Aphra has just moved to Redwood, California from Florida. She is new and needs to make new friends. However, sometimes things are harder without her dad around.
Aphra went to tryouts. Mia was there. Mia was nice to Aphra.
And Aphra made the 2009 team!
First practice.
Aphra arrived ten minutes early on tuesday. She carpooled with Mia. When Aphra came, many girls were already there. Others were greeting the coaches.
"I'm gonna say hi to coach Mike and coach Jessica, wanna come with, Aphra?" Asked Mia.
Aphra shook her head. She was too nervous. So, Aphra just grabbed her soccer ball quietly and dribbled around. She heard the laughs of everyone else playing thunder, she saw the popular girls on the team, and how they seemed to get all of the attention. Aphra knew immediately that she didn't like those girls, who she later found out were named Avery and Evelyn.
"OK, girls, get over here!" Aphra heard coach Mike yell jokingly. She hurried over with everyone else.
"So, today is technical Tuesday! start with the warm-ups, Avery and Evelyn- you lead."
Everyone lined behind cones and did the warm-ups that Avery and Evelyn shouted out. Aphra noticed that Avery and Emily were constantly joking loudly and saying obnoxious things, but everybody just laughed at the things they said.
Next was passing drills. Unluckily, Aphra was partnered with Evelyn, who had a pointy face and dark brown hair in a high ponytail. She never smiled at Aphra. All she said was, "better passes Aphra" or "Take a touch, Aphra" every time Aphra messed up, which both of the girls were fully aware of. This made Aphra angry. She didn't need Evelyn being her mom and calling her out, and she didn't need Evelyn yelling "APHRA, BALL!" Like someone was dying, either. But Aphra said nothing. Even the coaches said the same stuff Evelyn said. Mike made many corrections, whereas Jessica just said everything pessimistically. Aphra wondered if this was just the way Jessica spoke, or if Jessica just hated her job.
Aphra learned a lot that night. She was quiet. She didn't have the courage to stand up Evelyn. With all of this, her spirits plummeted. She was not used to this coaching style. But there would be no backing out.
Even worse, everyone else corrected others and yelled for the ball. Aphra thought it was mean because they didn't say it nicely; they just YELLED.
Soon on the next drill, everyone was messing up and calling each other out. And then the silence and occasional snickering stopped.
"Drop down, ten pushups!" Shouted coach Mike.
