by N. J. Corbo
“Hi,” he says, a little confused. “Is this Kevin Faklaw?”
“Yup. That’s me.”
“Well, Kevin, I get the feeling you already know why I’m calling, but let me go ahead and ask you anyway. Would you be interested in playing on the varsity team this year? There might even be a chance you could start,” he says.
“Yeah, yeah definitely,” you say, still finding it hard to believe this is happening. “Coach Oliver, I really want to make the U.S. Soccer Boys’ National Team,” you admit. “And I want to go to the Olympics.”
“Well, then I guess you’ll be happy to hear that we’ve got a scout from the Boys’ National Team coming to our first game,” he says.
“No way!” You can’t believe it.
“You bet. And I’m glad to hear you’re so dedicated, Kevin, because I don’t offer a varsity spot to a freshman every day. In fact,” he says, “you’ll be the first.”
Coach Oliver isn’t worried about you being accepted by the other players, because he knows you have the talent to gain their respect. Still, he points out that even with your skills, competing against players two, three, or even four years older will sometimes be difficult. Plus, he warns, you’ll have to deal with all the other challenges of high school life, and maintain at least a “B” average. He wants to know if you’re up for it.
“Yes, sir,” you assure him, and he tells you to be at practice tomorrow after school.
Now you just have to call Coach Duncan and tell him about your decision.
“Kevin,” he says, “I know this is an exciting opportunity for a freshman, and the Darrington High School team is an excellent team, but you do understand that you won’t play with the club at all this season, right?”
“I know, Coach.”
“And you know it means less game time throughout the year?” He’s not telling you “don’t do it,” but he may as well be.
“I know, Coach,” you say, hating that you’re disappointing him.
“Well, I guess you have to do what’s best for you, but I’m really sad to see you go.”
Then you get an idea.
“Hey, Coach,” you say, “could I just practice with the club in the spring?”
“Hmmm,” he says, considering it. “I suppose, if you want to train with us after your high school season is over, I’ll let you.”
You suddenly feel like you just got every gift you asked for on your birthday.
At your first varsity practice, you get a pretty good sense of what it will be like to play with upper classmen – they’re bigger, stronger, faster, and more aggressive than the guys you’ve been playing with – but you are determined to hold your own.
“Now, I know you can dribble,” Coach Oliver says to you. “But I want you to save it for the attacking third of the field. If you lose the ball there, our opposition is less likely to find a goal-scoring opportunity. If you hold onto it and get past the defender, there’s a better chance we’ll find a goal-scoring opportunity.”
You nod in agreement, and he asks how you feel about your defensive skills. You tell him that you know how to support defenders, but you’d welcome some practice. Coach Oliver pairs you with Deacon for some one-on-one; he’s a Junior who keeps the ball under close control and you’re excited to learn from him.
As practice wraps up, Coach Oliver reminds everyone that there’s a scout coming to your first game. He tells you Mr. Murphy will be looking for players to compete in different age groups of the U.S. Soccer Boys’ National Team.
You still can’t believe it. You’re going to get to play for a scout at your first varsity game. There’s a good chance Coach Oliver will let you start, and you’re planning to get out there and show Mr. Murphy exactly why he should choose you.
While talking with Coach Oliver about the scout, you notice Autumn walking over. She must be here to see how your first varsity practice went. Then you notice the goalie, Chuck Grady, walking over to her. He starts talking to her. That’s really weird. Why is he talking to Autumn? Does she know him? He’s a senior. Even though you haven’t figured out how to tell her you like her, or if you even should, she’s still your best friend, and this is not cool.
You excuse yourself from Coach Oliver and, as you get closer to them, you realize that he’s not just talking to her, he’s flirting with her! Well, this is just great. Now, not only do you have secret feelings for Autumn, but you’re also jealous. You have to do something about this.
GO TO PAGE 60. It’s confusing enough having feelings for Autumn. You can’t handle being jealous on top of it. You talk to Chuck.
