Falling for the Goalie and Other Dangerous Sports

Chapter 4 Part 1 - Derek

Well, a few notes on this chapter. One, I really hate to restart back to when derek opened maddy's door, but I have to to get some personality and explaining done. and i just looked it over, and either my computer's retarded or i wrote too much, because the last page didn't show up. so this is going into two parts, the first one ending after the goal. enjoy! :)

(from Bri)

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"You didn't have to ring the doorbell a million times, Heather-"

"Heather?" I interrupted. The expression on her face was priceless. I would've laughed, but I thought I was about to pee myself on her front steps. "And yes, I did have to ring the doorbell a million times. I have to go to the bathroom." I said, eager to push past her into her house. I took in a big breath, noticing how the room kind of smelled like vanilla. I liked vanilla..."Bathroom, Derek, bathroom..." I thought, getting close to peeing myself again. I frantically searched through doors and things, feeling rude. But I had to pee, can you blame mother nature?

"You gonna help me or not? This IS your house." I questioned. I raised my eyebrow just to cover up my nervous tone. Any minute now, and I was going to combust.

It seemed like forever until Maddy opened the door to the bathroom, letting me in. "Why thank you." I said, doing my best to sound ignorant. I thought my voice wavered, but she didn't show any sign of it. Finally, I could "relieve" myself, feeling refreshed and ready to go. Washing my hands, I realized how messed up I looked. My shirt was half tucked in, I still had a little bit of barbecue sauce under my chin, and my hair was sticking out in a million directions. I quickly fixed everything, combing my unruly hair down on the way out. I accidentally hit my nose pulling my hair down, a sharp pain erupting. "Maddy was the one who did this," I reminded myself, waiting for the pain to subside.

"Okay, let's go." I said, leading her out the door and to Max's car. I went around to the passenger's seat, taking up a bit of Heather and Maddy's conversation.

"Who are we scrimmaging today, anyway?" Maddy asked.

"South Hamilton." I replied quickly, buckling my seat belt.

"Oh. Are they any good?" she said. I was about to reply when my brother butt in.

"Wouldn't say nothing you guys can't take." he said.

Heather acted like a Taylor Lautner fanatic, squealing "Oh my goodness! It's Max Weaver! I didn't notice you before!"

Max was definitely enjoying every minute of this."I guess I'm a celebrity around here, aren't I?" he replied, pulling out. I resisted the urge to snort.

"Whoa, I didn't know you guys were related..." Maddy added..

"Yeah, because having the same last name is a coincidence." I said, rolling my eyes. Seeing Max look at me with a warning look, I immediately shrunk down in my seat. I did say it rather rudely, but look at what she did to me! A bloody nose and a sore one after that.

"And being goalies, too!" I heard Heather say. I set my elbow on the edge of the window, watching gold, red, and orange trees roll by.

Max responded quickly breaking the awkward moment. "Oh, please. He's not half the goalie I am." He gave me a light punch on the arm.

"Whatever, you're just jealous that I'm better than you in 8th grade than you were." I retorted. I realized what I had said, and wondered if it was true. I honestly didn't know, I couldn't remember too many of Max's middle school games.

"Do you play soccer in college now?" Heather asked. Max was eager to tell her about his boring, acrhitecture stuff. I continued gazing out the window, looking at all the fall festival signs in the grass.

We arrived at Marigold Park, walking towards field 8. I heard all kinds of excited whispers, and began to get nervous. Getting to the field was even worse, for everyone had started clapping for Max. I was his brother, following in his footsteps. I had to fill the shoes he left me, shoes the size of California. People expected me to be as good as he was, maybe even better. I plastered on a smile and wrung my hands together. I didn't want to screw this up.

I jogged out onto the field, gaining my confidence back with every stride. This was my time, and my field. Emotions get pushed away when on the other side of hat sideline, and I had something to prove today. I waved Nate out of the goal, him respecting my position.

"This is my goal, dude." I said, getting ready for the ball.

Wyatt kicked one that I could easily block. I blocked shot after shot, even one near the crossbar which was a dangerous spot for goalies. I saw Maddy getting ready to kick a ball, and I was determined not to let it go in. I read her eyes. The last place she looked was the left, and I knew she liked corners. I cheated a step over, diving to save the ball, but it went in by inches. Landing on the ground, I felt flustered. One of these days, I was blocking one of her shots.

"Hustle over, team!" Coach Reed said. All of us jogged over, forming a circle around Coach Dublin. "Now, as you can see, the opposing team isn't so...opposing. I still want you to work hard, and remember about getting the ball to the outside." Coach said. I was busy getting my neon yellow jersey and gloves on.

"Okay, Derek in goal." Coach Reed said.

I saluted her and replied, "Right-o, Coach."

I waited for her to call the defenders out, wanting to know who would have my back. "Carter, left defender, Dakota, right, and Maddy, center defender. Let's go get 'em tigers."

