Chapter 6
With the dogs after us we just had to keep running. We were so tired of running and swimming across the river. We wished they would give up, but they wouldn’t. If they caught us we would be painfully beaten, possibly beaten to death. We must keep running if we want to find our parents. We kept running until we met up with another river but this river has a waterfall. My brother and I could still here dogs after us; we thought they would give up by now. We had the idea to hide under the waterfall. So we hopped in the river and swam up under the waterfall. Once we got under it we realized there was a wall, it was a cave or like a cove. What we found in there was scary but we felt relieved.
There were three other African slaves hiding in this cave. It looked like one father, a mother, and their child who looked like my little brothers age they were squished in the back of the cave because they heard the dogs barking and were afraid the dogs were after them. They called us over to the corner with their hands. We sat it the corner in silence, shaking; the only sounds were the dogs and the roar of the waterfall. After about an hour the barking was gone and the family started yelling at us for attracting the dogs. We apologized and they started to calm down.
They asked us why we ran away from the plantation. We told them why and they kept saying there’s no possible way we would find our parents. I hate hearing that but it might be true. I actually wanted to stay in this cave for a while till we settle down and get some rest.
The more we talked the more we had in common. We thought they were great people. They actually ran away from the same plantation but they ran away before we arrived. I really started to like these people but I kind of started for getting about my real parents.
Chapter 7
The family we met we very inviting. They made us feel like we were part of their family. They fed us, provided shelter, and made us feel like we were back home in Africa. I always wondered if we would make it back home. I loved it there, with its peaceful community, Cool Ocean, and most of all, being with my family.
We had just eaten lunch and we must go out and hunt for dinner. The father handed my brother and I each I bow and some arrows. I told him I don’t know how to use a bow and arrow. The father said “its easy just watch and learn.” He silently crouched behind a rock. The deer was within sight. He rose up from behind the rock. He pulled the string back with the arrow aim right on the deer’s head. He let it go and it shot straight it the deer. The deer didn’t even put up a fight. The father hit him right above its eye.
We saw another one; He said “Now it’s your turn”. I was scared. I thought I would miss and I would be disappointed, but I wasn’t afraid. I saw the deer in sight. Slowly pulled back my bow, both my hands were shaking so it’s hard to keep steady. I count down from three. Three...Two...One…, I let that arrow fly. I was aiming for his chest but I kind of missed fired and hit him straight in the head. They were all so proud of me and I was so very proud of myself, I didn’t think I could do it!
The end of the day we ate my deer I killed and it was delicious. We sat, talked and laughed a funny jokes and played games. I love this family, I’m always so happy around them.
But my brother and I are supposed to be finding our parents. I asked my brother about it and he said “These are our parents and this is our home”. I couldn’t believe he said that, but it all seemed right. I’ve never been happier.
And that’s my Road to Happiness.
Justin Robinson - Road to State Cup
Chapter 1
My soccer team, DISA Storm, didn’t do as well as we hoped in the fall. We finished 8th out of 14 teams. We all put that dreadful season behind us, and we are concentrating on this new season. Our soccer coach, Coach Brian, said,”That fall season didn’t mean squat; this season counts more because there is State Cup for this season.”
My name is Justin and I play for the Storm. It was my first season in fall, so coach wasn’t quite sure where I should play. I went from defender to midfielder to forward. Our other forwards are Matthew, Connor, Josh, Jake, and our newest addition, Ricardo. Matthew, Jake, and Ricardo are all about the same height, but Matthew or Ricardo start up top with me, while Jake plays goalie every other game. Josh is our other keeper, but we think he needs a little more agility. Our outside midfielders are Dominick; we call him Dom, Freddie, and Nico. Nico and Dom are out usual starting outside midfielders, but Freddie is right behind them for the starting position. Nico also came around the same time I did, so he took Freddie’s starting position. Our defenders are Tanner, Sam, Anthony, Matt; we call him Diza, and Mark. Diza doesn’t start as much, but he is a really good and fast defender. Lastly, our center midfielders are Sean; we call him Brady, Sean; we call him Hekker, and Dylan. The main starters are Brady and Dylan. Our starting line-up is usually me, Norton, Dom, Dylan, Brady, Nico, Mark, Anthony, Sam, Tanner, and Jake in goal.
Ever since we got our final position in the league, we worked harder to do better next season. Every practice we kept working harder and harder to get where we want to be. Nico and I became captains for the season because Coach Brian believes we are the players with the most experience. I think that everyone agrees with the chosen captains.
Our defense has gotten better each day we’ve practices. They’ve worked on heading, tackles, and crossing balls into the penalty box. Since coach became concerned about our fitness, so he’s had us run on off days.
All of us were anxious for our season opener against our rivals, one of many soccer teams. We suffered a one-nil loss against them last season. This team is South Carolina United-Mount Pleasant ’98 Elite. Everyone wanted to show that the score went the wrong way. Anthony is the only one who knows them very well because he goes to school with them.
