Friends Lie In Unexpected Places

The whistle blew as both teams crowded onto the soccer ball, frantically aiming to get it into the other teams goal. The ball went from one side of the field to the other; each tams defense equally fierce in protecting their goal. The Woodville School was Kormanner’s biggest rivals in soccer and was the unbeatable team for three years straight. The Woodville team was an all white team and Korsmanner was all black, so racism already flared tension during the game. After a half of not making any goals on either team the Korsmanner coach called a time out to switch in their secret weapon, Nicole Richmond, typically known as Lucky Number 7 because every game that she was in they won. The Woodville coach had heard about this secret weapon of theirs and decided to put out their newest and most talented addition to their team, Amy Cooke. “We’ve been unbeatable for three years and have beaten all the best tams in the county so we defiantly can’t lose to a bunch of niggers,” the coach said to Amy as she jogged out to the field. The referee blew his whistle to start the game again with Nicole and Amy both on offense. Nicole started showing off, doing fancy soccer tricks as she headed towards the goal but out of nowhere Amy came and stole the ball from her. “What are you doing!” screamed the coach with Amy swiftly approaching Nicole’s goal. Nicole was standing in shock for a moment but quickly came to her senses and started running to get the ball away from Amy. It was too late Amy had already tricked the goalie and made a goal. The referee called the goal and Nicole’s coach called a time out. “What are you doing out there Nick. Stop showing off and get into the game,” said the coach with his brows arched. “I underestimated her, ok coach. Just put me back in the game,” said Nicole in a voice full of determination. “Fine, but don’t let it happen again and watch out for number 24.” Nicole ran back into the field with ferocity in her eyes looking straight at Amy. Amy gave her a look back, challenging her to try and get a goal past her. The rest of the game revolved around Amy and Nicole; one would get a goal then the other would. Soon there was only five minutes left in the game and Amy switched to defense to protect her goal. When Nicole got to the goal Amy came at her and Nicole elbowed her making her fall to the ground. Nicole made the final goal winning the game. The unbeatable team had lost, 10 to 11. The Korsmanner team screamed in joy as the Woodville team was scolded by their coach and moaning in defeat.

At the school, the Woodville coach made the whole team run five laps around the school while cruelly reminding them of their defeat. “Amy, come here!” screamed the coach. Amy ran over to him, “Yes, coach.” “I’ve gotta idea for winning the rematch game with the Korsmanner team,” said the coach in a whisper. “What?!” Amy said interested in beating number 7. “Well, you could go to their school and watch their practices.” “Wouldn’t that be cheating, coach,” Amy said in shock that he would even suggest such a thing. “No, it’s not cheating just to watch a few practices. Do you want us to lose the next game and not be able to get our title back?” “No, of course not but…” “But nothin’! Just do it! Start tomorrow and don’t come back until you have the information I want!” With that the coach pushed her aside and walked pass her to continue with practice.

The next day Amy walked towards the Korsmanner school recalling what her coach told her the other day: “ Don’t come back until you have the information I want!” She sighed and picked up some speed so she wouldn’t miss a second of their practice. “Yo, number 24!” Amy looked up and there was Nicole running towards her. “What are you doing on our field? This ain’t a place for people like you to be walking around,” said Nicole. “What do you mean people like me!” Nicole sighed, “Do I have to spell it out. Your white and your at an all black school. Do you wanna be killed or something.” Amy’s eyes widened, “Killed!?” Nicole smiled and ran towards the soccer field. Amy frowned but followed after her. On the field there were four other players sitting on the bench putting on their shin guards and cleats. The players smiled as they saw Nicole coming towards them but quickly changed to a frown when they saw Amy trailing behind her. “What’s she doing here, Nicole. She your new friend or something,” said one of the players. Nicole rolled her eyes, “No, I don’t know why she’s here. I think she wants to see how we kicked their butts the other day.” Amy stepped forward, her face stained with anger and slightly fear, “My name is Amy Cooke and I’m just here to watch, that’s all.” “Whatever,” another one of the players said, “Come on team lets start practice.” Everyone jogged out into the field and started their warm-ups. Afterwards they started some drills and as time passes more and more players joined the practice. Amy sat on the bench quietly and attentively watches the practice, mentally taking notes. Soon all the players arrived and they split into teams to go against each other. As usual Nicole was showing off with her fancy tricks and footwork. Amy loved it and felt it’d be the perfect opportunity to learn about the star player if she could get Nicole to tutor her. At the end of practice Nicole sat down next to Amy and started drinking from her water bottle. “Hey Nicole could you teach me some of your tricks,” said Amy hoping she would say yes. “I don’t think so. I don’t even know you like that,” said Nicole looking at Amy in shock. “I understand. You’re too afraid that I’ll win the next game with your little tricks. I probably could master it in a day or so,” said Amy sarcastically with a smile on her face. “ Oh you think so, huh. I’ll show you what true talent is. Come here again on Saturday and you’ll see.” Amy smiled at her gullibility and said, “ I’ll be there.”

