The Girl in Cleats

⚽️Chapter 41⚽️

{Asher POV}

"Do you have a computer?" I ask Lauren. 

"Yes..why do you need it?" Lauren looks at me skeptically.

I don't think she trusts me yet. Even though she's the one who brought me here...

"I would like to see if there's anything online about me missing." 

"Oh, ok. Yeah I'll go set it up." She stands up from the chair she was reading in and walks into another room.

"Set it up?"

"Oh right, I have a very slow computer. It should be ready by tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" My jaw drops.

"I know, it's bad. But it works. ...Most of the time." She says from the other room.

"You should just get a new computer!" I say, still shocked. 

"Nope, I need to save my money for Catrina, she grows out of her clothes like crazy." 

I look over at the toddler playing on the ground. She does look pretty big for her age. Suddenly an idea occurs to me. When I get out of this mess, I'm gonna buy her a new computer. She saved me, after all.

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{Kiera POV}

Thirty seconds left on the clock, you can do this Kiera.

I have the ball between my feet and I'm halfway down the field. I'm already running as fast as I can, but I push harder. I take one last look at the ball, then focus on where I'm going to shoot it. The goalie acts as if this is too easy, and assumes a bored position. Perfect. 

I aim for the top right 90, as the goalie is on the right side, thinking I'll take an amateur shot. As I get closer, the defenders come at me, doing everything they can to stop me. If only the goalie was as smart as them. I easily get around a tall boy with long skinny legs, and he trips over his own shoelace. 

The goalie is distraught at the poor performance of his team, so he starts to look nervous yet still confident he'll block the shot. How cute.

I take the shot and it sails beautifully right over the goalie's hands and into the net just as the buzzer goes off. I look at the scoreboard and proudly smile, seeing that I made the winning goal, 3-2. 

The goalie is so angry, he's yelling at his defenders, saying they suck and that he deserves a better team. I walk up to him and smile, "Hey it wasn't their fault, you should get some practice though." I shake his hand and turn around just as his face contorts to one of pure hatred. 

My team shouts and screams, and suddenly I'm enveloped in a mass of sweaty boys, all trying to give me a high-five at the same time. I finally break away and see Cameron, he runs up to me and lifts me up on his shoulders, proudly shouting, "HEY EVERYBODY! THIS IS MY GIRLFRIEND!!"

I can feel my face turn bright red as I'm laughing. Cameron and the team run back to the bench, with me still on Cameron's shoulders. My dad is smiling and clapping. This is where I am home, this is where I am loved, goal or not. 

"Let's celebrate!" My dad says, high-fiving all the boys. 

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After we eat pizza and get rootbeer floats, Cameron drives me home with Alexis and Dustin in the back. Dustin is proudly showing me the video of him punching the guy in the face, for the fifth time. 

"Wasn't that SO awesome?!" He says, yet again.

"Yes, Dustin, I'm so proud of you. Again." I laugh, putting my hand in his hair and messing it up. 

He shakes his head, "There's already three thousand views!"

Everyone in the car laughs, Dustin is so proud of himself for stepping out of his comfort zone. And, we are too, but we don't need to be reminded every ten minutes. We absolutely love him for it. 

Suddenly sleep overcomes me and I fall asleep with a smile on my face, gone to the world.

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