“Trust me, girls, you don’t want to know.”
“Everyone gather around, please.” Aiden’s voice was loud and booming, and I noticed that he didn’t even glance in my direction as he spoke.
“Someone’s upset the bear,” Henry said with a laugh and looked at me.
“Not me,” I said and made a face.
“It’s always you, Alice,” Liv said with a grin. “It’s always you.”
***
“Run Alice, run!” Liv screamed as I ran down the field with the ball in my hands. I was in shock as I held it close to my body and continued dashing down the field. I could see the marking lines that Aiden had spray painted in the grass, even though I was pretty sure that they were against the rules of the park. That had shocked me because Aiden was someone who never broke the rules.
“Keep going, Alice!” Liv screamed, and I made the mistake of looking back. Scott was a few feet away from me, and Henry was close behind him. I was praying that Henry got to Scott before Scott got to me. I could also see Aiden coming up fast behind Henry, and Elizabeth was farther back on the field near Xander and Liv. I gasped for air as I turned back around. I could see one of the guys on my team signaling to me to throw him the ball, but I didn’t want to pass the game-winning touchdown to some guy whose name I didn’t even know. I wanted to be the MVP of the game. I didn’t want the guys to just look at Liv and me as two silly girls with no business being on the field. We weren’t like Elizabeth: we didn’t run marathons; we didn’t play pickup basketball at the Y; and we weren’t hiking up mountains or surfing in the Pacific Ocean along the coast of one of the Hawaiian Islands. We were just average, regular girls who liked to have fun and played sports for some excitement in our lives. I knew the guys thought we were pretty worthless on the field, especially me. I mean, I couldn’t blame them. I wasn’t in the best shape, but I knew if I scored this touchdown and scored the winning points, I’d be looked at with new eyes. This was about the game. In this moment, I didn’t care about Aiden or Scott or Henry or whatever other guy might be interested in me. I didn’t care about looking pretty or sexy. I didn’t care about being witty. I didn’t care about making Aiden jealous. All I cared about was winning. And I knew that in this moment, for the first time in my life, I was a sportswoman. A true, dedicated and fearless sportswoman. I kept my head down and ignored the pain in my stomach and the cramps in my legs. I was not going to slow down. I was not going to let the pain win. I was nearly there.
“You’ve nearly got it, Alice!” Liv screamed, and I charged forward. I felt a hand grazing my back and I knew that Scott nearly had me.
“Oh no you don’t!” I screamed and threw my body forward as I saw the line Aiden had made right in front of me. “Touchdown!” I screamed as I fell to the ground and hit the ball against the grass. “Touchdown!” I screamed again in excitement, tears and sweat pouring down my face.
“Move over, Alice!” Scott groaned as he came charging towards me.
“What?” My body was frozen in shock as he came crashing down on me, his body feeling like a ton of bricks as he fell forward. “Ow!” I cried out, as my already aching bones screamed out in pain. His knees nudged my stomach painfully, and I cried out again. “Ooww!” I moaned as he looked over at me.
“Nice touchdown.” He grinned down at me, his blue eyes sparkling as he wiped mud off of his face.
“Thank you,” I said lightly and tried to push him off of me.
“Oh, sorry.” He laughed and jumped up. “I guess you can say you’re a seasoned player now.”
“I guess so.” I groaned as I tried to stand up. “Ugh.” I moaned and grabbed my knee. “I think I cut myself.”
“We won! We won!” Liv screamed and grinned as she came running towards me. “We’re the champions, Alice!”
“Yay.” I smiled and groaned again, as the pain in my knee got worse and worse.
“What’s wrong?” Suddenly Aiden was in front of me, his face looking grim.
“I hurt my knee,” I said in a low voice. “And no need to be pissed, because we won.”
“I’m not pissed,” he said with a frown and kneeled down to the ground. “I’m going to pull your pants leg up so I can check your knee, okay?”
I nodded mutely and watched as he pulled the right leg of my exercise pants up. We both stared at my bloody knee, and I groaned.
“Oh my God, I’m injured.” I frowned and Aiden looked at me with a concerned face.