Halftime

Halftime

by Magnus von Krusenstiern

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Dedicated to my sister Zola

Copyright 2015

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, Vermont

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Remembering playing at the park with Juan, just a kid. But now in the big leagues. How did I get here? My life long dream, coming true.

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“Sasha, Juan just got here. Do you have everything?” his mother asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be right down,” Sasha said as he was running down the stairs to his mother.

“Are you sure? You’re positive you got everything?”

“Yes, I’ll be fine. Besides, if I forget something it won’t be a big deal.”

“Ok, have a good time.”

“Thanks, bye,” he said and it seemed that he was out as soon as possible.

“Hi Juan,” Sasha said as he got into the car. “Hi Diego.”

“Hi Sasha,” Juan’s dad, Diego said.

“Hey,” Juan also said back. “Are you ready for the game?”

“Yeah, I’m so excited, I’m even wearing my jersey for Atletico!” Sasha pulled up his sweatshirt so Juan could see the red and white stripes.

“Cool, it looks exactly like the ones that they wear!” Juan said.

“Whoa!” the boys both gasped when they arrived at the stadium about an hour later.

“Let’s go in together, okay?” said Diego, but he could see the boys had already started to run to the entrance so he had to catch up.

“Hey guys,” Diego said out of breath. “Next time wait for the adult.” But the boys weren’t listening.

“Are you guys waiting in line?” said the ticket man.

“Yeah, just one second,” Diego said as he was taking the tickets out of his pocket. As Diego handed over the tickets for him and Juan, Sasha started looking for his ticket but for some reason he couldn’t find it! He looked through all his pockets when finally he realised where it was. At home when he finished getting ready for the game he had put the ticket on the table next to the TV. “Sasha,” Diego said “it’s your turn.”

“Ok, just one quick problem...I forgot my ticket at home.”

When Sasha told them what happened he closed his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look at their faces. But when he thought he was safe to open his eyes he wished he hadn’t.

“You forgot your ticket!” yelled Juan. “You and I have been looking forward to this day for months and when it comes, you forget your ticket!”

“I’m sorry,” Sasha said in a quiet voice. “I was also so excited, too excited that I forgot my-” but Sasha was cut off by Juan’s yelling.

“We spent months looking for cheap tickets and even when we found the cheapest they were still so expensive.”

“Hey why can’t you guys just go in, I’ll wait in the car.”

Just then it seemed like Sasha had saved the day after ruining the day. But the plan fell through.

“Well, we can’t leave you out here alone while we watch the game so let’s go, the game is about to start. Maybe we could catch some of it on TV.” As they were driving back no one said anything.

Finally they got home.

“Looks like we’re here, have a good night Sasha.”

“You too Diego. Bye Juan, see you later.” But Juan didn’t even exchange a look with him. As Sasha walked down the front walkway he thought about how he had ruined Juan’s big day. He also thought about how expensive those tickets were. When he got inside he went upstairs and plopped down in front of the TV, but he didn’t turn it on. Instead, he started to cry. He was so sad that he missed the game and Juan was right, they got those tickets 3 months ago.

“Why!” Sasha said in tears. He got up and found the ticket, and ripped it right in half. He was so mad at himself.

Eventually, he was out of tears and got a bit hungry. As he was walking downstairs he saw a shadow coming from the kitchen. Just standing there. As he went down slowly, he was being as quiet as he could. Then he realised whose shadow it was.

“Mom?” he said

“Sasha, is that you?” his mom responded.

“Yeah, what are you doing?” His mother came out of the kitchen. “I thought someone had come in to the house and was robbing us,” she said. “Also, why are you here so early, the game should’ve just ended?”

“Well, I should’ve taken your advice and double checked if I had everything, but when we got there and it was my time to go in, I realised that I left my ticket upstairs.”

“Oh, honey,” she said as she opened her arms for a hug. Even though he knew it wouldn’t help he did it anyway.

“Wait, then why were you upstairs?”

“I was going to watch a little bit more of the game but I didn’t,” he said.

Later that night, Sasha lay in bed thinking how he could make it up to Juan. He knew that just giving him a soccer ball wouldn’t be enough.

The next morning Sasha thought up a great idea. He and Juan would start up a soccer team! It was a brilliant idea! But there was a lot of preparation. Who else would be on their team? And who would be the coach? There were many questions to be asked but Sasha just had to get the news to Juan.

He got his shoes on and ran out the door. When Sasha was about one third of the way there Sasha felt like giving up. He was about to turn back when…

“Sasha! Is that you?” someone yelled from a car on the corner. He turned around and saw Juan’s mom in the car looking at him.

