Chapter 70

October 4, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

“You might look at yesterday’s scores,” Dad said as we girls arrived in the kitchen for breakfast.

The task was easy, as Dad had left the sports page open for us. Rhee sat and picked up the paper. A few seconds later, she exclaimed.

“Whoa! Petaluma drew with Boynton, 3-3! That left wing, Tanaka, had a hat trick!”

“Wow,” Gracey responded. “That’s good for the team, not so good for Rhee.”

Sandy asked, “Why would that be?”

Rhee answered, “The team is now two points up on Boynton for the league lead, that despite our slow start. Tanaka now has twice as many league goals as I do.”

“I’m sorry, Rhee.”

“That’s not a problem. I certainly did not start the season thinking that I’d win the scoring title as a freshman. I’m happy I’m starting. I’m happy with the team and that we’re now in first place, although, we’re only four games in of a league season of 12 games. However, we need to beat Boynton next time. There are...” [she looked down at the newspaper, then back up at Sandy] three teams that are one and three, and both Boynton and us ... and Petaluma should all beat those teams twice each. The league leader at the end of the season will probably be the team that avoids two league losses. Of course, there’s a league tournament involving the top four teams, as there was in the premier league, so the most important thing is being in the top four, and we’re almost assured of that. Shameka will make sure we make that, as she wants to graduate having won two straight league titles.

“I did notice that someone in this room is tied for the lead in assists, with whomever is feeding Tanaka goal ops.”

“I noticed that, too,” Dad said.

As Brett sat at our table, he said “hi” to each girl individually, the Go5 as well as Brittany and Cera. He was red, but he managed it. We girls looked at him as if he were something we had never seen before. All, that is, except for Liya.

“Hi, Brett. How is your day so far?”

Brett’s face went a bit redder, but he answered, “Okay.”

“Are you coming to our game this afternoon?”

He nodded, glanced quickly around, then said, “I am, despite that I know almost nothing about soccer.”

That instigated a quick lesson in the basics of soccer, with Heather and Liya doing most of the explaining, but with the rest of the Go5 and Cera filling in here and there, with reference to hastily sketched illustrations in Gracey’s notebook. Brett obviously became comfortable in the process, as he was not red for most of it. He even asked a question at the end.

“Do you play, Cera? You seem to know a lot about the game.”

“I did when I was young, but I’m not very athletic, so I gave it up. My older brother is on the varsity team, and he’s played as long as I can remember. I’ve been to ... a lot of his games. Shameka’s also a cousin ... of sorts. Third cousin? Something like that”

“You say that like you would have preferred to do something else,” Rhee said.

“No, I like going. I might have one of the best older brothers around. He’s always been nice to me, helped me. We’ve had our times, but, for the most part, I’ve spent my life looking up to him. Now, my younger brother I’d trade in a heartbeat.”

There was much chuckling, including from Brett.

“See, Brett. We girls aren’t that scary,” Liya said.

“I don’t know,” Cera responded. “Shameka’s pretty scary.”

“Yeah, but that’s only if you’re on the other team. Shameka’s great,” I exclaimed.

“Yeah, she is,” came from behind me.

I turned to see Shameka stopping right behind me and grinning over my head. That grin was obviously aimed at Cera, who was sitting across the table from me.

“You set me up. Didn’t you,” I asked her.

Cera grinned and nodded enthusiastically.

“Beth,” Shameka said as she put a hand on my left shoulder, “donchu be dissin’ mah cuz.” She squeezed my shoulder slightly, then slipped back into her usual way of speaking, asking, “And who is this delightful specimen of XY chromosomes?”

I turned as a grin broke across my face to see Brett glowing red. Liya looked at me, lifting her chin.

“This boy doing his best imitation of a ripe tomato is Brett Jacobs. Brett, meet the terror of soccer pitches throughout the state, Shameka Johnson. He and I have been in school together as long as there’s been school. While we used to play together a bit when we were really young, the rest of us are only just getting to know him.”

Shameka reached across me, hand extended. Brett looked at her hand for a couple of seconds, until Cera elbowed him.

He shook his head, then her hand as she said, “Nice to meet you, Brett. Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you ... unless you hurt my cousin or teammates.”

She gave him a huge grin, then turned to me.

“I’m going your way after the game, so can give you girls a ride home if you want.”

