Chapter One
You see I was minding my own business in the kitchen when my brother walked in and as soon as he saw me, I ended up in a headlock, which is where I am right now.
“Let go of me Kyle” he just laughed and ruffled my hair,
“Sorry Tayla but you are too easy to attack” if I could look at him I would but sadly I couldn’t.
“Kyle, please let go of me” he loosened his grip and then he proposed something to me.
“Tayla, how about we make a bet” I only wish I was strong enough to get out of this, I sighed, “Why do you always want to make a bet with me” I could tell he was smiling knowing I was going to fall for it and then he replied,
“Because it is easy, and you always lose” I wished I could glare at him, but I couldn’t and then said
“I do not always lose” okay he was right, but he never had one that was more of an advantage for me and then out of nowhere I heard him say something that changed my mind,
“I have a math test coming up soon, and if I score over 80% you have to come to one of dad’s soccer games” my eyes widen, Kyle was so bad at maths, and he barely scored over 60% so I smiled and said
“Okay deal” Kyle let go of me and then shook my hand and I smiled because I knew I would win this one, Kyle then looked at me and walked off saying,
“I need to go study” and I was cheering in my head because there was no way, he was going to win this.
A few days later.
My dad’s team had their very first Soccer match a week after the math results come out, which was today and let me tell you that I had completely forgot all about the bet Kyle and I had made.
It was Monday and the day of the results and I was in the kitchen eating breakfast when Kyle walked in, seeming a little smugger then normal, he walked over to Mum and kissed her check,
“Hey mum, where is dad” I looked up and noticed that dad wasn’t here, and my mum then replied
“He left early because his team has an early morning soccer practice” my brother then turned to look at me, he had this huge smile on his face,
“So are you ready” a look of confusion ran across my face and I said
“Ready for what” my brother laughed at me and then leaned on the counter looking right at me,
“The test results come out today” I looked at him, not sure what he was going on about, but I smiled and said
“Oh yeah I can’t wait to see what you scored” my brother shook his head at me, and I saw a strange look on his face, but he turned around and said
“You forgot” I stared at his back still confused at what was happening, my mum just watching us and shaking her head, Kyle then turned around when I looked and him and said
“Forgot what” he just laughed and then smirked and walked off shouting,
“You’ll see” I just watched and he walked away; I looked at mum still not sure what the conversation was about and then went back to eating and then said
“He walked off with your keys” when she looked down, she noticed that they were gone and then shouted
“KYLE, you give me those keys now” and then she chased after him.
While my mum and brother were busy, I quietly left for school while trying to figure out what my brother was talking about, when I arrived, I saw Becca and Sarah, I walked up to them and gave them both a Hug and said
“Morning” they both looked at me and Sarah said
“So are you ready” I looked at her and said
“Ready for what” Becca then said
“The bet with your brother” when she said that it all came back to me and now, I remembered what my brother had said to me a few days ago, and I groaned,
“I totally forgot about that” Sarah laughed,
“That’s why we decided to remind you” my mood suddenly perked up and I smiled and looked at them and said
“My brother won’t win anyway” they both looked at each other and then they looked at me, I knew they were keeping something from me, but then something else caught their attention,
“What” that’s when I noticed that they were looking behind me, when I turned around, I saw my dad and the soccer team, my dad looked very mad, I then turned around and Sarah looked away and whispered,
“I wonder what that was about” Must have been something because my dad hardly ever got mad, I whispered back,
“It is not easy seeing my dad mad like that” Becca was about to say something when the bell rang so we all left and headed to our first class.
The day felt like it was dragging on a bit, by the time lunch time rolled around, I was more than ready to eat something, I walked into the cafeteria when I felt an arm go around my shoulder and I piece of paper was shoved in my face, I grabbed the paper and looked at it and saw that it said 81% and then looked at my brother in shock,
“You didn’t tamper with this right” my brother looked at me feigning shocked and placed his hands over his heart,
“Of course, I didn’t do that, I studied hard to win this bet” I looked at the test, then looking back at him, hardly believing what I am seeing,
“How did you manage this” he just smiled and then pointed at something behind me, I turned and looked and who he pointed to and I was shocked,
“Your friends were more then helpful with helping me win this bet” when he said that I watched as they both quickly left, Instead of saying anything else I just lowered my head and walked away, I was upset because I had lost another bet to my brother and more importantly it was a bet that I wanted to win because I didn’t really want to go to a game but now, I have to.
A whole week passed and today was the day of the of the match and my parents were so happy that I was going to be there and now I had to go because my dad told everyone that I was going to come to this game, and even through we don’t get a long I couldn’t let him down not after seeing how happy he was.
I was already at the field watching the school’s team practice and prepare for their game against Jackson High school, it was the first match for the school championship and I had no clue what that even meant.
