Kickin' It With Dad

by Christopher R. Ford

  I’m not sure what you mean here.”

  And from the similarly confused look on Billie’s face, neither does she.

  Uh-oh.

  “Seriously guys?” I say in frustration. And then I do it. I cross my arms and tap them two times across my chest.

  “Ohhhhhhh! Like the movie, I get it! I’m down with that.” Adrian quickly replies MUCH to my relief.

  “But that’s old.” Billie says.

  Uh-oh again.

  “That just means no one is using it. We can totally bring it back!” Adrian responds oddly prepared for just such an objection. “We are the Panthers after all.”

  “He’s got a point.” I say turning to Billie smiling.

  “It’s two against one Billie, what you gonna do?” Adrian asks.

  Billie looks at Adrian and I and quickly fake thinks to herself.

  “Ugh, fine.” She says pretending to be mad but a second later is laughing with me and Adrian.

  “I really like it!” Adrian says one more time for reassurance (which I totally appreciate by the way).

  “I really like it too!” Billie adds. I smile and nod confidently playing it off like I knew they would like it the whole time.

  “But…” Adrian starts. Uh-oh!

  ”There’s just one thing…” Uh-oh, uh-oh! “We can’t do it.”

  I sink inside. What just happened to him really liking it?

  “At least not yet.” He finally finishes.

  “Oh…” I say confused but feeling slightly better…I guess.

  “But check it out.” Adrian starts, getting (kinda) serious again. “We’re gonna save Ronnie’s celebration for a big play. Agreed?”

  I kinda wanna ask what a big play would be, but Billie has already agreed and now they’re both looking and waiting on me.

  “Agreed.” I say too and we hit our secret handshake.

  “But wait, what are we gonna do till then?” I ask out of curiosity.

  Adrian smiles then says. “I’m so glad you asked Ronnie.”

  Oh no, what have I gotten myself into? Adrian stops smiling to look at me and Billie quite seriously.

  “We’ll just wing it!” He says and starts laughing.

  Billie and I just shake our heads and laugh too.

  Finally, I make my way to the net while Billie and Adrian are playing footsies with the ball making sure it doesn’t touch the ground (they’re doing it perfectly, they’ve really got skills).

  “I’m ready. Take your best shots!” I announce to them.

  Billie steps up first. I get into position and focus. She takes the kick. I make a quick half-step to my right and make the easy save.

  “Nice one Ronnie!” Billie excitedly compliments me.

  Now it’s Adrian’s turn.

  “Can I kick it?” He asks randomly.

  I look at him perplexed.

  “Can I kick it?” He asks again (I continue to look at him confused).

  “Yes you can!” Billie jumps in obviously getting the joke that I’m missing. “Now kick it!”

  Adrian flashes a smile before taking his kick. I make a quick half-step to my left this time and make another relatively easy save.

  “Wow, you stuffed me that time Ronnie!” He says complimenting me with even more enthusiasm than

  Billie.

  My saves weren’t all that impressive, I don’t know why they’re so hyped about them. They weren’t exactly two of Billie and Adrian’s best kicks. I’ve definitely seen them do way better and…wait! It suddenly dawns on me. They’re taking it easy on me!

  “What are you guys doing?” I ask them slightly annoyed.

  “What are you talking about?” Billie responds innocently.

  “Yeah we’re just trying to score on you.” Adrian adds but I’m not buying it at all.

  “I said take your best shots!”

  “But we are…” Adrian starts but I cut him off.

  “I know you’re trying to help my confidence but easy shots won’t help me get better. You two are the best scorers on the team so I need y’all to bring it for real!”

  Billie and Adrian glance at each other apprehensively.

  “Are you sure?” Billie asks.

  I nod immediately. I’m sure…I think…

  “Ok we got you Ronnie.” Adrian says taking the ball and backing up all the way to the other end of the backyard.

