10. First Game

The first game for Kalin and his national team came that weekend. It would be taking place in Melbourne and it was the opening game of the tournament in which Australia would be facing Mexico. The Mexican media had been wild the night before. Since Kalin was a Mexican of Australian parents, he was the only piece of news that was being talked about in anticipation for that game. And since he was the captain, the media was not shy to ask him what he thought of his opponents before the match at the pre-game press conference the night before.

Luke and I had been allowed to attend, but we sat behind the scenes, watching our son proudly as he sat at the table with his national team coach.

"Kalin," One of the reporters called his name. She was a young woman who looked like a firs-timer in the media world, and she was clearly nervous but determined to get his attention. In front of her were several more well known reporters from Mexican broadcasting channels, but the girls imeediately stood out as being Australian. No one knew how she had been allowed into the press conference. The Australian media had no interest in a sixteen year old rival captain, but she did. When my son acknowledged her, she smiled wide, "Thank you. My name is Marie Rochester, and I'm with Rochester Broadcasting Network's World Class Football." It suddenly made sense to me. She was probably a rich girl who was working for her father's company. "We recently found out that your parents are Australian, they were born in this country and lived here until they got married and decided to move away. So tell us, Kale Brooks, how does it feel to betray your real country? I mean--Australia is your real home after all."

With a signal of his hand, the team coach calmly waved two security guards over. The two men towered over the young woman and each of them grabbed one of her arms. They were about to drag her out of the press conference when Kalin stopped him by raising a hand. "Let me respond to the question before she's taken away because I'm no coward and I don't avoid conflictive questions." He said calmly. The reporter's words had done nothing to phase him. With a sigh, he began, "I'm not betraying anyone, Miss Rochester. The Australian federation never contacted me to be a part of their team, and Mexico did. I simply went with the one I consider my true home, a part of me. My parents may be Australian, and that makes me Australian as well, but I have lived my entire life in Mexico. I love Australia, I do. But Mexico is my home, it's all I have known, and this is my team."

As he finished, the young woman was taken away and I knew I had been right about refusing to move back here. Kalin would have never been happy about it. His words proved it. Surely tonight he would be getting all the praise from the Mexican media, while the Australian media would be tearing him to shreds. But he didn't care about any of it. He was perfectly happy the way he was now.

-

The morning of the game we were all awake extra early so that we could get to the stadium long before the game. We knew that the teams did a bit of training on the actual pitch before the game, and we wanted to be there to support Kalin. Especially after I'd been right about the media. Australian sports shows and newspapers coined him as a traitor to his country, and he was very likely now public enemy number one.

Luke, the kids, and I met up with the rest of his family at the entrance. While there, we spotted people who were hoping to get tickets from scalpers, and we gave them our three extra tickets. We told them our son was representing the Mexican team and that he would have appreciated the support from the fans. Kalin's best friend Ander had also been given tickets for the game, but since his family had been unable to make it, he sold them online, and gave the money for his family to pay the bills. I thought it had been a wonderful gesture on his part and let him know that we would be supporting him just as much as we would be supporting Kalin.

We all sat together as a family in a section dense with Mexican fans which were mostly die hards and family members of the under seventeen squad. The tournaments weren't exactly of great attendance whenever the cup was played away from their home. Our seats were all the way on the first row, where we could see the players, talk to them, and even touch them if they got close enough, which was what many fangirls were doing.

The whole family wore Mexico jerseys with Kalin written out on the back, he didn't much like tacking Brooks on the back of his jersey because he thought it didn't make him seem Mexican enough. They had gotten them custom made at the stadium. The stadium shop had a tiny section in their gear store for Mexican apparel, and none of the shirts had names or numbers and Luke's brother's had to pay extra to get them. Liz had given her cousin Brissia a jersey with Ander's name and jersey number on the back, which Ander himself had given to Liz before we left for Australia. My daughter thought Brissia would appreciate it more, since Beau's daughter was crushing on Ander. I knew it would hurt Ander's feelings once he knew she had done that.

Soon the game started and the teams shook hands after the anthems had played loud and proud for each country, both captains meeting with the referees to decide who would choose their side of the pitch. I watched proudly with the roaring of people cheering and chanting as my son wore the captain's badge around his arm.

The game kicked off minutes later and Kalin's team started out with good ball possession, easily getting into the lead. Even through all the happiness I was feeling, I felt a fear in the pit of my stomach that Daniel would be watching. 

They always announced team line ups on television before the games and he would see Kalin. He would see that his last name was Brooks, and I was afraid he would know. He would recognize him as our son.

I spent the rest of the game in between being a proud mother and worrying that Daniel would find us. And the game ended with Kalin's team defeating the Australian team four goals to one. The Australian fans, which were about a sixty five perfect majority in the stands booed at the winning team, and many of them glared at us as we cheered out hearts out. Some recognized Luke and his brothers as members of the Janoskians and no doubt by tonight there would be backlash against them for supporting the rivals.

As we exited the stadium, there were even paparazzi who snapped photos of us.

The whole world cup trip was getting extremely out of hand.

-

yet another update for this story. i'm on an updating spree. and i hope you all like the new chapter. i know this story has focused a bit more on arianna and her son, rather than any of the janoskians, but it'll start focusing more on daniel soon enough. i just need the story to develop a bit more. and since they're ilder now, even have children of their own, i also want to focus more on the kids.

the boy in the picture above is jurgen damm. he is a half-mexican and half-german professional football (soccer) player who plays for tigres of the autonomous university of nuevo leon in mexico. he is the boy i chose to portray kalin, skip and arianna's son. 

thank you all loads for still reading and supporting this story.

-clary xx