Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

We lose the scrimmage.

Turns out The Nemesis really is the best goalie I've ever seen. No one was able to score on him, and the other team got two balls past Frank. Still, it was a ton of fun, and our team spirit is high. I'm grinning ear to ear as I break off from the group and walk back towards the car. I drop my bag on the pavement by the trunk as I prep to unlock the car and pull off my cleats.

Someone calls my name, and I turn to see Luko jogging over with his soccer bag slung across his chest.

"Hey, we're heading to the beach down the street to cool off. Might grab some food after. Want to come?"

"Oh, I…" cannot think of a good excuse why I can't. "Who's going?"

"All of us, the whole team. You'll be the odd one out if you don't come," he says.

"Odd one out" is a phrase that will get me every time. Besides, what am I going to do at home? Paint and sketch? I'm not on a deadline. And spending time with this group might mean I can actually make friends with decent people.

"Yeah, okay. I can meet you there."

"Parking may be tough since it's the weekend and all. Want to hop in with us in my car?"

"Let's do it."

Anisha waves to us as she gets in the passenger side of Luko's military-green 4Runner, which looks like it's seen a dirt road recently. I slide in behind her while Luko throws our bags in the trunk.

"I'm excited to have you on the team. You were awesome today," Anisha says, turning in her seat to talk to me. "This season is going to be so fun."

Cole slides in next to me, and Luko rubs a towel over his sweaty hair before getting in the driver's seat.

I grin at her enthusiasm. "You guys play together really well."

"Sometimes my husband Mick subs in and plays with us. He's a helicopter pilot, but he's deployed right now."

"Oh," I say, not quite knowing what to add. I'm sorry? That's too bad? Right on? Cool? What's the proper response to something like that?

"This is him," says Anisha. I gasp as she shows me the lock screen of her phone. It's a beautiful picture of the two of them in red and gold Hindi wedding attire. Mick looks like he descended from the highlands of Scotland, tall and brawny with a curling thatch of red hair cut to military regulations. He's at least a foot taller than Anisha, but he's looking down at her with nothing but desire in his eyes. They're physical opposites and clearly in love.

"That is a gorgeous photo," I say.

"Isn't it?" Anisha says, smiling down at it. "Anyways, so excited to have you this season. You're faster and better than Leslie was, no offense to her, so we're going to kick butt this time around," says Anisha. "And our team name is going to be the Goal Diggers."

"Welcome to the team," says Luko. "She's a little competitive." He points a thumb towards Anisha.

She rolls her eyes. "Look, if we happen to win the championship after multiple seasons of trying, I won't be mad. We have a shot, right?"

Luko nods, checking the rearview mirror as he backs up. "I'd say we have a shot. For all the glory and the fame."

"It's just rec soccer," I say with a laugh.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Anisha says, sitting up tall and turning to address the car. "Listen up, you all. Mick has been floating on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the ocean for months on end. All he dreams about is getting to play soccer on a green grass field again, he lives for my soccer updates, and it's my personal mission to win this championship for him. At the very least, we're going to make this an interesting season. I don't care what we have to do. This deployment has been way too long, and this is my last resort for entertainment. We're winning. End of story."

She's like a little Napoleon, rallying her troops for the glory of winning. I'm inspired to want this for her—and for her husband. I can't imagine not getting to play soccer for months on end.

"What do you say, Tia?" Cole asks.

"You bet we're going to win," I say, holding up my fist. He rewards me with a fist bump and a cute little grin.

The whole team hot-steps it across the burning sand, then surprises me by dashing straight into the waves. Everyone dumps their duffel bags and shirts at the edge of the tide, including the girls, so I join in, running into the ocean in my shorts and sports bra.

Only to scream in shock. "It's freezing, you psychos! What are you thinking?"

No one hears me over the waves. I retreat to where the water is only brushing over my feet and cross my arms over my chest. I'll never get over the shocking cold of the Pacific. It always looks so sparkling and inviting on a warm summer day, making me forget the temperature is the same as barely-melted ice.

Luko's tattooed chest and Cole's thick, defined muscles are on full display as they body-slam each other into the water. I look away before my long glance can be classified as staring. Sarah and Anisha are practically mermaids, and Frank and Denny are already swimming out past the waves. Everyone seems so carefree. I'm sure they all have stuff going on in their lives, like Anisha's husband being deployed, but that doesn't stop them from having fun. It's been so long since I played like I was a kid. Life was so uptight in D.C., and there was so much judgment in my circle. Maybe I just had bad friends.

The girls wave to me, motioning for me to come in farther, but I stay where I am, shivering just thinking about diving deeper into the ocean. As I think about grabbing my shirt and taking a seat in the warm sand, watching to see who's the first to come out with goosebumps and chattering teeth, I hear my name being chanted.

"Tia! Tia! Tia!"

Everyone has waded back to about hip deep, their backs to the waves. They're all looking at me, motioning for me to get in with them.

"I'm going to get hypothermia!"

"Cole will take care of you," Luko shouts back.

"C'mon, it's the best," Sarah coaxes.

"Lunch is on me if you come all the way in with us," Denny says.

"This is a team event," says Anisha. "Call it initiation."

New city, new friends, new courage, new me. Why hold back now? I dive in to the cheers of my teammates.

Yes, the water's cold, but I forgot how much I love hanging out in the waves. I float with the girls, then Sarah and I bodysurf for a bit. The power of the waves and the woosh of water coming over my head and propelling me to shore brings back fun memories of doing the same with Julio.