Amy stood on the soccer field with her Woodville uniform on and one foot on her soccer ball, looking around for Nicole. “I hope she didn’t forget,” Amy sighed looking at her watch. A moment later Amy saw a car in the parking lot. Nicole came out the car, running towards the field with a soccer ball in her hand. “Sorry I’m late,” Nicole said out of breath, “I got up kind of late this morning.” “It’s ok, I thought you forgot about me…Anyway, I’m ready to learn some tricks.” Nicole took her ball and started bouncing it on her knees and then on her hand, “Just try and keep up.” Amy took her ball copying her style as she went down the field. Nicole used everything, except her hands of course, to move the ball and put it in the goal. Amy tried to copy but didn’t display the same grace that Nicole used and eventually tripped over the ball when she tried to copy her complex footwork. Nicole laughed, “I told you that this was true talent right here.” Nicole helped her off the ground then Amy smiled and said, “I said I’d master it in a day and that’s what I’m gonna do.” Nicole smirked, “We’ll see about that.” The rest of the afternoon was full of laughter, failed attempts at Nicole tricks, and a one-on-one match that ended with Nicole as the victor. After about an hour of non-stop playing the girls finally sat on the bench panting and pouring water down their throats. “ I’ve gotta admit you’ve gotten better but I’m still the champion,” said Nicole still panting. “Whatever. Your crown is as good as mine,” said Amy. “Hey Amy, you wanna go over to the mall.” “Sure,” said Amy wiping the sweat off her head. Wait a minute; Amy thought to herself, did I just say yes to hanging out with the enemy. I mean she’s so different than I thought she’d be and nicer too. She seems so trusting of me and I don’t want to betray that trust. For some reason it’s precious to me now. “Amy are you alright. You look like you’re in a daze.” Amy shock her head, “No it’s nothing let’s go to the mall.”

At the mall there were pretty much all black people and when Amy and Nicole walked into the food court it seemed like everyone was staring at them. Amy felt really nervous and avoided eye contact with any of the people. “Maybe we should go,” Amy said tucking on Nicole’s shirt. “Why,” said Nicole in shock, “Every girl loves the mall.” “I just feel uncomfortable here, that’s all.” Nicole sighed, grabbed Amy’s hand and yelled, “Yeah, I’m here with a white girl. If you fools looking over here have anything to say about it, say it now. Otherwise, mind your own business.” Everyone was looking at them for a second then went back to what they were doing. Amy was both in shock and embarrassed at what Nicole had done. Why put even more attention on them. “See no one has anything to say so no need to be uncomfortable,” said Nicole smiling at the shock on Amy’s face. “I do,” said a man’s voice behind them. They turned around to see Nicole coach looking at Nicole with his eyebrow arch. “What are you doing with this girl?”

