Not for the first time in her life, Bobbi wished she had a mood ring. And not one of those cheap knock-offs you could get in a gift shop, that just changed color based on the temperature of your skin as it sat on your finger, but an actual piece of jewelry that could actually pinpoint her feelings and pop out a little emotional analysis report for her to read. It would make things so much easier if she didn't have to do the work of figuring out just exactly what kinds of complicated feelings were swirling around her at any given moment.

It was early, a little after five in the morning, and Bobbi was sitting on the edge of her bed, trying to convince herself to get up and start getting ready for soccer practice. She could hear the faint, and now familiar, sounds of May bustling around, probably getting ready to start the tai chi that she always began her day with. Bobbi gave her eyes a little rub, trying to fill them with enough life that when May came by to check on her – the way she always did before starting tai chi, Bobbi had discovered once she started waking up early for 6am soccer – May wouldn't suspect that Bobbi had spent most of her night tossing and turning and struggling to figure out why she was so on-edge since last night's conversation.

Right on cue, there was a gentle tap on Bobbi's door, and May's head poked around the doorframe a moment later.

"Glad you're up," May said. She kept her voice low, probably so she didn't disturb the rest of the house, who were all sleeping soundly. "Sleep all right?"

All right. All right. Not true, but it wasn't a lie if Bobbi didn't speak. Instead, she just nodded and stretched the corners of her mouth out wide in her best imitation of a smile. It must have worked well enough, because May didn't comment on it.

"I was thinking about doing my tai chi in the backyard this morning, if you want to join me," May offered as she pulled away slowly, back into the hallway so she could check on Skye and Jemma too before heading downstairs. "I'll make it quick enough that you'll still have time to eat before we have to leave."

Bobbi considered for a moment, then nodded again. "I'll be down in a minute."

"Great," smiled May. "See you down there."

Ever since Bobbi had started getting up before sunrise for soccer, May had always offered to share her early morning tai chi time. At first Bobbi hadn't taken her up on it. She didn't want to intrude on what she figured was one of the few times May had totally to herself during the day, and she and Skye had been doing just fine with the afternoon tai chi May did with them a few times a week. But May kept offering, morning after morning, until it finally sunk in for Bobbi that May wasn't just being polite, and she'd agreed to join her. It was a little different than the tai chi they did with Skye in the afternoons – a lot less talking, for one, and a little slower paced, with moves that were a little more complicated. Bobbi didn't mind in the slightest.

Bobbi dressed quickly, workout clothes that she could also wear to soccer practice in an hour, then rummaged on her desk for her batons. She didn't have a magical mood ring, so she wasn't exactly sure what name to give to the different things she was feeling, but she knew that a few solid twirls would at least help her clear her head and swallow down whatever bad things were clawing their way up the back of her throat enough to seem relatively normal while she worked out with May.

She grimaced slightly as she twirled, pacing a few quick steps back and forth across the small open space on her floor. She could practically hear Dr. Garner's voice in her head, telling her that she shouldn't be trying so hard to get rid of her bad feelings, especially not without labeling them and processing them first.

If he was here right now, he'd want her to pull the paper with the multi-colored wheel of emotions out of her desk drawer. Sit down and figure out how to classify the tightness in her stomach, the dull ache behind her eyes, and the hot, pinched feeling in her chest as something other than just 'bad.' That seemed like a lot of work, and Bobbi didn't want to keep May waiting. Besides, there was no guarantee she'd actually be able to identify anything properly, so she wasn't sure there was much point in forcing herself to go through the motions of the exercise at this moment. For now, twirling, plus several hours of good, hard, distracting workouts would have to do.

May was waiting out in the backyard for her, just like she'd said, and Bobbi inhaled deeply as she stepped out into the soft, heather-filmed space of a world only just waking up. Thin glimmers of first sunlight streamed across the air, catching the dew on the grass and making it gleam with gentle awakening.

