Jamie Johnson Fanfic!

Cup Final

Waking up, I wandered over to my bathroom, washed my face and brushed my teeth, when a thought crossed over my mind: what if Jamie had told his mum and Mike that she was the one who ran him over? What if Mike didn't want me playing? It was Cup Final day, and my arm still hurt badly, but I wasn't giving Mike any excuse to drop me, especially now i'd realised that he might know the truth. Besides, without Jamie, we needed as many players as we could get.

When I arrived at the club, Dillon was already warming up - he had left the house before me - along with Zoe and Kat, with Mike yelling warm-up drills at them. When he saw me, he yelled, "Go and get changed, Perrie! We've got lots of warming up to do!" 

Thank god Jamie obviously hadn't told Mike about her running him over. I ran into the changing room and threw on my kit as quickly as possible, and pulled my hair into a high ponytail. Before getting out on the pitch. I tried texting Jamie, but only to realise he'd blocked me. In frustration I threw my phone across the room where it smashed on the wall. I didn't either bother picking it up before leaving.

After warming up, we all headed back into the changing room, where Dillon found my phone and picked it up.

"Isn't this your phone, Pez? How'd that happen?"

"Nothing. It's fine." I said sharply, grabbing it back.

"Ooh, touchy." he replied, and I hit him with my hoodie which I was carrying.

"Alright, alright everyone, sit down." Mike said gesturing for us to take our seats on the benches that were positioned around the edge of the room. "Okay. Time to announce who's gonna be wearing this." he held up the armband that had once been mine.

"I've known this person since they were this high." he held up his hand just below shoulder height. "And I'm sure they won't mid me saying, they used to be a right pain in the backside." 

I think we all knew who he was talking about then.

"But this past year, I've watched him develop into the kind of thoughtful, considerate young man any parent would be proud of. Dillon Simmonds."

There was a small round of applause as Dillon took the armband off Mike.

Then Mike spoke to Dillon. "Just go out there, and make Jamie proud."

As they were walking out of the changing rooms, ready to play the match, I glimpsed that boy that i'd seen chasing his younger brother a few weeks before. As I walked past him, he simply said, "Good luck!"

"Thanks." I replied smiling, wondering why he'd only said that to me.

I took my place as centre-forward on the pitch, and waited for the ref to blow the whistle. When he finally did, Dillon passed back to me and the game was underway. This was probably the biggest crowd we'd all ever played against, and the roar from the stands was deafening.

The first half we played badly. We were intercepted easily, couldn't get any passes together and had no shots on target. Foxborough had scored. Twice. By half time, it was a miracle we were only 2 down. 

Back in the changing room, we sat down, nearly defeated already.

"You don't need me to tell you, you've let yourselves down." Mile said, looking more disappointed than angry.

"But play like that again in the second half, you might as well hand that trophy over to them right now. And how do you think Jamie feels watching that...performance?"

"He's here?" I asked, maybe a bit too quickly. I was just shocked that he'd been convinced. And maybe a little disappointed that I wasn't the one who'd convinced him.

"I was surprised too. Freddie managed to change his mind." Mike replied.

I suddenly became nervous. I was playing football in front of someone who couldn't play football because of me. And just yesterday, we'd broken up.

"He'd  give ANYTHING to give in your boots right now." Mike continued. "So don't you think you owe it to him to give it everything you've got?"

"So let's get out there, and show everyone who you really are."

The second half was more eventful for Phoenix. I scored. I found space and Kat found me. As I struck the ball into the net, I was surrounded by Phoenix players, and the cheering from the crowd filled my ears, but my happiness was disturbed by my glimpse of Jamie in the stands, who wasn't cheering.

We were still 2-1 down, and then Foxborough's captain made a dash for goal. And scored. He struck it into the net, and we all believed there was no coming back then. Some Phoenix players even sat down, looking defeated. But Dillon shouted orders, got the team back on their feet.

And as we kicked off again, I passed to Zoe, who passed to Dillon, who then passed back, edging closer and closer to the goal. And Zoe scored, bringing the score to 2-3 to Foxborough. 

It was a similar story with Kat, who scored in the last 15 minutes, levelling the score. This was met with a cheer from the crowd, and enthusiastic Phoenix player, who believed that they were back in this.

When there was about 5 minutes of the game left, when we seriously thought we could win, Dillon passed me a good ball. I was through on goal, when I felt someone tackle me, and I fell, hard, on my arm. 

But it shouldn't have been a penalty. The ref only awarded it because I was clutching my arm practically crying. Now everyone thought I was a diver. Great. 

"Are you alright?" Dillon said, offering me his arm and I took it with my other.

"Yeah... I just fell on my arm the other day too."

He gave me a weird look. "I thought you said that you just pulled a muscle?"

"Er, yeah something like that."

Anyway, Dillon took the penalty. As he walked up, you could tell he was nervous, but as his foot connected with the ball, and it hit the top left corner, everyone knew we had won.