Haddie narrowed her eyes and then jogged back to balls, removed one from the bag, and dribbled it over to the center field line.
“You have to score off of my assist!” she called to him.
Levi still didn’t understand why she was making a whole thing out of this. Soccer might not be his sport, but he could trap a ball under his foot and aim it for the goal. It wasn’t that much beyond his grasp.
So he held up his hands, palms facing him, and made a motion that told her toBring it!
Haddie kicked the ball.Hard.But he could read the trajectory, could tell where it would land, so he raced the ball, lining himself up perfectly to trap it just behind the outermost orange cone.
As soon as he stopped it with his shoe, a whistle blew. His headshot up to see Haddie holding her phone over her head, apparently using a whistle app.
“Offside!” she called.
Shit. Wait… What?
“You passed me the ball!” he called back. “I’m in bounds but offside?” Why didn’t he freaking get it?
“Try again!” she replied.
She wasn’t going to tell him? What the hell?
She jogged toward him and not only stole the ball out from under his sneaker but also grabbed the outermost cone and took it back with her toward center field. This time she put the cone just behind the line, still on the opposing team’s side.
“Come here!” Haddie motioned for him to meet her at center field.
He jogged toward her, albeit slightly annoyed.
“I didn’t even get a chance to kick,” he grumbled.
Haddie shrugged. “It wouldn’t have been your ball to kick anyway. You were offside, so it would have turned over to a free kick for the other team.” She backed up and gestured for him to follow her past the center line and onto what would betheirside of the field, the human-as-opposed-to-orange-cone side.
“Try again,” she told him.
Levi glanced from where he stood to the goal. He was a decent shot, but…
“What are we doing?” he asked. “You want me to shoot from here?”
Haddie shrugged. “Shoot from wherever you want once you gain possession of the ball. Just stay onside.”
She backed up farther, and Levi rocked on his heels, anticipatinganother power shot, which was why he was surprised when she started to dribble toward him.
Despite his confusion and frustration, he couldn’t help but notice how light she was on her feet, how she faked out nonexistent other players feinting left and then right, trapping the ball with her toe and rolling it to the other side of her body.
Then he saw it, the windup. She was going for it, but if he stood still, the ball would still be airborne by the time it came to him, and he would fumble the shot.
So he backed up two steps, then another few. The second he backed up past the orange cone, Haddie’s phone was in the air again, a shrill whistle screaming in the otherwise soundless air.
“Offside!” she exclaimed.
Shocker,Levi told himself. Then he halted where he stood. He looked from Haddie to the “goalie” and then to the defense player she’d moved right up next to the center line. Levi stood between the two cones, and Haddie still had the ball.
An alarm bell went off in his head.
“Haddie…? Where is the rest of the opposing team?”
A smile played at her lips, but she kept it at bay. “They are all teaming up on McMannus, who better be playing on Tuesday,” she told him. “They left their poor goalie and his one defender all alone ontheirside of the field.”
Levi’s eyes widened. “So I’m standing in between the second to last and last players on the defender’s side.”
