BUL Day 9 - Thursday

You dream about Aki. In your dream, she's smiling and laughing like you haven't seen her do in real life. You are with her at a mall, drinking milkshapes and waiting for something. Everything is bright and cheerful. You are waiting for your family to come meet you. You are super excited because they're going to meet your girlfriend, who is really polite and cute and has an accent and is not American and... you are just so excited about it.

But you wake up. At least on Thursday the team is allowed to wake up like normal people. Tiff comes in to clap her hands and get you all out of bed and getting cleaned up for breakfast. No activities, no early morning workout. Even though there is a lot of dumb reality TV shit at FUTA, it is still about soccer. Tomorrow is the first big game and you have to get ready. FUTA won't screw with you today.

At breakfast, you know something is going to happen because the camera people are there.

Lulu and Moxxi walk in. The announcers are all dressed up for TV while you and all the other players are not... you all have shorts and t-shirts on and everyone's hair is in a ponytail or something. Nobody has makeup on... but this is what FUTA is about. It just feels kind of voyeuristic this morning.

"Listen up, Ladies," Lulu announces in her no-nonsense way. "Let's talk about tomorrow. Pink versus Green. Red versus White. Blue versus Yellow."

The dining hall gets loud fast. This is a huge announcement, and so sudden! You know who you are playing against now... This is so big.

"Couple things," Moxxie says with a big smile. "You remember how winners get the lodge and losers don't? Let's talk about the details! Losers also have to give up their phones. Oh, and losers can't leave camp without being disqualified from the show, but winners still can under special circumstances." She is absolutely relishing this, but you and the others are all devastated.

Yeah... there was something about this in the contract, but you didn't think you would actually be **** to stay here while the show was shooting... and giving up your phone? You can't remember even going a day without it before. Now you won't be able to have it at all? Well, only if you lose...

"...and while winners go to the Lodge, losers go to a very special place!" Moxxi claps her hands excitedly. "So look forward to that."

They leave, and the dining hall is in chaos. It takes the coaches a minute to calm everyone down.

"Pull it together guys," Tiff says. "This isn't anything to freak out over. Be on the field in half an hour."

You and the others go back to the cabin to change and get ready. Now you have to practice, but your phone is ringing. You stop to answer it, watching Elena squeeze into some tight shorts.

"Riley!"

"Mom?" You are surprised she's calling so early. "What's wrong?"

"Well, it's about your dad," she says.

"Oh my God. Is he OK?" you ask.

"He's fine. He's getting married."

"What? What the fuck?" you say. "To you?"

"Of course not. It's someone new, but they got engaged yesterday and your sister says he hasn't told you."

"Oh my God." You close your eyes. Your dad is such a mess. "OK. Thanks for telling me. When's the wedding?" This will be your dad's third wife...

"Pretty soon. Are you doing OK?"

"I'm good. It just got real over here. It's gonna suck if we lose."

"Baby, it's sports. You'll lose sometimes."

"I know. And it'll suck when I do," you say honestly. "I have to go practice, mom."

"OK. Love you."

You hang up. Ugh. Thursday.

Now that Tiff knows you're up against Green Team, she has special drills prepared for you. You spend all morning working hard. After lunch, you find yourself in a classroom with Tiff and the team to get serious about Green Team. You have the clips that you won from yesterday's pillow event to study some of Green Team's members.

For four hours, you sit with your team and talk. Some of you know members of Green Team, and you share that information. When you conclude the planning session, this is what you know:

Green Team has a lot of extremely physically tough girls.

Green Team has exceptional synergy and teamwork because several of the girls know each other.

Green Team's captain is a strong leader.

CAM is Green Team's strongest player by far.

Cheryl, the goalkeeper, isn't perfect, but she is not afraid of anything at all.

Their attackers and defenders... they all know each other, but the midfielders seem more diverse. Maybe that's important.

At dinner, Tiff warns you to be extremely careful this evening to not get into trouble, and above all, to not get hurt. Before you can head back to the cabin with the others, Tiff takes you aside.

"We have a little problem," she says quietly, outside. Crickets are chirping and all the teams of girls are heading back to their own cabins.

"What is it?" you ask, watching your team. Aki is at the back of the group, walking with Sun.

"It's about Aki. Her grandfather. He's sick," Tiff says.

"Oh, shit. How bad?"

"He's not dying. Apparently it's not bad enough that we need to get her on a plane to Japan right now to be with her, but... it's bad enough that she'd worry. So maybe we don't want to tell her before the game. On the other hand, if we're wrong and he does die or something, she could be really messed up over us not telling her," Tiff says.

Whoa. That's heavy.

"What do you think?" Tiff asks.

"Why are you asking me?" you ask back, upset.

"I can't make this decision alone," Tiff says, looking panicked.

Shit...

What should you do? Tell Aki now? Or wait until after the game?