Ellie in the Middle    

         By Shanna Jarrett          

Soccer is a very competitive sport in the minds of young teenage girls. In the particular town of Sportster, a competition of the Most Valuable Player trophy was coming up. Ellie, Ellen and Elle were sisters all on the same winning team. Not only were the three girls sisters, but they were identical triplets.

Ellie, Ellen and Elle were thirteen years old and got along very well for the most part, off the field that is. While on the soccer field, Ellen and Elle had much anger towards Ellie, because she was the most athletic of the three and was the star of their winning team.

            There was only one way that you could tell the triplets apart and that was by talking to them. Ellen and Elle talked the same, laughed the same, and they communicated well while on the field. Ellie, on the other hand, was a bit different from the other two sisters. Ellie was hearing impaired, which meant that she could not hear from either of her two ears. She wore hearing aids, which helped a little, but she communicated mainly through sign language and reading lips. While on the field, she communicated through hand signals that her coach had designed for the two of them to understand, and the other teammates had certain signals they used as well. Doctors say that Ellie’s strong athletic ability comes from her impairment, and therefore, Ellie’s parents strongly encouraged her abilities and pushed her to do well in the sport.

          The competition of the Most Valuable Player was nearing for the girls, and the winner of their team would have the chance to play for an all-conference team in the state and would be recognized throughout the next year at games and such. Many of the players on the triplet’s team wanted and encouraged Ellie to try-out for the trophy because they knew she had the ability to win it. Her two sisters on the other hand, both thought they deserved the trophy and were going to compete against Ellie for it.

          Each afternoon Ellie would practice in their family’s backyard with her passing, stopping and shooting, while Ellen and Elle stayed inside and made fun of her.

“There’s no use in practicing so much Ellie,” taunted Ellen. “Everyone knows that I’m going to win the trophy because I’m the best player out there”.

They would tell her that practicing was going to get her nowhere and that they were going to get the trophy instead. Also, they would ell her to give up winning because she couldn’t be on the conference traveling team because no one wanted to learn her special hand signals.

“No one wants to have to use hand signals on the state team, so they are not going to let you win,” snooted Elle.

          On the day of the tryouts, Ellie woke up early and made sure she had everything packed in her bag. She had her jersey with that special number 10 on the back; she had her cleats, shin guards and socks. As soon as her sisters were ready, they could leave for the field. Once they were in the van, Ellie noticed that her sisters were being extremely nice to her. They offered to carry her bag for her and let her sit in the front with their dad. If only Ellie knew their reasoning behind the niceness she would not have been so naïve.

          Once in the back of the van, Ellen and Elle put the plan they had been scheming into action. Elle took the bubble gum and stuck it inside of Ellie’s cleats so she could not get them off once tryouts were over. Ellen switched her jersey with Ellie’s because the judges would be going by numbers during tryouts, so it would look as if Ellie was Ellen when she wore her jersey. Poor Ellie did not notice what was going on while sitting in the front seat nervously signing to her dad.

          When the triplets arrived at the field, the coach was ready for Ellie’s tryout. Without paying attention, Ellie threw on her jersey, which was really Ellen’s, and slid her feet into her cleats. Once on the field the judges marked their score cards with number 2, which was Ellen’s number and was ready for her to perform.

          “She is a wonderful athlete; we will definitely have to consider her for the award,” declared one of the judges.

          During the tryouts, Ellie became very nervous because the coach did not use the hand signals that he normally does with her. Instead, he used verbal cues and luckily Ellie had practiced for these tryouts enough that she knew what to expect. Once her turn was over, Ellie was very relieved and somewhat very proud of herself. The judges, as well as her coach, seemed very pleased.

          Next up for tryouts was Ellen, in which the judges marked their score cards with Number 10, Ellie’s number. By looking at her jersey and not being able to tell the girls apart, the coach assumed that it was Ellie on the field. He began to give her their hand signals and he thought Ellie, which was really Ellen, seemed a bit confused and he could not understand why.

          Ellen thought that her plan was going to work until she got onto the field and the coach began to use hand signals instead of verbal cues. She realized then that the coach thought she was Ellie and hand signals were their form of conversation. Ellen did not perform well during her tryouts because of this communication barrier and therefore the judges were not too impressed with what they saw.

          “You can definitely tell which of these two sisters received the athletic ability,” murmured another one of the judges.

          Once everyone had their turn at tryouts and the judges consulted with one another, the winner was announced.

The coach stood in front of the team and announced, “After much discussion, our Most Valuable Player is Number 2, which is Ellen.”

 Whenever Ellen stepped forward to receive the trophy, one of the judges realized that the number on her shirt was not Number 2. When asked why the number on her jersey was now different, Ellen did not know what to say. The coach then took Ellen aside and asked her what was going on. Ellen then knew that she had to confess the truth. Once she told the truth and the team found out, Ellie became very ill at her sister. Ellie could not believe that her sister would take advantage of her like she did. The coach then consulted again with the judges and they realized that the skills they were most impressed with were really Ellie, whose real number is 10.

          “And now, for the real Most Valuable Player on our team, E-L-L-I-E,” exclaimed the coach.

          The whole team rejoiced greatly with Ellie while she threw off her sister’s jersey and held her trophy high in the air. All of her teammates, along with her coach, surrounded her with hugs, high fives and best wishes.

          While the team was celebrating with Ellie, Ellen and Elle sulked their way back to their dad, who was waiting in the van.

          “Well”, confessed Ellen, “I guess I should have known better; Ellie is the best and that’s all there is to it.”

          “Ellen, you should not be jealous of her,” pleaded Elle. “She’s our sister, just be happy for her and your turn for excellence will come, just wait and see.”

          And with that the girls turned out and went back to join Ellie and the rest of the team on the field in celebrating Ellie’s achievement.  When the triplets got ready to leave the field, Ellie pulled off her cleats and saw gum string out between her socks and the insides of her cleats. She immediately knew who did it, and she looked at Ellen.

          “This is going to be one long night once we get home, thought Ellie to herself, and I just want her to know that her day will come around.”

          With that, Ellie asked Ellen to carry her socks and her cleats to the van for her and Ellen agreed since she knew what was coming to her. And with that, Ellie skipped happily to their dad’s van while carrying her trophy and plopped gleefully into the front seat, ready to share her joy with her parents.