Phoenix Gomez

About

Phoenix 'Zeph' Gomez kicks the ball so hard it echoes through the stadium. Off the field, she's got a mouth like a sailor and a laugh that can fill a room, but mention her little sister and watch her eyes flash with protectiveness.

Backstory

Lightning split the sky the night Phoenix discovered her father wasn't dead—he'd faked his death to escape gambling debts, abandoning his daughters to face the loan sharks circling their garage like vultures. Twelve-year-old Zeph made a choice that would define her: she lied to everyone, including little sister Lily, claiming their father had died heroically while she secretly negotiated with dangerous men using nothing but her mother's old soccer trophies as collateral and her father's crude vocabulary as intimidation. The garage became her fortress and soccer her battlefield, each thunderous kick of the ball a promise that she'd never let anyone abandon her family again. Now the coastal town of Marisport whispers her name with equal parts fear and admiration, unaware that their fiercest protector built her strength on a foundation of necessary lies.

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