The barista shook his head. That hedge couldn’t have moved closer overnight. Could it?. His brain always played tricks in the morning before the caffeine kicked in.
He overheard two customer’s talk:
“What would you do if you got the runners-up medal”
“Take it home!?”
“You won’t throw it at the crowd..or something?”
“Why!?”
“So you would accept being second best?”
“If I was good enough to get to the finals, gave it my best , then I would gracefully accept the runner-up medal”
“I wouldn’t”
“Well the runners-up earned their medal more than the substitute-players on the winning team , who just sat on the sidelines yet got the winning-trophy”
“Well, If I made the winning team, even as a substitute, it means I’m good. So I deserve the winning-trophy”
“I’d rather play on the losing team than win, sitting on the sidelines, by someone’s hard-work”
“That’s what losers say”
“I’m no loser”
“You are!”.
Apparently someone else also needed a Carli LLoyd style caffeine kick that morning.
That hedge was now looking like the US Women’s soccer team holding up their trophy. The barista gulped his espresso – his third one in 15 minutes.
—end —–
To the US Women’s soccer team: Thank you! You showed what “Play like a girl” means.
Its interesting to see how some people like to associate themselves with the winning sports teams and reflect that glory upon themselves just because they “support” or “cheer” for that team or are somehow associated with them..like being the same nationality/gender/hometown…. Some go to the extremes and end up showing contempt for the those who support the losing team treating them like losers. This whole “going crazy over Athletes” and getting into fight over sports is a phenomenon I don’t fully understand.
But I guess this same attitude is shown in life to ‘victims’. There are some who empathize and there some who empathize. But there are much more who like to disassociate and distance themselves from a person who has suffered a misfortune.
—-
The above story was in response to ‘Monday’s finish the story’ flash fiction challenge. This unique flash fiction challenge provides a new photo each week, and the first sentence of a story. The challenge is to finish the story using 100-150 words, not including the sentence provided. Details are available here:
https://mondaysfinishthestory.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/mondays-finish-the-story-july-6th-2015/
Roots & Water 
I enjoyed your story Asumani! Just by virtue of the fact that a team makes the playoffs is outstanding. That does get lost somehow. Thanks for another great story for the MFtS challenge. Be well… ^..^
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Thanks ! Yes, the winner owes the glory to the brave fight the runner-up team puts up 🙂
Fun picture…you always seem to get some cool ones for the challenge!
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Thanks!
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Loved this one.
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Thank you!
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Wonderful story…. perfect description of the hedges… they are lifting the trophy! Very good lesson along with this….
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Thank you. The Trophy was came to my mind as soon as I saw the hedge 🙂
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Great way to include the awesome win in your story!
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Thanks Yolanda. I happened to watch the second half of the game( and the replays of the hat-trick) and it was such an electrifying win!
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I feel the same way you do – why all the hype about sports? I really don’t get it. Great story!
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Good to know I’m not the only one! Thanks PJ!
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I always wonder about the whole squad getting a medal even though most of them didn’t play!
That barista needs to ease up on the espressos I think 🙂
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I wouldn’t feel proud of the 1st place medal if I didn’t play…That’s just my opinion though 🙂
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One time our writers group was discussing awards after returning from a conference. I was downplaying the fact that I had ONLY won an honorable mention. One of the founders of the group brought it to my attention that an honorable mention put me in the top 10% and that many more people had submitted and got absolutely no recognition. From that day forth I’ve been very proud of any and all honorable mentions.
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You certainly deserve to feel proud to be in the top 10%…and in my opinion so should the remaining 90% for competing. If you take the whole world population and within that the % of percentage of population who have the ability to compete yet do nothing, the top 10% is actually the top 0.0000001% in the world ! Please excuse my math if it’s incorrect 😉
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