Mark My Words

61 | Preparing For Battle

That day after study period, the team gathered down the senior wing past the Stud.Co. office door. Rosalie hadn't seen much of Whitney Vasquez since she effectively bitched Whitney out on Homecoming weekend. Stud.Co. meetings were few and far between for Rosalie during the soccer season, anyway.

    Arthur Hendricks was in the office, though, so Rosalie leant in to wave to him. Art looked away from the photos on screen long enough to say, "Hey Rosalie! Mrs. Maguire already picked up the keys."

    "Thanks, Art!" she said, ducking out of the room and into the oncoming traffic of soccer girls.

    She fell in line with Jade Dalby and held the conference room door open for her. "How's your head?" she asked.

    Jade put a hand to her braid and sighed. "It's okay. Better than the last two weeks, definitely."

    "You'll be able to play again by winter break, right?" Rosalie asked.

    Jade nodded. The minor concussion would be healed in the next few weeks, but those few weeks were crucial. Jade wouldn't be able to participate in Regionals unless something happened to Joanna and they needed to fall back on Jade. It would be beyond difficult, and Rosalie knew that their resolve to win would disintegrate if that happened. Jade would only be back in practice for a week and a half before Regionals. It wasn't enough time for her to warm up for Regional Semifinals, let alone Championships.

    The conference room was where Stud.Co. held their weekly meetings. Rosalie attended enough to know the layout. As a freshmen, it reminded her of King Arthur tales and the Knights of the Round Table. The tall windows facing the boulevard outside of Bradshaw's parking lot were criss-crossed with square frames that cast a patchwork of shadows over the circular table. The center was cut out, and at Stud.Co. meetings, Whitney would take her position there. Now it was empty.

    Coach Maguire was pulling down the projector screen when Jade and Rosalie arrived. They hesitated on the outskirts of the table, watching as the screen flickered on. Once again, Kayla Maguire was in attendance, perched on the edge of the nearby windowsill. A cold shiver went up Rosalie's spine at the sight of the little she-devil, who seemed disinterested in the state of affairs. Coach turned around and searched the crowd before landing on Rosalie. She nodded for Rosalie to bring up her presentation.

    Rosalie left Jade to bring up her screen. She set her backpack off to the side along with her coat before rolling up her sleeves with a sigh. Meanwhile, Coach took a seat next to Kayla and gestured for Rosalie to begin.

    "Okay. Well, for starters, I had the pleasure of researching Lake Erie Prep. It's a private school in northwest Pennsylvania," she said, and on screen, their logo came up. It was a profile of a horse in black and blue colors above their mascot title: Trojans. "In their first non-conference game, their leading scorer tore her ACL. Since she's out of the running, they have Camry Hovis, centerfielder. Camry's known for making assists, usually to their leading striker, but they switched positions when she tore her ACL. Camry's usual position is at the rightwing.

    "They barely made it out of State alive. They sustained two other minor injuries, but for the most part, their leading lineup is scrambled for Regionals. They'll be coming in with a new rightwing forward and defender."

    They went down the line from there, moving on to Ray, who studied the Groton Memorial Tigers in Vermont. From there, they covered the region, recording names, numbers, positions, and schools on the board.

    Rosalie sat with Joanna on one of the carpeted steps on the side of the room, just below the windowpane. She could feel the cold draft of the wind through the glass as she wrote in fine ink, "Sophie Mitchell — #27 — STRK — Van Buren, ME" on her paper. Jordan was talking, describing in vivid detail the winning score at the Maine State Championship when Mitchell body slammed a defender during her assist to her teammate.