Week 6 Story: The Soccer Match

 Mason rolled his eyes as he walked down the halls of his high school, hearing the same loud cheering that he heard nearly every week. The football captain, Charlie, had won again. He had won every single game all season, and yet everyone still cheered and went wild like he had done something new. Mason just did not understand it. Why did Charlie get all the praise? Why did everyone love Charlie so much? 

"Football is not even that hard." Mason would say to his friends out of jealousy. "All he does is throw the ball. He does not even tackle anyone." he would continue. 

Charlie was the quarterback, which meant that he was the most popular guy in the whole high school. Every guy either wanted to be his best friend, or wanted to be him. No one was ever rude to his face and he got whatever he wanted. He was bad at school, but even the teachers gave him extra help so that he could play each week. His girlfriend was the cheerleading captain of course, and also the most beautiful girl in the whole school. Mason envied Charlie greatly. He wanted to be praised, loved, respected, and envied just like Charlie. But no one ever noticed Mason. He was an incredible soccer player and even came from a family of soccer players, with his uncle being a professional. However his high school did not have a soccer team, and therefore his soccer skills were irrelevant. 

One day when everyone was being extra obnoxious about praising Charlie, Mason decided that he had had enough. He mustered up all of his courage, slowly approached Charlie at his locker, and puffed up his chest. 

"If you are really such a good athlete, you should be able to play other sports too." Mason said with attitude. 

"And I can. I am also the best one in this school at basketball and baseball." replied Charlie, shocked that Mason had approached him. 

 "But not at soccer. Soccer is the real football." replied Mason, getting closer and closer to Charlie. 

"Anyone can play soccer, all you have to do is kick a ball. It's a sport for idiots." said Charlie as he chuckled in Mason's face. 

"Well then if it's a sport for idiots you should be able to play! And I should be able to beat you." challenged Mason. 

"Anytime, any place. I will beat you at anything." Charlie replied with arrogance. 

Shortly after, they arranged to meet that weekend at the neighborhood soccer field. In all honesty, Charlie had never played soccer a day in his life, but he was far too arrogant and prideful to ever back down from a challenge. Besides, he thought that Mason was just some weird kid who could not be good at sports anyway. He could not have been more wrong. 

Mason practiced harder than he ever had before all week. He met with his uncle and repeated professional drills over and over again. He worked on his strength and conditioning, and kicked goal after goal for hours on end. He refused to be made a fool in front of the entire school. All he wanted was to be praised. 

When the weekend came, Charlie and Mason met at the soccer field. Most of the high school came as well, but they were all rooting for Charlie. Mason was used to it and was determined to shock them all. Charlie's stunning girlfriend was there as well, wearing his jersey and cheering for him. 

Before the game started, Mason said, "Let's make this interesting. If you win, I will streak across this field in front of the whole high school. But if I win, I get to go on a date with your girlfriend." 

"Yeah okay buddy, whatever." replied Charlie as he laughed at Mason. 

As soon as the game started, Mason was on fire. Charlie could not even keep up with him, much less stop him or block a goal. After only 20 minutes, Charlie quit. Mason was already up by 7 goals and there was no coming back from that. The whole high school stared in shock. How could some nobody have beat Charlie at a sport? At first it was quiet and awkward as Charlie stormed away in humiliation. But it did not take long before everyone was coming up to Mason and congratulating him. Some of the guys even wanted to start a soccer team at the high school! And as the perfect afternoon came to a close, Mason approached Charlie's girlfriend and asked her when she was free for dinner. He was on top of the world. 

                                                        Wikimedia: Soccer 

Authors Note: My story is based off of The Gambling Match  from the Mahabharata. In the Gambling Match, Duryohdhana was in a jealous rage when he saw others being praised for the trump of the Pandavas. Therefore, he set up a gambling in order to prove that he was also worthy of praise. He practiced with is uncle who was a renowned gambler in order to ensure that he would win the match. He also played with his uncle, making their team unstoppable. The Pandavas did not know how to play but played anyway and bet everything he had. After losing all of his possessions, he bet Draupadi and lost again. For my story, I just took this story, changed the game, and modernized it. The plot is generally the same: a boy is jealous of the praise of another boy and therefore challenges him to a different game and wins the girl. I thought it would be more interesting to set my story in high school. When I first read The Gambling Match, it sounded very high school to me. All of the jealousy and games just sounded like teenagers. Therefore I thought it would be interesting to make the characters modern high school students. Ultimately, I told the same general plot with different characters, different details, and in a different time period.