Page 104 of Redeeming Heart

Our goal was to change that.

I turned my head when Isabelle sat down next to me after making sure the team was fine.

“This must be overwhelming for you.” She noted.

I nodded. “Yeah, my mom would have been proud.”

My mom always believed that I would get this far. She had faith in me even when I doubted myself.

“She is proud of you. Her spirit follows you around and I can imagine her cheering you on every single moment.” Isabelle remarked.

No doubt. “Why did you give us a chance?” I asked.

“I was aware of your ambition and set of skills. When I saw you for the first time since your mom passed away, I saw so much of her in you. I always believed she was passionate about making a difference until I saw you. You have something burning inside of you that is going to take you far in life and I want to be part of it.”

“For so long the sports has always been about the boys and people always draw their focus on them. Believing that girls are not as fast as boys or prone to get injured because we are weak. They started to forget about the things we have to go through in life on a daily basis. Can take a punch without a tantrum and when we strike back it will be remembered forever because we do it with class. They expect us to be divas out there, pulling each other’s hair and scratching each other’s eyes out, but we are the complete opposite.”

“This year is going to be the year of the girls who will be remembered as the championships and we are going to make sure we end up on the front page of the morning newspaper.”

“How was my mom when she used to be my age?” I asked.

“She had a tough skin. Didn’t let the sound of the doubting crowd get to her. Proved people wrong when they doubted her ability to play when they learned about her condition. She never let people get away with inappropriate comments.” Isabelle explained, shaking her head slightly as she sat back in her seat.

“We called her a rebel because that is exactly who she was.”

Thinking of my mom being rebellious kind of motivated me.

People always compared us to each other whenever they learned I am her daughter. I followed in her footsteps—not because she forced me, but because I made that decision all on my own. One day while there were try-outs at our primary school I decided to try out and found out I was really good and I loved the rush.

I went home and shared the news with my parents and that’s when I learned about my mother’s past of being one of the greatest female hockey players of her time.

The world started judging her believing she was forcing me to become like her, but they didn’t know. They made up their minds about her and being the person she was, it didn’t matter what they thought because they thought wrong.

I wasn’t living her dream. I was living mine.

Her dream wasn’t to become the best hockey player. Hers was living each day as if it was her last and doing everything she could before her illness ran its course. The outside world won’t understand because they didn’t understand or cared enough to learn.

CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR

Fear was something I had to overcome.

I had to learn to embrace it and get over this obstacle of doubt.

For the following weeks, it has been tough being the underdogs and getting booed during every single match we had so far.

We stood with our heads bowed waiting for the signal to go out, feeling tired and mostly demotivated from all the hate we got.

Today was the last chance to knock the other team out of second place so that we can go through to the finals, but the faith in our hearts was slowly being chewed on by doubt. Since day one we had a crowd who kept booing us whenever we went out on the field. They kept showing their distaste for us and mostly me whenever I got the ball.

“Before we go out there, let me begin by thanking everyone who convinced me to join the team. I haven’t had this much fun since I lost my mom. I forgot what it felt like to have family and people at my side. I don’t care about any of the doubtful minds out there because they don’t know us like we know each other.” I began breaking the tenacious silence.

“I know it hasn’t been easy and it demotivates us from our goal. I was also aware that they are doing it because of me. I will stand aside and let you play if that is what you want.” I was a fighter, but I knew when it was time to lower my sword and accept defeat.

“We are not a team without you,” Nicole said raising her head.

“You believe in us and we believe in you. The power and strength of this team made us who we are. So, what if we are outcasts to the rest of the world. People who win gold medals aren’t everyone’s favorites.”

“Yeah, it has been tough, but we have each other and we will get this through as a team. That’s just who we are.” Tammy spoke up.

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