Homestead HS

(December 3, 2013 Tuesday)

It's been almost a month since their first date and currently Alexander is taking his driving test for his license.

"When you reach the stoplight take a right turn, then turn at the first street to your right"

I stop at the stoplights turn on my turn signal and turn right then I turn my turn signal to the right again and take a right turn.

"Ok now I want you to do a three point turn"

I make sure no cars are coming and I turn on my turn signal and do the three point turn

"Ok now I want you to park behind this car in front of you"

I parallel park at the curb just like I practice

"Good now drive back to the DMV"

I get to the DMV and he tells me to park the car after I do he writes on his clipboard.

"You pass"

I say "yes!"

"Ok let's go inside so we can get you your temporary license"

(Later at Home)

Me and dad get home when we get inside I have my hands behind my back and I shake my head no and my mom and sister look sad for me but Cora looks at me and says "oh then why do you have your hands behind your back."

I sigh "come on Cora you should have went along with it" but now that she said that I just showed them my temporary license and they all congratulated with mom being upset that I tricked her.

Mom said "so are we going to Cora's game it starts at 5:30 and are your parents going?"

Cora said "no dad is busy working his boss didn't give him the day off and my mom has to stay home to take care of my brother he's sick" she looks sad and I wrap my arms around her and kiss her forehead I say "Cora you got us to cheer you on okay and you'll always have me in your corner"

She smiles and says "your the best"

I said "alright now let's go so we can watch Cora destroy them!" They all laughed and we went to the game.

(After the game)

The girls team beat pioneer 5-0 Cora scored 2 times and got 2 assists to Sara and some girl named Britney scored the 5th. I ran up to Cora picked her up and spun her around and she laughed

I put her down and I said "that was crazy you got the player of the match your a lot better then before you must have worked hard" I smiled sadly at the end and said "just another thing I missed out on" she quickly pulled me into a hug and I hugged back I could care less if she had just finished a game.

She said "hey, it's okay don't feel bad about that, your here now in my arms and that's all that matters" while she ran her hand through my hair I just had my head on her shoulder my family joined in and hugged me.

I said "alright I'm okay now, you don't need to worry thank you guys now let's celebrate the teams win"

I yelled "Hey Sara you coming!"

Cora looked at me I said "if we're going to be together I should know your friends and get along with them"

She said "your right I don't want to have to choose between you and friends, thank you for doing this"

Sara walks over to us "what's up?"

I said "we're going to get some pizza and go back to my house wanna come with? Unless your on a diet or something"

She said "are you kidding free food and it's pizza I'm going!"

I laughed and everyone joined in including Sara.

(Thursday 6:45PM)

Alexander is currently in the locker room putting on his home uniform which is a long sleeve blue jersey with yellow stripes going down the sides of the torso area, Jason had them made by nike since he was signed with them when he was a player so he has connections, the white nike swoosh is on the right, the new logo for the team that coach made on the left it's like the Bayern logo but with the words Santa Clara on top part of the outer circle and Bruins around the bottom in white letters on and on a blue circle instead of red and a yellow outline instead of blue with a yellow bear head that showing its teeth in the middle on a white background, and the number 10 and logo also on the back of the neck above that but it's small, and it has SC Bruins in large white letters where the middle of the rib cage ends, and the shorts are blue have the white nike swoosh on the left leg and number 10 on the right leg, blue socks with a white nike swoosh on the middle of where the shin guards are and two small white stripes going around the top of the socks, and his blue cleats that were mentioned before and the yellow captain arm band with a Blue C on his left arm, the away uniform is the same but it's yellow with blue stripes.

I get up after I tie my cleats and I stand in the middle of the guys

I say "Alright, This is it I'm proud of were we are as a team and that we made it past coaches not hell week but his hell Camp, this is where we show that it wasn't a waste of time you better give me everything you've got because if you don't I'll tell coach to make us run 20 timed suicides right after the game. Jared if you let one ball past you today I'll kick your ass I'm not joking-"

"Yes Captain!"

