Never Fall in Love with the Fisher Boys

30- It Was Go Time

Winter sucked. But what sucked more than winter was fall when it acted like winter. Getting robbed of fall days. And even worse than that? Having a soccer game during a day in fall that was acting like winter.

It was our last game of the season- championships. It was almost freezing outside but it was the championship game so we couldn’t just postpone or throw out the game. Instead, the two coaches and the referees of the game agreed to hold the game at an indoor field instead of at our school where it was originally planned.

The field that we were stuck using now was turf instead of real grass, which was weird, and the bleachers were a lot bigger. Which I guess was suitable for the championship game. All of the Fishers were going and even Randy said that he’d come watch the game. Even though our dinner didn’t go well last week, I still wanted to work on that so I invited him to the game.

“We’re going against the Vermont Badgers,” Sophie told me in the locker room. “And they’re really good. Obviously.”

“They’re not even from Vermont,” Paige added. “And their high school makes no sense. Why are they from Idaho with a school called North Vermont?”

“The city is Vermont,” Rikki, who was overhearing our conversation, added with a roll of her eyes as she passed us and joined her group of friends on the other side of the lockers.

“The city is Vermont,” Sophie imitated Rikki’s snobby voice and both Paige and I laughed. Ever since I’d met Rikki and she knew that I lived with the Fishers, she didn’t like me. But when she found out that I was together with Carter, she’d not only ignore my presence but I got a lot of glares and snippy comments whenever we were in close vicinity of each other.

“Anyway, the point of this conversation was that we really have to kick ass tonight,” Paige told me as I changed from the shirt that I wore to practice into my red and black jersey with my favorite sports bra underneath.

“We always kick ass,” I said with a grin but in all honesty, I was pretty nervous about going against this team. Just like us, they were undefeated during the whole season. One team that night was going to go home very disappointed with a broken record and a broken ego. I prayed that it wouldn’t be us.

“Right, but so do they,” She said in a humble tone. “I’m not saying that we’re going to lose, I’m just saying that we can’t get cocky now. Stay focused.”

“Totally focused,” Sophie nodded with a grin. “And we’re totally going to kick their asses back to Vermont. Go Jags!”

The locker room erupted in eager shouts and game time faces. Looking at the clock in the locker room, it was almost that time too and I mentally pumped myself up. We could do this. We were going to win. We’ve got this. Totally.

“Okay, ladies, gather,” The coach announced from the center of the locker room so we all left our lockers and gathered around where she was standing. I adjusted my left shin guard in my long sock as she gave us our big motivational speech.

“Well, I’m sure that you’re all aware that this is our last game of the season. After this, it’s all over and for some of you, it’s the last time that you’ll be playing on this team at all. So make sure that your last game is one to go down in the books. Nothing matters if you aren’t proud of your game. So play your best- be your best. We’ll kick it out of the park, I’ve never been prouder of a group of girls before. No matter what happens tonight, this season was definitely one for the scrapbooks.”

Sophie, who was a senior and this was her last game forever, was tearing up beside me. A few of the seniors were crying, actually, but I nudged her shoulder and she quickly sobered up before we pushed all of our hands into the center of the pile and the coach counted down from three before we all shouted ‘Go Jags!’ into the air.