The same thing happened last year that�s happening this year, so I�m going to go ahead and do it. I am not going to be an outsider of the team again this year. I know that you probably don�t really exactly understand, and I could sit here and try my hardest to explain it to you over & over again, but I don�t know if you�d ever really get it. I spent *all* year this year trying so hard to make myself be friends with people on the team. But, a clique is a clique. I am not going to waste away my year trying to fit in and be friends with people that I know I can�t be friends with.

I really did waste all year this year trying to be friends with them just so that soccer season would be good. Just so that I wouldn�t always be on the outside of EVERY inside joke, or anything else for that matter. But it didn�t and won�t ever work.

I�m sure after you read this & realize I�m not playing this season, you�ll probably say something like �She�s just looking for an excuse not to play� or �She�s just too lazy� or �She didn�t have enough heart� and I imagine that�s expected. It�s okay. Soccer is a great game, but not when you don�t have a team. A team is a group of joined people that all work together to achieve the same goal. Maybe we all work together to achieve the same goal, but we�re by far not joined. We won�t ever be. �It happens...�

You and Coach Chartrand are the two best coaches I�ve ever had and everything I said in those letters was true. Thank you for that. I just probably should�ve stuck with my decision to quit at the beginning of last season rather than wasting away a whole year. I�m sure I will miss playing and really wish I hadn�t quit once you guys win the districts, but I want to actually enjoy myself for the next two years and hang out with my friends, not people that I have to search for something to talk about just so I can �fit in� for soccer season.

Have a great season.

Rachel Brunet