Deadly Rivalry

“Girls, we’re gonna make this a championship to remember.” Sammie Koran stood with her hands on her hips, foot on the size five soccer ball. The grass was nice and dry but the air was cool and wet in the early morning. Perfect. All the other girls, senior and juniors combined, dressed in cleats and shin guards, watched her attentively.

“Yeah, but what about the Sabotage team? I hear they’re even better this year,” a junior girl with auburn hair spoke up. Sammie’s eyes became blue fire.

“We are not losing to them again.” And she meant it. Sammie had been up against Sabotage countless times. They were an all boys’ team, and since seventh grade, she’d wanted to prove the fact that an all girls’ team could beat an all boys team in soccer. Every time against Sabotage, they’d lost. Badly. This year, she was the new captain, and she wanted to make a change. In California, every year, there was a tournament between girls and boys teams. Captains were the ones who had to whip teams into shape. No coaches were allowed. Some boys’ teams sucked. Others, like Sabotage, were phenomenal. They had gone home with the championships four years in a row. She had made a promise to whip these girls into shape.

“Speak of the devil,” muttered Betsy, a senior, who was dark and shadowy at school, but could play a mean defense. Sammie looked up and saw a mob of very good looking high school boys march toward their field.

“Davis! What’re you doing on my soccer field?” Sammie yelled angrily at the most attractive boy in front. He had medium build, tousled, shaggy brown hair, and green eyes. Josh Davis, captain of Sabotage, deadly at soccer, but also the hottest guy at school. He was also Sammie’s worst enemy.

“Not only did they get better, the work outs have gotten them hotter, too,” the auburn haired junior, Marissa, whispered to her another giggly friend. Sammie made a mental note to make them subs for as much time as possible. Why did she even choose these two for her team?

“Does it have your name on it, Koran? I don’t think so. Therefore, my team has just as much privilege to practice on this nice, dry field on a cool, dewy morning as you do.” He gave her a stare. A ball zoomed toward him, and he effortlessly stopped it with his foot. He played forward mid, just like Sammie. It pissed her off; the fact that they had so much in common. A few guys on his team winked at the girls. Most humphed and turned away. Some, like Marissa, giggled and waved back.

“I booked this field,” Sammie hissed. “My team is practicing here.”

“The Legends?” Josh gave her team a dismissive glance. “I hope they’re better than this year. Much better. We don’t want to pulverize them, now do we?” The other guys laughed jeeringly, and Sammie gritted her teeth.

“Get out.” She glared at Josh. “Before I make you.” She tossed her blond hair away from her eyes.

“And how will you do that?” Josh asked. “By waving mascara in our faces? Face it, Koran. No matter how much you train your team, girls will never beat the guys. It’s just how we were made.” He shrugged and turned away, thankfully waving his team away to another field. Sammie saw his friend, Justin, slap him on the back. This didn’t make Sammie happy. Instead, she was frustrated and aggravated at what Josh had said. She was determined to make him eat those words.

“Come on, girls. Suicides, now!” The anger renewed her energy, and she quickly sprinted ahead of the girls. There was a game in two days against the guys of Oakland High. She wasn’t exactly in the mood for losing. Today was one of the days her team feared her the most. She was driven by raw anger, and by the time practice was over, not one girl wasn’t sweating and panting.

“This isn’t good.” Sammie carefully surveyed them. Her breathing was steady and controlled, and she only felt a light sheen of sweat on her forehead. She couldn’t say the same for these other girls. “You need to pick up the slack. I know it’s been a year, but there should’ve been practice. You knew this was happening, and this year is going to be the year when we finally beat Sabotage!”

The other girls cheered, and Sammie smiled. It felt good to know that she could motivate her team. She needed all the willpower possible.

“Alright, go home and rest. Training is going to start picking up, though.” She high fived each teammate and felt much nicer. Exhaustion was finally settling in.

Betsy walked with Sammie to her car, since she’d promised Betsy a ride.

“Do you really think this is the year we win Sabotage? They’ve had their dirty hands on the championship four years running.” Betsy raised an eyebrow.

“Sure. All we need is a smoothly running team, and we’ll be able to get it away,” Sammie said confidently. She was interrupted by a convertible like hers slowly cruising past, pumping loud bass music into the air. Josh and his soccer buddies were bearing a sign saying, “SABOTAGE WILL WIN AGAIN”, whooping and hollering at the two girls. Sammie turned away, hands clenching the steering wheel.

