by Nicole Shay
The keeper stared at Ornella for a long moment. They’d never fought ever, and it was taking a moment to process for both of them. “Take me home, Nella,” she finally said.
Ornella clenched her jaw as she started the car again. She wanted to cry but stopped herself knowing it wouldn’t help anything. The two sat in silence the whole ride back to Elaine’s house. Both girls undoubtedly stuck in their own thoughts to say anything more.
How can she blame me for not telling her? This is bullshit. Ornella thought as she pulled in front of Elaine’s house.
Elaine looked at Ornella as she undid her seatbelt. “You know what? Maybe we just need a break.”
Ornella finally was able to bring herself to look at Elaine as the girl let the words out.
“Maybe we do.” She said as she unlocked the door for Elaine to get out.
Elaine’s jaw set. She was hoping Ornella would argue and make them figure it out. She was wrong. “Good luck tomorrow,” she nodded, opening the passenger’s door and getting out.
Ornella pulled away as soon as Elaine got out. She didn’t get far though before she had to stop and finally let herself cry. “Stupid, Ornella!, Stupid, stupid, stupid” She cried aloud as she hit her steering wheel.
CHAPTER 8
After her afternoon with Imogen, Olivia was able to get some rest and was actually very refreshed the next morning. She knew there was no turning back now. There was going to be a victor at the end of the game, and it either had to be her or Imogen. It was her job to make sure that victory was on her side.
Everyone was shuffling around in the locker room. Ten minutes before the game was enough to send the energy around the room and to everyone. Well, that was everyone but Elaine. Olivia noticed the keeper was much quieter than usual, keeping to herself throughout warm ups and in the locker room, even as the game was rapidly approaching.
Slowly, Olivia walked up to her after doing her visualizations. “Elaine? You okay?”
Elaine didn’t need to turn around to know it was Olivia. Yesterday’s reality was still settling in. Her captain was with their rival captain and she broke up with her girlfriend. “I’m just getting ready for the game,” she stated, trying to get Olivia off her back. She was still angry about yesterday.
“You’re never this quiet,” Olivia pointed out, crossing her arms. “Come on, Elaine. Talk to me.”
At the words coming out of Olivia’s mouth, the keeper’s steel eyes met ocean-blue as she turned to face the forward. “Talk to you?” She scoffed, rolling her eyes.
The younger girl looked confused and kind of freaked out at Elaine’s sudden bitch attitude. Olivia couldn’t think of anything she’d done wrong lately. “Yeah...why wouldn’t you? We always talk to each other.”
“Hey Olivia,” Elaine started, bitterness coming from her words. “How exactly did you know Allie Long was going to be at the club last weekend?”
Panic began to set into Olivia. She never had a plan for explaining this. She thought it was all over. “Um…Well, I had a source tell me that’s where she was going to be…” Olivia said, stuttering a little as she tried to find the right cover up.
“Oh,” Elaine nodded like she understood. “Sources as in other people, right? Like your girlfriend?” she glared.
Olivia’s jaw dropped, she looked around. Thankfully no one was listening to them. “Like my what?” Olivia asked, looking at Elaine.
“You know,” the older girl went on, watching Olivia squirm. She knew the girl was uncomfortable but she wasn’t ready to let her off the hook. “Your girlfriend. Imogen Sloane? Captain of the rival team? The one we’re playing today?”
Olivia immediately sat down next to Elaine, grabbing her arm. “Shh!” she shushed, hoping no one would try to listen in. “How did you know?”
Elaine wriggled off Olivia’s hand, shooting her a look. “Making out in the middle of a park, really?”
Olivia looked down guiltily. “Oh,” she mumbled.
“Seriously, Olivia?” Elaine asked, chastising the girl. “You know better than that! And how could you not tell me? I get why you didn’t tell everyone else, even Maeve. But me?”
“Because you’d act worse than this!” Olivia explained, sighing. “You’d hate me, Elaine. You probably hate me now.”
