Football Love ✔

Chapter Twenty-Five

"Ok guys, one more lap and I think we'll be ready for the game," Coach calls from the bleachers. The guys and I all groan as we start running again, I was thirsty and was in need of a drink.
"This.. is hot.. work..." complains Evan between sharp intake of breathes. I glance behind me to see him lagging behind us, he was running along side with Ethan. I guess they were trying to take it semi easy.
"Pick up those legs trouble twins," yells coach loudly from his place. I could hear Walker laughing from his spot on the bleachers. Coach had said that he could have the day off and spend it with family or something but Walker had told him he would never miss something like this. He would be on those bleachers screaming our names, cheering and supporting us.
"You excited?" asks Mitch keeping up beside me at the front.
"Do you mean for the match or after the match?" Casey asks wiggling his eyebrows, we laugh as we round the corner.
"Nervous mostly, sure I'm excited too," I say as I slow down waiting for Casey to catch back up with us.
"How the hell do you guys always fly ahead of the rest of us?" yells Luke as we pass him and the other guys.
"Because we run not skip and hold hands," states Evan as him and Ethan come up behind us. Luke and the guys roll their eyes as we pass each other laughing and hi-fiving.
"I can't wait to see their faces when we smash them later," Evan continues to talk as we pass the old tree.
"Hmm yeah I sure hope we do smash them," Mitch adds in.
"You sound like you don't have much faith in us Mitch-y," Casey says glancing at him. Mitch shrugs quietly.
"I have faith in us, I just hope we can finally show them a thing or two and they'll learn," he says quietly. I think about his words as we make our way around the second last corner. He was right, every year they boosted about themselves. But this year would be different, today would be different. Today we would show them that they can't always win, today we will show them something they haven't seen in a very long time. Today I will win this bet, I will get my life back and today I will be with the girl of my life.
"Drink up boys, then hit the showers. Go and relax a bit and then come and meet back here half an hour before the match begins," coach tells us before walking to the next lot of guys. I sigh in relief as the cold water runs down my throat, I finish the bottle in three big gulps.
"Well that gives us an hour and half guys," Walker says coming over to stand beside me.
"I call movie," shouts Evan loudly, his voice echoing in the showers.
"Damn it Evan," someone shouts angrily after we hear something drop on the floor loudly. "That was my phone you just made me drop," he continues. I sigh as I go over to my locker, grabbing my towel and taking the last available shower. It was nice having the water spray on your face and body, refreshing, cold. I couldn't help but think of Dani, I would see her in a few hours. I had missed her even though it was only yesterday that I had been spending the day with her.
"I call dibs on Saw 2," someone shouts.
"No way dude, I say Terrible Bosses," another shouts.
"Finding Nemo," I hear the room go quiet. "What its a good movie," Luke sheepishly says. The guys and I all burst out laughing. Although he did have a point there, it was a good movie.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Wow dude, look at the place," says Casey in amazement. The field had been turned into well it was still a field but surrounding it. The bleachers had coloured streamers and balloons hanging from the rails. I could smell food stands somewhere close by. I could see that there was always stalls set is selling tops, hates, jumpers and everything else in our teams colours. Orange, dark brown, black, after all we were the tigers. There was already a huge crowd gathered around, wearing our tiger jumpers, some guys even had black and orange stripes painted across their face. There was also people in blue, supporting the blue snake's team. Also known as the Blue Coral Snake, very poisons, but we just call them the blue snakes. Cheaters, poisonous, slithering little snakes.
"Guys enough sight seeing, coach wants yous now," Walker says appearing in front of us. We all follow behind Walker, I couldn't help but glance around. Taking in all the colours and things.
"HAYDEN!" I hear someone tell me name, I look up to catch Felix's eyes. I blink, looking around for the rest of my family, I spy them behind him. Destiny waves at me, my parents are smiling as they all walk over to me. Felix runs into my arms and I pick him up, throwing him onto my shoulders.
"I'll catch you guys soon," I tell the guys, the nod their heads.
"Orange tent in ten," Walker says, I nod my head at him.
"Hey buddy," I say to Felix as he puts his arms around my neck.
"You can see everything up here," he says in amazement.
"How are you feeling?" mum asks worriedly, looking at me.
"Mum I'm fine," I tell her smiling as my dad puts an arm around mum.
"He's fine darling, stop worrying about him," dad tells her winking at me.
"Where's Hunter?" I ask Destiny after giving her a hug.
"He's with his family, he should be around here somewhere," she says looking around us.
"FELIX!" shouts a loud voice behind me. We turn around to see Hazel running full speed ahead towards me. This isn't going to be good. I prepare for an incoming smash into my leg. Instead I only receive a small soft tap on my leg, I look down into Hazel's big eyes.
"Can I please hug Felix?" she asks me smiling up at me. I grin as I put Felix down, and the two of them hug each other.
"Hello again Hayden darling," says Cassandra hugging me tightly.
"How you been mate?" asks Patrick holding his son Zach in his hands. Zach was Patrick and Cassandra's little boy, he was three months old I believed.
"Pretty good actually," I tell him smiling as I say hello to Zach.
"Hello little Zach," I say, his brown eyes open wide and he starts raising his arms in the air at me. I smile as he starts to babble away in his baby language and making sounds. I then notice that there were still a few people missing from the group.
"Have you seen Dani, and her parents, oh and the Smiths?" I ask my father, he shakes his head.
"I'm afraid I haven't actually son," he tells me, I frown. Maybe she was here in the crowd somewhere, or maybe stuck in traffic or something. I know that Dani would never break a promise, she will be here.
"I'm sure she's around here somewhere honey," mum says patting my shoulder gently.
