Carson Messi

Chapter Four

As I walk onto the field, I pull out my phone before anyone notices me and send I quick text to the Barcelona team to wish me luck because I'm about to be eaten alive by males.

In return I got good lucks and a few 'kick their asses like you kick ours!'. I love those guys so much. They're so funny and nice.

I tuck my phone into my duffel bag and drop it on the ground. I sit down of the ground and start re-tying my shoes. As I'm sitting on the ground the guys turn and spot me. Believe me when I say no one looked like they were joking around.

"Get off the field."

"Clean and simple, I like that." I say standing up. I grab a ponytail and slip my hair into a messy bun.

The same guy stares at me with no emotion, just like the rest of them. "I'm serious. Get off the field right now. I can tell you right now that you will not get on the team so get off the field and stay out of the way."

"Me-ow." I mumble. "I'll stay out of your way but I'm not not trying out." I say. I'm such a compromiser, I can't even.

The guys continue to glare at me as the coach shows up. He blows his whistle so loud I'm pretty sure my ears are bleeding. Good, I like tough coaches. They push you harder.

"Line up!" He shouts. He's middle aged and reminds me slightly of my dad just by the way he acts like the field is his. "I'm Coach Leeper. Do something I don't like I won't hesitate to kick you off the team because chances are I can replace you with someone just as good as you or better. Now, most of you I know-" He stops speaking when his eyes land on me. "Who the hell are you and who do you think you are standing on my field?" He asks.

"I'm Carson." I reply. I send him a smile he ignores.

"I will not put any girls on my team so you might as well leave right now." He says. If he's trying to intimidate me it's not working.

I shrug. "That's okay. Can I at least stay and try?" I ask.

"Fine. Just stay out of the boys' way. Leave everything to the real soccer players." Ouch. "Boys! Does anyone have a problem with a little girl trying out?" He shouts. No one answers so he takes that as a no. "Now, to start off I want you to do 20 laps around the track." He yells.

Immediately everyone makes a run for the track. The guys all take off. Just by watching them you could tell they all conditioned for this and were giving this tryout their all. But honestly five miles is not that hard. I ran ten miles every morning with Neymar. It was our thing together, we ran in the morning. Running here right now is nothing considered to running in Spain with a world famous soccer player.

I take off and pass half of the pack. I make sure to 'stay out of their way' as I pass them. They're all breathing slightly hard while I have yet to pant. In no time I reach the front of the pack and pass it. I run hard hard enough to gain a 200 meter lead which is lot when it comes to running. I finish at 32 minutes and a few seconds. I sit next to Coach Leeper drinking sips from my water bottle and watch the guys run lap after lap.

Let's just say Coach Leeper does not look happy right now.

"Hurry up ladies! I don't have all day!" He shouts. The guys pick up their pace and finally finish 36 minutes and some change.

"Give me 100 crunches and 100 push-ups." Coach shouts blowing his whistle. I laugh mentally because of how he's coaching. I mean I was coached a few times by the coach of the FC Barcelona team coach and let's just say that guy was strict.

I finish in the middle of the front group which isn't bad. Push-ups are just not my thing. Once everyone finishes we line up again.

"We're gonna play a game now. Shirts vs. Skins. Miles and Derek are captains." Coach Leeper announces. Miles peels off his shirt and joins Derek at the front. Both of them are kind of cute in a muscular but not to too muscular kind of way.

"Carson." Yep that's the first name called. And for what team? Skins of course. I peel off my Messi jersey leaving me in a plain black sports bra and I jog over to Miles. I can tell guys are checking me out but I don't care. It's nothing different then going to the beach and wearing a bikini, if anything it's even more conservative.

The teams are formed and made into huddles.

"Johnson you be striker, Farley play defensive left, blah blah blah." Miles starts giving out positions and I totally tune out. "What position?" Miles asks me.

"Goalie." I say no hesitation. Miles looks at me weird but shrugs. "They got Jared the only good goalie anyway. Go ahead." I shrug.

We end our huddle and go to our positions. I didn't think I'd actually get to play goalie but I did.

I watch as they kick off the ball. The other team has the ball and kicks it down the field until one of the defenseman kicks the ball to our striker who tears down the field. I'll admit he's good but I think I could probably be a striker better than him. After all my uncle is the legend Messi.

The ball is kicked back and forth until the other teams offense finally reached our goal. I watch each of the players carefully and just as their striker makes the shot I jump to the top right slamming the palm of my hand into the ball and clearing it out to the offense on our team. The people around me look generally impressed even though it was an easy shot.

About an hour later the game ends. The score is 6-0, us with the 6 of course. Apparently the goalie on their team was the goalie last year, quite shameful if you asked me.

Coach Leeper blows his whistle to get our attention. "Ladies! Pick up your game! Basically my best players lost by six! This will not be tolerated. Now let's do some kicking practice. I need a goalkeeper! Who wants to be the goalkeeper?" Coach Leeper asks.

Their past goalie and I both raise our hands. Quite awkwardly if you asked me, especially when we caught each other's gazes.

"Hmmm. Let's make this interesting. A goalie off. The two of you will each take turns blocking the soccer balls. The person with the least amount of balls passed gets to decide what we do next for the tryout. It can be anything at all." Coach Leeper announces. "Do either of you have a problem with that?" It wasn't a sincere question. It basically meant if we're not okay with it we can leave.

"No." We both replied.

He smiles. "Good. Carson up first." He announces. I shrug and slip on my goalie gloves and step up to the goal. The guys had all formed a line ready to start.

I grin a little. I slap my hands together to represent I'm ready to start. Coach Leeper blows his whistle and the first guy kicks the ball.

This kid was easy to block. He straight out watches the area he's kicking the ball toward. The next guy tried more of a fake out tactic but his eyes switch back to the other side. I block his easily.

The next few look like the most serious with concentration frowns on their faces. All of them do tricky maneuvers and kicks to try to stump me but none of them succeed. After a few minutes, a few red welts, and a few bruises Coach Leeper blows his whistle. Honestly it only felt like a few seconds. I mean Claudio Bravo used to teach me a few pointers, and the FC Barcelona team would literally practice for hours.

"Jared." Coach Leeper calls. Jared emerges from the line and steps up to the goal while I take a place in the line. Jared doesn't have the arrogant look of a goalkeeper. Usually we act like nobody can score against us even if they probably can. That was a tip taught to me by the one and only Manuel Neuer from the Germany national team. He came to visit once to practice. Let's just say there was fangirling involved. Neuer is my boo.

Jared blocks the soccer balls that come toward him. I step up and watch him carefully. From observing him I can tell he favors his right side. He seems to have more ease on that side. I channel my inner uncle and swing my foot back and connect it with the ball, sending it flying with incredible speed into the net. To make matters worse for Jared the ball bounces against the net and smacks Jared in the back of his head. I honestly feel the tiniest bit bad.

The whole field is silent for a good thirty seconds.

"Wow. Excellent kick." I here coach mutter quietly. I make my way to the back of the line.

At the end Jared got scored on 4 times while none went past me.

"So Carson, what are we doing next?" Coach Leeper grumbles. A smile overcomes my face as the team watches me carefully.

I know exactly what we are going to be doing next.