Isabel called her best friend Lily, later that night and told her about everything that happened. “That’s great, but do you really want to play on the national team if they offer you a spot? I mean think about it, you would always be traveling, you would never see me or your family and you could get hurt playing professional soccer.”

“Yeah but it’s been my dream and I would get paid a lot more than I do now. And someday maybe people would look up to me and be inspired by me to play soccer” said Isabel hopefully.

“You would really chose soccer over me? I can’t believe you would do that!” Lily yelled because she was really upset. “ Why are you getting so mad?, I don’t even know if I’m going to be on the team.” Said Isabel with confusion in her voice. She didn’t know what she had done to make Lily so mad. “What did I do?” asked Isabel. “You would rather travel the world and play soccer instead of being here for me and your family. Do you know how much it would hurt me and your family if you left them? ”

“My family would be so proud of me if I got to play professional soccer, even if that meant they only got to see me once a month. They actually think about what I want and not just what they want.” There was a pause when Isabel was done talking, then Lily hung up the phone. Isabel was really worried because they’ve never had a fight like this before. She sat there for a minute and thought about what just happened.

Isabel decided to call her cousin Emily, even though she was 17, three years younger than her. Emily was someone she could tell anything and everything to. Isabel told more to Emily than she did her own sister Lauren who goes to college in Wisconsin . Emily lived about 2 hours away so she couldn’t just drive to her house, but she could call her at anytime and she would answer.

“Hey, what’s up?” Emily asked when she answered the phone. “Lily and I just got into a huge fight”

“About what?” she asked. “Well Alex Morgan was the professional soccer player that came to the game today. She said that I was good and she would tell her coach to come watch me play sometime.”

“What’s the problem with that?” asked Emily. “Lily thinks I should keep playing college soccer, if I played for the national team she would never get to see me and I could get hurt. But It has always been my dream to play professional soccer.”

“Go for it, don’t let anyone tell you what to do because later in life you might regret not taking the opportunity.” Emily was always good at helping people. “Thanks, you're right if she doesn’t like my decision to play for the national team then too bad.”

After Isabel got done talking to Emily she went into the kitchen to get something to eat. She looked in the fridge and said “there is never anything to eat in my house.” Isabel had to eat healthy food so she could stay in shape for soccer especially with a chance of being on the national team, but she decided that tonight could be an exception.

Isabel called Pizza Hut , even though it was 9:30 at night. “I want a small pepperoni pizza please.” Then Isabel hung up the phone after the guy said ”we will be there in 30 minutes or less or it’s free.”

Isabel went into her living room to find a movie to watch. She has all of her favorite movies because no one ever knew what to get her for Christmas. Isabel was deciding what to watch when there was a knock at the door, hopefully it was the pizza guy.

“That will be $7.50 please” said a guy with short brown hair, he was around Isabels age. He looked familiar but Isabel didn’t know where she saw him before. She handed him the money and then he said “have a nice night.”

“Thanks” replied Isabel. She went back into the living room and ate some pizza while she watched a movie. After the movie was over, she got on the computer. Isabel looked up some things about the national team, like what their records are. They have won many games but they lost some too. Isabel decided she was too tired to stay up any longer so she shutdown the computer and went to bed.

It was Sunday, Isabel’s only day off from soccer and school. She always went out and did something on Sunday, today she was going to the mall. Normally she would go with Lily, but they just had that big fight so she went by herself. The first thing Isabel did when she got to the mall was go to JC Penneys. She was trying to find some new dress pants because if she made it to the national team she would have to go to meetings, and look professional.

Isabel bought two new pairs of pants and a dress shirt, after that she got a lemonade from her favorite homemade lemonade shop. Then she continued to walk around the mall and saw one of her friends, Linda from school. “Hi Linda” said Isabel in a cheerful voice. “ Hi, how are you?” she replied. “ Great, do you want to walk with me?” asked Isabel. “Actually I was getting ready to leave I have to go to work soon, maybe another time?” “Yeah that sounds great” said Isabel. “See you later.”

Isabel walked around the rest of the mall, then she went home. It was around one in the afternoon so Isabel was going to go to her mom and dad’s house for a late lunch. Her parents only live about five minutes away so she always walked to her house. Today she ran over there to keep in shape for soccer.

When Isabel got there she knocked on the door. Her mom yelled “ I’ll be there in a second.” When she opened the door she said “ Hi Isabel, I wasn’t expecting you to come over today.” They walked into the house and Isabel said “well I went to the mall and came home and had nothing else to do so I thought I would come see you and dad. I was also wondering if you had anything to eat here?”

“Of course I do” said her mom, Susan. She walked into the kitchen and Isabel asked “Where’s dad?”

“He went to help one of his friends fix his car, do you want chicken tacos or beef tacos?” asked Susan. “Beef please” answered Isabel. “So have you heard anything about soccer?” asked her mom as she microwaved the tacos. “ Not yet but I bought some new dress clothes today, just in case.” Isabel said hopefully.


“Beep” the microwave went off. Isabel went over and took out her tacos, then sat at the table with her mom. Susan was reading the newspaper and said “People these days do the stupidest things. Why would you steal $1,200 worth of stuff and go back to the store the next day to give it back?”

“Wow that’s sad.”

A couple minutes later Isabel’s dad walked in the door. “ Hi Isabel” he said as he walked over to give her a hug. You could tell he had been working on a car, he had oil stains and dirt all over his shirt. “I’m going to change then I will be right back.”

“Okay” replied Isabel.
“So mom, how’s work?” asked Isabel. Her mom works at a flower store about 15 minutes from her house. “It’s pretty good right now, we’re getting a lot of business.” Right when she ended her sentence her dad walked out of their bedroom. “ What are you talking about?” he asked. “Nothing much” replied Isabel.

“Well I can give you something to talk about” he said. Isabel and Susan had confused looks on their faces. “I got an email from the coach of the national team”. Isabel jumped up and said “and?” Her dad paused then said “They want to have a meeting with you this Tuesday at 9 a.m.” Isabel ran over and hugged her dad, then her mom. “This is awesome!” she yelled with happiness in her voice. The smile on Isabel's face was so big and wide her mom thought it was going to last forever.

“Can I see the email dad?” asked Isabel. “I sent it to you already.” he said and Isabel went to the computer to see. The email said:


Dear Mr. and Mrs. Lauten,

This is Leah Potem, the coach from the U.S.A. soccer team. I have seen some of the things your daughter can do. It would be a pleasure to have her come to the stadium and discuss some things with me on Tuesday the 14th. Please have her be here at 9am, if you have any questions please contact me at this email.

Coach Leah Potem

After Isabel read the email she ran over to get her phone and started to dial Lily’s number, then she realized that Lily was still mad at her. So Isabel decided to call Emily instead, and after that she called all of her other relatives. Everyone was really happy and excited for her, especially her parents. Isabel still didn’t know if she would be on the team, just because she has a meeting with the coach doesn’t mean anything, except that she has a chance.

Isabel called her best friend Lily, later that night and told her about everything that happened. “That’s great, but do you really want to play on the national team if they offer you a spot? I mean think about it, you would always be traveling, you would never see me or your family and you could get hurt playing professional soccer.”

“Yeah but it’s been my dream and I would get paid a lot more than I do now. And someday maybe people would look up to me and be inspired by me to play soccer” said Isabel hopefully.

“You would really chose soccer over me? I can’t believe you would do that!” Lily yelled because she was really upset. “ Why are you getting so mad?, I don’t even know if I’m going to be on the team.” Said Isabel with confusion in her voice. She didn’t know what she had done to make Lily so mad. “What did I do?” asked Isabel. “You would rather travel the world and play soccer instead of being here for me and your family. Do you know how much it would hurt me and your family if you left them? ”

“My family would be so proud of me if I got to play professional soccer, even if that meant they only got to see me once a month. They actually think about what I want and not just what they want.” There was a pause when Isabel was done talking, then Lily hung up the phone. Isabel was really worried because they’ve never had a fight like this before. She sat there for a minute and thought about what just happened.

Isabel decided to call her cousin Emily, even though she was 17, three years younger than her. Emily was someone she could tell anything and everything to. Isabel told more to Emily than she did her own sister Lauren who goes to college in Wisconsin . Emily lived about 2 hours away so she couldn’t just drive to her house, but she could call her at anytime and she would answer.

“Hey, what’s up?” Emily asked when she answered the phone. “Lily and I just got into a huge fight”

“About what?” she asked. “Well Alex Morgan was the professional soccer player that came to the game today. She said that I was good and she would tell her coach to come watch me play sometime.”

“What’s the problem with that?” asked Emily. “Lily thinks I should keep playing college soccer, if I played for the national team she would never get to see me and I could get hurt. But It has always been my dream to play professional soccer.”

“Go for it, don’t let anyone tell you what to do because later in life you might regret not taking the opportunity.” Emily was always good at helping people. “Thanks, you're right if she doesn’t like my decision to play for the national team then too bad.”

After Isabel got done talking to Emily she went into the kitchen to get something to eat. She looked in the fridge and said “there is never anything to eat in my house.” Isabel had to eat healthy food so she could stay in shape for soccer especially with a chance of being on the national team, but she decided that tonight could be an exception.

Isabel called Pizza Hut , even though it was 9:30 at night. “I want a small pepperoni pizza please.” Then Isabel hung up the phone after the guy said ”we will be there in 30 minutes or less or it’s free.”

Isabel went into her living room to find a movie to watch. She has all of her favorite movies because no one ever knew what to get her for Christmas. Isabel was deciding what to watch when there was a knock at the door, hopefully it was the pizza guy.

“That will be $7.50 please” said a guy with short brown hair, he was around Isabels age. He looked familiar but Isabel didn’t know where she saw him before. She handed him the money and then he said “have a nice night.”

“Thanks” replied Isabel. She went back into the living room and ate some pizza while she watched a movie. After the movie was over, she got on the computer. Isabel looked up some things about the national team, like what their records are. They have won many games but they lost some too. Isabel decided she was too tired to stay up any longer so she shutdown the computer and went to bed.

It was Sunday, Isabel’s only day off from soccer and school. She always went out and did something on Sunday, today she was going to the mall. Normally she would go with Lily, but they just had that big fight so she went by herself. The first thing Isabel did when she got to the mall was go to JC Penneys. She was trying to find some new dress pants because if she made it to the national team she would have to go to meetings, and look professional.

Isabel bought two new pairs of pants and a dress shirt, after that she got a lemonade from her favorite homemade lemonade shop. Then she continued to walk around the mall and saw one of her friends, Linda from school. “Hi Linda” said Isabel in a cheerful voice. “ Hi, how are you?” she replied. “ Great, do you want to walk with me?” asked Isabel. “Actually I was getting ready to leave I have to go to work soon, maybe another time?” “Yeah that sounds great” said Isabel. “See you later.”

Isabel walked around the rest of the mall, then she went home. It was around one in the afternoon so Isabel was going to go to her mom and dad’s house for a late lunch. Her parents only live about five minutes away so she always walked to her house. Today she ran over there to keep in shape for soccer.

When Isabel got there she knocked on the door. Her mom yelled “ I’ll be there in a second.” When she opened the door she said “ Hi Isabel, I wasn’t expecting you to come over today.” They walked into the house and Isabel said “well I went to the mall and came home and had nothing else to do so I thought I would come see you and dad. I was also wondering if you had anything to eat here?”

“Of course I do” said her mom, Susan. She walked into the kitchen and Isabel asked “Where’s dad?”

“He went to help one of his friends fix his car, do you want chicken tacos or beef tacos?” asked Susan. “Beef please” answered Isabel. “So have you heard anything about soccer?” asked her mom as she microwaved the tacos. “ Not yet but I bought some new dress clothes today, just in case.” Isabel said hopefully.


“Beep” the microwave went off. Isabel went over and took out her tacos, then sat at the table with her mom. Susan was reading the newspaper and said “People these days do the stupidest things. Why would you steal $1,200 worth of stuff and go back to the store the next day to give it back?”

“Wow that’s sad.”

A couple minutes later Isabel’s dad walked in the door. “ Hi Isabel” he said as he walked over to give her a hug. You could tell he had been working on a car, he had oil stains and dirt all over his shirt. “I’m going to change then I will be right back.”