“I rest my case,” Betsy said, lying against the smooth leather seat.

“Argh! Stupid arrogant jerks. We need to beat them and teach them not to mess with girls again.”

“Ok.” But something in Betsy’s tone sounded hesitant, unbelieving. Sammie had a lot of work to do.

Two days of agonizing practice later, Sammie was leading the team in killers before their match with the Assault, the Oakland boys’ soccer team.

“We’re gonna kill ‘em,” she mumbled after a look at the guys’ disorder and how they weren’t even dressed in uniform. The girls were all dressed in light indigo and white jerseys, dribbling a soccer ball back and forth.

They did win, but not as easily as Sammie had hoped for. Marissa constantly kicked the ball the wrong way or missed it altogether, probably from fear of the wet, muddy ground. Finally, the whistle signaled the end, with a slim win of 2-0.

After shaking hands with the referees and Assault team, Sammie pulled Marissa away from the field. “What were you doing out there?” she snapped. “You need to bring up the ball! It doesn’t matter if you’re just midfield. Bring. Up. The. Ball!” She glared. “If you can’t even help this team, then you don’t belong here.” Without a second glance, she walked away. Soon, she realized that there was another set of squelching footsteps following after her own.

“What the hell are you doing here, Davis?” She glared at the shaggy haired captain.

“I have a game. And I thought it’d be interesting to scope out competition. That little thing you had with your player; it was a bit harsh.”

“You don’t have to tell me how to manage my team. And why do you need to scope us out? It’s already well known that Assault is one of the worst teams of the area. You yourself said that Legend isn’t good enough to beat you. Why’re you watching us then?” Sammie put her hand to her mouth in a fake gesture of shock. “You don’t actually think we have a chance, do you? Is the high and mighty Josh Davis starting to have uncertainties?”

“Shut up!” Josh snapped. There was a tinge of red on his cheeks. “This isn’t about whether you’re good enough. I’m just doing what any normal captain would do. And what I’m telling you is advice. Forget the fact that we have rivalry. I’m trying to tell you that if you don’t cooperate with your team, your team doesn’t cooperate with you.”

“Thanks for the advice, but I don’t need it.”

“Fine,” Josh said, shrugging. “Just don’t blame your team when you lose to us. I only gave you that information so Sabotage would at least have competition this year. Unlike last year when we totally kicked your asses.”

“Last year was a fluke,” Sammie hissed. “You shouldn’t have even won!”

“It was the ref’s choice, Koran. You sent in a complaint, didn’t you?” Josh rolled his eyes. “When are you going to stop thinking we did it?” By now, both captains’ teams had gathered around, egging them on.

“Last year was a total disaster because you bribed the freakin’ referee!” Betsy hissed.

“Why do you think that? Maybe you guys just suck way too much, and it was an easy win!” Justin shot back.

“Then why was the score 9-8 before you cheated?” Sammie asked, eyes flaming.

“We didn’t cheat! The ref said the clock was out of balance. It’s your fault you couldn’t protect the goal in the last ten minutes!” Josh snapped angrily.

“Yeah, because the clock wasn’t supposed to be out of balance! There were only supposed to be three minutes left! How did the referee suddenly, out of the blue, announce that the clock was wrong and this half actually had ten? You totally cheated.”

“It’s not my fault that you had horrible defenders,” Josh exclaimed.

“Horrible defenders? They were too distracted by the fact that the clock was ‘out of balance’!” Betsy snarled.

“The game isn’t over until the whistle blows! Don’t you understand that? That’s why our forwards shot three goals! You clearly still need to learn the fundamental rules of soccer. I’m not standing here and arguing with you anymore. There’s a game I need to get to.” Josh led his team toward another field, and Sammie turned, seething. It was true. Last year, Legend and Sabotage had been tied in a deadly match for first, but the clock had been reported faulty. Legend’s team had been complaining too much to pay attention to the goals being rained into their nets.

Marissa edged forward carefully, as if she was ashamed from the encounter. “Um, can you put me as defense?” Sammie’s head snapped up.

“What?” she exclaimed. Marissa played midfield, because Sammie didn’t know what else she could put her where she wouldn’t be a potential danger.

Marissa shrunk back, and one of her other friends, Kathie, the goalie, placed a reassuring arm around her.

