A Goal for Joaquin (9 page)

“Oh, wow, you had me all confused. It's my first day here, and I feel sort of lost. I didn't know if you were making fun of me or what.” He brushed his hair back again and then looked down at his shoes.
 

“No way,” the tall girl smiled, “Meta just noticed you were wearing soccer shoes. She pointed them out to me, and I thought I'd ask if you were a player. We need players if we're ever going to get a team at this school.” She smiled, waiting for a response. “So how about it? You a player or not?”

“Yeah,” Joaquin said enthusiastically, “I love soccer. I've been playing since I was five. My dad heard that some kids were trying to start a team here, but I didn't think I'd meet you guys the first day. Count me in!”

“Great!” The tall girl patted Joaquin on the shoulder. “Now we only need three or four kids to say they'll go out for the team, and we'll be able to go to the school board with our proposal.”

“Are you talking about starting a co-ed team?” Joaquin looked confused. “Do they have that in this state?”

“No,” the shorter girl answered, “we're going to try to start a boys' team first. Under the state rules, if a school has a boys' team but no girls' team, then girls can go out for the boys' team.”

“Of course,” the tall girl cut in, “we plan on getting a girls' team going in another year or so, but this would be a way to get started.”

“Mr. Tobias, that's our principal, says if we get fourteen or fifteen players to sign up by March first, he'll take a proposal to the school board and try to get it okayed for next fall.” Joaquin could see the excitement sparkle in the shorter girl's eyes. “With you, we'll have ten players for sure and maybe eleven.”
 

“By the way,” the taller girl said, “my name is Kari, and this is Meta.”

Joaquin awkwardly reached out to shake Kari's hand. “My name is Joaquin Lopez,” he said. “I just moved here from Lakeshore, but I only lived there a couple of months. Before that I lived in California.”

The girls looked at each other. Meta had an embarrassed smile on her face. “You're not going to move away before next year are you?” There was disappointment in her voice.

“No, we just bought a house out in the country. My dad works for an insurance company in Madison.” Joaquin guessed what the two girls were thinking. They probably thought his parents were migrant workers. At first this irritated him. Why did everyone have to think all Mexican-Americans were migrants? But this irritation passed quickly. He felt bad for the girls because he could tell that they were embarrassed. He explained that his grandparents had come to the U.S. as migrants, and he was proud of them and everything that they had accomplished. He told Meta and Kari that he was proud of his Mexican heritage. “Hey, my ancestors were Aztecs. They had great cities and palaces six hundred years ago.”

“Cool!” Kari said. The moment of tension was over. There was a triangle of smiling faces waiting to figure out how they were going to get three or four more kids to sign up for the team.

“So where do you guys play if your school never had a team?” Joaquin asked.

“We play for a club team in Madison,” Kari answered. “There are kids from all over the county that play. Meta and I are on the same team. So is Cocoa Mareno. She goes to school here too. She's going to play on the boys' team next fall.”

“I must not have met this Cocoa yet,” said Joaquin.

“No,” Meta smiled, “if you'd have met her, you would've remembered her. Cocoa is one of a kind!” Both girls laughed.

“I don't know if I want to meet this girl or not.” Joaquin was blushing as he spoke.
 

“Oh, I think you'll like her,” Kari said. “You just look at kids in the halls tomorrow and try to pick out the girl who can run circles around every kid in this school.”

“And who can hold her ground against any player male or female,” Meta cut in. “If you can pick her out of the crowd, then you've got a good eye for soccer players.”

“I'll look for her. But I better get going or I'll miss my bus and have to walk home my first day at this school. I'll talk to you tomorrow,” he said as he found his locker and started to crank through the combination of numbers.

“Yeah, we'll see you, Joaquin. Let's get together and talk about how we're going to get the team going.”

“That sounds great,” said Joaquin. “I'm sure glad you noticed my shoes. It made my first day at Willowdale a good one. See ya tomorrow!”

