ILLUSION, ELI HALE

twelve | bumps and bruises

The lacrosse game was going well—right up to the point where it wasn't. The Cyclones had been up by seven points the majority of the game since the first quarter. So, in a quick moment of insanity, Coach allowed Eli onto the field.

That choice had Derek and Nadia both on their feet, cheering in anticipation for their boy to play. Coach Finstock never let the baby Hale onto the field. It was well known for Eli to be the team's benchwarmer. Nadia had written that in their latest school sports column. So, this was a shock to the girl that he was on the field.

"Are my eyes deceiving me or is that our Number Eleven down on the field?" Nadia had her eyes on Eli, standing in the middle of the field, having replaced one other player on the team with just a few minutes to spare before halftime.

Derek nodded with a proud smile as he watched his son finally standing in an area that wasn't surrounded by the water cooler and sweat-filled towels. "I might have intimidated Coach to give Eli some playing time."

"You are seriously the best dad ever, Mr. Hale."

Number Eighteen, Carlos Ruiz, had tossed the ball all the way from midfield to Eli. And to the crowd's surprise, Eli caught the ball. Cheers filled the stands as both students and parents alike cheered for the Hale boy to score a goal.

Now, it might come as a shock to most, but Nadia never fully understood how lacrosse worked. She's spent most of her time paying attention to others' emotions while taking photos more so than taking time to look at the game. But now that she was off her technology, she'd begun to understand quickly. And though it went against everything she hated (school spirit, cheerleading—the lot) embarrassingly enough, she was rooting for Eli.

But their excitement was short-lived. Eli was making his way down the field with the ball cradled inside of his stick. He was just a few feet in front of the goal, and as he leaned his stick back to shoot the ball into the goal, he was tackled down by some kid on the opposing team.

As the crowd gasped in unison at the boy being knocked to the ground, Nadia was brought back to reality. She'd forgotten in her moment of being a normal student that she hated sports for a reason; how dangerous they could be.

Eli had to be taken out of the game after that. When Derek and Nadia got to the sidelines where he was nursing his swollen ankle, Coach said that he wasn't going to let the boy back onto the field. It wasn't his fault either. The guy who knocked him down had to be twice his size. An absolute monster of a teenage boy.

It was then that Derek suggested that they went home. Eli was in a tough mood after getting banged up and he was in quite a bit of pain so they began to make their way to the locker room.

And despite everything it took in Nadia to understand Derek's suggestion for them to go home, there was still a deep pit in her stomach of fear. Fear of what happened when she stepped foot back inside her house. Fear that this—just having seen her closest friend get knocked down so badly on the field he needed to get checked by the medics and replaced, would be the last time she would see Eli.

"Why don't we try a more tame sport?" Nadia suggested to Eli as she followed him and Derek down the hall in the direction of the boys' locker room. "I heard that our Golf team made it to Invitationals this year."

"I'd rather die than play golf, Nadia." At the end of his sentence, the boy let out a groan of pain. He was all for the dramatics, it seemed.

"You just might, seeing how this sport is going," Nadia grumbled. "I'll get ice." She suggested to her best friend's father. If she wasn't so concerned about Eli being in pain, she would have snorted loudly at the fact that he was being carried bridal-style in his father's grasp. "BRB."