Page 14 of TJ Powar Has Something to Prove

“I’m pretty sure he made that number up,” Piper whispers back. “He said six hundred percent last year.”

“I can hear you slandering me back there, Anderson,” Coach barks, making Piper go pink. “We’re starting a scrimmage in five. Show them what you’re made of.” He glares at them all, longest at TJ, who ignores it and sits on the turf with Chandani to stretch her legs. Her limbs thrum with restless energy. She has to get on the field before she bursts.

Piper remains standing, biting her nails. “I’m going to suck today because these scouts showed up. They’ll never want me on the team.”

“Didn’t UVic already beg for you?” Chandani asks. “Why do you care?”

“Yeah, but I wantchoices. I still want UBCO to like me.”

Chandani rolls her eyes. “You always want people to like you. Chill out. They’ll be begging us to join their team by halftime.”

Entirely possible. TJ, Chandani, and Piper are a power squad of midfielders. They work well together, which is how they became friends. Still, TJ’s in a mood, so she scoffs. “You have to keep good grades to be on a team. Remind me, what’s your GPA again?”

Chandani kicks her in the leg. “Oh, are you finally done moping? Then remind me, who’s the clown who didn’t go to any recruiting camps last summer?”

Piper winces. TJ doesn’t react. While the rest of the senior players on the team went to recruiting camps, sought out university coaches... TJ didn’t. “How many times do I have to say I don’t want to play university soccer?”

“Until it makes sense. What else are you going to do?”

TJ sighs, successfully distracted. Yet another problem she has to deal with. The official university application deadlines aren’t upon them yet, but the deadline to make a connection with a soccer program is definitely closing in. Coach has been hounding her about it, despite her repeatedly saying she isn’t interested. Whenever she entertains the thought of years more of competitive sport—and all the time, travel, politics, and injuries involved—she feels exhausted. She’s not sure when this change happened, but somewhere in the past couple years, she began looking forward to debate tournaments more than soccer games.

Luckily, she’s spared fromthatconversation because Coach starts splitting them into teams.

TJ’s split up from Chandani and Piper. She jogs onto the field, and as she takes her position, her heart races in anticipation. Take away the competition of it, and soccer is still her favourite sport. Just like with debate, she loves the tension right before kickoff, when everything’s silent, her muscles tense, breath held, that moment whereanything can happen.

The game starts. And just like she wanted, she forgets everything else for the next thirty minutes.

∗

By the end of the game, the restlessness TJ’s been harbouring all day has officially burned out. Trying to out-dribble Chandani certainly did the trick. Still grinning about her goal, TJ returns to the bench only to find Coach handing her a business card.

It’s like a record scratch as he says, “UBCO’s assistant coach told me to give you this.”

He must’ve been campaigning hard for her to get an invite after a scrimmage. TJ sighs. “I told you, I’m not—”

“I’ll send you the details,” Coach interrupts. “You should email them tonight.”

TJ takes a swig from her water bottle instead of answering.

“Do you think you’ll go to UBCO, TJ?” asks the girl at her side—an eleventh grader who plays defense. “Or are you going to join a team somewhere else?”

Chandani, who’s on the bench scrolling through her phone, snorts. TJ ignores her and wipes her mouth. “We’ll see.”

Coach announces some passing drills to round off practice. TJ turns to stow away her water bottle, but pauses when she sees someone approaching from the entrance. Liam. What’s he doing here? She hasn’t talked to him since yesterday’s comment.

She takes a few steps forward to meet him. He looks slightly wary, dressed in a soft-looking blue hoodie and sweats and... holding a bouquet of flowers.

While she’s staring at it, he says, “I’m sorry.”

She blinks. “For what?”

“For what I said yesterday.” He swallows. “For, uh, objectifying you when you were upset about the meme.”

“ ‘Objectifying’? That’s a five-syllable word, Liam. Where’d you learn it?”

“TJ,” he groans playfully, while her teammates snicker behind her, “why do you always have to bust my balls like this?”

She presses her lips together to prevent herself from grinning. Truthfully, she’s touched. “I might’ve overreacted a little yesterday.”