Priorities, Goals, Confidence

I glanced back in shock, followed by a sense of horror as I noticed Tea’s unmoving form stubbornly still in the area that we’d been resting.

Sprinting back towards her and doing a quick inspection, I breathed a sigh of relief as my best friend was only asleep, somehow.

Leave it to Tea of all people to manage this.

I quickly shook her awake despite her complaints and dragged her over to the rest of the team, fortunately quick enough to avoid any notice of her lateness.

She was far from the only one who looked dead on her feet after all.

It seemed that only Tillie, myself, and a select few others were raring to go, and a vast majority of the team was beyond ready to call it a day.

It only heightened my respect for coach, however, when she managed to get the others involved with their full attention only seconds later.

While my motivation to win our upcoming game was particularly potent, I knew the others wanted it badly as well, even if one of my reasons wasn’t entirely the same.

Liam would be attending the game.

I knew that for certain, as we’d talked about it in one of our dozens of conversation topics from the evening before that we’d spent studying together for the start of the term.

It was just the two of us in the library yesterday, since Tea hadn’t wanted to ‘waste her opportunity to meet him’, whatever that meant.

Part of me was beyond excited that he would be attending, if not just because it meant he was showing an interest.

But another part of me was a little worried about his work, since it reminded me that the last game he attended had borne no fruits for his efforts, given nothing was posted as a result.

There were other games happening tomorrow, and as much as I wanted him to go to mine, I didn’t want him to be hindered by me.

I’d even told him as much the day before, but he’d brushed it off, saying it wouldn’t be an issue.

He didn’t elaborate, and most of me wanted to trust that he had a plan and was certain in his statement, but the doubt and worries had started to creep in.

Either way, as the practice resumed in earnest, I was reminded that none of that mattered now.

My job, my sole job, was to win.

Not only the team winning, but also my individual performance.

And on top of all of that, there was something I wanted.

It wasn’t my job, but I wanted to play so well that his story practically wrote itself.

So in that order, I had my priorities, I had my goals, and I felt as confident as ever.