“Okay” replied Isabel.
“So mom, how’s work?” asked Isabel. Her mom works at a flower store about 15 minutes from her house. “It’s pretty good right now, we’re getting a lot of business.” Right when she ended her sentence her dad walked out of their bedroom. “ What are you talking about?” he asked. “Nothing much” replied Isabel.

“Well I can give you something to talk about” he said. Isabel and Susan had confused looks on their faces. “I got an email from the coach of the national team”. Isabel jumped up and said “and?” Her dad paused then said “They want to have a meeting with you this Tuesday at 9 a.m.” Isabel ran over and hugged her dad, then her mom. “This is awesome!” she yelled with happiness in her voice. The smile on Isabel's face was so big and wide her mom thought it was going to last forever.

“Can I see the email dad?” asked Isabel. “I sent it to you already.” he said and Isabel went to the computer to see. The email said:


Dear Mr. and Mrs. Lauten,

This is Leah Potem, the coach from the U.S.A. soccer team. I have seen some of the things your daughter can do. It would be a pleasure to have her come to the stadium and discuss some things with me on Tuesday the 14th. Please have her be here at 9am, if you have any questions please contact me at this email.

Coach Leah Potem

After Isabel read the email she ran over to get her phone and started to dial Lily’s number, then she realized that Lily was still mad at her. So Isabel decided to call Emily instead, and after that she called all of her other relatives. Everyone was really happy and excited for her, especially her parents. Isabel still didn’t know if she would be on the team, just because she has a meeting with the coach doesn’t mean anything, except that she has a chance.

Isabel woke up at 6 o'clock to the sound of three different alarms going off. After a minute she got up and turned them off, then she went into the kitchen. Isabel normally had cereal for breakfast, but today she was going to have a bagel with cream cheese and orange juice. After she finished her breakfast she went into the living room to watch the news.

When she turned it on they were showing they weather. Today was suppose to be a nice spring day with sun and a temperature of around 60 degrees fahrenheit. When the weather was over Isabel went to get ready.

After she got dressed she did her hair. She put it up in a ponytail and added a black headband. By time she was done with everything it was 8 o’clock. Isabel was going to leave at 8:30, even though the stadium was only 15 minutes away because she didn’t want to be late. Isabel had to go to the Western Michigan stadium instead of the one they normally practice at which is in New York. The coach didn’t want to make her drive that far for a meeting, so Coach Leah flew down to Michigan because she was also visiting family in the area.

After watching T.V. for a little bit Isabel got all of her stuff, including her purse and phone then left. She was nervous on the way there, Isabel knew that this was her one chance for her dream to come true. If this meeting and interview thing didn’t go good she would be stuck playing college soccer and never get anywhere in her soccer career.

When she pulled into the parking lot it was only 8:45 so the coach wasn’t there yet. Isabel waited in her car until around 8:50 then she started to walk in. She had a key to get into the stadium because no one was there except a few janitors who locked the door after they went in.

After Isabel went in she sat down at a table by the concession stand. She wasn’t sure where the coach wanted to have the meeting. Isabel sat there and looked around, it was so weird being there all by herself normally her teammates and coaches were there. Sometimes there were people taking tours around the stadium. It was never this quiet in a place this big.

When she was looking around the coach walked in. “Hello” said Isabel. “I didn't know where you wanted to have the meeting so I just sat here.”

“Here is fine” said Coach Leah. She sat down and put her bag on the ground. Then Coach Leah paused and said “Well, I've watched some of your games on T.V. and I like the way you play. You are very fast and have great footwork. You are also aggressive but you know how to play clean so you don’t get penalties.”

“Thanks” replied Isabel with a smile on her face. “I think you could benefit the team, would like like to play on the U.S. national soccer team?” asked Coach Leah. “ Let me think about it” said Isabel. Within five seconds she said “ I would love to play national soccer, this has been my dream my whole life.”

“I thought you would say yes” said the coach as she reached into her bag. She pulled out two jerseys and they had number 7 on the back along with Lauten. That is the number Isabel has right now. “These are now your jerseys, the blue one is away and the white one is home.” said Coach Leah. “ This is amazing!” said Isabel. “ We have a couple games left this season and I know you do to, so you can start training with us as soon as your season is over. Your first game with us won’t be until the summer but we train inside all winter.

The thing is you will have to move closer to the stadium we practice at, which is in New York. We play at stadiums all over the country but we practice at New York’s because it’s the biggest.” Isabel asked “where do most of the other players live?”

“Most of them live in apartments in downtown New York because it’s close to the stadium and there are lots of things to do in New York City.” Coach Leah pulled out a paper from her folder that was in her bag. “ This is a list of the top 3 places people live with the prices and locations.”

“Okay, thanks” said Isabel. “To make things final you have to sign some papers saying you agree to the rules and you will be at all the practices and games unless discussed before that date and other things like that.”

“Okay” said Isabel as she looked over the papers and signed them. Then Coach Leah gave her two pairs of socks and a pair of shorts. ”How did you know my size?” asked Isabel. “I asked your coach” she replied. “ Oh that makes sense.”

“Yeah, by the way you might see articles about you in newspapers because the press will probably find out sometime next week.”

“Awesome” replied Isabel. “Well I’ll send you emails to keep you up to date on what’s happening” said the Coach. “Okay, sounds great and thanks you so much for giving me the chance to play on your team.” said Isabel.

“I need good players like you on my team so don’t thank me because you're a good player.”

“Thanks Coach” said Isabel then she left the stadium with her new uniform. Isabel got into her car left to go to her house. On the way home she was thinking about moving. She knew it would happen if she played on the national team, but she still can’t imagine leaving all of her family. Isabel knows that she has to. Instead of going to her house Isabel was going to go to her parents house.

She pulled into their driveway, then walked up to the door and rang the doorbell. Her dad came to the door and said “Hi Isabel come on in.” Her mom was laying on the couch watching T.V. “Hey guess what” said Isabel. “What?” replied her parents. She pulled out her jersey that she was holding behind her back. “You’re on the team that’s amazing!” said her mom as she got off the couch to hug her. “I get to practice with them as soon as my seasons over, but there’s some bad news.” She waited for a minute then said “I have to move to New York, that’s where the team practices at.”

Her mom looked upset, but she said “well I knew that you would eventually move farther away but I’m glad it’s because you're following your dreams ”

“Thanks mom, by the way how are you feeling?” asked Isabel. “Pretty good, but i’m a little sore like the doctor said I would be. But lets forget about that right now and go out to lunch.”

“Okay, where do you want to go?” asked Isabel. “Wherever you want” said her mom. “Okay” replied Isabel. Her mom went to get her jacket and shoes. Isabel's dad came over gave her a hug and said “good job.” Then Susan came out of her bedroom wearing a jacket and tennis shoes.

Steve was already wearing his shoes so he didn’t have to get anything else. “Okay, I’m ready” said Susan. They all went outside to Isabels car, her dad sat in the front and her mom sat in the back. “Where are we going?” asked her dad.

“To that chinese buffet about 10 minutes away.”

“Okay, I like that place” said Susan. Isabel pulled out of the driveway and her mom said “I’m so proud of you, you had a dream and you achieved it. Oh and do you know how much you will get payed?”

“It depends, they have to see how I play and I might not play at all in the first game. Right now I will be a sub for the right defender. I will only go in if she gets hurt or is getting too tired. The good thing is she is planning on retiring next year so hopefully I will take her spot as starter.”

“Well that’s good” said her mom. “Yeah, and I will get paid even when we're practicing but not having games. So I don’t have to worry about not being able to pay my rent.”

“Well I bet that helps you a lot so you don't have to worry about trying to find money to pay for groceries and your apartment or wherever you move into.”

“Yeah” replied Isabel then they pulled into the parking lot of the chinese buffet. They’ve been going to that same place since Isabel was seven.

They went inside and sat down at a table. There was a lot of food from noodles to frog legs.

When they were done eating, they went back outside to Isabel’s car. It was around two o’clock so she was going to take her parents home, then go to her house to call all of her relatives and Coach Smith to tell them the good news.

Isabel got home and the first person she called was Emily. She told her and Emilys response was “Omg are you serious? I can’t believe it this is so awesome!” screamed Emily. “I know it is, well I have to call other people too so I’ll tell you more later.”

“Okay” said Emily. “Oh and Lily called me earlier today and said to tell you good luck.”

“Wait, she really called you and said that?” asked Isabel. “Yeah” replied Emily. “Okay I guess I will call her next.” said Isabel a little bit shocked. “Okay well make sure you call me later with more details.”

“Okay, I will” replied Isabel, then she hung up.

Isabel dialed Lily’s number it rang twice then answered with “hello”. “Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I’m on the team.”

“Really that’s awesome” said Lily. “Wait, I thought you didn’t want me to play with them?” asked Isabel confused. “At first I didn’t like the idea but I realized if you're good enough to play professional soccer and it’s always been your dream then you have to go for it. And i’m really glad you get to play with the U.S national soccer team.”

“Thanks Lily that means a lot to me that you're okay with my decision, but I have some bad news, I have to move to New York.” Lily paused before she answered “that’s okay, because you're going to be living your dream. I don’t want you to think i’m mad at you for playing soccer, I’m not and I am so proud of you, there are a lot of people out there that have dreams but not everyone gets to live theirs.”

“You really think that?” asked Isabel. “Of course I do, I would never lie to you.”

“Well we can work something out so I can come visit you and maybe you can come down to New York City sometime.”

“Wait you're moving to New York City! You didn’t say that I will definitely come visit you, I can miss a few days of class, but you know how are teachers are.”

“Yeah, you can definitely come over whenever you want, just make sure I’m going to be home.” said Isabel. “Yeah, that would suck if I went all the way to New York and you were in another country.” They both laughed then Isabel said “Thanks for being so supportive, it means the world to me.”

“What kind of best friend would I be if I didn’t support you?” asked Lily. “Yeah, well I have to go call a bunch of other people so I’ll call you later and tell you more about soccer”

“Okay, talk to you soon”

“Bye” said Isabel then hung up. Isabel sat there, she started to think about all the things her and Lily have been through.

They’ve always gone to the same school. Lily and Isabel became friends when they were both five and had played recreational soccer. Back then everyone played the same no one was better than someone else. Then they had the same class in first grade and they were always getting into trouble and the teacher Mrs.Corcan, would have to call their parents. Then in second grade they had different teachers but they still played soccer together. Their Coach’s name was Justin Faut.

Coach Faut never got paid to coach them, but he loved to do it so he didn’t care. He was Isabel and Lily’s Coach until they were 14 and went into high school soccer. Isabel couldn’t believe the things he had done for her. The only reason she knew how to play soccer was because of Coach Faut. He taught her the basics then started to work on some harder things, especially when it was getting closer to when some of them would play high school soccer.

Not everyone on the team went to the same school, but everyone made it on their high school varsity soccer team. When Isabel played high school soccer her coach taught her some new things that helped her footwork, but she still used all of the things Coach Faut taught her.

Lily only played soccer with her until their junior year of high school because she didn’t really find it fun anymore.

When Isabel went to college she learned a lot more soccer skills, but she still used all of the basic things she learned before high school. Isabel was still best friends with Lily especially since she decided to go to the same college as her. Isabel didn’t know what she would have done if they went to different colleges.

The phone rang and Isabel came out of her day dream flashback. It was her grandma Betty. She answered it and said ”Hello”.

“Hi Isabel, I just wanted to know how your meeting went”

“It went pretty good ,because I have a spot on the team.” said Isabel. “Really that’s excellent, I’m so happy for you!” she said. “Thanks grandma”

“Well I’m sure you have a bunch of other people to call so I’ll just ask your mom for details.”

“Okay” replied Isabel then hung up. Isabel decided that she would call everyone else tomorrow, so she went into her kitchen and ate dinner. After that she went into her living room and turned on her laptop.

Isabel went to bed around 10 o’clock because she has soccer the next day.

Chapter 5

“Great job” said Coach Smith. “Omg I’m sorry I forgot to call you!”

