The Heart of the Stars

by Nicole Shay

  Olivia leaned against the lockers, eyes wandering around her teammates. Some looked tired, others were frustrated, yet others looked between Olivia and their coach. Maeve and Kerrie were the last to walk in, and with one look Olivia knew something was up. They shuffled in and sat on the space left on the bench, looking at Olivia with a worried gaze.

  Olivia raised an eyebrow. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on or are we going to play that game where we hide things?”

  Everyone turned to Maeve and Kerrie, who looked at each other, then back at Olivia unsure if they should share the news.

  “Well…”

  “The longer you take, the guiltier you look,” Olivia pointed out.

  “And the more time we waste when we could be spending it re-grouping and talking new strategies,” Elaine butted in, looking very unamused.

  “Just tell her,” Kerrie mumbled, biting her lip.

  Maeve sighed, looking at Olivia with her lips hesitating before they let words come out. “...Julio’s here.”

  Olivia blinked. “What?”

  Elaine’s posture immediately tensed. “Why?”

  “We don’t know,” Kerrie admitted. “I just noticed him at the end of half.”

  “I wonder if blondie’s seen her…” Maeve mused.

  It took Olivia a moment, but she found her composure again and shook her head. “No. No thinking about Julio. No thinking about Allie Long. We need to focus and figure out how we can win this game. We’re here for soccer, not a drama.”

  “Oh this is a drama alright,” Elaine mumbled under her breath, but fortunately no one heard her. Instead, they listened as their coach took over, telling them what to fix and how to get more shots on goal.

  Imogen watched Allie and Chloe carefully as they walked back out to the field. She knew those two were the most prone to start trouble but much to her surprise neither bothered to look for Julio. Maybe it will be alright after all she thought as she awaited for the whistle to blow and for the game to resume.

  Clearly, both teams had an even bigger fire lit beneath them as both went back and forth with control of the ball not making it out of the midfield for the most part. It was the 55th minute and Allie had the ball at her feet. In a familiar scenario, defenders started to make their way to block her path but this time was different. This time Maeve came back in a frustrated sprint to gain back control. Allie smirked as she saw the determined look on the girl’s face. In a cheeky move she quickly swerved to the left keeping her foot in place to trip the rival forward. The girl fell on her face scratching her cheek causing it to bleed a little. Hearing the whistle Allie stopped and turned as she also heard the accusatory cries of Maeve.

  “Oh no” Imogen said as she saw Olivia start to make her way over between the two.

  By the time she made it over Allie was already yelling and the ref was getting angrier.

  “Yeah, How does it feel Thenard?” Allie shouted challenging the striker.

  “Pretty low of you, Long!” Maeve shot back.

  Olivia stopped herself from glaring at Allie and knelt down to Maeve, who was sitting up and holding her cheek. “How bad is it?”

  Maeve shrugged. “I’ll live.”

  Olivia sighed. “Come on, they want you on the sidelines while you get a band aid.”

  “I can play!” Maeve argued.

  “Come on Maeve,” Olivia frowned. “It’s only going to be for like seconds.”

  “Fine,” Maeve mumbled, getting up and making her way to the trainers waiting, but not before shooting one last glare at Allie.

  As Maeve was getting bandaged up Imogen ran up to Allie after the ref issued a yellow card to her. She didn’t even bother arguing because she knew it was a cheap foul but she did it anyways.

  “Clean it up Ollie, I don’t want to see something like that again” Imogen warned.

  “What’s with you?” Allie challenged back.

  “Another play like that and you’re going to get kicked out of the game. I’m not the biggest fan of Thenard either but keep it together okay?” Imogen finished as she patted her teammate on the back. She suddenly looked up to see Olivia staring at her. She heard her.

  Olivia was just giving Justine a couple of instructions as Hailey prepared to take the free kick. Her ears perked up when she realized she could hear Imogen’s voice from where she stood, but when she processed the words her lips turned down into a frown. She couldn’t help but stare at her girlfriend. Maeve could be a handful at times, but she was still Olivia’s best friend and Imogen knew that.

