Sports Star

• Gagandeep Kaur, Grade 12
• Short Story
• 2020

Sports Star

So every PE lesson, we played soccer. That was it. Now you have to understand that I'm not athletic at all. I never have been. I never played sports, never wanted to, I hated soccer. My understanding of the rules was limited to; don't use your hands and get the ball in the goal. That remains my understanding today, which shows you how much I've progressed in sports. My idea of playing soccer was to run with the rest of the kids and hope no one kicked the ball in my direction.

One day we were playing soccer and I was in my usual place on the corners of the oval. All of a sudden, there was the ball. Right in front of me!

Now I could have done my usual trick of quickly kicking the ball in the general direction to the front of the crowd, where the kids who knew what they were doing were, but suddenly dreams of being a soccer hero sprang up unexpectedly like Jack in the box. Hey, don’t judge! I was a little kid. I didn’t actually kick the ball back into the crowd. I decided I was going to kick that ball all the way to the goal and win us the game. It’s another thing that I wasn't even sure of the score.

Off I went like a lion after its prey.

Things went smoothly. I was in the lead, heading towards the goal at the speed of light! No one was near me! No one could catch me! I was the wind that could not be stopped. Soon I would score! No one was near me. I slowed down and looked around. Wait, no one was near me?

Common sense broke into my brain and quietly reminded me that not only was I NOT a very fast runner, I wasn't a particularly adept ball handler, either. My one minute dream of being a soccer star went down the drain.

I noticed the rest of the kids were on the other side of the field, playing with the REAL ball. I quickly realized I must have run across an unused ball near the sidelines. There I was, by myself, like an absolute idiot, kicking a dead ball towards the goal, where the goalie was watching me strangely. God, I couldn’t even breathe from embarrassment. It felt like I had slipped and landed in a massive puddle of mud. Even though only the goalie had seen my stupidity I thought every person I knew there, was laughing at me. I had a miniature heart attack, to be honest.

I quickly kicked the ball off to the sidelines and ran to catch up to the ball, taking my place on the corner of the sidelines once more, once more hoping no one would kick the ball to me.

That was the first, last, and only time I wanted to be a sports star. I never made that mistake again.