The Gravity
When Kelsie walked into the locker room, there was already a lot of shouting. It was not the good, after-game excitement shouting. It was angry shouting. Ruby and Nikki were going at it and it looked like they were about to start shoving each other. Kelsie could not tell what the fight was about but she knew it was up to her to end it. She stepped between the warring factions.
“Hey!” She yelled. “You two need to quit it and cool down. Can you do that for me, please?”
“I was just trying to change and get out of here,” Ruby said. “but she picked a fight with me.”
“You little snitch!” Nikki yelled.
“Whoa,” Kelsie said. “How about you tell me what’s wrong, Nikki? We solve problems together on this team.”
Nikki sighed and backed off of Ruby but she was pacing a little. “If Ruby had passed me the ball in that last quarter, we would have won. Instead, she passed to her girl Bailey and Bailey blew it.”
Kelsie glanced over to see Bailey blush and look down. Kelsie walked over and put a hand on Bailey’s shoulder. “Bailey did not blow it. She tried her best. I bet she gets the next one.”
“Yeah, I will,” Bailey said with a smile that warmed slowly and showed her confidence returning.
“And she’s not just Ruby’s girl,” Kelsie said. “She’s our teammate and so is Ruby and so are you, Nikki. Maybe Ruby didn’t see what you saw. We’ll get better at that through practice. We can only get better together, right?” She looked at Nikki purposefully. It was not a hard look or an unfriendly look but it was an unshakably confident look. Nikki looked down, breaking first and looking ashamed.
“Yes, Captain Kelsie,” Nikki said softly.
“I can’t hear you!” Kelsie yelled with a smile. This was directed at the whole room rather than just picking on Nikki.
“Yes, Captain Kelsie!” The girls in the locker room shouted and that included Nikki.
Kelsie beamed with pride. “Besides, what would our coach do if she saw this? I’ll tell you what she would do. She would make all of us do laps and we already just played a hard game. I don’t want to do laps, do you?”
“Okay Okay,” Nikki said with a groan. “We get it. I won’t fight anymore. I’ll play nice. I’m sorry.”
“Awesome,” Kelsie said. She held out her fist and Nikki touched her fist to it. Nikki sighed and turned to Ruby and held out her fist. The two of them touched fists together. Kelsie liked that but decided not to ruin the moment by pointing it all out. She loved the lacrosse team.
One by one, the team filtered out of the locker room. Kelsie stayed behind to tidy up a bit. Nobody on the team would dare be messy in the locker room but there were a few things to tuck away so the janitor could get everywhere with the mop. After tidying, Kelsie decided to take a shower. The loss of the game was hitting her again and it was hard to remain positive.
As the water ran over her and she breathed in the steam, she replayed the highlights of the game in her head. She thought of how they could have done things differently. She thought of how they could work to improve next practice. That was why Coach Marnie had chosen Kelsie as team captain. She was very passionate but positive about everything she did. She did her best to put a smile on her teammate’s faces and a little extra effort into their performances.
It was so quiet when she got out of the shower. She lived for the roar and rush of the game but sometimes a little quiet was good too. She felt safe there because this locker room was like a second home to her. She grabbed a towel and started to dry as she walked through the locker room. Kelsie loved to take her time after a game. The light rail would come around when she was ready. It was also Friday so homework for Monday was not exactly pressing. For the moment, she had all the time in the world.
“Kelsie Gutierrez!” A voice called out and Kelsie yelped and dropped her towel. he bent down to retrieve it, but she looked around wildly.
“Not funny!” Kelsie yelled. “You can’t do that to a girl in a towel!” She huffed and looked around for which friend had played such a dirty trick. When she came around a group of lockers, a thing that was not a cat was sitting on a bench. Kelsie froze in confusion.
“Sorry for scaring you, Kelsie,” The thing said. “We have need of your positive spirit and unbreakable nerve.”
Kelsie nearly dropped her towel again. “W-what!? How can you be talking? What are you talking about? Aren’t you a little short for a college recruiter?”
“I am recruiting you to save the world,” the thing said. “We need you.”
“Who is we? Who are you?” Kelsie asked.
“I will explain at the meeting,” the thing said. “Bring this charm to the location on the note.” Then the thing dropped a charm and a note and ran out of the locker room, leaving Kelsie with more questions. She grabbed up the charm which turned from blue to purple.”
Tags: Fiction, Gravity, Kelsie, Magical Earth Defenders, Magical Girl
Wolf of Words 
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