chapter 5 (cont.)

"Hmmm*burp*mmm…"

Carmen yawned as a ray of Sunday morning sunlight focused on her eyes. It was game day, so she knew she couldn't afford to lie in much longer. With a little bounce, Carmen sprung up and landed on the floor, causing the slightest notion of movement from her exposed tummy. If you focused on it, you could now see a thin layer of pudge wrapped all around her waist, eliminating her once picturesque hourglass abdomen shape to a bang average square. She was lucky there were no full-length mirrors lurking around, so she couldn't see how her panties now sunk a little bit into her flesh when she stood.

Heading to the kitchen for a quick bite to eat before she left, Carmen couldn't decide between a greasy hamburger or a sugar-coated doughnut to bring in her Munchies takeaway bag. She settled on both, rationalizing that she'd have to pick one in the car, she couldn't possibly eat both.

--

Isabel stared at the road, trying to concentrate over the chomps and slurps coming from her passenger seat. She was in utter bewilderment.

"H-How do you go from that to this?"
She whispered to herself, comparing the Carmen she was in the car with three weeks ago, to the one who had just finished a hamburger only to plow right into a doughnut mere seconds later without hesitation.

She contemplated offering some concern to her presumably possessed sister, but then a thought came across her mind.
She remembered what Carmen said to her in the car three weeks ago, how she berated her for her weight, and how vile her comments were.

Well.. what if she let Carmen eat a bit of humble pie?

This must've been some sign from the universe, some massive solid from God. If she were to just leave Carmen to her devices for a little while, surely she'd learn her lesson that big girls have feelings too? She wouldn't let it get too far out of hand, right? Right.

"We're here. See ya, 'sis."
Isabel said with a devious grin.

"Whatever."
Carmen remarked as her sister drove away.

--

Carmen was expecting nothing short of a hero's welcome as she trotted towards the dressing room door. She had slacked off on training the past week or two, expecting that in her absence the team and that bitch of a coach would finally realise how much they really needed her. No more insulting bench minutes. Time to be the star again.

"I'm back!"
Carmen exclaimed as she opened the door with some pizzazz. To her confusion, though, her grand return was only met with mild indifference from the group; a little period of silence before going back to murmuring amongst each other. Outrageous. Did they forget who she was?

Seeing coach Coach Anderson in the corner of the room, Carmen marched toward her with conviction.

"Hello, Coach."
Carmen said smugly, waiting for the Coach's cue to grovel and beg her to save them all.

"Hello Ms. Mendez. Was starting to think you wouldn't come back, after that little temper tantrum of yours."
Coach said nonchalantly, not raising her head from the notebook she was scribbling on.

"Oh please. You and I both know you all can't afford to be without me for long."
Carmen said with a snigger.

"Well, Ms.Mendez, if you'd care enough to even know what we've been doing lately, you'd see that we've been doing just fine without you and your politicking."
Coach turned to face Carmen and raised her voice, grabbing the attention of the team sitting nearby.

"We've been winning games, getting all the girls involved, and most importantly, everyone is happy now. One thing that irks me about you, Ms.Mendez, is that you don't learn anything. You don't listen. I've tried with you once before, if you'd even remember, when I was a player with you. Even as a wide-eyed freshman, you were still stubborn enough to let all I taught you travel in one ear and out the next. Everything that a captain should be; encouraging, compassionate, a friend, things that I tried to be as captain, is everything that you aren't, and choose not to be everyday. I'd hoped you'd change when I came back, but you're just the same old Carmen. For now at least, you're on the bench again. You don't seem to be.. well.. in shape at the moment."
Coach remarked to a red-faced Carmen as she heard a few giggles emanating from the lockers. How ridiculous! Carmen was in perfect shape, what the hell was she talking about?

"Ooooh I see now, t-this is some sorta personal thing, right? Alright then, I'll play your games. I'll sit on the bench like a good little girl and wait until it's my time. And when it's my time, I'll play better than anyone else, like I always do, and force my way back to where I belong, whether you like it or not."
Carmen said right up to Coach's face, eyeing herself up with Coach's stonewall expression.

"We'll see about that."

--

The game between Brookside High and Stonehaven Academy was a fairly close contest. Each team gave it their all, with the two sides playing both rigid defense and fluid offense. As seventy-five minutes passed by, the scoreline read 1-1.
Paige Daniels had done well to score the opening goal, but had visibly slowed down and seemed to be clenching at her hamstring. It was obvious to Coach on the sideline that a change needed to be made, and so she looked to the bench.

"Alright. Prove me wrong, Mendez."
Coach said over her shoulder to Carmen, who replied only with a devilish grin.

As Carmen waited for her cue to run on, she couldn't help but laugh to herself. How foolish was Coach. Thinking she had some sort of upper hand on her? The team needs her. That's how it's always been. They cast her aside, try to do the job by themselves and now they come crawling back to her for help. How poetic.

As the whistle blew to signal her onto the pitch, Carmen quickly jogged to her position. But then something felt… strange. When she stopped jogging, she heard herself breathing more tensely than usual. Then, she felt her stomach churn and gurgle loudly, causing Carmen to wince and clench her middle, feeling the side effects of a doughnut-burger infused breakfast. But there was no time to nurse it, however, as the ball quickly came her way. Carmen dashed towards it, but was outpaced by an opponent that started a few inches behind. As the girl proceeded to clear the ball back up the pitch, Carmen wheezed and stared at her shock. Sure, it had been a bit since she last ran but no one does that to her.

The following next couple minutes were an agonizing test of endurance for Carmen. For every half-hearted sprint or feeble kick she made, she grew more and more exasperated. And with the growing pain of her bloated midsection, she felt like curling up in a ball and lying down on the grass then and there.

Whilst putting her hands on her knees to regain some semblance of her breath back, she spotted something. A nice, lovely, empty space on the pitch. Maybe if she were to trudge over there, she'd be unbothered for the rest of the game, be left to her own devices and wouldn't need to make any more God-forsaken runs until it was time to go home.

It took some effort and willpower, but Carmen made one last jog across to the empty space, away from any other player. She let out a faint whimper of relief, thanking the Gods that the all exercising was nearly over. Left by herself, Carmen started to go into a trance, daydreaming what she'd treat herself to when she'd get home.

"Some nuggets would really be good for me right now… maybe with onion rings…Oh! With a strawberry milksha-"

"CARMEN'S OPEN!"

Carmen was shot out of her dream world by a shout from her teammate and a ball whizzing over her head.
Figuring out what was going on, Carmen saw the ball rolling towards the box with only the goalkeeper in her way. Calling this a golden opportunity was the understatement of the century. If she scored this, there would be nothing Coach could ever say or do to her to dismay the fact that everyone should already know; that Carmen runs the show. She just needed to run.

Making one last heave, Carmen ran as fast as her aching knees could let her. She panted and wheezed and hauled her sluggish body to the ball. She was so close she could practically taste victory.
But just as she was about to connect with the ball, something launched itself into her heel with all its might. And before knew it,
Snap.