Two rival captains. One team. One impossible season.
Josie Reyes has spent two years building Riverside's girls' soccer program into something she understands completely. She knows the players, the drills, the strategy, and exactly what it takes to win. As captain, she has learned to rely on preparation, discipline, and control-because when everything is planned, nothing can catch her off guard.
Then the district cuts funding and changes everything.
Riverside is forced to combine with Brentwood, its fiercest local soccer rival, creating an emergency integrated varsity program. The two schools must compete as one team, and suddenly every player is fighting for a place on the final roster.
Including the captains.
Cole Bennett has his own reasons for needing a starting spot. With college scouts watching, his family's financial situation uncertain, and his future depending on what happens this season, he cannot afford to lose. He has spent years learning how to keep moving forward no matter what gets in the way.
He also cannot afford to let Josie Reyes beat him.
From their first practice, the two captains clash. Josie sees Cole as arrogant, reckless, and determined to challenge everything she has built. Cole sees Josie as controlling, impossible to read, and frustratingly good at almost everything she does.
But the coaches refuse to let them stay on opposite sides.
As the rivalry begins to blur into friendship-and something neither of them is ready to name-the hardest lesson is no longer about how to beat the person standing across the field.
It is about learning when to trust them.
For Josie, that means confronting the story she has built around her father's own soccer past and understanding that sacrifice does not always look like failure. For Cole, it means discovering that needing help does not make him weak, and that carrying everything alone is not the same as being strong.
Along the way, friendships are tested, old wounds begin to heal, and two fiercely competitive teenagers discover that becoming a team may require something neither of them expected to give up: control.
The Rival Clause is a character-driven YA soccer romance featuring competitive tension, sharp banter, forced proximity, dual perspectives, co-captains, slow-burn attraction, first love, friendship, family stakes, athletic ambition, and the emotional intensity of a season where every game could change everything.
For readers who love emotionally grounded young adult romance, determined heroines, competitive heroes, sports-driven chemistry, and rivals who discover that the person they most want to beat may become the person they trust most, The Rival Clause delivers a heartfelt story about ambition, vulnerability, teamwork, and choosing what matters when winning is no longer the only goal.
