Kickin' It With Dad

by Christopher R. Ford

  “What??” Half the rest of the bench says.

  “What???” Adrian even says.

  He catches himself and immediately turns to me.

  “My bad bro, you know I didn’t mean it like that. I was just surprised that’s all. I’m sure you got this.” Talk about déjà vu. Oh and no I don’t “got this”.

  “Why him?” Rich The Rich Kid protest speaking up for the entire team.

  But yeah, why me?

  “Let’s see what the kid’s got.” Is all Coach G says.

  I don’t know what he thinks I got though. Right now the only thing I have is a bunch of fear and confusion. I know I gotta play it cool but seriously, What??? I know everyone is shocked but no one more than me.

  “Don’t worry,” Rich starts (Cool, some advice. I need it!) “the lead’s so big even you can’t blow it.” Rich says to me under his breath so Coach can’t hear him.

  Oh, that wasn’t cool or helpful. Couldn’t he just ignore me like he did the first game?

  I know, I know, I really should’ve paid more attention to Rich. But it’s too late for that now, the timeout is over and I’m actually running onto the field with Billie, Adrian, and the rest of the team.

  “Williams!” Coach yells out.

  Has Coach regained his senses and realized he’s put me in goal? Is he gonna take me out before I go in and save me?

  “You forgot your gloves!”

  Oh…yeah…how could I forget those? I wonder to myself sarcastically. Oh, I know how! It’s because one; I’m still in total shock about playing in this game! And two; I don’t actually have my own pair of gloves.

  In practice I’ve been using some random old pair I get from Coach. They’re white, well they were white when they were new, now they’re a mix of off white, green grass, and dirt stains. They don’t even match my kit!

  But I guess looking cool is the least of my problems. And on the bright side, there aren’t many people in the stands watching and it’s not like my entire family is here to see this, it’s just my dad. I look up into the stands, maybe he can calm me down. I spot him…and my mom!?! And my brother?!? What are they doing here??? Now I’m even less calm!

  My mom waves as she always does and my brother is doing whatever he’s doing. My dad is calm but it’s not his usual calm. I don’t know how to explain it but it looks to me like he has an “I told you so” look on his face…or maybe I’m just imagining things (which at this point is very likely).

  Ok, ok I gotta get my mind right! Low key is still the key. Hopefully these 5 minutes will fly by and no shots will come my way and I can get outta here unscathed.

  “Ronnie! Don’t worry, we got your back!” Billie calls out to me I think seeing the concerned look on my face.

  I like the sound of that! Now that I think about it, our D is really onpoint. Maybe they really won’t be able to get a shot off. Better yet, maybe they won’t even get to my side of the field! Yeah Billie and Adrian can just play keep-away and I won’t have anything to worry about!

  The plan (and by plan, I mean the thing I am currently wishing for harder than I’ve ever wished for anything before) gets off to a good start as Billie and Adrian kick and work the ball around the pitch (the other side of the pitch of course).

  I keep one eye on them and the other on the clock as it ticks down very, VERY slowly.

  A few more minutes pass and we’re still all good. I look towards the other end of the field as Billie and Adrian are still kicking the ball around and avoiding the defenders. It’s going so well I have a second to think…think about if Black Panther could beat Captain America one-on-one. It would be close but I think so. Can Thor beat up The Hulk though? That’s a good one!

  Wait! What I need to be thinking about is the celebration I’ll be showing Billie and Adrian in a few minutes finally. This is gonna be so epic! Ok let me go over it one more time in my head. So first we…

  “Ronnie!!!”

  It’s Billie calling out to me and snapping me back to reality.

  What’s going on? I double blink to focus. And what do I see? A ball flying right at my face! Uh-oh! First I freeze, then I duck.

  Goaaaal!

  I can feel my face turning red. I’m totally embarrassed. If a hole magically opened up in front of the net, I’d crawl in it and never come out. I don’t look at Coach G, the rest of the team, or Billie and Adrian. And I’m definitely not trying to look at my family in the stands. This is definitely not low key!

