Hi, I’m Mark. I play football. Just because I play football doesn’t mean I like it. Truth is, I hate it. I play because Dad loves football. When I mean love, I mean love. He has a ton of jerseys and knows about every single player. Mom doesn’t like sports. She says it is increasing the risk of injury and bad grades. Mom doesn’t fight with Dad about me playing sports though. She knows she will lose. I keep telling my best friend, Jack, how I signed up for football because of Dad, and that I would rather play soccer with him. Jack had a great idea to tell my football coach that my mom said I couldn’t play football, because she was worried about me getting injured. I could sneak off to soccer practice without my parents knowing. Even though it …show more content…
There is a light breeze as I ride my bike past the football field to the soccer field. I am early as usual. Football practice starts fifteen minutes before soccer practice. I sit under a tree to avoid the sun's glare and stare into the forest that is close to one side of the field. When my teammates finally arrive to practice, I get up and start shooting with them.
“ Hi, Mark,” said Jack.
“ Hi, Jack.”
Jack, our goalie, is the only one that knows about me quitting football. He gave me the idea of quitting. I shoot on him while we wait for everyone else to get to the field. When most of my teammates arrive, coach starts the warm-ups. We have a scrimmage, and I score two goals. My team wins three to one.
When I get home, Mom is cooking supper and Dad is already at the table.
“Hello, Mark. Did you learn anything at football tonight?” Dad asks. I feel sweat on my forehead and I almost say, I learned how to fake out a defender and shoot in the right place on goal. Instead I say, “How to successfully make a tackle.”
After supper, Dad tells me that he can’t make it to my first football game because he has to work.
When I go to bed, I keep thinking how I can go to my next soccer game without my parents finding out. As I stare at the dark ceiling, I start to feel …show more content…
I have a million thoughts in my head that I am thinking. I keep asking myself, should I go over to him or should I stay here and at the end of the game I will sneak off? Even though the first one was right, I decided to go with the second one.
He is standing there looking at me with my football helmet in his hands. Ah man. Dad must have seen my football helmet in my room and grabbed it to bring it to me. He is talking on his phone and when he turns it off, he looks at me again. I turn my attention to coach. He gives us the lineup, and I am starting at right forward.
When I take the field, all I can think about is Dad, and the lie I told him. I start to feel as guilty as ever. I don’t remember much from the first half except the Raptors scored a goal to make it one to zero at half. Coach told us that we could easily score one goal and are not out of this game. I look where Dad is standing and he is still there. I tell myself that I am going to score a goal so I can show him what I can do. I start the second half, we get the ball, and I do an overlap around Matt. I get the ball. I do a move around one defender, pass the ball to Tanner who dribbles it up to the corner before crossing it in front of the goal. I jump up and head it into the goal. Game on. The score is tied one to one. The Raptors get the ball but I steal it right away and pass it to Matt. He passes it back to Kam who passes it to Jack. The Raptors pressure