A New Playing Field

Nick’s POV

My family was sitting at the table in our tour bus listening to KIIS-FM on the computer.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I have with me the United States’ youngest soccer player ever on a national level, Megan Gibson. Welcome Megan, how are you doing today?”

“I am awesome, Ryan. How are you?”

“I’m great. What are you up to now?”

"Well we have practice every day. We're working really hard because in two weeks from today, we leave for Beijing!"

“How does it feel to be going to the Olympics at your age? 17 right?”

“Yeah, I turned 17 last week. The feeling is indescribable. I don’t think it will hit me that I’m actually going to the Olympics until I step off the plane in China.”

“Is your family going to Beijing with you?”

“Yeah. My parents, my sister, and my two brothers will be making the trip out there. I’m really thankful for that. We’re a really tight family. I love them.” This comment made my mom smile.

“How did you get started in soccer?”

“Well my sister and one of my brothers are older than I am. So right when I learned to walk, I was kicking a ball around with them in the backyard. The league in the town I grew up in started at age 6. But when I was 4, my parents spoke to the president of the league and got them to allow me attend a practice with the 6 year old team. The coach saw me at practice and let me join the team. So it just started from there and I’ve been playing ever since.”

“Thirteen years! Wow that’s incredible. You know, yesterday I actually tripped coming into the studio and I realized that was pretty much the extent of potential injuries I could receive at my job. Your job can be kind of dangerous, so I’m curious, what’s the worst injury you’ve ever gotten?”

“During a game?”

“Was the worst injury you’ve ever gotten not during a game?”

“Ironically enough, it was not during a game!”

“Tell me both.”

“I was swimming at an indoor pool in a hotel in Chicago. I got out of the pool and starting walking towards the diving board but I slipped on the wet tile and my feet flew out from under me. I hit my head on the ground and my head cracked open. I had to get 35 stitches!"

“Jeeze! That must have been scary! How old were you?”

“I was 11. It was terrible.”

“What about during a game?”

“When I was 13, my opponent attempted to slide tackle me. She did it wrong and actually broke my tibia, the shin bone. That was really painful. I was on crutches for 8 weeks and in physical therapy for 6 weeks. I was not happy about that.”

“And that is why I love my safe job. Alright, we have to break for a song. This song is going to lead into our next topic of conversation. Here are the Jonas Brothers with their new single Burning Up.”

I looked up and my whole family was staring at me. We started laughing. Joe sang along on the bus. The song ended and Ryan started to talk.

“I don’t know if you know this or not, but yesterday, we had the Jonas Brothers on and I asked them who their celebrity crushes were. Do you know who Nick said?”

“Actually, I was listening on my way to practice. So yeah, he said me.” She’s laughing about it. What if she is laughing AT me? This is so embarrassing.

“How did that make you feel?”

“I was so surprised, but I feel pretty honored. I just hope I don’t have a teenage fan base wanting to hunt me down now or anything.” She’s funny. I like funny.

“So Nick wants to meet you at the Teen Choice Awards. Are you up for that?”

“Yeah totally! He seems pretty cool.” I smiled. Just less than two weeks until the Teen Choice Awards.