“I don’t hate you,” Elaine said quickly. “but I don’t think you understand how angry I am at you. You’re so lucky we have this game for me to let my anger out or else you’d totally get it, McBray.”
Olivia bit her lip, knowing Elaine was definitely going to be going hard on the field. “I’m sorry, Elaine.”
“Sorry doesn’t fix things,” Elaine glared at her.
It was wrong of her to do, but she was also mad at Olivia because indirectly, she caused her break up with Ornella. And now Elaine had to see Ornella today on a field for at least 90 minutes and pretend nothing was wrong.
“I know,” the striker mumbled, then looked up. “Wait,” she said slowly. “How did you see us at the park? That’s on the completely opposite side of town.”
Elaine got up, steel blue eyes piercing into Olivia. “You’re not the only one with sources,” she spat before stomping away.
Olivia was left confused. “What does that mean…?”
“Ladies, let’s go!” Coach called for them to circle up.
Thoughts of anything but soccer were pushed to the back of everyone’s mind, especially Olivia and Elaine. They listened for the starting eleven and special instructions for each player. Once all was said and done, everyone’s eyes turned to Olivia.
“Look,” Olivia started, knowing this was possibly the most important thing the girls were going to need before they went out there. “It’s been a rough week for a lot of us. I don’t think I’ve ever seen us practice as hard as we did this week. Use everything you’ve learned today. Willow, I need you anticipating moves. Maeve, I need you beating out their defenders and their keeper - no smart ass comments,” she warned, knowing very well that Chloe was going into that goal.
“Yes ma’am,” Maeve mumbled.
“Watch out for a few of their players, they get rough,” Olivia said, remembering Allie’s wrath and the way the girl pushed her. “but by no means does that mean you start talking to them. I don’t want any fights anymore. I want us to win because of the way we play, not because some gets into a fight and someone else throws a punch.”
A few mutters of agreement were made, so Olivia continued.
“We can do this guys. We haven’t been working our asses off for nothing. Keep yourself in the game at all times. No distractions today. This game is ours and I know it. We move as a team,” she stated firmly. “Today’s make or break and I swear we’re going to make it. As your captain, I’m going to do my best out there to make sure we bring home a win. All or nothing. No holding back,” she finished, looking at each girl in the locker room.
“So are we going to kick ass or what?” Kerrie smirked.
Olivia laughed. “Hands in, ladies.”
As they chanted, Olivia couldn’t shake the feeling of Elaine’s eyes burning into her skin. It was going to be a long game.
Imogen was feeling great as she got up the next day. She was falling for Olivia more and more every time she was with her. It was a hard fact to live with, especially on that specific day, game day. She knew as soon as she stepped onto that field, Olivia and her were nothing more than opponents. She forced her thoughts of the blue eyed striker into the back of her head as she walked into the locker room to hear the pump up music already blasting.
“Game day baby!” Allie shouted from across the way.
Imogen’s smile grew wide “Game day!” She repeated as she made her way over to her locker to change.
Everyone was clearly hyped up for the game, that was everyone but one. Imogen ran up to her best friend as warm ups concluded.
“Hey Nella, What’s up? Is everything alright?” Imogen inquired.
“I’m fine, stressed about the game is all.”
Ornella said solemnly.
“It’ll be fine, we’re more than prepared for this, you know that!” Imogen cheerfully said hoping to get her friend’s energy up.
Ornella forced out a small smile “Yeah you’re right Imogen.” The smile faded as she noticed Elaine walking in the opposite direction to her bench. The two made awkward eye contact before quickly turning to look somewhere else, anywhere else.
Imogen jumped up on the locker room bench for her usual pre-game chat which for her was usually no longer than a sentence or two. Everyone knew though that this speech was going to be different. Imogen took a few long looks at her team around her and took a deep breath.
