Chapter 252

July 20, 2018 (Friday)

Dear Ms. Diary,

At breakfast, Meka asked our visitors, “How was it last night?”

Both began replying, looked at each other, then Kanda answered, “It was great! Thanks for offering that. We’d been getting a bit ... frustrated at not having anywhere safe to ... learn more.”

“As we said,” responded Rache, “you’re welcome to sleep with us in the big bed or by yourselves in another room anytime you stay over, and we’ll definitely invite you back. Yesterday was very fun.”

Dakota rattled her brain, then responded, “I think the ... weirdest part of ... all this for us is that we ... discuss our feelings about each other and about sex with ... women. We’re only 14 and many of you are high-school grads and college students.”

Celeste replied, “It would be weirder for us if we weren’t married to girls only a year ... less than a year for most ... older than you two. However, I ... and we understand how that could seem odd to you, but we’re used to and comfortable with the age gap within the LA, so we don’t consider it odd talking with you about such personal things. Heck, we’re coming to think it’s not at all odd to be discussing sex with a ten-year-old girl.”

Kanda nodded, turned to Taylor, and said, “We both think you’re amazing, Girl! You’re ten, and you’re more comfortable talking about ... sex than we are. See! I have to think about saying, ‘sex.’ Although you don’t have sex ... at least with others, you know so much. I think I’d strongly consider trading moms to be as knowledgeable of sex and comfortable with talking about it as you are.”

“It’s the compound. Mom was teaching me stuff before we moved here, but, probably because of ... all the sex and talk of sex in the compound, Mom’s had to teach me a lot more, ‘cause I was always asking questions.”

“Yes, and that is the difference. The ... girls are open about sex and discuss it frequently, so the subject becomes ... less ... embarrassing, I guess.”

We had the two people movers at the practice pitch at 7:40. Our parents and Kath would ride in the Suburban to Santa Fe this afternoon, after each of them left work early. Raven had the day off and was riding with us. We LA girls split between the two vehicles, and Kanda and Dakota had seats in the Ford. None of the other girls were at the pitch when we arrived, and I had a sudden idea, one I quickly ran by the executive committee, and it earned their approval.

“Dakota, Kanda, we were thinking about the league tournament, which is on the first weekend of August in Paradise. Do you guys want to stay with us after practice on that Friday?”

Kanda answered, “We had such a great time yesterday that you can safely assume that we’ll accept any invitation to visit.”

“All right. While we don’t know what the travel plan will be, we’ll probably do like last year and go over there Saturday morning. You come home with us after practice, and we’ll do ... what we did this time.”

We stopped for a bathroom break midway to Santa Fe, and some of us took the opportunity to trade vehicles, including me. The Ford is obviously the better vehicle for us, for our team, who enjoyed having a vehicle-wide conversation in which we could all see each other, except, somewhat, for the driver. As our four drivers switched off and we continued our trip north, Kanda and Dakota intrigued a few others of our team about the compound and, particularly, the pool.

“Although we didn’t get a lot of free time in the pool, since we were taking Seamus’ lifesaving course, the pool is pretty big and the ... compound is really cool!” Dakota carried on with, “The team party there should be great!”

Rathi responded, “Have you put together your team-party committee, yet?”

Dakota replied, “Um, not where I want it. I wanted to ask if you’d take part, but...”

“I’d love to be on the committee.”

“You would?”

“Yes. I have some ideas.”

“Rathi, I’d love to have you join us! Could you meet on Sunday some time?” When Rathi nodded, Dakota finished with, “Great! We could all meet at my house for lunch, the two of us, you, and Zala.”

We worked through Albuquerque traffic – which was not bad around 11:30, and arrived in Santa Fe proper about an hour later, with our first stop being Joe’s Dining for lunch and bathrooms, although that should probably be bathrooms and lunch, given the needs of some of us. One of the staff met us at the door somehow, and he seated us in three groups, with nearly a third of us at four pushed-together tables. Once we got to the menus, I was captivated by the burger options. While the green chile cheeseburger made with buffalo meat sounded great, as soon as I saw the listing for the Greek Lamb Burger with toppings of feta, kalamatas, and tzatziki sauce, I was sold, and, boy, was that good! Celeste later told me she had gotten that, too, and agreed with my two-thumbs-up review.

We did a walking tour of downtown to kill some time before we could check into the hotel where we had most of a single floor. We chilled there, with all our doors open, girls moving among the rooms to chat and compare notes. After a couple hours of socializing, we had to shower and get dressed for dinner.

