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Deja Vu

Nick and I arrived at the game while the girls were warming up. We walked over to the bleachers and sat down near the bottom, just in case something went wrong. Jade didn't come on until about five minutes after because she was testing and telling Ms. Wright what her sugar was. I smiled at her. Such a good girl my Jaden was.

About ten minutes later the referee blew the whistle calling captains. That was my Jaden! I was so proud of her. They had announced the captain last week while she was in the hospital so she couldn't celebrate with her team, but she said that she didn't care. She was still happy nonetheless.

Jade won the coin toss and picked her side. The ref wished both teams good luck and shook their hands.

Jade was on first and took her place as Striker. As the game started, I watched as the other team carried up the ball and passed it up the field. They shot it straight to one of our defence. She carried it up about ten feet before passing it up to a mid field. The mid field carried it past center, and then passed it to a left forward, just before the net, the forward passed it to Jade. Jade shot it and it was deflected by the goalie. She ran over to the right, trying to get a grip on the rebound. A girl from the other team pulled Jade's jersey so she couldn't get the ball. The ref blew his whistle calling 'holding.' Jade got a penalty kick.

"C'mon Jade! You got this girl!" I cheered. She turned back at me and smiled. She gave me two thumbs up before the ref blew his whistle again signalling that Jade could take the kick. I watched as she stepped a few paces backwards, took a deep breath, judged her shot and then proceeded to run at the ball. She shot the ball into the top right corner of the net, just passed the goalie's outstretched glove.

"YES JADE! That's my girl!!!!" I shouted.

"Great job Jade!!! Killer shot pal!!!!" Nick shouted.

I turned to him and smiled. He looked at me and pulled me close to him. I grinned. "That's our baby," I said.

He kissed me on the cheek and we continued to watch as Jade came off the field and was replaced with another girl. She high-fived her teammates on the bench and Ms. Wright hugged her. I saw her pass a play by Jade and watched as she gave her approval. Ms. Wright then motioned towards Jaden's test kit. Jade slowly made her way over to it and tested her blood. I really wanted to know what it was so I texted Jade:

To: Baby Bear🐻
Hey great goal!! 👍 What's your sugar?

She picked up her phone and looked at it. She looked up at Nick and I and shot me her 'Really, Momma?' Look. I shot back my 'Love you' look. She rolled her eyes and replied:

To: Momma💜👭
Thanks! 😘 And I'm at 157 😉

I read it and smiled.

To: Baby Bear🐻
Good girl Now drink some water and sit down 😌 Get your energy back so you can score some more goals and make your Momma proud 😘

She looked up at me and shot her 'Seriously?' look. Then responded:

To: Momma💜👭
I'll see what I can do😘

I looked at my phone and smiled. I gushed over Jade to Nick while she sat on the bench and talked with her teammates. They were laughing and joking with one another as they usually did. This was a huge sense of relief for me. I was so happy to see that they were treating Jade well and that she and I had been worrying for no reason.

After about ten minutes, Ms. Wright called the girls over so that they could change up at the next whistle. The ball went out-of-bounds and the linesman called a throw-in for the other team. Jade and the other girls ran onto the field and took their positions. The player took the throw-in and her player received the ball. They sprinted to our net with the ball and I watched as Jade chased after her all the way past center towards our net. Just before the 18 yard box, Jade slide kicked the ball away from the girl and made her way up the field.