“It’s okay your mom called and told me every detail and I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks, and does anyone else know yet?” asked Isabel. “Nope, but I will end practice a minute early so you can tell everyone”

“Okay thanks” said Isabel, then she went to warm up for practice with everyone else. They went through their normal drills at practice. Passing, shooting, footwork and staying in shape. At 3:55, five minutes before practice ends Coach Smith called everyone over to the side of the field. “Isabel has an announcement to make” Isabel waited a couple seconds then said “I’m going to play soccer for the U.S. national team.” Everyone clapped and cheered. Then Coach Smith said okay practice is over for today.

On the sidelines teammates told her things like “congrats or awesome job”, some people even said “we will miss you when you leave us.” Isabel said “thank you” then got her stuff together put it in the trunk of her car.

When Isabel got home she changed out of the clothes she wore to practice, then she went to her parents house. She knocked on the door and her mom answered. “Hey mom I just wanted to see how you were doing.”

“Pretty good I was actually getting ready to go to a doctors appointment.”

“I will go with you” said Isabel. “You can come if you want to but if you have something else to do thats fine“

“I’m free for the rest of the day” said Isabel. “Okay I have to leave at five so you can come inside and watch T.V. or something if you want to.”

“Okay, by the way where’s dad?” asked Isabel. “He went to the library”

“Okay” said Isabel as she went into the living room to watch T.V. About 15 minutes later her mom walked into the living room and said “okay I’m ready to leave”.

About ten minutes later they were at the doctors. After a few minutes of waiting the doctor took them into a room. He started off looking at Susan’s bruises to see if they were getting any better, which they were. Then the doctor said that they had to take her cast off and do some x-rays. They took her into another room to do the x-rays. Then Susan came back into the room to wait with Isabel for the results.

After a few minutes a nurse came in and said that she could get ready to put a new cast on while they waited. Isabel came with Susan this time. Susan picked out the color she wanted and the nurse got the rest of the stuff ready. Her cast couldn’t be put on until the x-rays were back. Hopefully Susan’s cast would be but down lower.

The doctor came in with the x-rays and said “it’s starting to heal but the cast needs to stay in the same spot and you will probably have it on for another month or two. “Okay” said Susan. “I’ll put the cast on now” said the nurse. After she put it on she said “okay, you're ready to leave”

“Thanks” replied Susan.

Isabel drove her mom home, then she went to her house. She has a soccer game tomorrow against New York, which is really weird since she is moving there.

When Isabel got home it was 7 o’clock, so she was going to eat dinner. She had some kind of a green bean casserole.

Then a little bit later Isabel went to take a shower. When she came out it was around eight, so she watched T.V. until nine, then she went to bed. Isabel was really tired from all of the exciting things going on and she had to be up at 7 o’clock, that’s why she went to bed so early.

Isabel woke up at three in the morning scared. She just had a nightmare about the accident her mom was in. She could see it, the car flipping over into the ditch. Her mom frightened trying to figure out how to get out of the car. Isabel could see the other car with a telephone pole on it and the driver with his head on the steering wheel.

Isabel was confused because she didn’t have nightmares the night the accident happened. So she just ignored it and went back to bed.

Isabel woke up at seven when her alarm went off. She had breakfast then got her stuff for the game. They had another home game today, which is good except that it is at 12 so they have to be there earlier than normal. Most of the time their games are at night.

Isabel got her bag and left her house. Everyone had to change into their uniforms when they got to the field, it was just one of the rules they had. I guess they didn’t want anything to happen to the players if someone dislikes the team or something. None of the players really knew why.

When Isabel got to the stadium it was 8:30, they had to be on the field changed and ready by nine so they could have three hours to warm-up. Most of the team got there around 8:30 so they would have plenty of time to get ready.

After everyone got changed they put their shin guards and cleats on. Then they went out onto the field. They did their normal warm-ups for before games. Then they got with a partner and passed down the field and took shots. It was 10 o’clock when the other team got to the field. They came off of their bus wearing their uniforms.

The New York players put their stuff in the locker room then went out onto the field to warm-up.

It was around 11:30 when the team went into the locker room. By then people started to fill the stands. Some of those people were Isabel's parents and grandparents.

After everyone was in the locker room Coach Smith said ”okay this is one of the last games this season so make it a good one.”

Everyone was sitting on one of the benches in the locker room drinking gatorade or water. Then Coach Smith said “okay it’s game time.” All of the players got in a huddle and did their team chant. Then went out of the locker room and out onto the field. They had about five minutes until the game started, so the captains had to go out onto the field and do the coin toss. The captain of Westerns team is the goalie Sam. She did the coin toss and got the side of the field we wanted.

The game started and they were a pretty good team, but Western took an early lead with a goal from Allison. Both teams played about the same in the first half. Offense and defense were both being aggressive, but New York didn’t use as much footwork as Western did. A fake out move by Westerns striker helped them get another goal.

At halftime Coach Smith told the team what they should do. They needed to fix some things and she also said what they were doing good. When they went back onto the field for the second half it started to sprinkle. The ball was slippery so it messed up punts and throw in’s. When the grass is wet it also changes the way the ball moves across the field.

After about 15 minutes into the second half it started to pour, that made it even harder. The right wing on the other team had a breakaway and was just outside the goal box and ready to shoot when Isabel came in and took the ball away from her. Isabel passed it up field to Hayley who turned it around, shot and scored.

By then, there was only two or three minutes left in the game. Western passed the ball around on New Yorks side of the field until time ran out. The Western fans cheered as the teams went to the bench, then into the locker room.

“I think everyone played a good game” said the Coach Smith. “Everyone did their part to make this game a 2-0 win.” The players cheered then started to get their stuff together. They had to wait at least 30 minutes after the game had ended to leave. Just incase there was an upset fan or crazy fans trying to get to the players.

Most of the time everyone just waited in the locker room and changed into whatever they were wearing before the game. Today Isabel went out onto the field to see her parents. They came to every home game and as many away games as they could.

“How are you feeling?” asked Isabel as she walked up to her mom. “Pretty good, but I have a headache so I’m going to go home and take some Aspirin.”

“Okay, thanks for coming to the game.” said Isabel. “We would never miss a home game!” replied her mom. Then her parents walked off of the field and out into the parking lot.

Isabel went back into the locker room with everyone else. They only had to wait about five more minutes, so everyone was getting their bags together.

Coach Smith came in the locker room and yelled “okay you can leave now, see you all at practice tomorrow.” Everyone walked out of the locker room with a smile on their face.

When Isabel got to her house it was around three, she had to clean up because her house was really messy. She also hasn’t really had time to wash dishes or do laundry.

Isabel spent the next couple hours cleaning her house. Then around six she went to her parents house for dinner. Her mom made homemade macaroni and cheese . It was one of her dads favorite foods.The three of them sat at the kitchen table and talked while they ate dinner. Around seven Isabel went back to her house.

It was a week after the last game Western played and one day before the end of their season. Everyone looked upset that day at practice because they were going to miss having games every week. The good thing is they could spend more time practicing and focusing on school.
Isabel was probably the happiest one there, even though she was upset too. She was going to miss everyone there, Isabel has played soccer with some of them for two years.
During practice they worked on shooting a lot because in the last game they had two or three shots that they missed.

At the end of practice Coach Smith said “lets make tomorrows game the best one of the season. And don’t worry, we will have plenty of practice time during the winter.” After Coach Smith finished Isabel added “ I want to invite you all to an end of the season party at the bowling alley. It will be on Saturday, the day after our game and I will bring pizza and pop.” One of her dad’s friends owns the place so he’s letting the team bowl for free. “Sounds fun” replied Allison and a couple other people agreed with her.

After that everyone started to get their stuff together and leave. Isabel took a minute to get her stuff. She was thinking about all of the good times she had in here with her teammates. All of the pre-game talks and after game cheers.

Isabel was really going to miss this, that’s why she’s worried about national soccer. She doesn’t know if they will be welcoming and friendly like all of the people at Western were the first time she played with them.

Isabel just sat on the bench in the locker room and thought about all of the things college soccer has done for her. Then, Coach Smith walked in “what are you still doing here?” she asked. “Just thinking about all of the good things that happened in here and out on the field.”

“I know you’re going to miss college soccer, but being on the national team will be so much better” said Coach Smith. “I hope so, I’m worried about not being good enough and people on the team might not like me or accept me.”

“They don’t have to be your best friends you just have to be able to communicate with them on the field. And don’t even worry about not being good enough. There’s no way you would be on that team if they didn’t believe that you could do it.”

“Thanks” replied Isabel. “I really needed that”

“Anytime, oh and make sure you come back and visit us when you're in town” said Coach Smith. “Of course I will.” replied Isabel. Then Coach Smith walked out of the locker room and Isabel was alone again.

She slowly picked up her bag and walked to the door, this is the last time she would ever walk out of here after a practice. Isabel walk out and the door slowly closed behind her.

When Isabel got home around five she called Lily. The first thing she said to her was “I’m freaking out, I don’t know if I’m going to like being on the national team. I would always be traveling and what if something happened to my parents and no one knew for weeks. And maybe the people on the team are mean or won’t accept me. What if I get fired because I’m not good enough? I don’t know what to do.”
“First” said Lily “you need to take a deep breathe. Everything will be fine, you will get days off to come see your family. And I will check on your parents or call them every couple of days. And do you really think every single person on that team is going to be mean?”
“No, but I don’t know if they will like me.” replied Isabel. “I know you’ll be fine, you're going to live your dream and maybe become famous while you're at it.” said Lily. “Thanks now I’m not panicking as much.”

Isabel talked to Lily on the phone for another hour about stupid stuff like which olives are better green or black. Isabel loved green olives way more than she did black olives and Lily was the other way around.

By time they got off the phone it was 6:15. Isabel had nothing to eat for dinner so she made frozen chicken nuggets. Every once in awhile she could have something that’s not super healthy.

When Isabel went to bed she couldn’t sleep. She just laid there thinking about all of the things that could go wrong with her soccer career. Eventually after about an hour she went to sleep.
She woke up the next morning sad that it was her last college game and happy that it was almost time for her to start training with the U.S. team.
Isabel got ready and went to the field earlier than normal. She wanted to take one last walk around the stadium as a Western player. When she got to the stadium, there were janitors and people and the concession stands getting food ready for the game.
Isabel walked around and looked at all the places in the stadium. Then she went out onto the field. She had some great memories out there. All of the time she spent practicing and having games on this field. It’s amazing how much time Isabel had put into soccer,,just during college.
While Isabel was walking around Allison showed up. “What are you doing here so early?” she asked. “I’m just taking one last walk around the stadium and thinking about all of the great memories I’ve had here.”


“I would probably do the same thing” said Allison. “Oh and congrats on making the team, I know you’re going to be awesome.”

“Thanks, and if we play a game close to here I’ll talk to someone about letting you all come and watch and talk to some of the players”

“That would be really cool” replied Allison. Then Coach Smith walked up “Good morning girls” she said. “Good morning” they both replied back. “Why are you both here so early?” asked Coach Smith as they walked to the locker room. “I just wanted to take one last walk around the stadium as a Western player.” said Isabel. “I just wanted some extra practice time” said Allison.
They were only about 45 minutes early, so other players should be arriving soon but until then they practiced shooting and making long passes. When Morgan, another defender showed up she went into the locker room, changed then came out and joined them.

As other players showed up they did the same thing until Coach Smith came over and said “okay everyone’s here lets get warmed up.”
The team did the same thing before every game. First they stretched, after that they worked on passes then on shooting. The other team showed up about two hours before the game started. Today they were playing Indiana. They were a tough team to beat because they have fast players and good footwork.
When they were warming up on the other half of the field Mitchell, the coach of Indiana came over to talk to Coach Smith. “Hi, I’m Mitchell” she said as they shook hands. “I’m Helen Smith.”

“I just wanted to tell you good luck and lets make this a good game since it is the last one of the season for both of us.” said Mitchell. “Okay and good luck to you to.” Then Mitchell went back to the other side of the field where her team was still warming up.
There was about and hour and a half left until the game started. So the teams were still doing drills. People started to show up about an hour before the game started. Today there were more people at the game than normal. Indiana wasn’t that far away so there were probably more fans there from the away team than usual. Also the last game of the season normally has a big crowd.
After they warmed up for another hour Coach Smith called them into the locker room. “Okay, well you all know that this is the last game of the season so lets make it one to remember, especially for Isabel since it’s her last game with us.” Everyone cheer then they went into their team huddle. They did there team cheer then went out onto the field.

