Elements

Chapter 1 - Winning

Zora's POV

"Zora to me!" Zanna shouts. I kick the ball to her and she swerves around James and gets it. Dribbling it, she runs to the goal. Zanna is almost there when all of a sudden the ball hits a murky circle that is hanging in the air. Zanna was running too fast and runs into it, and falls to the ground. I look over at James whose hand is controlling the force field. He drops it and runs at Zanna to get the ball but I throw a ball of water at his feet, tripping him up. By this time Zanna is back on her feet, getting chased by Welmi. A big flock of birds appear just in front of Zanna. I shoot water just underneath the birds and she kicks the ball through sliding after it. The birds fly away allowing everyone to see if she will make it. Zanna is just ten meters away from the goal. She gives it a big kick; the goalie jumps to the side by the pole. He catches it and immediately throws it back into the game.

"Good try" I shout out to her. She sends me a smile and runs back to mark James who gets the ball. He runs towards our goal. Zarco - our goalie and brother - isn't there. James kicks it to Welmi, she dribbles it around Zarco and runs for the goal. She is the only one close to the goal, so she kicks it. The goal is suddenly filled with short hedges and the ball disappears into them. The hooter hasn't gone off yet, so the ball mustn't have gone in. I shoot water and surf my way to the goal and get the ball. There are five minutes left on the clock, with the score being 6 to 6. Out in the field, both Zanna and Zarco are blocked by James and Welmi. This is our last chance to win. I stand with the ball in my hands and nod at my team.

The plan.

I drop the ball to the ground and steady it with my foot. The crowd around me is silent, waiting for my move. I give the ball a little nudge forward. The crowd burst into a cheer. The ball starts rolling faster, I start running after it dribbling it across the field. I reach halfway and slow down my pace. It rolls in front of me, Welmi has already started running to the ball that I just left. But before she can get there I run for it. Giving it my all, I kick it. It goes straight past Welmi and Zarco. It's heading for Zanna. Zarco waves his hand and the ground rises with the ball on it. The ground makes a sort of 'Mexican waveform' rolling it past James, and down towards Zanna. I surf my way to her and when I get there I shout her to go for it. But instead, she stops running and pushes the ball by growing grass underneath it. I run to get the ball. The amount of pressure that is on me is big. I can't mess this up, I think to myself. The goalie is getting bigger as I run at him. He is hovering above the ground figuring out where I'm going to kick. I look at the most obvious place to go for and I kick. The ball shoots to the middle of the goal. The goalie flies forward at the ball trying to catch it but he flies too high and it goes right underneath him.

"YEAH!" shouts the crowd and I get stormed by my siblings. Just then the final hooter goes sounding the end of the game. We just won the tournament! "That was one of the closest and most stressful games we've ever played," Zanna says trying to catch her breath.

"Yeah, if it wasn't for your hedges, Zan, and our 'plan' then we may have lost the game." Zarco says. I nod my head.

"Hey, guys, good game!" Welmi and her team come over to us. I grab her hand and shake it, she grabs it smiling.

"Well hey, at least we lost to a good team." Says James as he shakes my hand.

"Thanks, James, and by the way, it was really fun versing you guys. It was a good challenge. And maybe a little bit sore." I look at his hands as he made us run into his force fields several times. He laughs and walks to Zanna.

"Nice goals, you're pretty hard to predict. Good game." Gabe, the goalie of their teams says. He adds a very flirtatious wink and walks off. That was interesting...

We walk over to a stage off the field. The other team gets called up to it first as they came second. They are handed medals and James gets given 'player of the day' They give him a bottle of Blood Nectar which for sure he will be using to drown his failure in tonight.