BENCHED

No, why’d she run that way? She’s heading right into the other team’s trap, Alex thought as she watched her teammate dribble the ball from the sidelines.

Normally, Alex would be on the field with the rest of her soccer team. In fact, she liked to think of herself as the team’s star player, but her coach told her that way of thinking is what got her benched.

It all started after last week’s game. Alex’s team had faced off against the team from two towns over. They weren’t very good. They’d only won three games the whole season, and Alex’s team had won 10. She thought they’d win no problem ... but they didn’t.

The other team scored a goal to win the game a minute before the ref blew the final whistle. Alex was devastated. She didn’t get off the bench to shake hands with the other team, and she kept asking the goalie how she’d given up that last goal. She was trying to convince her teammates to stay after the game for extra practice when her coach pulled her aside.

“Alex, I need you to take a deep breath,” Coach Melissa began her lecture. “I know how much you like to win, and I admire how hard you work in practice. But you’re taking things too far. You can’t blame your teammates when we lose a game, and we always shake hands with the opposing team after a win or a loss. That’s good sportsmanship.”

Alex started to get a bad feeling about this conversation, and her instincts were right. “I’ve spoken to your parents, and we’ve agreed you’ll be benched for the next two games,” Coach Melissa continued. “I still want you to come to practices and try to bond more with

your teammates, but you can’t play in the games.”

“But ... but,” Alex was at a loss for words. This was her worst case scenario.

“I know it isn’t what you want to hear, but that’s my decision,” Coach Melissa said firmly, though she looked sympathetic.

That had been a week ago. Practice had been rained out this week, which Alex was thankful for, but she still had to attend the game. She’d tried to get her parents to let her skip it. Actually, she’d tried to get them to let her join another team altogether. “Coach Melissa is wrong about me,” she argued. “Plus, none of the girls on my team are as good as me anyway.”

“Alex, sweetie, you’re proving Coach Melissa’s point with this argument,” her dad shook his head. “Winning isn’t everything, and you need to learn that.”

“But you always told me, ‘winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.’”

Alex watched her dad’s face turn red as her mom elbowed him. “I was only joking, kiddo,” he explained.

Alex had listened to yet another lecture about her game time attitude, but she didn’t intend to change. She moped her way through her first benched game and didn’t start to second-guess her behavior until practice the following Monday.

She’d decided against running drills by her

Alex took a seat on the bleachers instead and watched as a group of her teammates sat chatting, laughing and even doing each other’s hair.

self the way she normally would before practice. Instead, she took a seat on the bleachers instead and watched as a group of her teammates, Zoey, Uma and Sutton, sat chatting, laughing and even doing each other’s hair.

Huh, do they always do that? Alex wondered to herself. She watched them for a few minutes and was surprised by what she heard. They had inside jokes, they talked about each other’s families, they even traded advice about game strategy. They were friends.

That realization hit Alex like a ton of bricks.

How come they’re all friends with each other and not me? she questioned.

“What’s going on in that head of yours?” Coach Melissa interrupted Alex’s thoughts. “Nothing,” Alex tried to appear cool. Coach Melissa followed Alex’s eyes and noticed the group of girls. They were still laughing and talking. “Why don’t you go join them?” she suggested.

“No,” Alex shut down that idea immediately. “They don’t want to be friends with me.” “What do you mean?” “Well, they saw me over here. They could have waved me over, but they didn’t.”

“Maybe they thought you’d come over if you wanted to talk to them,” Coach Melissa reasoned. “You do usually keep to yourself, Alex. And when you do talk to them, you ...”

Coach Melissa trailed off like she was about to say something awkward. Alex recognized that, so she began to think of her past interactions with Zoey, Uma and Sutton. It didn’t take her long to go over all their past conversations in her head. There hadn’t been many, but those they did have, Alex didn’t come off looking so good. “I was mean to them,” she admitted. “You were hard on them,” Coach Melissa countered. “You’re hard on yourself when we lose, too. But when you’re like that with other

people ...”

“They just think I’m mean ... that I’m a sore loser who blames them whenever we don’t win, as if it’s not my fault at all,” Alex realized suddenly, feeling horrible.

“Shh, it’s okay,” Coach Melissa soothed Alex as she started to get upset. “We can fix this, I promise.”

Alex wasn’t so sure. She spent the rest of practice focusing on her coach’s words.

She continued the conversation later on with her mom and finally decided on a way to fix things with her teammates: She’d bring a snack to the next game. Then her teammates would have to talk to her.

When game day rolled around, Alex was on the bench again. And even though she’d gone over the plan with her mom a bunch of times — she’d offer everyone orange slices at halftime and say some encouraging words about their playing — she was super-nervous.

She was so anxious that she was caught off guard when her teammates hit the bench.

“Ugh, I can’t believe we’re losing,” Sutton groaned. “We have to win this game.”

“Try not to think about it like that. We could still come back,” Zoey pointed out. “Yeah, right,” Uma grumpily disagreed. Ok, this is my shot, Alex mustered up her courage. “Zoey’s right, you guys,” she piped in.

Three heads turned to look at her, surprised. “Have you seen how we’ve been playing?” Sutton asked.

“You brought us a snack even though you can’t play in the game?” Zoey seemed shocked.

“Well, um, not really,” Alex admitted. “Who are you and what have you done with the real Alex?” Uma asked.

Alex wasn’t sure how to respond, but then the three girls all started laughing. Soon, she joined in.

“Hey, do you guys want some oranges?” she asked. “My mom and I cut them up for everyone last night.”

“You brought us a snack even though you can’t play in the game?” Zoey seemed shocked.

“Um, yeah, sorry is that weird?”

“No, no, of course not. It’s really nice, actually,” Zoey smiled.

The girls each grabbed an orange slice and ate them in silence. Alex wasn’t sure what to say next.

“So, how can we score on this goalie, Alex?” Sutton asked.

“Oh, you don’t need my help,” Alex shook her head. She didn’t want to get all riled up and make everyone mad again.

“You’re the only reason we beat them last time, come on.”

So Alex told them about what she’d discovered last time: that if she punted the ball, this goalie had trouble blocking the kick.

“Oooh, that’s good to know,” Uma smiled. “It’s nice when Alex’s soccer obsession actually works for us.”

“Look, guys, I’m sorry,” Alex tried to be honest. “I know that I can get out of line when we lose. I’m trying to work on that.”

“Thanks, we’ve noticed,” Zoey smiled as the ref blew the whistle to signal the end of halftime. “... but we’re gonna try to win this game anyway.”

Alex laughed. She wasn’t too concerned about winning or losing, though. Either way, she was going to ask her new friends to go out for ice cream after the game, and she was pretty sure they’d say yes.