GO TO PAGE 20. Autumn has been your best friend forever. You just need to talk to her and tell her how you feel. What’s the worst that can happen?
Coach thinks that playing with the girls will help you and the other boys improve your technical skills. You’re open to any opportunity to improve your skills, so co-ed weekend practice seems like a great idea. Well, all except for the part where you have to see Autumn. You wish she hadn’t been so weird when you told her you like her.
On Friday nights, you would normally do something with Autumn and Bowie. Sometimes you go to the movies; sometimes you play video games; sometimes, you just play with Bowie’s gadgets and dream up international spy adventures where you could use them. Tomorrow is Bowie’s birthday though, so this Friday, your Goda and Poppy are coming over to help you with his gift.
Both your grandparents are artists. Poppy is a wood carver and a welder. He makes the coolest sculptures. Goda is a painter. She’s also really good at building and refinishing things. And when they combine their talents, they can do anything. They’re helping you make a toolbox. Bowie’s work area is always such a mess, and he can never find his tools. You secretly cataloged his things and Goda helped you design a box that would fit all his tools. Poppy has been helping you cut and sand the pieces, as well as assemble them, and tonight you’re going to finish and paint it.
Aside from your abilities on the soccer field, you’ve never been so proud of anything before. You even carved the handle (with your Poppy’s help, of course). There are two trays that lift out of the top, to easily access the smaller tools in them, as well as the larger tools below, and there’s a drawer in the bottom. It is the coolest toolbox ever made. You can’t wait to give it to Bowie tomorrow at his birthday dinner. Now, if you can just avoid Autumn at co-ed practice, you’ll only have to survive seeing her at the dinner.
Coach Duncan starts with some drills, and then it’s time to scrimmage. You figure it’ll be boys against girls, but he mixes the teams. Of course, Autumn ends up on your team. It’s been a long time since you’ve actually played on a team together. Dinking around doing one-on-one drills, which is what you usually do, doesn’t really count. You’re really impressed with her game. She holds onto the ball, and her short passes have come a long way. It’s a great scrimmage, and it ends in a tie with one goal each.
After the scrimmage, Coach Duncan says he’s going to pair you all up – one boy, one girl. You really don’t want to avoid Autumn, but you’re not even sure if she’s talking to you. Maybe it would be best to ask her friend, Laini. You walk over and tap her on the shoulder.
“Hey, how’s it going, Laini?”
“I’m alright, lover-boy,” she teases. “How are you?”
“Great, so Autumn told you?” you ask.
“Duh, of course she did.”
“Well, that’s kinda what I wanted to talk about. I want to ask her to practice with me, but I don’t know if she’s talking to me.”
“I’d be your partner,” a pretty red-head says, tossing you a ball.
“Oh, uh, hi,” you say, a little confused.
“I’m Katrina, what’s your name?”
“Uh, Kevin,” you say.
“Well, Uh-Kevin, you want to be my partner for the drill?” she smiles.
“I . . . ” you hesitate.
“He already has a partner,” Laini answers for you, leering at Katrina
.
“That’s not what I heard him say,” Katrina fires back.
This is getting ugly fast. You need to make a decision.
GO TO PAGE 18. You’d rather practice with Autumn. If she says “no,” you can always find Katrina again. You ask Autumn.
GO TO PAGE 35. You saw Katrina juggling, so you know she has skills. Plus, you’re too nervous to find out if Autumn is even speaking to you. You partner with Katrina.
You are very grateful to Evan. He’s the only one who didn’t make any “kid” jokes about you. He also looks up to you, even though he’s older, which makes you feel good. It doesn’t hurt that you could really use a friend right now either. So, you tell him you’d be happy to spend some extra time practicing with him.
You’ve never really been in a coaching-type situation before. Well, except for the time Coach Duncan had you all mentor the nine-year-olds, but that was super simple. This is like real coaching. You know that Evan’s weakness is that he sometimes forgets to look up, which is why you’re able to snag the ball. You come up with some techniques to help him control the ball while not looking at it.
