Page 26 of Playing By Ear

Or did Heather know he would try for the less obvious direction?

Now he was overthinking it. Lower left it was.

Jamie started forward.

“Wait for the whistle!” Charlotte called out.

“Fuck,” he muttered as he pulled up short of the ball. “Sorry!” He backed up to his starting position, imagining his father laughing at him.

Jamie readied himself again. When the whistle sounded, he took two steps.

Wait, which way had he decided to shoot?

Left, he thought with his third step.

No, right, he thought with his fourth.

Left, he decided as he planted his left foot and swung his right foot forward.

His awkward posture made his boot scuff the floor as it struck the ball. Heather saved his shot easily, moving barely a step to kick it away. Jamie put his head in his hands.

“Let me guess,” Charlotte said. “You changed your mind during your approach.”

“Aye. I’ll do better next time.”

As he rejoined his teammates on the halfway line, they each gave him a back-pat or fist-bump, despite—or maybe because of—his penalty miss.

“It’s okay, Jamie.” Katie Heath, his counterpart at left fullback, slung an arm over his shoulder—an easy feat, as she was six feet tall. “This is why we practice.”

“It’s not like us center-backs’ll do any better,” added Liam Carroll.

“Oi, speak for yourself,” said Liam’s partner, Robert McKenzie.

“Mate, you cannae knock in penalties with your head,” Liam said.

Jamie gave his fellow defenders a grateful smile and tried to keep his chin up. Performance-wise, the only thing worse than making a mistake was beating oneself up about it.

Midfielder Ali Rodgers was next, and they promptly rocketed the ball into the upper left corner.

“Top bins!” Robert shouted.

“Nice one, Ali.” Jamie applauded, doubting he himself would ever manage a top-bins penalty, one unreachable by even the tallest goalkeeper. It was a high-risk, high-reward shot, easy to hit the crossbar or miss the goal entirely.

Upon joining Jamie at the back of the queue, Ali rubbed the corner of their left eye and frowned.

“All right?” Jamie asked them.

“New contact lenses.” Ali blinked rapidly, their dark-green eyes watering. “This sort are better for seeing, but I always know they’re there, floating about on my eyeball like a leaf on a puddle.” They sniffled. “Better get used to them, pronto.”

Shona Redfield scored her penalty with her usual striker’s panache. Jamie and Ali high-fived her when she returned to the queue.

After one date with Perry, Jamie was curious about all things eye-related. “Did you need the new contacts cos your vision’s getting worse?” he asked Ali.

“Aye, just short-sightedness. I’m blind without lenses or glasses.”

Jamie side-eyed them. “But not really, though, right? Like, actually blind in the way actual blind people are blind?”

“Suppose not.” Ali gave him a semi-glare. “Not literally. Sorry.”