Wild Thing

-120-

Kasey and Kelley stand on the sidelines watching as a player on Kylie's team is issued a red card for a blatant tackle from behind on a smaller, speedier one from the other side with less than 5 minutes remaining in a tightly contested match, with her team currently holding the one goal lead. 

"In the box or just outside, Kel?" 

Kelley looks at Kasey, "Looked like it was on the line." 

"Damn it! They're giving the penalty." 

"Kylie's been working on them during training; she may suprise you, Kase. Have faith." 

Kasey reaches for Kelley's hand and squeezes it tightly as the referee chats with Kylie and she takes her place on the line, bouncing around and waving her arms as Kasey tends to do when put in the same situation. 

The ball is placed down and number 10 from the other team, stands and eyes up Kylie before backing up and getting ready. 

As the small crowd climbs to their feet to watch, the referee's whistle sounds and the red shirt run towards the ball and strikes it towards the bottom corner. Kylie side steps, before scrambling back in the opposite direction and diving in time to get fingertips on the ball and knock it against the post, smothering the rebound before any harm can come of it. 

"YESSSSSS! GO KY!!!" 

Kelley can only laugh at her wife as she jumps and dances around, entertaining the group of mostly parents and siblings. 

"Nice save, Kylie." Kylie gives knuckles to her defender while they await the players resetting. She places the ball down and passes forward, only to see the ball turned over and a half-hearted attempt come in from distance. Gathering the ball and not wanting to risk another turnover, she heads towards the top of the box and punts it down field and then relaxes somewhat as her teammates takeover from there. 

The final whistle sounds and Kylie's teammates congratulate her on another stellar display of goalkeeping. The teams line up and shake hands. Kylie stops and looks at a player after hearing the words, "Rich kid." 

"Excuse me?" Kylie eyes up the player who said it up. 

"I said rich kid; you make us look bad because we don't have the money to pay for all the fancy training and equipment you have." 

"Take away all my training and equipment and I could still make you look bad. Maybe lay off on the french fries and Minecraft and one day there's hope you'll be as good as I currently am." Kylie winks and begins to walk away only to be pushed down and a swarm of players, coaches and parents to flood the field. 

"Here." Kelley hands Kylie a cloth to hold under her now bloody nose as she sits on the stands and gets cleaned up. "You better start talking, kid; because your Mom is over there trying to convince them not to kick you off the team." 

"The entire game, they kept saying I was a rich kid or rich brat, that I didn't deserve my spot on the team, and that Mom had paid for me to get moved up." 

"And?" Kelley looks at Kylie softly smiling, trying not to fully show how proud she is of her for standing up to the bully. 

"And, in the line, that big kid said that I made them look bad because Mom could pay for me to have extras; I told him that perhaps he should lay off the french fries and Minecraft and perhaps one day he'd be as good as me." 

Kelley bursts out laughing, "You didn't?" 

Kylie smiles, "I did and I don't regret it." 

"You do realize that you're about to be grounded, right?"