Young Writers Society

Lisa Miller | 9:17 AM | The Football Pitch

"He wants to see you," Chance said, pointing his arm toward the edge of the pitch. Lisa narrowed her eyes and gave Chance a funny look. Why did he want to talk to her? Lisa was both confused and somewhat intrigued. She and that Reggie kid hadn't really interacted at all before this, so what on earth did he want to talk to her about? Maybe because she was curious or because she wanted to get it over with, so she darted over to him.

"What do you want?" Lisa asked.

"Ssh!" He said, putting his arm around her. "Not so loud." He coaxed her farther away from the pitch, so much so that they were partially obscured from view. For a second, Lisa was afraid that he was going to rape her.

"I can run real fast," she threatened, "and I'm a pretty good screamer too." She made a point of saying this as loud as she could.

Reggie shook his head. It was silent for a moment or two, when he finally said, "Are you a Christian?"

"What?" Lisa sighed. She should have known he would do this. "I don't know if I believe in God." She gave Reggie a quick glance. "Now, if you don't mind, I would like to play football."

Vivian | Football pitch

Vivian muttered under his breath. Their team was currently short of one, no two, people. Lisa and Reggie. Lisa looked confident as she strode over to Reggie.
I just hope this confidence doesn't make her do something stupid. What does Reggie think anyway? Some sort of preacher, he is.
He didn't concentrate on where he was running when he bumped into someone. A girl with short brown hair and soft hazel eyes. He found her face outlined with sweat mildly attractive. She shot out a string of words.
"He- I mean, I'm sorry."
She nodded and walked off, rubbing her knee along the way.
Viv looked about for the ball. He didn't want to waste time thinking about her now. He would find time for that later. He motioned to Kisa, signalling her to be ready for an attack. The ball, now in their position, was passed between Kisa and Viv. As they neared the goal, the other team tried despereately to gain possession of the ball. They almost managed to, but Kisa feinted a pass and aimed for the goal. She kicked. It curved, a perfect parabola, and sailed into the nets as the opposing goalie failed to push it off.

Viv did feel happy yet these games always left him yearning for a 'real' match like the ones they had in school. Playing in those was just a lot more fun. He now looked over at Reggie and Lisa. Lisa was shaking her head and her hands gesturing something. Whatever Reggie said, Lisa obviously had some strong reaction.

Reginald "Reggie/The Priest" Carter

I smiled, it was the classic reaction for most of the inmates I had the 'pleasure' of being acquainted with. I took her arm and looked at her deeply, her wet eyes staring back at me, glaring with a sense of uncontendable self-confidence. Perhaps I'd made a mistake, perhaps she wasn't on her last leg yet? Perhaps this one would be a project. Reggie admired the prospect but thought he'd best speak before she tried screaming or running away.

"You see," I smiled, to comfort her new frustration. I carefully lifted my hand and found a pleasure in her decision not to carry on walking away. A moment of warm human-instinct passed in the air, as if for a milisecond she'd trusted anything I was about to say, but quickly she retained back to the self-confidence that had once masked the warmness. An outer-shell perhaps? I turned away from her and continued, it was up to her weather she wanted to stay and listen or walk away and miss out now.

"Many people who come to the Juvies are looking for purpose. At some point - in their lives - they've been pulled through the rough ground. They've lost the element of hope... that warmness that classes us as 'normal' and 'straight' in a clearly criminal bent society. When I bring up religion, most react like you just did. I could call it naive or ignorant to the prospect of a faith, but I'd be wrong - would you not agree? That would simply frustrate you further..."

I turned back to the pitch surprised to see she was still there, but her arms were crossed again and a dismissive raised eyebrow suggested she wasn't quite getting what I was going at.

"Look, see Tobias and Chance?" I pointed out to the pitch where they were dominating the game - by cheating. "Don't think they'd be the kind'a people who'd listen to a crazy out-fool like me, eh? But, they do. Something caught their attention, like it soon will yours too. You don't need to change, like some mindless fools seem to believe you do. Oh no, there is a simple settlement to this. Your simple open-mindness to the ideologies of faith. Just come to me now and again - no sobby moments. Just come to me and talk now and again. I'll give you back a purpose, my neighbour. A God-damn purpose from Christ 'imself. You'll feel better, trust me."

Lisa Miller | 9:19 AM | The Football Pitch

Lisa snorted. Seriously, how full of it was this guy? The idiotic grin on his face made her want to slap him.

"Look," she said, "If there really is a god, why is there so much bad going on the world? Why do people have to be poor and struggling? Why do some of us suck at everything? If there's a god out there, I think he would try to make it better for everyone. I've had a first hand taste of all the bad stuff you can ask for. I just tried to live my life and be the best person I can be, but what happened? Nothing ever got better. Don't you think, if there was a god, that he would reward the people who followed his ways." Lisa paused. She noticed she was starting to cry.

