˗ˏˋOur Differencesˊˎ˗

-17-

The championship trophy was so close for reach, and I was super nervous about the game. (And my ability to play.)

I normally get really lucky in our games and end up making decent plays when the other team makes a screw up. But for some reason, I did not feel confident about this upcoming game at all.

Starkview's more than ready, or so it seems.

I double tied my cleats and stood up, examining the large stadium field that we would be playing on tonight. Coach was expecting us to blow them out of the water tonight and come home with a trophy, which sounded really nice in theory. But she needed to get real for a second.

"Are you nervous?" Devin asked while we warmed up.

He had been standing behind me the entire time while I did my warmups, harassing me with questions. The game was about to start in nearly 10 minutes, and I needed to take this time by myself, but he decided to show up for no reason at all.

"Yes." I answered quickly.

I could feel my chest pounding rapidly, and my heart rate had sped up so much that I could barely breathe. Plus I did start to feel a little bit nauseous.

"Don't stress about it. It's really not too big of a deal if you win or not. People make it a big deal when they get all the glory and attention from winning, but it means nothing." he shrugged.

"I'm not stressing. I'm just trying to relax." I said, while digging through my bag for my other shin guard.

He stood behind me.
"You'll play fine."

"Thank you." I responded.

"So how many goals are you gonna score?" he asked out of nowhere.

How the hell do you expect me to know?
Just go away.

"I don't know." I muttered carelessly while tying up my cleats. "But I have to go warm up."

I ran onto the field and started passing with Mia for about 3 minutes before we both got bored and started doing headers back and forth. After that, we took a few shots in the goal and did our team stretches.

Once we went into the team huddle, my stomach really started to churn. My knees felt weak as I jogged onto the field with hundreds of people watching me in the stadium.

The game started, and I was immediately clouded out by random thoughts that were distracting me.

I kept thinking about home for some reason, and being in my room, since I've been a little homesick lately even though we've only been gone for a few days.

The thought kept me from moving with the ball smoothly, and I ended up passing to other people more than dribbling, which isn't that horrible, except for the fact that I could be making tons of action right now, and probably scoring.

The only problem was the other team. They were good. Like, really good. Their competitiveness was obvious, because they were outrunning us and outplaying us.

I dribbled the ball close to the goal, trying to score, but a girl from the other team got ahold of it when I passed it to Esmo, who was in a better scoring position than me.

"Shit." I muttered, as she took off to the other side of the field.

Mia needed to get ready. The ball was coming straight for her.

I saw her as she ran into the girl with full force, and it knocked her over completely. It was not what I was expecting, but I guess it did the trick.

She took the ball and passed it to Jasmine, our left midfielder. She dribbled as much as she could before another girl was on her.