Project 438

Chapter 1: The Soccer Game

"Go around her! Don't let her have the ball!"

I could hear my mom yelling from the stands. She was louder than the other parents and definitely getting into the game more than them. But that's my mom Alice. She was a soccer player in high school and was the star player. She wanted to play in college, but landed a coaching job instead for the community college in town. Thank goodness she isn't coaching my team. My mom loves soccer. It is her dream and it is her dream for me to play soccer in college and become a professional athlete. I don't hate soccer, I just would rather be a doctor taking care of people then kicking a ball around.

I followed her instructions while I was in my game trying not to upset her. If I upset her, she would let me know about it on the way home. The other team was good and very fast. I was almost as fast, but not quite. By the time I got the ball back from the blonde girl chasing me, another blonde kicks it back to her making me get a shout from my mom. She means well. Tracy Bernard however was not happy with me. She shot glares at me every time she ran past me letting me know that if we lose, it would be my fault. Sadly, I can accept that. That is just one more thing she can hate me for. Not that I ever gave her reasons.

Head in the game Lizzie. I constantly reminded myself I was still in the game. My focus needed to be on getting the ball back and winning the game. Tracy had the ball now and she was being bombarded by the other team. All my anger and hate for Tracy made me want to let it happen, but then my mom would be upset and I have to live with her. I will only see Tracy at school and that's only eight hours. Not too bad. Even if I stole the ball from her, I would probably be in big trouble, but winning that trophy would definitely win the game. I could handle the rest. I made my way to Tracy taking the ball from her and making my way to the goalie. I am pretty sure I felt her glares on my back. It made me smile. I kicked the ball in the goal. SCORE! I could hear everyone cheering and yelling 'we won'. Everyone was celebrating now except for one person. Tracy. She kept glaring at me furious that she now was not getting attention for winning the game. It made me want to celebrate. I let the team lift me up in the air and chant my name. Gotta love soccer.

Mom drove home telling me how wonderful I did and how we would celebrate with chocolate sundaes. Probably the best thing about winning my games. Getting a huge chocolate sundae. My favorite. Mom being a health fanatic, will only make them when we win other than that, they are banned from our house. I do admit that I love salad with croutons and tons of cottage cheese. Delicious. So being a health nut isn't that bad.

Ginger was waiting for me when I got home wanting me to stroke her orange fur. I fed her a treat and tossed my soccer bag in my room. Mom was waiting in the dining room with the sundaes on the table wanting to dig in and boy, did I.

"I looked into more colleges for you with amazing soccer teams and here are some that I found. Chicago. They have an amazing soccer team and not only that, they give their team members extra time on the field. It's a great school."

I took the pamphlet from mom and looked through it making it look like I was interested. Every time I think of college, I see myself as a doctor and nothing else. When mom decided to show me pamphlets, I decided to start the conversation.

"I want to be a doctor mom. I found some good schools with programs to get me started. I really want to do this."

Mom rolls her eyes, sips her wine, and gives me that look telling me that she is about to tell me the same thing as always.

"You can't win soccer awards being a doctor. Why in the world would you want to cut into people and see all that gore when you can have a nice clean career as a soccer player? You are good at soccer and you should keep playing. Besides, it's your dream to play soccer."