Nicole and Amy both stared at Nicole’s coach with wide eyes. “Coach,” she said with her voice shaking, “we were just going to go shopping and…” “You’re not supposed to be with her at all,” he interrupted with a stern voice, eyes gleaming. Amy courageously stepped forward, “Excuse me, sir. I didn’t mean any harm.” The coach threw his gaze towards Amy, “I think it’s time for you to leave.” Amy looked up at him confused by his anger, “But I.” “Now!” the coach yelled causing Amy to jump and quickly walk away, tears threatening to escape from her eyes. After Amy was out of ear shot the coaches gaze fell back on Nicole, “How could you be so naïve? Can’t you see that she’s using you? We have a re-match game with them crackers on Friday and your fraternizing with one of them. The star player at that. I heard that you let her come to one of our practices too. You must be insane!” Nicole arched her eyebrows as he threw out insult after insult about her hanging out with a white girl. She wasn’t going to let him talk to her like that, even if he was her coach. “You have no say in my personal life, coach. This has nothing to do with you so don’t talk to me like I’m your child,” said Nicole almost yelling. Her coaches anger deepened and he was slightly shocked by her defiance, “Who the hell do you think you are? Your stubbornness will be our downfall. I never heard of such a thing; a black girl befriending some white girl. They’re all no good in my opinion.” “I’m not a racist like you. I don’t care about her skin color. I like her because she shares my love of soccer and is a nice person. Who are you to tell me who I can and can’t talk to?” Nicole looked around, realizing that she was yelling so loud that people were starting to stare. Her coach’s eyes narrowed and with disgust in his voice replied, “Until you break all ties with that girl you’re off the team. We don’t need no two-faced traitor on our team.” Nicole’s eyes widened in shock for a moment then she calmly replied, “Fine.” She tried hard to hide the pain it caused her by holding in her tears. She had too much pride to let her coach see her upset about it.
Amy sat on the bench outside the mall as silent tears fell from her eyes. She had just called her mom to pick her up but almost didn’t want to see her after the remarks she made. *Flashback* Amy dials her mom’s number trying to calm down before her mom answered the phone. “Hello,” said her mom in her usual professional voice. “Hey mom,” replied Amy after further calming her voice, “can you pick me up I’m…at the mall.” “The mall! How’d you get there? I thought your friend took you to your school for soccer. Which mall are you even talking about,” said her mom in a converted anger motherly voice. “I’m at…Cleveland Mall.” “Cleveland Mall! Do you know how dangerous it is over there? Are you crazy?” Amy’s tears started up again and her sadness became present in her voice, “Can you please just pick me up, mom?” After a moment of silence Amy’s mom sighed and replied, “Ok Amy but we’ll talk about this later.”*End Flashback* The thought of what just happened in the mall and what her mom was going to say made her tears multiply. “I wonder if Nicole’s ok. She never came out the mall,” she thought to herself wiping her tears as her mom’s car approached.
The next day at school everyone made Nicole feel even worse about her current situation. She sighed as everyone in the hallway gave her deadly glares or called her out of her name. “Of course he had to tell everyone about this. This is unforgivable,” she thought to herself as her blood boiled inside her. She walked up to her locker and opened it just to find it being shut again. Nicole lashed out at the person, “What’s your problem?” Nicole looked over to see that it was one of her former teammates, Alyssa. “Sorry, Alyssa. I thought you were someone else.” Alyssa just stared at her with her hands on her hips and apparent anger on her face. Soon the rest of the team was around her with the same expression on their face. “How could you do this to us?” “What are you talking about Alyssa? Don’t tell me you’re on the coach’s side too.” Another member of the team spoke up, “You abandoned us for the enemy. You know Woodville’s our biggest rival. Why would you be friends with one of them? She’s not even the same as us” Nicole stood in shock. How could they just gang up on her like that? To her they were the real traitors. “I really don’t wanna hear this crap from you too. I did what I did and don’t regret doing it. If you hate me for something like that then I see what kind of people you really are.” Alyssa shook her head in disgust, “Well I hope your new friend was worth it because she’s all you got now.” With that Alyssa and the rest of Nicole’s teammates walked away. Nicole sighed, “What have I gotten myself into?”
Amy was depressed all day at school with her mind only on Nicole. “How did this get so out of hand,” she thought, “I wish I would have gotten her phone number or something so we could talk.” After school at soccer practice her coach approached her, “So did you get the information I want. I hope so considering that I warned you not to come back without it.” “I don’t remember it being a threat?” said Amy sarcastically. Her coach’s short fuse went out, “Look, I don’t have time for your crap! Do you have it or not?” “Yes, coach,” said Amy shocked at his sudden anger. “Gosh, he can be so bi-polar at times,” she thought to herself. “I learned some footwork.” “Footwork! That’s all!” “Yes, but it’ll be really helpful in our game on Friday.” “Show me what you learned,” he said unimpressed with the information. Amy got a ball and started dribbling it down the field showing off her fancy footwork. Her coach’s mouth literally fell open in astonishment as he watched her do different moves with such grace. “Amy that’s enough,” he finally said as he tried to hide his amazement. Amy walked back over to the sidelines inwardly laughing at the shock on his face. “That was great. We’ll win for sure. It was just like that nigger girl’s footwork. Great observations.” Amy’s eyes fell to the ground at the thought of Nicole and her eyes started to water. “I’m such a horrible person,” she thought to herself, “I feel like such a traitor. Is it really worth it just to win a soccer game?”
At the game the next day Amy looked around for Nicole but she was nowhere to be seen. “What’s going on,” she mumbled to herself, “she would never abandon her team.” Amy continued to look around the field as if she wasn’t satisfied with the obvious fact that Nicole wasn’t there. She was only snapped out of her daze when she heard the sound of her coach calling her over. The whole team huddled around in a circle for the important news their coach had to tell. “Great news team. Korsmanner’s star player will not be playing in this game or any for that manner. She was kicked off the team, which means victory is guaranteed.” Everyone except Amy cheered, knowing that there was no way they could lose. Amy was astonished by the horrible news, “No…this is all my fault.” Amy walked away from her self-confident teammates as she felt tears threatening to escape her eyes. She tried to hold them in but it was useless so she allowed them to silently fall and was surprised at how heavily they fell. After a while the referee blew his whistle signaling all the players to come onto the field. Amy wiped her tears and regained her composure before following her teammates. After everyone was on the field, the referee blew his whistle again to indicate the start of the game. The Woodville team was off to a good start as they were already approaching the goal on the opposite side of the field. The Korsmanner team didn’t stand a chance without Nicole. Their self-confidence took an even bigger blow when the opposing team made their first goal with almost no effort at all. Amy was playing in fine form as she cleared her mind of any thoughts of Nicole. The cry she had earlier cleansed her of most of her pain and she concentrated on the game. Soon she felt comfortable enough to start using Nicole’s footwork against the team, which left them in a state of shock. Amy even heard someone say,“How did she learn how to do that. She couldn’t of learned that from watching one practice.” Amy unconsciously giggled at their confusion.
By half time Woodville was dominating with a score of 11 to 1(the one point that Korsmanner got was by sheer luck while the goalie was sitting on the ground because no balls had been coming her way). At the start of the next half it was obvious that the opposing team had little to no confidence left even after hearing their coaches “words of encouragement.” Amy could see that she didn’t have to do much to make a goal and earlier gave her teammates a chance to get a few goals in but since she was overdo to make a goal she decided to make a few before the game was over. She ran down the field dribbling the ball with her fancy footwork and then turned to the crowd smiling. Her smile quickly diminished as she saw Nicole sitting in the crowd, shaking her head in disappointment. Amy gasped and tripped over the ball falling face first on the ground, allowing the other team to steal the ball and make another goal. Amy’s coach angrily called a time-out but instead of heading towards the coach Amy walked over to Nicole, who was standing besides the bleachers waiting for her. Amy stopped a few feet in front of her, “Nicole I didn’t mean to…” Nicole interrupted, “How could you? How could you use me like that?” Nicole turned around as she felt her eyes water. She wouldn’t let her she her cry. “I guess my coach was right,” she said calmly before running off, away from the field. Amy stood there watching as Nicole slowly disappeared in the distance. Tears came running down her face as she stood there, still staring at the spot were Nicole once stood. “What are you doing,” said her coach observing his player, “and why are you crying?” Amy grabbed her arm, “My arm hurts after that fall and I kinda fell dizzy.” Her coach smiled, “Well don’t worry about it. We’re definitely gonna win so just take a breather.” Amy nodded and sat on the bench lost in her own thoughts. She had forgotten all about the game even when her team cheered after winning. “I have to talk to her,” she thought.
The next day Nicole went outside for some fresh air when she saw a note on the door with her name on it. “I wonder who gave me this,” she said as she opened the letter and started to read it:
Dear Nicole,
I really need to talk to you. I was going to tell you what happened in this letter but I rather tell you face to face. Please hear me out! I can understand why you wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore but I rather hear it from you but I hope you give me a chance. Please meet me at the old vacant lot between Kormanner and Woodville at 4:00. I hope to see you there.

