The Healing Powers of Soccer

Chapter 3

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnng.

Ugh, the first bell on Friday. "Seven more hours," I whispered to myself. "Then you can go to practice, and go home and sleep, and tomorrow, there's a game."

"Uhhhhh... are you talking to herself?" I heard a voice say behind me. I quickly snapped around to see Charlie, one of my teammates.

"I was just thinking about the game tomorrow," I said and Charlie looked convinced.

"We're gonna crush it!" She said, walking away.

*****

At lunch, I hurried to our usual table to find Chloe sitting there with two other people who I didn't know.

"Hey Ava, this is Kassidy and Natalie. They're my backup singers."

"Hey Kassidy, hey Natalie. It's nice to meet you" I said, trying to sound sincere.

"Aw, Chlo has told us so much about you," said Natalie, swishing her dark ponytail, which outlined her beautiful dark skin.

"Well, she's told me just about nothing about you guys," I said.

"You're right Chloe, babe, she is super cute," said Kassidy, looking up bashfully at me through her dirty blonde bangs.

How dare they call me cute. I could beat her up if I wanted to. Now that wouldn't be so cute, would it? I thought to myself.

After a few minutes of their insufferable talk I finally said, "Um, Chloe, can I talk to you?" trying hard to mask my frustration that my best friend had brought two random strangers to our lunch table without my permission. I moved my head the smallest bit in the direction away from our table, and Chloe understood I didn't want to talk in front of her perfect little backup singers, with their perfect voices and perfect ponytails.

"Hey A, what's the matter?" she asked, actually looking compassionate, for once.

"Why don't you ask Natalie and Kassidy?" I asked my annoyance finally showing through my voice.

"Wait, are you mad about this?" Chloe asked in shock.

"It's just kind of annoying. Couldn't you have texted me and at least asked?" I said ashamed of how jealous I was feeling.

"Well you're always with your soccer friends and you bring them to our table all the time," Said Chlo.

"Yeah, but that's different. We've all known each other forever. And you like them. But you bringing people I don't even know to our table at lunch is really annoying."

"Oh my god, you don't want me to have any friends besides you. Why does everything have to revolve around you? I let you hang out with whoever you want."

"I hate you," I said.

"I HATE YOU MORE," Chloe retorted.

"Of course, because everything has to be a competition for you," I said quietly and stormed away.

"Ava, you're not being fair!" she called after me.

"I don't care," I said without looking back.

Chloe and I rarely fought, so when we did it was always a huge deal.

I was so upset with Chloe that in PE when we were given 15 minutes of free time, I didn't rush to the soccer fields with the rest of my teammates, I simply sat down on a bench and stayed there until class was over.

I was so relieved when the final bell of the day rang until I realized that I had practice. I just wanted to go home, but no I had to go to soccer and do homework on a Friday night.

That night at practice I didn't put in hardly any effort. Coach Brian noticed and pulled me aside halfway through practice.

"Bad day?" he asked in an understanding voice.

"The worst," I answered, not wanting to go over it with my soccer coach.

"How about you run seven laps around the field?" he asked.

"Sure," I said.

For some people running laps would be a punishment, but I enjoyed, even more than playing soccer at the moment.

When I was done running Coach Brian suggested I go home and get a good night's sleep even though practice was still going, and that's what I did.