Reggie opened his mouth to say something, but was quickly cut off by Lisa. "If people want to be religious, that's fine but me. Just as long as they know they're incredibly stupid."

All the color had drained from Reggie's face. "I-"

"Bud, I don't know who the heck you think you are. It must be real easy for you to follow god, sitting in your big fat mansion and getting everything spoon-fed to you throughout life. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm playing football."

Just before she left, she spat in his face.

Kisa

Football. The aggressive sport that brings out the tough side in all of us. But what do my wandering eyes do appear? Lisa and that creepy wanna-be Priest chatting it up off the field. I looked toward Mr. Reynolds, hoping he would look up from his Maxim, but of course he didn't. You couldn't rely on the staff at this joint.

But the game was too intense for me to worry about two hicks conversing on the sidelines. If they didn't want to be team players, so be it. My team didn't need them, especially when they had me.

I was running the field, trying to position myself for the perfect pass, when Aiden ran up from behind and tried to block me. Are you kidding me? I thought as she spread her arms wide and hopped all over the place, even though I wasn't moving. This girl does not know how to play football. I waved for the ball. Viv passed it to me perfectly - he had to be only other worthy player in the game - and I had to run and push Aiden over as I caught it.

She fell, making that girly 'eh/ah" noise. When she was on the floor, she cradled herself for a minute, then looked up for my apology, but I was already running, dribbling the ball. This was football, not hacky sack. She had to tough it out to play with the big dogs.

Once the score was way out of the other team's 'catching-up-range', as I liked to call it, I decided to take a break and catch my breath. My little legs could only run so far. But as I was sashaying around the field, I noticed an angry look on Lisa's face as she stepped away from the reverend dude. She looked like she had a tear in here eye, and the guy was wiping his face, so I assumed they had just suffered from a tear-fest.

"Gotta toughen up if you want to survive here, buddy," I said as I passed her, with no tone whatsoever.

She turned and stared at me, as I saw out of the corner of my eye, but said nothing. I mean, what would she say? Anyone who got a word from me had to be blessed by frickin' Jesus.

we were playing english version football not american football I think Classy.

jok101 wrote:we were playing english version football not american football I think Classy.

Whats the difference? Please.

English football is also called Soccer; the ball is round. You aim to kick the ball into a net and can't use your hands. American football has an oval shaped ball: you aim to throw, kick, etc, the ball towards two poles that act as goals.

oh, haha ok I'll change it.

Sorry I wasn't clear earlier on setting. It is in England and they are playing football but it seems you're all better organised than me anyway, haha. Thanks for smoothing that out jok and Scarlett. For those of you unfamiliar with England, feel free to ask any questions in the discussion thread ^^

Also, please remember to read and react to everyone's posts. Ben wrote that Tobias and Chance were dominating the game by cheating and it's fine to have the tide change and have the other team start winning but please react to the fact that Team One were cheating ^^

Tobias

At first the ball spent more time off side than on the pitch and it was hard to keep up with Mr. Reynold's shouting, most of which was being ignored anyway. Tobias started running after the ball and vaguely agreed to be in goal. He didn't actually care what position he played, he just loved the thrill of a game, the feeling of the ground smacking against his feet. Being outdoors. That was where Tobias belonged.

Then of course The Priest had to start his usual sermons. It irritated Tobias. Not the sermons, he understood the importance of those, it was the fact that they had to come during their outside time. But Tobias understood. It was part of his punishment, afterall. He'd done wrong and now he had to atone. After Lisa had been fetched, Tobias was annoyed to find that he'd let in a goal. Hadn't it occured to any of the others that since the goal was empty they should go fill it? Fools.

Because of that, he decided not to bother with the goal anymore and one of the other players took over. Then the real fun begun. Toby had never really understood the rules of football so he just went with the flow. When Chance kicked him the ball, he kicked it back, and anyone who got in their way was shouldered aside. Mr. Reynolds wasn't at all happy about that. He soon decided that none of the goals made by Chance or Tobias counted which left the other side zooming ahead. At that point Toby lost interest in the game. It was rigged! It was dull! It wasn't anything like running wild through the woods with his Sophia.

Disapointed, Toby decided to leave the game to Chance and instead started doing push-ups in the middle of the courtyard. He looked sideways, through the electric fence and longingly at the lovely grass beyond the prison. It was hard not to wish to be on the other side of the fence.

Gabby | Football Pitch:

I stalked off down the pitch, not caring for the game. I was muttering swear words under my breath and ignoring Mr. Reynold when he got close to me. I cast a glance towards Lisa and the Priest-guy, shook my head and turned away, now watching the game. Tobias and Chance were cheating-had been cheating. Tobias was now doing push ups in the middle of the pitch.