Sincerely,
Amy
Nicole threw the letter on the ground as her anger started to boil inside her. “Give her a second chance? Yeah, right.”
Amy stood in the vacant lot looking at her watch. “It’s 4:30 and she’s still not here. I wonder if she’ll even show up.” Amy looked around waiting to see someone, but no one was coming. Amy looked at her watch again and it was 5:04. She sighed and began to walk away until she heard someone yell, “Yo, number 24!” Amy turned her head so fast that she felt like it was going to fall off. They shared an intense moment as they stared at each other, sadness on both their faces. Amy snapped out of it and was the first to speak,“N-nicole, you came.” “Why wouldn’t I? You wanted me to tell you in your face that I didn’t want to see you again, didn’t you? Well, there it was.” Nicole started to walk away but Amy ran in front of her. “No, I need to talk to you and I didn’t wait here for an hour just to hear that.” Nicole pushed her out of the way, “I don’t wanna hear your excuses.” “I didn’t mean to do it! I’m sorry! People make mistakes. Was this one big enough to end our friendship?!” Nicole turned around in response to her pleas, “Fine, I’ll hear you out.” Amy smiled, “Thanks.” Nicole and Amy sat on the ground and discussed what happened. Amy described how it was all her coaches’ idea to steal her moves and that she was ok with going along with it until she found out what a good person Nicole was. She was saying how she didn’t want her to get kicked off the team and said sorry countless times as she talked. Nicole took a minute to soak in all she heard and then smiled and said, “I except your apology.” Amy’s mouth fell open in response, “Really! Thank you so much.” The two girls hugged and started giggling. “So you wanna go to the mall,” said Nicole as if nothing happened. “Sure,” said Amy, “but this time let’s go to a different mall were we won’t see your coach.” Nicole laughed, “Fine with me.” The two girls walked out the vacant lot together as friends, despite the criticism they were sure to receive.