Before we knew it, it was time for our season opener. We were pumped and excited to get back at the team we lost to. Then we warmed up and took the field to start the game. The starters were Matthew and I up top; Dom and Nico on the wings; Dylan and Brady in the center; Tanner and Mark on the outside; and Anthony in the center defense.
Chapter 2
The referee called Nico and I and the other teams captains. We did the coin toss and we chose sides before we started. Coach said, “Alright, this is the team you guys lost to last season. Now, this is your time to say that you should have won that game. Let’s let them know that you’re here to play.” Everyone said, “1-2-3 DISA!” Then we took the field and the game started.
Mt. Pleasant started out with the kickoff. Matthew and I both pressured the ball, and on that note they know we were ready to play. They swung the ball to the outside where Nico was ready for the ball. Nico soon took the ball and started going down the field and he crossed it in and Matthew was there, but he put it just wide of the goal. Roughly, ten minutes went by before we had our first corner of the game. Brady took the corner, but it was headed out. The ball only went to Anthony and he had a defender on him, so he kicked the ball first time. The ball took a huge bounce in the box, and I, alone, decided to crash and try for a goal. The keeper wasn’t that tall so I had a height advantage. We both went up for the ball and I got a head on it and the keeper just bounced off of me, and I had the first goal of the season and of the game. I think that this goal inspired everyone because we had chance after chance after chance. Then the ref blew the whistle for half-time. We were in the lead 1-o over our rivals.
Coach said, “Jog in here.” We all came together, happy for how the game was going so far, but Coach had other ideas. He said, “Great job so far, but we are making the tiniest mistakes. If we minimize our mistake percentage, we will be a hard team to beat.” WE all shook our heads in agreement while getting our water. Coach also added, “We are going in the way we started.” We did our chant and we took the field.
After about five minutes, Anthony played a through ball to Nico, who was running down the field as fast as he could. He got past two defenders and dribbled into the right side of the box. He shot the ball at the near post and the keepe
r couldn’t react in time. We were now up two-nil. Roughly, another ten minutes went by with not a lot of excitement. Two defenders made a mistake and Matthew read it with ease and he was on a breakaway. The keeper charged out to the eighteen and Matthew slid the ball home in the bottom corner for our third goal. After that, for some odd reason our defense broke down and we allowed two unneeded goals. In the end, we held our lead and won 3-2. WE were all overjoyed, but we still showed our sportsmanship by not expressing our joy on the outside.
Coach said, “Congrats on the win! We now take on the Columbia United Elite in a couple of weeks, so we are going to work on a lot of things. Enjoy your weekend and be ready for Tuesday’s practice. We all left proud and confident of our team because we knew this was going to be a great season.
Chapter 3
We tried to feed off of our win the week before for our next game of the season. We worked on a lot of self-correcting things at practice and we were going to do our best to apply them to our playing on the field. We all came out fired up to get this season going right. We were playing against Columbia United Elite. Coach said, “The word ‘Elite’ doesn’t mean anything in a name. They are just a soccer team to play you. If we come out with intensity, we should be able to win this game. Sam and Anthony are center backs, Marc is on the left. Tanner is on the right, Nico is on the right outside, Dominick is on the left outside. Brady and Dylan in the middle; and Norton and Justin up top. Let’s get in here and tell them we mean business.”
We took the field and were ready for the start of the game. Roughly ten minutes went by, and Dylan committed a foul and gave them a free kick. They crossed it in and they scored the first goal by a scrum in front of the goal. We had a quick response by Nico played me a through ball in my path and I held off a defender and slid the ball home for the equalizer. Ricardo made his debut in this game when he subbed out Norton, who just recovered from a groin injury. Ricardo had a break away and nailed it at the keeper. I could tell that he was nervous because this was his first game and usually he scores those goals at practice. He had another opportunity and just slid it wide. Then the referee blew the whistle for half-time. We all jogged in for our coach to speak about our performance. He said, “Great jog so far. We just need to score our opportunities. If Chile, Ricardo, scored those goals we would be easily winning this game. Great passing! Dylan, don’t give up such stupid fouls like that. Let’s go back out and finish this game.”
We all took our time taking the field for the second half. Ricardo, Dom, Nico, and I were all doing great up top and we just couldn’t find the back of the net. The midfielders were getting tired, so coach slid me back to midfield. Then they won a corner and we did a great job of clearing it out. Josh was making some great saves and we stood strong in the back. Then disaster struck, we were all starting to lose our focus. They got another free kick and again there was a scrum in the penalty box and one of their players slid it home for the game sealing goal. At least half of us got fouled in the box and the ref didn’t see the fouls. Even when coach decided to put me back at forward it was already too late. We kept going and going and going but it didn’t turn our way. We were all disappointed in ourselves and in the refs because we lost focus and the refs were being biased, favoring the other team over us. Coach said, “We should have won that game, but you guys got lazy at the wrong time. We are going to run at practice on Tuesday, but we are going to work on stuff so wear your cleats. You are free to go.” We all left sad but good on how we played in the game.