The whistle blew and Western did the kick off. Allison passed it up to Hayley who took it down field. Then she passed back to Isabel, she sent the ball all the way up field to Allison, who took a shot and scored.

After that most of the first half was pretty good. There were almost no penalties and Western had the ball most of the time. When the whistle blew and it was halftime both of the teams went into the locker room.

“I think you guys played a pretty good first half” said Coach Smith. “Now I want everyone to focus on cleaning up their footwork. Whenever someone did a move the ball was almost stolen. So lets focus on better footwork and scoring some more goals!” Everyone went back out to the field, or bench. This half Indiana had the kick off. They passed the ball back to their defense who played around with it for a minute then sent it up to an offense player. Then Allison came in and stole the ball, she had a clear shot for the goal and scored.

At the end of the game it was 3-0, and everyone played a really good game. The team went into the locker room cheering. “Good game everybody” said Coach Smith. “I’m really glad that we ended our season with everyone playing their best, and even better a win. Incase anyone was wondering we ended our season only losing 3 games and winning the rest.”
Everybody cheered and clapped after she said that. “And don’t forget that tomorrow Isabel is having an end of season party at the bowling alley. Oh and let’s go back out onto the field to take a few last game team pictures.” said Coach Smith.
Someone’s mom was was going to take the pictures. Everyone gather in front of the goal and did a nice team picture. Then everyone did weird and silly poses. Some people made weird faces and others laid on the ground posing.
After that people were doing pictures with their groups of friends. Most people had their phones out taking pictures but some people were still taking pictures on the coaches camera.
Isabel was taking pictures with just about everyone. She wanted to remember all of the people she played soccer with. First she took a picture with her friends that played defense. Then she took a picture with anyone that was around her.
After about 15 minutes of taking pictures all of the players went into the locker room to change. Everyone was talking and in a good mood. By time everyone was changed they could leave. Just like yesterday Isabel was the last one to leave. She stood in the locker room for a minute then left.
Coach Smith was still out on the field when Isabel walked out. “See you tomorrow” she said as Isabel walked out.
When Isabel got home it was around four. She put her bag in her room, then she went into the living room to watch T.V. for awhile. Lilly called Isabel a little bit after that. “Hello” said Isabel as she answered the phone. “Hi, how was your game?” asked Lily. “Good, we won and I played pretty well.”

“That’s awesome” said Lily. Then there was a couple seconds when no one was talking so Lily said “can I come spend the night at your house?”
“Not tonight because I have that end of the season bowling party tomorrow, but you can come over tomorrow night.” said Isabel. “Okay what time does the party end?” Lily asked.”4 o'clock.”
“Okay I will come over at five” said Lily. “Okay, sounds good see you then” replied Isabel. ”Bye” said Lily. When Isabel got off the phone with Lily she called the bowling alley. She wanted to make sure that everything was set for tomorrow. When Isabel called, her dad’s friend Todd answered the phone.
“Is everything for tomorrow ready?” asked Isabel. “Yeah, I have five lanes reserved for you and at 2 o'clock six large pizza’s will be delivered, you're bringing drinks right?” asked Todd. “Yeah I’m bringing pop.”

“Okay then everythings ready” said Todd. “Okay thanks so much for letting me have the party there” said Isabel. “No problem, see you tomorrow” said Todd. Isabel hung up the phone then went to her computer.

She only had three years at Western, so she had to take her last year online. Isabel was going to take her last year during the winter when she was training with the U.S. team. Her major was coaching because someday after her soccer career was over she wanted to teach other people about soccer just like Coach Faut did to her.

Isabel had to take a test today about what you would do during different injures.
When she finished it she submitted the answers and it showed her what grade she got. It was a 97%, so it was an A. By then it was 6 o’clock so Isabel ate dinner, took a shower, and went to bed. Isabel was always exhausted after soccer games so she went to bed early if she had a game that day.
Isabel woke up at ten the next morning, that was the latest she had slept in a long time. The soccer party started at one and she had to be there at 12:30 so Isabel had two and a half hours to get ready and be at the bowling alley.
Isabel ate breakfast then got ready. She was going to wear a pair of jeans and a semi-dressy shirt. Isabel left her house at 12:15, she was at the bowling alley at 12:25. She brought six 2-liters of different kinds of pop.

Isabel found what lanes there were on then around 12:45 some of her teammates started to show up. After everyone was there they started to bowl. Around two everyone stopped and ate pizza, then continued to bowl.

At the end of the party they took another group picture. Then everyone was saying goodbye to all all their friends even though they were going to train in the winter and have the same team in the spring. Isabel was the only one that wasn’t going to be on the team. Before everyone left Isabel said “I just wanted to let everyone know that I have had an amazing time playing with you, I couldn’t have asked for a better team or coach. I’m going to miss you all and if I’m in the area I will definitely come to see one of your games. Also if we play close to here I’ll make sure that anyone who wants to come will have a front row seat. Thanks for a great last season.”

Everybody clapped, then some people hugged to Isabel before they left. Coach Smith was the last one there, before she left she said “I know you will do great, make sure you learn new things and have fun along the way.”

“Thanks, I will” said Isabel then she gave Coach Smith a hug. “See you later” she said as she walked away. Isabel made sure everything was picked up before she left. Then she told Todd thank you for letting them bowl there and left.

She went home and had to pack. On Wednesday next week she had to move to New York. Isabel was going to live in a small apartment in New York City. It was only about five minutes from the stadium which makes it really easy for Isabel because she can walk there and not worry about all of the traffic. The manager of the apartment building gave Isabel a tour of the apartment over Skype. That was a lot easier than trying to fly there for a day then come back.

The first thing Isabel did was get out a stack of boxes and a marker. Then she remembered that Lily was coming to spend the night, and help her pack so that will be helpful. Isabel started to clean out her entertainment center, she had a bunch of movies to box up. She was going to sell her entertainment center and t.v. because her apartment is too small for it.

On Monday Isabel was having an estate sale to get rid of things that wouldn’t fit in her apartment. So she had to pack fast. When Isabel was done with the movies she labeled the box “dvd’s”. Then she started to pack her clothes. Isabel was going to keep all of her clothes because they only filled three boxes, her shoes were another story. Isabel owned quite a few pairs of shoes so she was going to sell some. As she was sorting through them the doorbell rang. It was Lily, so of course she walked in without Isabel coming to the door. “In the bedroom” yelled Isabel out the door. When Lily walked in she said “woah what’s going on?”

“I’m packing, I have to be done by Monday morning” said Isabel. “You know its Saturday night right?” asked Lily. “Yeah, that’s why you’re here to help.”

“Umm okay, I didn’t know that’s what I came over her to do but okay.”

“Oh these shoes are cute can I have them?” asked Lily. “Sure, I have to sell some anyway.”

About 15 minutes later they went into the kitchen to pack plates and cups. “I’m going to keep all of these. There’s only four plates, four bowls, and ten utensils total.” said Isabel. It took them about 45 minutes to bubble wrap everything.

It shouldn’t take that long to do the rest of the house. It only has two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. Isabel and Lily decided to take a break and have a snack. They were going to watch a movie, but Isabel just packed them all up, so they watched T.V. instead. When they were done watching T.V. it was eight.

Isabel said “we should do an all nighter packing so I have time tomorrow to set stuff up for the estate sale on Monday.”

“Okay sound fun” replied Lily. Isabel turned the radio onto their favorite station which plays a lot of pop/rock music. Then they went into the bathroom. Isabel had to pack a lot of stuff from that room of the house. In the bathroom there is all of her hair stuff, perfume, medicine, towels, and anything she would use in the shower like shampoo or shower gel.

All of that took up two boxes, Isabel could only have around 12 boxes because she was renting a U-haul trailer that didn’t have a ton of room and she needed room for furniture. Right now she was up to ten boxes. She used two boxes for shoes, three for clothes, one for movies, and two for plates and cups and two for everything in her bathroom. Hopefully the rest of the will fit because the only thing she has left to do is the guest bedroom. The only furniture Isabel is taking is one small table, two lamps, and her couch. Isabel has a small couch which is good because it will fit in her apartment.

Lily and Isabel put all of the boxes by the front door. The U-haul trailer wouldn’t be there until tuesday. When they were moving boxes the phone rang. “I wonder who it is, it’s already 9:15” Isabel asked as she walked over to the phone. “Hello?” she said. It was her mom. “Is something wrong?” asked Isabel. “No, I’m just calling to see how you are.” Isabel paused then said “at 9 o’clock at night?”

“Yeah, oh and I also called because one of my friends daughter is looking for somewhere to live. She wants to be close to her mom and her mom lives a couple houses down from me.”

“Okay, tell her to call me and she can come over sometime to look at the house.” Isabel said to her mom. Then Susan said “the thing is she lives in Wisconsin and doesn’t want to drive two and a half hours to look at the house.”

“We can do it over a web chat like, I did for my apartment” said Isabel. “Okay I’ll call her and tell her that tomorrow.” said Susan who sounded tired. “Well I have to go finish packing with Lily so I’ll call you later”

“Okay, goodnight” said Susan. Isabel went into the guest bedroom where Lily was. “Wow this closet is really full.” said Lily. Isabel had everything in that closet from old soccer balls to photo albums. “I’m probably going to get rid a lot of this stuff.” said Isabel.

They started to go through it, one of the first things they found were picture frames. “I need as many picture frames as I can get, I’m going to have pictures of family, friends, and teammates all over my apartment.”

“Make sure you have pictures of me” said Lily. “Of course I will, and we are still going to be best friends right?” asked Isabel. “How would we not be?” replied Lily. “I don’t know but I’m scared that we are going to grow farther apart since we might not talk to each other for a week at a time.” Lily looked concerned “I don’t care if I don’t talk to you for a month we are going to be best friends for life. I’m sure you’ll have at least one night a week when we can Skype, but if you don’t that’s fine.”

Isabel just sat there kinda shocked. Then she said “I’m so happy that you still want to be my best friend. I was worried that when you didn’t talk to me for a week because I decided to play on the U.S. team, that you weren't going to talk to me after I left to play soccer.” Lily let that sink in then she said “the day I quit talking to you will be the day I die.”

“Thanks” said Isabel, then she went back to cleaning out the closet. Isabel found a whole bag of old soccer balls that ranged from size 3 to 5. “I think my mom would want to keep these so when I become famous she can say I have the soccer balls that Isabel Lauten used as a kid.”

“Okay I think we’re ready” said Isabel as she put an estate sale sign in front of her house. “I’m going to put a sign up at the end of the street, stay here incase anyone comes.”

“Okay” replied Lily, who was going to stay all day to help with the sale. Isabel grabbed 2 signs and left. She didn’t have to walk that far to get to the end of the street. There were only about 10 houses she had to pass. Isabel put the signs up then walked back to her house. Hopefully there would be a good turnout today, because she also put an ad in the paper.

When Isabel got back to her house she saw her dad’s car in the driveway. She walked in the house and said “what are you doing here?”

“I thought you would need some help today and I wanted to spend some time with you before you left.”

“What about mom?” asked Isabel. “She’s feeling better, but she can’t really do anything helpful and she didn’t want to get in the way so she stayed home.”

“I’ll call her later today to make sure she’s okay” said Isabel. Then she went to put a sign on the front door that says “enter here”. About five minutes later a car pulled over to the side of the road. “I think we have our first customer” said Lily.

It was an older lady, she had grey hair and glasses. “Hello” she said when she walked in the door. “Good morning” Isabel said back to her. She walked around the living room and looked at some books that Isabel found in her closet. She picked up a couple then went and looked in the rest of the house. When she was done looking she came up to Isabel and bought three books and some costume jewelry.

As she was leaving two more cars pulled up. It was like that all day five people would be there at the same time then no one would be there for 30 minutes. Around 2 o’clock the phone rang, it was Shelby, her mom’s friends daughter. Shelby asked “Is there anyway you could show me the house over Skype?”