Jackson high school is the other school in our town and it is our schools’ rival school well not really mine and I don’t play any sports, and I don’t really care much for rivalry’s, the one thing that I do know is that I am hungry, I haven’t eaten anything since I got here this morning.
So, I decided to go for a walk to get me some food, before the game starts, I was looking for a good food stand and I found one that caught my eye, it was nacho’s, I love nacho’s but my parents are such health freaks so I don’t eat them often.
I could eat a lot and my most favourite food that I liked was actually fruit, I was obsessed with fruit, anyway I was standing in line when a fight broke out behind me, I turned to have a look but as soon as I turned a guy was suddenly pushed into these two other guys who fell back and fell into me and we all went tumbling to the ground and someone landed on my arm.
I was in pain from being squashed when a few guys came over and helped the guys of off me, and someone else held their hand in from of me and I grabbed it with out even looking to see who it was, this guy lifted me up so easily that I was a little shocked and said
“Thank you” he looked at me said
“Your welcome” he then looked at my head,
“Your bleeding” I looked up at him finally catching a good look at the guy and he was handsome, not that I would let him know that I then registered what he said, and I said
“Where” he pointed to my head and I went to lift my hand up to my head but then winced and grabbed my wrist as it was painful, the guy took noticed and frowned, he said
“I will take you to the medical team and let them have a look at you” I looked away nervous before looking back at him and replied,
“Oh okay” I started to follow this guy to where the medical base was at, and I looked at this guy and asked
“Who are you” he looked at me, confusion crossing his face for a second and the replied,
“Connor Patterson” he smiled at me, he had a great smile, he then asked,
“What is your name” I blinked at him, oh right, I should have told him my name as well and I replied,
“Tayla Green” he frowned at the mention of my name and then he started thinking and then he said
“Is your dad Andrew Green the coach of May view High, by any chance” I furrowed my brows confused at how he would know that, so I said
“Yes, he is, why?” we had arrived at the medical spot, he smiled and started to walk away before turning around and saying,
“I am the striker on the Jackson high soccer team” he laughed before he quickly left, I looked at his back as he just walked away before deciding to go inside.
I meet the one person who plays on the rival team and he helped me, well I can’t tell my dad about this meeting because he might get a little mad and might blame him for my injuries.
After the nurse fixed me up, I headed back to my family without any food which disappointed me a bit but when I arrived my mum got a shock when she saw me and grabbed my face and looked at it before saying,
“Oh, my sweetie, what happened to you” she then carefully grabbed my arm and looked at my wrist, I winced in when she grabbed it, it was still throbbing a bit, My dad and brother who where nearby heard my mum and turned to look at me and I thought I saw concern on my dad’s face but it was gone as soon as I saw it and then I heard Kyle asked me what had happened, I turned to him, I said
“Some guys were fighting and one of them then punched this guy who stumbled back and fell into two others who then landed on me” my mum then surprised me by hugging me and I froze and then my mum said
“Oh, my baby” I reddened in embarrassment because of her and I said
“Uh, the game is starting” she quickly let go of me and went to stand next to my dad and ignored me and I went to stand next to Kyle. Every now and again during the game I noticed that Connor would look my way but he couldn’t be looking at me could he, and now I was more lost on what was going on in the game and also I had no idea what a striker was.
As the game was nearing the end, I saw that our school was winning 3-2 and my dad was beyond excited but right in the last seconds Jackson High scored again and now our schools were tied and my dad was really annoyed now.
I was glad that the game was now finally over because I was more then ready to head home and lie in my bed and read a book, I hated large crowds so I decided that I would wait to leave, I was near the exit when Connor suddenly appeared in front of me, blocking my path, I looked up at him and he said
“Hey Tayla” I continued to stare and him before saying
“What are you doing” he just smiled wide and replied
“I wanted to see how you were doing” I gave him a confused look,
“I’m fine” he gave me a strange look and then I realized what he was meaning and I said
“Oh right” I was to focused on getting home that I forgot I was even injured, I smiled at him thinking that was nice of him to ask, so I said
“I am fine now, it doesn’t hurt to much” he just nodded, I was completely lying though, my wrist was still throbbing, but all I wanted was my bed and the thought that I wouldn’t be able to read also hit me, so I frowned at little when Connor replied,
“Okay cool, so what are you doing after this” I blinked and then looked around and then looked back at him and said
“I, um, I am going home to my bed” he nodded, it looked like he was thinking of something before he said
“Okay, stay right here, I am going to be right back after getting ready, so don’t go anywhere” and with that he left and I stood there thinking why would I wait for him, I barely even know him so why was I actually waiting for him.
Maybe it was because I was curious as to why he would talk to me, I was a nobody and the daughter of the coach of the soccer team that was a rival to his own.
I thought about leaving when I noticed that my keys were gone, I felt all my pockets but I couldn’t feel my keys anywhere and I was confused.
