Climb | ✔

Chapter 32 | Victory

October brought with it the dying leaves of Autumn and the Minnesota State Soccer Championships. Liberty High was teeming with an unprecedented level of school spirit as the Lions had made it to the finals for the first time since their inception.

Friday was game day, and Louis approached it as his day of reckoning, where all of his past mistakes and insufficiencies would finally be weighed against him. It was a question now whether the strength of his will would be able to withstand it now.

It was a lot of pressure for a 17-year-old boy to shoulder, and certainly none of it beneficial for his mounting anxiety. The only soothing factor in all of it was that he'd finally have his promised date with Gina regardless of the outcome.

That was why, even as the Waterheart Wolves tied the score in the last half of the 4th quarter, Louis found it in himself to take a deep stabilizing breath amidst the high tension.

As play resumed, he moved without hesitation or restraint, bursting forward and seizing possession of the ball for his team. With two minutes left until game end, the Lions desperately weaved the ball around the field, fumbling and struggling to maintain possession until there was but 40 seconds left on the timer.

Murdoch, Winter, and her friends were seated--or rather, stood-- in the front row of bleachers. Brought to their feet by the energy of the crowd and their own personal excitement, they cheered and hollered as Louis stole the ball once more for the Liberty Lions.

With a surge of untapped stamina left for one such crucial moment, he bolted across the field, dodging around his opponents and handling the ball all the way past mid field toward the Wolves' net. There, he met opposition as three defenders hounded him from all sides.

"You can do it, Louis!" Gina and Daisy screamed in unison, their voices ripping together into one booming tone across the field.

With a show of nimbleness and grace, Louis skipped back, maneuvering the ball expertly out from the flanked position. In another fluid motion, he spun to the side and sent the ball flying through a gap between the trio of defenders' legs. It was subsequently picked up by Lion number 26, a teammate named Erin Holland, and kicked into the sweet spot of the net with seconds to spare.

There was a beat of silence before the crowd dissolved into nothing but cries, cheers, and roars of elation, which persisted until the final seconds of playtime passed by with the Lions defending their 4-3 lead and winning the State Championships.

Winter felt her chest swell with pride as the Lions gathered in the field, red-faced and screaming as they piled on top of each other. Louis was in the center of them, hoisting Erin up in the air and hollering wildly as the team paraded him around the field. Eventually, the teammates broke off as their girlfriends, boyfriends, friends, and family ran onto the field in an uncontrollable frenzy as the referees and championship officials scrambled to call order.

Gina took a step forward off the bleachers, but hesitated before moving any further. She stumbled back into Joe, who stabilized her just as Louis finished scanning the crowd for his friends and family. He found Gina first and jogged over, his eyes never leaving hers as he approached.

His auburn curls were matted with sweat, and they bobbed as he came to a stop in front of her. The group stood silently in the presence of a champion, fighting the urge to pull him in for a hug and offer their congratulations as everyone else had on his way over.

The adrenaline coursing through Louis did little to quell his overwhelming compulsion to pull Gina in and kiss her then and there. Instead, in an attempt to rein himself in, he cupped her cheek in his hand in the hopes that she'd take the lead from there and stop him before it was too late.