, this time, a new tactic was seen, because they were passing the ball amongst each other for a while before one of them booted the ball down the left sidelines to a sneaky player. That girl seems to have done very well getting right past Veronica, luckily Sarah was there and blocked the ball, before it was shot in. With much trouble the opposition team tried a goal kick. Sadly Annie, being nice and tall, caught the ball just in time.
For the rest of the game, the opposition school tried their very best to get a shot in goal, but they still were unsuccessful. This was due to the fact of Sam and Becky being in the defending half of the field helping out the other four defenders. As for the forwards, they occasionally got the ball, and had a shot a goal, not getting anymore in.
Whistle
The final whistle blew, and the game ended, the crowd went wild and cheered. The team went wild and cheered. The coach fell back onto a chair, finally able to relax and breathe normally again. The benched players came running out and hugged their team mates for their great game, Jessie and Katie receiving the larger amount of the praises.
The two teams lined up and shook hands and exchanged the usual 'Great Game's 'Well done's.