hooligan

Hello, my name is Lora, and I'm a soccer mom.
Oh, the horrors.

Jake is playing in a 4-6 league.  His first practice was last week, and I was glad to see that he was one of the bigger kids on the team.  Not the biggest, but one of. 
His first game was tonight, and that rumor that they stuck all the new guys and the young ones on one team?  True.  The other team was huge.  Like almost 7 huge.  They killed Jake's team.

Rewind to last week before the first practice.  Jake was nervous about whether the kids would like him, would he like them, how good would he be, and what if he got hurt.  That last one was a big one. 

"Sometimes you get hurt in soccer", Dave told him before practice. 
"Sometimes you get hurt in soccer", I reminded him tonight.

Because sometimes you do.

Like when you play the big kids?

Maybe. 

Cut to tonight, midway through the game.  It's really hard to tell the kids apart, especially when the field is dusty and no one turns on the lights after sundown.  Just a bunch of rugrats bunched together all sort of doing the same thing. 

And then the dust settles a bit, and you see one little guy kicking the crap out of four big guys.  Including one girl. 

That's Jake out there, pushing and punching and pulling pigtails.  My little Zen Child Pacifist Wonder. 

After the game we ask him what was going on.  Dave thought maybe they hit him first.  I didn't, I saw it start.  I saw Jake start it.  Mr. Never Hit First, and Even then Maybe not Hit Back because Sometimes People Who Hit Might Have it Rough at Home and They Need Love More than More Hitting So I Know You Say it's Okay to Hit Back, Mom, but I Don't Really Think it's Always the Right Thing to Do.

He took a deep breath, put on his game face, and raised his hands in tiny little air quotes.

"Sometimes you get hurt in soccer... yeeeaaaaahh"
*fist pump*
*devil hands*
*bared teeth*
*smirk*

It's going to be a long season.