"Here we have it. A football." Mom holds up an old ball.
"I don't think so." Nick says.
Larry adds, "I think it's Mrs Curdley's old kickball, Ma'am."
"No, it's a ball and if we use it as a football it becomes a football."
"No ma'am. Footballs aren't round. They're shaped like lemons." Oh, now I get why everyone's confused.
"Wait. I forgot. Here in America you call it soccer. So what she means is that we can use it as a soccer ball." I explain.
The twins say in sync, "We don't play soccer."
"Yea, it's for foreigners." Nick says. I stomp on his foot. "Ouch."
"We're foreigners."
"Well we're American." The twins say.
"And we don't like soccer."
"Let's go outside." We start walking outside. The students question why since it's the end of the school day.
"Isn't it time to go home?"
TIME SKIP
The bell rings. "Right, that's the bell. What do you say we all stay and have a practice?"
They all agree, except for Juan, who starts headings home.
"Juan, where are you going? We need you. Don't you wanna try?"
"We don't need him." Larry mutters. I kick him in the shin again. "Ow, I didn't do anything to you."
I chuckle.
"That's alright. I'll talk to him later. So let's have a practice shall we? Kick the ball." She throws the ball to Nick, who kicks it towards Deputy Dawg's car.
"Oh no" I muttered.
The sirens wailed. "Hold up there youngsters"
We walk up to the car and he comes out "Good thing I happened to be in the area. Cars come whizzing down this street like there was no tomorrow."
" I haven't seen a car pass all day except for yours, Sheriff Tom, five times." My mother replies.
The kids start ooohing, including me.
"Just doing my job, ma'am."
"Deputy Dawg's in love" We start chanting. I mean, I'm fine with the whole my mom and Deputy Dawg thing. My mom has never dated anyone, at least that I know of.
"Alright, alright " We keep repeating. "Zip it midgets!" He laughs. " I just fooling with ya. I never talk like that to you." Yea right. "Anyway whatcha doing?"
"We're playing football."
"This ain't football."
"Well this is what the world calls football. Let's all get in a circle." We form a circle. I go between Evan and Larry. "Let's kick the ball backwards and forwards. This is called passing." She kicks the ball to me and I kick it back as an example.
"Nun-uh-uh. Passing, that's in the air. It's with a pig skin. Like the first 10, do it again. It's Troy Aikman. Right to Emmett Smith. Boom!" He starts rambling on, while we're passing to each other.
"If you give me a hand. we'll discuss it. Very good."
"Let's have fun." I kick it far away and run towards it, the others follow me. Passing it around, occasionally the boys will push each other to get the ball.
My mom cheers us on, "Great. You guys are great! This is so exciting. You're showing such potential."
We keep playing, pushing each other around and having fun.
Evan pushes into the ground and I pull him down with me so Polly can kick the ball. We start laughing, enjoying the time before we get back up again.
"Okay, you guys, I want to talk to you. That's the end for today." She yells through a megaphone.
Larry shoves Evan into the metal barrel, "Two points Larry."
I sigh, walking over to him and giving him a hand.
"You good?" I say, a small plastered on my face.
"Yea, I'll get him back someday."
"Anytime he bothers you just let me know. I could probably break his ankle if I needed to." We laugh and walk towards the others.
" All right, you all tired? Good. Listen, while you were all practicing, I called the school board and got us in a league in Austin. Unfortunately, their season started last week, so our first game is gonna have to be tomorrow." What?! We've only practiced for an afternoon! There is no way we're winning this first game.
"Tomorrow? As in the day after today?" Larry asked.
"That's what we call tomorrow." Well, duh.
"In Austin?!" The twins say.
"That's like 1,000,000 miles away." Nick says.
"Look all you have to do is believe in yourselves." She says, trying to get our hopes up.
"Look mom I'm all in for looking on the bright side of things, but we only practice for an afternoon. There is no way we're winning this first game unless we practice more." I say.
"Why should we believe in ourselves?" Tak asks.
"Well, because we believe in you. Don't we, Sheriff Tom?"
"Hmm?"
"We believe in them?"
" yeah yeah, of course we do." He says, pretending probably.
"Even if we did decide to go, how are we going to get there, walk?" Kate asked a good question.
"That's a good question. Sheriff Tom, can you do me a personal favor?"
" Name it." He'd probably do anything my mom tells him to.
"Can you help me drive the kids to Austin?"
"Uh, well" he looks towards us "Yeah I'd love to."
My moms also asks, "Can you also do me another small personal favor? We're short a player."
" I never passed for a 12-year-old"
"She's asking if you can get us a kid to play, dork." Some laugh.
"Well, you know I got a lot of things to do and I'm-"
Larry cuts him off, "What do you say Deputy Dawg? You gonna help us?"
He thinks for a sec, "Fine, I'll see what I can do. I gotta leave." He walks towards his car and drives off.
"Well you all can go home now. Get some rest for tomorrow. Have a nice rest of your day." I follow her until a hand drags me back. I already knew who it was.
"Hey, me and the guys are going to go to our favorite diner for dinner. Wanna join us?" Evan asks.
I looked back towards my mom who nods, "Ok, I'll go with you. When?"
"Seven, meet us at the gas station." He runs off, while. I hop into my mom's car.
A/N: I wanted to add an extra chapter with the guys. And maybe more lovey dovey stuff with Evan. 😉