“Hi, Camila,” Sasha said in an tired voice.

“Hello. What are you doing out here?”

“Well it’s funny you ask. I was actually running to your house, I have some urgent news for Juan,” he said.

“Urgent enough that you’ll let me drive you?” she said in a sarcastic way.

“Sure,” he said as he eagerly ran around into the back seat. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Camila said.

As they were driving it was mostly quiet the whole time but eventually Sasha just had to ask.

“Hey Camila, how’s Juan doing, you know, because I kind of ruined his big day?”

“Well, he took it pretty hard. When they got home he went up stairs and didn’t come back down.”

“Oh,” Sasha said, but he wasn’t surprised.

Finally they got to the house and Camila went to wake up Juan. After a bit of arguing and disputing she eventually got Juan to come out. As the day went on Juan and Sasha talked about soccer and Sasha even proposed the team idea to him. Even though Sasha had almost ruined their friendship the night before, it seemed that he and Juan were okay.

“So, we’ll talk tomorrow?” Sasha said putting on his shoes.

“Yeah, I have some really good ideas for the team. I think that I’ll either have to go with the blue and white or the green and white,” Juan said in an almost sarcastic way. Sasha smiled and they said good-bye to each other.

About two weeks into making the soccer team happen, they had almost everything done. They decided Juan’s dad would be the coach. Luckily Juan’s mother had some old bed sheets and some spare clothes but Juan was sad that he didn’t get to pick the colors. The only thing that they needed to do was to get some other players for the team. Living in Spain, lots of kids play soccer so they didn’t worry about finding players, but then they realised that the other teams would be picking all of the players so they needed to get on it. The reason Sasha and Juan never actually played on a team was that they lived in a part of Toledo that was a far from the main part of the city and their parents weren’t willing to drive 2½ hours for a soccer game. But now that Juan’s dad was willing to be their coach, he had to drive them.

“Wait, why aren’t we gonna do tryouts? Don’t we want the best players we can find?” Sasha questioned Diego. They were walking around the neighborhood putting up flyers and sign up sheets with their phone number to let people know about the team.

“We’re desperate for players, so as long as we get enough kids we’ll be fine,” he responded calmly.

Over the next week or so they just waited. Juan even moved one of the house phones to his room not caring if someone called in the middle of the night. Eventually they knew they would have to spread the news a different way. Later that day Sasha and Juan brainstormed ideas. They came up with some good ways but they decided that the newspaper would be the most efficient. Sasha and Juan had some extra money they were saving up and they were willing to use it to buy an ad in the paper. On Monday, they waited for people to call. At ten a.m. they started losing hope. But then the phone rang.

“Hello,” Juan said in a let down voice.

“Hello, this is Elisa, I was calling because I saw the ad in the newspaper about the local soccer team, and my son, Fernando, wants to sign up.” After the woman on the phone said that, Juan didn’t know what to say so he just handed the phone to his dad. As Diego talked to Elisa, Juan and Sasha talked about how excited they were that someone wanted to sign up.

“Do you think he’s good?” whispered Juan to Sasha

“I don’t know. I’m just happy someone actually called,” he said.

“Guess what,” Diego said, putting the phone down, “we got our first teammate!” Throughout the day they got more and more calls and by the end of the day, they had 8 other players for the team!

Next Thursday they had their first practice. “Hello everyone, my name is Diego and I will be your coach this season. To start off I’m going to go around and say your names and you guys will say here or something.” As Diego went around the team asking names, Sasha and Juan stayed a bit farther away, discussing the team.

“Hey, did you notice that there are only about half of the kids here than there’s supposed to be?” Juan whispered to Sasha in a worried sort of way.

“Yeah, I noticed that too,” he responded

“Hey boys!” Diego yelled from where the team was, “It’s time to come over and introduce yourselves.”

During practice, they did a few different drills and played some little games.

“How did you guys think the practice went?” Diego asked while packing up his bags.

“Well, not that many kids came, and the kids that did come need some work,” said Juan, eyeing one of the kids leaving.

“Come on, they weren’t that bad,” Sasha said in a sort of defensive way.

“Are you serious! That kid could barely kick the ball!”

********

“Sasha, it’s great to see you! It’s been a while,” said a man’s voice. Sasha snapped out of his memory of Juan. As he heard the voice he knew that this was no teammate. Eventually he knew this day would come but didn’t know when. This was Juan.

“Oh no,” Sasha accidently said aloud.