“Thanks, but both Rhee’s mom and my parents will be here, so we’re covered.”

At the pitch after school, Gracey said, “Ah, the second of three home games in one week. Too bad we can’t play ‘em all here. Besides not having to get on a bus to go to a game, we also get to be in our history class. I think Mr. Jameson doesn’t like it when a quarter of the class is on a bus to some other school.”

“Yeah. Of all the classes to have all five of us, that’s probably the one that we, perhaps, should have avoided. Oh, well.”

“Yeah. I like his class,” Gracey responded, “and I feel a bit guilty about missing so many of them. He makes it interesting. I’m sure you remember American History last year with Mr. Borrr-ing. I would gladly have missed that class and dealt just with the book.”

“That is the truth, sister mine,” responded Liya.

We had completed our stretches and warmups by the time the East team bus pulled up, so I said to the Go6 members, “Shall we go welcome Rathi as Ann, Haven, and Zala did for us?”

We ambled over to the bus, arriving just as Rathi stepped out.

She gave us a big smile and said, “Hey, guys! It’s good to see you!”

The six of us each hugged her, and we spent a couple minutes catching up.

Rathi then said, “Rhee, you’re only tied for third. What’s the deal? Forget how to put it in the net?”

“Nah. I’m just giving everyone else a chance before I bury them getting 20 goals in the next eight games.”

Rathi grinned, then said to me, “I saw that you had a hat-trick of assists on Monday, so I know it’s not your fault that Rhee is so far behind this Tanaka girl.”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Heather exclaimed. “You guys played them before we did. We went to school on you and the other teams that played against her. She had a really pretty goal against us, but Gracey mostly kept her under wraps.”

“I had help from Katie, Kim, and the center back without compare, Shameka.”

“Hi, Rathi,” Coach said as she joined us. “I’m hearing good things about you ... that you’re starting.”

Rathi quickly glanced around, then answered glibly, “Hi, Coach. Yeah, I am, although it’s not as fun as the premier team. We...”

The way she stopped, then shook her head suggested to me that she was going to say something less-than-flattering about East’s team.

Coach nodded at her, then said, “I came over to get my missing team members, as we’ve got some discussion and drills to do. It’s nice to see you, Rathi.”

“Later, Coach. Later, everyone.”

Back with the rest of the team, Coach called all to order.

“As we discussed yesterday, Rose is starting in goal and Hope will replace her at the start of the second half. How the first half goes will inform on what substitutions we’ll be making. We’re running the 3-2-3-2, with Rhee and Heather up front. Also as we discussed yesterday, their center midfielder is only a freshman, but she is quite good. Other teams have been successful by avoiding her and bringing the ball up the wings. Jess, Jules ... and your backups, you may see a lot of the ball at your feet today. Possession should be the name of the game today, but don’t be afraid to make runs and deep lobs if you see the chance. Shameka, cover anything else in the huddle that you feel needs touching on again. Now, go do the usual drills.”

In the pre-game huddle, Shameka started with, “Katie and Gracey are going to switch back to their usual sides, which means, Rachel, that if you see a good op to make a sideline run, go for it. Gracey, watch for her going upfield and cover for her if needed. Katie, Gracey, Beth, if you’re going to insist on moving up the middle of the field, use your passing skills and the Brits and our strikers. As Coach said, we want to keep possession as much as possible. Beth ... or anyone, do you have a kick-off play?”

Before I could say something, Gracey said, “I have a suggestion.” When Shameka gave her the go-ahead, she said, “Could we try to overload their right side on the kick-off? I thought that we could line up as per usual, but as soon as Rhee or whomever kicks off, have Rachel haul down the left side, along with Jess and Rhee, with Beth being an outlet.”

I probably was not alone in staring in surprise at Gracey. If Heather was surprised, she recovered first, as she said, “That’s a good idea, Gracey. I assume that you’d cover for Rachel. Jess, Beth, what do you think?”

I looked at Jess, pointing my chin at her; she took the cue.

“I like it. Putting on my Beth hat, Jules, that might give you a chance to sneak in the backside on a cross. Beth?”

“You beat me to the punch, Jess. I’m really liking this. Jules, you might want to play a delay and let Heather keep the left side of their back line occupied, then come in hard. Heather, fake like you’re going to send the kick-off back, but send it to Rhee. Rhee, don’t mess with Rathi. Once you get past their forward, send it left and parallel the ball upfield. Everyone, speed will be of the essence, so don’t hold back. If or when we get that far, we can flood the left side of the box. Heather, make sure about their left back.”