  But at least we’re winning comfortably. It’s 6 – 1 so even if I’m bad, overall, we’re good.

  “Are you okay?” Billie asks as she and Adrian come over to check on me.

  I nod half-heartedly. There’s less than a minute to go now. I just wanna get this over with. 5…4…3…2…1…

  The game is mercifully over.

  Billie and Adrian did indeed keep the ball away from the other team for the last few moments so I didn’t have to worry about anymore shots. And even though the one shot I faced (bad choice of words) was a disaster, we did get the win so hopefully no one is even thinking about it like that.

  Buuuut…From the funny looks I’m getting as we shake hands with the other team, I guess they are thinking about it. Sigh.

  “Nice save Ron!” Rich says to me sarcastically as we all walk back to our bench.

  “Just ignore him.” Billie tells me.

  “Yeah he’s an idiot.” Adrian adds as he glares over at Rich.

  I appreciate their support as always but I feel pretty bad. Rich is right, I made a fool of myself out there today…and my dad was right too. Oh no! I don’t even want to face him right now. He won’t come out and say it but the “I told you so” vibes will be too real. This is just great (and by great, I mean terrible).

  I don’t think anyone has felt so bad after a win in the history of winning.

  Coach gives us a quick post game talk. The good, he doesn’t mention my goal keeping. The bad, he does give me a look that makes me feel some type of way when he says “we played well but far from perfect.”

  And now it’s time to face my fam. My mom is super supportive and tries to make me feel better. But even she struggles to come up with anything positive.

  “Well…you looked good in your uniform.” She eventually says.

  And then I turn to my dad. This isn’t gonna be pretty. I look at him, he looks at me, and…silence? Again?!? This is getting really weird. I mean, I don’t wanna get yelled at (even though I know he wouldn’t do that) and I don’t wanna get lectured to either (even though I probably deserve that). But more silence? That might be the worst of all because I know he must be really disappointed in me. I just put my head down and mope to the car.

  I’m so out of it that we’re pulling up to the house before I realize I forgot to show Billie and Adrian my celebration, AGAIN!

  I’m chilling in my room now, thinking. Today did not go like I wanted it to. I wasn’t taking things seriously and my play was bad. And I don’t think my dad is happy with me at all. The way things are going, it seems like he may never talk to me aga…

  Knock, knock, knock.

  “Can I come in?” My dad asks.

  “Of course.” I quickly reply just excited he’s talking to me.

  He comes in and sits on the edge of the bed, I’m at my desk by the way.

  “So, about today…” He starts (can’t we talk about something else? ANYTHING else besides today?). “I know things didn’t go according to your plan…” (that’s the understatement of the year)

  “…and all I can say is…”

  Here comes the I told you so…

  “You wanna kick it in the backyard?”

  Oh! I think.

  “Oh!” I say.

  “Is that a yes?”

  “Yes!” I reply with the quickness.

  He smiles.

  “Ok see you in five minutes.”

  He leaves and I immediately start to chan
ge and get ready.

  Four minutes later (this is the first time I’ve ever beat my dad out here) and I’m ready to do this! A few seconds later my dad walks out. And here we go again. He’s got on a different faded soccer jersey from the last time (I’ve never seen him wear this one before either) and he’s rocking those short shorts I never wanted to see again! I totally want to laugh but I’m trying to play it cool.

  He claps his hands two times as he struts (being way too extra) towards me.

  “Alright, alright! Pele is back in the house! You ready?”

  Ok I just gotta laugh. He does too. I think we’re officially cool again. So now it’s time to get to work!

  “So what’s first?” I ask eagerly because right about now, I’m ready and willing to practice hard to get good in a hurry.

  “I’ve been watching some videos on YouTube.” He starts which sounds like a good start to me.

  He goes on to give me a bunch of pointers. He starts with the basics (which I kinda knew but I actually pay attention this time). Things are going ok. I don’t think I’m ready to pitch a shutout (man I miss baseball by the way) but now I could save a ball kicked right at me at least.

