The Life Of A Quarter

Eight

After they had been playing for a while, Olivia barely noticed the cold anymore. Zach was beginning to feel like part of the team. James, another guy on the team, pointed to Zach. "Do you want to play QB?"

"I don't know, you saw how I punted it earlier."

"Dude, there's no way you can do any worse this time around." James moved a couple feet forward so that he could snap the ball to Zach. The rest of the team lined up, ready to block or catch.

"Umm.. Hike." Zach said, and James snapped the ball to him. He fumbled with it for a second before he got a good grip.

"Over here, over here!" Olivia was running towards the end zone with two players trailing her. He couldn't pass it to her. A few feet away was Sadie, she was wide open. Zach threw it to her the best that he could. The ball was spinning end over end, but miraculously, Sadie still caught it. She started running, but quickly had her flags pulled.

Olivia came running over to congratulate her. But when she tried to stop on a particularly slippery spot, she slipped, falling facedown in the snow. "Olivia?" Zach and a few other members of the team made their way over to her as she started standing back up, brushing the snow off of herself. Zach came to a stop as she was wiping the wet snow off of her face and out of her hair.

"Wait, Liv, your cheek is bleeding." She felt her cheek, which had been cut by the ice on the ground. Her fingers came back red with blood.

"Yeah, it definitely is." She wiped her hand off in the snow, and said, "Let's keep playing. It's not that bad."

"I think you should get a band aid or something from the coach first." Zach protested.

"I think that I'm fine, and that I don't need one." She shot back.

"The cut could get infected."

"Who are you, a doctor? I don't need you to take care of me." She stepped closer to him, and went on her tippy toes to get up in his face.

"My mom is. I--" Zach was cut off by the coach.

"Hey, what's the hold up, field 2?!"

"Olivia needs a band aid for her face!" Zach yelled back, and gave Olivia a little smirk. Olivia glared back as Coach came over to look at the cut on her cheek. He lifted up her chin so that he could see it better.

"Coach, I'm okay. I don't think I need one. Zach is just being annoying."

"Well, Zach is right. That cut is pretty bad." Olivia gave Zach another dirty look, and he stuck his tongue out at her in response. "I've got some band aids in the storage closet by the locker rooms. Can you go get one by yourself?" Once she had nodded, he tossed the keys to her.

Coach walked away, and Olivia turned to Zach. "You guys better not lose while I'm gone."

He held up his hands defensively. "I'm the worst player here, so no promises."

Olivia trudged through the snow towards the school. "You just had to tell the coach, didn't you, Zach?" She muttered as she reached the doors, thanks to him, she had to miss part of the game just to get a stupid band aid. The closet was just down the hall from where she was standing, and she swung the keys around her finger as she approached the doors. The doorknob clicked as she unlocked it and headed inside.

The door swung closed behind her. She looked over the flat basketballs, the broken soccer goal parts, and the smelly jerseys that probably hadn't been washed for a couple of years. Then she finally found the band aids on the top shelf. "Of course." She muttered to herself. She stepped up, and stood on the bottom shelf, gripping the other shelves as tight as she could. With one hand, she reached for the band aids and knocked the box off the shelf. "That's one way to do it." She hopped down, and retrieved a band aid from the box.

She picked up the keys from the floor, and turned the doorknob. Except it didn't turn. She tried again with the same result. "No, no." She pushed against the door with her shoulder, but it didn't budge. She knocked on the door in vain. No one would be in the hallway until the bell rang. The door was locked from the outside, she couldn't get out unless someone opened the door for her.