Encouraged, her teammates surged back onto the field, boldly slipping in between their opponents and angling for the ball more aggressively than before. Most flamboyantly, a girl named Zainab burst through a cluster of defenders to dribble all the way to the goal and scored with a flamboyant kick, all while leaving the defenders confusedly bumping heads in her wake.
The game ended with a tie, which was infinitely better than a loss to Jaya. As she showered and changed in the locker room afterward, Jaya released the stress she’d harbored for so long: worries upon worries about her schoolwork and siblings washed away in the warm water.
She was, hopefully, a step closer to a soccer scholarship. This would be her year! Jaya nodded firmly to herself and stepped out of the locker rooms.
“Jaya! Come in,” Coach Ladon called, leaning out of her adjoining office. “Let’s chat.” She flicked open her thick notebook. “I see initiative in you, and I like it. I designed today to give you several . . . let’s call them trials . . . and right from the drills, I saw that you have D1 material in you.”
Jaya raised her eyebrows. How perceptive was this lady?
“Yeah, I was in my head while I was warming up, so to stay calm, I zoned into doing every little thing right.”
“Pregame jitters can be a beast to harness,” Ladon agreed. “And you got over it; during the scrimmage, you confused my girls on the field! I like you as a player, Jaya . . . Can I ask why you like Conscia?”
“It has the best engineering program,” Jaya answered automatically. “I’ve always wanted to be an engineer. It’s fun, making things fit together and work.”
Softly, she added that her little brothers needed good textbooks, and her grandparents needed medication. Conscia guaranteed a good job and a good future, and after all, her future wasn’t just hers: it was everything her family deserved.
Jaya returned from that weekend of facing her demons, using cunning, and facing the formidable Coach Ladon, the guardian who had opened every opportunity to her, with the scholarship. After three trials, she had a golden ticket to college.