Bobbi glanced down as she made her way down the back steps, looking at the glass jar she'd left there last night. It was empty. Something unhitched in Bobbi's ribs, and her breath snagged for a moment in her throat. She gave a little cough to cover it and gave herself a shake. Focus. Focus. Focus. She was here to work out, not get caught up about a silly bug in a jar.

"24 forms okay with you today?" May asked. "I don't want to rush you through breakfast after."

"Okay, okay," agreed Bobbi. She and May stretched first in silence, and Bobbi began to measure her breathing as she moved. It was always easier to get better breaths when she was doing something with her muscles. The clean, earthy scent of damp, early morning grass filled with sweet clover buds filled her lungs and helped her take longer, deeper breaths.

"Ready to start?"

To May's credit, she seemed to recognize that Bobbi needed a quiet morning, and they spent the next thirty minutes in near silence as they worked. A few chickadee trills punctuated the air, accompanied every so often by the long, plaintive coo of a mourning dove. Bobbi smiled as she listened to the birdsong. A year ago, she wouldn't have been able to identify a single birdcall, but Jemma had a good ear for them and Phil had apparently learned a lot about native Wisconsin birdsong growing up as a boy scout, so between the two of them, she had picked up a lot of information about the different birds that soundtracked her mornings now.

The sun had almost totally come up by the time she and May had finished and gone back inside, and the calm silence continued between the two as Bobbi ate a quick breakfast and May fixed herself some tea. It wasn't until after they had put their dishes in the dishwasher and Bobbi had grabbed her cleats and soccer bag from its spot by the front door that May finally spoke again.

"Want to drive us up to the school?" She jangled the keys slightly where Bobbi could see them, offering them up for Bobbi to take. "Good practice, and there won't be many people on the road at this hour."

A driver's license had been the only thing Bobbi had wanted for her 16th birthday last May. It took her a long time to work up the courage to ask May and Phil if they could help her get one, but they had, of course, been more than happy to oblige her. They'd enlisted Miss Hand's help in processing the necessary paperwork for her to get a learner's permit as a foster child, but it wasn't long before she was all set to start learning.

She had been a little skittish behind the wheel at first – mostly because of how unfamiliar everything was and also, if she was being honest, because her anxiety kept deciding to pester her about how dangerous it was for her to be behind the wheel of a car – but Phil and May were good, patient teachers who knew how to push her enough to crest the hill of apprehension without pushing her too far. Between them, the mandatory driver's ed class she'd taken at the start of the summer, and a few, possibly unorthodox, secret practice sessions with Hunter in the parking lot of an almost-abandoned shopping mall off I-43, Bobbi was actually feeling pretty well-prepared for her exam in three weeks. Still, the extra practice never hurt, and she took the keys from May with a small smile.

"You've been pretty quiet this morning," May said eventually, once Bobbi had gotten on the road and was settled into the drive.

Bobbi was grateful to have the excuse of keeping her eyes on the road, because she certainly didn't want to make eye contact with May as she offered a feeble explanation.

"Just tired. Early mornings, you know…"

"I understand." There was a pause, and then May spoke with a playful voice: "You'll probably be glad when school starts – you'll get to sleep in later than you are now."

Bobbi blew air out of her nose in a silent kind of nascent laugh and smiled. "Yeah. Almost two extra hours. That'll be nice."

She eased the car into the parking lot outside of the school stadium, where several of her teammates were hopping out of cars and locking up bikes, all trudging toward the gate and what would probably be a pretty grueling few hours of work. She was about to get out of the car when May made a small noise, like she was about to say something, that gave Bobbi pause.

"Look, Bobbi, I…" May hesitated. "I know there was a lot going on last night. A lot of new information. I know I'm not Phil, and I'm not as much of a conversationalist as he is, but if… If you want to talk to somebody about everything Victoria said, you know Phil or I—"

"I don't want to talk about last night," Bobbi said bluntly. She cringed and castigated herself internally for her rudeness. "Sorry. I just meant… There's nothing to talk about. I'm okay. Really. Thank you, for… But it's fine. I don't need to talk."

