Game Theory × NH

048 | cadmium

× Mercury

"Who's that?"

"Thomas Minor," I told my brother as he was pointing to a dark skinned guy with black hair running around with a soccer ball on the field in front of us. "He throws big Halloween parties every year."

We were standing on the sidelines before a game, warming up before it was time for the people to come and find their seats. We were going against Loughborough University today and the team seemed more on edge than any other time before. I didn't understand why that was, but then again, I didn't really bother to ask anyone. I figured if it was a big deal, someone would tell me.

Above us, angry gray clouds covered the sun and I knew that we were only moments away from being doused with the classic London showers.

"How about him?" Anders asked, pointing to a tall, black haired, blue eyed player.

"That's Jace Layton," I said with a smile. Jace was standing in the middle of the pitch talking to Niall, who was leaning down and adjusting his knee brace. When Jace saw our eyes on him, he looked over and grinned. "He's pretty much my only friend here."

Anders looked around the field once more, finally pointing to a brown haired, brown eyed boy making trick shots at the goalie. "And him?"

"Matt Reid," I told him just as Matt kicked the ball up in the air, did a cool spin thing, and struck the ball into the goal, right past the goalies fingers. "He's in my English class and my sub in soccer."

"He seems pretty good with his footing," Anders observed.

I nodded. "He's our best corner kicker."

There was maybe a half hour before the people started to come into the stadium, and across the field on the other side of the pitch, I saw the Loughborough team in their purple and silver jerseys enter from the opposite side of the arena. From the looks of them, they seemed mean. They were big and burly, tall and rugged. Over half of them have either full grown beards on their faces, or stubble along their sturdy jaws.

"Hey Anders," I said as I shoved him with my shoulder. He looked away from the pitch and down at me. "I think I'm going to go to the locker room and get my things on. I'll see you after the game, okay?"

"Yeah, see you then," he said before giving me a big bear hug. "Kick their butts for me."

I smiled over my shoulder as I started making my way into the building. Once inside the girl's locker room, I changed out of my jeans and sweater and started tugging on my maroon jersey and shorts. Then I slipped on some baggy blue sweat pants and a matching track jacket before I started pulling my hair up into a pony tail.

Carefully, I removed the necklace of my dad's wedding band from my neck and placed it in the locker before locking it up. There was no way in hell I was going to risk losing it on the field.

Grabbing my earbuds and phone, I sat in my little cubby and pulled my knees up to my chest and started flipping through my song choices.

Before every game I liked to blast music in my ears to help me focus on the game coming up. It helps to remove everything else from my head; all the petty problems I might have at that moment. When I was at UCLA, the whole team knew not to disturb me when I was in my cubby, knowing that if they did, I would be grumpy throughout the game.

A song started blaring through my ears and I stopped my search for a tune and leaned my head back against the wall and closed my eyes. Nothing else mattered at that moment, nothing but the lyrics in my head.