When much of the LA got back together, Mare stated, “I’m spoiled by our huge shower. It’s ... so much better showering how we do it.”

“I agree! It’s great!” Everyone turned to look at Taylor, who responded, “What? It is. The best part is getting different girls as my buddy. I ... I really ... feel like ... part of the big family and I love having such a large one! But why can’t ... one of the guys be a buddy of one of us young girls? I can see a way that it could work.”

“How’s that,” asked Liya.

“If we four are all in a line facing the same way, and that would be facing the south wall, then one of us ... or even two of us could have a guy for a buddy without breaking the ... rules about seeing naked fronts.”

Liya looked at me, then Meka, who responded slowly, “Hmm, that ... might work.” She furrowed her brow, then asked, “Liya?”

Liya shrugged, “It would work, as far as the visual thing. And the use of the loofahs makes it work for the touching aspect of the rules.”

Meka stated, “Good thinking, Taylor. I think we’ll have an LA meeting this weekend on the subject.”

“Thanks, Meka. This is ... why I love it here ... why I love being in the compound.”

We met all the parents who made the trip north at the restaurant. All of the super-family parents were there, as were Rathi’s, Lissa’s, Crewe’s, and Dakota’s moms; Haven’s, Mila’s, Parkinson’s, Kanda’s, Zahira’s, Char’s, and Abby’s parents; and Zala’s dad.

The huge surprise was that both of Seamus’ parents were there, and he walked up to some of us with them and said, “Mom, Dad, I’ll try to get you to meet all the team, but I want to start with the ... ringleaders. These are my parents, Opal and Dominic. Mom, Dad, these are Beth Williams, Rhee Devlin, Meka Johnson, Heather Wilkerson, and Liya Nadhi. Beth, Rhee, and Heather are players and Meka and Liya are staff, with Liya being Coach’s organizer, a job at which she excels.”

His mother was obviously the social leader of his parents, as she smiled at us and said, “Seamus has been extolling your ... team’s many virtues. It’s also obvious that he truly likes his job. Thanks for making his first time being a coach good for him.”

Meka replied, “We’ve enjoyed Seamus being part of the team. He’s a really good guy, Opal, and you should be proud of him. We also greatly appreciate him in his role as swimming and lifesaving instructor, and we’ll probably be inviting him to our compound more frequently to fill those roles.”

Dominic cocked his head and asked, “Compound?”

“We ... that is, the various parents ... own three neighboring houses on four adjacent lots, large lots, and we’ve got a fence enclosing all of them, and we have a lap pool. So, compound.”

We chatted with them for another minute or so, after which we found seats. After many servers took our dinner orders – we had four dishes from which to select, Coach stood at her place on one side of the room.

“For those who don’t know me, I’m Coach Pam Virtanen. I want to extend hearty welcomes and thank-yous to the parents who made the trek north to watch the team play one of the residential teams that are the sources of the lion’s share of professional women soccer players in the U. S. We’ve never played any of this sort of teams, but the incredibly high caliber across the board of this team gives us hope that we can play them well. Perhaps there’s little chance that we can beat them, but the game can give us an indicator of how our girls measure up.

“I want to announce to all that in the case of a regulation-time draw, the two teams have agreed that we’ll call an end to the game, without either extended time or penalty kicks. All of us have a long drive back home, so the end of regulation time will be the end of the game. That means that the game should end around noon.”

She went on to say a few general words about our team, its record and accomplishments, then sat, after which conversation picked up around the room until our orders began being delivered. Relative to Joe’s Dining, the dinner was disappointing, but the camaraderie made up for its lack. Before I knew it, we were finished and headed back to the hotel.

We repeated the afternoon’s open-doors socializing in the various rooms, with Crewe providing the only notable occurrence.

During a conversation with me, she glanced around, then quietly said, “I’ve wanted to ... invite myself to visit with you girls for a while, now. I talked with Kanda earlier and what she said... [she breathed deeply once] ... helped me get up the nerve. Could I get an invitation to visit you girls?”

I kept a grin off my face at her asking that question so rapidly, then told her, “I’ll have to put it past the girls, but we might do that. When were you thinking?”

“Anytime, really. All I’ve got is soccer and helping Mom with the house. I ... There aren’t any girls ... or boys ... of similar age around me and I don’t live close to any of the team.”