"Okay," May said. Simple, like that was that. Bobbi always appreciated how much May seemed to trust her and accept her words, even when Bobbi knew deep down that she wasn't being totally honest with May. "Well, the offer is always on the table if you change your mind. Have a good practice. Are you still planning on getting a ride home with Hunter?"

"Yeah. I'll call Phil if anything changes."

"Sounds good. See you later on today. I love you."

"Love you, too," Bobbi returned. The words still felt funny in her mouth, like her tongue wasn't agile enough to wrap around all the letters, but she was getting better at saying it back to them. "Bye, May."

"Bye, Bobbi."

After dropping her stuff off by the bench on the side of the field and quickly suiting up – cleats laced, protective athletic brace on her knee, practice pinny pulled over her shirt – Bobbi jogged lightly over to midfield, where Elena was already stationed, stretching out and chatting to Piper, a senior girl whom Bobbi had recognized from AV club last year but had only started getting to know better once she'd begun practicing with the team this summer.

"Hey Bobbi," Elena greeted her, looking up from the hamstring stretch she was working on. "Long time, no see." Bobbi could tell by the mischievous smile on Elena's face that she was joking, and Bobbi mirrored the expression.

"Yeah, it's been like, what, almost 12 hours since I last saw you guys."

"Did you guys have like, weirdly tight quads after yesterday?" Piper asked. She stood on one foot and held her other foot up behind her, stretching the muscle in question. "I was not loose enough for all those stairs Coach made us run at the end of practice."

"That's because you always skimp on your stretching," Elena teased. "You striker wannabes are always in such a rush to jump into things."

Piper snorted. "You're one to talk. You're one of the most impatient people I know."

"Maybe," Elena conceded with a chuckle. "But at least I always stretch properly."

That was true. Elena did like to be fast, and she liked to be first, but she also knew when to be meticulous when it counted. It was one of the things that made her such a smart, calculating midfielder, and one of the things that made her such an excellent rehab partner last spring, when she and Bobbi had been working together to get back to full strength in time for this year's season.

Like Bobbi, Elena had been determined to get back into playing shape, laser focused on rehab as soon as she was out of the boot her doctor had put her in after she moved on from crutches. They pushed each other, but they were also strict with one another about sticking to their physical therapy regimens. Neither one wanted to reinjure themselves and set back all the progress they'd made, but sometimes it was hard to be patient for their bodies to catch up to their determination.

When Bobbi got frustrated with her knee for starting to twinge partway through their workouts, after being out of practice for so long, it was Elena who convinced her to stop pushing herself so hard and give herself grace as she rebuilt her stamina. When Elena was angry about the fact that she was still struggling to recover her full range of motion after her Achilles' injury, it was Bobbi who helped her remember how far she'd already come and to pace herself as she continued to rehab. And when both of them had realized that there was more than a little fear lurking beneath the surface of their exterior irritations – fear that they might get hurt again, fear that they might not ever be as good as they once were – they leaned on each other to help find the courage to walk onto the field again, knee braces, ankle wraps, and all.

"We're running formations today, right?" Piper asked, drawing Bobbi's thoughts back to the present moment. "If we're running 4-4-2, I'm definitely slotting up to striker. There's no way I'm not getting a shot at it."

"Always so eager to leave midfield behind," tutted Elena, smirking.

"Look, somebody has to fill the Kara Palamas-shaped hole in our offense, so it might as well be me," Piper grinned. "You and Bobbi have our midfield locked down tight. That sophomore Hannah Hutchins, who played JV last year, can take my left-wing spot. She's solid this year. And you've got Grace Mulcahey back to make four. I'll take Kara's old spot up front with Geri, and everybody wins."

"Sounds like you've got our whole offense figured out," Bobbi said with a laugh. "Does Coach know you're coming for his job?" That got Elena and Piper laughing, too.

