× Mercury

"This is it!" Coach Sharp yelled, her voice echoing off the locker room walls. If anyone wasn't paying attention before, they were now. We still had an hour before the game started, but Coach was continuously giving us pep talks throughout warm ups, which wasn't anything new. "North Carolina, the team we lost to last year; the team that kicked us out of the finals..."

Okay, so I never said her pep talks were all that peppy.

"And it was utter bullshit!" Macey snapped from a few benches over. There was erupted noise from the girls around me in agreement and Coach had to blow her whistle to quiet everyone down.

"Okay, okay," Coach was saying as the noise quieted. "We all know that there was an unfortunate incorrect call and an even more unfortunate accident, but that's done and over with. It's a new year and we need to prove ourselves again. We are undefeated, ladies, and we are not going to break that streak tonight!"

If you've ever been in a room filled with nineteen girls looking for blood and victory, then you know what I'm talking about when I say the room erupted with cheering and high spirits. And if you haven't, then you were seriously missing out.

I couldn't help but smile at the energy in the room. These girls were my family, have been since I joined the team last year. We had been waiting all year for the time we would play against North Carolina again. It wasn't the last game to see who would be going into the College Cup, but from the liveliness in the room, you could have fooled me.

"Now get out there and kick some ass!" Coach shouted over us and we all ran toward the doors.

A sea of baby blue and white morphed together through the hallway like the sea and the sky met for the first time. I threw the wrapper of my string cheese I was eating in the trash and took up the end of the group. Coach Sharp came up and wrapped her arm over my shoulders.

"Do good tonight, kiddo," she said, her smile genuine and bright. "Make your dad proud."

My teammates had already run out through the door and onto the field beyond, leaving the two of us in the shadows as Coach's words echoed around me.

I lived off those three simple words for the past three years now: make Dad proud. If I had a catchphrase, I was sure it would have been that. He was my biggest inspiration, after all. Without him, I wouldn't have been on my way to achieving a goal I had wanted since I was seven. Without him, I would have giving up years ago. Without him, I wouldn't have had the guts to show my face outside on the field after what happened last year. And I knew by doing that, I had already made Dad proud.

The crowd was already big and growing by the seconds as I pushed through the doors to the Drake Stadium. People were walking around with drinks and popcorn trying to find their seats and chatting to the people next to them. North Carolina was our biggest rival and everyone knew it. No one wanted to miss out on the drama, especially for what happened last year. And I couldn't blame them.

"Lynn!" I spun to see Bradley standing on the edge of the seating area. My heart filled with dread from the sight of him. His face was menacing like always and his eyes bore into mine. "Come here," he ordered.

I gave him a small smile, though it was forced, and made my way over to him. When it came to Bradley Milton, my emotions were anything but black and white.

"You made it," I said halfheartedly, not sure if I was happy about that or not.

Yesterday he told me he wasn't sure if he could make the game because of work, but something had obviously changed because there he was in tattered jeans and a gray shirt. I almost wished he hadn't of came.

"Of course I made it," he smiled down at me sweetly. The smile sent shivers down my spine. There was a piece of his shaggy brown hair flopping over his forehead and his brown eyes were gleaming in the sun. "I had to see you play your biggest rival."

I smiled back at him, but I knew it didn't reach my eyes. "Thanks for the support."

"Mercury!" someone shouted and I looked down to see Coach Sharp motioning me to join the girls on the field.

I looked up at Bradley, almost like I was asking for permission, which sickened me. I couldn't help it; it was like a reflex. He eats away at the very core of my indestructible, titanium plated being and breaks me down enough to make me feel like the smallest, most unimportant germ. But I couldn't leave him, my fear and insecurity played a bigger factor than I wanted to admit.

"Go. I'll see you after the game," Bradley stated and went back to his friends.

"Okay," I responded softly to his back, even though it wasn't a question.

I ran over to my teammates at the sideline and joined the circle they had formed as they stretched, touching their toes.

Before every game, the captain of the team, Emily, who was also one of my best friends, led us into stretching. It was a thirty year old tradition that was passed down to every captain of the team and I was glad to see it still playing through all these years.

"Oh, my God," I heard Emily say from beside me, leaning down further so the tip of her fingers went past her hot pink soccer cleats. The tattoos on her arm flexed along her muscles. She was squinting into the bright sun up into the stands. I turned around and looked because if you knew Emily, then you knew that not much could catch her interest. "I want one."

There was a group of guys, maybe seventeen or sixteen of them, standing in a huddle in the crowd looking down at the field. They seemed to be around our age, obviously together, but I had never seen them before. They must have been from North Carolina, not wanting to miss out on the excitement that was sure to come.

"Em, they're not toys you can buy," Jamie told her as she blew away the stray red hairs from her face.

"The brunette is kind of cute," Emily continued like Jamie didn't even say anything. She observed the group of boys like a science project, or which one she could easily pin down to the ground. I was pretty sure the latter was the most fitting theory.