“Thus,” I added, “you’re bored most of the summer.” When I raised my eyebrows at her in question, she nodded, so I told her, “We’ll talk about that. Weekdays are easiest for us and, if we would do that next week, Thursday after practice would be the best option. In the following weeks, Thursdays would also be best.”

“Thanks, Beth.”

I mentally rolled my eyes, not at Crewe, but at teammates suddenly asking to visit with us, but asked her, “Assuming your mom works, how do you get to practice?”

“We’re friends with a woman across the street. I used to spend summer days at her house while Mom was at work, but I’m allowed to be at home by myself now. That woman, who calls herself my honorary grandmother – and she’s really that, drives me to home games and practice and picks me up after.”

“If the girls are fine with you visiting – and they probably will be, and if you visit on a Thursday, it might be easiest on your adoptive grandmother if you stay over. She could pick you up after the game next Friday or after practice the Friday after that.”

“Really?”

“Sure, but that assumes that the girls will agree and that nothing comes up to change our plans.”

She smiled at me and said, “Thanks, Beth. I’d love to do that.”

July 21, 2018 (Saturday)

Dear Ms. Diary,

I woke with Rhee and Heather in our king. I knew I was with those two because I remembered last night, but also because I could feel Rhee’s breasts against my back and Heather’s pretty little titties under my left arm. The queen also in the room housed Gracey and Liya.

The five of us had had a brief chat last night about Emma Crewe and her hoped-for visit, but then did some five-girl debauchery in the king after which we continued loving in our separate beds. Since we were not leaving the hotel until 8:30, I snuggled back into Rhee a bit.

I woke again at our 7:15 alarm. Since we were in it just to wash last night’s sex off us, Heather and I joined Liya in the shower which was a tight fit; Rhee and Gracey showered after we exited.

Breakfast was the typical hotel offering, after which we packed, donned our uniforms and sweats, checked out, and loaded into the two vehicles for the 20-minute trip to our opponents’ complex, where we picked up a guide at the first building we encountered. I admit that I goggled at that complex as we rode through it, with its eight full-size pitches and sundry other training fields as well as a running track.

Rathi remarked, “I could see this place being useful.”

I grinned at her and asked, “Just a wee bit better off than us, huh?”

She returned the grin and responded, “Just a bit.”

The guide pointed out various buildings, particularly their school and gymnasium, and I quietly asked Rathi, “How does a soccer team afford all this?”

Rathi shrugged, then asked, “Donors?”

I returned her shrug.

We had gone through the usual pre-game workouts, easy run, and drills and the game was about to start, when Coach called, “Gather ‘round!”

She looked slowly around at all of us, then smiled and told us, “Take it to ‘em!”

It was Krypton’s turn to start and we trotted onto the pitch after we had won the toss, and we set up to defend a kickoff.

That team is good, certainly so relative to our league, but we held our own. Gracey and Rathi combined to scotch a deep intrusion into our D in the first few minutes of play, after which the ball moved up and down the pitch, but neither team made a dangerous foray until near the midway point of the half. Unfortunately, that foray ended with a brilliant shot by their left wing that curled around Marli and into the upper-right of our goal.

In our pre-kickoff huddle after the goal, I spoke five words: Thing of Beauty, new wrinkle.

The new wrinkle was something some of us had put together on the way north yesterday. We had added a tiny bit of dribbling, another pass, and a slightly different job for Rhee to the design, making it slightly more complex but, we thought, possibly more confusing for the defense. It also took advantage of more of our front-line speed.

Char and Rhee lined up as if Char were going to kick off to Rhee, but at the whistle, she sent it back to me as Rhee tore out heading upfield at full speed, Heather doing the same at right wing. I was a bit surprised that Char didn’t call out to tell me their center striker was coming at me hard, but I booted the ball back to Rathi, then turned to see their center forward was in a defensive posture in their half of the pitch. As I noted that their wings had moved into our half perhaps 15 yards, their attitude seemed quite defensive, and I briefly wondered if that was their typical response to getting first blood. I decided that if that was so, there would be more of the personnel well back, which might make it difficult to complete The Thing of Beauty. I increased speed on my way upfield.

I saw Rathi’s long pass sail by and watched as Rhee held off a defender with her back to the girl as she chested the ball out a bit, then wheeled on the ball with her right foot and sent it up to Heather, then wheeled the other way to go around her defender and head upfield at pace. At that point I saw that we would have to improvise as Heather was facing two defenders, not just one.