"I'm just saying, it could work," Piper said. "We've got the people for it this year, and as much as I love playing mid with you guys, I've been trying to play striker for as long as I've been on varsity. Now that Kara's off at Stanford, I might actually have a shot."

A few quick whistle blasts pierced the air then, signaling for the girls to circle up for the start of practice, and Bobbi, Elena, and Piper jogged over to join the rest of the team.

"Good morning, ladies," Coach McCreary boomed as everyone gathered near the bench. He was a bear of a man, tall and broad, but his upbeat demeanor kept him from feeling imposing or intimidating. Bobbi liked him as a coach – fair but tough, always expecting best efforts and dedication from his players. "Before we get started today, I want to introduce you to our newest teammate. She just transferred here, and the coaching staff and I ran her through skills assessment last night."

Bobbi blinked and realized she had forgotten about Skye and Jemma's news last night that they'd met someone yesterday who might be joining the team. She looked around until she spotted the new face in the huddle – a white girl with pale blonde hair and a flat expression.

"Anyway, team, meet Ruby. Ruby, meet the team," their coach concluded, gesturing wide as a means of sweeping introduction. "Make sure you all introduce yourselves at some point today."

Ruby. Bobbi felt the corners of her mouth twitch. She'd have to tell Jemma she'd finally learned the girl's name.

As Coach McCreary continued talking, walking them through the drills they'd be running today, movement off to one side of the stadium, near the entrance to the locker rooms, caught Bobbi's eye. Trooping out of the locker rooms was the boys' soccer team, apparently having just finished their pre-practice team meeting. She quickly spotted Mack and Hunter near the back of the pack, Mack swinging and stretching his arms, and Hunter dragging along behind, looking like he was still half-asleep.

Mack noticed the girls first, and he gave a friendly wave over towards Bobbi and Elena before elbowing Hunter in the side. Hunter, to his credit, snapped to attention and swiveled his head around until he saw where Mack was pointing and grinned. He waved, too, then proceeded to take things too far, first waving with one hand, then both, then doing increasingly melodramatic things like bowing their way or blowing exaggerated kisses.

Elena let out a small snort of laughter as Hunter, distracted by his own antics, ran smack into Mack's back and reeled backwards in a daze. The boys' coach, Coach Kitson, barked something at them, probably telling Hunter to knock it off and quit goofing around, if Bobbi had to guess. Hunter flashed her and Elena a wink and a sheepish shrug before taking off running to join the rest of his team in the empty grass field behind the stadium where they were practicing that morning while the girls' team had the main field. Bobbi shook her head, fighting laughter. He was such a dork, but something about him always made her smile.

"We're also running a new formation today," Coach McCreary continued, drawing Bobbi's focus back to the team meeting. She gave herself a little shake, reminding herself to pay attention. She was still a newcomer on the team in the grand scheme of things, and she didn't want Coach thinking she was easily distracted. "I know we've run 4-4-2 the last couple of weeks, but we're switching things up and trying 4-2-3-1."

A dull murmur of interest washed over the group. That was a pretty serious shift, one that might mean some shake-ups across the positions. Bobbi looked around, taking in Elena's slightly pursed lips and the crease between her eyebrows (curious face), Piper's perturbed frown (unhappy face), and the cool, unsurprised smile – smirk? – on the new girl, Ruby's, face. Bobbi didn't know what to call that one.

"How come we're switching, Coach?" Elena asked, thrusting her hand in the air as she spoke. Elena did that a lot, Bobbi noticed – raising her hand as she was speaking, opening doors as she was knocking. She somehow managed to still be polite about it all, a talent that impressed Bobbi, but you could never accuse Elena of being the type of person to wait around for other people to match her speed.

"I want to try out some new options while we still have the flexibility of preseason," he explained. "It's a more difficult formation to manage, but I think we're strong enough this year to try it. And I think this new formation might fit the new team dynamic a little better."

