Ella makes 7 goals

Ella loved gymnastics.

She loved the spring of a jump and the upside-down surprise of a cartwheel. She even loved saying the names of the skills.

“Back bend kickover,” she said as she packed her bag.

There was one more thing to put inside.

Her gymnastics book.

Ella brought the book to Gym East, tucked safely beside her things.

At the gym, she opened her bag and pulled it out with both hands.

“Look what I brought!”

The corners were a little soft from turning the pages. Ella knew just where to open it.

The book told her all about gymnastics.

There were shapes to notice and skills to wonder about. Some pictures made Ella think, I know that one! Others made her lean closer.

She had marked her favorite pages with little slips of paper.

They poked out of the top like a row of tiny flags.

Ella showed her coach, Sahara, the pages.

“A split. A back bend kickover. Split jumps. Clock. Chair. A handstand. And this one!”

Her finger stopped at the one-hand cartwheel.

“That’s quite a collection,” Sahara said.

They picked what to work on together. Ella left the book on the bench, away from the mats, and joined the warm-up.

First came practice for her split.

With Sahara nearby, Ella settled into a stretch that felt comfortable for her today.

The gymnast in the book looked very still.

Ella was not quite so still.

A little wisp of hair tickled her forehead. She blew upward at it.

It tickled her again.

Then it was time for clock.

Ella held one leg with her hand and moved clockwise, with Sahara nearby.

Round she went, watching the room come into view again.

“Tick-tock,” she said after her turn.

Then she brushed the tickly hair away from her face.

“This clock has very messy hair!”

Next, Ella worked on her back bend kickover with Sahara helping her on the mat.

It was a long name for a very different way of seeing the gym.

For a moment, everything looked upside down.

After her turn, she stood and grinned.

“Hello, right-way-up room!”

Then came split jumps.

These were not the quiet, stay-in-one-place kind of split. These had a little burst of sky in them.

Ella practiced the jumps Sahara had chosen with her.

Up—and down onto the mat.

The jumping part was quick. The happy feeling stayed longer.

Ella’s favorite bookmark was waiting at the one-hand cartwheel page.

Now she had a turn to practice that skill with Sahara beside her.

There was plenty to work on. She listened, rested, and tried again when she was ready.

The book’s picture showed one moment.

Ella’s practice had lots of moments in it.

For chair, Ella rested her back against the wall and bent her knees until her body made a chair shape.

There was no chair underneath her. She was the chair!

After her turn, she stood up beside Sahara.

“Clock and chair,” she said. “We could furnish a room.”

“A very wiggly room,” Sahara said.

Then Ella practiced a handstand, with Sahara helping her balance on the mat.

Her hands were down where her feet usually went. Her feet pointed up where her hands liked to reach.

When she was standing on her feet again, she wiggled her fingers.

“Your turn to rest,” she told them.

And off she went for a drink.

Later, Ella opened the book for another look.

The pictures were the same pictures.

But now she had her own bits of the day to remember beside them.

She tucked a bookmark back into place and closed the cover.

“Next time, you’re coming too,” she told her book.

Of course it was.

In her Minecraft world, Ella had a square head, strong arms, and a house made of blocks.

She could mine through a hillside and carry stacks of stone. She was super strong.

Today, she opened her treasure chest.

Diamonds. Iron. A potato.

But no blaze rods.

“Time for an adventure,” said Ella.

Ella put on her full set of netherite armor: boots, leggings, a chestplate, and a helmet that fitted over her square head.

Clunk, clunk. She marched to the door.

Then she marched back.

Even a super-strong mine crafter needed her tools.

She packed her pickaxe, her sword, and flint and steel.

Outside, Ella stacked dark obsidian blocks into a tall, empty rectangle.

A block at the bottom. Blocks up the sides. Blocks across the top.

She stepped back to look.

Through the middle, she could still see her little house.

“That’s about to change.”

She took out her flint and steel.

Click!

A spark lit a fire inside the obsidian frame.

Purple light filled the opening. It rippled and hummed.

Ella had made a Nether portal.

On the other side was the Nether, where blazes lived. If she defeated them, she could collect blaze rods.

Ella gripped her supplies and stepped into the purple shimmer.

The world wobbled.

Then Ella stood in a cavern lit by orange lava. Red ground stretched ahead, and far away, a lavafall poured down from the heights.

Behind her, the portal hummed.

She placed a cobblestone arrow on the ground, pointing toward it.

“Home that way,” she said.

Her boots crunched forward.

A ridge blocked her path.

Ella took out her pickaxe.

Tick! Tack! Crack!

She mined a passage through the red rock. Block by block, a doorway appeared.

On the other side stood a great dark fortress, with pillars and long brick walkways.

Something yellow flickered above the bricks.

Ella put her pickaxe away and reached for her sword.