“What? What happened?” Juan immediately questioned.

“Oh, nothing,” he mumbled.

“Well anyway, it’s great seeing you. Good luck on the game,” Juan said.

“You too,” Sasha sighed.

How did he not know Juan was playing on the opposing team? Anyway, Juan and he hadn’t seen each other for years. It had been about 2 months into the soccer team they had made as kids. The practice before the game, they had decided to vote for a team captain. The majority of the team voted for Sasha, which had infuriated Juan. Juan being so mad over this little thing, ended his friendship with Sasha.

It’s amazing how a little silly thing can end a strong friendship like that one.

“All players, report to the main tunnel,” informed the loudspeaker.

As he walked over to the tunnel with all of the other players, he saw the blazing lights coming from the inside of the stadium.

“Ready?” a teammate said.

“Ready,” Sasha replied.

When they were going onto the field he was going on feeling like he needed to win because of the friendship bust between him and Juan, but at the same time, Juan needed it because even though he chose to not be friends anymore, he was also affected by that decision.

As the game started Sasha tried to block out the fact that his ex-best friend was on the opposing team. Sasha looked up to see what position Juan was playing but for some reason, Juan wasn’t on the field. He kept looking but he didn’t see any familiar faces. Then he realised that Juan was a substitution. Yes! Maybe Sasha doesn’t have to face Juan. Maybe he could get away with just playing a normal game.

While the game was going Sasha was as happy as one could be. Eventually halftime rolled around and everyone cleared the field to go to the locker rooms. During halftime Sasha sat in the corner thinking if he should actually talk to Juan. Even though Sasha was trying to avoid Juan, he thought it would be nice for them to actually talk.

“BEEP BEEP BEEP!” That was the signal to go back to the field.

As he went back he was thinking about Juan. He wanted to get a chance to talk to him. On the field the game had started and and he started playing normally like he did in the first half. About a third through the second half something happened. There was an injury.

But for Sasha this wasn’t just a little twisted ankle mishap, he saw this as an opportunity. Sasha made his way to the injured player, where the others gathered around to see, but that’s not what Sasha was there for. Sasha looked as the manager talked to the subs and hoped to see Juan’s number up on the digital sign a referee was holding. 17! 17! 17! Sasha chanted inside his head. He heard the player on the ground with medics scream in pain, which got his attention. But a minute later he looked up and saw the number 17 on the sign. Sasha ran over to Juan who was walking to the scene.

“Juan I’ve been meaning to-”

“Save it. Meet me outside of our locker room after the game,” Juan said as he rushed over to the other players.

“What?” Sasha said out loud. He had a puzzled look on his face. He was so confused. At the beginning of the game Juan seemed so happy. Why would he be so rude?

“Hey Sasha,” some teammate said, “it’s time to start up the game again, come on.” Sasha followed but was a bit mad at Juan because of that. On the field Juan didn’t seem to notice him but Sasha wanted to be seen. When Juan got the ball Sasha ran in to get it. Sasha faked an injury to encounter Juan. As Sasha was laying on the ground Juan said, “you okay?”

“Yeah I’m good, thanks.”

You okay? Is that all he’ll get from his estranged friend? They used to be like brothers! He was done with this. When they talk at the locker room he’s ending this for good.

The last half hour of the game went really fast for Sasha. But as soon as the final whistle blew Sasha instantly went to the outside of Juan’s locker room. Sasha had thought up this whole mean thing he was going to say even though he thought he was going to be friends again. After about ten minutes Juan finally came.

“Hey, sorry about before, I was so mad because my coach had me be a sub,” Juan said. But when Juan came, Sasha knew what he had to do.

“But, he put you on. Why were you mad?” he questioned.

“Well, I was supposed to play the full game today but for some reason he used me as a sub. Hey, what was it you wanted to say to me before?”

“Don’t you know how we use to be best friends?” said Sasha. Juan nodded. “Well, I miss that, and was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime?” Sasha said awkwardly.

“I am so glad you said that. The moment I saw you it reminded me of the old times, when we saw each other every day.”

“Hey guys, time to clear the locker room. You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here,” the clean up crew guy sarcastically said.

The two players went out to greet fans and family and after a while the stadium had mostly cleared out.

“Hey Juan, follow me,” Sasha said.

“Why?” Juan said.

“Just come.” They went out to the entrance of the stadium and Sasha went to the ticket booth. After a while he came back with two pieces of paper in his hand.

“This is for that time when we were so excited to go to that Athletico game and I forgot my ticket. This is my way of repaying you.”

“Glad we’re back.”