One word for practice: Brutal.

Coach said we had it easy. That when he was in high school his coach would make him do laps around the whole town. Then we had Sunshine ask how big the town was. His big fat mouth got us running more laps around the field. Sunshine was not appealing to me. I knew his real name is Austin but after the butt grabbing incident and now this. He wasn't making my world very sunny.

"This is your fault." I said to Cole. My hands were on my knees just as everyone else. We were all trying to catch our breath from the sprints. It was chilly outside, the snow had finally subsided. It was one of the rare days we got to play outside instead of the gym. But even with the cool air, my sweating was making me feel hot.

"Mine?" Cole asked taking a sip of whatever drink he had in his plastic bottle.

"You practically forced me into this team." I stood up and started stretching my arms. Coach blew his whistle and we all got up to go to the middle of the field.

Cole smirked at me. "You agreed in the first place."

"Alright." We stood around Coach while he exaggerated the word. "You can all sit down if you want to." As if on cue we all collapsed and fell onto our butts. "Well man, you guys are tired." Coach plucked the whistle into his mouth, "Maybe a few more laps can wake you up?"

"No!" We all shouted in protest.

He grinned, "I was kidding." His clipboard went underneath his arm while he stood with us. Blake was at is side, he wasn't panting like us, but he seemed tired too. "How about a quick game of shirts vs. skins?"

Over the last couple weeks I had gotten a lot more used to hanging out with the team. Sure they were all guys, and at first everything was awkward. But a team is like a family. If I can get the Parris brothers to accept me as a family, I can surely get a bunch of kids on my team to accept me as well. I raised my hand, "Can I be captain Coach?"

"A volunteer!" Coach helped me up. "What team?"

I shrugged, "I'll take skins."

Everyone stared at me with wide eyes. Coach smirked and shook his head like he was sort of proud I had the confidence to do that. In the crowd of kids, Shawn bursted out laughing. He stood up and walked towards me laughing the whole way. Everyone's eyes were trained on him. "Here you go," He said between laughs as he handed me a twenty. I stared at him for a second, this wasn't some bet. I just decided to do it because I wanted to prove I wasn't some stuck up girl that needed to be treated like a princess. Shawn leaned over and whispered something in my ear, "Go with it. I'm saving you humiliation."

I shrugged, grateful for the free money and slipped the bill into my shoe. "So who's the other captain?" I asked.

"I'll be it Coach." Sunshine raised his hand and stood beside me. "Heads." He said to Coach before the coin was flipped.

"Tails." Coach looked towards me and I looked out in the crowd of players.

It was everyone's natural instinct to pick Blake first. He was the best player, so I guess that's why I chose him. I wanted to win, I wanted to beat the shirts team. "Blake." I muttered. He gave me his famous smirk and slipped shirt off before tossing it to the side of the field.

"Cole." Sunshine said. Cole sighed and took a step beside Sunshine.

"Shawn-ator." I said pointing to my brother.

He grinned and jumped up. "Alright! Me and Tor-bo gonna kick butt like real ninjas! Hoowah!" He threw his shirt off and did a karate kick before bouncing beside me.

Sunshine looked at his choices. "Hayden."

I watched Hayden get up and take a step beside his team mate. He gave me a small smile before turning serious and looking down at the grass. "Trent." Everyone stared at me for a second, then they glanced at Shawn. Trent was frozen on the ground before he stood up slowly and stepped beside me. "You two will be able to play right?" I asked looking between Trent and Shawn. They nodded but their bodies were tensed.

Everyone knew about the accident on Halloween. And if they didn't know then they obviously found out on Homecoming. The Trips weren't on speaking terms with Trent right now, but I was. So they were just going have to deal with it while we played together. If they couldn't play a simple game of shirts vs. skins, there was no way they'd be able to play the game this upcoming Friday.

This Friday was our first match. And if that wasn't exciting enough, Cole explained it was tradition for our team to go to a pizza shop in town if we won. The owners know our team really well because every victory we had would mean pizza at their place. They even have a room, usually reserved for birthday parties, that they'd give us so we woudn't be disturbing the rest of the customers. Because let's face it, a lot of high school boys happy about winning their soccer game, it was going to be loud.

