For the Love of the Game

Eryn eyed the ball with intensity. The other girl across from her only focused on the goal, staring straight through her. With one final shot, the ball shot through the air and Eryn saw Bridgette gasp, rolling her eyes from Eryn, to the ball, and back to Eryn, from three feet away. Eryn suddenly jumped into the air and wrapped the ball into her stomach. On the ground, everything seemed quiet. She surveyed the crowd for a moment or two and, ball in hand, showed the crowd the proof of the catch. The crowd exploded with excitement. Those on her side that is. The pleasing eyes of victory smiled down on her from the bleachers and the mothers beamed with joy. They had won. Finally, Eryn felt, she could be reassured of her position on the college freshman team. She still had not decided where she wanted to go, but knowing how many talent scouts had attended today, she knew she had a great chance that one of them would accept her. She stood up as her mother Catherine ran over to her, jumping up with joy.

“Eryn that was fantastic!” she screamed. The rest of the team ran over to her and someone lifted her up from the ground, placing her on their shoulders.

“Eryn, Eryn, Eryn!” the team and crowd chanted. Eryn beamed down at them.

“Wake up Eryn!” someone cried. Eryn glanced around at the smiling crowd, trying to find the source.

“WAKE UP ERYN!” she heard again. Suddenly, the faces of the team stared fading, and soon no one was recognizable. The grass melted away into darkness and she could no longer smell the familiar scent of sweat from the crowd. Everything became pitch black and Eryn understood that it was just a dream.

“Eryn, Eryn!” she heard again. She recognized the voice of her younger sister Allison and opened her eyes slowly. There, standing in front of her, were her two younger twin sisters, Allison and Victoria. They both wore the same thing every day and Eryn honestly found it a little creepy. They both had blonde curls and looked too much like their father Sam for Eryn’s taste. After Eryn’s own father passed away, her mother remarried and had the twins. To everyone’s dismay, after the divorce, Sam left all three girls and ex-wife with hardly anything. He barely even saw his own children anymore.

“Mom said to get up, you’re going to make us late again,” whined Victoria. She had always been the whiny one, and Eryn laughed at the little clip on the side of her hair that dangled, about to drop.

“I’m up, I’m up. Don’t worry. Hey, let me fix that,” she said, removing the covers and sitting up to reattach the clip.

“After mom does your hair, you guys can’t run around and mess it up again okay?” and the twins grabbed hands and let the room giggling and skipping.

Eryn sat on the bed another minute and sighed. She had a big day coming up, and she wasn’t going to let anything get in her way of winning the championships Friday. Soccer was everything to her, and the scholarship she was determined to get would be her only chance of ever paying for college. She quickly made her bed and dressed in shorts and a tank top. She walked over to her flashing laptop on the desk and quickly printed out a memo her coach had sent out.

“Knock, knock,” the door opened and her friend Bridgette walked in. Her highlighted, long, blonde hair was put up in curls and she smoothed her mini skirt. She was a little short, but what she lacked in height, she made up in personality. She placed her back pack on the ground and jumped on the bed.

“What’s up girly?” she giggled. Eryn turned off the laptop and swung the chair around to face the bed.

“More like, what are you doing here?” she replied. Bridgette sat up and took her phone from her pocket, furiously texting someone.

“Mom had to go to work early this morning, so she dropped me off here. I’ll just get a ride with you guys, that okay?”

Eryn nodded and sat next to Bridgette on the bed.

“Who are you texting?”

Bridgette sighed and faced her.

“Okay, don’t be mad at me. Someone gave Elliot my number so he’s been texting me, like non stop. But I swear we haven’t done anything. I don’t even like him. To be honest, he is kind of annoying. But totally cute for you,”

Eryn laughed and leaned back on the head rest.

“It’s okay. It’s not like he’s my boyfriend or anything. It’s fine. I mean, he’s Mr. Hyland’s son anyways, that would be a little weird,”

“Why?” Bridgette whined, “Mr. Hyland is only our soccer coach. He’s not like an uncle or anything. You guys are so cute together.”

“We had one fling,” Eryn interjected, “and everyone knows he has his eyes on you now. It’s fine. You can date or talk to him all you want.”

“Speaking of cute guys, have you seen Daniel Fisher lately? He is so cute.”

“Ehh, first of all, gross, second, still gross. What made you think of Daniel?”

“I don’t know, I see him every day in Biology. He sits right behind me. I think he is on the JV boy’s soccer team, so at least he is a jock,”

Eryn laughed and climbed off the bed to get her backpack. Bridgette followed and they walked down the stairs.

“The only guys you can call jocks are the football players.”

“That’s not true,” she shouted, “soccer players are jocks.”

“You are so hooked on boys,” Eryn laughed, “you need to get your head in the game if we’re going to win on Friday.”

They reached the bottom of the stairs and Catherine and the twins waited at the door, putting on their coats.

“Hey,” Bridgette sighed, “at least I don’t have a boyfriend. Do you know how many boys have asked me? I don’t know how long I can keep this up,” and they both laughed.