'Smart ass' I thought but if you looked closely you could see the corner of my mouth turning into a smile

I finished with "so are we going to kick homesteads ass!"

"Yes!"

I yelled "win on 3!"

"1"

"2"

"3!"

"Win!"

We all run out to the soccer field ready for our first game coach comes up to us he says "alright listen up were going to go with a 4-1-3-2 the lineup is:

Left Striker: Austin Riley

Right Striker: Raymond Riley

Left midfielder: Michael Ramirez

Center Midfielder: Alexander Rose

Right Midfielder: David Cantu

Center Defensive Midfielder: Greg Bradford

Left Back: Kevin Haas

Left Corner Back: Dante Jones

Right Corner Back: Ty Gillard

Right Back: Zack Klein

Goalkeeper: Jared Carranza

That will be the lineup for the year unless I make changes because somebody did better during practice than the person starting, on this team your never safe from the bench. The strategy for this game is we're going to play possession football because they like playing at a fast pace and we won't let them Alex your going to be key in this game all passes will go through you, now let's go take your position on the field!"

When I'm on the field behind the two strikers and it's about to start I hear "starting at midfield and back from 2 year Coma Alexander Rose" coming from the guys who talk about the game on radio and the school website but today's game is on NSB2 (National Sports Broadcast 2) there are two big cameras one is high up to get a view of the whole field and there's a guy walking with one on the side line and two smaller ones behind the Goals, this is because Jason is pretty popular in the Bay Area and to a lesser degree the U.S, people want to see how he'll do. I hear people yelling my name I look and see my whole family and Cora who is wearing my away jersey they have there own part of the bleachers, and my mom has a sign for me and is going the craziest I feel really embarrassed but I still smile cause that's my family and I love them.

After they finish announcing both line ups the ref blows the whistle and the game starts the first 35 minutes went how we wanted it me controlling the flow of the game with passing and dribbling the ball, the other team was starting to get mad and were starting to be a little more aggressive in their defense and trying to get the ball.

At the 44th minute I dribbled the ball to their side and going for the goal I was one yard past the penalty box and was going for the shot when a defender slid at me not trying to get the ball and he barely taped it anyway and kept going and slide into my leg hard.

The ref said it was good slide from where he was and that he didn't see anything and he blew the whistle for the half to end. Since it's high school there is no replay and Coach Jason was cussing up a storm saying to the ref "that's a bunch of bullshit ref are you f******! Blind" the ref blew his whistle and pulled out a yellow card and showed it to Coach.

He says "you talk like that again it'll be a red" and he walks away then I slowly get up and limp to the sideline and the fans clap because I got up on my own.

(Broadcasters for NSB2)

"I don't know about that one Dave it looks like it was intentional to me the ref should have gave him the PK look at the replay"

Dave says "well Robert you go to realize it's high school they go based off of what they see but I agree it's intentional the way Rose was controlling the ball the whole first half must have angered the other team Santa Clara had 72% of the possession for the first half"

Robert "Rose is a good player but when Homestead got the ball for that 28% they where fast and it's still 0-0 because of that keeper Jared Carranza he had 4 saves I mean look at this kid he's only 16 years old turns 17 in February and he stands at 6ft 3in he should at least be signed to a youth academy already how has no one signed him."

Dave "this game alone shows his amazing potential as a Keeper anywhere not just small Time leagues"

Robert "all right, the game will start right after this"

(Commercial break)

Half time ended and I'm okay and jumping around and stretching so I'm good to go.

I hear Cora say "hey, are you okay?"

I turn around "yeah I'm good Cora you worry to much" I laugh

She crossed her arms "yeah well, whatever"

I hugged her "thank you, now how about a kiss good luck?" She gave me quick kiss and walked back to my family.

I yelled "I'll score the winning goal for you!" And I made sure the other team heard me and they all glared in my direction especially their star player.

