Chasing Charlie

Chapter Seventeen | Soccer Games and Friendship Battles

Charlie

Once May started, soccer practise became intense. The first practise we had was just before the exams in April, so it was a while ago. In the holidays, I did go to the park and I did play a few games with the boys, but it wasn't the same as a training session.

Coach West was torturing us, with the amount of training we were doing for the opening game of the season. It was scheduled for the 10th of May, a Saturday, which was unusual to me since in Newcastle our school soccer games were played during school hours.

I remember one training session asking Joseph why.

"We're pretty big on soccer here, down in Sydney. Lots of people come to our games, especially when it gets closer to the grand finale. You should've seen it last year, nearly the whole neighbourhood came to watch our game. Of course we won, so yeah, it's pretty big around here."

When Saturday came around, I was pumped for the first game. It had been a while since I had played an official game, not one just for fun. I woke up early to eat a proper breakfast and get all my stuff ready. The game was scheduled to start at noon and I didn't want to be late.

I had gotten the school jersey, a black and white jersey, with 'Parker' spelled across the back on top of my lucky number 7. We were told to wear white knee-length socks to cover our shin pads and to match the uniform. I also threw my soccer boots into the bag, along with my socks and shin pads. I put the uniform on, it being a size larger than my body and tied my hair up into a ponytail.

I went downstairs, passing the white door, but stopping in mid-step. I turned around and slowly opened the white door. I peeked my head inside to see Chase still sleeping peacefully.

"Psst, hey," I whispered.

He turned away, towards the wall and continued to sleep.

"Chase, do you wanna come to the game?" I asked.

He turned around straight away and opened his eyes. "What? Are you kidding?"

"No, but looks like you don't want to," I looked away.

"No shit. I want to be friends with you but I'm no way in hell going to the school game, not this one, not any in the future. I don't want a repeat of what happened at the swimming carnival. Look, I know friends are meant to support each other but I'm sorry Charlie, I'm not ever gonna go to your games."

The slight happiness that was once in me had now disappeared. I left the room without another word and went out the door. I walked to school alone, wanting to have at least a few minutes to myself.

Joseph had offered to take me, even bribing me with food, but I refused. Even if Darcy knew and so did Chase, I couldn't risk the thought of another person finding out. I wouldn't be able to handle school if everyone found out. The sadness would swallow and envelope me, even worse than it has now.

I arrived at school a few minutes past 10:30 and headed straight towards the change rooms. A few of the cheerleaders were in there, bitching about who knows what, when I walked in. They turned to look at me but went back to their previous conversation a second later. Not wanting to be in there for too long, I quickly put on my shin pads, socks and boots and got out onto the field where most of the team was already practising a few drills.

I greeted the guys and joined them.

____

We easily won the game, 3-0. The opposing team weren't working together as well as we were and there were many opportunities to score and pass. I did score a goal, and everyone was celebrating. Our next game would be in two weeks, and it would be a harder team.