Evan is grateful to you for helping him. The thing is, though, you’ve found that by paying close attention to his technique, it’s actually teaching you about your own. If you hadn’t worked with him on ball control, you wouldn’t have realized that you have a certain body-movement “tell” every time you’re going to do a Cruyff, or cut back, maneuver. Evan noticed it while you were teaching him the move. He said that every time you’re going to chop the ball behind you, your “fake” shooting leg lifts higher than it would if you were really going to take a shot. This whole thing has been as helpful for you as it has been for him. Win-win.
You and Evan have trained together after every practice this week, and you’re feeling good about your first varsity game on Saturday.
“If we keep going like this, they’ll think we can read each other’s minds,” you laugh.
“No doubt,” Evan chuckles. “Our passes will be legendary.”
You usually pride yourself on doing it all, but begin to realize that it would be amazing to have a partner on the field like that – to pass through narrow holes and get by the most determined defense. That would be cool.
“I’m so psyched there’s going to be a scout there,” you say, thinking about your plans for playing soccer in the Olympics.
“So, you want to play for the Boys’ National Team, huh?” he asks.
“Heck, yeah,” you say. “I’m going to the Olympics.”
“That’s cool, man,” Evan says, and then gets a funny look on his face. “You know, my uncle is actually a trainer at the Olympic prep soccer camp.”
“What?!” You can’t believe it. “Are you serious?”
You want to know why the heck he doesn’t train with his uncle. Evan explains that he’s just not good enough. He says his uncle works with him sometimes, but the camp is for truly elite players. Evan says he’ll introduce you. He thinks you’ll be a good fit.
This is incredible – you feel like you could go through the roof, you’re so pumped.
“Oh, man, I have no idea how to repay you for this,” you say.
“Hey, no worries,” he says. “You totally deserve it. Why do you think I asked you to practice with me?” he asks rhetorically. “You’re really good. I know you practice hard. It shows. But you have some serious natural talent. It’s cool that you want to use it to go places.” He shrugs, “And I’m happy to help. Let’s just call it payback for you helping me.”
“Well, I feel like I should do something,” you say. “Do you want to go see the new Spider-Man movie with me and my buddy, Bowie, tonight?”
“Sure, sounds good,” he says.
You all meet at the theater at six o’clock. Bowie and Evan get along great, and you almost forget for a moment that the real third to your trio is missing. It’s not long before you start thinking of Autumn though. You don’t know what you’ll do to make it up to her. How can everything be so great and such a mess at the same time?
THE END
Katrina thinks it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission. She thinks you two should sneak out, take the bus to Clayton, and try out for the international soccer camp. Her theory is that if you make the cut, your parents will have to let you train in Holland. Seems like a good plan to you.
“Okay,” you say. “We have to get the bus schedule.”
“I’m already looking up the bus schedule online,” she says. “Maybe you can call Coach to see if we need anything else.”
You agree to and tell her you’ll call her back later, after your friend Bowie’s birthday dinner.
The first thing she asks about when you call is if you saw Autumn. Of course you did, since she’s best friends with Bowie too, but why does Katrina care? Then she wants to know what you talked about. Boy, is she pushy. You change the subject to the tryouts, but now you can’t stop thinking about how Autumn completely ignored you at dinner. Luckily, Bowie didn’t seem to notice anything. You still haven’t figured out how to tell him. You’re not even sure what’s going on with Autumn anymore, but you do know that you want to go to those tryouts.
You make a plan to meet Katrina at the bus station tomorrow evening at five. She tells you the bus will cost 12 dollars, and you remind her to bring warm clothes for the walk from the station in Clayton to the convention center. It all feels very covert and exciting.
All day Sunday, you waver between feeling anxious and eager. You avoid conversations with your parents, because they usually catch you when you’re up to something. You focus on training.