Bobbi frowned. What was that supposed to mean?

"Remember, this is all still just practice," finished Coach McCreary. "We are announcing starters and final positions at the end of the week, but for now, the rest of the coaching staff and I are still just trying to see where everybody fits best. Don't take your practice position to heart." He flipped a page on his clipboard and began calling out names and positions for their first round of formation drills. "Red squad: Carmen, keeper; Jules, right fullback; Jess, right centerback; Sanjita, left centerback; Hannah, left fullback…"

Bobbi thought ahead quickly to how the midfield was supposed to be structured in this formation. It was pretty different from the formation that they'd been using earlier – the one Piper had mapped out positions for just a few minutes ago. Instead of four midfielders and two strikers, they'd have two centermids, three forwards, and one, solitary striker. That didn't bode well for Piper's dreams of moving into the position.

"Grace and Piper, centermids," continued Coach McCreary. Bobbi watched as Piper's face fell. "Geri, left forward; Elena center forward; Bobbi, right forward; Ruby, striker."

Everyone whose name had been called began jogging out onto the field, while the remaining players waited for their own assignments to play opposite them on Black squad.

"What kind of bull…" Piper grumbled as they made their way across the turf. "New girl shows up and the whole team gets restructured? With her as the only striker?"

"I'm sorry you didn't get to move up," Bobbi told her. "Central midfield's a pretty good spot, though. Lots of chances for you to make a play on the ball."

"And like zero chances of taking any shots or scoring any goals," finished Piper grouchily. Bobbi gave her a sympathetic bump with her shoulder, trying to cajole her out of her bad mood.

"There's more to a team than goal scoring."

"Yeah, yeah," Piper said. She gave in to Bobbi's nudging and held up her hands in surrender, smiling. "Every position is important, I know. I just really wanted to score some more goals this year. At least I'll get to do a lot more tackling, I guess."

"It's definitely weird, though," Elena mused. "He moved Geri off striker, too… And switching the whole offense to just one? Even when we had Kara the superstar, we had more than one striker."

"Maybe the new girl's just that good," Piper said, although judging by the edge in her voice, Bobbi wasn't convinced her words were genuine.

"Guess there's only one way to find out," said Elena. She flashed a teasing smile Piper's way. "Try not to hold too much of a grudge against her before you've seen her play or even gotten to know her, Piper."

They drilled the new formation for the next two hours, running through switches and plays and practicing how to feed the ball from player to player with everyone in their new spots. Bobbi had to admit that there was a sharpness to the new formation that they'd been lacking when they'd practiced with the 4-4-2 earlier. Having the offense collapse on a single point up at the top of the field, bolstered by three pressing forwards, gave them a cutting drive, and the flexibility of the central midfielders to help attack or drop back on defense helped to swallow any press from the other girls who were serving as stand-in opponents as they worked.

She also understood, within the first few minutes of play, exactly why Coach had restructured the offense to center around Ruby as the solitary striker. The girl was insanely talented. Her shots sliced through the air, and her footwork struck a balance between precision and aggression that caused the girls defending her to completely lose their bearings more than once. Bobbi had been impressed with Kara Palamas last year, and watching Ruby play, it was like Kara had never left.

"All right, last play of the morning," called Coach McCreary as their time dwindled. "Forwards, I want to see you get creative, show me something."

Bobbi gritted her teeth and gave herself a little slap on the quadriceps – a get-up-and-go, time-to-dig-deep kind of slap to jump-start one last surge of adrenaline and power her through the final play.

"You want to run a little magic?" Elena called at her from midfield, grinning. Bobbi returned the look and spun her finger in Elena's direction.

"Let's roll it."

The girls on the Black squad who were scrimmaging against them started with the ball this time, and they quickly tried to set up a standard offensive push, pressing forward with a front three. After a few minutes of back and forth where Piper and Grace shored up a solid defense for the Red squad and the Black squad's front made a few attempts at piercing their shield, Elena found her moment to start the magic.

