Becoming Somebody

Chapter 12 - "You got anywhere else to be?"

Charlie was bent over, gasping to catch her breath. If she had known there was this much running in soccer, she would have just stayed on the cross-country team.

"Let's go, let's go!" her drill instructor, oops no, the coach, yelled from the sidelines.

She straightened up and took position again as they all prepared to run another suicide drill. 'Who named these things?' she thought as she crouched down on the baseline. She looked to her left and saw that Taylor was still gasping for air from the last drill, in fact so were most of the girls on the team, so she felt a little better. Charlie noticed that the boys' soccer team was nearby. Actually, they were heading this way. Were they going to watch the girls run their drill? Oh, dear god.

"Alright girls, on three! One, two, three!" the coach yelled, blowing the whistle.

Charlie took off, running the first 25 feet, touching the ground, and running back. Then she took off again for the 50-foot mark, doing the same thing. She was starting to pull ahead of the other girls. She felt a tingling in her body that must have had something to do with the amount of oxygen she was sucking down as she ran as fast as her legs would take her. The boys had really started to crowd around now. Knowing that they were watching made her want to go even faster.

As she sprinted for the 100-foot mark, she had a decent lead on every other girl on the team. She hit it, touched the ground, and ran back at full speed. Not caring what her face looked like, she ripped across the field. She heard cheers from the sidelines as she soared back across the baseline, winning the drill. She didn't have to look over to know all the boys were applauding her.

Wanting to acknowledge the praise but not wanting to look gross, she took a second to wipe her face and catch her breath before she flipped her hair and turned around. Tony was there, smiling and clapping, along with most of the Varsity team. She smiled back, and her eyes landed on none other than Cassius. Her stomach did a little flip. She had no idea he was on the soccer team. He wasn't applauding, but he looked at her appreciatively before turning around and jogging away.

"Show off," Taylor panted, having finally finished the drill herself.

"Jackson!" the coach yelled at her. "Get over here."

She jogged over to him, "What's up Coach Dan?"

"I'm gonna make you starting Forward, got it? We need our scorers to be fast. You're quick out there," he said.

Charlie, who was still pretty new to soccer, just nodded along. "Cool, thanks Coach!"

Coach Dan was way too cute to be coaching girls' soccer at a high school. She didn't want to look stupid in front of him by asking any dumb questions, so she thought the less she said the better.

As she walked away Jessica, Miss JV soccer star and assumed Team Captain, shot her a death glare. It was clear she overheard Coach Dan compliment Charlie.

"It's not just about speed out there, you know," Jessica nearly spat at her.

"No, but it seems pretty damn important," Charlie shot back.

"Just don't mess up your footwork when it's time to actually score a goal," Jessica warned her before walking away.

Her words created a knot of anxiety in Charlie's chest. She wasn't that good with a soccer ball yet. Any confidence she had just gained from winning the drill immediately disappeared.

Coach Dan told them they all did good today, next practice was tomorrow, and sent them on their way. Charlie went to go grab her bag and saw that Tony and some of the Varsity boys were still hanging around.

"Hey," Tony nodded to her when she got closer, waving goodbye to his teammates.

"Hey," she said back nonchalantly.

Ever since Tony caught her making out with Nick at her locker, he had toned down his flirting. Charlie knew it was for the best, but she still got a little jealous when he took Megan Johnson to Homecoming. It seemed like the two just went as friends, which made her feel a little better. But either way that wasn't any of her business.

"Good job out there today, you're really fast," he complimented her.

She smiled, "Thanks. Coach Dan just made me starting Forward."

"Nice!" he grinned. "I bet you'll score a lot out there."

"Yeah," she said unenthusiastically.

He noticed her change in tone. "Uh oh, what's wrong?"

"It's just, Jessica made a pretty good point, and even though she was rude, she was right. I might not be great at handling the ball. I don't want to mess it up when it comes time to score, you know?" she shrugged.

He smiled again and dropped the ball he was holding between them. "Well come on then, let me help you with that."

She looked down at the ball then up at him. "What like right now?"

"You got anywhere else to be?"

Charlie thought about going home to her house, where god knows how her family would be acting today. She thought about her homework and upcoming tests, and how she could push off studying till later tonight.

"No, I don't have anywhere else to be."

The only person she didn't think of was her boyfriend, Nick.

**Plot twist coming next chapter! Xx