“Yeah, today would be a great day because I’m having an estate sale.” Isabel got her phone and put it on the Skype app. Once she started Skyping Shelby she gave her a tour of the house. She started in the living room and said “the entertainment center and t.v. can be left here if you want it.” Isabel showed her everything, the carpet, walls, and even the ceiling. She wanted her to see all of the great things about the house. Shelby was only five years older than Isabel so hopefully this house would be good for her.

After Isabel showed her the whole house she went back into her bedroom and said “so what do you think?”

“It’s perfect, the house is close to my mom and only has two bedrooms, which is all I need. Are you willing to rent it because I don’t have enough money to buy it right now?”

“I’ll rent it to you for $400 a month, but you’ll have to give the money to my mom since she only lives five minutes away and I’ll live nine hours away.”

“I think this worked out good for both of us, you needed a small house by your mom and I needed to sell my house fast.”

“Yeah, see you Wednesday” said Shelby. “Bye”, then Isabel hung up the phone. She walked out of her bedroom and back into the kitchen where her dad and Lily were.

“Hey guess what” she said. “What?” asked her dad. “I’m renting the house out to Shelby. Her mom is friends with my mom, and Shelby’s mom lives like three houses down from mom.” Lily was the first one to talk “that’s great, now let's sell some of your stuff!”

“Everything but the fridge,T.V., and entertainment center” Isabel added. As they walked into the living room another car pulled up. Then two more cars came. Isabel greeted everyone as they walked in the door. It was around 4 o’clock and they had sold a little over half of the stuff, the rest is going to be donated. Isabel put all of the unsold items in boxes then put them in her parent’s van. It could take more than her little car.

Lily went back to her house when Isabel left to donate the stuff. After they dropped off the donations Isabel went back to her house. “We should go back to your house to check on mom” said Isabel. “Okay,but let’s go out to dinner around six” said her dad as they walked back outside to his van. “Okay” said Isabel. It took them five minutes to get to her parents house. When they got there Susan was laying on the couch watching T.V.

“How did the sale go?” she asked. “Good, we sold a lot of stuff and donated the rest, and I’m renting the house out to Shelby.” Susan sat up and said “really that’s great!”

“Yeah I’m going to go to her house on Wednesday. We’re going to sign the papers and she will bring them to you.

“Okay, sounds good” said Susan. “Dad said he wanted to go out to dinner tonight” added Isabel. “Okay, I’ll go get ready. Where are we going to eat?” asked her mom. “I’m not sure but I’m in the mood for mexican food.”

“We can go to that mexican place down the street” said her dad. “Okay” both Susan and Isabel said. They all got into the van and Isabel drove to the mexican place down the street. When they got there it was busy, probably because it was only $5.99 for their buffet.

Isabel and her parents went inside, found a table, then went up to the buffet. They had everything from nachos to burritos. They spent about an hour there eating. When they were done they paid and went back home.

Isabel drove her parents car home then walked back to her house. It was around 7:30 when she got home. Her house was so empty it was weird. The only things left were her couch, fridge, T.V, and T.V. stand and her bed. Isabel just realized that she was going to have to take apart her bed and somehow fit it in the trailer, along with the mattress. It was only a queen size but it was still going to be a tight fit.

Isabel laid down on her couch and started to fall asleep. Then she woke up because she had an idea. Isabel wanted to take pictures of her house, she always wanted to remember the first house she bought.

Isabel went and found her phone and started taking pictures. She took several in every room. Then she went outside and took a picture of her house. Isabel was going to miss having a house of her own. An apartment just wasn’t going to be the same. And living in a big city would be so much different. You would always have to worry about someone breaking into your house or getting lost. Isabel was always going to have her phone on her, incase she got lost or needed to call the cops.

She went back inside and went to her refrigerator. There was still some food left so she decided to clean it out. Isabel threw away some old food and kept the rest. She would give whatever she didn’t eat to her parents. Isabel didn’t have any canned foods left because earlier that week she donated them to a food drive.

Isabel had all Tuesday to put everything in the trailer and say good bye to everyone. She decided to call everyone she wanted to say goodbye to and told them to come over to her house anytime tomorrow. Her parents and Lily would probably be there all day. Her cousin Emily is coming up with her aunt. They live two hours away so they will be there all day. They’re coming tomorrow because two hours is a lot closer than New York City is. There were also some other relatives coming over but they would only stay for a few hours.

Isabel was going to take pictures with everyone who came over. She wanted to have pictures of her family in her apartment incase she got home sick. It was around 8:30 now and Isabel had nothing to do. She decided to go walk around her house and make sure she packed everything.

Went she went into her bedroom she looked under her bed and found a small box. She opened it and it was full of pictures, family pictures, pictures of her and Lily from highschool, even pictures of her dog that she had when she was 11. Isabel spent an hour looking through them. It brought back so many memories, Isabel decided that she was going to put some of these pictures on her wall or in frames at her new house.
It was 9:30 when Isabel decided to go to bed so she wouldn’t be tired tomorrow with all of her family coming over. The next morning she woke up to the sound of someone knocking on her door. She looked at her phone and it was only 8 o’clock. Isabel got up and went to the front door. Before she opened the door she looked out of the peep hole. It was her dad, so she opened it. “What are you doing here so early?” she asked. “I figured you needed help putting all of your stuff in the trailer. By the way I got the trailer for you.”

“Okay, thanks I’m going to go change, so you can come in and watch T.V. or something for a minute.” Isabel went upstairs and her dad went into the living room to watch the news and drink coffee.

About ten minutes later Isabel came out of her room wearing a blue shirt and jeans. “Okay let’s start by taking apart my bed.” Isabel said to her dad. “I’ll go get my drill from the van.” Then Isabel went into her room and took the comforters and sheets off of her bed. Then her dad came in and started to take the bed apart. While he was doing that Isabel started to put boxes in the trailer. She stacked boxes up to the top, there was actually had more room left then she thought there would be. Isabel went inside and started taking pieces of the bed frame out.

That all fit and there was some room left, so Isabel was going to to take the microwave too. She only told Shelby that she was leaving the T.V. and fridge so the microwave was going to be an extra thing. When Isabel went back inside her dad gave her a box. “This is from me and your mom.” Isabel opened it and it was a quilt that her mom made for her. “I love it!” said Isabel. She put it in the backseat of her car along with her comforter and some other blankets.

“When is mom coming over?” asked Isabel. “She wanted to get some exercise today so she’s going to walk over here around nine. “I’m glad she’s feeling good enough to walk that far!” Isabel said. “Do you know when she’s getting her cast off?”

“Hopefully in a month or two”. Then the phone rang and Isabel said “that reminds me that I need to take my house phone with me” as she walked into the kitchen to answer it. “Hello” she said. It was her cousin Emily “hi, I just wanted to let you know that we’re about an hour away and we’re going to pick up Grandma Betty and Grandpa Bob on the way.”

“Okay I’m not going anywhere today” replied Isabel. “Bye” said Emily then hung up the phone. Isabel went into the living room and said “Emily and Aunt Jill are going to be here in an hour and they’re going to pick up Grandma Betty and Grandpa Bob.”

“Okay” replied her dad. Then there was a knock on the door, it was her mom. “Hi” said Isabel as she opened the door. “Wow your house is so empty” said her mom as she walked through the living room that only had a T.V., T.V. stand and a couch that Isabel still had to put in the trailer. “Yep, everything's in the trailer” replied Isabel.

“Do you know when anyone else is coming?” asked her mom. “Aunt Jill and Emily are going to be here in about an hour and they're going to pick up Grandma Betty and Grandpa Bob before they come here, by the way, thanks for the quilt.”

“Your welcome” replied her mom. They sat there in the kitchen and talked until Aunt Jill and everyone else was there. Emily was the first one inside “I’ve missed you” she said as she hugged Isabel. “I've missed you too, you should come to New York during the summer.”

“That’s a great idea!” said Emily. Then Aunt Jill walked in and said “then you better start saving money now because I’m not paying for you to fly to New York.” Isabel and Emily started laughing “she could hear a snowflake drop in a blizzard” Emily said as she was trying to stop laughing.

Isabel sat there and was talking to her aunt for a while. Then she talked to her grandparents. Isabel had Emily take a picture of her with her aunt, grandparents, parents and then they took some pictures of themselves. It was around 4 o’clock when Jill said “We should probably go home in a little bit before it gets dark.” Isabel said “okay but I need help putting the couch in the trailer.

“Where are you going to sleep tonight?” asked Emily. “I’m going over to my parents house.” replied Isabel. “Okay lets go make room in the trailer. They went outside and took out a couple boxes. Then they went inside and got the couch and carried it outside. Isabel and Lily lifted the couch in and and set it down like it was sitting inside. They put boxes on top of the couch and on the sides of the couch and closed the door. Everything fit, but it was so packed in there not even a bug could make it through without being squished.

They went back inside and Aunt Jill said “okay I think it’s time we start heading home.” Isabel walked over to her and gave her a hug. “Good luck with everything” said Jill. “Thanks” Isabel replied and smiled. Then she hugged her grandparents and told them goodbye. The last person she said goodbye to was Emily. “It won’t be any different than before, you can still call me whenever you want and we can Skype all the time the only difference is you're a lot farther away.”

“That doesn’t mean anything” said Isabel. “Also, can you call on my parents every once in a while to check on them. I’m going to call them when I get free time but I don’t know when that will be and if they fell or got hurt or something” Emily cut her off and said “I will check on them at least every other day, if not every day.”

“Okay, thanks come and visit me soon.” Emily gave Isabel a hug, and said “I will.”

“Bye, see you all soon” Isabel said as they all walked out the front door. Isabel walked outside and waved as they drove away. When she came back inside her mom said “when do you want to come to our house?”

“In a minute, I’m just going to walk around the house one more time.” Isabel left the kitchen and went down the hallway to her room. She walked around there, then went into the guest bedroom, then she went back into the kitchen. “Okay I’m ready” said Isabel you could hear in her voice that she was getting ready to cry. “What’s wrong?” asked her mom. “Nothing it’s just sad that I’m already leaving the first house I bought by myself.”

“I know but you’ll be a lot happier at your new apartment”

“Well, the apartment won’t be better but I will be able to play soccer with the U.S. team so it’s all worth it. We should probably go to your house now so I can go to bed early since I have to get up at like 5 a.m.”

“Okay, let’s go.” When they got to her parents house her mom asked “won’t you have to split the trip into two days since New York City is so far away?”

“Yeah I was going to stop at a hotel about half way there but I don’t want anyone to steal anything from the trailer.”

“Steve can give you a lock to put on it” suggested her mom.”Okay that will work” said Isabel. Her and her parents sat in the living room and watched T.V. together. After about half an hour of watching game shows. Isabel's mom said “I’m really going to miss you not being able to walk five minutes down the street to come see me.”

“I know, I’m going to miss both of you so much. I will call you as often as I can but incase I’m busy or in another country Emily and Lily are going to call you at least every other day to make sure you’re okay.”

“Really, that’s nice of them and please tell me before you go to another country. I don’t care if you email me letting me know I just want to know what country you’re in.”

“Okay, I think I can do that, I’m going to go to bed now.” Isabel said. “Okay, we’ll get up whenever you do in the morning.”

“Okay” said Isabel then she went into the guest bedroom. Her parents stayed up for a little bit longer then they went to bed.

The next morning Isabel got up around 5 a.m. She ate a bagel with cream cheese. Then she woke her parents up so she could tell them goodbye. “I’ll call you went I get to the hotel tonight” she said to her parents. Then Isabel went and gave her mom a hug, then her dad. “Bye I’m going to miss both of you a lot.”

“We’re going to miss you too” said her dad. Isabel picked up her purse and started to walk outside, her parents came with her. Isabel had to go back to her house to get the trailer and her car so her parents drove her there.

When Isabel got to her house she went inside and made sure that all of the lights were off and the doors were locked. Then she came back outside and hooked up the trailer to her car. Isabel hugged her parents one more time then got into her car. Susan and Steve waved as Isabel pulled out of the driveway.
It took about 14 hours to get to New York City, so it was going to be a long car ride. Isabel had cd’s in the console of her car, so she picked out one to listen to. Isabel would probably listen to all of the cd’s more than once by time she got to New York.

Isabel pulled into the driveway of her apartment complex, she was finally there after the long 14 hour, two day trip. She went into the lobby of the apartment complex to get the key for her apartment. When Isabel walked in the manger greeted her and asked if she was Isabel. She said “Yeah, I need the key to my apartment and I’m not sure what floor it’s on.”