  My dad sets up for one more kick. I’m ready in front of the net. But before he makes a move, he stops. He picks up the ball and looks at me. “You know what the key to all this is right?” He asks.

  Oh is this a pop quiz? I know I just said I was paying attention (and I was!) but he didn’t specify which part was the key. Keep my eyes on the ball? Stay on the balls of my feet? I’m sure it was something about balls.

  He sees me struggling and comes over to me with a smile on his face.

  “Visualization, remember?”

  Oh yeah, visualization again! I gotta stop forgetting about that! I definitely wasn’t visualizing last game, more like daydreaming.

  “You ready to try it again?”

  “Yes! No wait!” I say remembering the last time we tried this and I got a ball flying at my face for the first time. “You’re gonna wait for me to finish visualizing and open my eyes before you kick the ball at me this time right?” (Hey I gotta ask).

  He laughs long and hard. Even I start laughing.

  “I got you.” He finally replies.

  I close my eyes and try to visualize making the save. I open my eyes and my dad hasn’t kicked it yet (thankfully).

  Now he winds up to kick it and the ball is headed right at me. I have a brief flashback to the game. My first reaction is to duck again. No! I can’t do that. Just make the save Ronnie! I put my hands up and block the ball with my hands instead of my face. It wasn’t pretty but it’s a save.

  “Not bad Ronnie.” My dad says.

  “But…”

  But what? At this point I’ll take any save I can get!

  “You didn’t feel it.” He pauses and takes a serious tone. “You gotta feel

  it.”

  Feel it? What does that mean?

  “Feel what?” I finally ask.

  He stands back with a sly smile.

  “It.”

  There he goes again. I knew he was gonna say “it” but he knows that I don’t know what “it” is. And it looks like, once again, I’ll have to figure “it” out on my own.

  Oh boy…

  CHAPTER 5

  BACK TO THE BENCH

  On a positive note, my misadventure on the pitch didn’t make it to school (they really don’t care about soccer around here). It definitely doesn’t hurt that Rich The Rich Kid doesn’t go here (he goes to school on the other side of town…a rich school of course).

  But our next practice is another story. Some of my teammates give me funny looks. And even though Coach G doesn’t call me out for the bad goal outright, he does say that “everyone” needs to be focused at all times making that his second subliminal shot at me.

  “You mean Ronnie needs to be focused right?” Rich pipes up to ask, not subliminally at all.

  Some of the other kids laugh. He’s not wrong but it still doesn’t feel good. But it does feel good when Coach shuts Rich down just by giving him a look.

  “Take that.” Adrian whispers so only Billie and I can hear him.

  That boosts my confidence a little bit and I do try and focus throughout practice. And I survive it without any really embarrassing incidents (thankfully).

  After practice Billie and Adrian ask me if I want to stay late and get some extra work in. Oh man this is tough. I know I need all the extra practice I can get but also, today is Tuesday. And not just any Tuesday, it’s Taco Tuesday at the house! I’ve had a rough couple of days so I was really looking forward to some delicious taco action. I 75% want to practice but I 100% want tacos! What’s a kid to do?

  I see my dad pulling up, I’ll just ask him!

  “Well your mom has already started on them so they’d be ready by the time we got home.” He says then pauses to stroke his chin and think. “I’ve got it!” He says suddenly.

  I wait for his answer but I think I know what he’s gonna say…

  “We go ahead and do Taco Tuesday tonight and then have your friends over this weekend and y’all can practice on

  our goal.”

  Oh, that wasn’t what I was expecting…but I like it! I go back and run it by Billie and Adrian.

  “Hmmm.” Adrian says first, thinking.

  “Hmmm.” Billie follows, also thinking.

  What’s the hold up? Wait, they’re probably just messing with me…but seriously, hurry up and answer (I hate the waiting and anticipating by the way).

