Chapter 234

June 25, 2018 (Monday)

Dear Ms. Diary,

“Gather ‘round!”

Once we were settled around Coach, she said, “As we discussed last week, Delta is a good team, steady and well-coached. Krypton is starting and the big change today is pulling Rhee back as a second O sweeper to work in tandem with Beth, but mainly to provide more help against their very solid midfield. If it looks like we’re overreacting, she’ll revert to her usual position. Regardless, Rhee, if you see a chance to get your rocket into play, please take it. Even with that, though, back line and pivots, look for streakers, as that will help avoid Delta’s midfield.

Delta was a little late arriving due to some accident not involving their bus, so Coach agreed to push the start time back 15 minutes, which was all that could be allowed given that the pitch was scheduled for another game after ours.

A few of us said, “Hi,” to Victor when we saw him; he would be one of the officials on the pitch today. Since we lost the toss and would have the kick-off, I laid out a new play that I had been pondering for a few days in the immediate pre-kickoff huddle.

“New kickoff play. Char, you and Rhee move the ball hard and quickly upfield. I’m coming right behind should you need an outlet. Heather, pull inward a bit as you go upfield so you can provide a lateral outlet. Civ, start just inside the sideline and pace the ball upfield until about halfway to their goal, then cut toward the goal at speed, though staying onside. Offense, keep an eye peeled for Civ’s move, and be ready to hit her with a long pass. Rhee, haul ass once that pass is in the air in case she can’t immediately do anything offensive with the ball when she gets it. Got it?”

When I got nods all around, I said, “‘Family’ on three. One, two, three. Family.”

Char was at the ball facing downfield when the ref blew her whistle, but she immediately turned and kicked the ball upfield to where Rhee would be, and the three of us charged upfield. Rhee beat their center forward with a fake pass to Rhee’s right, nutmegged the girl when she stuck her left foot out, and kept going. The three of us worked a give-give-go around their center midfielder in the up position of a midfield diamond. Although I had not stated it in the huddle, Char and Rhee understood that we’d want to push the ball upfield more to our right, particularly with Heather gradually pulling inside, to help disguise that the play was designed for our left wing.

Rhee was the primary ball carrier, as she is fastest with the ball at her feet, so Char and I kept up with her and watched ahead for obstructions. However, we were already behind half their team, and Delta was scrambling to move defenders between the ball and their goal. When Heather saw that, she changed her tack by suddenly putting on more speed and angling a bit outside.

When I yelled, “Now,” Rhee looked farther upfield, made an excellent fake at left-footing a long ball to Heather, but back-heeled it to me with her right. I one-touched a line drive upfield and left. Civ ran onto it, chested it down to her feet, and immediately wheeled into Heather’s 270-degree turn to beat their deep-lying midfielder, then a few yards later a counter-clockwise roulette to beat their center back, made a hard fake at a right-footed screamer, stepped beyond the ball with her left foot, tapped the ball forward and to her left with her right foot, then two steps later sent a rocket from just outside the box that passed a few feet inside the left post! The other four of the O mobbed her, with the rest of the team, including Marli, getting in on the scrum.

“Gather ‘round!”

When we all hushed and focused on Coach, she said, “Excellent game against a very good opponent, only the third of the season to get the ball in our net more than once. They even shared the wealth, getting one against each of our goalies. That midfield of theirs is incredibly good, but what did we do to them?”

After a show of hands, Coach said, “Crewe, you’re up.”

“We already knew this, but Krypton made it obvious that we needed to keep changing how and where we attacked. By doing that, we kept their team, particularly their midfield and even more specifically their stopper, off balance and out of position.”

“Exactly right. Keep coming on, Crewe. You’re doing very well.”

With her face going pink, Crewe responded, “Thanks, Coach,”

Those within reach of her gave her shoulder or back pats.

Coach continued, “I want to go back to the first half for a bit before I turn the spotlight on Cera for Argon attagirls. I’ve stressed this before ... on multiple occasions, but I’m going to push it again. Why did Rhee score another unassisted goal?”

Rathi called out, “Because she refuses to share when she rips the ball from some poor defender’s feet leaving her huddling in need of warmth and a friend as Rhee then drives a dagger into the poor girl’s heart by rocketing a left-footed inside-bend from five yards outside the penalty box off the right post and into the goal just beyond that poor, overworked goalie’s hand.”

There was much uproarious laughing ... with even Coach chuckling.

Once semi-calm had returned, Coach calmly stated, “Yes, something like that.” She waited out the chuckles, then said, “Rathi, have you considered writing for a living?”

“Am I that poor a midfielder?”