The manager was friendly, when he replied he said “I have your key for you and your on the fourth floor. If you want I can have some of my employees help you bring your stuff up there.”

“Thank you I would really appreciate that, and is there a certain spot I should park?” asked Isabel. “If you drive around back there is a parking garage, you can park anywhere on the fourth floor.”
“Okay, thank you so much” said Isabel. “No problem, I’ll send my employees up in about ten minutes”

“Okay” said Isabel, then she walked out of the lobby with the key to her apartment. When she got up to the fourth floor of the parking garage she parked as close to the door as she could get. Then Isabel walked inside the building and tried to find her room. It was apartment 89D. She had to go past five other apartments until she found hers.
Isabel unlocked the door to her apartment and walked inside. It was medium size, which is all Isabel needed. It had a kitchen, living room, bedroom and a bathroom. It came with a kitchen table, fridge, and a recliner chair. Isabel locked the door and went into the parking garage to start unloading boxes. She brought two boxes in and put them down in the living room. When Isabel went back outside to get more boxes there were two guys standing there. They had shirts that said “The Big City Apartment Complex”.

“Are you here to help me carry boxes?” asked Isabel. “Yes we are, what do you want us to take first?” asked a tall guy with short black hair. “I think the couch because it’s in the front.” The two guys picked up the coach from the trailer and walked towards the door. Isabel went in front of them to hold open the door. Then she unlocked her apartment and asked them to put it in the living room.

After that they all went back outside and grabbed more boxes. It took five trips for them to get everything. “Thanks for all of your help” said Isabel on the last trip. “No problem, and if you didn’t know there is an indoor pool behind the lobby. To get in just stop by the lobby and we will unlock the door.”

“Okay, thank you” said Isabel. Then the two guys left and went down the hallway. Isabel went inside her apartment and took a picture on her phone of all the boxes stacked up in her living room. Then she sent the picture to her mom, dad, Lily and Emily. She captioned the picture “moving in!”, then sent it.

Isabel started to unpack boxes. The first thing she unpacked was the kitchen stuff. Isabel put the microwave on the counter and pluged it in. The she unwrapped all of the plates and cups. There was just enough space in the cupboards to fit everything. Isabel made a pile of empty boxes by the door. Then she found the boxes of clothes and shoes.

Isabel went into the bedroom and found that there was a dresser in there. That was really helpful because she was just going to use the closet, which wasn’t very big. Isabel put all of her clothes in the dresser, then she decided to go walk around the city. That was another thing she was looking forward to.

Isabel put on her jacket and got her purse. She locked the door on the way out, then went into the elevator in the parking garage and went down to the first floor. When she walked out of the parking garage she had to walk about 1/4 of a mile, then she was in downtown New York City. Isabel took pictures as she walked around, her family wanted to see what it was like because none of them have ever been to New York City.

Isabel went into some stores, just to look around. Then she went into a chocolate shop that had all kinds of chocolate, from white chocolate bars to chocolate milk. Isabel bought two boxes of chocolate for her and some small chocolates that she could send to her parents. After that she was going to find somewhere to eat. Isabel walked past a couple places then found a sandwich shop, so she went in there.

They had all kinds of sandwiches and subs. Isabel ended up getting a meatball sub and a pop. She sat down in the restaurant and ate. Then she went back outside to explore the streets of New York City.

Today was the only day she had to walk around the city, and unpack because tomorrow she can start practicing with the team. Isabel spent about another hour looking around the city then she went back to her apartment. It was around 5 o’clock when she got back so she was going to keep unpacking.

By 6:30 everything was out of the boxes. Isabel turned on her laptop and googled “places to eat in New York City”. There were four pages of results so she narrowed it down to “places to eat Italian food in New York City”. There were a couple places but Isabel picked the one closest to her. It was called “Giada’s homemade Italian food”

When Isabel walked in the door she could smell the food right away. She got some lasagna to take back to her house. After she payed for her food she walked back to her apartment. After Isabel ate her dinner then she went to bed.

Isabel wanted to get a lot of sleep so she could be ready for her first practice tomorrow. Before she went to bed she set her alarm for 7:15 and put it put it on her dresser.

The next morning Isabel woke up to the sound of the radio, which was her alarm. She got up and turned her alarm off and didn’t hit the snooze button like she normally did. Isabel was anxious and worried to meet everyone on the team.

Isabel walked out of her bedroom and realized that she still didn’t have any food so she would have to get breakfast on the way. She went to her dresser and pulled out a pair of black shorts and a blue t-shirt. Isabel wasn’t sure what she was suppose to wear to practice so she was just going to go with that. She didn’t have to be at practice until 10, but she wanted to be there by 9:45. Isabel also didn’t know how long it would take her to walk there so she was probably going to leave her house at 9:15, and so she could get breakfast.

Isabel sat there and tried to figure out her T.V., it came with the apartment and this was the first time she tried to use it. It only took a couple seconds for her to turn it on, then figure out how to change the channel. Isabel turned it onto the news when her cell phone rang, it was her mom so she answered it. “How’s everything going” she asked. “Pretty good, I got everything unpacked and I walked around the city a little bit yesterday.”

“I’m glad you got to see the city! Well I don’t want to make you late for your first practice so good luck and I’ll call you tonight”

“Okay, thanks” replied Isabel. “Bye” said her mom, then she hung up.

Around 9:15 Isabel put her cleats,shin guards, and socks in her soccer bag along with her water bottle and some extra hair ties. Isabel left her apartment with butterflies in her stomach.

Isabel stopped at a bagel shop on the way to the stadium. It was suppose to take five to ten minutes to walk there but it depends on how much traffic there is because you have to cross a couple streets. Isabel got to the New York soccer stadium at about 9:30 so now she knows it only take about ten minutes to get there, if she didn’t stop for a bagel.

When Isabel walked through the gate of the stadium there was a security guard standing there. “Are you Isabel?” he asked. “Yeah” she replied. “Just go into the locker room to get ready, Coach Leah should be here in a minute”

“Okay” said Isabel as she walked past the guard and headed over to the field. She went into the locker room and put her cleats and shin guards on. When she walked out of the locker room Coach Leah was on the side of the field, putting down a bag of soccer balls. Isabel walked over and said “Hello Coach Leah”

“Hi Isabel, you're early”

“Yeah I didn’t want to be late on my first day” Coach Leah smiled at her then said “everyone else should be here in a couple minutes so you can go introduce yourself when they get here”

“Okay, and I was just wondering who plays right defense right now that’s retiring after next season?” asked Isabel. “Her name is Molly Evans and I’m going to have her help you today about how we do things at practice and maybe she can give you some advice too.”

“Okay, sounds good” said Isabel. Then someone was walking across the field. She went into the locker room, then more people showed up. It must have been getting close to ten, Isabel went into the locker room to talk to some people. The first person she introduced herself to was Molly Evans. Isabel went up to her and said “Hi, my name is Isabel Lauten.”

“Hi, I’m Molly Evans, I guess you’re taking my spot when I retire?” She said that with a weird tone of voice but Isabel replied “Yeah, I hope to get as good as you someday.” Molly smiled then yelled “everyone listen up!” All of the players got quiet then she said “this is Isabel Lauten, she’s taking my spot when I retire and she’s going to be a sub this year.” Then one of the players asked Molly “I thought coach said that she wanted Isabel to introduce herself?”

“Well, I really don’t care what coach said so mind your own business” snapped Molly. “Don’t tell me what to do!” replied the player, which Isabel realized was Alex Morgan. Then she walked out of the locker room, leaving everyone in silence.

“What’s going on?” asked Coach Leah who was out on the field setting up cones. “Molly just blew up at me because I said that Isabel was suppose to introduce herself”

“Wait what do you mean?”

“Molly made an announcement and said this is Isabel and she’s taking my spot when I retire”

“Really?” said Coach Leah. She walked into the locker room and yelled “Molly get out here right now!” Molly walked out of the locker room and said “what”.

“First, don’t say what to me. Second I thought I told you that I wanted Isabel to introduce herself?”

“So, I just wanted to help her out”

“Well I didn’t want you to, she needs to learn on her own so go take laps around the field and maybe next time you’ll listen to me!”

After that everyone came out of the locker room and started to warm up. Isabel just followed what they were doing. It wasn’t hard to catch on to, it was just leg and arm stretches. They spent most of the practice working on learning new moves. At the very end they did some passing. Coach Leah yelled “Okay it’s 4 o’clock, time to go home.” Everyone went off of the field and into the locker room. Coach Leah pulled Isabel to the side “so, it looked like you were doing pretty good today.”

“Yeah, I got most of the moves down after the second or third time.”

“That’s good and Molly normally doesn’t act like that.”

“I know, I figured she was probably having a bad day or something.”

“Okay, you can go get your stuff now” Isabel went into the locker room and when she walked in all of the conversations ended. Everyone looked at Isabel as she walked over, grabbed her bag and walked out. She sat on the bench on the side of the field and changed back into her sneakers. Then went out of the stadium and walked to her apartment.

When she got home she called her mom. “Hi, how did practice go?”

“Well Molly is suppose to help me out but today she wasn’t in a great mood. Then at the end of practice when I went into the locker room everyone stopped talking and like started at me as I got my bag. So I ended up changing my shoes out on the field.”

“I’m sorry, I’m sure things will get better as they get to know you more.”

“Yeah, I hope so”

“Well how’s New York City?”

“Amazing and there is a pool at my apartment complex. It’s weird though I haven’t met anyone that lives in the building yet.”

“Probably because it’s New York and new people come in there all the time. Well I have to go make dinner so I’ll call you tomorrow or you can call me.”

“Okay, I call around the same time, bye”

“Bye” replied her mom, then hung up the phone. Isabel decided that she was going to go in the pool then call Lily, who she hasn’t talked to in two days and it felt like forever. Isabel went into her bedroom and found her swim suit. She put it on, then put a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt on because it was cold in November. Isabel grabbed a towel and her key and went down to the lobby of the complex.

Isabel walked in and the manager was there, the same guy that helped her when she got there two days ago. “Going to the pool?” he asked. “Yeah”

“There’s no one in there right now, normally theres not alot of people using the pool in November even though it’s heated.”

“Okay” replied Isabel, then the manager said “I just unlocked the door, you’re good to go in”

“Thank you” said Isabel before she walked out and went behind the building to the pool. When she walked into the pool building she was surprised. It had a huge pool that went from 3 feet to 7 feet. It also had a hot tub and a sauna. Isabel went into the pool first, then got cold and went to the hot tube. It felt so nice that she could have stayed there all day, but she didn’t she only stayed for half an hour.

After Isabel got out of the pool she went back to her apartment. She called Lily and talked for almost an hour, then realized she had no food at all so she had to go to the store. Isabel called her mom and asked “where would you find a grocery store in New York City?”

“Um, you probably won’t find one in downtown New York City, but if you drive for a couple minutes you’ll probably find something.”

“Okay, thanks mom”

“Your welcome, good luck” Isabel hung up the phone and went to her car and drove for about five minutes, then she found a Meijer. “I’m saved!” yelled Isabel as she pulled into the parking lot. She went inside and bought enough food for her for a week. When Isabel checked out it was 6:45 so by time she got home it was 7 p.m. Isabel ate some pre-made fruit salad that she just bought and a can of spaghettios. It was a weird combination but Isabel signed an agreement like all of the other players that you have to have a fruit or vegetable with every meal. Also it said that you need to eat 95% healthy stuff and only 5% junk food.

Isabel watched T.V. until about 10 o’clock then she went to bed. She woke up at at 7:45 and wasn’t going to leave her house until around 9:30. Isabel wanted to make sure she had enough time to get ready and not be late to practice.

Isabel walked to the stadium and actually wasn’t the first one there. She went into the locker room, changed her shoes and came out. A few people talked to her and said “hi” when they saw her. Isabel knew that today was going to be better. The whole practice they worked on conditioning. They would run laps,do sit ups, then do push ups. That’s pretty much how the whole practice went.

