Page 161 of Off the Pitch

Today was the first time we were practicing penalties, and for some reason everyone felt the need to stand and watch.

I took a deep breath, calming and centering myself. I could do this. And even if I couldn’t, this was only my first practice.

Two steps forward and my foot connected with the ball, sending it curling through the air. Paulo dived, his fingers outstretched, but he wasn’t close enough and the ball slotted into the top corner of the net.

From the way the team reacted, you’d have thought I’d just scored the World Cup winner.

Deafening cheers and chants of my name, the whole team jumping up and down while I stood and laughed. Beside me Christian was chuckling and shaking his head.

“Will you all go back to work now?” I called as Christian handed me another ball.

“Nah, mate. This is too much fun!” Jordan replied. “I think that was too easy.”

“Yeah, it’s gotta be harder,” Liam added. “We gotta be more like the fans.”

“Please don’t sing,” I said, but it was too late.

Liam grinned and opened his mouth, a loud, tuneless cry of, “HUUUGOOO” filling my ears that was swiftly picked up by everyone else.

“And I thought my singing was bad,” I muttered, placing the ball on the spot. Paulo was also laughing, so I was hoping he’d be distracted enough that I could easily score again. Mostly so I could make Liam stop “singing”.

This time though, the ball sailed straight into Paulo’s grasp and the whole team groaned.

“That was awful!” Jordan called.

“Four out of ten,” added Micah with a grin.

“I’d give it a three,” said Toby, another one of our defenders.

“Do you even get points if you don’t score?” asked Liam.

“If you lot are so good, you do it!” I said. I threw a ball at Liam and sighed when he caught it.

“That sounds like a good plan, actually.” Alex, who’d been overseeing our session, appeared from the back of the group grinning. “Everybody can practice. You all need to, so we might as well do it now.”

Jordan groaned. “You’re ruining our fun, y’know.”

“I mean we can keep the scoring system if you want?” Alex said.

“Nah, I’m good.”

“That’s ’cos you suck at taking penalties,” Liam laughed. “You wouldn’t get more than a three.”

“You what? Are you actually kidding me? Have you seen yourself take penalties?”

“Yeah. I’m pretty good.”

“In your fucking dreams, mate.”

“You’re on,” Liam said, turning to Christian, face deadly serious. “Christian, you gotta keep score ’cos I trust you.”

“Wait, I wanna join in too,” Micah said. “I can beat both your asses.”

“Is this an actual competition now?” asked Toby.

“Yeah. What does the winner get?” asked Micah. “If I beat you, what do I win?”

Christian and I stood watching the rest of them argue, trying to work out a scoring system. Apparently, we were being trusted to keep score, which rapidly devolved into us not being allowed to participate because we were too good.

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