Page 7 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

Shelly continued without pause, as she often did when Tara corrected her bizarre habit of cursing in a way that wasn’t actually cursing. “You know you couldn’t live without me. You’d have nobody to grumble and barkat.”

Tara didn’t respond. Shelly didn’t know how true her second statement was.Tara didn’t even want to acknowledge it because she didn’t want to have attachments. She didn’t ever want to feel again the pain she’d felt when she lost her parents if something ever happened to Shelly. But the truth was, over the past six years, Shelly had kept Tara from imploding. Though Tara still hadn’t come to a place of acceptance of her parents’ deaths, Shelly had helped her avoid the emotions that threatened to drown her. She was able to lock most of the pain away, and Shelly was an easy distraction. Over time, Shelly had become more than just a distraction. She’d become someone Tara genuinely liked and cared for, even if she was annoying sometimes, most of the time, okay pretty muchalways.

There was a bang on the locker room door, and then they heard Coach’s voice. “Let’s go. This game isn’t going to play itself. Get your butts outhere.”

The noise in the locker room suddenly amped up. Tara could feel her blood pumping through her veins as her heart picked up its pace. She always felt this way before a game. It was like a high, and she loved it. The only feeling that came close to it was when she was out in the wilderness. She’d been camping lots of times over the years with Shelly, and it was through those camping trips that Tara discovered her love of being surrounded by trees, mountains, the smell of the earth, and the sounds of the critters. It wasinvigorating.

“Hey, Thompson, could you please not clobber anyone tonight?” Becca, their sweeper,asked.

“Agreed,” Desiree, the right halfback added. “Let’s not get red-carded in the first half. Though I loath to admit it, you’re a damn amazing forward … when you’re not knocking chicks on theirasses.”

Tara saluted the two girls and then followed Shelly out to the field. She didn’t bother getting in a verbal sparring match. That was Shelly’s thing. Ignore and avoid was Tara’smodus operandi… unless she got pushed too far. Then hermodus operandibecame very handson.

“I don’t know why they have their underwear up their butts. You’ve only been yellow-carded. And the last person to get in a fight during a game was Desiree,” Shelly said as they jogged onto the field to begin their warm-ups.

“She called the girl a cotton-headed ninny muggins, and then the girl slapped her. While I appreciate theElfreference, I don’t think that can properly be considered afight.”

Shelly snorted out a laugh. “Gah, that was hilarious. Although the funniest part was what youdid.”

Tara shook her head. That hadn’t been her finest moment. The other team had been taking cheap shots at them all night, sliding straight at their knees or wrapping their foot around their ankles when the ref wasn’t looking. It had been frustrating to say the least. When Desiree had gotten fed up with it and tried to put one of the other team’s players in her place, well, she’d only gotten embarrassed. You can’t call someone a cotton-headed ninny muggins and not expect to get embarrassed. The fact that she got slapped just added insult to injury. So, Tara, always the exemplification of diplomacy, had walked over to Desiree just after the other girl had slapped her, and promptly slapped her on the other cheek. Desiree had screamed like a banshee, but Tara had simply walked back to her position and continuedplaying.

After the game, which they lost, the coach had given Tara a dressing down in front of Desiree and the rest of the team. When he took a breath to ask why the hell she had slapped Desiree, Tara turned to the other girl and said, “When you act like a whiny bitch, you get slapped like a whiny bitch. Next time either play smarter or fight like you meanit.”

Nope, not her finest moment at all. She’d been forced to run bleachers until she puked. To her credit, Tara didn’t act smug when she noticed Desiree did indeed play a little tougher the followinggame.

“I’ll try to refrain from hitting any of our own players,” Tarasaid.

“It’s noble of you to attempt to show some restraint,” Shelly said in a snooty voice. “But far be it from me to tell you not to hand out a beatdown if the beatdown is the best course of action. And to be fair, Desiree is one of she-who-must-not-be-named’s most faithful followers. It’s not like she hasn’t deserved to be slapped at some point in her cruel life. But if you must endeavor to take the high road, then I shall wave at you from down here on the lowroad.”

Tara shook her head and laughed. “You’re soweird.”

Shelly held up her hand and yelled, “Number one!” The rest of the team cheered, not realizing she was referencing their necklaces. Tara just went with it. It’s pretty much all you could do when dealing with ShellySmith.

Chapter 4

Are you all right?” Shellyasked.

Tara saw several concerned faces looking down at her. She rose quickly and brushed herself off, causing the crowd of players, the referees, and her coach to stepback.

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?” She cocked an eyebrow at Shelly, who was the other forward on theteam.

“You just rammed heads with the other team’s sweeper. She’s bleeding all over theplace.”

“Oh, at least it wasn’t one of our players. Still kept my promise.”Tara looked and saw another small crowd of people a few yards away, which consisted of the opposing team’s coaches, players, and athletic staff. They were crouching around a figure moaning and writhing on theground.

Tara rubbed her head, despite the fact that there was no pain and knew there would be no cut, bruise, or scratch.“Guess she got the worst of it.” Tara shrugged and began jogging back to her place on the field at the forward’s position. Once again she was going to have to figure out a way to get Shelly off her back aboutit.

“Thompson,” yelled her coach. “Get backhere.”

Tara gritted her teeth before jogging over to him. She raised her eyebrows and gave him her best irritated teen face. Because shewasan irritated teen. “Yes, Coach?” sheasked.

“Let me see that head.” He put both hands on each side of her head and peered down at it, narrowing his eyes. “You don’t even have a mark. Do you feel dizzy? Any doublevision?”

“Nope. I’m good. Carol always says my head is as hard as a lead pipe. Guess she wasn’t wrong. Like I said, Coach Jones, that other girl must have gotten the worst of it.” Tara shrugged, hoping he would just drop it and let her get on with thegame.

“Well, that’s obvious,” he said. They both glanced over to where the opposing player was being helped off the field on shaky legs. The spectators began to clap as they eased her past the sidelines and back toward the visitors’ locker room. A trainer was holding a towel on the girl’s brow, trying mostly unsuccessfully to stem the bleeding. “Still, I’d be shocked if you didn’t at least have a mild concussion. Hit the sidelines. Let the trainer check youout.”

“Coach…” She practically growled. “You can’t do this to me. It’s the last game. Who cares if I have a concussion if it’s the last game?” The teams were tied 1-1. If they won, the Buffalo Lady Bisons would make the playoffs … for the first time since … ever. And no offense to anyone else on the team, but Tara was the best forward they had. Not to mention it was her senior year. This was her final chance to play the sport she loved. She wasn’t good enough to go pro, and her grades weren’t good enough to get her into a school even with a soccer scholarship, so this was it for her. Not to mention her attitude left much to bedesired.

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