Goals
Ella laced up her cleats and headed onto the field.
"Don't mess this up.." she kept saying to herself.
On a soccer scholarship, Ella faced a bunch of obstacles, mainly because she tried to keep up with her grades and take care of her younger siblings.
"You're doing great!" Someone yelled from the stands.
She didn't recognize the voice, but she didn't know too many people anyway.
She was a goalie for the Wildcats and a pretty good one.
She didn't tell anyone about the pain in her leg and kept the melanoma covered with a bandage.
People just figured it had been a knee injury so they didn't ask.
A young man appeared beside her coach.
He was tall, handsome, and she'd seen him in between classes.
Stretching, she made eye contact with him and smiled.
He smiled back.
"Ella!"
Suddenly, the ball came whizzing towards her, but Ella intercepted it.
The young man clapped as the refs called for a timeout.
"Who is that?"
"The new assistant coach.." Petra told her as the defender stood next to her, "He's so hot."
"A coach?"
"Yeah, a young one..had some sort of injury during his senior year here.."
"Oh..." Ella said as the young man gave her a thumbs up, "He isn't hard on the eyes at all."
Petra smiled, "No dating the coaches."
"I wouldn't dream of it.."
Petra laughed and jogged away.
Even though they were friends, Petra didn't know about Ella's cancer diagnosis and the fact that the young goalie had drawn up a will already in case things didn't work out in her favor.
She found herself ogling the assistant coach until a wave of nausea rolled through her and she keeled over.
She felt herself grow weak as the sky turned dark and her whole world went black.
"Are you OK?"
A strong, deep voice asked as she came to--this time on the bleachers and surrounded by two medics and the coaches.
"I'm.." Ella smiled, "Sure...fine...I just...I felt.."
"Here's some water," he said, handing her a cup and helping Ella to sit up, "I'm Dane."
"Ella...or number 18.."
Dane smiled, "That's my lucky number."
Coach Bartlett proceeded to ask Ella if she wanted to sit out the rest of the game and Ella thought it might be a good idea.
Another goalie was called in as Dane extended his hand, "Nice to meet you."
"Same," Ella said, reciprocating the gesture, "Dane got a last name?"
"Winters."
"Ella Bennett," Ella replied, "I hear you're an assistant coach for us?"
"I am," Dane smiled, "I think you're goalie skills are stupendous."
"Thank you," Ella said, "What position did you play?"
"Defender."
Some of the young women from school began to walk by them, giggling at the dark haired, brown eyed man sitting next to ordinary Ella.
"Did you play here?"
"Over in Reeves."
"Oh, a rival..." Ella winked, "Reeves Rodents."
"Reeves Reptiles, thank you very much," Dane laughed, "But I can see the bitterness since we beat your asses so hard last year."
"Haha.." Ella scoffed, "Only by bribing the refs. I'm just kidding. You played well. I think I recall seeing you now."
"And I know Ive seen you," Dane said, "Feeling better?"
"Yeah," Ella said, "Thanks....I just need to eat."
The medics had already walked away by then and the game was almost over.
The Wildcats had beaten the Panthers by a point.
"Good game," Dane said, "Wanna get some lunch?"
"Sure.." Ella said, "Campus lunch or,-"
"Well, I don't want them to think we're dating so campus lunch it is."
"They've got some mean hoagies in the cafeteria if you're interested."
Dane smiled, "Oh, I'm definitely interested, Miss Bennett."