Chapter 4
We were really frustrated about our lost to Columbia United last weekend and we were really put under pressure at our practices that week. Our coach kept saying, "If you don't take this seriously, then don't bother coming to practices. I only play those who take this seriously and pay attention at practices." Coach made us run at practice every time we did something wrong. We were up against Mount Pleasant Palmetto '97 that coming weekend and we needed to be in tiptop shape for that game. We worked on shooting, crossing, possessing the ball, and defense clearing and driving the ball to the forwards. That weekend came faster than we hoping for and we were prepared for the game.
Our warm-ups were the usual, which was jog, shuffle, jog, and shuffle. We also did a shooting and crossing drill that coach thought of that week at practice. Our starting line-up was Mark and Tanner as the outside defenders; Anthony and Sam as center defenders; Nico and Dom as the outside midfielders; Brady and Dylan as the center midfielders; and Norton and I were put up top as the forwards. We were all pumped, loose, and ready for this tame to get started. The referee called the captains and Nico and I went to the refs for the coin toss. We won the toss and we were defending the side that our bench was on for the first half. Coach told us, "I know you guys are better then you have been showing at practices this week. We need to come out in this game on fire and show them that the result in Charlotte was a fluke. Come in here and tell them we are here to play." We all came together and said, "1-2-3 DISA!"
We took the field and the other team started out with the ball in this half. I pressured the ball as soon as they touched the ball. We had some great chances with Nico, Dom, Norton and I, but we couldn't find the back of the net. Our first goal came from a cross that was headed out by the opposing team right to me, and I struck the ball first time and hit the ball over the goalie from about 25 yards out from the goal. I was surprised with the goal because I didn't think I was going to score that goal from that distance. We took that goal and added another one about five minutes later. Nico took a shot from outside the box from the right side of the box and I was crashing and I put the ball in the back of the net for a 2-0 lead. The other team put a goal in just before half time so we went into the half with a 2-1 lead over Mount Pleasant. Coach said, "Great job so far. We just need to capitalize on our opportunities and we will easily win this game. Guys, you got to stay focused for the whole game not just for the first half. If you lose focus they will come back and win the game even though you out played them in the first half. We are going to go back in the way we started. Get in here. You have potential; you just aren't showing in as much as you do at practice. Let's get back in the game fired up for the next 35 minutes." We all did our chant and took the field.
We started out with the ball for this half. We did a great job on keeping the ball away from the other team for the first 9-10 minutes of the half. We started it off with another goal, this one by Nico. I played a leading ball to Nico, who was making a run down the wing, and he took a touch forward and placed the ball into the near post. The goalie didn't react quick enough to get his hands up in time. We were doing great, then they scored another goal and there was only about 15 minutes left in the game. They believed that they had a chance on tying the game up. We had the greater desire though. Dylan a ball wide to Dom and he crosses it, but it was high and too close to the goalie. The ball had a great bounce and it hopped over the keeper and went into the back of the goal for the game sealing goal. We shut them out for the final minutes of the game and we won the game 4-2 over our rivals. We all shook hand and told each other "Good game," and then we came back to the bench, grabbed our stuff and went to the corner.
Coach said, "Congratulations on the win! We just need to work on staying focused for the entire game. Anyways, great job on the way you guys played. You played like the best team in the state, but you’re not and you showed that you can be the team to beat with the way you where playing. Enjoy the rest of you day and be prepared for practice on Tuesday. You are free to go until then." We all left happy and feeling great on how we played. We all thought that we were going to great this season and that we have a great chance for qualifying foe State Cup at the end of the season.
Chapter 5
We were all grateful for our win the previous weekend. We all couldn't wait for the next weekend. At school, Dom and I ke
pt talking about the weekend coming up. We knew that this weekend was going to be fun and we are going to have a great time playing the thing we love. The upcoming weekend we had three soccer games against three separate teams of the club CESA. At practice that week we worked on making the ball do the work and not us doing as much work. We had a game on Saturday and two on Sunday. The weekend came fast just we suspected and we were pumped for the games. Our warm-up was a little different from before. We were in tiptop shape for the game. Our starters were the same as the week before. We were pumped and ready to face the club we really hated.
The first game was against CESA 98 Premier. Coach said, "You guys can outrun this team unlike no other. This team has skill so no stabbing in the defense and we just need to score our opportunities and we will easily win this game. Get in here and show them that we mean business." We did our chant and took the field for the game. They started out with the ball for the first half. Our first goal came about five minutes after the kick-off. Nico stole the ball from the defender and he took the ball down the right side of the field and slid the ball into the net into the near post. Then they scored a goal about ten minutes later and we were just getting started. Five minutes after that Dom scored goal. I played a through ball to Dom's running path and he went all the way to the goal and scored the goal by sliding it into the far post for our second goal of the game. Then it was over for the eventful first half and it was halftime. Coach told us, "Great job on finishing your chances. They're goal was just a result from laziness and you guys didn't let that get you down, which is good. We just need to work harder and we will be fine. We are going in the way we started and we just need to finish the game off with a great note. Let's get together and take the field for the second part of this game. We did the chant and took the field.
The Meandering Mind - Creative Musings of 7th Graders Page 12