“Hey,” laughed Kari, “you can't miss us. There are only two hundred and fifty students here. You probably had ten times that many when you lived in California.”

After Kari and Meta left, Joaquin walked through the hall trying to find the front exit where he was supposed to meet bus number eleven. He couldn't wait to get home to tell his family about Kari and Meta. Even though he had spent only eight hours at Willowdale, he was convinced that he was going to enjoy his two and a half years there.

 

Chapter 11

 

His second day at Willowdale, Joaquin was distracted trying to figure out who Cocoa Mareno was. From the comments made by Kari and Meta, he expected to see a real Amazon woman hulking through the halls. They said she wouldn't back down to any challenge. Joaquin assumed that meant she was big and strong. Every hour between classes, he scoured the halls for a large, muscular girl wearing Umbro shorts and a World Cup tee-shirt. That is the image that he'd formed. He saw no one that came close to the picture he had in his head.
 

At lunch he sat next to Julio Rodriguez. They talked about school and about Joaquin's life before he moved to Wisconsin. A few minutes before the bell was to ring, Joaquin asked Julio if he knew a girl named Cocoa Mareno. Julio looked surprised at the question. Joaquin detected a slight flush of color in his new friend's cheeks. “You just moved here and already you're asking about Cocoa? You don't waste any time do you? How did you meet Cocoa already?” Julio asked with a suspicious smile on his face.

“I didn't meet her yet,” Joaquin answered. “I just heard that she was a good soccer player. I love to play soccer, so I was just curious about her. The way Kari and Meta talk, this Cocoa sounds like some kind of Wonder Woman.”

“Wonder Woman? Yeah, you could describe her that way I guess,” Julio said. “Well, you just keep looking, Joaquin. When you see her, she'll stand out. Cocoa will catch your attention. I guarantee you that.” Julio chuckled to himself as he stood up and stacked his wrappers and milk cartons on to his tray.
 

“I can't wait to see her,” Joaquin said, “but when I meet her I'm going to be ready to step out of her way. She sounds like a hard case to me.”

Julio laughed and walked away without further comment. The bell rang and Joaquin hurried off to biology class. He was pleasantly surprised to see Kari and Meta sitting at a lab table in the back of the biology room. He hadn't noticed them yesterday. Of course, he hadn't met them until after school, so there was no reason why they would've stood out. When everyone in school is unfamiliar, all faces tend to blur together for the first few days. He walked over and said hello to them and then went over to the table where he was assigned to sit the previous day.
 

The hour dragged slowly. Most of the time was spent watching a filmstrip about ferns. Joaquin was glad the projector made a loud beeping sound to let the teacher know when to advance to the next frame. He was afraid that without that sound he might have dozed off, and he certainly didn't want to do that his second day in class. Though he was never a brilliant student, Joaquin prided himself on always giving his best effort in school. Most of the time that effort earned him high B's, good enough to make the honor roll throughout most of his school years.

Toward the end of the class period, after the fern filmstrip mercifully ended and after the teacher gave the assignment for the following day, there was a knock on the door. A student entered with a message for the teacher. At first Joaquin paid little attention. Then suddenly he got a good look at the messenger. Now Joaquin wasn't what anybody would call a lady's man, but he couldn't help but gawk at this girl. She was beautiful. Joaquin tried not to stare, but he couldn't take his eyes off her.

He first noticed that her hair and her skin were almost the exact same shade of golden brown. Her hair was long and silky straight with highlights that lit up the room like sunbeams. It was tied back in a long, loose ponytail. She was small, maybe 5'2 or 5'3, and she was obviously in very good physical condition. Her movements were as graceful as a dancer's. When she turned to leave the room, she looked toward the students in the class and smiled. Her eyes were big and round, and the irises looked black as coal, except that Joaquin thought he saw a sparkle. He was reminded of a black onyx stone that his grandmother wore on a necklace when she dressed up for holidays and special occasions. He was surprised by the number of details he noticed in such a brief appearance.
 