Sammie was in a bad position. She was mad, and her emotions could get control of her. Besides that, the entire team was surrounding her, and she didn’t want them to see her outburst. There was one thing Josh was right about. She couldn’t allow her team to see her bad side. The most important thing right now was trust; that was something she just could not lose, not in this situation.

“We’ll talk about this at practice,” she said gruffly. What she really needed right now was a shower to wash off all the mud and grime coating her body. And she needed to scream.

The weekend was over, and Sammie was going through the hell that was known as school again. This time, she was constantly cornered by her teammates, asking her what kind of moves they should do or introducing new stealing techniques.

Then, there was Josh.

Somehow, she kept running into him. In corridors on the way to classes, on the field where she ran to keep fit. He totally ignored her, always chatting with Justin, or his other friends. Sammie was pissed. She had practice that day, and Marissa was always staring expectantly at her. In a few ways, she did feel guilty for yelling at Marissa like that. But the idea of letting perky, giggly Marissa play defense was repulsive and scary. However, didn’t Josh say that she needed to cooperate with the team? It sucked that she was listening to him, but she should at least try. If Marissa was bad, she could always place her back as midfield. That was what Josh would do, right?

“Argh, why am I even thinking about him?” she hissed to herself.

“Ms. Koran, do you have something to tell us?” Ms. Jane, the science teacher, glared at her. Everyone was looking, including Betsy, who was smirking.

“No, I’m sorry.” Sammie quickly looked back to the study guide, trying to ignore thoughts about Josh running through her head.

At practice, Sammie was focused. After a lap of sprinting, she called Marissa.

“I’ve decided to let you play right defense.” Sammie quickly interrupted Marissa’s excited squeal. “However, you’re going to prove yourself worthy of that position.” With that, she directed a practice focusing primarily on defensive skills. Marissa was definitely talented in that position. She could easily block the ball just inches from the goal and kick in over heads. Sammie suspected that the only reason Marissa sucked so much as midfield was so she could be moved to defense.

“Great job, girls. I think we’re going to win good on Saturday.” Sammie gave Marissa a thumbs up, and she smiled back.

It was definitely easier to focus in class now that Sammie was sure her team was fit for the upcoming game. It was against Blue Ice this time, an average playing girls’ team. They still weren’t any match for Legend, though.

Her prediction was correct, the girls winning by five points. Kathie’s goalkeeping was unbelievable, and Marissa was darting around players, dribbling the ball and sometimes bringing it up, close to the goal to pass to the forwards. She grinned at Sammie, who winked and smiled.

That was how it was. The Legend team went on to win boy and girl teams, getting them ever closer to the championship.

The first problem in the long series came on Tuesday, as Sammie was walking toward her locker. Someone shoved her shoulder roughly and whispered, “Your winning streak’s going downhill, loser.” Sammie fully expected Josh to be the source, but he never had done that before. Instead, she saw Melanie Lieder.

Melanie Lieder was feared by many girls and even some guys. She was the captain of Poison, a team Legend had narrowly defeated last year. Sammie detested her. Melanie used her bulky body to bully other students and wasn’t afraid of pushing and punching when rule enforcers weren’t looking.

“You okay?”

Sammie looked up to see Josh watching her worriedly. She rubbed her shoulder self consciously. “Oh, I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” she reassured him, “I’m fine.”

“Okay then.” He put his hands in his pockets and walked away. Marissa came up behind Sammie.

“You have to admit he’s pretty cute.”

“…” Sammie gave her a stare.

“Well, he is a guy. And maybe he is our opponent. Doesn’t mean we can’t check him out once in a while.” Marissa shrugged. Sammie finally started cracking up.

“You can check him out. But while you’re at it, focus on the game Saturday, alright?” Sammie snickered.

The game Saturday was a breeze. Melanie was all bark and no bite, Sammie realized. Or she just hadn’t been practicing hard enough. The Legends beat the Poisons by three points. She and her team cracked up at the sight of Melanie’s face.

“Good job,” Josh greeted her as he and his team walked up the field. “Guess we’ll be up against each other in the next game, huh?”

Sammie didn’t even think when she said, “May the best player win?”

“You bet on it.” Josh gave her a wink and led his team past the fuming Poisons.

“We’re going to have the game of a lifetime, girls. And we’re going to have victory.” Sammie was sure of it.