Stephie Davis - The Boyfriend Game

To all the girls who have found the joy in sports,never thought they were capable of. Never give up!

01 The afternoon sun was beating down on my shoulders as

02 He stopped drilling, flicked one of the balls up with

03 Friday night, I found myself sitting between Beth and Sara

04 When we were walking to the soccer field for practice

05 It was almost dark when I walked out of the

06 JV practice Thursday was the worst practice Id ever had.

07 Sara and Beth were waiting for me on the school

08 At seven fifty-five, my mom was done with my makeover.

09 Graham paused at my table, his eyes scanning my outfit

10 I almost stayed home from practice with Graham the next

11 Monday was the worst day of my life. Sara ignored

12 The next two days were even worse. I avoided Sara

13 We practiced until almost eleven oclock Thursday night.

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The afternoon sun was beating down on my shoulders as I watched an evil leer light up the face of my best friend, Sara Myers. Her long legs were like sticks below her shorts, and there was the faintest gleam of sweat over the upturned nose that she swore was her only decent feature. Just try and stop me, Trisha, she taunted, her dark curls bouncing with each step.

Just try and get by me, I shot back, grinning as she got closer. It might be just a routine one-on-one drill on a Thursday afternoon of JV soccer practice, but it was always a lot more than that when I was going 1

one-on-one with Sara.

Sara was better than me at soccer. And she didnt even try. I busted my butt. And she was still better. Totally bugged me.

But she hated the fact that over the summer, Id gotten a real fi gure and she was still as skinny as ever, so we were even. Especially since wed totally make the trade if we could. Shed take all the attention I got from guys in a heartbeat, and Id give that up in a minute if I could have her soccer skills. Actually, Id give it up in a minute for free, if I could. Only six weeks into my freshman year of high school and already I was tired of the boys treating me differently than they used to. Hello? What was wrong with noticing I played good defense, instead of comment-ing on how my shirt fi t?

Saras smile faded into concentration, and I focused on every angle of her body, trying to anticipate what move shed pull to try to get past me. My muscles tensed, and I felt the zip of adrenaline that I loved, the sensation of power that had me running for the soccer fi eld every afternoon, totally pumped to sweat and yell and forget about all the baggage of my day at school. On the soccer fi eld, it wasnt about boys and girls or how I looked. It was about how good you were. It was my favorite place to be.

Hey, Trisha! Looking good out there!

Sara sucked in her breath, and I scowled at the sound 2

of Kirk Nichols obnoxious voice, not even bothering to glance at the sidelines where I knew hed be standing with his loyal shadow, Ross Crane. Probably wearing Nike sunglasses, baseball hats, and faded jeans, like they always did, knowing just how to dress to look good.

Well, they were cute, but they were also idiots, so I shut them out and concentrated on Sara. Her gaze fl icked toward Kirk, and I grinned. Oh, she was so busted. Keepyelling, Kirk. One little distraction was more than enough for me to take her out.

Trisha! Hey, Trisha Perkins! You gonna come to Pops tonight with me, or what? Kirk shouted.

Sara scowled at me. I bit my lip and quickly adjusted to her sudden increase in intensity. Great. So now she was going to take it out on me that Kirk was yelling my name and not hers. Classic Kirk. Always screwing up my life.

Sara! Tell her she has to come! Kirk shouted.

Saras cheeks turned pink and she shot a quick look in his direction. I lunged forward to take advantage of the distraction, my cleats grabbing the turf as I plucked the ball from between her feet. She spun around, and I dodged her, making a snarky face at Kirk, who was yelling something about how he liked my new haircut. He should be shouting about my great steal, not making some stupid comment about my hair. So typical of Kirk, and of guys in general. I turned my head to glare at him... and 3

noticed a guy standing next to him and Ross.

The guy was taller than them, had short dark hair, and was wearing soccer cleats. And shorts that showed off his oh-so-muscular soccer legs. He was holding a soccer ball against his hip, his arm hanging loosely over it. Who the heck was he?

Before I knew it, Sara was next to me, her feet were on the ball, then I went fl ying. I threw up my arms as I went skidding on my left hip and wound up in a face-plant in the grass. Sara crowed in victory and I rolled to a sitting position, spitting grass out of my mouth.

Kirk and Ross howled with laughter, and I immediately glanced over to them. To the guy.

Who was gone.

I made a quick scan of the fi elds, but I didnt see him anymore. Whered he go?

My other best friend, Beth Stevenson, walked up and peered down at me. She was wearing cleats and a tee shirt like I was, but she was still clean. No sweat and no dirt.

Not that it was a surprise. She only played JV soccer to hang out with us. I played to play. Sara played... well...

I was never quite sure with Sara.

You almost had her, Beth said.

I sighed. I know. It was always almost when it came to beating Sara at soccer.

Beth held out her hand and pulled me up. I mean, you did have her, and then you let her come back and get you. What was up with that?

As if I were going to tell her that Id let a boy distract me. Ha! That was a Sara move, not something I would do. Actually, it was totally embarrassing. So I shrugged.

I felt bad for her. Didnt want to show her up with Kirk watching.

Beth snorted. Yeah, right. You have no mercy on the soccer fi eld.

You say that like its a bad thing. My thigh was burning big-time, so I hiked up my shorts and inspected the raspberry that started up by my hip and went halfway down my thigh. It was already bright red. I grinned, lov-ing the badge of honor it gave me. Despite what Kirk might think, there was so much more to me than what I looked like. I was a warrior! There goes my plan to wear a miniskirt tomorrow, I joked.

Kirk and Ross yelled and whistled, so I pulled my shorts back down to cover my leg, my cheeks suddenly hot. Guys were so annoying!

Beth raised both her eyebrows. They were carefully shaped to augment her bright blue eyes, courtesy of a makeover by Sara last weekend that had ended up with all of us sporting highlights and new haircuts. Not that 5

you could tell with me, except for the fact that some of the layers werent staying in my ponytail very well. Well, you could see the auburn highlights in the darker brown of my natural hair color, but that was it.

Youve never owned a skirt in your life, Beth said.

Of any kind.

I grinned. I defi nitely wasnt a skirt girl. Especially this year, since guys like Kirk had started bugging me.