Loving My Soccer Shorts (That’s Stories, Not Clothing)

A fun little project I’ve been working on all year long is my Tales from the Field series, high school soccer short stories on the Lightning Quick Reads blog. I’ve featured a few of them here, and I think I’ll continue to do so. They’ve brought up a lot of fun memories of when I played high school soccer and have been really fun to write.

This month’s is a sort of follow-up to August’s tale, which is called “Paloma’s Night Out” and is the first half of the infamous prank night known to the players as Dog Day Eve. You don’t have to read this one to enjoy September’s tale, but it might be fun to check it out first.

September’s tale is called “Mac’s Ultimate Prank” and really gets into the prank they women’s soccer team is pulling. Here’s a teaser:

Tales from the Field: Mac’s Ultimate Prank by Katie L. Carroll

Central High women’s soccer team: schooling the boys’ team on the field since 2012. Now it’s time to school them off the field.

I mute the music and kill the lights on my mom’s SUV, packed full of my teammates, as we approach our rival school, Valley High. The speedometer hovers below 20 mph. A block away from the school, I park behind a beat-up sedan, also packed full of soccer players.

Malcolm, the captain of the boys’ team (yes, I said boys, not men…because no high school guy is actually a man), leans against his car, his dreadlocks peeking out from under a black winter hat. We’re all dressed in black to blend in with the October night. Megan and I slip out of the SUV to talk strategy with him.

“Mac. Megan,” he whispers in greeting, his breath puffing in the cold air. We’re not close enough to the school to be heard by anyone there, but we’re not taking any chances of talking loudly and disturbing the neighborhood. “You ladies ready for this?”

“We were born ready,” I say before Megan can answer. She’s our captain and the boss on the soccer field, but I’m in charge tonight.

The thing is every year the Central High women’s soccer team has a better record than the boys’ team. And it goes without saying (though I’m going to say it) that we look a helluva lot better out on the field than they do.

But there is one thing the boys’ team is better at than us: they always pull the best Dog Day Eve prank. So this year (my senior—and final—year), I’m determined to one up them by stealing Benji the Bulldog, Valley’s mascot. And I’ve come up with a brilliant plan…

You can check out the rest of the story at the Lightning Quick Reads blog! Enjoy!

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