Jace: a story of child abuse

soccer

"Wakey wakey" Jill drags Jace out of bed. It was day two of Jace's suspension and she was pretty sore and tired. Jace changed into her soccer uniform that Jill scrounged around to find. It consists of a neon green jersey with the number four on the back. She also has black and white striped shorts and cleats that Jill found at Goodwill. On the way to soccer Jill pulls into McDonald's to get breakfast. "How are you feeling today?" She asks. "Tired" Jace replies, "no, how are you feeling emotionally?" Jill rephrases. "Fine." Jace cuts her off not wanting to get emotional. Jill just shrugs, "fine. Keep to yourself."

They pull up to the soccer field about twenty minutes late. This earns Jace an extra five laps of running after her teammates are done. "Alright girls. Time to keep your heads up. We have a game next week against our biggest rivals. The Pelicans and they have some strong girls on their team." Jace can't help but let her attention slowly drift off....

She thinks about her mom Sandra and how much she misses her and wished that she was here with her now. Oh mom what would you think of me now? Jace thinks about her dad and how much he loved gardening with her. Planting daisies was there favorite thing to do. After that they would drink lemonade and sit on the porch and examine their handiwork.

Since Jace was lost in her thoughts she didn't hear anything else that the coach had said. "Hello? Jace?" Mrs. Myers brings her attention back. Some of the other girls snicker. "Yes? I'm sorry" Jace blushes. "So. Like I was saying we have to think up some new group routines together. Why don't you guys split yourselves into two teams and play against each other?" The other girls nod and everyone huddles together. Jace stays on the fringes of the group feeling awkward. Two of the bigger girls named Mandy and Kylar step up to be teamleaders. Jace realizes that nobody seems to question this. Mandy picks anothet tall girl named Lucy first. Then Kylar picks a strong looking girl named Tara. After that the team leaders start picking girls slowly taking away the other girls in the group until there was just Jace and a small, scared looking girl. Jace stares at the ground trying not to look hurt. It's Kylar's turn to pick. She looks at the two girls back and forth until Jace just wants to disappear. Then finally Kylar points at her, "I'll take Jace." Jace looks around making sure she wasn't pointing at the othet girl and then triumphantly takes her place on Kylar's team. From that point on the game is on. Jace is put as a goalie for Kylar's team. She just feels lucky not to have been picked last and doesn't argue. All in all Jace does pretty good after a couple hours Mandy's team has only made two girls whereas Kylar's team has made three. The coach declares Kylar's team the winners and the girls are sent home with a warning to keep exercising and preparing for the game next week. Jace starts to join the other girls and then sees Jace waving her down across the field.  Jace jogs towards her and slowly stops when she sees who Jill is standing with.

MR. BLACKMAN. AND HE HAS HIS ARMS AROUND HER.