"Yeah," I say trying to glance around looking for the all to familiar dark hair. But I had no so luck.
"Well you better get going son, we'll all cheer you on from the bleachers," dad tells me. I nod my head as I receive another hug from everyone quickly before we all went our separate ways.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Ok guys, it's finally time. You've trained yourself hard, and I'm proud of all of you's," coach tells us. "I don't care if at the end we don't come out of this with no trophy. I know you guys will have put all your best effort into this, and that's all I ask of you's. To try your best, because your best is all you guys can do. So without further a due, let's have a quick huddle," he says bringing us all in. Coach puts his hand in, then Luke, Evan, Ethan, Mitch, Casey, Walker, Hunter and me on top.
"Gooo TIGERS!" we all shout throwing our hands up and smiling.
"Go and show them what you've got boys," shouts coach as we all run out and onto the field. The shouts are all loud as we run, people jump up and scream, waving flags and posters above their heads.
"THAT'S MY BROTHER!" I hear Felix's voice above everyone screaming. I look up at the bleachers, quickly spotting my family and Hunter's.
"THAT'S MY BROTHER!" shouts Hazel coping Felix, I laugh.
"Siblings," Hunter and I say at the same time, shaking our heads. As we form our horizontal line in silence, I look around trying to spot my girlfriend. I didn't see her anywhere.
"Don't worry man, I'm sure she's here," Hunter says placing a hand on my shoulder. I nod my head, focusing back on the blue tent.
"And welcome to the field, the champions... BLUE SNAKE!" cries the announcer loudly. I watch as the blue fans all stand up, waving their arms, posters and everything in between. I watch as the blue snakes run onto the field, waving at the crowd. They looked like they owned the field, guess what you don't. We own this field guys. I notice that my team mates are shuffling their feet on the grass. That wasn't a good sign. I look up as the other team stand in front of us, also in line.
"Hello again Hayden," Damian says smiling at me, as he came to stand right in front of me.
"Damian," I say hiding my emotion so that my voice was plain.
"You're going down," he states showing his anger. Well there goes the thought of him maybe being the kind guy he was last time I saw him.
"I don't think so Damian," I tell him, standing straighter.
"Now boys, remember this is a fair game. I don't want to see people punching or shoving each other out there when there's no need," the umpire tells us walking back and fourth in front of us. "Now let the game begin, captains step forward," he adds. I watch as Cassy steps forwards, Damian also steps forwards. The rest of us move into formation around the field. I watch from afar as Damian stares at Casey, but Casey just stares at the ball above their heads, waiting for the drop. I hear the whistle blow, the ball drops and Casey grabs it quickly passing it to Ethan who kicks it straight to Evan. Oh yeah, we were on fire.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The game was overall, a very close game. There was only a minute and a half left on the clock, the scores were 120-124. We were only a goal off, we had to get a kick straight through the middle or it was over. The crowd were all on their feet in excitement, screaming and cheering loudly. Hunter had the ball right now and was trying to get closer to the posts, two members of the other team were right on his tail. I started to run towards them, tagging them. I look further up the field to see Damian standing right in front of Hunter's path. I look back in front of me to see Hunter glancing backwards to see the two guys right behind him and then me.
"Watch out," I scream as I see Damian start running full speed ahead, he was going to run into Hunter. I could hear the crunch and feel the pain as I see them both fall to the ground. I run up to them and the others followed my led, coming to stand with me. Damian got up, brushing his pants off, seeming unfazed from what had just happened. I glanced down to see Hunter still on the ground, holding his stomach and arm in pain.
"You ar*ehole," I yell at Damian, grabbing ahold of his jumper and shaking him. "You knew he was there, you saw him and yet you still run into him," I continue to scream at him.
"HAYDEN, let him go or you'll be kicked off," says another voice grabbing hold of me and pulling me away. I try and calm down watching as Damian just walks off. "You calm yet?" asks Walker, I guess it was him that had pushed me away. I nod my head but I wasn't, not exactly.
"My stomach hurts," moans Hunter as a paramedic comes over and helps him.
"Looks like he kneed you in the stomach, there's bruising around," he says after a little bit. I watch as they take my friend off the field and towards the benches. I turn around and glare at a smiling Damian.
"You should not have done that Damian," I warn him angrily. With that I turn back around and walk to the middle of the field, the umpire hands me the ball. Times goes slow as I look out over the crowd. I look at Felix, Hazel, Zach, Cassandra, Patrick, Destiny, mum and then my eyes fall on my dad. I watch as he slowly shakes his head, I lower my head down. Dani was still not here, when I needed her the most, she was no where in sight. I knew that my spirits where slowly fading, and I started to daught myself. I glance up at the big clock, the big red 1:00 digits flashing at me. I glance to see Damian laughing with his mates, and smiling. I look over at Mitch, Casey, Ethan, Evan and Luke, they were watching me, they smile at me. Then I hear a single clap, and another clap followed. I glance at Walker who was also smiling and clapping his hands. I watch in amazement as the tiger supporters all stood up and started clapping their hands. I hear the umpire blow the whistle, it was on.
* * *
Hey everyone! Chapter twenty- five people =] what do you think, did I do a good job? Where do you think Dani is? she did promise him that'll she'll be there to support him. The next chapter is the last chapter sadly, the ending chapter is coming tomorrow. Yes I will be adding an epilogue, it'll be posted Christmas Day, or the 24th for some of you's =) don't forget to comment, follow, vote and I'd love it if you could share this story with your friends, family, even your pets =P
~ Kind heart. Fierce mind. Brave spirit. 🎡 ~
Amy xxx