I waited and then Connor came back and when he saw me still there, he smiled and walked up to me and smiled, he said
“You waited for me, I see” I looked at him,
“I kind of lost my keys” he put his hand in his pockets and pulled out my keys, and I stared at them in shock and then started trying to figure our when he took my keys, I said
“My keys, when did you take those” I went to get them back and he pulled his hand away, he said
“You can’t have them back yet, not until I take you somewhere” I blinked at him, I said
“Are you going to murder me” he looked at me like I lost my head and then started laughing before replying,
“No, why would I do that” I shrugged, we barely know each other, so of course I would ask that, I said
“Fine” I may have pouted because I just wanted to go home, I mean my family won’t be home till late because they went out for dinner, we walked towards his car and I glanced back at my car and then turned to Connor, I said,
“What about my car” he looked at my car then at me before saying,
“Don’t worry about that, I got it covered” this guy was leaning on Connor’s car when we arrived and he looked at us and said
“So, what did you want me to do” he handed him my keys and said
“You know where Coach green lives right” his friend nodded,
“Yeah why” he looked at me and then back at Connor and then Connor said
“Take that car back to the Green’s house please and I will do that favour that you had asked me” he looked at Connor and thought for a few minutes before saying
“Fine, I’ll do it, I will leave the keys in the mail box” I just nodded and then Connor whispered something to his friend.
He unlocked his car and opened the door for me and then went to the driver’s side once he was in, he started the car and I said
“So, where are we going” I had a lot more questions to ask but I hardly knew the guy, he drove out of the car park, he said
“Somewhere fun I promise” he was very good at not telling me anything, I then said
“What is a striker” I think he almost had a heart attack when I asked that, his eyes went wide and he glanced at me, giving me this weird look, he said
“Are you serious” I didn’t say anything, and that’s when he knew I was serious, he said
“A striker’s main job is to score goals during the game, strikers are also called Forwards, but I won’t go to much into detail cause then I would confuse you” I just nodded, I said
“Sounds complicated” he just laughed, he then said
“My friend who took your car home is our teams’ goalie” I nodded because I at least knew what a goalie was, I then said
“What is his name” he then said
“Oh right, I forgot to introduce you to him, that is my best friend Chase” I just nodded, I would have to thank him for taking my car home, that is whenever I see him again.
Suddenly the car stopped and I looked out the window and saw we were at the late-night market, and I just stared even when he opened the door, I didn’t even move until I felt Connor touch my arm and I looked at him, I said
“You brought me to the night market” he smiled and nodded then helped me out of his truck, he said
“Yeah, have you been here before” I shook my head, it was such a shame I have never been considering I was a foodie, I looked at him and said
“No, but I have always wanted to come here, I heard that they have great food here” just as I said that my stomach growled and I remembered that I didn’t even to get eat, Connor just laughed softly and I couldn’t help but notice that he had a very nice laugh, Connor then took my hand and lead me somewhere, he then said
“Let’s get you something to eat” I blushed in embarrassment because I hadn’t eaten.
We walked past a lot of really good-looking food stalls to this one in the middle, and I noticed that it was a Mexican food stall and I smiled widely and looked at Connor and for once did something I don’t normally do, I hugged him.
I don’t normally show much emotion to anything and I hardly smiled, not even for my family, there wasn’t anything wrong with it, it was just that no one even bothered and my family sometimes couldn’t understand me.
I sat there happily eating my food and I felt a little bad because Connor paid for all the food that we were eating but I forgot all about it as soon as I tasted it.
We were now at the place where all the games were kept at and Connor insisted on winning me something, I rolled my eye’s at him, I said
“You don’t really have to win me anything” but I was secretly hoping he would because I have never had anyone win me something before and I have never won anything before either, he was busy trying to win me something but still replied,
“Of course, I do, now come on” I huffed and followed him to another game and we stopped at this one game, and I saw a cute Panda teddy, and I smiled at it, Connor saw that I liked it, he stopped and put money in the machine, he said
“Good choice, I am good at this game” I looked at him without saying anything because I really wanted that Panda teddy.
I had a slight obsession with Panda’s and Penguins, I just found them to be so adorable and I have always wanted a Panda Teddy, I had a penguin but not a Panda, but my family don’t know this, as I said before we don’t talk about what I like it is always about sports.
I watched with wide curious and hopeful eyes as Connor started playing the game, a panda teddy may just be simple but to me it was everything to me.
I was beyond overjoyed as Connor won and picked the Panda teddy and then he handed it to me, and I smiled and I hugged it to me while I thanked him.
Author's Note.
Hey guys, I hope you like my new story, I will be making regular updates, as I have finished this book, I hope you guys Enjoy this Book, Please Comment and Vote, I will be looking forward to any feedback.
Thanks, Anya Waine.
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