Field of Dreams: Year 1

The position

Olivia's POV:
"No, no," I refused. "Defender. No," I shook my head.

"Why's that?" Blake looked up from her notebook as we were sitting on the floor in front of the Math classroom, waiting for Ms. Gray to come.

"I just don't like it," I said. "I mean, it's cool to defend your opponents from scoring, but I just can't imagine myself doing that," I shared. "It's just too aggressive for me," I said.

"Will you do it if you have to?" she asked and looked down at her notebook again.

"I mean..." I started. "If I have to do it, I will," I shrugged.

"Okay..." she said and scratched something in her notebook. "Goalkeeper?"

"Goalkeeper?!" I asked surprised. "No way," I said. "I'm 5ft 5," I looked at her with a you-know-what-I-mean look.

"Well, I had to ask," Blake responded knowingly and scratched that option from her notebook too. "Goals or assists?"

"Hmm.." I scratched my chin. "They both have benefits," I revealed. "Scoring goals doesn't require that much running, but I haven't really had a problem with it since I started training," I shrugged. "Assisting, however, is also really interesting. You provide an opportunity for a teammate of yours to score, which is a great feeling if you're a team player," I shrugged.

"And you're a team player?" she asked.

"You say," I shrugged again.

"I would say," Blake told me.

Right after that, she was looking and writing something in her notebook again. If I had to be honest, it was a bit annoying and frustrating for me. Like, what was she always writing?!

"Winger," she whispered, raising her head and looking at me strangely.

"What?" I asked, not hearing what she was saying.

"Left or right?" she asked, still leaving me extremely confused.

"Why does it matter?" I asked.

"Just tell me!" she exclaimed.

"Okay," I said, a bit scared by her unexpected outburst. "Calm down...Left," as soon as I said that, Blake wrote something in her notebook again and still didn't tell me what was going on.

"I think you should start as a left winger," she said, finally turning her head up from the notebook.

"How did you define that?" I said, still not understanding what had happened.

"Well, you said you don't have problem with running, and you like both scoring and assisting. These are the classic traits of a winger," she said as a real professionalist. "And your intuition said left, so I think it's the right decision."

"Wow," I was amazed by her ability to analyse. "You really are the perfect coach!" I exclaimed, hugging her.

"Aren't I?" she laughed and hugged me too.

"Thanks for your help," I whispered as we were still hugging.

"No problem," she whispered too. "I really enjoy helping you," she said. "I might even consider becoming a football coach," she teased as we broke the hug.

"Do you?" I sensed the teasing and did the same.

"Plan B," she shrugged. "I still wanna be an aerospace engineer, after all," she smiled.

"Phew," I said. "I thought I turned you down from your dream."

"Never," we laughed as the bell finally rang, signalling the start of the period.

"Let's go before Ms. Gray writes us as late," I said.

"Right," I said as we stood up and entered the Math classroom, with one more decision made behind us.

***

"Pst," Blake nudged my leg.

"What?" I whispered as I was doing my Math problem.

"I forgot to tell you," she started, pretending to do her Math problems too. "Since we discovered with which position to start, we'll focus first on dribbling and running."

"And you had to tell me in the middle of the class?!" I whisper-shouted.

"Well, yeah," she shrugged discreetly.

"You want to share something, Ms. Davies?" Ms. Gray asked me, and I  frantically turned my head and gaze to her.

"Oh..." I glared at Blake, who was smiling like an idiot. "No, no, I was just..." I started, still thinking of what to say. "Talking to myself," I blurted out. "It helps me with working on problems," I tried to get myself out of the awkward situation as the whole class, most importantly Ava, was looking at me at the moment.

"Take that as a warning," she said, looking at me with her cold stare. "Next time you'll have problems," she warned. "Am I clear?" I just nodded because I didn't know what to say.

Right after that, the whole class was back to their problems, and I felt how Blake nudged my leg with hers once again.

I looked at her, this time with a very annoyed expression. But I was shocked to see her apologising eyes that I couldn't be offended to. Hence, I nudged her leg too to let her know everything was fine even though it was awkward for me. It was like that because I'd never been in such a situation before.

The one thing more awkward than that was how I saw Ava glaring at me with a little smile and emotionless gaze on her face.

I was scared. She had never looked at me like that. At this point, I was starting to consider apologising to Ava and going back to my old group because I felt it like I was the glue of it. Like it was my duty to do so.

But I couldn't leave Blake. She has given so much energy to our trainings. And to me. To my health. To my mental health. To my confidence.

It was just not fair for her for me to go back to my old group. But it was not fair to stop communicating with Paige, Mia, and Ivy them only because of Ava.

Ugh, why did I have to end up in this situation?!