The girl from New York

10| Soccer

The bell rang and I hurried along to gym, my fourth period class. My stomach was full from lunch, which I only just finished. The irony of that schedule, am I right?

I entered the gym and walked quickly to the girls locker room to change into my sneakers and shorts. As I was tying my shoes, I felt the presence of another figure standing behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see a displeased girl with long, wavy auburn hair and beautiful crystal blue eyes. She was taller than me, and full-figured. No, she wasn't overweight. It's quite the opposite, really. And that made me heavier, just being in her presence.

"Can I help you?" I asked, using a sharper tone that I meant to. The girl scoffed and suddenly I was pinned to a locker, her fierce scowl making me fear my own life.

"I don't know who you think you are, but stay away from Alex. He's mine." She hissed into my ear. A laugh built up in my chest, and I had to hold my breath to contain it. This was serious not a laughing matter.

"I'm sorry." I chuckled softly. "But I most definitely don't like Alex. Chase him all you want, I won't fight you." I shrugged, attempting to free myself from her demanding grip. She didn't budge.

"I'm watching you." The auburn haired girl whispered threateningly at me. I shivered as she walked away. Most girls are bluffing when they threaten someone, but this girl... she sounded so serious, and I wouldn't underestimate her power. Some of the girls watching started whispering among themselves, making me even more nervous. I finished tying my shoes and stumbled out onto the court.

"Hey, you okay?" You look like you just saw a ghost." Alex exclaimed, jogging up to me. I blinked, processing the girl's words, and nodded silently. The auburn haired girl sashayed out of the locker room with her group of girls, all of them giggling and quickly walked away from Alex.

Brook, what are you doing? Stand up to that bully! She has no right to tell you who you can and can not hangout with! My brain scolded. But my terrified, overly palpitating heart argued back.

No! She could hurt us! Maybe even murder is, if she's that type of person!

That's absolutely absurd, my brain fought back. I groaned internally and silence myself. Glancing back at Alex, who gave me a confused look, I watched his eyes shoot around until they landed on the auburn haired girl. I really need to learn her name. He seemed to finally understand and raced after me. The girls watched, their deadly glares all pointed at me.

"What did she said to you?" Alex asked me when he finally caught up, gasping for air. I shrugged and attempted to walk away, only to be stopped by his strong hands wrapping firmly around my arm. I tugged at it, trying to free my restrained arm.

"N-Nothing." Lies.

"You stutter when you lie." He said flatly, as if it was normal to notice that. I tugged harder, desperate to get out of this situation. "Come on, what did Blair say?" Blair. It's a pretty name.

"I already told you." I said, hesitating adding. "She didn't say anything." Blair walked over to us, swaying her hips, pushing out her chest and bum to gain the attention of the boys. I silently prayed to whatever God is out there, that the gym teacher would yell at us to start our laps. But to no avail.

"Alex! Heeeyy babe." She said in a sweet, innocent voice that made me want to vomit. She teasingly traced a finger up and down Alex's chest, which somehow made my stomach stir slightly with... jealousy? No, it must just be disgust.

Alex pushed her away and grimaced dramatically. "Seriously, you can stop. I don't even remember us dating, and I don't see it any time in the future." I felt sort of triumphant that Blair got rejected.

The coach blew his whistle, signalling for us to "Get off of our lazy butts and start running." As he would put it. I pulled myself into line with the other students, who were all running around the outer rim of the court. I jogged doggedly behind a good handful of the sprinting students, all racing to finish first. There was no prize, it's just a competition for attention; a competition for affection.

After running our laps, Coach Hurst handed us either a green vest or purple vest to put on and had us all walk out onto the school's soccer field and play an unprofessional and very unprepared game of soccer. I, of course, begged for him to just sit me up today.

"Please! You know how terrible I am at sports, coach Hurst!" I pleaded.

"Just go take your position as a goalie." He said, unimpressed by my begging. I sighed and waddled over to my team's assigned goal. On the other team, Alex took the goalie position. I already know this game won't end well. A whistle was blown, and the game begun. Within minutes, it was my team, the ones with green vests, that was progressing greatly, but we couldn't get close to the goal. A cute curly haired boy on the other team kicked it closer to our goal. I stood at ready, waiting to deflect a flying ball, though I was extremely nervous. Blair swept the ball away from my teammates and kicked it flying towards the goal. Ignoring my instinct to duck, I dove at it and blocked it with my hands. Feeling proud of myself, I smiled.

The game continued on, our team winning by two goals. But why did I secretly feel like Alex was going easy on us? I shrugged away my feeling, not wanting to decrepit my pride. Snapping back to reality, I noticed the soccer ball flying at me. Flying at my face, to be exact. And I didn't have time to stop it.

I felt like now I was the soccer ball, stumbling backwards and promptly landing on my back. Well, there goes my pride. Another whistle was blown, I guess to stop the game, and suddenly I was trapped in a huddle of worried faces. Blair stood off the side, grinning evilly. I knew I should have been more careful around her.

Alex held out a hand to help me up, but I shuffled backwards, away from him. I stood up by myself, holding my arms outstretched to tell them to give me space. I put a hand up to my forehead and felt a bump growing. My left cheek throbbed with pain. I looked over at coach Hurst with a look that I hope said "I told you so."

Coach Hurst sighed and pointed to a patch of grass away from the field, "Take a seat." I nodded, walking to the patch. Alex followed, a hand on my back, probably to keep me from falling again. I tensed at his touch, waiting for Blair to unleash her wrath on me again.

They continued playing after I sat down and Alex took his position again. A boy I didn't know replaced me, and was significantly better. My team stayed ahead of the purple team by either one or two goals the whole time. Coach got me an ice for my forehead, which also gave me the slightest relief for the heat of the October sun.

In the end, my team kind of just gave up and lost by four goals. I groaned and stood up, handing my green vest back to coach Hurst and walking back inside. Being the first in, I took the opportunity to change quickly and get out before Blair sees me. I walked into the locker room and went to my locker, pulling off my shorts and switching them for my black leggings, then stuffed my gym clothes into my locker and walked out again.

I pressed the ice pack to my head again and waited impatiently for the bell to ring, to save me from a surely angry girl who was apparently head over heels for Alex.