“Hey Dame, you coming or what?” Leon said impatiently.

“Give me a minute, my binder won’t fit in my bag,” Damian responded. His best friend Leon was waiting at the door eager to get out to the field. Damian checked his watch, 3:02 he had just about two hours until what was shaping up to be the biggest game in East Lake High football history. 

“Took you long enough,” Leon snarked as Dame finally reached the door. The two began to stroll down the hall conversing with each other about the soon-to-be game of their lives. Not only was it the championship game, but it happened to be against their biggest rivals, West Lake. Year after year East Lake got downright embarrassed by this powerhouse of a high school, this year felt no different. West Lake had two five-star recruits, while East Lake didn’t have a single player who was even ranked. It felt like a mistake for East Lake to be in the championship game in the first place.  They’d barely snuck by the prior rounds due to injuries the opposite team had to face.  Now matched up against a fully healthy D1 player machine of a high school, it seemed like their luck was destined to run out.

The field area was filled with talk about the upcoming game, it was at home so everyone and their brother was gonna be there. Damian and Leon were just about to make their way to the locker room when they heard the sound of mischievous laughter inching closer.

“Look at these losers, ready to ride the bench, little man?”  one of the boys said laughing. It was a group of West Lake’s top players who had come to the game early, most likely to scout out the competition. Their school got out an hour earlier than East Lake, putting them at even more of an advantage. 

“Just ignore them,” Leon reassured Damian, trying his best to be a good friend. 

“Yeah that's right, listen to your boyfriend, ignore us haha,” The biggest one cackled. Dame’s blood boiled, he could feel his teeth scraping together like chalk on a whiteboard. Dame made a move forward, unable to keep his anger on the inside. Fortunately, Leon knew his best friend well and was one step ahead of him, able to hold Leon back before he did anything he would regret. 

“Watchu gonna do little man, pinch me hahah?” Laughter once more erupted from the mouth of the big guy, spreading like wildfire to his little minions. 

“Just you wait!,” Leon announced, “Let's see if you can put your game where your mouth is!” The group’s laughter immediately fizzled out. 

“Oh we’ll see all right,” number 12 stated confidently. Not only was he their best player, but he was the number-one-ranked player in the Nation. It didn’t matter where you were from, if you were a high school football player you knew the name Tommy Clax. 

Without another word, the boys stomped their way over to the locker room.

“Are you crazy??!!” Damian exclaimed sitting down on one of the benches “As if our rivals don’t already want to kill us enough, and you go add a whole bag of salt to the wound!!!”

“Relax Dame, we’re not going to win anything with that attitude, let's play our game, and whatever happens happens,” Leon replied, remaining calm.

“Yeah right,” Dame sighed,”as if we have any chance of beating them.” Leon didn’t reply, he simply continued to gaze at lockers ahead, laser-focused. Although Damian found Leon naive and maybe even a bit crazy, he admired his confidence, wishing he could feel the same about their match. 

“Fake it till you make it,” Dame mumbled repeatedly to himself. No matter how many times he said it, nothing seemed to change. All his mind was stuck on was the angry West Lake linebacker that would be head-hunting Dame and Leon.

“Shhhh, quiet boys'," Coach John said to his team in the locker room, “I know we have a tough matchup tonight, but if we play hard, smart, and together, there's nothing we can’t accomplish,” Damian tried to feel inspired by his coach’s wise words, but it was no use. 

As Damian was about to put his helmet on and suit up for battle, he heard a familiar voice behind him. “Hey Dame, I can tell you're nervous, don’t be, we have nothing to lose tonight, we’re the underdogs, just go out there and have fun,” Leon was standing behind, encouraging his best friend. That was his job not only as his friend but as the quarterback of the team. People looked up to him. He was the leader. 

“I know man, I'll do my best,” Dame replied quietly. 

“Win on three, one... Two.. three... WIN!” The team made their final chant as they broke the huddle, awaiting the massacre ahead. 

As Dame took his first step on the field, his eyes lit up in awe. The bright light shone down on the field, mocking the sun that had set and illuminating the footprints left in a light coat of snow. He looked to his left, West Lake’s bright red helmets glistened like stars in a constellation. A glance to the stands was enough for him to recognize the sea of fans barely peaking their heads out like a field of flowers. There must have been a thousand people in attendance, a lot was riding on this.   With each step, he could feel the soft crunching light snow as if he were walking on pillows.  He closed his eyes to the smell of delightful snowy air, taking it the aroma of the freshly cut grass. The beautiful symphony of pads and helmets clanging together flooded his ears. He felt safe. He was at home. He was playing football. 