“Perhaps for an up-and-coming comedienne?”

With a smile at the repartee on my face, I considered how Coach had changed in the past nearly four years. She’s become more open, more personable, and more willing to banter with the team, and I had little doubt that those changes played a large part in how the team responded more positively to her. She still maintained the distance required of a coach, but she had shaved away nearly all the distance she could in my four seasons with her. I was sure that the closer relationship we all had with her was part of the reason that we were currently excelling so wildly this year. No one, absolutely no one, refused to work as hard as she could in practice, and Crewe was probably the best example of that. Perhaps some of those girls even understood why they worked so hard, and Rathi’s certainly one of those. I got to thinking that once we graduated from her team, we could be friends of hers, and I liked that idea.

I returned to my surroundings with Cera already into her spiel.

“ ... despite her not scoring a goal, gets an attagirl for an excellent drop for the decloaking Mia, who also gets an attagirl for re-coalescing her molecules into girl form and casually ... ramming the ball past a surprised goalie. Tonda, do you have subspace communication with Ghost? Is that how you always seem to know where she is when she’s invisible?”

There was much chuckling.

“Tonda’s second and third attagirls come from channeling Rhee by leaving the same poor defender lying bleeding wondering where the ball went and then dropping for a crossing Padme. And Padme, it’s so very wonderful to have you back on the pitch and I’m giving you two attagirls for managing to curl the ball between two fullbacks and into the far side of the goal. That was simply beautiful.”

Rhee’s “Hear, hear,” rang out.

Coach interrupted with, “I second Cera’s words, all of her words. Welcome back, and congratulations on such a lovely and incredibly precise shot. Padme, we’ll be gradually working you back into more time on the pitch.”

“Thanks, Coach.”

Cera handed out an attagirl to Mila for a great save, then said, “She gets another for her daring, and correct, sprint beyond the penalty box to beat their streaking right wing to a bomb and the other for immediately initiating another scintillating counter by making a long pass to Lissa. From there, I give Crewe an attagirl for recognizing that Dakota had slipped and fallen and would not be able to streak once Mila won the race to the ball and Crewe set off for Delta’s goal. Her run took the Delta D by surprise, so was unmarked, making it child’s play for Lissa to find her and put a pass right on Crewe’s cabeza. I award Crewe another attagirl for smartly heading the ball where the goalie did not expect it so had to watch it sail into the goal!”

Cera handed out a few more attagirls for fine plays, then passed the podium to Brit.

“I imagine that everyone can guess the winner of today’s game ball, and I’ll confirm that by awarding it to Cera for a particularly excellent recovery of a ball well outside the sideline. Congratulations, Cera.”

There was much chuckling, after which Brit added, “Seriously, now. She’s had two previous hat tricks this season, but neither of those showed the power and the promise that is our youngest team member. I sure hope that one of the parents videoed Krypton’s first goal because, while I’ve seen both Char and Rhee do some incredible things on the pitch, Civ’s first goal was jaw-dropping. She had to receive Lissa’s pass on her chest on the run with their deep-lying midfielder almost on her back, drop the ball to her feet, and immediately use Heather’s 270-degree clockwise turn to evade that stopper. Only three strides later, she pulled off a flawless counter-clockwise roulette that left their center back wondering where her short, panty, and in fact, her entire kit were. After those simple, boring maneuvers, she then made a hard fake at a rocket into the right side of the goal, did some fancy footwork I didn’t quite catch, and then sent a left-footed rocket into the left side of the net that the goalie simply watched scream past her.”

There was a bit of an uproar, with Civ getting her back nearly pummeled, but Brit yelled, “Settle!” She looked around, then quipped, “You’ve jumped the gun. There’s much more embarrassment I intend to pile onto Civ’s back.” There was much chuckling, after which Brit continued, “And, yes, Civ, you would need to take it if I truly had more embarrassment to provide, as though you’re the youngest of us, you’re the first to her third game-ball of the season. Congrats, Civia Palecek!”

There was much rejoicing.

We decided to do a park day. Celeste and Andy were in classes, Katie and Kai were working, and Rache was running various photo-oriented errands, including picking up her lighting in El Paso; we did not expect her until late afternoon.

We took the other 17 of us, including Mia and Taylor, to the park wearing t-shirts, short skirts or shorts, and panties, except for Brett who wore only a T and a trunk. After we ate lunch at our pavilion, we went to the playground and played around with the swings and various other equipment. Civia showed off her skill on the monkey bars. Meka watched Civia go through it once, then challenged her to time trials, and Civia won. She’s fearless on that thing, swinging long to take every third rung rather than every second as most do. Meka was also involved in getting Heather above the bar on the swing set.

