18 girls make the team,
Lucy is one of them.
Varsity Lacrosse:
It seems like a success,
but her teammates are tears waiting to happen.
Offense and defense are the cliques,
and Lucy doesn’t fit in.

Practice begins.
Coach chooses the starting players.
Lucy sits out;
She always does.
Nasty giggles clutter her ears,
she loses focus.

She watches as her team makes successful passes around the goal.
Not a ball was dropped;
not a throw was off.
Her nerves tense up
she knows she’s next.

Lucy subs in for a girl at her position.
The team passes,
But not to her.
It’s like she’s hiding under her own skin.
“Ball!”
She shows that she’s ready.
It seems to take decades,
but the ball finally comes towards Lucy.
It lands in her crosse,
And she proves herself.
Exclusion ends.