  There’s no smile on his face this time. He starts to make his move, zigzagging with the ball and picking up speed like he’s in a real game. I try to stay focused and get ready to react. He makes one more quick pivot to his right. He’s about to kick it. I start leaning to my left (his right) but he pauses leaving me still drifting one way while he calmly kicks it the opposite way for an easy goal. He got me good (or should I say bad) on that one. At least he doesn’t celebrate on me.

  No time to sulk though, it’s Billie’s turn again. I roll the ball over to her. I’m pretty sure she’s got some slick move up her sleeve too so I gotta be ready. She backs up all the way to the end of the yard like Adrian did. She nods to me that she’s ready. I nod back that I’m (kinda) ready and she’s on her way.

  No zig-zagging here, Billie heads straight at me. Uh-oh, what do I do? She could kick it anywhere and I seriously don’t know what to do. I’m over-thinking but now it’s too late she’s like right in front of me! She rears back like she’s about to kick it hard as hard as she can. She kicks, I freeze. The ball goes right past me. Like literally past me to my right.

  From two saves to two goals allowed just like that. I guess I did ask for this.

  And now I’m starting to sweat. Is it me or is it getting kinda warm out here? I could use a couple of clouds to float by right about now. And doing this right after eating probably wasn’t the greatest move either (which totally wasn’t my idea remember?!?).

  They both go two more times…and they both score two more times. This really isn’t going well. I’m getting discouraged.

  “Okay back to taking it easy.” I say to them jokingly (but totally not joking). Billie and Adrian laugh. But then Adrian lines up for another go. Uh-oh.

  I look out of the corner of my eye and I see my mom popping her head out of the backdoor.

  “Hey kids.” She says holding a plate. “Who wants some cookies fresh out of the oven?”

  Adrian immediately stops what he’s doing.

  “I do!” He says excitedly.

  “Me too Mrs. Williams!” Billie adds.

  And next thing I know, our workout is over and we’re all headed back inside. Yes! Mom with the save!

  We’re eating, we’re laughing, and everything is back to being all good. But there’s still a little part of me that’s not happy about how I did in the backyard. When Billie and Adrian actually tried, I made zero, ZERO saves. That’s not all good. But I gotta let that go for the time being. We’re just hanging out now and I don’t wanna ruin their fun. So I grab another cookie, crack a joke, and laugh along with my best friends.

  After Billie and Adrian leave, I immediately go to my room. Now I’m doing what I usually do when something’s bothering me and I need to think, I’m laying in my bed staring up at the glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling.

  Maybe soccer really isn’t my thing. Like maybe it’s more than I don’t wanna be good at it, maybe I just can’t be good at it. I seriously only tried out for my friends. Everything isn’t for everybody right? Yeah that is right! There’s nothing to be ashamed of. I tried! Baseball, I’m good. Basketball, I’m solid. Soccer, I’m just not that good at. I can live with that…I guess…

  Knock, knock, knock.

  “Come in dad.” I say because of course it’s him.

  He enters taking the chair from my desk and sliding it closer to the bed. He sits down in the chair as I sit up in my bed.

  “I noticed you weren’t quite yourself after you all came back in.” He starts.

  I thought I played it off
pretty good but then again, it’s really hard to get things past my dad.

  “What happened?” He proceeds to ask.

  I go ahead and tell him what happened in the backyard, explaining how Billie and Adrian took it easy on me at first and how I told them I needed their best shots…and then how I couldn’t save a thing once I got it.

  “And that made you start questioning yourself?”

  I nod. He’s on it as usual.

  “I know you think it was all bad but I caught something really good in that story.”

  Good? Didn’t he hear what I just said? Good is the last word I’d use to describe it. He sees me looking at him puzzled.

  “Leadership.” He says simply.

  Leadership? What does that have to do with anything here? Now I’m even more confused.

  “First, you recognized what your friends where doing. And that even though they were trying to help you as a friend they were hurting you as a player. You knew what you needed from them in order to get better.”

