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22.

“Do you have another hardcore pre-game speech for us today?”  Jacque asked as we were getting onto the bus to go to Hilton for our sectionals game.

            I rolled my eyes.  “What do you think?”

            She laughed, “Yeah, I’m guessing there are more ‘fucks’ in it than non-curses.”

            I shrugged my shoulders, grinning along with her.  “You’re not wrong.  Where’s Tess?   I didn’t see her in school today.”

            Jacque’s face darkened slightly.  “She didn’t tell you?  She’s got mono and she won’t be in school for another month or something like that.”

            I groaned, slapping my palm to my forehead.  And just like that our already slim chances of winning got slimmer.  “Not to be so negative, but shit.”

            “When are you ever positive?”  She teased, trying to lighten the mood a little bit.  “I don’t know how we’ll do today with two of our captains out.  Coach doesn’t even know Tess won’t be here I don’t think.”

            “But I’ve been out for a while, so you guys have gotten used to it without me.  Tess was one of our main scorers!”  I whined, plopping into the seat without even bothering to throw my bag in first.

            Jacque raised an eyebrow, “We’ve definitely not gotten used to it without you.  Anne took your place and we can’t even hear her yelling at us, she’s so damn quiet.”  Anne was the back-up sophomore goalie who didn’t play as much as she’d like.  She was a big girl, but quiet and not talkative on the field, which isn’t really a good thing.

            I grinned, my self-confidence boosting a little bit knowing that the team didn’t like Anne in there as much as me.  It was a little selfish, but it made me feel pretty good about myself, something that I definitely needed.  “It’ll be okay,” I told her, trying to convince us both.

            “Hey, where were you yesterday?  I tried texting you but you weren’t responding, I had a few questions about Global.”

            I winced faintly, “The diner with a friend, sorry.”

            She shrugged.  “It’s cool.  Just answer your phone next time,” laughing she elbowed me in the gut, “I don’t want to fail Global senior year, that’d just be embarrassing.”

            I smirked and shuffled the music playlist I was listening to, zoning out of Jacque’s rambling so I could think of a ‘hardcore pre-game speech’ that I told Jacque I had.

            ***

            Two minutes.

            That’s how long we had until the game started, and we’d be battling for the sectional’s slot.

            Two minutes.

            The amount of time I had left to complete the non-existent speech I was supposed to have since the beginning of the bus ride.  God, I was such a procrastinator.

            “This can go two ways,” I said to my team, finally deciding to wing the speech as I looked around the huddle at the familiar faces.  “The first way is the shitty giving up way, thinking that we don’t have a chance just because two of our starters are out.  The second way,” I said, pausing as I made eye contact with everyone before me.  “Is the kick-ass way.  Show no mercy, and take them out of the fucking game from the first two minutes through the end, not letting up.”