Free (Sequel to Trapped)

Ch. 17

Ariana

Saturday, 1:12 pm

"I don't understand how you can drive for so long. I can barely drive for 15 minutes." I say, looking at Justin.

"I just like driving." He says.

Rain drops are still sliding down the windows. We hadn't yet made it fully out of Denver, and it was still raining slightly.

I look back at Aviella, who is still watching Bubble Guppies. I don't understand how she can be so focused on one thing for such a huge amount of time.

"Baby girl, how are you still watching that?" I ask her.

"Watching what?" Aviella removes her headphones, looking up at me.

I made her put them on after those squeaky little voices got really annoying.

"Bubble Guppies."

"I'm not watching that anymore. I watched K.C. Undercover, Girl Meets World, and Stuck in the Middle. And Dora. And Spongebob." She says, putting her headphones back on.

I look at Justin, dumbfounded, and he chuckles.

"It would be hilarious if she was watching something else, like, something not appropriate." He says.

"You're such a dumbass." I roll my eyes and he laughs again, placing his hand on my thigh.

He squeezes it and I giggle.

"I spy with my little eye a very small but definitely visible bump on someone's stomach."

I look down, not seeing anything different.

"I don't see it." I tell him.

"That's probably because early viewing is a privilege reserved for the daddy."

"Okay, daddy." I roll my eyes playfully and Justin winks at me before turning his attention back to the road.

2:25 pm

"Aviella, come on, baby." Justin says.

He takes Aviella's iPad out of her lap and places it on the seat next to her before pulling her out of her seat. She lays her head on his shoulder, having previously been asleep for the past 30 minutes.

I close and lock the car before following them onto the soccer field of the park we were at. I don't know what it's called, but some of Aviella's team is already here and practicing.

Justin sits at the bottom of a set of bleachers and I sit next to him, putting all of Aviella's soccer stuff on. Justin pours water on her head to wake her up before she runs to the field with the rest of her team.

"You're so stupid." I laugh.

"I didn't want her to play when she was tired." He says.

I shake my head, watching the other team walk onto the field. The girls on that team look the same age as Aviella's team, which is good, because there's been more than a few times when they were playing against kids older than them.

"Parents, we will be going out for pizza after the game. It's at CiCi's, which is right down the street." Kaila says.

"I feel like we eat too much pizza." I tell Justin as she walks away.

"You can never have enough pizza." Justin replies, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

I take put my phone, scrolling through Twitter while we wait for the game to start.

3:19 pm

The score was now 5-5. The other team is pretty good but I'm gonna need Aviella's team to go ahead and score because there's only about 20 seconds left in the game.

"Come on, baby girl. You got it." Justin says.

Right now, he was in 'game mode', meaning he didn't pay attention to anything else except for the game in front of him. Aviella receives the ball at the other end of the field, meaning she has to make it to the other side or pass it to someone to score.

She passes it to Emelie, who is very sweet, but her parents, on the other hand, are not. Emelie passes it to Alexa who is right next to the goal, but being blocked by the goalie.

"Lexi, me!" Aviella yells.

Alexa looks at Aviella and kicks it to her. A girl from the other team tries to block her but fails, sliding and falling to the ground. Aviella stops the ball with her foot and kicks it. From her position, the ball has time to slow down, but we watch the ball roll into the goal and stop just beyond the line.

Everyone is silent for all of two seconds before they burst into cheers.

"That's my baby girl!" Justin yells.

Justin walks over to the girls who are screaming Aviella's name at the top of their lungs. Justin picks her up, kissing her all over her face.

"Avi! Avi! Avi!" Aviella's smile could not get any bigger as Justin sets her on the ground.

"We did it!" She yells.

Coach K and Kaila hug all the girls, congratulating them on the win. They now qualified for the tournament that led to the playoffs then the championship.

After both teams shake hands, everyone leaves to the CiCi's pizza down the street.

4:35 pm

After the girls finish eating pizza and desert, we're finally able to pull Aviella from watching TV, which she is too addicted to.

"Baby girl, we need to home." Justin says.

"Okay, fine." She mumbles.

She goes to hug the remaining girls before we leave the restaurant.