old friends • tom holland

twelve

It was a week after the dinner get together with Harrison and Tom. Life had returned to normal; wake up, eat, practice, eat, sleep, game, eat, sleep, practice, maybe see my friends, and play more soccer. It was certainly repetitive, but I had fallen in love with the sport and even learned to enjoy the grind of it.

"Hey Lucy, you excited for today?"

"When am I not stoked for game day?" Lucy screamed as she ran around the living room, waving her jacket around.

I laughed and sat down on the couch and began to pack my soccer bag, which was pretty much always just one smelly pile of clothes. All of my actual gear was already in the locker room at the stadium, so I just had to get my body there on time. Nonetheless, I did have a passion for overpacking and therefore took the time to add an extra roll of prewrap.

"Let's gooo!" Lucy proceeded to scream as she stood by the apartment door.

"Alrighty kid. Just pipe down a little because I really do not want to deal with another noise complaint today." I shook my head at her, trying to restrain myself and triumph over the temptation to smile.

We walked down to the parking lot and drove to the stadium. The most committed fans were already starting to line up outside of the stadium as we stealthily ran into the locker room. The fans were amazing, but getting sidetracked before a game was not the wisest thing to do.

After a good warmup we headed back into the locker room to change into our uniforms. Mine sat in my little alcove as usual, the number seven sticking out prominently. I had already been informed that I would be starting in center mid, and I sat down to work on my visualization. Imagining how I was going to play always put me in the right state of mind, and it got me excited to play. One of my teammates eventually tapped me on the shoulder to signal that it was time to head out.

The first whistle blew to signal the start of the game. At once, players in the North Carolina blue rushed forward to attempt a strike on goal. They were unsuccessful, and the first half ended in a draw. Both teams had fought hard and possessed well, but there was a disconnect occurring in the final third. At halftime my coach moved me to left outside mid. I had a fair amount of experience playing outside, but I certainly thought of myself as a central player. However, I nodded and chose to take on the role, deciding to put forward my best effort.

As the second half got started, I experienced the same problem that I had as a child playing outside mid; there was a lot of running up and down the field and not a whole lot of getting the ball. It had been twenty minutes of me chasing down balls on offense and defense, and yet I had gotten the ball a fraction of the times that I normally would. Then things began to open up. The Courage were beginning to slow down after we possessed the ball for almost ten minutes straight. One of our outside backs played the ball to the right side of the field, up to a midfielder. She took her space and ran down the line, and I realized that I should probably do the same. I sprinted to the far post as the ball was played into the middle, and my teammate chipped it across the box. I jumped up for the header and was able to put it right over the keeper's head. The ball sailed into the net and after confirming that it was actually there, I jumped into the arms of my teammates.

After I scored the game continued to be tight, but we managed to pull off the 1-0 win after ninety minutes. I made the rounds through the stadium to sign autographs and take pictures with the fans. You could always tell that the people there genuinely cared, because not too many people were making it out to women soccer games just for kicks.

"Hey, Noelle, great job!" Lucy held her hand out for a high five and I returned it, grinning.

"Thanks, you played really well too." We were in the locker room after the game, celebrating the win. I would not call it a party by most people's standards, but we enjoyed spending a bit of time together to enjoy the moments after our hard work was rewarded.

"So dude, you ready to get going soon? I'm kind of zonked at this point."

I laughed at Lucy's interesting word choice, "Yeah, sure, I guess I'm ready to head out."

We said out goodbyes to the rest of the team and coaching staff before making the short trip home. Once there, we immediately flopped onto the couches in sweats. Lucy started scrolling through her phone and I channel surfed, looking for something even remotely interesting.

"No way, look at what just came out on Netflix!" I blurted out.

Lucy glanced up and smiled. "Let's watch it! I can't say that I haven't been curious about your friend's acting skills since you brought him up."

Captain America: Civil War had apparently just come out on Netflix, and I was actually really excited to see the movie. It had been a while since I had seen a Marvel movie, but I was pretty sure that I was fairly caught up other than this film. A smile had already appeared on my face as I saw Tom credited as an actor on the description of the movie. It began to play, and I settled in for the experience. However, it was quickly interrupted.

"Wait- have you checked Instagram lately, Noelle?" Lucy looked at me questioningly.

"Uh no, why? Did something important happen?"

"Well, I think that you might think that it has a lot of potential to be important. Look." She tossed her phone to me and I looked down at the photo.

"You have got to be kidding me..."

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Any guesses regarding what was on Instagram? An update will hopefully be posted asap so you shouldn't have to wait long to find out!

-l