The Big Fish by Madison Henley (the first e reader txt) 📗

at it. She mentioned that she was going to give each player an evaluation card of the things that they needed to work on from Friday’s game. Great. Meredith was anything but happy. She wondered what hers would say. Maybe somewhere along the lines of:

What in the hell was that because it sure wasn’t soccer.

Meredith puffed out a large sigh as she dribbled through cones, actually focusing on what she was doing so she wouldn’t mess up. She wouldn’t give Gabrielle the satisfaction of seeing her play horribly…again. Towards the end of practice, Gabrielle set up a scrimmage and joined the players. It just so happened that there was a shortage of players on the red team so Gabrielle joined that team. Meredith was on the blue team. Meredith received the ball and dribbled up before passing it to Keliah. Keliah scored and did a little dance before high fiving Meredith. Meredith smiled while jogging back into position. Later on, Gabrielle had the ball and made way past the blue defenders and scored. Meredith rolled her eyes as all the girls on the red team ran up to her and hugged her. Meredith’s tricks and skills were put to the test as she zipped past several defenders and managed to send Keliah a ball in the air that she headed into goal. Gabrielle smiled thinly when Keliah stuck her tongue out at her, already planning a way to get another goal. She dribbled right down the middle of the field, managing to get past two defenders in a brief fight for the ball, then here came Meredith, legs spread wide in case Gabrielle tried to go either way. Gabrielle, knowing that Meredith had some serious fancy footwork, tried to pull a trick on her and it worked. Surprisingly. Gabrielle was a little shocked when she got past Meredith, which made her shooting a little off, and she hit the post. Gabrielle ran backwards back to her place and watched for the goal kick. Lauren trapped the ball and sent it up the field to Meredith. Meredith not having anyone to pass to dribbled up the field. She was getting closer to goal and Gabrielle noticed. Gabrielle sprinted for Meredith and tried to take the ball away from her. Gabrielle was going at full blast to try to get the ball out of Meredith’s possession and ended up kicking her ankle in the process. Meredith fell to the ground and winced in pain.

“Ow.”

Meredith squinted her eyes and hissed loudly.

“Oh my God.”

Everyone ran over to Meredith and Gabrielle was the last to arrive even though she was the closes to Meredith. The girls made way for Gabrielle and Gabrielle knelt down on the turf and pulled off Meredith’s right cleat and sock.

“Whoa.”

All the girls gasped in unison. Meredith’s ankle had a huge scar on it from Gabrielle’s cleat and was already swelling up.

“Meredith, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to run you over like that. I really didn’t.”

Gabrielle’s voice trembled and her eyes began to sting. She thought she would cry. She left her girlfriend for two years and the first thing she does when she comes back is injure her?

Way to go, Gaby.

Meredith sat up and wiggled her foot. It wasn’t serious. Meredith stood up and hopped over to the bench. Gabrielle called the scrimmage a quits with the blue team winning 3:2. Whatever, the score didn’t matter at the moment. She had hurt Meredith and now felt like shit. Gabrielle dismissed the girls after handing them their evaluation cards and watched Keliah help Meredith hop to the their dorm in the distance. Gabrielle rolled her eyes and blinked back a couple of forming tears as she snatched her gym bag and headed to the college’s yoga room. She needed to relax. Gabrielle hadn’t felt this stressed since…since she was down a point. She ended up winning that game but still- -it was stressful. Gabrielle had worked up a sweat during Yoga but her stress had still remained. After a shower, Gabrielle headed to a drug store.

***

“Now you just sit right there and chillax.”

“Where else am I going to go Keli? My foot looks like a potato.”

“Whatever. Just sit still and keep that ice on it. You know, you didn’t do too bad today.”

“I know!”

Meredith grinned to herself at the thought of her performance of today’s scrimmage. That’ll show Gabrielle. She wondered what her evaluation card would say now.

“Oh shoot, we never got our evaluation cards.”

“I can get them from Gabrielle later. Right now I need you to keep icing for another fifteen minutes.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Meredith saluted Keliah before carefully reaching for her bible on her nightstand as well as her reading glasses to read a couple of verses to kill time. Keliah warmed up the heat pad and when fifteen minutes was up, she switched it out with the melting ice bag. Before Keliah left to get Meredith the necessary bandages, she started the clock back and Meredith continued reading. Fifteen minutes later, there was a light knock on the door. Meredith pushed herself off of her bed and hopped on one foot to answer the door. Meredith almost lost her balance standing on one foot and from being shocked when she saw Gabrielle standing in front of her.

“I forgot to give you guys your evaluation cards so here you go.”

She handed Meredith two index cards filled with blue ink on them. Meredith recognized the blue ink. It was from Gabrielle’s favorite pen. The same pen she used to write Meredith her letter. Meredith grabbed them and adjusted her