Game Theory × NH

021 | scandium

× Mercury

It was game day.

The practices that week were tiring. Coach Mathews pushed us and pushed us to work hard over the week because of our game. I didn't think my legs had ever been that sore before. He had us scrimmage and run drills for hours every day until the time was finally here; the big game now less than five hours away.

It was weird, however, because of Niall. He did what he was supposed to do, pass the ball when it was necessary and only talked to me if it was needed. He barely looked at me, even when he was speaking to me directly. He made sure to keep his distance like he said he would, that was for sure.

I didn't like it. Not at all.

I could tell that my game had been off because of his change of attitude toward me, but luckily Coach and everyone else couldn't. I didn't know what it was, but that spark I always felt when I was on the field just wouldn't light up that week.

That was a lie, I knew why that was, I just hoped I was wrong.

I fed off Niall's watchful gaze - off his irritated look that gave me so much joy to know that he still wasn't a hundred percent wanting me on the team. I fed off it and played hard just to prove that he was right, I was going to take the limelight from him. But I wasn't getting anything from him this time, and it was making me uneasy.

I was sitting in the locker room putting on my shin guards, getting ready to do a few drills before the opposing team was to join us. The locker room was lonely. I noticed that a lot of the girls didn't want anything to do with sports, just liked to go to the games probably to watch the cute boys run around. It was saddening really, having this big locker room for only... me.

I quickly tied my cleats and grabbed my water bottle before heading out and joined my team on the pitch. Coach had us run around the field a couple of times to warm up. He then made us pass the ball back and forth with a partner and then made someone stand in the goal while everyone else kicked the ball at him.

"Lynn!" I heard someone shout as I was waiting for my turn to boot the ball in the goal. I looked around where the voice came from and saw Jamie running at me, Emily, Macey, and Coach Sharp following after her.

"Jam!" I shouted as I abandoned the ball and started running toward her.

We collided half way and gripped onto each other. Jamie had a lot more momentum so no matter how hard I tried to keep us upright, her force was too great and knocked us backward on the turf, making us break out into giggles.

"I can't believe you're here!" I said into her hair. "I've missed you so much."

Jamie sat up, a huge grin on her face. "I can't believe I'm here either! London is so cool!"

Before I could respond, a shadow cascaded over us and we both looked up to see Jace peering down with a shy smile. Jamie quickly removed her strawberry blonde hair from her face and fixed the white tank top she was wearing. Jace reached a hand down to help her up and she took it gracefully. I stood up after her.

"Hi," Jamie said self-consciously as she looked up at him. Jamie was a lot of things, being shy wasn't one of them, and I knew that only Jace could bring that trait forward.

"Hi," he responded just as timidly.

"Well, this was a very heartfelt reunion, and may I add a painful one to watch," I heard Niall say from behind me. I spun and saw him standing there in his maroon jersey, his black knee brace peeking out from under his shorts. He had his arms crossed over his chest in annoyance. "But we have maybe ten minutes before the other team arrives and we still need to practice as much as we can."