Then this weekend was the Trips birthday. I had exhausted my thinking skills on what to get them as gifts, so I was just going to give them cash. Except Shawn, I'd probably get him a magic kit. Everyone was excited for the Trips birthday. The school was buzzing on what to do. A lot of the popular crowd was disappointed when they heard it was small party. The soccer team was invited, and some of the Trips closer friends also received the invitation.

At lunch today a lot of girls came to our lunch table and practically forced themselves onto Blake's lap. Asking if they were invited as well. My brothers were now regularly sitting at my lunch table with my friends and I. Blake would glance at his brothers to see if he had permission to invite the girl that just laid herself on his lap. He would even glance at me to see if I would allow it. If two of us shook our head, she wasn't invited. The majority always won. From all the girls that sat on Blake, none were invited.

I wasn't sure how, but Blake had convinced our parents not to be there when the party started. Mom was slightly disappointed because he wanted to be there to take pictures of the boys blowing the candles and cutting the cake. So we decided to have two parties. One, with all of the friends. Another where it was just going to be the family.

After the teams were sorted out, I pulled my shirt off leaving me in a sport's bra. No one said anything, a few guys stared but I shrugged them off. "Ok so...this is what I was thinking..." I started to explain the plan to my team mates. They all helped or nodded in agreement. When they had something to add in, they didn't hesitate to ask or comment.

The game, went smoothly. There were hardly any fouls and it was fun playing against some of my friends. Cole and I got in a wrestle for the ball and he finally tripped over my foot allowing me to steal the ball. Blake, Shawn, and I worked really well. We had been working in the backyard a lot more. It wasn't a joke when Blake said I was one of them. I was passing, juggling, juking, and scoring like a Parris. Not to mention we made a great team.

Coach was smiling from the sidelines. He didn't seem to be the only one that didn't notice. Both teams were staring at me when I would victory dance after a goal that Blake would assist me with. He'd smile and laugh giving me high fives. Shawn would jump on my back or I'd jump on his and we'd parade around. Cole even decided to jump in when we got in a group hug. We were...a family.

Sunshine's team never had it coming. It was like having all three Trips on one team. Even with Cole, they were no match for us. To have a standing chance, they'd have to split us evenly. Sunshine's team was sprawled on the grass when they realized they couldn't catch up on the score.

I walked over to Hayden. He was lying on the ground panting hard. "You need any help?"

"Give me a minute." He took deep breaths and placed his arm over his eyes to block the sun. "You've gotten a lot better."

I grinned and stuck my hand out for him to take. "Just a little bit." He took my hand and I hoisted him up.

"We'll win with you four then." He grinned at me before looking down at his cleats.

Coach blew on his whistle and we filed in to the middle of the field. "That was exciting wasn't it." He grinned and losing team grumbled a few things while my team whooped and hollered. Coach laughed, "Well you all know the game is Friday. Pack your bags and meet up here after school. It's an Away game so we'll be getting on the bus as soon as school ends. If you're late, you don't play. At all. The rest of the year you will be a bench warmer. Understood?"

"Yes Coach." We all said in union.

He grinned, "Good. Now hit the showers. You all stink. Whoo." He waved his hand under his nose scrunching up his face. "All of you buy deodorant tonight. We didn't even have deodorant when I was kid. Use it, seriously. It's like smelling different pigsty. Man..." He walked off the field towards the stands.

There were a couple people waiting on the bleachers. Some were little brothers or sisters waiting for their brother to finish practice because they rode home together. A couple girls were there, girlfriends of some of my team mates. Em was in the stand reading a book waiting for Shawn to finish. Then there were girls that were hoping on getting one of the players attention and spend the night with them.

"Tori." I turned around and saw Sunshine walking over to me. His hair had slightly grown more from the buzz cut he used to have. He placed his hand between us like he wanted to shake, "I just wanted a truce." He said.

I stared between his hand and him. "A truce?"