Joaquin was nearly dazed by the vision. After the girl left the room, Joaquin felt embarrassed. He hoped no one had noticed him staring. He slumped down in his chair wishing the bell would hurry up and ring. He heard a fake cough somewhere behind him but paid little attention. He heard two more coughs and knew that someone was trying to get another student's attention. Being new in school, he assumed the signal was not directed at him. Finally, after two more coughs, he casually looked back over his right shoulder. He saw Kari and Meta looking directly at him. They were both laughing. He guessed they'd seen the way he had looked at the girl with golden hair, and he was sure they were laughing at him. He smiled in their direction. Kari mouthed a silent word to him. Joaquin was no lip-reader, but he had little trouble recognizing the two syllables that Kari was saying—Co-Co.

At first he was confused. Why was she saying Cocoa? Then it hit him. The girl with the message. Kari was telling him that the girl who just left the room was Cocoa Mareno. At first he felt embarrassed. Then he felt annoyed, maybe even a little angry. There was no way the girl who just walked out of the room was the super-stud soccer player that he'd heard so much about. This supposedly was the girl who could keep up with any guy in school and not back down from any confrontation? No way, he thought. This girl was much too pretty to mix it up on a muddy soccer field. Soccer is a rough sport. He just couldn't picture this goddess making sliding tackles or bouncing a ball off her forehead. He could see her playing the lead in the school play or maybe modeling for a magazine, but no way could he see her playing midfielder.

When the bell rang, he gathered his books and headed toward the door. He didn't look back at Kari and Meta. He resented the fact that they had played this joke on him about the mythical soccer queen. Maybe the whole thing was a big prank. Maybe they were lying to him about starting a team. Maybe that was their way of initiating the new kid in school. The idea that he'd been the brunt of a practical joke left him feeling empty inside. He could just imagine how they were laughing at him now.
 

As he walked up the hall, he heard quick footsteps behind him. “Hey, Joaquin, wait up!” He recognized Meta's husky voice. He didn't look back. He was too angry about being treated like a fool.
 

“Joaquin!” This time it was Kari's voice. He reluctantly turned to face his tormentors, but there was no malice in their faces. They looked as friendly as they had yesterday when they asked him if he played soccer. “Hey, what's your hurry? You've got four minutes to get to English. We wanted to ask you what you thought of Cocoa.”

“You're putting me on aren't you?” He stammered as he spoke. “That's the girl you told me about? I'm sorry, but for some reason she doesn't look like she'd be such a tough player.”

“Oh, you think just because she's pretty she can't play soccer?” Kari asked. “You think girls are too weak to play sports?”
 

“No, I didn't say that,” Joaquin felt like he'd been backed into a corner. “I just didn't think she looked like a player. But I can't pretend I didn't notice she was pretty.” He flipped the hair from his forehead to the side. He could tell he was blushing.

“Well, you're going to be surprised when you see Cocoa on the soccer field. Hey, we better get to get to class,” Meta kindly changed the subject. “But we've got to talk about how we're going to get a enough players to sign up in the next couple of weeks. We've got to have our proposal ready for the March school board meeting. So we need anybody you can talk into playing. See ya later!”

“Yeah, maybe after school,” he said as his friends walked away. He felt stupid now for thinking that they'd tried to make a fool of him. He hoped they didn't think he was a jerk who was friendly one minute and then cold the next. He didn't know what to think. Could he really end up playing soccer on the same team with that girl with the dark eyes and long golden hair? It was too much to think about, so he strolled into English class.

* * *

During the next couple of weeks, Joaquin spent most of his free time with Kari and Meta. The three of them met daily to plot ways of rounding up enough players to convince school officials to approve their proposal to start a soccer team. Meta and Kari were always together, and they always seemed enthusiastic about having Joaquin join them. Everyday they met in the cafeteria after seventh hour ended. There they decided the plan of action for the day. Usually they walked to Kari's house and studied lists of potential candidates.