Chapter 1
Ella Masar had lived in Illinois her whole life, but no one really knew too much about her. She is sixteen years old, captain of Urbana High School soccer team, and… well that’s mostly where everyone would stop being able to describe her. Ella was a very reserved young girl, and sure she had her reasons, however no one really knew what they were. At least, not until Erin McLeod came around.
Erin was new to Urbana, and was about to start her first day at the high school. She hadn't heard very much about the place, as her family moving was quite abrupt. Although starting at a new school when it was already halfway through march was never easy.
"Erin honey are you ready?"
"yeah mom i'm coming." Erin shouted down the stairs as she pulled a grey nike t shirt over her head, which she paired with her favourite pair of black joggers.
"There's my beautiful girl, you look great sweetheart."
"Thanks mom." Erin blushed, grabbing the car keys from the counter.
"Do you have your soccer stuff Erin? Remember the principal said tryouts started today." Erin mom said with a smile.
"Yeah I got it mom, I'll see you after soccer." Erin said waving behind her as she walked out to the car.
She put on a brave face for her mom, but inside she was a nervous wreck. Toronto had been her home for her entire life, and suddenly it just wasn't home anymore.
Erin sang along to the radio on the short drive to her new school. Singing was always something that could calm her down.
Erin left early so that she could hopefully find her first class before the bell, allowing her to easily find an available parking spot.
When she got out of her car Erin noticed somebody running laps on the track that surrounded the soccer field. Erin couldn't see her very well, but admired the fact that she was training before school.
When she found the office Erin got her schedule and a map of the school. It was a bit smaller than her previous school in Toronto so it didn't seem too hard to navigate, that was until the bell rang and the halls became infested with students. She could not find her first class which was art, and was getting worried that she would be late.
Luckily she found it just before the bell and took an empty seat near the back of the class. She gave a shy smile to the students sitting in her group of desks, before the teacher started talking.
Mrs. Jones introduced Erin to the class and had her tell everyone a bit about herself.
"Um, my name is Erin McLeod, my family just moved here from Toronto, I like to sing, paint, and I play soccer, I'm a goalkeeper." Erin finished with a small smile. The girl beside her perked up when Erin mentioned soccer.
"You any good? We haven't had a good keeper in years, are you coming to tryouts after school?"
"Kling let the girl breathe. I'm Kealia, and that is Meghan, but if you are going to be on the team, you can call her kling."
"It's uh.. Nice to meet you, and yeah I am coming to tryouts." Erin said quietly.
"Okay but seriously are you good? Don't be modest." The smaller girl, Meghan asked.
"Oh um.. well, I guess I am.. I um I've played for the U-20 national team in Canada."
"Shit! Really?" That's sick and you're only 16? I've had a couple call ups to the U-18 team here." Meghan said, proudly.
Erin smiled knowing she had met a few girls that played soccer already.
"Yeah, I actually got called up the the full team camp this summer." Erin smiled shyly, not wanting to sound like she was bragging.
"Woah woah woah." Kealia said, eyes wide. "Like full team as in, the camp for the 2011 world cup selection."
"Yeah... I mean I probably won't make it but.."
"Hey none of that! I am going to make damn sure you get on that team! Even though you'll be competing against the good ol US of A, me and K here will be rooting for you, we have some great forwards that I'm sure would be glad to test out your skills between the posts.
"Oh yeah!" Kealia said enthusiastically. "We'll stick Masar on you, she won't go easy."
"Where is that crazy kid anyway?" Meghan asked.
"Speak of the devil." Kealia said pointing towards the door of the classroom.
Erin looked up and watched as the girl she saw running laps walked into the classroom with flushed cheeks.
"Nice of you to join us Ms. Masar." Mrs. Jones said sarcastically.
"Sorry, I lost track of time on the track." The girl spoke quietly, walking towards
"She's quiet in the classroom, but on the field she's a beast, don't let her shyness fool you." Meghan whispered as Erin watched the dark haired girl walk towards their group of desks.
Ella took the empty seat, eyeing Erin for a moment quizzically before letting her long hair lose from the bun a top of her head, her dark hair spilled over her broad shoulder and halfway down her back.
"Erin this is Ella, E, this is Erin, she's a goalkeeper, and a damn good one it seems, just moved here from the freezing tundra up north." Kling said.
Erin just laughed, holding out her hand for Ella.
"It's nice to meet you." Erin said flashing a welcoming smile."
Ella looked at the keeper hesitantly for a moment before shaking her hand gently offering a shy smile.
The four girls talked about soccer for most of the class, as they had a free day. Erin noticed Ella didn't really contribute to the conversation, she mostly was doodling on a piece of scrap paper. Eventually Ella excused herself to the washroom and Erin took the chance to ask Kealia and Meghan about her.
"Does she not like me?..." Erin asked.
"What? No it's um, it's complicated with Ella, she's had a rough couple of years, and she doesn't really open up easily to anyone. Kling and I are really the only people she talks to, and that's because we wouldn't give up until she let us is. She is the captain of our soccer team, so out on the field she is a good vocal leader, but she is just really reserved off the field, don't take it personally." Kealia said with a smile.
"Oh okay, so she's the captain? She must be pretty good then." Erin stated simply.
"Hands down one of the best youth forwards in the country, she's been called up numerous times for national team stuff but she's uh.. she's never gone." Kealia's voice got quiet.
"What? Why wouldn't she go?" Erin asked, confused.
"It's kind of personal, another thing only Meghan and I know, sorry, it's just not our place to tell." Kealia whispered.
"I understand." Erin said, she was about to ask more questions, but Ella walked back in taking her seat, so she let it go.