"Yeah." He rolled his eyes like it was obvious. "You're good. But don't get cocky."

"Meaning?" I hesitated for a moment.

Sunshine sighed, "I'm sorry I was a jerk to you in the beginning ok? It just got me mad alright."

"That a girl was on the team?"

"Yeah," he turned around and pointed at a girl in the bleachers. "That's my girlfriend." I looked over and saw a dark haired girl with red streaks through her hair. Even from far away I could tell she was pretty. "She loves soccer as much as I do." Sunshine said turning back to me. "She's on a traveling team and everything. It got me mad because I know that she could cream any other team if this school could just afford a girls team. But they can't. And I know you're close to the Parris brothers, so I knew that they're basically the reason you got in."

I stared at him for a second. He quickly added, "You're good. But you're not that good. My Rue could beat you in a heartbeat. She's been playing since she was two and hasn't stopped since then."

He had a point. If it weren't for the Parris brothers I wouldn't be here. There were plenty of girls at the school that could play soccer. The exception with me is Blake and Cole got me here. If it weren't for them, I'd probably be at home right now studying for my history exam.

Which reminds me...I need to study for that.

I put my hand out, Sunshine took it with a small smile. "My name's Austin." He added.

I laughed, "You'll always be Sunshine to me."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. As long as you don't hate me anymore."

"I never hated you." I answered truthfully. "You're a guy. So that automatically makes you un-explainable."

"We're easier to understand than girls." Sunshine countered.

I stuck my tongue out at him and headed into the girls locker rooms.

******************************

"Alright!" Coach yelled as we huddled around the bus loop. Because the school we were going to was close by, Coach gave us a twenty minute lecture on our field that we should kick butts. "Get on, get on." He waved us into the bus and we all filed in. "Hey Spunk," He stopped me as I took the first step. "Be careful out there ok?" He said softly.

I nodded and gave him a smile. "I'll kick ass Coach." He grinned at me and told me to move along as I stepped into the bus.

"I call sitting with Tori!" Shawn yelled.

"No I called sitting with her!" Cole shouted pushing his brother back down on the seat.

Suddenly the whole bus started yelling that they called sitting beside me. I rolled my eyes and took an empty seat spreading my legs out. "I need leg room, so forget it."

Shawn bounced in the seat behind me and propped his arms on the top A couple minutes later the bus started moving and I was growing uncomfortable with Shawn's staring. "So Tori. Whatcha doin'?"

I looked up at my brother. "Not a lot. Why?"

Shawn grinned. "I have a secret I need to tell you."

My eyebrows knitted together. "What?"

He lent closer. "I snuck into the zoo at night and went to see your grandma at the gorilla pen. She was mad. So I started making monkey noises and then she said to me," Shawn tried mimicking a grandmother voice, "'Tell my girl Tori that she better get me outta here. Before I break out and spank her.' You know what I said?"

"What?" The bus was quiet and everyone was leaning in to see if they could hear what Shawn was saying. By the confused faces I could tell they didn't understand.

Shawn knelt closer and cupped my ear in his hand. "That's Mark's job."

I reached over to whack him in the head but he ran into the aisle running off to a different seat. His laughing was uncontrollable. "That's not funny!" I shouted to him.

He kept laughing, "Yeah it was! Admit it!" He was laughing harder, "You're face! It was awesome!"

"No it was not awesome." I crossed my arms. "Next time I have the banana's I'm going to stab you in the eye."

Shawn laughed more. "Hell to the no." He said with finger movements. "I will kill you with my sword." I was aware that everyone was paying attention to the conversation. They also looked lost and confused but Blake and Cole were rolling their eyes. "We still need a damsel in distress." Shawn said looking at Blake.

"Ha ha real funny." Blake grumbled.

Cole smirked, "I'll get some cookies and pretend they're ninja stars."

"Yes!" Shawn jumped up and hit his head on the ceiling of the moving bus. Everyone laughed while he rubbed his head. "It will be Shawn-ator, Tor-bo, and Cole of the Fireplace!"

