AR - The video

The video confirms your worst fears. It was a bit playful that you sat in Adella’s lap at the table to watch it after dinner, but there is nothing playful about the way that you are both glued to the screen. It’s cell phone video from a distance, so details are tough to make out, but the picture being painted is still a troubling one.

You pause the video, and Adella rests her chin on your shoulder to look more closely.

“That’s Officer Stark,” you say, pointing to one figure, a tall, somewhat butch woman off to the side. “She’s officially their coach. This girl.” You point at another, a brunette about your size that you don’t recognize. You can hear her voice occasionally, and it sounds like she has some kind of accent. She’s mysterious.

So are the two kids in the gym who are noticeably taller than the rest, and even more noticeably more skilled. These two kids are playing at a serious level. One, in particular, the tallest one, who is almost your height, is just impressive. Plain and simple. She’s not as good as you and Adella, but if she’s this good in Middle School, you want to see what she can do in college. Maybe you should scout her for FUTA. That’s… an interesting thought.

You focus and sigh, leaning back. Adella puts her arms around you automatically.

“This is not winnable,” you say finally.

Adella’s head moves: a silent nod of agreement. Your girls can’t go up against this. The drills being run are brisk and complex, at a much higher level than what you’re doing. Drills don’t mean much, but it does show this coach’s approach: she’s not worried about fun, and some of these kids must have been promised a lot of ice cream, because your team would never put up with working this hard.

So they’ve brought in a good coach to help Stark, who probably knows nothing about soccer, and two players to make extra sure that nothing goes wrong. Ellen’s conservative miracle team is completely staged, but looking at this, you can see it. This team will pound yours into the dirt, and in ten years after Ellen is president, they’ll make an inspirational movie about the scrappy little church team that had god’s blessing and triumphed over the public school Satanists.

The easiest thing to do would be to call the whole thing off. You, Adella, and Stef can probably tank this thing now, before it gets going.

“America?” Adella says worriedly.

“What?”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m thinking,” you say.

“Oh.”

“What?” you snap.

“I’ve never seen you do that before,” she replies.

You roll your eyes and bonk your forehead against hers.

“Domestic ****,” she scolds.