Chapter 8

I looked over and saw Coach pacing the floor, I walked over to her.
“Nervous?” I asked.
“A little.”
“Why?”
“Aren’t you?”
“Yea I guess your right!”
“Yea. Where is Valarie?” she asked as she looked at me in a worried voice.
“She’ll be here. I hope.” Coach looked up at me with a serious look. “I was just kidding.” I said as the other team walked in. My heart fell to the bottom of my stomach. Coach looked at her watch. “Please tell me Val is in goal full time right!” I begged.
“I told her she could be, but not if she doesn’t show up.”
“If who doesn’t show up?” Val asked walking in behind us. We all laughed and I saw a look of relief on Coaches face. We stood in total silence for awhile thinking. When it was interrupted by the buzzer of the previous game. Both teams lined up on the field as we barley exchanged glances. The whistle blew and I could feel the fear as well as determination. Val was on fire. She caught but two shots in the first half. At half time we were down 2-0. I was angry thinking that we would lose badly again.
“Why the long face?” Val said trying to catch her breath as we walked back out to our positions. “We’re only down by two.”
“But two turns into twenty.” I said looking down.
“Not if we don’t let it.” I looked up at her and she smiled. “Now let’s do this thing.” The buzzer sounded the second half. In less than 2 minutes Anny scored a goal with an assist from Joey. Then the other team scored 2 other times. Then our team kicked into gear. Joey sprinted the ball weaving it between the players with Anny and scored another point. I looked over at the side lines and my coach was pacing the floor again looking at the clock that read 2:30. The ball came my way and I cleared it to Anny she made it half way up the field and then passed it to Joey. Right as the buzzer sounded he made the shot! The crowd went wild! Even though we hadn’t won we hadn’t totally lost either. Everyone was pumped! Coach had a huge smile on her face as we went out to shake hands. After the game we were ecstatic! We weren’t complete failures. The good mood carried through the week. It was finally all falling into place.