She had baited a forward on the Black squad, a sophomore girl named Rachel whom Bobbi hadn't gotten to know very well yet, drawing Rachel back and trapping her around midfield. With surgical precision, Elena executed a swift steal and extricated the ball from Rachel's fumbling feet, then quickly chipped a pass in Bobbi's direction, over Rachel's head and over the tangle of bodies of players who had tried to come and help Rachel out of the jam.

Bobbi tracked the ball with ease, backpedaling slightly to get in position to catch it cleanly on her chest and drop the ball right at her feet. Magic time. She pounded forward, driving the ball along with her as she turned on a burst of speed that caught the attention of the Black squad defenders and her own teammates. Up ahead, she could see Ruby matching pace, pressing forward and angling for a long pass from Bobbi that she could catch-and-shoot. It was a logical move, but Bobbi could tell that the defense was reading the move from a mile away, so she kept handling the ball herself as she continued running up the side of the field.

She was in danger of getting herself too far forward with nowhere to go, but Bobbi knew exactly what she was doing. The confidence, the awareness and certainty that she was in control electrified Bobbi's insides almost as much as the exhilaration of running full-speed, of wind pumping into her lungs and churning legs digging in against the turf. Just as two defenders collapsed in on her, sure that they had caught her too far in the corner, Bobbi flicked a sharp pass backward, practically without looking, straight into the waiting feet of Elena, whom Bobbi had known, instinctively, would be there.

Bobbi had never played with someone like Elena before, someone whom she could anticipate as easily as if they shared the same brainwaves and who could anticipate Bobbi perfectly in return. They understood each other, read each other, connected three steps ahead. It was unlike anything Bobbi had ever experienced on a soccer field before and she couldn't wait to put their connection to the test against some real opponents before too long.

Elena gathered Bobbi's pass in an instant, like she'd known it was coming all along, and immediately, with only a single touch, fed the ball in the opposite direction, up the field to Geri, who had tracked them along the left sideline. No one was defending her, since they'd all shifted right to try and shut down Bobbi's charge, and Geri had a clear look straight in. Geri dribbled in a few yards, building up a head of steam, faked out the one defender who'd come close enough to make a play on the ball, and then sent a pass beelining to the middle of the field, where Ruby was waiting to receive it. In a flash, Ruby collected the ball and drilled a shot straight into the back of the net, sending the Black squad goalkeeper, Nina, diving in the complete wrong direction.

Coach's whistle rang out, a long blow signaling the end of play.

"Nicely done, ladies!"

"That's what I'm talking about," Elena whooped as she pulled up alongside Bobbi and Geri, who were collected in front of the goal, exchanging high fives. "That's the magic."

"That trap was perfect," Bobbi said, smacking both hands against Elena's up over their heads with glee.

"Forget the trap, that no-look pass—"

"And the one-touch straight to Geri—"

"And Geri, that fake… you broke Dessa's ankles on that, I swear—"

"We gotta remember that one," Geri nodded, a huge smile on her face. "We'll eviscerate the Mishicot D with a play like that."

"The shot was really good, too," Bobbi added, raising her voice a little as Ruby walked past them on her way back to the bench. "You've got some serious talent, Ruby."

"I know," was all the blonde girl said in reply. She did at least pause and give the rest of the group an appraising look. "The set up was decent. I could have made the shot if you'd passed it to me first thing, but I guess the more… creative approach works, too."

Bobbi bristled a little at Ruby's standoffishness. "Coach said to be more creative on that last play. Besides, you would have been swamped with defenders if we'd passed up right away."

"You don't have to get so defensive," Ruby said with a slight drawl. "I said the set up was good."

