Page 15 of August
“I know. It’s okay,” she replied, offering him a motherly smile.
It was true, though: she didn’t exactly have other, more important things to do. Her kids were the most important things in her life, so dropping them off at college would always be more important than anything else she had on her schedule. She’d been happy to find out earlier that summer that they were leaving on different days, so she would be able to drop them both off and enjoy her time with them on this next life step they were about to take.
“Mom?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s going to be weird,” Archie said.
“What is?”
“Being without Adele.”
She rubbed his back and asked, “Being away from her, you mean?”
“Yeah. Can you not tell her I said that, though?”
“Sure, honey,” she replied with a little laugh.
“It’s just that we’ve always kind of been together. We had different activities and stuff, yeah, but we’ve always gone to the same school and had a lot of the same classes besides her nerdy AP things. We’ll be far away now, and it’s weird.”
“I’m sure she’s feeling the same way, Arch.”
“No, she’s not. Adele is, like, perfect.” He took a step forward, and Elisa joined him. “She’s, like, a super genius and an athlete, all in one. She could’ve easily gotten a scholarship for tennis; she just didn’t want to play anymore. And she likes all the extra things at school. I was struggling to keep up on top of having soccer.”
“Honey, you’re playing soccer in college. That’s a big deal. You had to put a lot of time and effort into it these past four years.”
“Yeah, but I only made it to a Division-II school. That’s not a big deal. I didn’t get any D-I offers. And my school is so lame; we’re not even practicing yet. We should’ve started a month ago, but they don’t want us there until right before school starts because they haven’t found a new coach yet.”
“I know it may be weird, but it’s their season, so they make the rules,” she replied, still not understanding anything about soccer despite the fact that she had been watching her son play since he was four years old. “You’ve got an athletic scholarship, though, and if you do well here and you want to transfer to another school after this year, maybe you’ll be in the position to do that,” she suggested, having no idea how that worked and worrying she shouldn’t have said anything.
“If they don’t want me now, why would they want me then?”
“Arch, maybe they just need to see you at the collegiate level, kicking some soccer butt.”
“Mom, you don’t kick soccer butt. What does that even mean?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they just need to see you scoring more goals at that level.”
“I’m a right back.”
“Okay.”
“That’s defense, Mom,” he said as he rolled his eyes at her.
“I know that.”
Elisadidknow that, but whenever there were those corner kick things, he was always in the goal box thingy with all the other players, so she assumed they’d expect him to score some goals, and he had only scored one penalty kick for the team his senior year.
“Your high school was small, honey. It’s not like there were scouts there all the time. The few that showed up to your games were interested.”
“Two D-I scouts were there this year, and I didn’t get a scholarship to either school.”
“I thought you said they didn’t need any players in your position. It’s not just about how good you are, Arch. It’s about what they need, too.”
“Yeah, I know. I just want to play soccer, Mom. I know Adele doesn’t care. She played tennis because it was an activity and looked good. I play soccer because I love it.”
“I know, honey,” she replied as they moved up another spot in line.
