Priceless Love

First Love and Football

Can struggled a bit at the new school at first because the curriculum was more advanced than in his previous school.

But having discovered the year before that he had a photographic memory (that's what the doctor called it when his mom brought him in) he found that if he studied hard and did the work, what he learned stayed with him.

Plus he needed to do well to justify all that his parents were sacrificing to have him there.

There was also one other advantage to doing well in his classes. It meant that he could stay on the football team. And as much as he loved the game, football had a new meaning to him now. It meant getting to see Sanem.

He was disappointed that they had no classes together but there was one place he knew he would see her. 

The football field.

He hadn't actually gotten to talk to her yet, other than "thank you" here and there when one of them needed the ball from the other, but he was mesmerized by her.

The way she moved down the field, the way her brows knit together when she was concentrating and her enthusiasm for the game was just something to behold.

She also looked cute in her little red shorts too. That fact had not escaped his attention. Once he got hit in the head with the ball because he was watching her defend the goal for too long.

Divit! Pay attention, kid! Come on, get your head in the game, Coach Ferit bellowed, making Can turn red again.

Can was pretty sure he saw Sanem smirk and look away.

Great! Now she thinks I'm really an idiot, he said to himself as he got back on the field.

And Can knew he wasn't the only one who found Sanem pretty. Their teammate Sinan paid her a lot of attention. He complimented her all the time on her cute red shorts. Can rolled his eyes every time he did it. 

Didn't that dummy realize they all had on red shorts?? It was the stupid uniform!

There were other girls who had made the team but none of them held any interest to Can except her. The beautiful girl with the long brown hair. He knew it was long because one day after practice, she pulled it out of whatever she had it pinned up with and shook her head.

It spilled down her back and face and he almost walked into the bleachers. 

You really have no game, Divit, he said to himself. He had to find a way to redeem himself.

Heading to his room when he arrived home, Can said hello to his mom with a kiss and got out his notebook. His other passion was writing. He had an assignment the year before in his English class to write a fictional story and he found that it came easy to him. He wrote a story about a boy from a mahalle that dreamed of going to faraway places like the Galapagos Islands to see an albatross in real life, something he had read about in a nature book he found in the library.

He turned in the assignment and was asked by the teacher to stay after class. She told him that he wrote with the skill of someone much older and confessed that his story had brought tears to her eyes.

From then on, Can kept a notebook filled with stories and loved creating them knowing they made a difference in those who read them. Merihban loved reading the ones he shared with her and said how surprised she was that he had this hidden talent and it became something that Can was passionate about over the years. 

Maybe one day he would the boy from a mahalle that went to the Galapagos to see an albatross!

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