“We made it. We made it through this season so far, we made it this past week, we made it to this moment, and we’re going to make it through this game. And we made it together. That’s what’s important. We’re not just one goal, not just one pass or one save. Whether we win or we lose, it’ll be because of a collective effort. Forget the rivalry, forget the drama, we can win this, but we don’t need that other stuff to do it. Together.” Imogen said as she got down and put her hand in the middle of the room. ‘Together’ everyone else said as they joined their hands in the middle with their captain’s.
Imogen knew that her speech, while it sounded good was just another speech. She knew that of course the rivalry would come out, the drama was surely going to be there and there was no avoiding any of that. Nonetheless she walked out with her team confident as ever as they made their way to their bench on the sidelines. After their pep talk from their coach and a final cheer the team made their way onto the field. Imogen did her usual pre-whistle jumps and happened to make eye contact with Olivia on the last one. She gave a simple nod to signify their ‘No holding back’ promise.
The last thing Imogen heard before she seemingly had the ball at her feet and was dribbling up the field was the whistle. She didn’t even have to think about soccer, her feet had grown so accustomed to maneuvering the ball that she easily got past one defender. She saw someone approaching her fast to her right, she quickly passed the ball back to Allie who was screaming that she was open. Before Allie could move the ball much of anywhere, Justine stole it away in a tricky move. Imogen changed her direction and started to run as fast as she could towards Chloe and the defenders to gain back control. The dark haired midfielder passed it to the girl with the crazy hair who immediately crossed it in to an incoming Olivia. Imogen yelled to Britta to cover Olivia but it was too late . Olivia had gotten her foot on the ball. Imogen held her breath until she saw that Chloe has successfully deflected the threat away. Chloe sent the ball back to Allie who had space to move up the field thanks to the quick turnaround. Imogen saw opportunity and started to run ahead where no one was and called for the ball. But by the time she turned around the first foul was called. Allie was on the ground and Maeve was hovering above her.
Imogen knew this was trouble, she ran over immediately just in case.
“An accident huh?” Allie began as she moved closer to Maeve’s face.
Maeve, unable to help herself crossed her arms. “Not everyone goes around pushing people on purpose!” she shot back, still very angry at the girl from last weekend.
Olivia saw what was going on and her eyes met Imogen’s. They had to stop this before it got any worse. “Maeve!” she barked. “Get up top!”
“Walk away Ollie” Imogen ordered as she put a hand on her teammate’s shoulder.
Imogen gained control of the ball again but this time she recognized the face charging towards her. It was Olivia who had come back to help her defensive line. It was just like yesterday in the park except it wasn’t. There was more on the line than just a kiss and in this moment Olivia was the enemy. Learning from yesterday Imogen passed the ball back to Karen without even a look. Karen anticipated this as she knew her captain’s style and tricks all too well.
Olivia knew there were pros and cons of playing pickup with her girlfriend the day before a game. Pro: she was with her girlfriend playing the sport that they both loved. Con: they learned each other’s tricks too quickly. She let out a frustrated noise when Imogen passed the ball back and watched as Hailey went in to attack Karen. Karen was already making her way down the field as Hailey cut her off, but Press was already passing to Lilith.
“Kerrie!” Olivia called out, signaling for her to begin pushing back as their opponents reached their attack third. Everyone started to push back except her and Maeve.
Willow was in the sweeper’s position, listening to Elaine yelling instructions at her. But she tuned out as soon as Lilith, given too much space, was rapidly approaching. Without thinking, Willow charged towards her. Lilith tried to fake her out towards the left, but was stopped short when Willow came in for tackle and took the ball away from Lilith. She quickly took to her feet and passed the ball to Kerrie, who caught the ball at ease and began taking it forward and out wide. Looking up, she crossed the ball to Justine on the other side of the field. An on rushing Britta was coming towards Justine, so seeing no other choice, she headed it towards Maeve, who took too soon to take a shot and it went out wide past the goal.
“Dammit!” Maeve groaned.
“Hey, focus,” Olivia said. “Take a little more time on that one.”
“I know.”
And it was only getting tougher from there.
