Anna had swooped in and stolen the ball from me after barely ten seconds, passing it to Frida. Coach Flores blew her whistle, and the four of us left the center of the field.

“Great, now do two laps around the field,” Coach Flores told us as Zoe, Grace, Anjali, and Sarah took our places in the warm-up exercise.

“What’s up, Devin?” Jessi asked as she jogged next to me. “You’re usually laser-focused on the soccer field. But you definitely weren’t paying attention back there.”

I sighed loudly. “I just got all in my head about playing against the Bolts today. They’re one of the best teams in the league.”

Jessi nodded. “That’s what I’ve heard. But they’ve never played the Kicks before.”

“Yeah, but getting into the playoffs in the fall means we’re playing some different teams this time around—better ones,” I said. I bit my lip. “It probably wasn’t a great idea for me to miss practice yesterday.”

Jessi and I were running side by side as we talked. We were right around the same height, so it was easy for us to keep pace with each other.

“Aw, come on, Devin.” Jessi shook her head, her springy curls bouncing in the high ponytail she had pulled them into for game day. “You are the Kicks’ best player. Missing one practice isn’t going to change that. Your soccer-ball brain is just getting the best of you!”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I guess so. When Anna stole the ball from me, I was thinking of something Jamie had told me.” Jamie and I were on the same winter league team, the Griffons. We started out not liking each other much but ended up as friends. “She said the Bolts were hard to beat, and really fast.”

“Oh yeah? Let’s see them catch me!” Jessi started sprinting ahead of me.

Jessi zoomed around the field. “Save it for the game!” I called to her just as Coach Flores’s whistle blew.

“Come on, everybody, grab a drink before the game!” Coach Flores said. “And then you can do your sock swap!”

The sock swap was a pregame Kicks tradition that we started last fall. After grabbing some water, we all flopped down together in a circle on the grass before each of us took off one sock (Coach Flores let us wear socks with any pattern we wanted) and passed it to the teammate on our right. By the time we hit the field, none of the Kicks were wearing matching socks. It was funky and fun, and I loved it!