Before she could answer, the ball came rolling up the field and I had to get out of the way to let Berry do her thing.

I was, albeit maybe kind of strangely, strolling away from the net when I felt what felt like a bomb go off at the back of my head. And the next thing I knew I had a mouthful of grass and there was the sound of footsteps thundering on the ground.

I opened my eyes and saw a giant blur of black and white only inches from my face. I reached out and poked the blur with my finger. It rolled away.

“ANNE!” Berry screamed.

Suddenly I was surrounded by a hive of voices, including Coach Harras, bless her, who decided the best way to deal with the situation was to blow her whistle an inch from my ear. “ALL RIGHT, WHAT’S GOING ON?!”

“Anne?” I felt a hand on my arm. Looked and saw a splatter of pink paint. “Oh my gosh. Anne. Crap!”

Finally Harras spat out her whistle, possibly because by then the whole class had circled around me like we were about to do some sort of trust game, while Berry tried to help me to my feet.

“What happened?” Coach Harras spat.

“The ball came right for her head!” Berry fumed as my body wobbled, and I thought about spitting the grass in my mouth out. “Someone kicked it right at her head.”

“Who?” Harras picked up her whistle and pinched it between her fingers. “Who kicked the ball?”

Suddenly Gilly’s face swam into view, like a balloon on a summer breeze.

“Sarah,” Gilly said. “It was Sarah.”

Sarah stormed up to Gilly. “WHAT?!”

Berry looked from Gilly to me, her heart beating so hard I could feel it in her arms as she held me up and tighter. My brain was still bumping around in my skull.

“I saw it.” Gilly looked at me.

“FUCK YOU, GILLY!”

“Sarah!” Harras blew her whistle, entirely unnecessarily, for the umpteenth time. I was ready to throw a soccer ball at her head, TBH.

“I didn’t do anything,” Sarah spat back. “I didn’t even see Anne was there, Gi lly.”

Something was tickling my chin. I reached up and touched it, thinking it would be a blade of grass. But it. . .was not.

“Blood.” The word slipped out of my lips.

It glistened in the sun. My blood. Ruby. Red.

I looked down and watched it drip onto the toe of my sneaker. Red. And. . .

“What?” Berry leaned in.

“Blooooo—”

I grabbed Berry’s hand so she would have the privilege of being pulled down to the ground with me as I passed out.