"Oh. Sorry." Bobbi felt her cheeks go warm, which was saying a lot since she was already pretty hot and sweaty from practice. She chastised herself for misinterpreting Ruby's comments and assuming the worst. It was hard to tell what Ruby meant, with the way she talked and how little she moved her face. Not a lot of context clues for Bobbi to pick up on and assess. "Um, thanks. I guess we'll just keep working on the feeds, so I know when to get the ball to you."

"Sure," Ruby shrugged. "Get it to me and I'll score. Easiest way for us to win."

"Right," Bobbi said slowly. Remembering her manners then, she held out a hand. "I'm Bobbi, by the way. Figure we should know each other's names if we're playing together."

Elena and Geri quickly introduced themselves, too, but Ruby's attention stayed mostly on Bobbi.

"So you must be the other member of the Brady Bunch, then."

Bobbi frowned, confused. "What?"

"I met your sisters yesterday," Ruby said. She made that smile again, that one that Bobbi couldn't tell if it was really a smile, or more of a snide smirk. "They talked about you. A lot. Wouldn't stop talking, honestly."

While that did sound like Skye, Bobbi wasn't sure she appreciated the way Ruby made it seem like Skye had been a pest about their encounter yesterday.

"We're pretty close, I guess." That was the only thing Bobbi could think to say.

"Bobbi's sisters are great," Elena chimed in. "They came to a bunch of our games last year, and that was before Bobbi was even on the team."

"This is your first year on varsity?" Ruby asked. Her voice sounded sticky, almost overly nice now.

"I was injured last year, and a transfer student mid-season," Bobbi told her. She gestured to her knee brace. Despite her efforts to stay calm, she could feel herself getting defensive again. Something about Ruby just set Bobbi on edge. "I played varsity at my old school, though."

"Me too," said Ruby. She flashed a smile – one with a too-wide mouth and empty eyes, a false smile. "I guess we have one thing in common."

She walked away then, without another word, leaving Bobbi, Elena, and Geri all standing there in varying degrees of disbelief.

"Well, she's a delight," Elena muttered. Sarcasm so strong that even Bobbi could clock it from a mile away.

"She's making me miss Kara," Geri agreed. "Kara could be intense, but at least she was just serious about soccer, not a total dick for no reason."

"You guys thought she was being rude?" Bobbi glanced between the two girls for confirmation that she hadn't been wrong to feel prickly towards Ruby.

"For sure," Elena told Bobbi with a shake of her head. "I don't know what bug crawled up her shorts, but she was definitely not in a good mood."

"Hopefully it's just first day nerves," shrugged Geri. "I'm not interested in catering to her ego all season."

"She is a damn good player, though," Elena conceded. "I can see why Coach wanted to try the new formation now that she's on the team."

"I just hope she's worth it," said Geri. All three started trudging over to the bench to grab some water and switch out of their cleats. "Who knows, maybe we'll actually make it to States this year. Between Miss 'Get it to me and I'll score' and you two with your telepathic dynamic-duo routine, we've got as good a shot as we've ever had."

"Maybe," hummed Elena. "Our defense is young, though, and we'll have to make sure everybody stays healthy this season. No injuries right before playoffs this time."

"That wasn't your fault," Bobbi said quietly. "It was a bad tackle—"

"I was reckless, and I was playing on a bad ankle when I should have been protecting it. I'm not taking stupid risks like that again. The team deserves better, and I can't afford another nine months of rehab."

"Well, you're back now," Geri said as they reached the bench and each plunked down to start undoing their laces. "And we're all one year older. We're smarter, more focused, more driven. This year's going to be our year. I can feel it."

Did you guess that the mystery blonde girl was going to be Ruby? We'll see what having her on the same team as Bobbi and Elena has in store...

Fun fact, Bobbi's teammate Geri is named after the actor who plays Agent Diaz in several episodes of season 6 (Geri-Nikole Love). Agent Diaz is never given a first name in the show as far as I know, so I picked one for her :) Most of Bobbi's other teammates just have random names, but there are a few other easter eggs hiding on the roster, if you feel like hunting for them :)