(NSB2 POV)

They ran back onto the field for the second half "well Robert it looks like Rose is okay"

Yeah Dave I wonder if he'll still be effective against Homestead after that collision"

*whistle* "and the second half is underway"

(55th minute)

"And Rose takes the ball from Sanchez he passes to Cantu who sends a through pass right back to Rose and he sends a cross to Austin and he Just misses that one, what a beautiful cross by Rose."

(65th minute)

"And Sanchez is all by himself Dave I don't know how Carranza will stop him, and Sanchez shots to the top left corner it's looks like it's in, Oh And Carranza Fully extends himself For That Save I Can't believe This and he hit it towards Klein Not giving them a Corner!"

(80th minute)

"Rose dribbles up the field Oh My God did you see that he took the defenders ankles out from under him! Rose and Carranza are playing at a professional level especially Carranza. You can tell Homestead are getting angry I feel something coming Dave"

(88th minute)

"Rose has the ball up the field he passes to Cantu and Cantu kicks a through pass back to Rose and he's all by himself, Wait here comes Sanchez after him once again they're in the penalty box and .. Oh No Sanchez took out Rose that was a dirty play he went straight for his feet on that tackle and the ref agrees he gave Sanchez a red card. Rose isn't getting up here comes coach Carranza and the trainer to check on him."

(Last minute PK)

Alexander POV

'Holy shit that hurt he hit the same ankle'

"Alex! Alex are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm good Coach"

Trainer will "Okay come on get up slowly" I do as he says

Will says "can you put weight on it"

I say "yeah look" and I jump up and down

Will says "he's okay Jason, but it's your call" and walks away

He looks at me "can you do this?"

I say "Jason I'm all good, what we're all those drills after practice for"

He sighs "okay I'll listen to the trainer since this is what he does for a living, you know I trust you good luck"

The ref comes up to me "put the ball here and go when I blow the whistle"

"Got it" I put the ball on the dot I take two steps back and two to the left I take a deep breath

*whistle*

And I go I take a quick look at the left corner and I position my hips like I'm kicking there and the keeper falls for it and I tap it to to the right and it rolls in.

It's super quiet for a second and then the crowd erupts I run towards the flag in the right corner and halfway I stop and I do a salsa dance celebration got to represent you know then I'm tackled by my teammates.

"They did it Dave the Santa Clara Bruins win with the last minute PK by Alexander Rose"

"Yes they did Robert and that was textbook execution by Rose I loved it and the celebration was pretty cool" he tries it on camera everyone there laughs at his imitation.

"All right everyone the player of the game was Jared Carranza with 7 saves but I'd say it was fairly close with Rose"

"Well Dave for me I'll just call them co-players of the game"

"Alright now here's Natalie with the Coach Jason Carranza"

Natalie asks "so Jason do you feel good about your decision to coach?"

Jason "I feel like I made the right decision I wanted to stay close to the game and this is my way to do that."

Natalie asks "is your ultimate goal to manage a professional club?"

Jason says "obviously that's my ultimate goal but who knows if anyone would be willing to give me a chance I just turned 21 and if they do have interest they'll have to wait this team has my focus until the end of the season"

Natalie asks "last question, how do you feel about your teams play today?"

Jason says "I'm proud of everyone of my players they worked hard to be were their at and it showed they executed the game plan perfectly, I'm especially proud of Jared and Alexander they played a great game and to any scouts watching if you want them better be first to offer them they both have the potential to be great players."

Natalie says "back to you Robert"

Before she walks away Jason catches up to her and asks "hey do you want to get dinner after this?" Natalie was caught of guard and she blushed but she said "sure dinner sounds nice."

(Back with Alexander)

I walked up to Jared and gave him a bro hug I said "we won this because of you, if you give this effort every game your dreams will come true you'll be a pro one day for sure."

He says "I will no more messing around, and Alex thanks I wouldn't be here without you"

I said "no problem, now let's take this as far as we can go and take your brother back to where he belongs."

Jared says "Agreed"

Then We walk towards our families to celebrate the win with them.