I saw Rhee flash the double-g sign at Heather, so I altered my direction a bit to get to the middle of the pitch, longitudinally as I saw Heather initiate the double give-and-go with Rhee. She angled a pass inward and downfield to Rhee, then sprinted past her immediate defender.

I grabbed a look at Civ and found her looking at me, so I flashed her a relatively new sign, the ISL gesture for the letter “M.” She gave me a quick thumb, then backed away and drifted downfield a bit. I returned my attention to Rhee and Heather to see Rhee running onto the second give and with Heather moving inward and downfield. I was briefly confused at why they had given up on the second go pass, but it came to me, so I snuck a corner-of-the-eye peek to my left, nodded, then prepared to receive Rhee’s pass from outside the downfield-right corner of the penalty box. As the ball approached me, I snagged another left-eye peek and hoped Civ would see the hole I did. I had to assume she would, so sent Char the signs for left and low.

When the ball reached me, I was already holding off their center half on my back, so I wheeled keeping the defender on my left hip so I was inside of her, then sent a right-footed grass-grazer to Char that she immediately wheeled on to send a soft line-drive pass about waist height to where she hoped Civ would be. As their goalie scrambled to get back to her right, Civ, mimicking Mia’s Ghost persona, surprised their D and dove at the ball, heading it toward our right side of the goal. Almost immediately after she headed the ball, their right center back’s right foot struck Civ hard in the chest. Civ hit the ground out of control.

I ignored the ball, as I had already gauged its trajectory, and ran to Civ and met Char there who was already trying to soothe Civ writhing on the pitch in pain and trying not to cry.

The ref blew her whistle.

I turned to flash the “V” sign at Rhee. She nodded, then sprinted for our bench.

The ref stepped over to check on Civ, then whistled for play stoppage and looked to the sideline and obviously saw Coach hustling onto the pitch, or, at least, hustling as quickly as she could. The home team’s apparent medical staff also began heading our way.

When she arrived, I explained what had happened.

“I doubt Civ can continue, at least, not for a while.”

Coach nodded, grabbed Char, and told her, “Go tell Tonda to get ready. She’s coming in.” When Char sprinted toward our bench, Coach asked, “How do you think we should use Tonda in this line?”

“I think she makes a better wing than either Char or Rhee.”

“I agree. I know Civ has increased her speed, but Tonda’s even faster, so let’s use that front-line speed.”

I nodded, after which Coach joined the med staff, who were helping Civ to her feet, pain still etched deeply on her face.

Coach quietly said, “You’re coming out. Let’s see how you feel after halftime. Perhaps you can get some pitch time with Argon.”

Civ, grimacing, nodded. Rhee half-helped her to the sideline, then returned to the pitch where we set up to defend their kickoff.

“Gather ‘round!”

Coach looked around at us slowly, then said, “I’m so proud of this team. You played a whale of a game against the best team we’ve faced this year, against a residential team that gets year-round play, coaching, and learning. You showed that team ... but, more importantly, you showed yourselves ... that you can play with anyone. Congratulations to each lineup for drawing that team, although Argon had to get a bit frantic at the end to maintain that draw. Despite that they had you on the run somewhat in the last few minutes, you didn’t panic. No one gave up. You played superb D against their all-out attempt to wrangle a fourth goal. I’m going to steal a bit of Kim’s thunder to hand out an attagirl to Kanda for her goal-saving slide tackle. That was both elegant and superb. Superb in timing. Elegant in getting all ball. Kanda, that was one of the best tackles I’ve seen in my long time in soccer.”

Dakota could not help but throw an arm around her best friend and pull her in with a one-arm hug.

Coach smiled at Kanda and Dakota, then said, “Take it away, Kim.”

“Kanda, Coach stole my loudest thunder. I was going to end with that one!”

There was much chuckling, but Kim continued with quite a few attagirls, then turned the floor over to Liya.

“For your excellent play today, the team gets tomorrow off.” There was much groaning at Liya’s witticism, at which she grinned, then stated, “Shower here, then we’ll board our transpo and head home. One of our games next week has hit a snag. While our Monday – against Midland – and Wednesday –against non-league Tacoma – games, both at home, are both a go, our final game of the regular season was to be on Friday, also at home. However, Springfield needs to reschedule for some reason. There’s a good chance we’ll have to move the game up a day to Thursday, but we’ll let you know what transpires, hopefully sooner rather than later.