"WE'RE ALWAYS FIRST!" we yelled at the top of our lungs and ran back onto the field.
"Remember! Everything was planned!" I shouted over the noise and commotion. "If you try hard, we're going to win!" I cheered encouragingly, and everyone on the field nodded.
The loud buzzer sounded, and we continued the game. Most of the match passed, and it was still 0-0. The remaining five minutes were very tense. I could see our team trying with all their might, but we needed to score. Running, I saw how close we were to a goal. The ball was kicked toward me, but not too accurately. I spotted it at the same time as the Ohio team captain, Conor, and started sprinting toward him. He kept up, but thinking about how badly I wanted to win, I ran with all my strength and kicked the ball as I fell. It went straight into the left corner, just like we planned. I felt like I scraped my leg badly, but I didn't care.
Jake was the first to run up to me, hugging me and lifting me lightly into the air. The others congratulated me too. My leg really hurt. The coach told me to sit on the bench, so I did. I put on my jacket and yelled instructions to the guys. Only a few minutes remained, and they just needed to prevent a goal. The opponents were happy that I was no longer playing, so they tried to press forward.
With only a few dozen seconds left, Conor shot, and everything seemed to slow down. I watched the ball fly in slow motion while Josh ran toward it. I watched to see if he would make it. He fell hard but caught the ball just as the time ran out.
I hobbled off the bench toward Josh and hugged him. We all screamed with joy, jumping in a circle. Finally, someone lifted me into the air, and we started heading toward the area where we would finish everything with a farewell.
I was lying in the hospital room, waiting for the doctor to bring information about what needed to be done with my leg. It turned out I had not only scraped it, but also cracked a bone when I fell. It wasn't bad, but it was cracked.
When the doctor arrived, he told me when I needed to visit the hospital next time, gave me pain medication just in case, and handed me crutches. I took them, thanked him, said goodbye, and hopped out of the room.
Jake, Josh, Louis, and Niall were sitting in the waiting room. Them again.
"How is it?" Jake asked, running up to me.
"They put it in a cast for a short time because the bone only cracked a little. It doesn't hurt much, so everything is fine," I smiled at him.
"Can you make it to the taxi?" he asked.
I nodded and started hopping toward the exit. It turned out it wasn't as easy as it looked. Once I was in the car, it wasn't great because I had to stretch my leg while sitting across three guys. Louis was happily sitting in the front.
It was a good thing the hospital wasn't far, so when the car stopped, Louis paid, and Niall was the first one out, carefully pulling me out of the car by my waist.
When we got to the lobby, the entire team greeted me with flowers, candy, and helium balloons. I already knew what we were going to do with them. They rushed toward me, congratulating me on the win and consoling me about the injury.
"Guys, Josh did a lot by saving that last goal," I frowned, pulled one rose from my bouquet, and hobbled over to him. "Congratulations on being the best goalkeeper!" I said, handing him the flower and hugging him. I could see how happy he was.
Eventually, everyone dispersed, and the three of us went to our room. Louis and Niall carried my gifts, while I focused on trying to reach the room. As soon as I got there, I collapsed into bed. Finally, we started popping the balloons, inhaling the helium, and laughing hysterically. That's how we spent our evening until we fell asleep.
"Finally!" I shouted, getting off the plane. My leg hurt, I was tired, and I was hungry. We got into the same bus with our suitcases and started driving toward the college. I was walking in the back, and as I entered, I heard our team's name being chanted mixed with my name.
They let me through, and everyone quieted down a bit when they saw me. El was the first to rush over.
"What happened to your leg?!" she shrieked.
"It's fine. I cracked a bone a little when I fell after scoring the goal," I gave her a fake smile, because the pain was immense.
She hugged me. "Come on, I have pain medication in the room. I can see how much it hurts," she whispered very quietly, and I just nodded. "Can someone help?!" El shouted, pointing at me.
I was quickly lifted. It was Niall. Why was he helping me? Louis must have forced him. As we were almost past the students, one guy popped up next to us.
"So, not so tough anymore, huh?" he scoffed.
I snarled, swung my crutch, and smacked him over the head.
"Aha," I drawled, and Niall kept walking, saying nothing. He was scared.
In the room, he carefully laid me on the bed and left after saying goodbye, while El immediately handed me a pill and took off my jacket. When the medicine kicked in, I felt much better.
"So, where are my candies?" I asked El.
She sighed and handed me a fairly large bag. I dumped everything onto the bed, and we exchanged a look before starting to eat. When there was almost nothing left, we lay in our beds, unable to move.
"We shouldn't have eaten so much," the brunette groaned.
"I regret nothing," I replied with a sigh, and rolling onto my side with difficulty, I grabbed my phone. "Watch this. Start counting the time from when I tell you," I said.
I pressed Louis's name.
Louis: "Hello?"
Luanna: "We can't move," I said, and signaled El to start counting. Louis had already ended the call. I saw El bend her fifth finger, counting.
One more second later, Louis and Niall burst into the room. They were out of breath, looked around, and seeing the candy wrappers all over the room, they sighed with relief.
"Seriously? You called us for nothing?" Louis raised an eyebrow.
"I wanted to see how fast you'd run to rescue your sweetheart," I scoffed.
"How could you not invite us to eat these candies?!" Niall asked, quite loudly and angrily.
"You have enough candy as it is," I said.
"I agree," murmured El, who was barely breathing. Louis laughed, and Niall frowned. I picked up the remaining package of gummy bears and tossed it into his hands.
"Maybe you'll finish yourself off faster," I muttered, turning over. "You can go now."
"You're getting rid of us that fast?" Louis feigned dismay.
"Exactly. So get out of the room," I grumbled.
"You won't get rid of us that quickly," Niall said, sitting down on my bed, and Louis sat on El's.
"So, how long will you wear the cast?" Louis asked me.
"If everything goes well, a couple of weeks," I replied, drinking water from the bottle.
"Thank God," Niall sighed, and we looked at him strangely. "We have a match in a month," he explained. He was acting weird. I decided to ignore it and joined El and Louis's trivial conversation, but I couldn't stay awake for long and fell asleep next to Niall.
Eleanor's POV:
Luanna fell asleep and slumped onto Niall's shoulder. He immediately tensed up.
"Relax, she's sleeping," I chuckled with Louis. He calmed down, but not entirely.
"You really like her, don't you?" I asked.
"Shut up," he grumbled.
An uncomfortable silence fell until he broke it. "I just want to know where she knows me from," he sighed mournfully.
"Didn't you try asking?"
"She only gives hints, and it's just a game to her. I don't want to be a puppet," he whined. He really looked pathetic, completely smitten with her, while she seemed to despise him with her whole being.
"I think you'll have to if you want to find out who she was to you," Louis said, having been silent until now.