Invisible String (w|w high school romance)

Tryouts

Riley POV:

I sat on the turf of our soccer field stretching with my teammates. With one leg bent and the other straight, I reached to grab the toe of my running sneaker and stretched my leg. Around me my teammates talked about random things. Who had classes with who, would the freshmen be any good this year, etc.

I didn't engage in the conversations. I had to be focused. I had worked hard the past three years to earn myself a captains spot. Now, I had to work hard to lead our school to the championship so that I could get recognized by my dream school, Notre Dame. A few other schools were already looking my way but I wasn't really interested in them.

Suddenly the conversations around me turned into whispers. Kylie Ross my co-captain plopped down on the turf beside me. "Who is that new girl? She's not a freshman is she?" I looked over towards the stadium entrance where Kylie was pointing. The sun was glaring and I could hardly see but I'd recognize that face anywhere. She was the last person I'd expect to walk in to tryouts. "That's Harper Fields." I responded, my eyes still fixated on the girl walking through the gate. "She used to go to our school but she moved away before freshman year." Kylie nodded as she sat next to me, resuming her stretching. "Is she any good?" she questioned.

I didn't even have to think about it. "From what I remember of her, she was the best forward in our grade." Kylie continued talking but I zoned out. All my attention was one the girl standing at the gate looking lost. Before Kylie could continue her sentence I quickly hopped up to my feet. "I'm going to go see if she needs anything." I said before swiftly walking off without waiting for Kylie's response.

As I approached her, the girl stopped looking around and her gaze fixed on me. That small smile I remember so vividly spread across her face and I couldn't help but smile back. She looked even better than I remembered her. She wore white running shoes with her soccer socks rolled down to her ankles. My eyes trailed up her legs to her short black running shorts followed by her white tank top. She was still smiling, her thumbs hooked into the straps of her soccer bag.

"Well if it isn't Riley Sader." she said. My smile grew impossibly wider. "Harper Fields. I didn't expect to see you here. I thought you moved away." Something flashed in her eye and her smile faltered slightly but it was gone before I could interpret it. "Yeah well I'm back now." she said.

Before our conversation could continue, the shrill of coach Lawson's whistle blew across the field. I turned to look back at Harper one last time. "Good luck today." I said with a smile before jogging off to the team huddle with Harper following not far behind.

Harper POV:

My eyes trailed her as she jogged away and I smiled before quickly following behind. When I approached the team huddle I recognized a few other faces from my childhood. A few of them recognized me and offered small smiles, to which I returned before turning my attention to the coach.

"Before we get started here today, I would like to discuss a few things with you." he said. "First and foremost for any of you who don't know, our co-captains this year are Riley Sader and Kylie Ross." The groups of girls erupted in claps and cheers, and I joined in. I looked over at Riley. She was standing there with a huge smile across her face. She's always been good at soccer and I was not surprised in the slightest that she was a captain. Sometimes when you make someone a captain it all goes to their head. They become stuck up and disliked by the team. As I looked around at the team cheering for Riley and Kylie, I could tell this wasn't the case. These two girls were amazing people and you could tell that they were loved by the whole team.

As I was zoned out, I missed a good portion of coach's speech. I shook my head slightly and tuned back in right as he was saying ".... We are going to start off with some warm ups before going into some offense vs defense drills." The girls all nodded and he sent us off to our warm ups. Everyone split into two lines behind Riley and Kylie. I walked over and took a spot in the back of Riley's line. As we went through some dynamic stretches, the girl in the line next to me looked over at me.

"Hey I'm Lexi." she said with a smile. I returned her smile before replying. "I'm Harper. Nice to meet you." Lexi was a tall girl. She wore white soccer shorts and a Scranton Soccer workout shirt with it. Her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail and she had a strand of pink pre-wrap to hold back the baby hairs.

"Are you a freshman?" she asked. I chuckled slightly. "No I'm a senior. I used to go here back in middle school and I just moved back to town." I replied. "Well then we are glad to have you back!" she exclaimed. "What position do you play?" "I'm a forward." I responded. She nodded her head. "Let me guess, you play center defense right?" At that she laughed. "How could you tell?" she asked jokingly. "Well you are the tallest person on the team." I said with laugh and she joined in. "You would never guess who our other center defender is then." she said.

I looked around at the rest of the team as we continued warm ups. There were other tall girls like Lexi but none of them screamed "defender" to me. The only other girl that I would've guessed as a defender stood there with goalie gloves on so I knew it wasn't her. "I give up. Who is it?" I said. As we paused our warm ups for a quick drink Lexi pointed over to a group of girls. "See that short girl with the two french braids? You probably already know her because of coach Lawson's speech but that's Riley Sader. She's been on varsity since freshman year and our starting center defender ever since." I looked over at Riley. She stood there talking and laughing with Kylie and a few other girls I didn't recognize. "No way. She's like five feet tall!" I said as I turned back to Lexi. She laughed and shook her head. "If you ask her she's five one." and at that we both laughed. "No but really." she continued. "Riley is one of the best center defenders in the state. She already has like four D1 offers."

'Wow that's super impressive." I responded as Lexi nodded. After that we got into some basic passing drills and cone drills before coach rounded us up. He split us into offense and defense and I said bye to Lexi before jogging over to the offense side of the field.

For the first drill, the goalie punted out the ball as coach yelled a number. That number of offense and defense would run out and try to win the ball. If offense won, they would take the ball to the net and try to score.

I was towards the back of the line so I had the opportunity to watch. "TWO" coach yelled as the goalie punted the ball. Two girls from our offensive line ran out to meet the ball. When I looked at the defense I saw Lexi and Riley run out.

The offensive player with the ball ran out to meet Lexi. She faked a pass to the other offensive player before carefully slipping the ball around Lexi. As the offensive player took off towards the net, the goalie came out in a ready position. Just as I was sure that the offense would score, Riley came sliding across the turf. The offensive player stumbled as Riley's slide tackle blocked her and the ball. The girl fell forward and lost the ball. Riley quickly stood up and ran the ball back up to coach, securing the defensive win. I was impressed.

Lexi jogged over to Riley as she laughed, wiping sweat off her forehead. "Thank god you're my center d. She completely had me beat." she laughed. Riley laughed with her before lightly punching her shoulder. "You know I always got your back." she said before the two jogged back to the defensive side.

I don't know what it was or why, but I felt a small pang in my heart. The pride I just felt watching Riley win the ball was gone. What is wrong with me? I shook my head again to clear my head before I went up for my turn in the drill. The second that coach yelled out "ONE." I sprinted out to meet the ball.

As I settled the ball, I looked towards my opponent. She looked to be maybe a sophomore or a junior. I watched her, gauging her movements as I ran up to her. Then I saw my opportunity. The girl lunged a bit too far forward, her stance slightly too wide. I carefully slipped the ball between her legs before running around her and launching the ball towards the top left corner.

A satisfying swish followed as the ball sailed into the back of the net. Everybody cheered for me as the girl looked down and walked away embarrassed. Before I went back with the rest of the offense, I quickly glanced over at the defense. Riley stood there clapping with a large smile spread across her face. As I jogged away I could already tell that this was going to be a good season.