chapter 1
my name is emma smith. i had a normal life. i played volleyball and lacrosse and wrote stories. i had a best friend named hailey and had an amazing boyfriend named james. hailey was on my lacrosse and volleyball team. we were inseparable. james played lacrosse too, and he also played guitar.
my life was going perfectly fine. it was a warm saturday morning and i had a lacrosse game later. i had had a sleepover with hailey friday night and we were passing the lacrosse ball and practicing for our game. we were playing in my backyard and my dog rockie was chasing after the ball as we passed it over his head. it was a perfect morning. we passed the ball from stick to stick and rockie eventually gave up.
rockie ran inside but me and hailey kept playing.
“em, are you feeling nervous for the game?” hailey asked me as she threw the ball and it landed perfectly in my stick.
“a little bit, why?” i asked, passing it back.
“i dont know. im just always nervous for games. i feel like im gonna let the team down.”
“come on you gotta be confident! you’re not gonna let the team down.” i said, accidentally dropping the ball and chasing after it.
“you’re right. i have to be confident. i can do it!” she reassured herself as i passed her the ball.
“that’s the spirit. do you wanna go inside and eat breakfast?” i asked.
“yeah sure!” hailey and i ran inside my house and we made pancakes.
after we ate, we put on our uniforms and put up our hair for our game. after that, we stretched and ate a quick healthy snack before packing up our bags and getting in the car.
when we got to the field, a couple team members were already there passing to each other. hailey and i dropped off our bags and started passing to each other. a couple minutes later, coach jane showed up and so did the rest of our team. we started a drill and then scrimmaged as a warmup.i looked at the sidelines and realized that james was sitting on the sidelines with luke, hailey’s boyfriend. they were watching us warmup. i waved and he waved back.
the game was finally about to start. i was doing faceoff, and I lined up at the half line with the other team’s player. I smiled at her, but she just glared at me and rolled her eyes. i thought i heard her mutter “we’re gonna win.”
the whistle blew and we were off. i won the faceoff and passed it to hailey. she passed it to amy and amy passed it back to me. i had a clear shot of the goal and shot as hard as i could. the goalie barely missed the shot. i scored!
the other team got angry. really angry. they started fouling a lot, and the girl from the faceoff knocked me to the ground so hard i blacked out. when i awoke, i was on the sidelines with coach jane staring over me.
“what’s the score?” i immediately asked.
“5-2. we’re winning. it’s the 2nd quarter, almost halftime. you’ve been out for a while.” coach said as i sat up.
hailey was still on the field, and we only had two other subs besides me.
“i want to go back in. please.” i begged.
“ok, but you have to be careful.”
i went back in and heard cheers from the sideline. i didn’t even have to look because i instantly recognized the voice: james.
pretty soon, it was halftime and then we played the last two quarters. i scored 2 more times and hailey and amelia scored a couple times, making the final score 11-6.
we left the game, celebrating and went to get pizza. after lunch, we went home. hailey came home with me and then she eventually went home.
everything seemed normal. it had been a happy day. however, what happened that night changed my life forever.
