I was so excited when I got the call. Five months and I would be playing in a big stadium, in front of a big crowd. Finally making my international debut.
Month one was great, I got to tell everyone around me that I would be playing for the national team in just a few months. When I told my dad about it, I was sitting at the kitchen bench, looking down at the marble countertop in order to look disheartened. He marched in the front door, carrying two paper bags in one hand and a bottle of milk in the other. “Oh no, what’s the matter Lexie?” He sighed, his mood seemingly changing when he saw me down. I stared blankly at the countertop in silence for a few seconds, before jumping up in enthusiasm. “I got the call!” I squealed, jumping up and down at the same time. “No way! You’re gonna be playing with all the big girls now.” He said, with a large grin sweeping across his face.
My little sister, Madeleine, however, was not as thrilled when I announced it to her. “What do you want?” She asked angrily as I opened the door. She was lying on her bed, tossing a ball up into the air and catching it continuously.
“Guess what…” I said excitedly. “I got into the team!” When I announced this, she didn’t even shift her focus from the ball. The expression on her face seemed empty, it didn’t appear to be the same grin that Dad had shown earlier that day.
“Good for you, I guess,” She said, and then continued to look at the ceiling.
When I went to school the next day, I told almost anyone who would listen. Before classes started, I headed over to the picnic table, where all my friends usually sat. Casey was sitting there, hunched over a book that was lying open on the table. Matt was sitting across from her, scrolling on his phone. I ran over to them, buzzing with excitement. “Guys, you’ll never guess what happened yesterday… I got a call, and I’m in the team!” I exclaimed. Casey jumped up ecstatically like she was a dog who was just told that it is going out for a walk.
“I know a real life famous athlete! Do you know what this means? I’m basically the famous best friend! You are going to be playing on TV, Lexie. Do you know how exciting that is? I can’t wait!” she let out this excited little squeal. Matt was also quite excited, however not as extravagantly excited as Casey.
“Bet no one else at this school is dating a famous athlete like I am.” He announced, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.
Month two was good as well. I lived everyday in happiness, knowing that every time the sun set I was one step closer to game day. I continued to play for the school team, and trained twice as hard as I did before. Every afternoon, if I didn’t have training with my coach and team, I would be training in the gym, and then I would go home and complete any homework that I had enough energy for. Casey kept playing with me, stating that if she trained with the professionals it would make her play better. Matt and I still found time out of school and training to hang out, which was always fun. He was like my time to relax. I always felt refreshed after being with him for a while. Often, we would go on late night drives to a fast food restaurant in a different town, just because we could. We would talk about literally anything, and we knew each other like we had been friends for hundreds of years.
Month three had me training harder than I had ever trained before. I wanted to make sure that I was worthy, so that my place wasn’t given to someone else. I would never be not training, if I wasn’t at school or not asleep. My grades started to drop, but it didn’t really bother me, seeing as I would be done with school in a couple of months anyway. What was starting to bother me was my sister. She continuously was doing pranks and stupid things to try and hurt me so that I couldn’t play when the time came. One time, she put dishwashing soap in the shower so that it would become slippery and I would fall over. I did, but not hard enough to cause any damage. Just hard enough for me to yell and wake the next door neighbour’s baby up. Another time she put a couple of lines of clear string along the bottom parts of the stairs, hoping that I would catch my ankle on some of them and trip up. However, what she didn’t realise was that the bits of string were too weak and snapped when I walked up the stairs, so I didn’t fall over. I knew what she was trying to do. For once in her life it wasn’t all about her, and I was stealing too much of the attention she usually receives. I didn’t care though, what harm could a stupid little 11 year old do anyway?
Month four was when I met the team. They were all around 20-30 years old, all at least 3 inches taller than me, and all seemed very experienced. I was given my uniform, and my other team gear. The uniform consisted of green shorts with yellow details on them, and a yellow shirt. On my uniform was the number 16, and I instantly decided that that would be my lucky number for the rest of time. I came home that night, and Dad and Madeline were in the kitchen, throwing different colours of icing around everywhere, and trying to perfect the presentation of an item that lay on a serving tray on the bench. I walked over to them, and they backed away from the baking. It was a cake, shaped like a T-shirt. It was green and yellow, and had a question mark on the back where the number would usually be. “16” I exclaimed. They smiled and Madeleine got some plates out ready to serve my uniform-celebration cake. What seemed mysterious to me is why Madeleine was suddenly happy around me. It was strange, because only a month ago she was basically trying to kill me, and now she's helping to make me a cake? Something didn’t make sense.
Month five was the final month before game day. 30 days and I am on that field, representing my country. I was still good friends with Casey, despite the lack of time we got to spend together outside of training and school. She was looking forward to the game almost as much as I was, and she was happy to have purchased seats in the stadium which were right next to the field. Matt was also excited for the game. He said that he had got his mum to make him a shirt the same as mine, so that we could be matching. My dad had gotten his full supporters gear ready, with green and yellow face paint, a big green hat, and he had also got a matching shirt from Matt’s mum. Even Madeline seemed like she wanted to come to the game, and she had even told her friends that her sister was a ‘famous athlete’. I had now become familiar with all of my teammates, but I had only really made friends with one of them, who was also a defender, called Jasmine. She had played only around 6 international matches, so she was relatively new to it too. She told me all that I needed to know, and helped me during training when I didn’t understand. I felt so ready for it now.
Game day approached, and I could not stop glowing with happiness. My dreams had finally come true. I had stayed in a hotel with the rest of the team that night, and got up early this morning for one more training session. I put my hair up in a braided ponytail, and made sure my uniform looked nice. The team all walked together from the hotel to the changing rooms, in preparation for our last practice before the game. We ran around like antelope that were running away from lions, and we practised our ball skills like we were dolphins at SeaWorld.
After a couple of hours had passed it was game time. I was so ready for this. Our coach talked with us about positions and strategies, and we listened to her like she was telling us where a chest full of treasure was. We then lined up, ready to walk onto the field with the other team. Suddenly, a phone rings in one of the lockers. I ran to grab it. When I took the phone out of the pocket in my bag, Matt’s face and phone number showed up on the screen. “Hey, what do you want? I need to go.” I said sternly, because by the look on my coach’s face it seemed like I was trading my career for this phone call. “Hey, good luck Lexie, you’re gonna need it.” he said.
“What do you mean?” I laughed.
“You’re playing where Casey should be. She deserves this spot, not you. So, if you can’t prove to me that you deserve this spot, then you know what happens.” He threatened. My jaw dropped, and my hand rose to cover my mouth. The glowing expression on my face had soon faded away. Of course I knew what was going to happen. Matt loved hunting, and he always kept a rifle in the back of his ute. I knew there was a bullet there somewhere with my name on it.
“Everything ok Lexie?” My coach asked, with a concerned expression on her face.
“Yeah, no everything's fine.” I said, shivering away Matt’s words. I lined back up, and got ready to walk out onto the field with my team. The doors opened like curtains to a stage, and a roaring crowd appeared, all dressed in their team's colours. We re-positoned ourselves into an orderly line on the field, facing one side of the stadium, and got ready to sing the national anthem. I spotted my dad in the crowd, standing on his own, fully dressed in yellow and green. The sight of him made my smile wider, and suddenly I was fueled with confidence. That was until I spotted Matt, Casey and Madeleine in the crowd a couple rows ahead. They all had bland, nearly threatening faces, except from my sister, who had the most evil, mischievous grin on her face. She knew what was going to happen to me if I slipped up. Now more than ever did I know what the stakes were. I was finally in my dream life, but if I messed this up, that is all it would cost me. How could something so perfect be so dangerous?
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