  Imogen felt shitty as soon as she met Olivia’s gaze. As much as everything told her to go and apologize, she just nodded to the forward and continued on her way.

  Olivia let out a deep breath as Imogen walked away to most likely mark one of Olivia’s teammates. She shook her head, trying to focus and quickly ran up to be even with the last defender. The whistle blew and Hailey’s foot hit the ball, beginning the game again. Olivia knew the ball wasn’t hitting the ground anytime soon, so she raced after it, trying to get a good head on it to send it into goal. She was successful in heading it towards the goal, but it fell straight into the arms of Chloe.

  “Dammit,” Olivia muttered, shaking her head as she slowly jogged backwards.

  Imogen knew the ball was trouble as soon as she saw Olivia flying through the air to try and head it. She felt a bead of sweat trickle down her temple as the pressure to score a goal was increasing as the minutes ticked down. Whenever she gained possession of the ball she did everything she could to get the ball into scoring position. It wasn’t enough though as all efforts found their way into the hands of Elaine Strongman.

  The minutes were slipping by, but neither team was giving up as they pushed to hit the ball into the back of the net. Finishing wasn’t enough, lucky shots or hits weren’t happening and everyone on both teams was growing more frustrated. As Elaine placed the ball down for a goal kick, Olivia took a look at her teammates on the field. They’d used one sub and she could see the exhaust wearing on everyone, but she could also see the fire in their eyes. They wanted to finish it off with a win; they needed to. She tried her best to avoid Imogen, unsure what would happen if she let herself naturally gravitate toward the captain. This wasn’t a time to think about her girlfriend.

  Elaine waved her hands, signaling that everyone needed to move up - meaning defenders stood at the half. Olivia did as she was told, making sure she wasn’t offsides. Elaine first locked eyes with Hailey then Olivia, and all three knew what was about to happen. Slowly backing up, Elaine took a breath before launching the ball into the air, placing it perfectly at Hailey’s feet. The quick and skilled midfielder dribbled around a defender while Olivia immediately found open space on the opposite side of the field.

  “Hey!” she cried out, knowing no one was on her and by the team they’d realize where she was, she’d be ready to outrun them with the ball.

  The blonde looked up for only a second, then tapped the ball a few inches in front of her. As soon as her ball hit the foot, it was sailing into the air and Olivia was readying to trap it with the inside of her foot. Adrenaline rushed through her because she knew exactly where it was going. What she didn’t see was an oncoming midfielder trying to recover. The ball found Olivia’s foot just like it would and before Olivia could take an extra touch and shoot, Allie Long came barreling in. Olivia yelped out in pain, immediately falling to the ground and clutching her left foot, her shooting foot.

  Imogen was on her way before Elaine even kicked the ball. She knew that all it took was the right touch from Hailey to Olivia for there to be another threat. She rushed to cover Hailey when she heard Olivia’s voice shouting for the ball. Before she could find the ball again it was soaring through the air towards Olivia’s left foot. She knew Olivia couldn’t see her but before she could let out a cry, a warning, even a breath Allie, smashed into her girlfriend. Imogen immediately knew it was going to be serious by the sheer force that Allie barreled into Olivia w
ith. That seriousness was reinforced as Olivia’s cry pierced Imogen’s ears causing her legs to go weak at the thought of her girl hurt. Everything in her body told her to rush to Olivia, but something stopped her. She was frozen. She looked at Allie arguing with the ref, the red card being thrust into the air, and then back to Olivia who was holding her left foot as she cried out in pain. Should she defend Allie and try and keep her on the field? Or should she follow her instincts and make sure Olivia was okay? In what felt like slow motion, she couldn’t move her legs to go in either direction. Imogen knew she had to make a choice. This was the fine line.

  CHAPTER 9

  Imogen could hear her heart threatening to break right through her chest as she watched Olivia scream out in pain. She had made her choice, but before she could get one step closer to her girlfriend, the trainers rushed her to the sidelines. She was too late. She swallowed hard and clenched her jaw as she ran her hands through her hair. She felt like she could breakdown and cry at any moment herself until Ornella rushed over to her captain.