“Will do.”

“Okay,” said Shameka. “If we don’t get the kick-off at the start, we will probably do something else for the second half kick-off, as Rachel may well have already let her cat out of the bag in the first half. However, Gracey, that was a good idea. Let’s keep that in our arsenal for future games, particularly if we don’t use it here.”

East got the opening kick-off. Of course.

We were up 2-0 at the half and relinquished neither the lead nor the shutout. Everyone got in the game, including Mila, who got a stint in place of Heather in the middle of the second half, when we were up 4-0. Rhee got tripped in the penalty box and she suggested that Mila take the PK.

“Come on! You’ve all seen her in shooting practice. She’s really good! She can do it” Rhee insisted.

Since Shameka was off the field, Katie said, “I agree, particularly as Rhee thinks it’s a good idea despite that she could be giving up a hat trick to have Mila do it. Mila, do you want to do it?”

“Sure!”

Mila psyched out that goalie by using her outside right. The shot was not even close to the right post, but the goalie had dived to her right, so it mattered not at all.

“Settle!”

After the talking and laughing ceased, Coach said, “Good game! My first attagirl goes to the entire D – starters and backups, which threw another shutout. I want to point out that the D gave up four goals in the first two games. Before anyone on the D complains, I’ll concede that one of those was a PK and another a corner-kick set-piece. One of the other two was that beautiful play on which Tanaka scored last game through absolutely no fault of Mila’s. One of the important bits behind the story, however, is that we didn’t have our O in gear in those first two games. We didn’t have the right formation and then we didn’t have much experience in the right formation. Since then, our time of possession has been ratcheting upward, crossing 50 percent and being in excess of 60 percent over the past two games with today’s probably approaching 70 percent. It’s hard to score if you don’t have the ball.

“Attagirls go to Mila for her first high-school goal and to, apparently, Rhee for insisting that Mila take the PK.”

There was much chuckling.

“That was a good shot, Mila. You fooled her completely. Moving on, a hearty attagirl to Jess for out-assisting Beth today. Those were both lovely crosses. I believe that the goals that Heather and Rhee scored off those crosses suggest that they would agree with me.”

There was much laughing.

“An attagirl to all the backups who not only played well enough to avoid letting our lead diminish, but even caused our lead to increase. Although Mila scored the goal off the PK, the PK was a result of a set of lovely passing by Nicole, Lucia, and Mila to get the ball to Rhee so that she could have her shins broken by their center back.”

There was much laughing.

After the laughter died down, Rhee said, “Hey! That hurt! Don’t I get an attagirl for taking one for the team?”

There was much laughing.

“Okay. Sure. You can have two attagirls and you can decide whether you got one for the slight bump you got in the penalty box and the other for your two goals, or one for each goal.”

There was much laughing.

“Rachel Beck made a number of well-chosen runs up the left side. She was instrumental in both of the assists that Jess garnered and served up a lovely cross for Rhee’s second goal. Those runs and her stalwart defense, shutting down their right wing entirely, earn her the game ball. Congratulations, Rachel, and thanks for a superbly played game!”

October 6, 2017

Dear Ms. Diary,

[Written October 8]

“Hey, Charlize!”

“Hey, Civia,” she responded, while she hid with her body the hand stop sign she gave Civia.

Civia saw it in time to stop in place and not hug Charlize.

“Hi, gang,” Charlize continued. “I see that Beth is up to her usual exploits, being in the top three in assists in your league.”

“She is, although, as Coach said on Wednesday, she got out-assisted on Wednesday by our left half,” Rhee said. “How many games have you guys gotten to play?”

“This will be number five and we’ve got two more scheduled, with a long shot at an eighth game. We’ll see.”

As her teammates headed on to the visiting dugout, Charlize relaxed a bit.

Quietly, she said, “I’m sorry, but that pain-in-the ... whatever who caused so many problems on our premier team actually thought that I’d throw a game just because you guys are friends of mine. Grrrrrhh! She’s so freaking annoying. I wish our coach would catch her at some of the shit she does, but...”

“I’m sorry, Charlize,” I said. “This should be mostly fun for all of you and help develop you and anyone else that might play in college. Has it been worth it?”