Out of His Cleats: Kai’s Journey of Self-Discovery

Kai sat on the field, his legs drawn into his chest in an attempt at concealing the fact that he did not have socks on. He had been on time for the game and everything, but he just couldn’t find any socks that were quite the right shade of blue and didn’t look too formal to wear with cleats. When he finally found a pair of socks just the right shade and bought them, he forgot about them and left them in his living room. Now, after running around for thirty minutes without socks, he was paying the price; his shoes were soaked through, and it felt like his feet were touching hot metal.

He tried to ignore it and enjoy the game. It was a match against another school in their division, so they had all started out cautiously at first, but now they were playing with more gusto than they normally would. The other team’s striker had scored twice thus far and now Kai’s team needed to get a goal if they wanted to win this game. Kai was covering their best striker, who had already scored twice today as well. He bit back a curse when he realized that the striker was going to try for goal again, even though their keeper had just blocked his previous shot. This time, however, instead of trying to score from close up by dribbling past all the defenders, he went for a curling shot from just outside the penalty area that sailed over everyone’s heads and landed in the top corner of their net.

They lost 2-1.

Kai trudged off the field after collecting his bag from where it had been abandoned while everyone else made their way towards where they were supposed to collect water bottles or towels to wipe off sweat before heading back out onto the field again. He unzipped his bag and pulled out a plain white towel that he had brought with him to wipe down his face and neck with once he got to a drink station somewhere in one of the corners of the bleachers where there would be water available because god knew how long it would be until half-time was over if they kept playing like this. He walked further into what felt to him like a desert before finally finding an open station with someone standing next to it refilling water bottles from a large cask sitting next to them on a table. Kai took a bottle and unscrewed its cap with trembling fingers before pouring some cool water into it and swishing it around so that it mixed properly with what was already in there before taking a long drink from it. His throat felt immediately better afterwards.

While he was drinking, someone came walking up behind him; one of his teammates who wasn’t playing at this moment in time had decided to walk along with him back towards where everyone else was gathered waiting until half-time was over so that they could go back out onto the field again. She looked at him strangely when she saw his attire but said nothing about it until he had finished drinking as well.

“What happened here?” she asked as she pointed at his feet – or rather, at where his feet should have been visible if not for the gap between his legs which hid them from view at least partially. “Why are you wearing your socks with your cleats? Did you get distracted during warm-up?”

Kai sighed deeply before answering her question: “I couldn’t find any socks that matched my shoes so I decided to play without any on so I wouldn’t have to buy new ones! But now I can’t find any socks anywhere! I really don’t want to buy new socks! They cost money! And there aren’t any stores open right now anyway! Everyone is probably still sleeping! And I can still play soccer without socks on!”

His teammate stared at him silently for several seconds before responding “Didn’t you say that you already have enough money saved up because you never spend any ever since you started working? You already have three pairs of shoes bought even though you only need one pair because every pair is different! Why are you getting worked up over money issues?! Just go home and get your old socks out of your closet! You don’t need new ones anyway! They won’t be any different from what you already have! You like wearing those old things anyway! Everyone knows that about you! Hey look, here comes Mikey; ask him if you can borrow some of his old socks! I bet he has some lying around somewhere that used to belong to someone else but forgot about them years ago! Or else buy some at a thrift store when we get home tonight after our team does something stupidly reckless like we always do! Anyways… I gotta go back out; see you later man!"