Before Isabel knew it, winter was over. The season came fast and Isabel was closer friends with everyone on the team, including Molly. And It was two days before the first game. Coach Leah told Isabel that she might be in a little more than a normal sub or she might only be in for five minutes. It depends how Molly played, and Isabel was okay with that.

They spent the last two days of practice going over plays, like if someone goes up the field, who and where to pass it to. And for defense if you have the ball you need to be able to know if you should pass it back or up to a forward.

When it was the night before game day Isabel got a call from almost all of her relatives saying good luck and that they were going to watch it on T.V. She went to bed at like ten because the game was at New York and they didn’t have to be at the stadium until 3:30 because it was a night game.

In the morning Isabel woke up to the sound of someone knocking at her door. At first she thought “who’s here so early” then she realized that it was 9:30. Isabel walked to the door and looked through the peep hole then opened it right away. “What are you doing here?” asked Isabel. She didn’t expect her parents to come. “We wanted to support you, and we didn’t think you could hear or see us through the T.V.

“Wow, um I’ll go call my coach and ask if you can get front row tickets.”

“I already did” answered her dad. “Wait my coach knew about this?”

“Yeah” Susan. “Mom you got your cast off!”

“Yeah, about a week ago.”

“That’s awesome.Well I have to be at the stadium by 3:30 so we can’t really do anything today, but walk around the city for a little bit.”

“I would love that!” replied her mom. Isabel went to get her coat and shoes, while her parents walked around the apartment. When Isabel came out of her room she said “okay it’s 10 o’clock and we have to be back by two so let’s go.”

Isabel and her parents walked out of the apartment and started to walk the streets of New York City. Susan went into most of the stores and bought souvenirs for all of the family members. Then they ate lunch at Arby’s and walked around for another hour. When they returned to Isabel’s apartment her parents decided to go swimming. They changed in the apartment then Isabel went down to the lobby with them so the manager would let them in.

After the manager let them into the pool Isabel went back to her apartment to get ready. She didn’t know if she was suppose to change at the field or at her house so she called Coach Leah. She answer on the fourth ring and said “hello”

“Hi, this is Isabel, I was wondering if we changed at the field or before we got to the field?”

“Well Molly was suppose to tell you this but we change at the field so be there a little bit early.”

“Okay, thank you”

“No problem” then Coach Leah hung up the phone. Isabel put her uniform, cleats, and shin guards in her soccer bag. Then she went down to the pool to check on her parents. The manager saw her walking that way and unlocked the door for her and waved. Isabel waved back at him with a smile on her face. ”I have to leave early because I need to change into my uniform at the field.”

“Okay, we’ll go up into the apartment so we can start getting ready.” Susan got out of the pool and dried off, and so did Steve. They walked to the parking garage then went in the elevator up to her apartment. Isabel went inside grabbed her bag and said “I’m going to give you my key, because I’ll probably have to stay after the game and I don’t want you to get here and have to wait outside my door for an hour.” Isabel reached into her pocket and pulled out her key chain. “Ok, I’m walking to the stadium so you can use my car if you want”

“Okay, thank you”

“Bye mom, bye dad”

“Bye good luck” yelled Steve as Isabel walked out the door. She walked to the stadium and got there at 3 o’clock so she would have plenty of time to change. Isabel got ready with everyone else then went out onto the field and started to warm up. Two hours before the game started fans started to show up. Most of them wearing U.S.A gear, because Mexico is really far away. The Mexico team started to warm up at the same time the U.S. team did. And the referees got there around the same time all of the fans did.

20 minutes before game time, the referees blew the whistle and called the captain of both teams out to the center of the field to do the coin toss. Mexico called it because they are the away team. They called heads and it was tails so the U.S. got the kick off.

Both teams lined up on the field while the national anthem played. Isabel could see a camera flashes in the front row and she figured one of them was her mom taking pictures. When the anthem was over the starting players stayed on the field and the subs went to the bench. The game started and Mexico passed down the field and their forward made her way down the field to Molly. The forward passed to the middle of the field and the striker dribble up and took a shot. Which made it’s way in the goal right over the goalie's hands. It was a hard shot for the goalie to block, because it was right under the crossbar and she jumped as high as she could and she still wasn’t able to reach it.

“Shake it off and get back into the game!” yelled Coach Leah from the sidelines. The U.S. had the kick off and not long after that the U.S. scored a goal. It was because the goalie punted the ball down the field. Molly hadn’t done her best job stopping the offense so Coach Leah decided to put Isabel in.

When the referee called Isabel onto the field Molly looked confused and upset, she didn't know why she was being taken out. She also didn’t want the newbie to be playing instead of her. “Why’d you put her in?” yelled Molly as she walked to the bench. “You weren’t doing that great out there and I wanted to give her a chance.” Molly just ignored her answer and went to the other side of the bench. The striker on Mexicos team brought the ball down the field, Isabel stopped her at midfield by doing a fake out move to get the ball away from her. The fans cheered as Isabel passed the ball to the right wing.

A few minutes later it was finally half time. Both teams went into their locker rooms. “We had a pretty good first half. There were some good plays like the one at the end of the half from Isabel. I think you guys need to have better shots because we missed one or two and those could have been game changers. So lets get back out there and win this game!”

Everyone stood up and jogged out of the locker room and back out onto the field. Isabel started the second half on the bench, until Molly let another one by her which almost turned into a goal. Isabel went in and Coach Leah asked Molly why she wasn’t playing like herself.

The rest of the second half went pretty good and the U.S. ended up winning 2-1. After the game was over both teams went into the locker room. “All together we played a pretty good game. There are some things we need to work on, but that’s expected since it’s only the first game of the season. I don’t really have anything else to say so you can leave after you change and when most of the crowd is gone. Coach Leah walked out of the locker room and everyone started to talk. Some people talked about the game and others talked about random stuff.

After Isabel changed she went out onto the field. There were a couple people still leaving the stands and she could see that her parents were still sitting in their seats. Isabel walked over to the bleachers and stood at the side and said. “I’m ready to go”. Her mom looked down at her “Oh, I didn’t even see you walk over here.” Susan and Steve left the bleachers went by where they came in. Isabel was right behind them and said “where’d you park?”

“I’m not sure but there’s not that many cars left” Steve never remembered where he parked so that wasn’t a big surprise that he forgot. They looked around the parking lot and eventually Steve hit the panic button on his key so the car would start honking. When they found the van, it wasn’t that far away. They all got in the van and Steve drove back to Isabel’s apartment.

“I want to go lay down on my couch and watch T.V.” said Isabel. “Okay, sounds like a good idea because you played really good today”

“Thanks mom” then they pulled into the parking garage. Isabel got out of the car and saw Molly standing there. “What are you doing here?” asked Isabel. “Oh, I just have to ask you something”

“Umm okay, I guess you guys can go inside”

“Okay, I’ll go call your sister” replied her mom. Then her parents went inside. “How’d you know that I lived here and on the fourth floor?”

“That doesn’t matter, what does matter is that you played for almost half of the game today and you're only a sub”

“Coach just wanted to give me a chance and see how I played in games”

“I really don’t care, because I’m being forced to retire next season”

“Wait, they’re making you retire?”

“Yeah” screamed Molly. “Coach can’t stand me and if it weren't for you I could still play next year!” Isabel was still speaking in a calm tone of voice and said “I didn’t do anything Coach came to me and asked if I wanted to be on the team”

“You could have said no!” screamed Molly. Then she pulled a gun out of her pocket and held it up to Isabel. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I never meant to hurt you or ruin your career!” yelled Isabel with tears running down her face. By that time the manager heard the yelling and was running to the parking garage, but it was too late. Molly had already pulled the trigger and shot Isabel in the chest, and leg.

“Oh my gosh” said the manager and pulled out his phone and called 911. People inside the building heard the loud shots and came outside. Some of those people were Isabel’s parents. “No” screamed her mom. Then she ran over to Isabel with Steve by her side. “I love you so much” cried her mom. “Don’t leave us” said her dad, who had tears starting to run down his face. “I love you both so much” said Isabel. You could barely hear her now.

“Tell everyone I love them so much, especially Lily” Now both her parents were hysterical. An ambulance pulled up and took a stretcher out of the back. Two paramedics put Isabel on it and her parents jumped in the back. Police showed up too and arrested Molly.

On the way to the hospital Isabel told her parents what she wanted them to tell all of her family members. Isabel wanted them to tell Lily that she loved her as much as she loved her sister and she didn’t know how she would have lived without her. And Isabel wanted all of her relatives to know that she had the best family on Earth.

They got to the hospital and Isabel had lost a lot of blood. “I love you both more than anything in the world. You have been the greatest parents ever.” Is what Isabel said to her parents right before the doctors were going to give her surgery to get the bullets out. It was too late though, Isabel died three minutes after she arrived at the hospital.

Her parents sat in the emergency room for two hours crying their eyes out. While they were doing that one of the nurses decided to call all of their family members. The nurse had to look them up, but she eventually found all of the phone numbers. At first most of the relatives thought she was joking until she told them what the police had told her. The police told the nurse that Isabel was taking someone’s spot on the soccer team because she was retiring. But it turned out that she was being forced to retire, so she got mad at Isabel and shot her.

Everyone she called started crying as soon as she told them the story. The nurse walked over to Susan and Steve and said “I’ve called all of your family members and told them, but I didn’t call Lily. Should you call her or me?”

“I will” her mom said crying. As soon as Lily found out she started screaming and crying. Life will never be the same.

Isabel's story was on the news and once the soccer team found out they were all devastated and couldn’t believe what happened. When Coach Leah found out she went to the jail to talk to Molly. “I can’t believe you would do this to someone whose career has just started! It wasn’t her fault so why did you kill her and not me?” Molly didn’t reply so Coach Leah screamed again “why did you do it?”

Molly just stood there next to the security guard like she didn’t even care. Leah had it with her, she pulled her fist back then swung her arm and punched Molly in the face. The security guard knew what had happened, everyone in there did, so he didn’t do anything to stop Leah. Molly stood there holding her face. And before she knew it Leah kicked her in the stomach so hard that she fell to the ground.

“Don’t ever mess with me or anyone ever again!” screamed Leah before she kicked Molly in the leg and left. Another security guard came up to the one standing next to Molly and said “I’ve never seen an old lady hit or kick like that.”

Susan and Steve were driving back to Michigan because that’s where the funeral is being held. They took a few things from Isabel’s apartment with them, like her jersey and some pictures of her and friends or family that she had hanging on the walls. The manager said they could leave the rest of her stuff there for awhile until they had time to go through it all.

When Susan and Steve got home there were a bunch of flowers and cards outside their door. They all said stuff like “I’m sorry for your lost” or “thinking of you”. They got home and had to plan the funeral in two days.

Susan let Coach Leah know that the funeral was on Monday incase anyone from the team wanted to come. Susan’s parents were helping with the funeral because Steve and Susan were both a wreck and couldn’t focus on anything for long, so Betty and Bob did most of the planning.

It was a dark and cloudy day on Monday. But everyone still had to get up and go to the funeral. Steve and Susan were the first one’s there, then Isabel’s sister was there. She came all the way from Wisconsin. The first thing she did was hug her parents. Then Susan said “you can stay with us tonight so you don’t have to drive home so late”

“Thanks” replied Lauren. More people started to show up. One of them was Shelby and her mom. “I’m so sorry about your loss, if you want I can move out of the house”

“Why would I have you do that?” asked Susan, then she went to say hello to Steve’s parents. They lived about an hour away. Lily and Emily showed up around the same time and they talked for awhile. “I think we should become better friends, don’t you think Isabel would want her two best friends to be close friends?” asked Lily. “Yeah, I think she would really like us to be good friends. And if she doesn’t want us to, then I’m sure something will happen and we won’t be friends anymore. Isabel does know how to get her way.” They both laughed then Emily answered “yeah, she would always talk my mom into driving me to her house when we were little so we could have sleepovers.” Then, the whole Western soccer team walked in. Susan went over and said “you guys heard about Isabel?”

“Yeah, we all can’t believe it happened and we are very sorry for your lost if there’s anything you need please let me know” said Coach Smith. “Thank you, I appreciate it very much.”

