She looked up when she heard the crowd raise their voices. There had been a collision on the far sideline, and she could see a number of people gesturing for the referee to issue a yellow caution card. She could see one particularly irate father storming up and down the sideline, arms waving wildly. Hope stood up and took a few strides toward the touch line, trying to see what had taken place.

“Coach…”

She looked up and saw the nearside ref waving at her.

“I think they need you…”

She saw that the opposing team’s coach was already half-jogging across the field, and so she rapidly set forth, after grabbing a bottle of Gatorade and an emergency kit from her bag. As she made her way across, she angled herself close to Molly.

“Molls…I missed it. What happened?”

“They clashed heads, Coach. I think Vicki got the wind knocked out of her, but the other girl seems to have gotten the worst of it.”

By the time she arrived at the spot, her player was already sitting up, but the opposing team’s player lay on the ground, and Hope could hear muffled sobbing. She went to her own player first. “Vicki, you okay?”

The girl was nodding, but she had a look of fear across her face. She was still gasping for breath.

“Does anything hurt?”

Vicki shook her head. Some of the players had gathered around, and Hope dismissed them back to their positions. “Do you think you can stand up?”

Vicki nodded again, and Hope took her by the arm and steadied her as she rose. “Let’s sit on the bench for a bit,” she said calmly. Vicki started to shake her head, but Hope gripped her arm more tightly.