Imogen motioned for the freshman, Dunn, to keep on Thenard. Although the girl’s small stature and lack of experience was proving to be a disadvantage, and Bel, a senior was injured, Imogen knew the rookie was more than capable. The midfielder knew that time was running out until halftime and she would have liked to get at least one goal going into the second half. Allie gained possession of the ball and started running up the midfield. Imogen called out on the far left but before she could receive the ball, it was already stolen again. She turned and sighed as she saw Thenard racing up the field again towards Chloe.
Come on Cara she accidentally said aloud as if motivating the young defender from across the field. In a perfect slide tackle, Cara regained control and quickly sent the ball up to an open Lilith. Lilith dribbled around Kerrie and successfully tricked Hailey tripping the girl up. She saw Justine and Maeve charging towards her prompting a quick pass through them up to Karen. The forward sped past the remaining defender to go 1v1 with Strongman. Seeing an opening Karen shot upper right corner but Elaine read her perfectly and made a diving save. The striker fell to her knees in frustration.
Only seconds after the ball was put into play again, the whistle blew to signal half time. Both teams were frustrated in not succeeding to put at least one in the back of the net throughout the whole 45 minutes. The players slowly jogged to the sidelines, collecting water before going into their respective locker rooms. Maeve was waking from the halfway line when Kerrie jogged over to her, tugging her arm.
“What?” Maeve asked, furrowing her eyebrows because Kerrie had a serious look on her face similar to the one she’d had just before the first whistle blew.
“Don’t look,” Kerrie instructed carefully, trying to keep her voice low enough for only Maeve’s ears. “but Julio’s here.”
“Huh? I couldn’t hear you,” Maeve said. “Speak up!”
The blonde groaned, rolling her eyes. “I said,” she repeated, just a little louder, still hoping no one heard. “Julio is here.”
Maeve’s eyes widened, and of course, she took a look in the stands. There was Julio, perched up and looking down at all of them with a couple of friends. “Holy shit,” she mumbled, absentmindedly following her friend to the locker room.
Ornella walked slowly by the opponent’s bench as she made her way into her locker room. She’d be lying to herself if she didn’t think that she wanted to hear Elaine’s voice. She wasn’t eavesdropping but she also wasn’t passively not listening to the conversations as she walked by. Most were of frustration and anger , Ornella figured they were not worth listening to, until she heard a familiar name. Julio? She mouthed as she turne
d to see Thenard and Kerrie discreetly pointing to someone in the stands. She looked to see the one face that shouldn’t be at the game.
Imogen didn’t feel bad about the first half, but she certainly didn’t feel good either. For the most part she had avoided interaction with Olivia, and there were no major scuffles between teams yet. She prayed it would stay that way.
“Imogen!” She heard Ornella yell from behind her.
Panting and out of breath the squirrel tried to find her words.
“I-I- Just saw-you won’t believe who’s here!”
“Who?” Imogen asked suddenly growing more and more nervous.
“Him”
“God is always around Nella!” Imogen laughed hoping the girl’s sudden seriousness was just a joke.
“No, Julio!” Ornella hissed making more noise than she wanted.
Imogen’s eyes grew wide at the name. “Oh my god” she muttered stopping in front of the locker room.
“No telling Allie or Chloe or anyone else, okay? This is between us..” Imogen stated as she grabbed her friend by the shoulders.
Ornella nodded in understanding knowing how potentially bad things could get if anyone else knew he was there.
The two walked into the locker room to find it dead quiet.
“You know the walls are thin around here, right?” Chloe said with an expression of duh written all over her face.
Imogen gulped as she turned to Allie who was already turning red from the anger boiling inside of her.
“Ollie….Don’t even think about it okay? Just pretend he’s not here” Imogen said attempting to take preventative action.
Allie smirked as everyone held their breaths.
She took a big breath “You’re right, I’m fine, really, I could care less.”
“Good” Imogen said at the same time as Chloe spoke out “Really?”
She shot the girl a warning look of ‘don’t even go there’ before turning the conversation back to the first half and what to look for in the second.
