RO Day 7 - Motivated

You wake up with a strong motivation to win. The chilly, but peaceful quiet in the dark only lasts until Tiff marches into the cabin, full of energy, literally banging two pots together. She keeps banging them even after everyone is awake and covering their ears.

She finally stops.

"Get dressed and get to the dining hall," she says. "Eat light, then go to yoga room 5 for warmup."

"What kind of drills today?" you ask. It can't be anything difficult because you have that practice game this afternoon.

"No drills," Tiff says, and the girls all murmur to each other in confusion. No drills?

"I'm not allowed to tell you. You'll see. You're on TV now, remember? You knew it was going to be crazy. They warned you. Quit acting surprised. Remember what I said. Eat light."

"Do we know who we play later?" Lara asks, raising her hand.

Tiff grimaces.

"Blue Team," says.

That's Adella's team.

You feel sudden apprehension. And then you feel relief. Playing against Blue Team today means you will NOT play against them in Friday's much more important game.

You all get dressed and eat a small breakfast, where the Blue Team watches you, and you watch them. There is very little interaction between the teams at the dining hall, and even less as you all go to different yoga rooms at the gym.

Tiff doesn't do yoga. She leads you through quick stretches, and then you have to change into your... uniforms? The uniform is not a soccer uniform. It's more like what olympic runners wear: like skimpy bicycle shorts and an extremely tight crop top. Confused, you and the others all put them on. It's not very modest for the girls like you, but everyone is too nervous about the day to be distracted by some bulges. You wish you weren't too scared to enjoy the view...

You wave at some of the cameras as all the girls in the camp walk out to the path into the woods, where half the teams split off and take another path. You wonder where they are going.

Your team arrives at the beginning of an elaborate obstacle course. It's long, with a LOT of obstacles. You can tell by looking at the map that it will be totally exhausting. So you will all be tired and sore for this afternoon's match.

"Cheer up, it'll be fun," you tell some of the girls who are complaining. Other captains are doing the same thing with their teams.

It's as long and difficult as you fear, but you are good at this. You are an athlete, even if some of the obstacles require a lot of upper body strength, which is not your strong suit. You still do well! You are fast and have good balance...

...until you get to the final obstacle. You are at the lake, and you have to cross a lot of spinning logs to get to the other side, but there's like this fog out there...

Someone hands you a staff with pads on the ends.

"What's this for?" you ask.

"For balance," she replies.

Oh no... You carefully go out, balancing... until you see that there is someone else in the fog up ahead, coming toward you.

So THAT is what this is about. That is why they split up the teams... part of this course is getting past this other player.

You see that it is... Van, a good humored Australian player from the Green Team. This stupid obstacle course doesn't matter for soccer, but you give it a shot anyway and try to fight her. She wins, but you made a good effort, and your team is laughing as they get you out of the water.

To your surprise, you get to see Rebecca go up against the tough-looking captain of the White Team, Eliza. Rebecca attacks and wins! No one expected that...

...so Rebecca has confidence in fighting, but not in soccer?

"She's been through some things," Lara murmurs to you.

Obviously...

You give Rebecca a high-five as she comes back to land, blushing.

"That was amazing," you tell her. That makes her happy.

You eat lunch and meet with Tiff, who tells you and Lara that you have to make up for the weak defense in this afternoon's match. You know that, but you hope your defense can do well... no one else seems to realize how dangeorus Beth and Duni are. You and Lara will have your hands full.

You try on your new uniforms... they're cute, but all you can think about is how Olivia must look in her uniform. She is such a goddess. You can't wait to see her, but when will you get a chance to play against Red Team? Well... you can probably see some clips and replays later today, after the matches are all done. Then you can ogle Olivia all you want...

Before the match, you see something that spoils your mood: it's Rebecca, trying to sneak away.

You grab her.

"Where are you going? We're about to play," you say.

She looks so miserable.

"I'm so sorry," she says. "I have to go check something out."

"But the match," you say.

"I'm so sorry," she repeats...

Seriously?! What is even happening...

You have to make a choice.

Let Rebecca go and be short a player?

or

**** Rebecca to play?