Key Player

CHAPTER I
I read in a book once that if you want something bad enough, all you have to do is picture it. Then BOOM, it becomes reality.
I have always been a very good picture-er. After all, I pictured my family and friends buying a motel and running it together. I pictured that business would thrive. Before all that became a reality, when my parents and I first moved from China to California, I pictured that I would master English as a second language.
So it shouldn’t be so hard to picture myself scoring a goal in PE—or at least getting anywhere near the soccer ball. Even now that my family has health insurance and I’m not so afraid of getting hurt, I still can’t help avoiding the ball like it’s radioactive.
Maybe it was all those years of sitting on the sidelines, or the fact that my classmates all had twice the sports equipment I had. (Do you know how expensive shin pads are?!) But when Mr. Antwell said, “All right, kids! We’re going to be doing a soccer unit in honor of the World Cup, which as you know is coming up, and being played right here in LA!” I instinctively looked around for a cooler of ice to bury my head in.
The only cup I was interested in was a cup of jasmine tea, along with
some time to write my next piece for the school newspaper.
But instead, on this scorching hot day, Mr. Antwell marched up to me on the field and yelled, “Mia, what are you doing? This is soccer! You’re walking around the field like it’s a museum!”
“I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I was thinking about a column I’m going to
write!” “Well, think with your feet!” Mr. Antwell cried. “C’mon, picture yourself as Brandi Chastain, dribbling the ball and driving it into the
goal!”
I shook my head. How did I tell Mr. Antwell I couldn’t picture myself as Brandi Chastain? First of all, she looked nothing like me! She had wispy hair the color of glistening sand, while mine was thick and jet-black. Second, even if I did dribble the ball, I’d probably end up kicking it off the metal corner of the goal, have it come flying back at me, and get sent to the emergency room with a concussion. I still remembered the time my mom had to go to the hospital. It was expensive and she had to take days off work. Even with health insurance, none of us could afford time off for a PE head injury.