"They all look like assholes to me," I said bitterly.

I could almost see their cocky grins on their lips and the better-than-you attitude radiating off their skin from way down on the pitch. Anyone from North Carolina was an enemy to me, therefore assholes.

Emily stood up and the rest of us followed suit. Her septum piercing gleamed in the California sun.

"They do look kind of snotty," Macey agreed as she bent her right leg behind her and grabbed her foot and started pulling. "But hot. Especially tall, dark, and big."

The girls talked about the boys for what seemed like forever, putting their opinions in to who they thought was hotter. So far the winner was a dark haired boy who seemed to be the tallest of the group and the biggest as physiques go. I didn't really see the appeal in him; it must have been his muscles or the brooding look.

"What do you think?" Jamie asked me. "Who do you think the cutest is?"

I ignored her. I was too focused on the boys to pay any attention to the conversation any more.

All of the boy's eyes were on us, every last one like we were the most interesting thing in that stadium even though the North Carolina team had arrived and started running laps around the field. But their focus was still on us like they were trying to read our minds, and for all I knew, maybe they were.

One of the boys caught my attention the most, though. His hair was obviously dyed blonde from the brown roots threatening to take over, and he was glaring at us with narrowed eyes - I could almost feel the heat of his stare burn right through me. His arms were crossed over his chest exposing his muscled arms in a white T-shirt.

"Why are they looking at us like that?" I couldn't help but ask.

Emily stopped the stretch she was in the middle of doing and reached down to grab her water bottle, peering through the bright sun at the boys. "They're not looking at us," she clarified. "They're looking at you."

"Mercury!" Coach shouted once again and I closed my eyes in frustration. I liked Coach Sharp, I respected Coach Sharp, but sometimes Coach Sharp got on my last nerves.

I turned and saw her waving me over to the sidelines. I debated if I should listen to her, but being my coach and all, I knew that it was either listen to her or be benched for the whole game. There was no way in hell I was going to miss out on the opportunity to play against North Carolina.

A tall man with short black hair, the most gorgeous green eyes I have ever seen, and the sex appeal that would make a Gucci model feel insecure, stood next to my coach. And the dude was a major hottie.

"Yeah?" I asked as I got to them.

"This is an old friend of mine, Coach Mathews," she told me, gesturing to the man beside her. "He coaches a soccer team at a London university."

The man held his hand out and I took it in mine firmly, shaking it. "It's nice to finally meet you, Lynn," he said with a warm smile that I couldn't help but to return. His British accent was thick and rather sexy. "I hope it was okay that I brought my boys along to watch you play today."

I followed his gaze and my eyes went big. He was talking about the group of boys my teammates were taking about. So they weren't from North Carolina, but London? I would have preferred the assholes because suddenly I felt really small under the boy's watchful eyes.

"Horan!" Coach Mathews shouted, making the blonde one look over at us. "Get down here!"

I watched intently as the boy rolled his eyes and debated whether he should listen to his coach or not. It was obvious that he didn't want to come down, but with his better judgment, he obeyed. When the boy stood next to Mathews, I noticed his eyes were a bright blue that reminded me of the ocean at Santa Monica beach.

"This is Niall, the team's captain," Coach Mathews explained, but the only thing I was thinking was what kind of name was Niall?

The boy didn't make any move to hold out his hand in greeting, and I couldn't have cared less. He refused to even look at me, his gaze looking out toward the field, obviously wishing he was anywhere but there. He was tall, I only came up to his shoulders, and I couldn't help myself but to stare into his eyes.

"There isn't any pressure," Coach Sharp added, breaking my stare away from the boy in front of me. "They're just here to watch for entertainment. They know you have enough going on in your head with North Carolina."

"Then why was I the only one who was called over here?" I asked her. There was definitely something more going on than just entertainment. They could have watched the match on TV if that was the case.

"Because you're kind of a big deal," the blonde boy said like it was the most obviously thing in the world. He was looking at me with a blank expression, his hands in the pockets of his black skinny jeans. He had an accent; I believed it was Irish or maybe even Scottish, I wasn't sure, but it definitely wasn't the same as his coach's.

"Ten minutes before game, Coach," Emily ran up to us then. I couldn't help but notice Niall gawking at her floral tattoos that ran up and down her right arm like he couldn't quite understand why someone would put permanent ink on such perfect bronze skin. "Should we start running our laps?"

"Yes," Coach said. "Lynn will join you."

I didn't want to go; I wanted to know the real reason why the boys from London were all there and why I, out of everyone, was introduced to the captain of the team, but I knew from the hard look Coach was giving me that that wasn't going to be an option.

"It was nice meeting you," I told Coach Mathews and then turned my attention back to the blonde boy. I nodded my head at him without saying anything and walked away.

"Who was that?" Emily asked as we started running to our teammates. She was in the process of putting her silky black hair up into a ponytail. I wasn't sure who she was referring to, Coach Mathews or Niall, but it didn't matter.

"No one important."