THE TEAM WAS NOT THE ONLY ONE EXCITED ABOUT THE WIN. The press was shocked and desperately wanted to know about Ted's first win as coach. Willie and Keeley stood in the back of the press room as he answered questions. The Jones woman had been hired to do some PR for the team, which meant that they would work together a lot. Ted asked, "All right. Shall we? Sarah, why don't you lead us off?"

"So, Coach Lasso. You finally won your first match. How's it feel?" Sarah questioned with a grin.

"Well, Sarah, I believe you can outscore your opponent and still lose. Just like you can score less than them and win. But last week we definitely won, which is pretty darn fun," he told her, causing a lot of people to cheer and laugh. He then pointed to the man that he always seemed to come back to. "All right, next question. Trent Crimm, The Independent."

Despite the fact that he needed no introduction, the man still stood up, took off his glasses, and announced, "Trent Crimm, The Independent. Is it safe to assume that Jamie Tartt will be back on the pitch next match?"

"Well, you know what they say when you assume, Trent? You make an arse outta you and me. Yeah?" Ted waited for the laughs, and he shot the Carlisle girl a grateful glance when she let out a giggle at the other American's joke. "And that right there is another example of how our English and y'all's English sometimes do not jive, innit?"

"But are you honestly gonna keep your best player on the bench?" Trent moved on as a couple of people laughed at that. Everyone leaned forward to hear the answer, and Willie noticed Jamie standing on the other side of the room, also wondering what his coach was going to do.

"Well, that depends on Jamie. He knows what we need from him," Ted replied, and he looked up at the Tartt man that he had noticed earlier. Jamie just walked out, and the coach returned to the questions. "Let's keep it going, yeah? Kip, come on, hit me."

Later, Willie was stepping out of her office to get a snack when she noticed the boys heading out to get on the practice field. She furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed Jamie in his normal clothes, the ones he had been wearing earlier, and not in uniform like everyone else. She grabbed Colin's shoulder when he passed. "What's wrong with Jamie?"

"Says he's 'injured,' so Coach has got him sitting up cones," Colin laughed out before catching up with Isaac.

Because she was curious, Willie brought her laptop outside to work. They were getting a new player in from Mexico, and he injured himself pretty much immediately. So, he had not been able to play until then. She looked around when she heard him yelling as he practically bounded in. "Dani Rojas, Rojas! Dani Rojas! Rojas, Dani Rojas! Rojas, Rojas, Rojas! Hey! Hello, coaches. Thank you for the opportunity."

"You are a spirited fella, Dani. Just go on out there, and get the striker spot for us, okay?" Ted asked him, and Willie was very fond of the boy already. He ran in a small circle excitedly, like he really just could not wait to play.

"Yes! Just like back in Guadalajara, you say it, I do it, Coach," he cheered, and the brunette woman was pleased to see that he was not an asshole like Jamie was. He was taking Jamie's position too, while he was 'injured,' which was bound to get the Tartt man angry. Dani clapped his hands together. "Football is life!"

"Chipper dickheads like that can never back it up on the pitch," Jamie commented to his teammates standing next to him. Willie leaned forward so that she could hear everything. She was sitting right behind them in the stands, but it was still a bit away.

They then watched as Dani raced down the field with the small, dribbling it and maneuvering impressively. He then kicked it over to Sam who took the shot and got it into the net. Sam ran over to the man and jumped into his arms, making the brunette woman laugh as they cheered. "Beautiful cross, Sam! Football is life!"

"Did you see that? I can't really tell, but it seems like he's very good," Roy pointed out to Jamie, pleased that he had something to use to get under his skin. Willie giggled, causing the Tartt man to turn around and glare at her as the Kent man patted him on the back. "Cheers, again."

《❂》

DANI HAD GOTTEN HIMSELF INJURED YET AGAIN SOMEHOW. Willie stood in the locker room with Sam, Roy, Coach Beard, Higgins, and Ted as Dani groaned and cursed on the table with a doctor examining him. "Okay. Okay, okay, I don't understand. What the heck happened, all right? Did you trip over something?"

That's the thing, Coach. I did not trip over something," Dani told him, and they all looked at the boy in confusion. He was out there doing drills on his own. Willie actually would not be surprised if Jamie found some sneaky way to hurt him. "Something tripped me. Something not there."

"Yeah. Okay, Doc. Let's go get him looked at. Okay. You're okay," Ted told him, and the doctor helped him out of the room so that he could get better examined in a different room.

Nate shook his head and was the first to speak up in the silence of the room full of people trying to figure out what to do next. "God, this is all my fault. I saw Dani go into the treatment room before training, and I didn't say anything."

"That was a mistake," Higgins scoffed as the rest of them groaned, knowing that that was a horrible thing to do to the newcomer. He could have at least warned him about what happened when people entered the treatment room.

The Carlisle woman groaned. "Oh, my God. He's screwed now."

"Well, I hope you've all said your goodbyes 'cause we're never gonna see him again," Roy added, and everyone in the room knew what was happening except for the two coaches who had never heard the myth of the treatment room. Willie had been working there for long enough to hear the legends.

"Hey, that's enough! One more person says something that me and Beard don't understand, I'm gonna have one of my son's classic temper tantrums," Ted complained, and then he calmed down to explain. "It's basically just him calling me a bunch of silly names, you know, like, I don't know, "dummy head" or "poo-poo face" or "poo-poo dummy" or... I don't know. What am I missing?"

Coach jumped in and added, "'Pee-pee fingers.'"

"The treatment room is cursed," Sam finally blurted out, and Ted looked over at him in confusion because it was probably one of the most random things he could have said. It was true, though. Every single person that had stepped foot in that treatment room had come out of the building with an injury or without a job.

Higgins nodded in confirmation when Beard and Ted looked at the rest of them like they were absolutely insane. "It's true."

"Why is this the first time I'm hearing about this?" the Lasso man questioned because everyone in that room knew about the haunted treatment room, and no one had informed him. Willie had forgotten about it, and it had just never been brought up.

Sam had a different explanation that also made a lot of sense since they were in an environment with a lot of males with a lot of pride and dignity even though they literally got paid to play a game. "Well, I think it has a lot to do with grown men being embarrassed to admit that they believe in all this hoodoo, voodoo, juju business."

"Hey, I don't believe it," Roy contradicted.

"Okay, good," Ted told him, and he looked like he was getting ready to walk out of the room and start solving some problems. Willie knew that that was an awful idea and that they would end up getting decapitated or something. "Then me and you, we're gonna go look in that room."

The Carlisle woman raised her eyebrows at the Kent man, not believing that he was actually going to do it. He had been there longer than she had, and he had probably seen more people face the wrath of the treatment room than she had. He finally responded, "No."

"Why not?" Ted asked curiously, but they all knew the reason. Roy obviously also believed in the curse just like the rest of them, and he did not want to be the next one to pay the price. When he did not answer, Ted shouted, "Heck! Oh, man. I mean, Dani was out there, what, an hour ago? Running circles on that pitch like a joyous raven-haired golden retriever."

"Coach, is it true in America you guys have so many beautiful dogs in pounds that some get put down for no reason?" Sam questioned, looking at both of the Americans in the room for an answer.

"That is true, Sam. But it's also something a lot of female singer-songwriters are trying to change. Look, we're not gonna put Dani Rojas down. I'll tell you that right now," Ted informed them determinedly. "Gentlemen, I need you to gather up the rest of the fellas. 'Cause we got ourselves a curse to reverse."