Queen Hockey

Queen Hockey

The left side of the bleachers roared to life in reaction as the clump of girls dispersing after a loud thump had sounded. Number twenty-nine swooped down low, into the coverage of the cage, picking up the ball that she had just hit hard against the base. Once she reemerged, her blue jersey standing out from the opposing teams orange one. A group of three girls came over and jumped on her, a victory group hug. Their team was now up by two points, with about a minute left in the game, and there was no way the opposing oranges would ever be able to catch up.

Twenty-nine, Charlotte, set the ball down in the center of the field, her teeth incredibly visible through her diminutive smirk. Her skills were great, however in her position, she was not given many opportunities to shoot the ball, causing her to not be ‘the best player’. And of course, not being the ‘best player’ meant not being the team captain, even if she did in fact have more qualifications for the position.

The actual captains were Morgan and Lindsey. Lindsey, a sweet defender who had helped assist the goalie more than you could count with fingers and toes. She wasn’t bossy, and actually deserved the title of co-captain. However, her partner, Morgan, could probably care less about the team as a whole. Morgan, the center forward, always had been for the team, making her the best shot. Every season she would be the outlier, her stats doubling from the team’s average. Morgan thought she was all high and mighty, who wouldn’t when they were given the opportunities? But the truth was that majority of the team were all the same level, all starting and dedicating the same amount of time.Because of her prominence and impact, she was given the title. In the beginning,  she was down to earth and acted as part of the team, just as compassionate as Lindsey. However, she took advantage of her power and had a negative change, and two weeks ago she decided to be her worse self.

It was at the fourth practice since the votes were tallied and captains were announced. The evolution of Morgan’s attitude was definitely subtle and, actually completely unnoticed until this specific practice. At the time, their coach was off averting her attention to a girl who had just fallen funny during a tricky footwork drill. Lindsey was planning a new activity with Morgan who let out a low grunt. “I can’t believe she really missed that step. It’s not that hard walking with a little skip, sideways,” she complained, popping her hip out and crossing her arms. Charlotte was included in the group circle and raised her eyebrows at Morgan. “She’s new, cut her some slack,” she responded, defending the girl. They all turned around to look at the girl who was on the floor rubbing at her knee. Lindsey simply nodded, not wanting to say something incorrect.

Morgan just snickered. “Wow, great idea, Char. I bet you would just love it if we cut her some slack,” she countered, putting an emphasis on ‘love’. “And I bet you would also just be so appreciative if we cut you some slack. You definitely need it.”

Charlotte swallowed, taken aback and stared at her. “Come on Morgan, lets go set up the cones,”  Lindsey suggested, pushing Morgan away from the group and giving Charlotte a sympathetic look. It was obvious that the remark boiled Charlotte’s blood. She played like she was in a slump the whole rest of practice, missing receives, having hits that stopped halfway, and her running turned into walking quicker than usual.

That night, Charlotte knew what she had to do to prove Morgan wrong, to show she was just as great as her, that she could have easily been a captain too. In fact, she needed to prove that Morgan wasn’t actually as high and mighty as she believed to be. At the next practice, along with the following ones, it was evident that Charlotte was working past her limits to improve her skills leading up to the final tournament. “Wow,” Morgan said walking over to Charlotte, it was a few days before the tournament now. “I bet you really think you can score a goal at the Clever Fest” the top corner of her lip twitching up ever so slightly. “I’ll tell you what,” Charlotte began, and ended up making a deal with Morgan that she could definitely score a goal, in fact, the winning goal. And if she did accomplish it, Morgan was to resign from her position as captain, proving she actually wasn’t being controlled by the label.

And here they were now. The last thirty seconds in the final game of the day, and Charlotte had followed through on her bet.  When the buzzer alarmed, Charlotte jumped in the air, her team from the bench running off, girls in all corners of the field racing into a group hug, celebrating. Everyone but Morgan. She was taking her sweet time walking over to the center. Her usual smirk was actually gone, replaced with a slight frown that continued to twitch. A wave of guilt, heavier than the emotions she felt when she first got accused of failing the standards, ran through her and she detached from the hug and pulled Morgan in. “If it makes it better, you can still be the captain. I don’t care that much. I just wanted to prove myself.” Charlotte said back slightly telling the truth and slightly lying.

Morgan’s grin resurrected, and she gave sympathetic eyes to Charlotte. “Really? That’s so awesome,” she replied astonished slightly.  Charlotte smiled then quickly shrugged it off when she felt even more bodies pressing against her, pride was spilling from her smile.

Analysis:

For my flash fiction assignment I wrote a story based on something that I’m very familiar with, field hockey. My original topic was how power corrupts the beholder, which I did have some issues with because I haven’t really experienced a situation where someone who is a part of the team acts completely different, so I was also able to incorporate how important the value of work is as well.

I chose these two topics for one story because I feel like they really do go hand in hand. Although it’s not completely demonstrated like this in the book, I believe that one an individual has sudden change in character due to being chosen a position, that someone else is going to feel less worthy and perhaps try to work harder to prove that they are just as good, or even better.

Contrary to my belief, I feel like Solzhenitsyn sort of shows the irony that although people may begin to act differently than once before, the people who notice won’t always speak out. For example, when the cooks in the mess hall take advantage of specific prisoners and no one really spoke out, nor did it motivate anyone to try and work harder to get the same opportunity.

However, I agree with the author because in One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Shukov seems to work hard to prove something to himself. This specific event can be reflected in the last page of the book where he’s reflecting on how his day had more of a positive toll because he was able to push through. “Nothing had spoiled the day and it had been almost happy” (144). Shukov’s reaction to how his day was actually pretty nice because he put energy into his work is sort of that similar feeling that I tried to make Charlotte feel when she accomplished the bet she had proposed.

I think for this assignment, we were really able to connect with something that we were close to but it was more enjoyable to be able to stretch the truth. Although we were able to give it some twists though, it was sort of hard to express a theme in one thousand words, so I appreciate Solzhenitsyn more for being able to have so many in just one book that takes place in one day.