Living A Dream

Chapter 6

     More people started arriving so I decided now would be a good time to call a meeting.

     "Hey Hope." I said quickly. She looked away from Kelley and looked over at me. I gave her a head nod and she knew what that meant.

     "Okay, alright ladies! Let's gather around here for a little bit." she said, raising her voice so she could be heard.

     Hope walked over and stood by me, the rest of the girls walked over and sat down on the turf in front of us.

     Kelley sat in the front, Alex right next to her. I scanned the group and looked at the familiar faces and the new freshman. None of the seniors are here. They're pretty pissed 2 juniors have the captain spots.

     "Alright. Welcome to the first captain's practice. I hope everyone's having a good morning." I said, earning a groan from Kelley followed by Alex laughing.

     "If you're new, then I'm here to tell you that you should try to put yourself out there. You don't just want to impress the coaches, you want to impress us, so try to make friends." I said, Kelley then adding:

     "We don't bite. Well, not intentionally." causing the entire group to laugh. I smiled and shook my head. What a jokester.

     "These practices are meant to be fun based, we will warm up with dynamics before every practice, but after that, there will be shooting and scrimmaging games. I suggest if you haven't already, signing up for the camp before tryouts. There the coaches will be present and the drills that are run at tryouts will be gone over and practiced." I said, seeing a few freshmen faces looking a bit scared.

     "If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me or Hope." I said, looking at Hope who had a stern look on her face.

     "Or maybe not Hope." I said, earning my second punch of the day, this one even harder. "See what I mean?"

     A few more people laughed again. It was now time to warm up. I clapped my hands once and the experienced players got up, followed by the freshman.

     "Ladies, be nice to one another and fill the new girls in on how to do this." I said as we walked to the end line. Alex came up next to me, kind of looking like a lost puppy.

     "It's okay, I've got you covered, just follow my lead okay?" I asked, earning a little nod from her. I look both ways to see everyone on the line.

     I took off with a slight jog, going to the 10 yard line and back. I then did high knees there and back. Then butt kicks. As I got to the 10 yard line and turned to go back, I saw that most people were getting the hang of what was going on.

     Open the gate, close the gate, grass trimmers, alternating side lunges and last but not least, sprints. Once everyone got to the end line after the sprints, I went over to Hope again.

     "What shall we do first?" I asked, knowing exactly what she was going to say.

     "World Cup. Teams of three, every team needs at least one experienced player and a freshie." she said with a grin on her face. "And we're going to scope out the freshie goalies and make one go in net against 50+ of us."

     That's what the smirk is for. She was put through it her first year, now she gets to torture the poor new kids. This is going to be really fun though.

     "Alright, listen up!" Hope yelled, getting their attention. "We're starting with World Cup. Get into groups based on your grade level."

     Everyone split into the 3 groups except for Hope and I. There weren't a lot of sophomores, but there were quite a bit of freshmen and juniors. Hope and I walked over to the freshman group.

     "Any of you goalies?" Hope asked, looking at the girls. No one spoke up. She sighed and looked at me. She's intimidating to the new girls, so I try.

     "Hey, I know there has to be a goalie somewhere, come on, raise your hand if you're a goalie." I tried, seeing if that would work. Two girls raised their hands. I smiled and looked back at Hope who just rolled her eyes.

     "Okay, one of you two are going to be in goal for this game." she said, making the two of them look at each other. "Figure out which one is going in. The other one will be used along with me for the next game."

     "All of you know how to play World Cup, correct? I need someone to answer, it's okay." I said gently, earning a few girls saying 'yes'. I didn't hear any one say no, so I'm going to assume they're okay.

     "Alright, I want groups of three, however, there needs to be at least one freshman on a team and one upperclassmen. You understand? If the numbers don't work out, then make something happen." Hope yelled, we stepped back, watching as the girls scrambled for people.

     Alex walked up to me and stood there for a little bit, her face turning red. I looked to see groups starting to be completed.

     "Uh, Tobin, you don't mind being my partner do you?" came Alex's voice. I looked at her and smiled.

     "Yes of course, we need to get a freshman though, just wait another minute and we'll have one." I said, looking back at the girls still forming groups.

     Eventually Hope and I asked who didn't have a group and what group needed what grade. After it all got sorted out, Alex and I had a freshman name Kara in the group.

     Hope and I got all the balls and put them in the net. We explained to the keeper that we will tell her how many balls to punt in. I also told her not to feel bad for not saving them, they have to go in eventually and this is a hectic game with a lot of people.

     I told Kara to take right side of the 18 and Alex to take the middle. We decided our country name that we'd yell out when shooting was going to be Djibouti because of an inside joke that the juniors know.

     I told the keeper to punt out three balls. She did what I asked and the three were spread out on the half of the field. The experienced girls started sprinting towards them and bringing them in closer to the net.

     Now the fun begins.

A/N:
Double update.