Accepted: A Short Story

Kersten Golan

Accepted

It was early one fall morning we were on the way to East China Park. We were on the way to my first travel soccer game. “ Are you nervous? “ My mom asked.

“No,“ I responded, lying through my teeth. I was incredibly nervous. I knew a lot of the girls, but what if everyone was way better than me? I knew they would all be somewhat more skilled, but what if they all blew me away? Last year I beat everyone. After a while it's just not fun anymore. I would always use my touch to the right to blow right by girls. Coach Dave always played me center so I could touch it to the girl on my right. Then he started playing me left so when I took the touch right, I passed it to the person in the center.

I would do my best and that would be all I could give them. Once we got to the park, my stomach started filling up with energetic butterflies. Once we got to the white lines of the fields I had to separate from my parents. “Love you guys,” I said.

“Love you girl, have fun!” They responded. I walked over to the other side of the field to the team. My bag was heavy on my shoulders. I saw Shaylen, and immediately walked over to her. Neither of us knew

My stomach was in unbearable knots. I had to ignore them and work as hard as possible and give this game my all. I was running up and down the field, following the play, and trying to find space. Ella made it look easy, I was tired, I would need conditioning.Then Reagan passed me the ball. I had to do something with it! I dribbled the ball up the field and then quickly passed it to Jess. Jess dribbled the ball and then took a hard shot. The ball was high, soaring through the air. I was thinking to myself, if this ball sinks in above the keeper’s, head I will have made an assist. And there the ball went just above the keeper’s reach, the ball sank in the back of the net. The end of the game whistle blew. We won,and I made the