  “Imogen, are you okay?” She asked at a low whisper to make sure no one could hear the conversation.

  Imogen looked back at her friend hard. The stare told Ornella everything.

  “Sh-she’ll be alright” She reassured the girl even though she had little to no idea the damage to Olivia’s foot.

  “What if she isn’t? What if she realizes I wasn’t there in time to be with her?” Imogen hissed a little louder.

  “Shh!” Ornella immediately shushed Imogen “Do you know what would happen if the truth comes out now?”

  “I-” Before Imogen could finish her thought, the ref called to her asking if she was ready to get going again.

  “Take a swig of water and don’t worry, okay?” Ornella said as she tossed her a water bottle.

  The cool water felt good going down Imogen’s dry throat. It made her feel alive again, but not alive enough to ignore Olivia’s pleas to stay on the sideline. All she wanted was to run over and beg her to go to the hospital now, to not wait, but she knew there would be no convincing her strong-willed girlfriend anyways.

  The screams and tears and pain were nothing compared to the frustration Olivia was feeling. This was supposed to be their game. She needed to carry this team through the final whistle and she couldn’t even do that.

  “Damn her!” Olivia said, punching an equipment bag as the trainers inspected her foot.

  “Olivia calm down!” Justine chastised. “Freaking out isn’t going to make this any better!”

  “Yeah! Well I’m sitting on the sidelines and my foot is literally in so much pain that I’m pretty sure hell is better than this! Like, what the hell did she even do?”

  “Look, you’re upset and I get that,” the midfielder said softly, watching as tears continued to stream down Olivia’s face and the girl bit her lip to hold in a scream. “but this team needs to be somewhat composed. We all know you hate being on the sideline, but really we can’t risk it.”

  “She’s right,” their coach piped in. “McBray, you have to chill out or so help me God--”

  “I get it Coach,” Olivia spat, slipping off her captain’s band. “Here,” she said, tossing it to Justine. “Give it to Elaine.”

  Justine looked at her captain for a moment before patting her knee. “We’re in this for you now, Ollie.” With that she jogged off.

  Olivia sniffled, trying to hold back tears. Whatever the trainers were doing wasn’t really helping her at the moment; in fact it felt like it was making her injury worse. There was one person she needed, but to have that one person by her side was something neither of them could risk at the moment.

  But Olivia didn’t care. She was in pain, her team was on the line playing with 10 and her girlfriend was just out of reach. She turned her head to see the midfielder now getting a drink of whatever.

  “Stay,” she called out, but most people weren’t even sure who she was talking to. By the way Imogen froze, Olivia could tell she knew who it was meant for. “Please, I need you. Stay with me. I-it hurts so ba-ad,” she choked out, wiping her tears. “Please,” she whimpered when she watched Imogen cap her water bottle again. It was her last attempt to find some comfort in her living nightmare of a serious injury in the most important game.

  Olivia’s pleas weren’t convincing Imogen that she shouldn’t run over to be by the forward’s side but she knew there was more than just her and Olivia at stake this game. No holding back she thought as she remembered the unspoken promise made between her and Olivia before the game. She didn’t care anymore, she saw the pain in Olivia’s eyes and all she wanted was to fix her and make it go away the best she could. That is, until the ball reached Imogen’s feet and the girl immediately went into some focused trance once again. There were only minutes left in the game and with both teams down one player, the adrenaline was coursing through their already exhausted bodies. Successfully dribbling past one defender Imogen saw a window for herself to take a shot. She wound her body up to make the kick until she heard a cry from Olivia again sending her shot into the sky.

  Imogen heard the groans from her teammates, her coach, and the stands of support. That was her shot. That could have been the game changer. In the turnaround Justine quickly got the ball up the midfield and to the feet of Hailey. In another unsuccessful attempt by both teams, everyone let out a strained sigh. Before another attempt by either, the ref blew the whistle. Even more tension found its way into the players as they knew what was to come next. Penalty kicks.