Frank and Sarah get out first and dry off to do the food run for us. When we see them pulling a wagon full of lunch, drinks, and towels across the sand, we all make our way out of the waves, shivering and shaking our limbs.

Sarah tosses me a California burrito and a can of Coke as I sit on a borrowed towel, letting my skin slowly defrost in the hot sun and sand. I take one bite and groan with deep satisfaction. Tortilla, French fries, guacamole, carne asada, sour cream, cotija cheese—an amazing San Diego specialty.

"So good," I murmur to no one as my shoulders melt with happiness.

Luko snags an entire tray of carne asada fries and takes a seat on a towel next to me. Before he takes a bite, I quickly ask, "Hey, can you confirm a suspicion for me? Is Cole a Marine? I'm just curious."

"What are you guys talking about?" Cole asks from behind me, making me jump.

"She asked if you were a Marine," Luko volunteers. Thanks, buddy.

"Why, do I look like one?" Cole's face lights up as if it's a compliment. "I'm actually Navy, I work with the Marines as a corpsman."

"I'm not totally military illiterate, but what's a corpsman?" I ask.

"Oh, I'm like a medic for the Marines. I'm there for anything from heat casualties, to blisters, to actual battlefield injuries. Not that I've been in combat or anything. I mostly deal with dumb Marines doing dumb things and getting hurt. Or thinking they have brain cancer because they only drink Red Bull and pre-workout and get super dehydrated. Love them to death, but yeah, not always the brightest bunch."

Denny walks over and joins our circle of towels. I take in the sum of them, realizing they all have pretty trim haircuts. Luko's hair is the longest on top, followed by Denny, then Cole's is the shortest by far. He looks like he recently got a haircut too, with how crisp the lines are. Am I staring at his fade? I shift to looking at the sand.

"Are you all military?" I ask.

Luko nods and finishes his bite before he answers. "We're all in the Navy."

"Do you not like guys in the military?" asks Denny. "I know we get a bad rap because of the bad apples."

"Oh, no, I have nothing against people in the military. I was just curious, that's all."

They're nice and attractive guys in their own ways, but the fact they're all in the Navy will make it easy to keep things on a friendly/teammate level. Based on the little I know about it from pop culture and books and a few military influencers I've stumbled across on Instagram, the military life is not for me, what with the constant moving and going on deployments and the service member going into harm's way. Cole's the only one who's really my type anyway, and he has a girlfriend.

"Are you from around here?" asks Cole.

I shake my head. "I have family here. I'm from L.A. originally, but I'm on Crown Island now. What do you two do in the Navy?" I ask, pointing to Luko and Denny. It's not like I'm dying to know, but I don't love being in the conversational spotlight.

"I'm a SWO—a surface warfare officer," says Denny. "I work on a ship out of 32 nd Street, the Navy base on this side of the bridge."

"Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson cuts into the conversation, ringing out from a phone somewhere. I didn't know people still did ringtones and left their phones on full volume. Denny's bright animated expression vanishes. He dashes to his stuff, grabs his phone, then shows the screen to Luko and Cole, and even I can see it reads "Ellis."

"Dude," says Luko, shaking his head in disapproval. "She's not calling to beg to get back together."

"It's probably a pocket dial, but you never know," says Cole. "You do you."

"I'm gonna go take this," Denny mutters as he heads off towards the parking lot.

"I know how this is going to go," Cole says with a sigh. "I'd better secure his food so the seagulls don't get it." He wanders over to Frank and Sarah's wagon and sunshade to see about storing Denny's fries.

"What about you, Luko?" I ask.

"I fly helicopters out of North Island."

"Oh, cool. I always see Navy helicopters flying overhead when I'm walking along the beach."

"Nice," Luko says with a nod. "I fly Sierras, the kind with the diagonal wheel way at the end of the tail."

The vibration of a phone catches my attention, and I reach over to dig mine out of my bag. There's a group text from Frank with all of our numbers and names in it.

Frank

Here's the team, Goal Diggers. Cheers to the season.

Anisha

We gonna win the championship! Let's go!!!

Sarah

When's the first team hang?

"You all know we're sitting right here?" says Cole, with a laugh as he comes back with his phone in hand.

Frank

Can we still text you injury photos for you to triage? Like next time my toenail is looking bad?

I grin as I set my phone to the side. I like these people.

"What do you do, Tia?" asks Luko.

Thankfully he asks me mid-bite, so I have a second to figure out what to say. My stomach sinks as I think about how to best answer that. I mean, I should answer honestly, but suddenly it sounds so lame and oddly…irresponsible? Like it's not something a real adult would say. But I have to own my choices.

"I work at a coffee shop, and I paint on the side. Like art painting, not house painting."

"Oh, for real?" says Cole. "What do you paint?"

Sometimes people surprise me with their interest in art. I would not have pegged these Navy guys as art enthusiasts. "I really like nightscapes. The moon reflecting on the bay, or like a row of boats with one that has interior lights on. Anything like that."

"Nice."

Frank tosses a football straight at Luko's stomach, which kicks off the guys playing two-on-two football while Sarah and Anisha and I hang out and talk. I learn that Sarah works as a classroom aide at an elementary school and Anisha does freelance graphic design. We bond over a mutual love for Jane Austen and the whole team ends up staying on the beach for hours, the time passing in the lazy, comfortable way it does in summertime.

I'm driving home as the sun is setting, and I realize that after just two weeks here I now feel settled. I'm here, established, now it's time to level up. I'll start work at Cafe 22 tomorrow, start learning how to paint portraits, and play my heart out to get the Goal Diggers on the road to the championship. Here I go.