Burn Alive

2. Nationals, here we come!

                                 1996
   Everyone was tense. The time was almost up, they needed one final point to break the tie. The ball was being kicked around from player to player, team to team. And then, finally, the ball got to Matilda. Swiftly, like a beautiful swan, she passed it to Phee, who kicked the ball backwards as with the strength of Daniel LaRusso's crane kick from The Karate Kid, and scoring, the final point as the buzzer rang. Phee stood still, in disbelief she just did that. Matilda immediately ran to her, grabbing her in her arms. The two jumped up and down as the rest of their teammates joined them.
"NAT-ION-ALS! NAT-ION-ALS!" The Yellowjackets cheered, all bathing in the glory of their victory.

"MATILDA! LET'S GOOO," Phee called out from the main floor of Matilda's house.
"GEEZ IM COMING!" Matilda's voice called back as she walked down the stairs of her house.
"Damn you take long," Phee told Matilda as she dangled the keys to her 92' Lincoln Town Car in front of her friend. "I was gonna leave without you,"
      "C'mon, we don't wanna be late for the assembly celebrating OUR victory," Matilda replied, throwing her backpack over her shoulder.
      "If we were gonna be late it would be your fault miss prima ballerina,"
      "I'm looking after myself karate kid,"
      Miss prima ballerina and karate kid, those were the cheesy ass nicknames Coach Martinez gave them ever since the day they tried out for the soccer team sophomore year, when Matilda glided across the field like a ballerina on a stage and when Phee kicked the ball as if she was in a karate fight from a movie. The nicknames also might've come from the fact that Matilda does ballet and Phee had taken multiple karate classes in her life time.

     The locker room was buzzing with the girl's soccer team, everyone getting on their uniforms and sneakers. Matilda sat on a bench, letting Phee paint tiny yellow and blue stars on her face.
    "Kai radioed me this morning." Phee said with a grin and blush on her face.
    "Oh? And what happened?"
    "He said he's gonna fly down to see me play at nationals!"
    Kai was Phee's long distance boyfriend who lived in New York, and somehow, with the only way of communicating they had being a long distance radio Kai found in his parents closet, they were the most stable and cutest couple ever, well, in Matilda's opinion.
     Matilda never really had experience what you would call, "teenage love", she had crushes, like last year when she liked one of the baseball boy's that ended up being a jerk, and Uncle Jesse from Full House, which grew each time she watched the show. But obviously that would never work out.
    Matilda smiled as usual, glad that at least one of her friends had someone.