  That’s true and all but…”I didn’t get any better. I probably got worse!” I say to him in a slightly whinny voice that always seems to kick in when I’m extra flustered.

  “And then you stepped up and asked for a challenge. I’m proud of you.”

  I’m not feeling (or looking) very convinced.

  “No one gets better just like that. You gotta put in the work. You know that.” He states stoically.

  I do know that and he’s right of course, but it’s just hard to see that after I just did so badly, I try to explain to him. And not to my surprise, he’s not having it.

  “Don’t let it discourage you. Instead use it to motivate you. Try to figure out what you can learn from what just happened.”

  “Even the bad parts?” I ask.

  “Especially the bad parts!” He instantly responds.

  I figured he would say that. But it still doesn’t make me want to do it. Thinking about going through a hard time is well…hard! Am I right? Like who wants to do that?

  “Leaders.” My dad replies after apparently reading my mind. “You got off to a good start, doing something good on your way to becoming great. Now you gotta keep going and finish strong. You know what to do.”

  Again, I know he’s right, maybe not about the path to being great part (maybe I can be decent), but about everything else? Definitely.

  “Don’t worry and start thinking alright?” he says finally with a smile.

  “Alright.” I reply.

  He gets up and starts heading to the door.

  “Hey dad.” I say and he stops.

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” He says with a smile.

  He leaves closing the door behind him. I lay back down with my hands behind my head and look back up at the dimly glowing green stars. I start thinking again. But not about what went wrong, but why it went wrong, and how I can fix it. I think it’s gonna be a long night.

  CHAPTER 6

  HITTIN’ RESET

  Thanks to my dad’s usual good advice, I’m back on my grind. I’m focused and working hard at practice, doing extra work with Billie and Adrian, and watching vids on YouTube. I’m even learning from Rich as I watch him at practice (don’t tell him though).

  Slowly but surely I’m getting better. And I think I might be actually starting to like soccer! Crazy right? The team is winning (we remain undefeated) thanks in large part to Billie and Adrian who are both still killing it. But I’m still not ready to officially call Adrian the Kid Messi quite yet.

  There are only two downsides. One, Rich is still being Rich The Rich Kid. I tried to hi-five him after he made an incredible game-winning save and he completely blew me off and left me hanging. While the second issue is that even though I’m getting better, I’m not getting to show it because I’m not really playing (even in practice).

  A couple of weeks ago I did actually get some garbage time in for the first time since “the incident”. We were up 4 – 1 so Coach G finally let me play. And when I played I was kinda awesome (and by awesome I mean I saved the one shot that came my way…and by saved I mean it hit the side crossbar.

  But I was in the right position and I guessed right about which way to move so I would’ve totally stopped it if it would’ve been on target).

  Hey, now that I think about it, I had a shutout! Rich didn’t even do that. I think that means you can say I’m better than Rich right? Ok maybe not. But I definitely didn’t mess up or embarrass myself which is the most important thing of all! But after that it was back to the bench where I’ve been ever since. Meh.

  I’m walking off the pitch. We just finished our last practice before the last game of the regular season. It was pretty basic, nothing too interesting or exciting. Coach calls us all together for his usual post-practice talk. It’s all pretty standard. “Good job” this,

  “stay focused” that…

  “And one last thing.” He starts.

  I get excited…because I know he’s almost done and we can go home.

  “As you all know, we’ve clinched the first playoff spot. You’ve all worked hard and I’m proud of you all and I can’t wait to make our playoff run and win this championship!”

  That gets the team hyped up. We start clapping and cheering.

  “And with all that being said, we still have one more game before the playoffs start. And this gives us a chance to switch things up.” Switch things up? I wonder what he… “Rich, you’re getting the game off. Ronnie you’ll be starting…”

  I hear nothing else. I know I was just complaining about not playing but you all know me, I do that because I KNOW I’m not gonna be playing!

