Unexpected Changes

Lily was unavailable over the weekend. Her dad had made an appearance to make sure that she was okay on Friday afternoon, and left Sunday evening. Daisy was seeking some kind of relief, but Cloverleaf always seemed to be around. She knew that Lily loved her dad and he hadn't been around lately, but she was very disappointed that there was no time to spend with Lily.

On Tuesday, the books they needed were returned to the library, and due to the check-out limit, Daisy had to turn in the anatomy books she'd already checked out. She'd already memorised so much information from them, anyway. The number of times she'd read the words "The urethral nub then penetrates through the cervix" was in the hundreds after just six days, and just as Lily had suggested, she'd learned how to use her hoof to calm herself down.

Since they had the books, and the report was due on Thursday, they had to rush through the project after school. Since several of the other students had pulled the books away from them to do their report, Ms. Mayberry had them go first, since their projects were obviously top-of-the-line. The downside to having the books back so late was that they really had to focus in on the assignment in order to be done in time with a good enough quality to not need the extra credit, despite Glory knowing the answer to the extra credit question and including it with the report. The difference, of course, being that that the fruit contained the seeds required to grow a new plant, while vegetables were primarily the stems, leaves and roots.

On Friday, however, they were given some of the best news Lily could have asked for; Hoofball tryouts were this weekend. "I'm totally signing up!" she exclaimed as they left for the frozen yogurt shop. "That'll totally make up for the loss from this summer!"

"I'm glad it won't be a total loss," sighed Daisy. She was still bummed about losing the camp championship.

"You girls are signing up, too, right?" asked Lily, looking at the expectantly.

"Certainly, darling," smirked Snapdragon. "You have to be on the team to be able to make changes to the uniforms."

"Maybe they'll let me be a cheerleader this year!" squeaked Glory.

"We all know what you're going to be," smiled Daisy, turning her attention to Lily. "Center Forward."

Lily chuckled. "I do score more often than the rest of you..."

"And also, you put the most balls in the goalbox," noted Glory.

"Yeah..." Lily raised her eyebrow. "That's what scoring is."

"Oh." Glory giggled. "I'm sorry, I thought you meant something entirely different."

"What did you think I meant?"

"It wasn't important."

"It is to me."

Glory shrugged. "Scoring is what it's called when you rough up a surface so that two things that aren't attached can be melded together. Useful in carpentry, welding and ceramics."

All of Glory's friends just stared at her like she was crazy.

"What? I looked it up in the dictionary."

After making their purchases, with Lilly ordering her usual but with a twist of lemon lime, they picked their table and sat down.

"We're old enough for the big leagues now, girls," breathed Lily. "This isn't going to be quite the same as the last few years."

Daisy glanced up from her yogurt. "It's not?"

Lily shook her head. "The rules are changed, but now the other teams are going to be stronger, fiercer, and more determined. And we have to be, too."

"They can't be too much better," shrugged Glory. "I mean, we went to hoofball camp over the summer, and we were almost undefeated for most of the season. Right up until you left, actually. If we beat them last year and then kept practicing, we can probably beat them again."

"It's different, though," urged Lily. "Harder kicks, faster passes... This is the year when most teams that go on to do great things start to gain their confidence. Where they'll take a shot at the goal even if it ends up tripping the other side. You remember how that filly faked an injury during my last game?"

"Yeah, but that was fake," argued Snapdragon. "The counsellor saw everything."

"The cheaters are going to be craftier, and the refs more unable to follow the action. Faking injuries is going to become part of the game, and being actually injured is going to become easier and more commonplace. So unless you're ready to protect yourself, be ready to jump out of the way."

"Faking an injury seems like a dirty trick," scowled Glory. "They shouldn't be allowed to do that."

"The clock keeps going, though," answered Lily. "If they just put the game on hold while the clock goes on, they can stall for time in a strategic position, or worse, penalise the other players." Her stomach let out a growl, and she placed a hoof over her abdomen. "Sorry, but, uh... I'll be right back."

As she trotted off toward the toilet, Daisy leaned in. "Girls, we can't let her join the team."

"What?" asked Snapdragon. "Why not?"

"You heard her! The chance of injury is going to be higher this year!"

"I'm sure she's going to try to keep herself safe," assured Snapdragon. "Lily isn't the kind of girl to let herself be hurt."

"It's not her I'm worried about," urged Daisy. "It's the other one..."

"What other one?" asked Glory.

Daisy steeled her face and enunciated very clearly. "The one who could be very severely injured by a kick to the stomach."

Snapdragons eyes snapped open as she suddenly realised what Daisy was talking about. "...The little one..."

"Oh," realised Glory. "Her "little sister.""

Daisy nodded. "We can't risk an injury. We need to make sure that she doesn't do anything dangerous."

"Can't we just tell her our concerns?" asked Glory. "If we make our stance known, she might stop to consider ways to make it work. Maybe she could be a defender?"

Daisy shook her head. "Lily's never going to agree to be a defender. She's a center forward. It suits her best. And she won't settle for second best."

"So, what do we say?" asked Glory, seeing Lily on her way back.

Daisy turned and looked as well. "I'm not sure..."