“That was wicked! Thanks, Meka. I love you so much.”

There were a few other, younger, kids there, and various of us helped them on the swings or monkey bars or whatever, earning us thank-yous from various parents.

Rache returned shortly after 5:00.

“Ugh. I really hate El Paso. The traffic sucks. While Seamus refused to go to school there, if he had and if you girls hadn’t saved me, I probably would have wound up there. Again, thanks for saving me.”

As dinner came to an end, but with no one clearing the table, yet, Rache tapped her water glass with her fork.

When we all were facing her, she said, “This evening, I’m going to be unboxing, setting up, and playing with our new lighting, and I could use some help.” When she got many, many offers of assistance, she said, “Thanks, all. Young girls, you’re more than welcome to help, but please know that you won’t be seeing much or any of the photographic results resulting from the new lighting.”

Mare responded, “That’s because most of the photography you’ll do will be pornographic. Right?”

Rache gently replied, “No, Mare. We won’t be doing much of anything pornographic. I’m going to be delving into the erotic-photography market. While some might consider the two adjectives to be the same, they’re not. While there are certainly photos and literature that straddle the line between the two, most of what I want to do professionally is erotic. You can consider erotic as titillation or as causing sexual excitement; pornography, stripped to its base, is fucking, and meant solely to get its consumers to orgasm, and generally as quickly as possible. Yes, erotic photography and literature can lead one to orgasms, but much more subtly, less graphically, less ... sledgehammer. Do you see?”

“I think so.”

Civ asked, “Would you consider our portraits erotic?”

“No. Those are portraits that simply use nudity to help tell the story about the portrait. There’s no doubt that many guys ... and some girls ... would masturbate to those portraits. However, just because an artist or an author is trying to tell one story does not necessarily mean that viewers or readers won’t interpret a very different one. That’s beyond their power to control once the product of their vision leaves their hands. Beth, may I show them the photo of Heather with Belinda and Darren?”

“I think that would be fine. In fact, I think you should get us a large version of that to hang in our bedroom.” I turned to Civ and added, “Girls, the photo Rache mentioned shows the three of them together. There is nothing at all prurient depicted, despite the strong sexual flavor of the photo. A bit of Heather’s butt and part of one of her breasts is visible, but nothing else and none of the three are identifiable in the photo.

“Liya, let’s put that photo up on the big screen in the living room. It’s an excellent photo and an exemplar of erotic photography. It sets a very romantic, even loving mood, and ... No. I won’t say more until we can all look at it.”

A bit less than ten minutes later, with our dining-room table mostly cleared, Liya called us all to the living room. She said nothing, just lit the screen.

Mare softly said, “That looks like love.”

Civ responded in similar softness, “Doesn’t it? Rache, is this what you’re trying for?”

“While some of what I want to do will be more ... explicit, that photo presents the sort of photography I primarily want to do.”

Civ replied, “Rache, it’s beautiful, and I can fully support that. Beth, I agree that the photo needs to have a prominent place somewhere in our house. I wouldn’t object to it being in our bedroom or even here in the living room.” She sniffled, then added, “Rache, I was not firm enough. Please, continue to produce such beauty. And, Rache, if you ever take a photo that shows me in such a beautiful setting, I want my parents to have a copy, and I’ll gladly pay for it.”

“You’re welcome to copies of anything in which you’re a subject. That’s going to be my first rule with family. The cost of printing and framing is relatively low, and being a model should have some compensation. In fact, Civia and Mare, I’ve been thinking about a photo that shows the love you two have for each other, but it’s a nude. Would you be willing to do that?”

Mare replied, “If it’s as tasteful and beautiful as that, absolutely, and our parents would demand a copy of it for their walls, and probably in as large a format as possible. Goddess, that may be the most beautiful photo I’ve ever seen. And, Rache, like Civ, I’m entirely behind your career choice.” Much more tentatively, she asked, “Rache, w-would you be m-my ... official photographer?”

Rache furrowed her brow and asked, “What do you mean?”

“Rache, I’m pretty bright, and Civ’s even brighter. I understand what’s probably in my future. I saw all those photos of me in that dress on Saturday and the photo of me in just the foundation garments. I have a hard time seeing myself as the girl in those photos, but that girl should be a model. I know that I’ll have no control over who photographs me and in what, particularly at the beginning, but I can already see a need to present myself how I want to be presented, and I’d like you to be the photographer of those photos. I don’t know how you knew how to do that, but the photos you took of me look like you got out of me exactly what you wanted. You made me look prettier than I am.”