Chapter 4

Thursday, 02 August 2018

I’m jealous. Kanda, Dakota, and Crewe got to go to the compound after practice. For a while, I wondered why I felt jealous, but then wondered if it was because... “our guys” would be there. The skinny is that the two guys have sex with all those girls. Although none of us knows anything definitively, they sure are comfortable with each other.

This evening while walking past Dad’s closed door, I heard him groan something like, “ ... it when you order me to...”

I was beyond his door before I heard the end of that and I didn’t want to hear any more, so kept heading to the bathroom but tried to figure out what he’d been talking about while I peed. Anything I came up with was weird or disturbing ... or both.

Saturday, 04 August 2018

WE WON!

Not that we didn’t expect to win, as we were undefeated in the regular season. However, we won the league tournament, so got to hoist the big trophy! I wasn’t on this team last year when they won, and that was the first time that Coach won this trophy and we’re all happy winning her second for her. Everyone says she’s the best coach anyone has had in soccer, and that was even before we introduced undies-only locker-room rules.

I’m so happy! I’d never won anything of any note, particularly nothing in soccer, until last fall when we won our school’s league title. I’m happy enough that it doesn’t bother me that Watermelon Mountain got a goal from a penalty kick they got because the ball hit my arm in the penalty box. Coach thought it wasn’t worth worrying about, too.

This has been such a great season for me. I’ve gotten somewhat out of my shyness; just somewhat. But the team is just so much fun and so good. And the reason everyone’s loved this season is that Coach had our lineup, the Argon lineup – which would have been backups on nearly any other team, so wouldn’t have gotten that much playing time, Coach had the two lineups split halves of games. Sometimes Emma Crewe would come in for me during one of our halves, but that was mostly in the first half of the season before we realized that Crewe did a good job at right half, too.

Despite that virtually all of the best players were on the Krypton lineup, those girls didn’t complain about playing only halves. Probably part of the reason they weren’t all sad about playing time is they kicked everyone’s butt! And Rhee was amazing. She won the league’s scoring title last year in a landslide, getting more than 40 goals! She got only 25 league goals this year, but she didn’t bitch and moan having to share the front line with Char and Civ, and she even got pulled back as a second sweeper or a halfback at times. I don’t think I’ve ever played on a team with a forward that would have given up so much time on the ball in possible scoring situations, even if the team was a bit better with Rhee having more defense duties than most strikers.

It’s too bad that so many of us, including me, age out of this league after this year. I might never be part of such a great team, again. But, oh man, it was so fun. Winning, yes. Lots and lots of winning. Even better, though, was how close the team became through the season. I sure hope we can keep doing things as a group, ‘cause I’ve never had so many good friends. And they’re now even better friends, as the LA girls introduced their showering system, in which girls get paired in the shower and one washes her partners’ back while that partner washes her own front. Once that’s complete, the two turn around and trade tasks. The team shower is now another wonderful thing to enjoy with ... all of my best friends, ever.

Monday, 06 August, 2018

Practice today was a bummer. Although I know I already mentioned her, Meka Johnson graduated from high school back in May, and I met her the previous fall on our school team. I was ... and am ... in awe of her. She’s a two-time All-State first-team fullback, and far and away the best fullback I’ve ever known. I was happy that I made the team, but so thankful, because I learned so much from Meka.