Blake shook his head and faced one of the players telling him we were crazy. I started to laugh and turned to face Shawn. "Imagine Blake in a princess dress with those cone hats." The whole bus turned to look at Blake and everyone busted into a fit of laughter.

"That's just rude and uncalled for Tobi." He crossed his arms and laid back in his seat.

"No I think blue would go with your eyes." Coach said from the front of the bus. We all laughed harder.

The bus quieted down after that, afraid that Blake would murder everyone if we continued to talk about him being in a dress. Hayden was in the seat in front of me so I bent over the top of my seat and poked his neck. "You're really quiet today." I said.

He arched his head upward so he was facing me. "I'm just tired." He said with a small smile.

"You better wake up." I told him. "We need to win this game."

He chuckled. "Excited I'm guessing?"

I nodded. "Haven't had a soccer game in a long time. So we have to win."

"Just be careful ok Tori?" There was worry behind his eyes. "These guys might not like to have a girl on the opposite team."

"Yeah...well they're going to have to deal with it." A grin formed on my lips. "Because we are going to kick ass."

Hayden rolled his eyes playfully, one of his heartwarming smiles taking over his lips. "I'll try to do my best just for you princess."

I smiled back, "You're awesome. You know that?"

"I try I try." He winked at me before we started to converse about different topics. Turns out we had the same English teacher and we were both stressing over the paper we had to write. It was suppose to be a creative writing, which I totally suck at.

Last time I did a creative essay was in elementary school. We had an assigned topic though, 'If you were roaming in the school late at night. You see a janitor closet opened with the light turned on. This closet though was always locked and never opened, so you go towards it. What do you find inside?'

I wrote something lame about finding a pregnant dog with puppies. Then miraculously, my made up character had a wagon and brought them home. Then the janitor was suppose to be an evil man that held dogs against their will....I was nine. And I desperately wanted a dog. It seemed reasonable at the time.

The ride to the other school wasn't very long and because we were all laughing at stupid things Shawn would do, time seemed to fly by. I always thought the way time worked was funny. Whenever I was having fun, time would slip between my fingers like butter. But then if I was incredibly bored I'd check the clock so often, the numbers would have barely changed.

We unloaded from the bus and filed out into the opposite side of the field. The team we were against, the Kangaroos, were all situated on one side of the field while we were placed on the opposite bleachers. This way, both teams didn't interfere with each other. When I looked at our stands I saw some of our friends were there.

Mark and Emily were sitting beside each other giving us a thumbs up or smiles. Mom was at the very top with the rest of the parents, they were all sitting far away from the student section. Then of course there were friends and siblings, even some of the guys that got cut off the team. A lot of freshman took seat as well, hoping they could watch to get better so they could make the team next year. For an away game, it was pretty filled up.

"You should see it when it's a home game." Blake said to me while he stretched his arms. It was almost like he could read my mind.

I was on the grass stretching my legs while looking up at the stands. "There's a lot of people Blake." I looked down at my leg and reached over to touch my toes.

"Nervous?" He asked.

"Is this how you felt your first game?" I rubbed my stomach to make my point.

He laughed softly and helped me up. "No. You just have to ignore them ok Tori? Do not under any circumstance pay attention to what they are saying. Even if you score. Just keep your head in the game and keep your eyes on the ball."

I couldn't help it and started to sing. "I gotta get my, get my head in the game. You gotta get'ca, get'ca, get'ca, get'ca head in the game!"

"I'm so done with you." Blake shoved me playfully with a laugh escaping his lips.

Coach made us do some quick warm ups. They mostly involved juggling, passing, or shooting the ball. We had half of the field while the Kangaroos had the other half. When I looked up at their fans I saw a lot of parents holding up signs. Some students had scarves or painted faces. I saw one boy, he had a tail. How was he suppose to sit on that?

What also amused me were the posters. Most of them had something bad talking about my brothers. Saying things like, 'Parris brothers are going down!' With a drawing of a boxing kangaroo by the side. When Shawn saw it, he plainly started to laugh and roll on the grass. He said it was the stupidest, and most un-clever thing he's ever seen in his life. He started to cry he was laughing so hard.

I worry about him.