Ella was focused on whatever she was drawing, Erin took this opportunity to really look at her. She was very pretty, her soft skin was a beautiful contrast to her thick, dark hair. She had very muscular shoulders and arms, and Erin could tell she worked out a lot.
The keeper was snapped out of her thoughts when somebody flicked her arm.
"What was that for?" Erin asked, turning to Meghan. The short girl just winked nodding in Ella's direction.
"Oh nothing." Meghan played it off with a sly grin.
The rest of Erin's day passed uneventfully, her last class was human performance, and Kealia had shown her where to weight room was so she made it there with little difficulty. Erin found the change room, and walked in, finding a spare locker for her bag. There was only 3 other girls in there, so Erin assumed the class would be mostly boys. Just as Erin was pulling a national team tee over her head, Ella walked into the changeroom.
She quickly threw her bag in a locker and pulled her shirt off. Disregarding it on the floor. Erin tried to pull her eyes away, when she found herself staring at the shorter girl's prominent abs.
When Erin finally tore her eyes away, she noticed Ella was wearing a silver cross necklace that hung low on her chest.
Erin tried to shake Ella off her mind as she finished changing, but she just couldn't stop thinking about the girl.
Through her entire workout, Erin kept finding herself watching Ella. She was incredibly strong for a girl their age. She could handle more weight than many of the boys in the class. Ella didn't talk to anyone in the class though, she put headphones in and kept to herself as she worked out, rarely asking for a spotter, and when she did it would usually be because Mr. Hall would insist on spotting her.
Erin watched as Ella laid back and began to bench press an insane amount of weight for somebody her size.
Erin slowly walked closer, worried that she was going to hurt herself.
After seven reps, Ella was struggling to get the bar back up. Erin walked over and grabbed the bar helping her do three more reps before putting the bar back up carefully.
Ella took out one headphone as she sat up and turned to look at Erin.
"Um.. thanks for that." She spoke quietly, not holding eye contact for more than a few seconds.
"Anytime, if you ever want a spot, you can ask me." Erin gave a genuine smile, hoping that Ella would take her up on that offer.
"Um yeah.. okay thanks again." Ella said quickly before putting her headphone back in and walking over to one of the treadmills and hopping on.
Erin watched the muscles in Ella's legs flex as she sprinted on an incline for more than 5 minutes before slowing down.
The keeper now knew what Meghan meant when she called Ella a beast.
When the final bell rang Erin went to the change room and put on her soccer gear, a few girls began to file in, each giving the keeper a once over before getting changed. The girls had all clearly played together for many years, but she felt hopefully when she didn't see anyone else that looked to be a keeper.
Erin smiled when she saw Meghan and Kealia walk in with a few other girls.
"Hey Erin!" Meghan shouted.
"Ladies listen up!" Meghan yelled to get everyone's attention.
"This is Erin McLeod, she is the first good keeper to roll through this town in who knows how many years so she is one of us now, mostly because we don't have another keeper so she is guaranteed to make the team but lucky for us she happens to be actually talented!" Meghan stated proudly as if she had discovered Erin herself.
Erin blushed a little as Meghan introduced her, but all the girls seemed more welcoming after Kling's little outburst.
The first tryout went well, Erin mostly worked one on one with the keeper coach, who they had never had much use for until now.
Everyone was amazed by how truly talented the keeper was. When they did shooting drills near the end of practice, she let only two balls past.
Erin was shocked when she heard Ella giving instructions to some girls, she even yelled a few times to get someone's attention. Erin knew that she wanted to get to know Ella better. Sure maybe it had something to do with the fact that she was attractive, but no one here knew she was gay yet, so she had to try and control her lengthy stares.
When practice was ending, the team did a cool down jog around the track, Ella set the pace, running just a few feet in front of the rest of the group.
Meghan nudged Erin as she caught her staring at the forward again.
"What?" Erin asked innocently.
"Don't what me, you know what." Meghan said winking at the keeper.
Erin just blushed; maybe people did know.
After the tryout, Erin was one of the last people in the change room, she saw Meghan pulling on her shoes, and walked over to her.
"Hey Meghan can I ask you something?" Erin asked hesitantly.
"Sure, but call me kling okay?" She said simply.
"Okay um... Are people here uh... okay with gay people?" Erin asked quietly.
"Well I mean it's like anywhere really, there's always the people that aren't cool with that but the ones that matter are. There are a few girls on the team who are gay, so all of us girls are cool with it, and coach makes sure that everyone feels safe around here, no matter what they are. "
Erin let out a sigh of relief.
"So assuming that you didn't ask me that just because you were curious, let's talk about the crush you have on my home girl Ella." Meghan said wiggling her eyebrows.
"What? I don't..."
"Calm down buddy, look, It's all cool that you like the ladies, but just be careful alright? Ella is pretty religious and I don't want you or her getting hurt. So I'd try and stay away from that if I were you, she doesn't swing that way, and even if she did, like K and I said earlier, she prefers to keep to herself, so unless she comes to you, don't push her to talk okay?" Meghan gave Erin a pat on the back before walking out of the change room. "See you tomorrow Erin!"
"See ya Kling." Erin shouted after her.
Erin walked to her car and was about to get in when she saw Ella walking. She tried to ignore her and listen to what Meghan said, but she just couldn't help herself.
"Hey Ella, do you want a ride?" Erin offered with a smile.
"Oh um.. no I'm okay thank you." Ella said as she kept walking.
"Are you sure? I wouldn't mind." Erin pressed.
"I'm fine really it's not that far, I'll uh I'll see you tomorrow." Ella gave a small smile and continued walking out of the parking lot.
Erin sat in her car for a few minutes before leaving.
/I think Meghan was right./ The keeper said to herself as she drove home.