It’s about a half-hour walk to the bus station from your house, so you pack your bag and head out the door at four thirty. You tell your parents that you’re headed to the library to do homework with Bowie. Well, really you shout it to them as you run out the door, so that they can’t ask any questions. You’ve got your gear, your money for the bus, and you are jumping out of your skin with anticipation. You’re sneaking away to an international soccer camp tryout. This is so cool.
Katrina is at the station waiting, and she already has your ticket. You offer to pay her back, but she doesn’t want your money. She tells you it’s a gift.
On the bus, Katrina starts asking about Autumn again. You wish she would let it go, but she seems determined to know how you feel about her and what’s going on with you two. You tell her what happened and she says it’s Autumn’s loss. She says you should forget about her and just focus on your soccer goals. She says she’ll be a better supporter for you than Autumn ever could. Just look at what she did for you tonight.
When the bus stops at a gas station, a bunch of people go in and use the bathroom. You ask Katrina if she wants anything, and she asks for bottled water and a granola bar. You check your watch. You’ll be in Clayton with plenty of time to spare.
While you’re paying, the woman behind you yells, “Gun!” She’s pointing at a man to your right. The door is to your left. For a moment, you consider running for it, but he draws his gun and tells everyone to stay put.
He makes everyone get down and clears the register. The guy behind the counter keeps saying he doesn’t want trouble. There is a woman sobbing. You feel the hair on your arms sticking up and your whole body stiffens. You hope Katrina is still outside on the bus.
Finally, the man gets all the money and takes off. Everyone is okay. Then, the police show up to take statements. As if all of this isn’t bad enough, one of the cops is Detective Hughes, a friend of your dad. Now you’ve been held at gunpoint, you’re busted, and you’ll never make it to the tryouts. What else could happen?
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Katrina says, running up to you with tears in her eyes. She tells you they saw the whole thing from the bus, and about 10 people called the police. Then she kisses you. Her lips are soft and warm, and she smells sweet, like oranges. You don’t know what you’re going to do about missing the tryouts, or getting busted for taking
the bus without permission, or even what you’re going to do about Autumn, but for that one moment, nothing else seems to matter.
THE END
There are two plays you can make. The sure one, where you throw out to Darby, your team’s top scorer, or you take a risk on your new friend, Evan. You know he really wants a chance to shine, and he seems to be a pretty solid player, so you trust him to make the right move when he gets the ball. You toss out to Evan.
He leans back slightly, puts his arms out, and controls the ball with his chest. There’s no one close enough to challenge him. Nobody expected you to mark Evan; they were all ready to pounce on Darby. This is perfect. It gives Evan just enough time to control the ball, set it out in front of himself, and make a wicked instep shot that soars right past the Redmond team’s unsuspecting goalie to the back of the net. Fantastic!
The Redmond team is super aggressive, but you get another opportunity to show that you can maneuver around them and, even though they ultimately win the game, you walk away with two assists and the confidence that you can hang with the upperclassmen on the field.
After the game, while the guys are all congratulating Evan on his sweet shot, Mr. Murphy, the scout, and Coach Oliver tell you they were impressed with you out there today.
“Faklaw,” Darby says, walking up to you, “that was a genius call you made, throwing out to Evan. No one saw it coming.”
“Uh, thanks,” you say. You don’t mind that one of the team’s best players thinks you’re a strategic mastermind, and if Mr. Murphy gets that idea too, it would be fine with you.
Just then, someone calls your name. It’s Autumn. You’re not really sure what to say or do.
“Hey,” she says, kicking the grass nervously. “Um, I’m sorry for freaking out yesterday, and, well, uh, I . . . I really care about you.”
“Nice to see you again, Autumn,” Chuck yells over to her. Autumn smiles at him and you think you see her blush a little. Then she says she’ll always be your friend, but she’s not sure about the rest. She just wanted to make sure things weren’t weird between you two for Bowie’s birthday dinner. She says she’ll see you there and walks away.