A blaze floated ahead.

Yellow rods spun around its smoky middle. It crackled like a very cross campfire.

Ella stepped behind a thick fortress pillar.

Whoosh!

A fireball flew past.

She peeked around the other side. The blaze was still glowing fiercely.

Ella was strong enough to fight it.

First, she watched.

More fireballs flashed past the pillar.

Ella waited until the burst was over. Then she ran out with her sword.

Swish!

The blaze bobbed backward. Ella followed across the bricks and swung again.

With a final puff of smoke, the blaze disappeared.

Something yellow lay on the walkway.

Ella picked it up.

“One blaze rod!”

A second crackle came from around the corner.

Another blaze!

Ella found cover again. She waited, dodged, and dashed forward when the fireballs stopped.

Her sword flashed. The second blaze vanished, leaving another rod behind.

Two blaze rods went into her inventory.

Ella bounced once in her heavy boots.

Clunk!

Even her happy jumps sounded strong.

Now it was time to go home.

Ella crossed the fortress walkway and found the passage she had mined.

Beyond it, the Nether looked very big and very red.

She looked left. She looked right.

There was her cobblestone arrow.

And there, just beyond it, shimmered the purple portal.

“Good arrow,” said Ella.

She stepped into the humming light.

The world wobbled again.

Then green grass was beneath her boots, and her block house stood ahead.

A sheep looked up as she passed.

“I fought two blazes,” Ella told it.

“Baa,” said the sheep.

Ella nodded.

“Yes. I think that was quite an adventure too.”

Inside, Ella opened her treasure chest and put away the blaze rods.

She set down her sword and pickaxe, then lifted the netherite helmet off her square head.

Outside, the portal glowed purple in the evening light.

Ella stretched her strong arms and settled beside her chest.

Diamonds. Iron. Two blaze rods.

And still one potato.

By the summer of 2026, Ella had spent a few seasons taking soccer classes at Arena Sports.

She was five and a half. She had practiced running with the ball, stopping it, and sending it somewhere new.

Now she was joining a league.

There would be other teams. There would be games!

Her coach was Ian. He was twenty-nine, with curly blond hair, and he knew a lot about soccer.

Ella’s team started with girls and boys together. Later, it became an all-girls team.

Their opponents were often boys’ teams. There weren’t many girls playing in the league yet.

Ella and her teammates were some of them.

Game time meant four against four.

Four players on Ella’s side. Four on the other side. One ball to keep track of!

When it rolled one way, the players turned. When it went the other way, they turned again.

Ella watched the ball and the space around it.

In her first league game, Ella did much more defending than attacking.

When the other team came toward her goal, she hurried back. She tried to get in their way and stop the ball from coming through.

There was so much running to do at this end of the field.

The other goal seemed a long way away.

The first game ended without a goal for Ella.

So did the second.

And the third.

And the fourth.

Four games, and she had not scored once. But she had been in the games—running back, watching the ball, and trying to win it.

Ella kept trying.

Then came game five.

Someone Ella knew was on the other team.

Connor!

He was her friend, and he was the same age as Ella. Today, they were playing on opposite sides.

If Ella had the ball, Connor would try to stop her.

And if Connor had it, Ella would try to stop him.

Ella got the ball on the right side of the field.

She dribbled forward, keeping it moving with her feet. Connor tried to defend.

There he was, close by.

There was the ball.

And ahead—there was the goal.

Ella saw her chance.

She struck the ball.

The ball raced toward the goal.

Connor chased it.

In it went!

Ella had scored her first league goal, in her fifth game.

All those games without one—and now she had one of her own.

Coach Ian was so happy. Up went his hand.

Ella’s hand met it.

High five!

In the next game, Ella found another chance.

A defender stood between her and the goal. His legs were apart.

Ella sent the ball right through the gap.

Between his legs and into the goal!

That was one goal in this game.

But Ella wasn’t finished playing.

For her next chance, Ella stayed busy around the defenders, trying to block them and win the ball.

Then a teammate helped with a pass.

The ball came to Ella. Now she could face the goal.

A defender was coming to get it.

Ella struck first.

In!

Two goals—and a teammate’s pass to help make the second happen.

Later, Ella dribbled along the right side near midfield.

A defender was in her way.

She went past him and looked ahead. The goal was empty. There was room to send the ball toward it.

Ella struck.

The ball went in!

Three goals in one game.

Coach Ian was beaming. Another high five was waiting.

By the end of that summer season, Ella had scored seven goals altogether.

She had plenty to remember: running back to defend, Connor chasing her first shot into the goal, a teammate’s pass, and Coach Ian’s happy high fives.

Once, she had played four games without scoring. She kept trying—and by the end of the season, she had made seven goals.

Ella had learned something she wanted to remember:

Keep trying, and you will make goals.