It was after school and we all had soccer practice. We were sitting around the playground, me sitting next to Evan.
"Can you gimme a few minutes before you start? I speak their language." Its after school and we all don't feel like playing since the big lost. We sit around the old playground.
"You got it." My mom says to Deputy Dawg.
"Okay, children. Now, you have all experienced the agony of defeat. Big time. Whew! Now, I first started playing organized sports," He motions to focus on him, "When I was about your age right there at the big green. Now, you see, we weren't good, but we never gave up. There was a day when-"
Larry cut him off, "I have a question."
"Good! Good! Exactly! Participation! You see, it's a key. Fire away, big guy."
"While you're here,who's giving away speed tickets and picking up dead animals off the highways?" We all laugh.
"I love children. First rule: No questions about anything. Go ahead, Anna"
Kate speaks up, "You don't fool us. You don't know jack about soccer."
"Now, I may not know all the rules. But I do know a thing or two about kickin' a ball. Check this out miss attitude." He kicks the ball, very, very far. Dang, I'm pretty sure none of us expected that.
"Ow, alright."
"Wow, now I see why they put you on the billboard." I say.
"Thank you kindly." He groans and his joints crack.
"Listen. If you guys practice, maybe the town will give you the billboard have your own." My mom says to the team.
"Before we could ever be on a billboard, we'd have to get a name" Evan mentions.
Tak adds, "Even bad teams have names."
We think about it. What would our team name be?
"How 'bout The Big Green? You know, the old sign. That's our field." Newt suggest.
We all say our agreements. ✨The Big Green ✨.
"I like the sound of that." I add.
"Good idea, Newt."
Jeff says, "So I guess we're The Big Green."
"Yea, if only we can play." Kate said.
My mom tries to make us feel good, "Look, nobody plays well without practice. We got start with the basics. In soccer training, there are four different areas: fitness, technique, tactics, and game psychology."
"I knew that" Deputy Dawg says.
"OK let's all lineup boys and girls here."
Deputy helps line us up, " Everybody. Come on Katie. Lou and Sue. Pardon me, Lou. Sue and Lou. Come on Evan, separate from your girlfriend. Val, go with the girls. Go on in there, Larry. Excellent." Me and Evan look at each other when Deputy thinks we're a couple. I feel the redness spread over my cheeks and face, and I know others can see it.
Before we start, mom says, "Sheriff Tom, you might wanna join the rest of them in line. It looks to me like you've had one nacho plate too many." We laugh. "Ok, if you want to play soccer properly, you've got to be able to run for at least an hour."
"An hour? if I ran for an hour, it'd kill me." Larry mentions.
"Ditto."
"That's right, so we're work up to that hour. Today we're gonna run for 12 minutes. You ready? Let's go." My mom starts running.
"Come on midgets. Get your butts in gear. Miss Montgomery's talking to you." We all run off.
"Deputy Dawg, you owe us."
"She says 'jump.' You say 'how high?' Come on Katie. Get it up. Evan, Val, come on. Tak, get on. Lou and Sue. Everybody. I wore boots today."
"Sheriff Tom is going to pay for this one." He's not wrong.
"Come on, keep it up."
"I think you're the one that needs to keep up, Sheriff." I yell.
"I don't like this." Evan says from beside me.
"Come on, Once we run more, these 12 minutes will seem like nothing." Then an idea popped in my head. "You know what? If you finish the 12 minutes I'll give you something."
"Give me what?" He says, already out of breath.
"Find out." I run pass him.
A/N: What will Val give Evan? Stay to find out. Also sorry it took a while for this chapter. Also, from now on, I will put Val's outfits on the top.