We did our chant, then headed out onto the field. I swung my arms around, waiting for the whistle to sound, while Coach Dublin walked out towards me. She said, "See your defenders? You're the boss of these three, okay? I want you taking charge this season." I was kind of surprised. Usually, the sweeper or center defender takes charge, but she was putting me as the boss.

"Mkay, Coach." I responded. I get to boss to Maddy around now. This would definitely be fun.

Twwweeeeeeeetttt. The whistle sounded, signaling the start of the game. I watched as Nate and Zane moved towards the goal withe the ball. Deciding to make my first move as "boss", I was lucky to notice how far back Maddy was.

"Move up, Maddy." I said. She stayed put. Why was she being so stubborn and immature? I said it again. "You hear me? I said MOVE. UP." I was going to ask once more but she silently moved forwards. What was up with her and this silent treatment I'm getting? It annoyed the hell out of me. Girls were just too complicated.

In my mindless wandering, I saw Oliver jogging back to midfield. Apparently he had scored a goal, so I walked back inside mine, waiting for something interesting to happen.

Nothing did.

Maddy was moved to forward, and it was quite funny to watch her mess things up. She was quickly moved back to center defender, though.

Sadly, my chance to tease her never came up again. She moved forwards when she needed to, back where she did, pressure the ball at the right time, really the qualities of a good center defender. Maddy was actually really good at defender. Really, really good. And she didn't look half bad either...

A whistle sounded, snapping me out of my thoughts. My poor, unclean, prohibited thoughts. I couldn't fall for a GIRL on the same soccer team as me, you just can't, it's in a rule book somewhere. I shook my head around to clear my head. Noticing that we had scored another goal, I returned to the goal box once again, waiting for us to steal the ball and move up again. A few minutes of mindless playing went by before half time.

I wasn't thirsty, but I got some water anyway. "Good first half, you guys. I can tell how much improvement you've ma-"

"HORRIBLE! Just, HORRIBLE!" A fat, tomato faced man yelled. He continued to yell at his team, but he must've realized we were listening in. The tomato-man quickly huddled his team together and continued his rant a touch quieter.

"Well, anyways...Coach continued. I didn't have to listen, because basically I didn't do anything. I took off my sweaty gloves and messed with my jersey. I noticed how fancy it was on the inside, it had this sort of casing around the fray part of the fabric. I got bored easily, coming back to the coaching points Coach had. None of them were very useful for me or interesting, so I looked for something else to mess around with.

Maddy.

I put my best angel face on, seeing what her reaction would be. Finally, she caught my eye, still acting as if she was listening to Coach. I tilted my head, wondering why she wasn't looking at me. I am quite the sight for sore eyes. She finally gave me her full attention, and my guard was let down. Her hazel eyes were so captivating, I mean what color were they? They seemed blue, green, gold, and gray all at the same time, almost as confusing as herself...

I noticed how she was looking at me too, probably admiring my amazingly good looks. I smirked at her, giving suspicion away in my eyes. Abruptly turning away, I listened as Coach wrapped the pep talk up.

"'Kay? Alright, let's go-one, two, three-"

"ACHSCREST TIGERS!" we yelled once again. I jogged back into my goal, turning to face my minions: Heather, Sam, and Maddy in the middle again. Once again, the other coach blew his whistle, us taking control as usual. The other team had something different about them now; a sort of hunger and aggressiveness. I felt a little nervous. I didn't think this half would be quite the same as the last.

We mostly kept the ball up field, not managing to score, and Sam, Maddy, and Heather kicked the ball maybe once or twice in what seemed like forever. I was so bored, I wanted to figure out how the fancy thread casing stuff worked on my jersey. But I knew I had to pay attention to the game, the boring, dull game. I knew I wasn't getting my hands on the ball anytime soon.

A long ball sailed towards Heather, who passed it up to Aimee. Heather was a little far up for that pass. So were Sam and Maddy.

I saw Aimee lose the ball, and another player start to dribble towards our end. "Maddy, move back a little." I said. She stayed put.

"Maddy, move back. Hey guys, MOVE BACK!" I shouted. Maddy continued to ignore me, I could tell this kid was waiting to put a move on her, fake her out. Heather followed my command, Sam a little slower to pick up on the memo.

"Maddy, you too!" I pleaded. She was slowing down the kid, and it looked like he was ready to pass to the left. Until I realized no one was there.

Before I knew it, Maddy had lunged and the kid had moved past her. Heather tried to help, but he easily went through her too. Sam was too far back to catch him either.

I was screwed.

One-one-one is not my thing, and it surely showed. The kid was dribbling the ball like it was his little brother, so attached and in control of it. He was way to close for my liking, but I made the decision to rush him too late. Trying to deflect it with my feet, I watched the ball speed beside me, finding its target:

The goal.