The game started as it always did for Damian, with him sorrowfully tucking his head down on the bench. His only source of happiness was the occasional big play their team would get, allowing him to run on the field to celebrate. Unfortunately, there weren’t many big plays happening for East Lake quite the opposite seemed to be happening. It was 12-3 West Lake, and things didn’t seem to be looking up anytime soon for the East Lake Buckeyes. 

At the end of the first half, it was a sorry score of 22-3 West Lake. Thanks to the Buckeyes star linebacker they were able to get a couple stops on defense, holding them to only 22. Damian got up from his seat on the bench and jogged into the locker room. He hadn’t expected to play much, he was short, skinny, and unathletic, the only good thing about his ability was that he could catch like no one else. To Damian, catching was like writing your name, quick, simple, easy, almost a second nature. His hands felt like superglue when the ball was coming his way. That being said, if you can’t get open, you can’t catch the ball. That’s what Coach John always told him at least. Despite all this, Dame expected to at least touch the field, as it turned  out he should’ve prepared for the worst. 

Damian began his throat to the locker room, head down, too embarrassed to be seen by anyone in the crowd let alone his mother. He prayed she had decided to stay at home, maybe she forgot, the game existed, or maybe she didn’t care enough to go, those were best-case scenarios. 

“EVERYONE SHUT UP!!!” back in the locker room Tod their starting linebacker was furious. “I'm tired of getting our butts handed to us out there, something needs to change,” Todcontiuned.

“I agree,”  Fred, their number one running back, chimed in. Fred had scrapes and bruises all over, he looked like he had just tried running through barbed wire. He had been tackled at least twenty times, he had no blocking or protection from the rest of the team.

“Let’s keep our heads up guys, there's a lot of game left to play, and we can most certainly mount a comeback with this kind of time,” Coach John encouraged, finally regaining control over the feisty squad. No one could say a word without someone else chewing their ear out for it. Right now they looked more like mortal enemies than a team. 

Halftime was almost over, nothing seemed to change. Right before they were about to take the field once more, Dame spotted Leon in between two linemen. Through all the ruckus and arguments, Leon remained silent, his head facing straight forward at the lockers ahead of him. His eyes were open, yet looked as if they along with the rest of his mind were off in another world. He was calm. Somehow after getting sacked six times, throwing two interactions, and getting taunted in his face by the West Lake defenders, he was calm. This perplexed Dame as he was infuriated, ready to attack the next West Lake player that got remotely close to his vicinity, but not Leon, he was calm. Dame felt inspired, ready to take on this go-with-the-flow persona that Leon was displaying, but how? The biggest game of their lives and he was expected to just brush it off. Leon stood up. 

“ I know a lot of us feel like we’re not doing enough, or we need to improve this or that, yes we can improve, listen to me boys,” Leon began “Let's just have some fun, everyone take a deep breath, relax, and stop worrying about what will happen if we lose, start thinking about what will happen if we win,” the words flowed from Leon's mouth like he had practiced the speech for hours beforehand. If football didn’t work out, poetry could be a great second choice for Leon.``NOW LET'S GO OUT THERE HAVE SOME FUN AND PLAY OUR FOOTBALL TOGHER'' Leon rallied his players and a huge chant began in the locker room. The crew was revived, determination,  and courage once more flooded the room. East Lake High School was a new football team. 

The second half began with a bang for East Lake. Zach, the fastest guy on the team, took the kickoff 70 yards to the house. The fans erupted in joy, and cheers from all over echoed throughout the field. The East Lake Buckeyes were back in the game. 

West Lake came out hot as well, ten minutes later they were on East Lake’s four-yard line, knocking at their door. The West Lake quarterback dropped back to throw, scanning the field, making split-second calculations in his head. His feet set one foot next to the other, all weight leaning into his back leg. He fired the ball out like a missile soaring over the West Lake defense. The ball was on point to land right in the hands of their five-star receiver until…

“INTERCEPTED!!!! TOD BAKER AT THE ONE YARD LINE, INCREDIBLE!!” the announcer roared vigorously. Todd had come out of nowhere, charging like an angry bull at the ball and attacking it. The lean receiver stood no chance to a 200-pound linebacker coming at him full speed.  Tod knocked him on his back while ripping the ball from the receiver's claws. Dame had never seen anything like it, it was unbelievable.

The East Lake drive once more ended in a touchdown, this time a run to Fred for ten yards up the gut. He put his head down, running like his life depended on it, knocking over three West Lake defenders in the process. The score was set at 22-17 with only 2 minutes to play. They were going to try an onside kick. The kicker backed up ready to deliver the kick of his life. He struck the ball with tons of force, crashing down on it. The ball sprung from the ground right over the head of the West Lake. Fred sprinted down the field and fell on the ball, protecting it with his life. It was East Lake football. The ground exploded in enthusiasm, their home team had a chance to win this game, but the job wasn’t done yet. 