  I’m totally out of it until I feel Adrian nudging me hard.

  “This is dope!” Adrian says to me excitedly but I’m just starting to come out of my state of shock so I’m not sharing his enthusiasm just yet.

  “You ready?” Billie asks me.

  “Umm, I hope so.” I say not-so confidently.

  They both smile and give me some dap to make me feel better. I even crack a small smile eventually. But then, out of nowhere, Rich has to throw in his unsolicited two cents. My smile disappears.

  “So you’re starting the next game?” Rich states more than asks (with an attitude I might add).

  I start to answer but he cuts me off.

  “You ready?” He asks (and not in the nice way Billie did).

  I hesitate but Adrian puts him arm around me.

  “Oh yeah he’s ready alright!” He tells Rich for me. I look at him like what are you doing but he winks at me like just go with it. Well it’s not like I have a choice. This all feels familiar…

  “You better be because we don’t need you blowing our perfect season.” He says pointing right at me. He then laughs. He’s definitely a hater.

  Rich keeps looking at us, not very convinced, but Billie and Adrian stare him down until he eventually walks off in a huff.

  “You already know not to listen to him.” Billie says to me.

  “We know you’ve been putting in the work. You got this.” Adrian adds.

  I really hope so. Honestly, I’m still pretty worried about the game but I do appreciate Billie and Adrian trying so hard to help me and having my back. They’re really great friends.

  But luckily practice is over so I can go sit and worry in the comfort of my home very soon. And as soon as my dad pulls up, I head to the car and we drive off.

  I’m still in shock as we’re driving home. My head is spinning. I gotta tell my dad before I burst. We stop at a red light.

  “Dad I’m gonna start!” I blurt out.

  “Whoa really? That’s great!” He says excitedly.

  I tell him I start Saturday…which is in two days by the way.

  “Wow that’s soon. Are you ready?”

  I guess everybody’s gonna ask me that.

  “I don’t know.” I say, giving him my honest answer
.

  He can tell I’m worried so he leans over and puts his hand on my shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, you will be.” He says with total confidence.

  This feels familiar too. Like more déjà vu. My mind continues to race as the light turns green and we continue the drive home.

  I do my homework…while I worry.

  Then I eat dinner…while I worry. I go to my room lay in bed and stare at the ceiling…while I worry. I have been trying, and I do legit think I’m getting better but a game, a whole game at that, is…is…scary.

  But I do think I’ve worried enough for one night. I close my eyes and try to go to sleep.

  I wake up…and worry. Then I eat breakfast…and worry. I go to school…and worry. I think you get the idea. At lunch Billie and Adrian (who have no doubt noticed my worrying) ask me if I’m ok. I start to think about how to respond in a way that they’ll believe (and maybe I’ll believe too) and then it hits me.

  “We’ve already clinched the number one spot so it’s not like I can mess things up too bad, so yeah, I’m good.”

  Sure it’ll blow Rich’s perfect season but who cares what he thinks? That’s a pretty good answer. Good job Ronnie!

  Billie and Adrian don’t look too happy though. Hmm. I laugh nervously…it doesn’t help.

  “Well…can you guys get together after school and help me go over some last minute strats?” I ask. I think this will get a better reaction from them.

  They look at each other hesitantly.

  “Uh…” Adrian starts.

  “We’ve got plans.” Billie finishes.

  “What kinda plans?” I ask.

  They look at each other again. Why are they acting so weird?

  “Oh…it’s cool don’t worry about it.” I say to them even though it’s not cool and I’m quite worried.

  Ok so today didn’t go super great. I ended up worrying so much that the rest of the day flew by and now it’s bed time and I’ve got a game tomorrow I am NOT ready for! I’m laying in bed but I can’t sleep (too worried of course). Now usually my dad would magically appear at a time like this. He’d take me into the backyard, drop the perfect motivational words, and pretty much save the day.