Wednesdays game starts with Alex Lewis, our captain, and Stanford's captain McKenzie Mackintosh, doing the coin toss. McKenzie takes the right side of the pitch and chooses Stanford to kick off.
This was one of the first games my moms hadn't attended, they were at Bastions first elementary school event, he was doing a spelling bee, and if anyone could come out on top of that, it was Bash, who was the most intelligent little monster you could meet. His raspy little voice was calling out words and spelling them over the dinner table, since he was only three.
The weather tonight is miserable, and as we take our places on the left side of the pitch, the rain is coming down again lightly. All of us are about to have socks covered in mud, and grass stains running up our kits. Me, perhaps more than the rest, because tonight, I was a target for the dirtiest tackles we had seen so far this season.
The whistle blows and McKenzie kicks off, tapping the ball to her right to Laura Norris who moved quickly running up the right side of the pitch, weaving between our Rory and Payton, a little too easily.
Alex calls out frustratedly "come on... wake up" and Clark intercepts as Laura passed the ball up pitch to their centre forward who had an open. Clark kicks the ball back down to Lexi to the left, and moves back into position, Clark had a gift, or an annoying habit that coach picked up early on, she foresaw the next move from the opposition and moved herself between midfield, defence and forward, only possible because of her insanely fast sprint. I was pretty sure Clark could competently take on every position on her own, without any of the rest of us.
Lexi sends the ball long, Sarah leaps up and heads it into Dana who looks up and spots me with an open and sends it my way perfectly.
As soon as I touch the ball, I am thrown into the air, all oxygen knocked out of my lungs as someone's body slams into the back of mine and sends me flying to the ground. I hit the wet grass,and reach around instantly to the source of the pain in the back of my ribs "fuck" I curse.
I look up as the whistle blows and McKenzie looks down at me, no apologetic look on her face, more of a spiteful achievement if anything. Clarks blonde hair comes into view as she reaches out and pushed Mckenzie sideways "that was fucked up" she accuses angrily.
McKenzie lunges back at her "fuck off Soccer Barbie" she says and I jump up and out of the middle, slightly limping a little as both Alex and Fin pull Clark away and McKenzie's team mates do the same. The ref runs over and has a word with both of them, no cards given despite the nasty tackle, Mckenzie pleads her innocence and Alex has it out with the ref before the whistle is blown and the game starts again.
This time, Stanford get their goal, and it's this goal we are chasing behind for the next twenty minutes, the frustration is obvious. The tides change in the last ten minutes of the first half, and a beautiful pass up from Rory lands on my chest, I wiggle it down to my feet and weave it around their two defence, kicking it into the bottom right of the net, near missing the goal post, but in the commotion there is a late tackle and as soon as I had kicked that ball, cleats slammed into my ankle, causing me to drop down in pain and curl into a ball, my hands both wrapped around my injury.
A whistle goes and the team rush over "are you okay" Alex calls.
"That bitch" Clark adds and there's a commotion once again as I presume Clark and McKenzie go at it once more, because once again it's her whose taken me down, like she's doing it on purpose and hoping to inflict maximum damage.
The ref pulls out a yellow card and McKenzie and her team mates shake their heads at the decision despite the fact that the tackle was late, and poor form.
The medics take a look, lowering my sock and assessing the damage "can you move it okay" he asks and I nod but wince. "Let's get you up and see" he says and he and his assistant both help me to my feet, but it's painful, and I'm limping. "I think we better get you off..." the medic suggests "we can't risk the rest of your season... let's get you off and ice it"
YOU ARE READING
Wren
Romance(Book 5) *Complete* Wren grew up on the west coast, in a wealthy neighbourhood of Portland Oregon, she was not shy of attention, growing up with the famous Teddy Nomikos as one of her moms. She is fresh out of high school, leaving home for the first...