The two plays of the drive were a complete disaster. The first snap went over Leon's head, nearly resulting in a fumble, and the next run got stuffed at the line of scrimmage. It was third and twenty from East Lake’s own 48-yard line, they needed a miracle. Leon took the snap dropping back one step at a time while looking through his options, bullseye, Leone found a man. Thomas, their tight end, had found himself wide open in the middle of the West Lake zone, no one within ten yards of him. Leon aired it out for a perfect 30-yard completion. They then ran up to the line in a hurry, before spiking the ball, stopping the clock with 5 seconds to go. Two minutes had come and gone and now the fate of this legendary rivalry was on the line. 

“I want Dame in the game,” Coach John announced. After what Damian had done earlier no one seemed upset with his decision, but everyone knew it was a poor one. Dame’s eyes widened in shock, his jaw had dropped straight to the ground.

“This guy is crazy,” Dame told Leon. 

“He’s not crazy at all, he knows you, he knows you can make a play on the ball,  come on man, you could be the hero,” Leon pumped up his friend and now wide receiver. 

Everything was riding on this play, Dame arrived at the huddle, shivering in fear. Each step he took brought him closer to an inevitable outcome he wished to avoid altogether. Right now the bench didn’t seem so bad to Damian. Leon arrived at the huddle with the play call from the coach. 

“Listen up boys this is it, our season, our reputation, and a chance to beat these guys who have brought sorrow to our school for 30 years,” Leon gave another quick speech before reading out the play. “Alright we’re going gun right, p37, x waggle, y post corner, I’m looking at you in the endzone Dame, ready…. BREAK!” 

Dame lined up, fear running through every vein in his body. A throw to him on the last play of the game, the coach must have been out of his mind. Dame looked ahead of him, He recognized that face, it was one of the kids he’d seen at the field earlier. He was staring Dame straight in his eyes looking through his soul like a lion hunting its prey. Dame remembered how he had made fun of him for being little and how he had insulted Leon. Dame’s jaw clenched, his cleats dug into the ground like a blade through styrofoam. He was infuriated until he remembered Leon. Anger had gotten them nowhere. If it wasn’t for Leon keeping his cool and remaining confident, Dame wouldn’t be here right now, none of them would be. He took a deep breath, and focused on the task at hand. All of a sudden the game seemed to slow down. The roars of the crowd were drowned out by a soothing white noise, the adrenaline rushing through his body had been converted into dopamine, filling his mind with confidence and joy. He relaxed, loosening his tense muscles. He took one more look at the cornerback guarding him.

“HUT” Leon exclaimed, taking five steps back every step, coating his cleats with snow. Leon faked out the safety by looking in the complete opposite direction he was planning to throw it. 

Damian ran off the line pushing away the defender with all his will. This gave him the perfect separation he needed. He turned his hips, eyes, and legs to the left side pretending to make a move for the left sideline. He planted his left foot lard in the snow cutting back in the blink of an eye to the right side. Now with the defender on his back, he took off running for the back right pylon. Right as the defender caught up, Damian stuttered his feet gracefully, as if he were walking on water. The defender froze, unable to decide which direction to choose. Damian took one step to the right allowing the defender to follow before once more making a razor-sharp turn left, leaving the defender in the dust. The ball was thrown up picking up flakes of snow as it spiraled through the air. The cornerback caught back up and was ready to run Damian over. The ball was merely inches away from Dames's hands, but so was the defender. Damian leaped into the air, taking a huge shot from the bully. The crowd gasped as Dame got knocked out of the air like a bird that had been hunted for dinner. Damian crashed into the ground slamming his back against the cold fluffy snow, bringing his defender with him. Everyone was silent as the two remained on the ground, the ball not visible to any of the spectators. Damian powered his way through the grasp of the cornerback rising on his two feet. In his hands lay the ball covered in snow and victory. East Lake stormed the field in jubilation, unable to control their excitement. Screams from all over filled the air as a pile of bodies was made on Damian. All his beloved teammates cheered for him in joy. Damian could finally celebrate.

After the cheers died down and the players got ready to head back inside the locker room to continue the celebration, Damian noticed someone on the field. The cornerback was sitting alone with tears in his eyes, ashamed of costing his team the game. Damian walked over to him. 

“Hey man, it's not on you, you played a great game, it’s a team sport,” Damian shared some wise words with the West Lake player. 

“Thanks, bro,” He replied Damian gave him a slight nod before helping him up and giving him a pat on the back. The same kid that had bullied him before, he decided to help. Dame wasn’t sure why he did that, but he did know he felt like he made the right choice. Not only did Dame win the game, but he sent a message to West Lake. That although they are rivals, they are just kids and there’s more to someone than just their game on the field. Damian was proud of himself. He felt the best he had ever had before. He felt like a champion.