  Imogen immediately looked over to Olivia as the whistle blew, still in pain but just as much terrified of the penalty kicks as the rest of her team.

  Through her tears, Olivia managed to watch the game, knowing her team was going even harder now that she was out and they were down to ten. Coach found no point of subbing in another player with only minutes left, so each side remained ten players. From the corner of her eyes, Olivia could see a fuming Allie Long, who still insisted that her little act shouldn’t have resulted in being ejected off the field. She continued to watch the game as the trainers worked, attempting to ease the pain. She watched as Imogen had a chance to shoot and held her breath. Part of her wanted Imogen to make it so it’d all be over, but another part of her needed Elaine to save the ball before she lost all her sanity. Just as Imogen got ready to shoot, an immense pressure was put on Olivia’s leg, causing unimaginable pain. She let out a yelp and by the way Imogen’s shot went, it was obvious Olivia was the reason it didn’t even make it on target.

  When the final whistle blew, Olivia crossed her arms. She felt sick to her stomach now. Up until this point, she was praying that either team would find a goal on their side. Now she knew penalty kicks were coming and she was freaking out. There was no way she would take one. Who would take her place as a shooter?

  The trainers were doing their finishing touches and left crutches on Olivia’s side so she could get up after they were done. Her teammates huddled around her, checking up on their captain. Elaine pushed through half her teammates to get to her, resting a hand on her shoulder.

  “You’re killing it out there,” Olivia managed, giving her a weak smile.

  Elaine shook her head. “How’s your foot?”

  “I finally felt the wrath of Allie Long personally,” Olivia said, unsure if she was trying to be funny or just stating a fact.

  More teammates came and gave Olivia a reassuring hug, or in Maeve’s case a muttered, “I’m going to kill that bitch when we’re done here.” But all words came to a stop as the seriousness of what was about to happen was remembered. Olivia carefully watched her teammates. Elaine was half in and out, preparing herself for the SCs. Everyone else looked at Coach intently, awaiting their fate.

  “I’m sorry it’s come to this,” Coach sighed, looking down at her clipboard and then back at her players. “And this is nothing how we wanted it to go. But you’re playing hard out there and I like it. You all know what’s coming next. Remember those practices we�
��d practice shooting. Remember the days I specifically practiced SCs with you girls. This is when it matters. It’s all in now, kids.”

  A few nods were made while some looked nervously at the clipboard, wondering whose name was on that list.

  “Olivia was supposed to be the first to take a penalty kick,” Coach admitted. “But now were obviously going to change that. Maeve, you’re starting it off.”

  “Got it,” Maeve nodded, not a word more.

  Coach continued to list off names, and Olivia pictured in her mind how each shot. She knew everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and now wasn’t the time to mess it up.

  “And Elaine in goal,” their coach concluded, looking at the senior keeper. “Do or die.”

  “Do or die,” Elaine echoed, looking at all her teammates.

  “You guys got this,” Olivia said slowly, focusing on her team. She needed a distraction. She knew her girlfriend was only yards away, but it wasn’t the time to call out to her. Her team needed her, just like Olivia’s team needed their captain. “All of this game today, you guys have played incredibly. This is the game we’ve been waiting for, and it’s been a hell of a game,” she chuckled, receiving a few small smiles in return. “Just stay focused, and I want you cheering your teammates on when their shot goes into that net. And I want you to cheer for every penalty kick Elaine saves. We’re in this.”

  “Do it for Olivia,” Elaine said sternly. “I may have this captain’s band on, but she’s our captain and she wants to be out there more than anything.”

  “For Olivia,’ Maeve repeated, followed by her teammates.

  It was enough of a distraction for awhile.

  Imogen looked at the worn faces of her team. Worn but not done.

  “This is bullshit, I should be taking a shot!” Allie exclaimed.

  “Allie, shut up!” Imogen unexpectedly shouted. Everyone looked at their captain, the tiniest of smirks reaching their faces as the girl had finally found her voice.