West Ark High

Soccer Is Love, Soccer is Life

The Delinquents were going to win tonight—Octavia could feel it in her bones.

There was no way she was going to let the stuck up kids over from Mecha Prep beat them in a game that was West Ark's strongest sport. Even the football team didn't have the same respect that the soccer team did, and Octavia Beatrice Blake was determined to keep it that way.

Every practice that week had been in preparation for their first big home game. Sure, they had already played a few games with some of the neighboring districts, but the Mecha Phoenix's were coming all the way from Atlantic City and Octavia knew it would boost alot of school spirit if the Delinquents were to win. It wouldn't be as good as crushing Mount Weather or Trikru Union, but it would still be satisfying.

"You seem jittery," Monty muttered, nodding slightly towards Octavia's leg bouncing in rhythmic spurts. She released a breath, forcing her leg to stop moving. "Not that it's a bad thing," he amended quickly. "You have a right to be nervous."

"I'm not nervous," she responded. "I'm excited."

"Well, that's probably a better mindset."

Octavia looked up at the board and immediately wished that she hadn't. Numbers and symbols swirled around in her brain as she stared ahead at the examples. Math was never her forte, so how she managed to wiggle her way into accelerated math courses was beyond her. In retrospect, it was a horrible idea to daydream while she was supposed to have been taking notes.

"Monty?" She tapped him on the wrist with the end of her pencil and he glanced up at her. "Yeah, what are we working on right now?"

Octavia saw the ghost of a grin playing out on Monty's face. Setting his pencil down, he said, "You weren't paying attention at all, were you?"

"I know that we're dealing with triangles."

"Do you know that because you were paying attention or because there's six triangles drawn on the board?"

"Touché." Octavia glanced down at her lined piece of paper, devoid of anything save a few lazy doodles. "So are you going to help me out or not?"

Monty rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless as he slide his paper across the desktop to her. "I won't leave you hanging."

Octavia felt a weight taken off of her shoulders. If Bellamy knew she had failed another math unit, he'd be furious. "Monty, you're a lifesaver."

"I try." He picked his pencil back up only to realize he didn't have notes to go off of, so he set it back down. "So," he started casually, "big soccer game tonight, huh?"

A new wave of excitement flowed through her veins, temporarily making her forget about her work again. "I know! I'm really excited. We're gonna crush them into next season."

"Jasper's been telling me the same thing all week," he laughed, propping his head up on his palm.

"You two are still coming to hang out after the game, aren't you?" Monty hesitated, opening his mouth a fraction and then closing it again. Octavia felt her lips fold into a slight frown. "It won't be the same without you guys."

"I know Jasper is going to do anything in his power to be there," he promised. "I plan on being there." Monty shrugged. "Hopefully everything works out."

"That's all you can really do, ya know? Hope for the best." She turned her attention back down to the notes she was copying down and scowled. "Guess we better hope for the best when I fail that test on Monday. Bellamy is gonna kill me."

...

The high amount of anticipation that Octavia had for the upcoming game left her feeling antsy; all she wanted to do was get down on the field and take a few last minute practice shots to calm her adrenaline rush. She was so wound up in fact, she wasn't sure if she would have a random spaz attack and break something.