Scribbles and Bits: Blackpink OS Compilation

A Bet's A Bet

LISA

My heart is pounding, palms sweaty as I stare at what's ahead of me. A future undecided.

I try to calm my rapidly beating heart. 'Take deep breaths, Lisa. Deep breaths', like a mental chant, I tell myself and took three. As a distraction, I clench my fist and rub my fingers on my palms a few times.

Turning my gaze to the left, I see the reminder of the weight of my next move will be.

'3-3'

Just below the scoreboard, I see my coach, her lips stretching. Pretty sure she's yelling at me but I can't seem to pick up what she's saying for everything seems to be in slow motion and the only thing I can hear is the loud beating of my own heart, drowning out every sound there is.

Facing 12 yards to the front, there's the goal, 'so close yet so far'. I made eye-contact with my opponent, she has a smug look on her face. God, how badly I want to wipe that off of her when I make this penalty kick. This is the clincher. The question is, how do I do that?

I take three steps away from the ball, tapping my right foot slowly, channelling my thoughts to it.

I stare at the goalkeeper intently, trying not to get myself distracted by that ugly smirk on her face, trying to read her next move, 'What are you thinking? I hope you don't get to read mine'.

'Should I go left? Right? Corner of the wall? Center? Damn it! Okay! Focus, Manoban. You got this. Everyone's counting on you'.

Taking one last deep breath, I go for the ball, focusing my eyes on it and where to hit. One step, two steps, I briefly avert my eyes to the right, hoping the she would fall for my trick. From the back, I swing my right foot forward with all my might and kick it, aiming to the far left corner of the net.

The moment I made impact with the ball, I felt my world stop for a few seconds in anticipation. The ball was flying towards the left corner of the net and I silently pray that it will make the goal. A split second after, I look at my opponent and saw a worried look on her face, the kind of look that she knew she screwed up as she read me wrongly and moved her body to the opposite side of the net.

The next thing I know I am being tackled to the ground by my teammates, with Jisoo, my bestfriend, being one of those pinning me down, screaming that I did it. That we won the championship match. The feeling was indescribable but let me try and say that it's between disbelief and relief. This is the last league that I'm playing for the team. I am now in my senior year and I'm beyond ecstatic to know that my last kick made us Champions. Again.

Seulgi, my co-captain/friend/ the goal keeper of our team gave her hand out and helped me up. She gives me a bear hug and lifts me off the ground. I feel the wind knocked out of me.

"Good job, Manoban! You brought us to championship and made us all champions again." she said as she put me back down.

I scratch the back of my neck, "Nah, it was a team effort. I couldn't have done it alone."

"Still being modest, I see. You scored 3 points today! That's huge! Give yourself some credit, will you?", she lightly slapped me on my arm.

In my periphery, I noticed Coach Lee approaching us and signalling us to shake hands with the opposing team and we did.

The goalkeeper is still in her territory, the net, not moving a muscle since the referee blew his whistle and signalled that the game is officially over.

I slowly approach her, my hand out for a handshake but she just glared at me, 'What a sore loser.'

Acting cool, I take my offered hand back and run my fingers through my ponytailed hair.