When Katie came back to the room, she did not take notice of the look on Melanie's face and she asked reflexively "So, did you talk to your mom?" As she said this, she finally did make eye contact with Melanie and immediately saw that there was a problem. "Melanie, what is it?"
"Mom and Susan have broken up. Susan's moved out of the house."
"Oh my God. What happened?"
"Well, you know that Susan has been babysitting this brand-new lawyer at the firm where she works. She is supposedly going to be some hot shot attorney. But this chick has been freaking out about whether she would even pass the Bar Exam. She's a real Hermione Granger type. Stresses about the test and then gets an "A." Well, she was like that on steroids. At our last home game Susan didn't even come into the stadium because she was on the phone with this chick who was freaking out."
"So, the Bar Exam results came out yesterday morning and of course she passed. And everyone from the firm went out to celebrate. And she told my mom she was going and that she might be a while as the firm had given her and this Kelly girl today off as part of the celebration. So anyway, it gets really late, and mom starts calling and she gets no answer. And now it's like well past midnight and mom starts freaking out. She's calling local hospitals to see if any unidentified person had been brought in and she calls the local police to see how long she has to wait to file a missing person report."
"She finally just falls asleep from exhaustion on the couch. Then this morning, first thing, she's still on the couch and there's a phone call from Susan's office and voicemail picks up before she can get it. And the person says how Susan and Kelly had left the party so early and how she had left her phone at the bar and how this person had picked it up and that she knew Susan did not have to come into the office today but if she wanted to come get her phone she could. And then, here's the kicker. She said, 'Or maybe you can have Kelly come get it for you. She seemed pretty willing to do anything you wanted her to do last night.'"
"Well, about 5 minutes after that call, Susan finally comes into the house doing the walk of shame. So, there was a lot of yelling and crying and Susan took a bunch of clothes and stuff and left. They're going to have to work something out to get the rest of her stuff, but it seems like they are done."
Katie asked, "So how's your mom taking it?"
"She's kind of broken up about it. I know I've wanted Susan gone but I never really thought about how that was going to affect my mom. Now that it's actually happened, I feel a little bad about it too."
"Are you gonna go home?"
"No. I did offer. It would have been tough with Thanksgiving tomorrow and I don't know what Coach would have said this time. But my mom wouldn't hear of it. She was already planning to go with Susan to my grandparents' house for the holiday anyway. She did get some additional time off from work as well. She has a room with the booster club at a hotel in case we make the Final Four. She said she would come if we make the Championship Game."
Although the next day was Thanksgiving, the soccer team was not going home as they now had a game on Saturday night. The cafeteria was closed and so Coach Quincannon arranged a potluck dinner for the team. Not surprisingly, when it was over and everyone was going home, Coach Hochbauer was going to look at film. "If they can beat a number two seeded team, they can beat a number three seeded team."
Saturday night that did seem to be coming true as they found themselves down 0-1 at halftime. But Coach Quincannon's halftime speech was all fire and brimstone, and it lit a fire under the team. They went on to cruise to a 3-1 win. Melanie had a goal and Neve Cohill has two. Katie had assisted on all three. The clock had struck midnight for the seventh seeded Cinderella.
For the Regional Final, Coach Hochbauer noticed the other team was stacking their defense toward Melanie's side. So, she had Katie and Melanie stay wider and let Michelle and Neve run some two man games up the right side for another easy victory and a trip to the Women's Soccer Final Four.
For the Final Four all the games were to be held at one stadium over a long weekend. The girls had the semi-final game Saturday evening and if they won, the Championship Game would be on Monday night. The other remaining teams had been the number one seeds in their respective regions, so they were now the underdogs.
The Booster Club had paid for a whole floor at a local hotel and parents and family easily filled up the rooms. Carol Rogers was there with her Jersey and her Thundersticks and her cowbell. Jen Smith had paid for a room, but it was empty at the moment. She stayed at her parents' home still dealing with her break up with Susan McPherson, her live-in partner of over four years.
The semifinal game was rough. They had no one that could match Melanie's speed and so the defenders grabbed her, pulled her, and even knocked her down. She felt compelled to remind Katie that she could not afford to get a yellow card as she could see anger building in her eyes.
Melanie had faced this her entire soccer career and she had learned a trick or two. Midway through the second half, when a defender went to reach for her, she ducked out of the way. The defender, grasping air instead of a body, overbalanced and fell to the turf. This left Melanie open for a pass from Neve which she put home for a goal.
That would have been enough for the win but about ten minutes later, Neve made a triple move, got her defender to spin the wrong way and then cut inside and blasted a shot into the high far corner for a 0-2 win and a date for the finals.
Jen Smith was flying in Monday afternoon for the game that night. Since the location was such that Carol Rogers had driven herself to the site, she agreed to pick Jen up from the airport.
They met at the baggage claim with big smiles and a chaste hug. The whole conversation on the ride to the hotel was about the semifinal game and how exciting that had been and the girls' chances for the finals. There was no mention of Jen's recent domestic turmoil.
When they got to the parking lot, Carol turned off the engine but stayed in the car. She turned to Jen and said, "Look Jen, I may be the last person you want to talk to right now, so all I am going to say is that if you do want to talk to me, you know you can."
"Thanks Carol. But right now, I just want to get up to my room and get ready for the game." They got out of the car and entered the hotel. They crossed to the elevators and went to the floor where they both had their rooms, courtesy of the Booster Club.
As they exited, their rooms were in opposite directions, so they began walking to their respective rooms. After a few steps, Carol turned and said, "Kind of like old times Jen."
"Yeah Carol. I guess it is."
"I think I am going to go put Katie's number on my cheeks. There's a bus that will take us over to the stadium that should be leaving in about an hour. See you then." And with that Carol turned and went to her room.
An hour later when Jen came down to the lobby, she saw that Carol had in fact painted Katie's number on her cheeks. Jen was relieved that she would not be the only person who had her daughter's number on her cheeks. They sat next to each other on the bus and talked about all the soccer the girls had played in the Blue Lightning days. They laughed and had a great time as they arrived at the stadium.
Once inside they sat together and continued where they had left off on the bus. When the girls came out, Carol smacked her Thundersticks and Jen rang Carol's cowbell. When their daughters looked up, they showed them the numbers on their cheeks and gave them a cheer. As usual, Melanie smiled broadly, and Katie tried to pretend she had no idea who the loud redheaded woman with the number 20 painted on her face was.
Right from the opening kick, Katie realized this team was fast. She had to play back to help the defense so much that they never really mounted any offense. A few times Katie boomed the ball out down the sidelines just to get it out of their defensive third. Some fast runs by Melanie and Neve turned those into a little something. But the other team's defense was always back enough to cut off any scoring chances and most of the first half was played in their own end.
The Coaches made some adjustments at halftime and the second half was better. But they still played a lot of the second half on defense, and it just seemed like it was only a matter of time. But Jo was a rock on the back line, and she always seemed to be where she needed to be to make sure that there were no uncontested shots. At the end of regulation, the score remained 0-0.