  They glance at each other one more time…

  “Okay” Billie starts.

  “Cool.” Adrian finishes.

  Yes, they’re down! I get my tacos today and I get to kick it with my friends this weekend, it’s the best of both worlds! And for the first time in a long time, we have a really good ride home.

  It’s Saturday morning and I’m furiously cleaning my room (the tacos on Tuesday were awesome by the way). Billie and Adrian will be here any minute which is the only reason I’m volunteering to clean. They’ve been over a few times already but I still get nervous right before they do. I have no idea why, I’m just trippin’ I guess.

  My room is clean (mostly) and I head downstairs to the living room where I run into my dad.

  “Hey I just ordered an extra extra large peperoni pizza from Frank’s for you guys.”

  Yes! Another one of my favorites.

  Today is getting off to a great start!

  The doorbell rings. It’s them! I rush to the door. I get ready to open the door. But first, I turn to my dad.

  “Promise me you won’t say or do anything embarrassing dad.”

  He takes a step back putting his hand over his chest, fake shocked. “Me?

  Embarrassing?”

  I just stand there staring at him.

  The doorbell rings again.

  “I won’t do anything embarrassing,

  I promise.”

  I breathe a small sigh of relief.

  “I’ll just do me and everything will be fine.” He says with a smile (ok yeah I’m worried).

  But it’s too late, I gotta open the door and hope for the best.

  “Ronnie!!!”

  Adrian greets me first and hits me with our special handshake, then Billie and I do the same. They then both say hi to my dad. I stand there holding my breath waiting to see what my dad is gonna say or do.

  Please act normal, please act normal. Please act normal!

  “Hi Billie and Adrian. Pizza is on the way.” He says to them in a completely normal way. Awesome!

  Billie, Adrian, and I goof off and watch TV until the pizza arrives. And by extra, extra large, they mean extra extra EXTRA large. The pizza is huge! It’s seriously the size of one of the tires on my dad’s car! All three of us stare at it in awe.

  “Y’all ready to do this?” Adrian asks laying down a challenge to Billie and I. />
  We both look at the pizza one more time and then at each other…

  “Let’s get it!” Billie says as I nod enthusiastically to back her up.

  And with that, we proceed to grub out on this pizza!

  30 minutes, and a bunch of chowing down later, there’s only one slice left. I’m not touching it though, I’m beyond stuffed. We’re just chilling on the sofa now basking in the aftermath of one epic meal.

  “Time to kick it right?” Adrian says just as I was about to fall out into a serious nap.

  Adrian hops up looking ready to go. He’s actually serious about this? I look over to Billie for a little help. But then she jumps up too and now they’re both looking at me. I’m clearly outnumbered so I guess this is happening. I reluctantly get up and lead them towards the door. Just as we’re about to step outside my dad stops us like he has something important to say.

  “Before you guys head out, Billie and Adrian, I have a question for you two.”

  They look at him little confused. I look at him a lot worried.

  “What’s a ghost’s favorite soccer position?”

  Oh no, here we go…

  “Ghoul keeper!”

  Agh! Why does he always do this? And of course he’s laughing it up, way too pleased with himself.

  “Get it? Ghoul keeper! And Ronnie’s a goalie!”

  Yeah we get it dad. We always get it. Sooo embarrassing. But Billie and Adrian at least act like it was funny and chuckle (they are pretending right?). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, they’re really dope friends.

  We finally hit the backyard. It’s a sunny day, blue sky, no clouds, a perfect day to be outside.

  “Yo Ronnie!” Adrian exclaims out the blue. “The celebration!” Adrian suddenly reminds himself and therefore reminds me.

  I guess now would be a pretty good time right? But of course you know I’m nervous now. But I gotta do it. I take a deep breath, then look at both of them seriously. And then I speak.

  “Two words. Wakanda forever.” I wait anxiously for their reaction. Do or say something! The wait is killing me!

  “Uh…I like Black Panther as much as anyone.” Adrian starts skeptically. “But