I sighed and looked for the boy who had knocked me over. He was at the far end of the field, I didn't know what he was doing and I didn't care. I was bored, and not to mention hurt. I rubbed at my knees again, brushing dirt off them and then blood. I stared at it, remembering how I'd gotten here.

Mr. Reynolds jogged past, glanced at my red fingers, then shrugged and kept going. I shook off the memories of Chris and wiped my hands against my clothes, looking around again. No one was really trying to play anymore. They were just watching as the boys, and some of the girls, scored goals and ran around the field. I noticed that most weren't even out of breath.

I sighed again, kicking at the pitch and wandering towards the sidelines, head lowered and my eyes on my feet. So I didn't see the ball when it came my way and I was knocked off my feet for the second time, hitting the ground hard enough to wind me. I stared up at the person who'd knocked me over, gasping for breathe.

Slowly, I got it back and then even slower, I stood up. And then I started shouting at the person. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I limped towards the edge of the field, yelling over my shoulder. "Bloody idiot, watch it, huh?" Then I paused to take in the person's face. It was the boy from before. I groaned. Great, just perfect. "Watch it next time, will you?" I told him, trying to keep my voice steady and not start shouting again.

Somehow, in the tumble, my top had slipped off my shoulder, showing the world my scar. I quickly pulled it back up, trying not to appear too desperate for him not to have seen it, or if he had seen it, for him not to say anything.

But then he did say it, and I cringed. "What's with the scar?"

I groaned again, not looking at him. I was not going to answer that. I stalked off, going to the far end of the pitch where my team's goalie was. I tried to ignore Mr. Reynolds who was watching me, and the boy who was probably watching me too. It didn't work. When I turn back around in my new position near the goals, I could see him watching. Again, I tried to ignore him.

But then the memory came back, and I stared forward blankly, reliving the moment when I had tried to kill my boyfriend.

Reginald "Reggie/The Priest" Carter

Lisa seemed to be overly frustrated with the quarells of finding a purpose, but she was intelligent. More intelligent than the usual Juvie-bashers that came around here. She'd questioned the religion, the prospect's of God's ignition of evil on the planet and I had no answer. I always doubted a lot about christianity but found the features and perks of being a good Catholic extremely useful in controlling the human mind. Raised by a Catholic mobster and a mob-priest simply meant that my learnings of psychologically deterring someone to your advantage were of an admirable level. Lisa would now become my new project. She'd be the target to control, someone to power my thought processes through and -I knew - if I could crack her... I could crack anyone.

I walked up the pitch and found a little confrontation about a newly found scar on Gabby's rarely revealed shoulder. I was intrigued as much as the next man, but saw no oppurtunities in using this to my own entertainment. Instead, I would become one to confide in - perhaps not religiously at first, but most hopefully soon enough. I walked next to her as she limped along the pitch edge and smiled gratefully.

"You alright, Miss?" I said cheesily. She glared at me dismissively at first, but I knew how I would bring her onside. I turned to Mr. Reynolds and my eyes drooped down on him with an evil birth from below. I stared at him antogonisingly for a moment. Telling him in my very look that these people were the Juvie youth which meant - although you have authority in the light of the world - in the jail, they were mine. Mr. Reynolds reluctantly removed his attention from Gabby and back on to the game that Chance was walking all over.

I turned back to Gabby and smiled once more. "Got rid of your attention, Miss. Now. You alright?"

I greatly apologize, but because of some family things and the piles of homework I get I will not be able to do this SB anymore. I barley have time for the two I run. My apologize, and good luck to all of you in your writing.

Kaywiia: No problem! We'll be sad to see you go but don't worry about it and if at any point you want to join back in, just let me know and we can sort that out

Aiden Omi: Football Pitch

I watched Gabby take a bad fall, though it wasn't quite as bad as the scar on her shoulder. She'd covered it quick enough, but it looked like the Priest had seen it anyway and was talking to her about something. I wondered what he was saying to her. Your fall is a sign from the Almighty. I laughed in my head.

Mr. Reynolds blew his whistle, the half-hour of football had finished, I always forgot what we had next. My team lost. It wasn't fair really, any side that had Kisa and Vivian would win. They were easily the best.

I slowly walked back inside with the others, except of cause the Priest and Gabby. Kisa elbowed me as she walked past, when I tried to retaliate she tripped me up. As she was walking away I said: "You know, we still have to survive in the same cell later." Once again, that finger.

I got myself up and dusted myself down, it was a long day yet. I looked back to Gabby and the Priest once more, and then I followed the others inside.

TIGERSPRITE