Then Jimmy Faut walked through the doors, someone Susan didn’t expect to see. He was Isabel’s soccer coach from when she was five to when she was in high school. He walked over to Susan and gave her a hug and then shook Steve’s hand. “I am so sorry about Isabel and I just wanted to let you know how incredibly proud I am of her. She went and did things I couldn’t have even dreamed about doing. Also, I made a scrapbook for you of soccer pictures I’ve had over the years. Some of them are team pictures and some of them are during games and parties. I left some empty pages in the back incase you wanted to add pictures from her years of college soccer.”

“Thank you so much, you don’t know how much this means to me.”

“I think you might need more chairs” said Jimmy. “Why?” asked Susan then she turned around and saw the whole U.S. soccer team, not just a couple people but all of them cared enough to come to the funeral. Coach Leah walked up to Steve and Susan and said “just to let you know, I went to the jail Molly’s at to talk to her and when she wouldn’t tell me why she did it I punched her in the face, kicked her in the stomach so hard she fell to the ground, then kicked her in the leg while she was down on the ground.”

Susan smiled and said “thank you” then Leah went to sit down in folding chairs with her team. They didn’t expect so many people to come, so they didn’t have enough regular chairs set up. All of the relatives were there, even one’s they almost never talked to. Everyone there signed the guest book, 200 spots were filled. About 100 more than expected.

During the funeral, every single person in there cried at some point. Most of the people who stood up and talked cried during their speech. Especially Lily, her speech was about all of the fun things her and Isabel had done together. There was no way to hold back the tears.

When the funeral was over everyone met at McDonald’s to talk, eat and try to get their minds off of things.

It was a week after the funeral and Susan and Steve still weren’t getting over the fact that their youngest daughter was dead. Susan was worried that her and Steve would become depressed, so she decided that they needed a pet. “Steve, we need to get a dog”

“What?”

“If we don’t we’re never going to do anything but sit here and miss Isabel! We need something to get our mind off of it.” Susan put her shoes on and grabbed her purse “let’s go get a dog!” she said to Steve as she walked out the front door. “I better hurry up or she’ll leave without me and bring home a horse or something.” Steve said to his self. He put on his shoes and went outside and got into the van with Susan.

She drove to the closest animal shelter, which is about 20 minutes away. When they got there they just walked around and looked at all of the dogs. Susan wanted a small one so it wouldn’t be as hard to take care of. Steve and Susan continued to walk around for another 15 minutes. Susan started to give up hope on finding a dog. They were all barking or really big and she didn’t want a dog like that.

Then she came to the last cage in the dog part of the shelter. The sign on the cage said that he was about a year and a half old and wouldn’t get much bigger than he was. Right now he’s about a 18 inches tall and weighs 25 pounds.

The dog was sleeping in a little dog bed in the cage and as soon as Susan bent down to look at him, he ran over to her. Susan stuck her hand through the cage and was petting him. He was the sweetest dog ever, he wasn’t barking and was really gentle. Then Steve came over and was petting his soft black fur.

Susan went to find an employee to get the dog out of the cage. When the employee came over she opened the cage and picked up the dog and handed it to Susan. The first thing he did was lick her face. “This is the dog, we’re getting him.”

“I think so too” said Steve. “Okay, I’ll go get the papers” said Angie, the employee who took him out of the cage. When she came back they went into an office with her to sign the papers. Susan was holding onto him the whole time. “When you sign these papers it’s basically saying that you will take care of him, feed him and won’t abuse him.”

“We wouldn’t even think abusing him or not feeding him.” said Steve as he signed the papers. He held onto the dog while Susan signed the papers. Then they bought a leash and collar and were ready to go home. “Have a good day” said Angie as they walked out the door with a new dog.

On the car ride home the dog just roamed the car while Susan and Steve talked about names for him. The first one Susan said was Fred. “Why?” asked Steve. “Because I like that name and it’s the name of a dog in a movie.”

“Well, that’s more than I have so it’s official, his name is Fred.” When they got back to their house Steve walked Fred around the front yard. And Susan called her mom to tell her the good news. “Hello” answered her mom. “Hi, we just got a dog and he is one and a half years old and his name is Fred.”

“Really? What kind of dog is he?”

“He’s part beagle, basset hound, and australian shepherd. It’s weird because he’s all black and has 3 brown spots on him.”

“That’s a weird mix, can I come over and an see the newest addition to our family”

“Of course”

“Okay, I’ll be over in an hour, Bob’s out hunting or fishing with one of his friends so he won’t come over.”

“Okay, bye.” Then Susan went out into the front yard. “My mom’s coming over in an hour.”

“Okay, do you want to walk Fred?”

“Yeah” then Susan walked over to Steve and took the leash. Fred barely pulled on the leash, which was weird because the people at the animal shelter said that he had been there for a long time and before that they think he was just wondering the streets and never had a real home. Susan was only worried about two things with Fred. If he was going to rip up and chew on everything, and if he would go to the bathroom outside, not in the house.

Steve wanted to experiment with him so he took Fred inside and let him off the leash. Fred just kinda stood there, then walked over to the couch and jumped up on it and went to sleep in a ball. “I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about him chewing on the furniture.” said Steve out the front door. “Why?” asked Susan as she walked up the stairs of the front porch, then she walked inside the door and said “I think you’re right”.

Then, Betty pulled up the driveway and Fred jumped off the couch. He ran right to the front window and started to wag his tail. “I think he likes people” said Steve as Susan walked out the door to welcome her mom. When Betty came inside Fred ran right up to her, smelled her, then jumped back onto the couch.

“I don’t think he’s going to be too much trouble” said Betty. “I hope so” said Susan. “I have to go to the store and and get dog food, a bowl, toys, and maybe a bone. Should I go to Petco so he can come too?”

“Yeah, then we can all go to the store” said Steve. “Okay, lets go” said Susan, then she put Fred back on leash and went out to the car. Steve was driving and Betty was sitting up front with him. Susan was going to try to get Fred to sit somewhere, in the seat, on the floor, on her lap, it didn’t matter she just didn’t want him to get into trouble.

After Steve pulled out of the driveway Susan said “open the window it’s hot back here.” It was the end of May so it was starting to get hot and there wasn’t a button to open the window in the back seat, that’s how old their van is. As soon as Steve opened the window Fred ran over and sat on Susan’s lap. He wouldn’t stick his head out the window but he liked the breeze. It was weird because most dogs loved sticking their head out of car windows.

When they got to the pet store Susan took Fred out of the car, she had to pick him up because it was too far for him to jump. They walked inside and went to the dog section, first they picked out a bowl. Susan didn’t know whether to get the grey bowl or the blue bowl so let Fred chose. She held the grey bowl in her left hand and the blue bowl in her right hand. When she lifted her left hand Fred did nothing, when she lifted her right hand Fred wagged his tail, so Susan got the blue bowl.

Then Susan walked Fred to the toy section with Steve and Betty behind her. Right when they walked into the toy aisle Fred went to a soccer ball toy and picked it up with his mouth. “Well, at least I know Isabel’s watching us”

“What do you mean?” asked Betty. “There is no way Fred just randomly picked up a toy and it happened to be soccer. Isabel is up there watching over us and keeping us safe”

“Now that you said that I think she is too” said Betty. Then Susan changed the subject so she wouldn’t start crying “okay, lets get some tennis balls, than food”

“Okay” said Steve as he walked down the aisle and picked up a three pack of tennis balls. Then they all went into the food aisle, it had dog food on one side and cat food on the other. Susan was still holding onto Fred’s leash while she looked at the different kinds of food. Then she turned around and saw Fred peeing on a can of can food.

“Steve grab a bag of food and let’s go”

“Why are you in such a rush now?” Then he looked over at Fred and saw what he had just done. “Okay, let’s go” he grabbed a bag of food and walked over to the register trying to act like nothing happened. Susan paid for everything then they went back out to the car. “If you want tonight I can spend the night to help you with him” said Betty. “Really? I would appreciate that a lot, we can take turns sleeping and watching Fred.”
“Ok, sounds good, I’ll just call Bob when we get back to your house so he doesn’t freak out when he get’s home and I’m not there.”

“Okay, should we get pizza for dinner? It’s already 6 o’clock so by time I make something it will probably be 7 or 7:30”

“Pizza’s fine with me”

“And me” added Steve. They went home and then called the pizza place and had them deliver two large pepperoni pizzas. Susan, Betty and Steve sat at the kitchen table and ate pizza. After that Susan called Lauren. “Me and your dad got a new dog today”

“Really? What does he look like?” Susan went on for about ten minutes talking about him and how nice and calm he was. Then Lauren asked “so, how are you and dad doing?”

“Well, not great all we’ve done is sit around and be sad. That’s why we got Fred, so we would have something to do besides just sit here.”

“Well that’s good, I’ll call you again tomorrow to see how you’re doing. Do you know how grandmas doing?”

“Pretty good she’s over here right now and she’s going to spend the night to help us with fred”

“Okay, I’ll call you tomorrow”

“Bye” then Susan hung up the phone. She walked back out into the family room where Steve and Betty were. “We should watch a movie tonight”

“Okay, I’ll see if there’s any on T.V. then we can look through the dvd’s” said Steve.

He looked through all of the channels on T.V. and didn’t find any movies. So they looked through their stack of dvd’s. They probably had twenty to thirty movies. They decided to watch a movie that was from when they were kids.

The night went pretty good, Fred just curled up in a ball and went to sleep on the couch. No one had to stay up with him, Fred was sound asleep before anyone went to bed.
The next morning Steve was the first one up. He went into the living room and saw Fred in the same exact spot he went to sleep in. Steve got the bag of dog food and gave Fred breakfast. He ate all of it then went back onto the coach. A couple minutes later Susan woke up, then Betty woke up. After Betty went home Susan and Steve spent the rest of the day playing with Fred.

Life went on without Isabel, no one would ever forget about her but they could live without her. It was two months after it happened and Emily and Isabel talked at least two days a week. Susan and Steve both walked Fred every day and let him sleep in bed with them. Lauren was still working hard to finish her last year of college at Wisconsin University.
The U.S. national soccer team had to find someone to take Isabel’s spot. No one was ever going to be as good as Isabel was but they had find someone to play right defender. They found a 26 year old girl who had played on the Canadian national team, but moved to the U.S. to be with her family. She thought the U.S. team was really good and that they had so many nice players. All of the players on the Canadian team didn’t really get along as well as the U.S. players did.
One day when Susan was walking Fred she got the mail. There was an envelope addressed to her and Steve from the state. They wanted to sue Molly for everything she has but they decided that it wouldn’t be worth paying to fly there and back and all of the court fees so they were going to try get money from New York for their daughter being murdered.
Susan went inside and opened the envelope. She stood there, shocked holding the letter in her hands. Steve walked in the room and asked “are you okay?”
“I’m better than okay, look at this letter from New York.” Steve took the letter out of her hands and read it. He was shocked, then said “Are they seriously giving us $4 million?”

“Yeah, that’s how much Isabel would have made in ten years.”

“I can’t believe this, Isabel would have been able to do so much with this, but I’m glad that we get what she would have had.” The next thing Susan did was call Shelby, who was living in Isabel’s old house. “Hello” answered Shelby. “Hi this is Susan, I just wanted to let you know that the house is yours, you don’t have to pay rent anymore.”

“Wait, why?”

“We got $4 million from the state, that’s how much Isabel would have made in 10 years. So just keep your money, you need it way more than I do.”

“Thank you so much”

“You’re welcome” then Susan hung up the phone. Susan and Steve called all of their family members and Lily to tell them that the good news. They also said that after they received the money they would give them all at least $1,000. Everyone was really happy, even Fred because they told him that they would buy him a new bone.

Susan and Steve went to the bank the next day and showed them the letter. The bank made a few phone calls, then gave them $1 million. They said that they could have the rest of the money when they wanted it. They didn’t want to take it all at once incase something happened, like they were robbed. It was a week later and they still hadn't spent any of the money. Steve asked “do you know how old are van is?”

“No, why?” asked Susan.

“Well it’s way too old, I think we need a new car.”

“I don’t disagree with that” said Susan with a smile on her face. They went out the next day to go car shopping. They started the day with an old van and ended the day with a new Camaro. And at the end of the day all of Steve’s and Susan’s family and friends were $2,000 richer. No matter how much money they got, nothing would ever replace Isabel.